William Wordsworth wrote:
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
Wordsworth is lamenting the fast withering connection between people and nature because of the all-embracing industrial society of his time, a great theme of his day. I find people are often aware they are somehow disconnected from something bigger than themselves. I sense their longing for they don’t know what, their frustration at an inexplicable sense of fragmentation.
Believers can experience this frustration, when ‘the world is too much with us, late and soon, getting and spending.’ That sense we have laid waste our powers, given our hearts away while distracted by the demands of life. Like Esau, we can feel we have traded our new-birthright ‘for a mess of pottage.’ Genesis 25:29-33 ‘The world is too much with us, late and soon,’ and little we see in spiritual things that should be ours but are not.
As I read psalm 42 last evening I discovered David experienced this longing for connection, as he found himself far from Jerusalem in, ‘the land of Jordan and Hermon, from Mount Mizar,’ Psalm 42:6. Although he knows God is never far from him, David feels physically far from God (42:9), the world is too much with him, and it taunts him, ‘where is your God?’ So David cries:
‘As the deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When will I come and appear before God?
My tears have been my food
day and night
while they say to me all the day long,
‘Where is your God?’’
Psalms 42 and 43 stand together as one song and are a great comfort to those who feel as David did, surrounded by, ‘ungodly people...unjust man.’ (43:1) I find myself in this psalm as David cries, ‘Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?’
David prays fervently for vindication and deliverance (43:1) for leading and guidance (43:3). In all this David is open and honest with his God, sharing his thoughts, speaking of his sense of abandonment (42:8,9)
At the same time he is determined to prove faithful to his God. David answers his own plight with two comforting words of encouragement. In the first he remembers those days when he was in communion with God and his people:
‘These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
How I would go with the throng
and I lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise;
a multitude keeping a festival.’ (42:4)
Remembering is a gift and a comfort to the saints. In those times when I feel the world is too much with me I go to his Word, remind myself of his mercies, and recall those countless times of blessing in fellowship. God has been good to this man and I remember his goodness.
David’s second word is encouragement to hope in God. Our present circumstances do not, finally, determine our future, or our eternal place among the saints of God. We have every reason to hope in him, to praise him. He is our salvation, our God. When the world is too much with us, late and soon, we may encourage ourselves with David’s encouragement:
‘Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall praise him,
my salvation, and my God.’ (43:5)
Comments