One commentary titled Psalm 42 as “Honest prayer from a discouraged saint” (Enduring Word). You can see that the Psalmist was discouraged when writing these verses: “My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, 'Where is your God?'” (3). “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?” (5a). “As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, 'Where is your God?'” (10).

Satan taunts us, trying to make us doubt God’s goodness and His omnipresence. His ploy works far too often. We look at this world and see the sorrow, stress, and sinfulness that is everywhere and it is easy to become discouraged and to doubt.

The Psalmist recognizes that he is feeling cast down and in turmoil. He brings those feelings to God in verse 9a, “I say to God, my rock: 'Why have you forgotten me?'”. While he honestly tells God he’s feeling forgotten by Him, he still has confidence in Him and shows that in calling him “God, my rock”. God can handle our honest outpouring of emotions – even the really big, overwhelming ones!

The Psalmist responds to these feelings by remembering a time of praising God (4), telling himself he will praise Him again (5, 11), recalling God’s love (8), and telling himself to hope in God (5, 11). Rather than dwelling on what is wrong, he chooses to believe what he knows to be true and to hope in that. He knows God is trustworthy and able to save. Even when he doesn’t feel it.

Feelings are fickle. They come and go; swing up and down. Feelings are not dependable. But they are real. The evil in this world is also real. And we can become discouraged just like the Psalmist did. God wanted us to have an example of how to handle these feelings. And to ultimately choose to hope in Him.