Speak to our soul to put our hope in God
We've been ordered to stay at home except for essential workers and a few other exceptions.
Some of us live in small places with entire families, some of us are not used to being at home all the time, some of us have not had to work and educate our children at home while they do online learning, some of us have to go to work and risk coming in contact with covid everyday, and all of us are not used to having the freedom we've so enjoyed in this country to travel, to go out on the weekends and have fun with our friends and family, to eat out at restaurants etc. For some of us, the challenge of not being able to meet together weekly as a church family and community has been one of the most discouraging and difficult challenges of this season.
God took me to this psalm today as I prayed for our church. And as I read it, particularly some of the verses, it hit home as to how appropriate it is for us in our current circumstances.
God is so good at speaking to us so powerfully through His word, isn't He!
The whole psalm would resonate with a lot of us but I want to particularly draw your attention to these verses:
Psalm 42:4-8
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 with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng.
Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Saviour and my God.
My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon - from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.
By day the Lord directs His love, at night His song is with me - a prayer to the God of my life.
We may feel downcast, remembering the freedoms we enjoyed and the times we shared together with our fellow brothers and sisters, gathering together to praise and worship God, to have fellowship with our church family, to spend time with family and friends and those we love.
The psalmist seems to have been in a similar place. He says that he will remember God from the land of the Jordan, Hermon and Mt Mizar. These were physically distant places from Jerusalem where God's temple was located.
It's easy for us to praise God when everything is going well and to give thanks to Him.
But it's in the difficult times when we feel God is distant that we need to do this even more. We need to make a decision to turn our attention to God, to speak to our souls and remind ourselves to remember God and to put our hope in Him because His love is unfailing, His word is unchanging, His joy will be our strength, He is close to us, He will carry us and bring us through, upholding us with His righteous right Hand. 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
It's ok to be honest with God about how we feel, even as the psalmist continued in the rest of the chapter. He was honest and transparent before God about how he truly felt. Yet, he didn't stop there.
The psalm ends in verse 11 " Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Saviour and my God".
The psalmist knew that this too will pass, and God will bring Him through the other end with praise to Him!
Victory is sweeter when the battle is tough! God will bring us through this with songs of praise to Him at the other end! But, we must remember in the midst of the battle, to place our focus on God, His word, His promises, His love, His strength and His presence in our lives. These will bring us great joy and carry us through!
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