Hope in 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
Psalm 42:5
Several years ago I read a book by Joe Thorn, called Note to Self. This book was written specifically to pastors, but would be good for Christians in general. It was a short book, with short chapters – which is one of the reasons that I enjoyed it. Each chapter of the book focused on some topic that we need to be preaching to ourselves, such as the gospel or need to rest in God. As I think about Psalm 42, I believe that this is one of the messages that we need to remind ourselves of.Hope is such an interesting thing. For most people, hope is symbolic of something in the future; something coming that is better than the current situation. When we talk to people that we have not seen or talked to in a long time, we say things like: “I hope you are doing well.” Or “I hope you’ve had a good week.” These statements convey a hope that we really do have. We have a desire to know that someone is doing well or had a good week. However, we often put our hopes in things that never come to be. We put our hopes in things that fade away and perish.We’re told by the Psalmist here that we should put our hope in God. The thing about putting our hope in God is that He never changes. God is the same today, yesterday, and every day to come. The more we know God, the easier it is to hope in Him. The more we understand who He is, the more we will have a desire to hope in Him. It’s like betting on a ‘sure thing’ at the horse races (I can say that because horse racing is legal in Illinois). When you hope in God, you know that it is a safe bet. But it is not an easy one.Hoping in God is not easy because we do not know God as well as we should. Hoping in God is not easy because we have not learned to trust Him in every aspect of our lives. If we want to be able to say with the Psalmist “hope in God” then we need to get to know Him better. We need to trust Him more. When we do those things, we will see that He is faithful and worthy.
Pray:
· That we would have a desire to know God more· As we learn to hope in God, we would help others to do the sameFurther Reading:
· Psalm 42, 90Worship:
