Post by Les Brewer on Oct 15, 2023 13:01:13 GMT
Cross With God By: Chris Wale
Click here for the Audio Message
Why, my soul, are you downcast? . . . Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God.
Psalm 42:5
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 42
“I’m cross with God!” grumbled my eight-year-old as he stomped home. He should have been playing his first after-school football match, but constant heavy rain had flooded the pitch.
“God is in control of everything, so why did He let it rain today?”
It might sound strange, but I was encouraged that my son’s thoughts had gone straight to God. And he was asking the question that we all ask when things don’t go as we’d hoped. If God can do anything, why did He let that happen?
The psalmist too was full of questions and sorrow (Psalm 42:1–3). For whatever reason, he was being mocked (v. 3) and was unable to worship God at the temple (v. 4). “I say to God my Rock, ‘Why have you forgotten me?’” (v. 9). God could have transformed the psalmist’s situation in an instant—so why didn’t He?
Yet the psalmist was then able to say to his own soul, “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him” (vv. 5, 11). I gave similar encouragement to my son that day. God is always at work for His people, even when we don’t see or understand what He is doing. He is achieving something far greater in our confusing circumstances. And when we finally do see it, we will have even more reason to praise Him.
Let’s wait for Him with hope, for we “will yet praise him”.
Reflect & Pray
When have you been frustrated with God recently? How does it change your perspective to remember that you “will yet praise him”?
Father God, help me to trust Your work in my life, even when I can’t see what You are doing. Show me again today the many reasons I have to praise You.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
In Psalm 42, what might the “thirsty deer” imagery picture? Some scholars see it describing a deer being pursued by a hunter, running for its life and desperate for water to continue its flight from danger. Others imagine the deer in a season of drought, also desperate for the water necessary for survival but facing a very different kind of threat. Ultimately, the word picture reminds us that in our own desperate seasons, we’ll only find what we need in God. Only He can truly satisfy us.
Bill Crowder
Psalm 42
King James Version
42 As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.
5 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.
6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.
7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
8 Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the day time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.
9 I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
10 As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?
11 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.
Click here for the Audio Message
Why, my soul, are you downcast? . . . Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God.
Psalm 42:5
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 42
“I’m cross with God!” grumbled my eight-year-old as he stomped home. He should have been playing his first after-school football match, but constant heavy rain had flooded the pitch.
“God is in control of everything, so why did He let it rain today?”
It might sound strange, but I was encouraged that my son’s thoughts had gone straight to God. And he was asking the question that we all ask when things don’t go as we’d hoped. If God can do anything, why did He let that happen?
The psalmist too was full of questions and sorrow (Psalm 42:1–3). For whatever reason, he was being mocked (v. 3) and was unable to worship God at the temple (v. 4). “I say to God my Rock, ‘Why have you forgotten me?’” (v. 9). God could have transformed the psalmist’s situation in an instant—so why didn’t He?
Yet the psalmist was then able to say to his own soul, “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him” (vv. 5, 11). I gave similar encouragement to my son that day. God is always at work for His people, even when we don’t see or understand what He is doing. He is achieving something far greater in our confusing circumstances. And when we finally do see it, we will have even more reason to praise Him.
Let’s wait for Him with hope, for we “will yet praise him”.
Reflect & Pray
When have you been frustrated with God recently? How does it change your perspective to remember that you “will yet praise him”?
Father God, help me to trust Your work in my life, even when I can’t see what You are doing. Show me again today the many reasons I have to praise You.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
In Psalm 42, what might the “thirsty deer” imagery picture? Some scholars see it describing a deer being pursued by a hunter, running for its life and desperate for water to continue its flight from danger. Others imagine the deer in a season of drought, also desperate for the water necessary for survival but facing a very different kind of threat. Ultimately, the word picture reminds us that in our own desperate seasons, we’ll only find what we need in God. Only He can truly satisfy us.
Bill Crowder
Psalm 42
King James Version
42 As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.
5 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.
6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.
7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
8 Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the day time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.
9 I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
10 As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?
11 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.
