I love going through the Psalms and seeing new things — that’s one benefit of getting new Bible!
Psalms 42 is well known for verse 1, “As a deep pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.” But that is just the preview for the meat of Psalms 42 as David pours out his heart in both Psalms 42 and 43:
“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” (Psalm 42:5, 11 and 43:5)
I’m not sure if you are aware but I struggle with depression. Just like some people struggle with lust or other temptations, my thoughts go places they should not go. Sometimes I recognize it early and it’s not that big of a deal. Sometimes I catch it mid-course and make the correction, but sometimes it’s not until I’m in the pits thinking really bad thoughts that I am jerked into a place a do not want to be.
That happened the other day, a wake-up call of grace.
This “safe at home” leaves us with our thoughts, and some of them are not pleasant. It leaves us, with systemic temptations. Listening to the news, health, political and national, is not helping. We are faced with personal sin, national sin, racial sin, etc. and sometimes we don’t know what to do with it all. It can drive us down…
That’s why I love Psalms and need to be there…daily…reading larger portions, heaping identification with David and what encouraged him dose after dose onto my soul.
“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.”
“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.”
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.”
Do I get it? After three repeats?
Hope in God – not medicine, masks or precautions, nor government change, police or demonstrations, nor anything else. As good as all of it is, I need to remember that God is where my hope needs to be, beyond all this world and it’s limitation, it’s hopelessness, and unto Him.
Why? Because, at some point in time, I will once again praise him. This will end. The disease will end. The sin of individuals will end. Either here on earth or in heaven, I will praise him! In him there is hope.
Why? Because he is bigger than all this! He is my salvation and my God. Period. I choose to hope in him for my salvation (even if that means death via Covid-19) because I have chosen him as my God. It’s not a one-time choice as in becoming a Christian (choosing Jesus) but it’s also a daily choice, moment by moment.
Where is our hope?
Feeling rather hopeless at this very moment so reading this and being reminded of the very nature of God was needed. Life is so uncertain but to read, what we as believers know but to be shaken and reminded again is so needed at times. Especially times such as these. Thank you, Maggie. For still leading me, even across the miles.
Thank you, Denise, for your encouragement! I miss you too – what memories we share!