The health of my countenance: hope for a downcast soul

The health of my countenance is a name for God from Psalm 42:11 and Psalm 43:5. Countenance is an old word for face. The writer was sad enough that it showed, and he called God the One who would restore his face. In Hebrew the phrase is yeshuot panai, "the salvation of my face." It is a name for anyone whose heart has sunk so low that other people can see it.

A man who argued with his own soul

Psalms 42 and 43 come from a singer linked to the sons of Korah, a family of Levites who led music at God's house. He was far away from Jerusalem, near the Jordan and Mount Hermon in the north. He says tears had become his food day and night (Psalm 42:3), and people taunted him about whether God cared at all.

What makes these psalms stand out is a habit he had. Instead of only listening to his feelings, he talked back to them. Three times he stops and questions his own soul:

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.

Psalm 42:5

You might expect things to get better right after that. They do not. In the very next verse he admits O my God, my soul is cast down within me. Then he says it felt as if all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me (Psalm 42:7), like a swimmer knocked under by wave after wave. He even asks God Why hast thou forgotten me? (Psalm 42:9).

So he says the refrain a second time, and a third time at the end of Psalm 43. He does not get fixed in one try. He keeps walking around the same hard circle, and each time he lands on the same truth.

Cast down, disquieted and still hoping: the Hebrew

The words in the refrain describe his inner life with surprising honesty.

• Cast down is shachach, a verb for sinking or bowing low. It is close to what many people today mean when they say they feel depressed, pressed down.
• Disquieted is hamah, a word for noise and commotion, like a crowd murmuring or the sea churning. He was sunk and restless at the same time.
• Hope is yachal, which Strong's dictionary explains as waiting, and so being patient and hoping. Hebrew hope has a lot of waiting inside it.
• Yet may be the bravest word in the psalm. I shall yet praise him means "I will still praise Him again," on a day he cannot feel yet.

Now the name. Yeshuot is a plural form of yeshuah, the Hebrew word for salvation, rescue or help. Panai means "my face." Put them together and you get "the salvations of my face." When the King James translators chose the word health, they were using it in its older English sense. The English word comes from an Old English word meaning wholeness, being whole and sound. Strong's lists "health" and "saving health" among the King James renderings of yeshuah.

There is a lovely shift inside the refrain. In Psalm 42:5 he praises God for the help of his countenance, meaning God's face turned toward him in kindness. By verse 11 it has become the health of my countenance. God's face toward him becomes the saving of his own face. (Some Hebrew copies and translations read verse 5 a little differently, but the main idea holds.)

The refrain and other KJV verses about a lifted face

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

Psalm 42:11

This is the full verse where the name appears. Notice that it ends with and my God. Even in the low place, the relationship still stands.

The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

Numbers 6:25-26

This is the blessing God gave Israel's priests to speak over the people. It is all about God's face turned toward you, the same idea Psalm 42 builds on.

And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.

1 Kings 19:5

The prophet Elijah once sank so low that he sat under a tree and said It is enough (1 Kings 19:4). God did not scold him. He let him sleep, sent food, and spoke to him later. Faithful people in the Bible get cast down too, and God meets them with care.

The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

Psalm 34:18

Nigh means near. Contrite means crushed or humbled. God draws close to people in exactly this condition.

When your face has fallen

Some days the heaviness shows on your face before you say a word. Friends notice. Maybe a loss, a family fight, loneliness or just a long gray season has pressed you down. This name says that a downcast soul is not a failed soul. The man who wrote these words was most likely a temple singer, and he still sank.

The psalm shows a way through that is honest, not fake. He names the feeling. He asks himself why. Then he tells his soul something true about God, even before he can feel it. He refuses to let the sinking feeling be the only voice in the room.

• Try his pattern: say how you feel, ask your soul why, then speak one true thing about God out loud.
• Add the word "yet" to your prayers: "I cannot feel it today, but I shall yet praise Him."
• Do not carry it alone. Tell a parent, pastor, school counselor, friend or doctor what is going on.
• If you know someone who is down, show up. Sit with them, bring food, and listen more than you talk.

If you ever feel that you cannot go on, please do not stay alone with that thought. Reach out to someone today. In the United States you can call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, at any hour.

The Health of My Countenance is name 65 of the 70 in the book. The next name comes from another singer who nearly lost his way: My Portion. You can also read God My Exceeding Joy, which comes from the same two psalms, or browse the Hebrew names of God.