“Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” Psalm 42:6
When life comes to a point of feeling barren and dry, without hope or purpose . . . what then? It’s easy to settle into a pit of despair and encounter the anvil of blame and self-condemnation. Satan piles it on when our minds begin to entertain such thoughts. No different than when he visited Eve in the garden or stood beside Jesus at the edge of the cliff, he throws a bone that looks to be covered in Grade A meat, when in fact it’s hollow, dry and splintered.
David experienced a number of moments in his life when despair seemed to be the theme. But, without a doubt, it is apparent David was able to somehow pierce the darkness of his unfortunate circumstances and rise above them. The key? Well, David remembered! He remembered the moments in his life when God delivered, embraced and sustained him. (Psalm 63)
So often in life, in a day when multiple things go right, I only remember the one thing that went wrong. How unfortunate that my mind cannot remember when. I fail to reflect on the moment when God answered my prayer, when God provided a meal, when God pardoned me, when God got my attention, when God spoke through me, when God whispered, when God moved a mountain, when God gave me strength, when God held me . . . when God . . .
David reflects on moments when he saw him in the sanctuary (v. 2) and with his lips, praises Him! He remembers Him when he sat on his bed (v. 6) and with his voice, praises Him! He knows His right hand upholds him (v. 8) and with his lips, all will praise Him!
May I simply remember when God was there . . . yesterday . . . today . . . and forever!
“What the Lord expects from us at such seasons is not to abandon ourselves to unreasoning sorrow, but trustingly to look sorrow in the face, to scan its features, to search for the help and hope, which, as surely as God is our Father, must be there. In such trials there can be no comfort for us so long as we stand outside weeping. If only we will take the courage to fix our gaze deliberately upon the stern countenance of grief, and enter unafraid into the darkest recesses of our trouble, we shall find the terror gone, because the Lord has been there before us, and, coming out again, has left the place transfigured, making of it by the grace of his resurrection a house of life, the very gate of heaven.”
– Geerhardus Vos
by: Mark Cruver