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Welcome to the WellSoul Podcast, where we pause to drink in Scripture, reflect, and pray. I am your host Seana Scott, and sometimes life leaves our souls feeling parched. So come to the well of living water that never runs dry.
Today we continue our series meditating on select Psalms during Eastertide, the season between Resurrection Sunday and Pentecost Sunday, when the Church celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Today we meditate on a lament psalm. Lament psalms are those that mourn or cry out about something.
As you listen to God's word today, allow your imagination to enter into the psalm as if it were your own words.
Before I read, take a deep breath. Quiet your mind and focus your whole being on the words of scripture. Just be here.
Psalm 42
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember
as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
under the protection of the Mighty One[d]
with shouts of joy and praise
among the festive throng.
5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
6 My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.
8 By day the Lord directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God my Rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?”
10 My bones suffer mortal agony
as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
11 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
What did the Holy Spirit highlight for you? Focus your thoughts on this for a moment.
We suffer. We go through pains of all kinds and yet we can still put our hope in the Lord who sustains us, even in our suffering.
What suffering might you be facing or who do you know who is suffering? Pray about this or whatever else the Spirit brings to mind.
♪ Let's pray.