Why Did He Ask That?

Psalm 42

Then Moses said to the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and behold the salvation of the Lord which he will shew to you this day. For the Egyptians, whom ye have seen this day, ye shall never see them again. The Lord shall fight for you: therefore hold you your peace.

And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore cryest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward: And lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the Sea and devide it, and let the children of Israel goe on dry ground through the midst of the Sea.

Exodus 14:13 - 16 GNV

Key point here: Why are you crying to me? What a question! I don't know any the Hebrew nuances of this exchange, but in English it sounds like Moses is telling the people to just quiet down and wait and trust in the Lord. The the Lord responds like this isn't a a time for just settling down and waiting. It's a time to move forward. In the vernacular we used growing up, don't just stand there. Do something!

At least twice there are questions in my mind about Jesus doing things when He already knew what He was going to do. The first is quite a big deal. Over three days with up to five thousand men along with the women and children among them to hear Jesus preaching. We're never told one word of what He preached to those gathered, only the predicament they ended up with because no one planned on being there that long. Jesus starts asking questions of the disciples of how to feed so many people. Why did He ask them? We're told He already knew what He was going to do. (See John 6:6) And the five thousand were fed.

Later Jesus and His disciples were off across the Jordan River when His friend Lazarus became criticality ill. When Jesus was told this His response was that it wasn't a sickness unto death, but to the glory of God. Then Jesus waited two more days. He knew what was going to happen. He knew though his body would die Lazarus would walk out of that tomb in a matter of days. When Jesus wept, why was that? In a matter of minutes Lazarus was going to walk out alive. (John 11:1 - 46)

God knew what He was going to do when He led the children of Israel down to a seemingly impossible situation to the Red Sea. Jesus knew three days with five thousand men coming unprepared to eat was a seemingly impossible situation to feed them all. By all known ways and means Lazarus was dead and buried by the time Jesus got there yet Jesus had declared it would be to the glory of God.

The Psalms to this point have been somewhat of narratives and teaching scenarios including praises for rhe greatness of God. This psalm raises the same question several times with an answer in response. The general form is asking, Why are you cast down O my soul? This is countered with, Hope thou in God. (See verses 5 and 11.) It presents encountering difficult or impossible situations and reinforces the only true answer, hope in God. Twice the question is asked, Where is thy God? (Vv. 3, 10) We see that Jesus may not have claimed this psalm as a prayer, but rather lived out the results of His prayer time with His Father. Could it be in His humanity just for a moment He did ask that, Why are you cast down O my soul?

His hometown synagogue congregation seemingly asked, Where is your God? as they prepared to cast Him down a precipice outside of town. His hope in God was displayed as He walked away through the midst of them. Then again certainly the heart of the disciples, even all those around the thousands gathered were very disheartened, disquieted. Jesus prayed with just five barley loaves and two fish, with hope in God the Father by Jesus and fed this multitude and had more than enough leftovers. The same was true for the gathering at the tomb of Lazarus, with the prayer and response of Lazarus walking out. And on the cross the leaders and others said, Where is your God now? And because of the fact of His hope in God three days later when God raised Him from the dead it is very true for all we have the opportunity to hope now in God.