“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.” (Psalm 42:5, 11)
Life can be so complicated, with all that’s going on around us in the world at large, as well as in our own lives. And it’s so easy to get downcast, discouraged, frustrated perhaps. And we wonder where God is in all of this. We want to follow and serve him, but he seems so far away. With the psalmist, we feel indeed that our “soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Ps. 42:2).
However, the cure for this painful longing is also given, namely in the refrain of the psalm (verse 5 and 11): Stop listening to your own feelings, which go up and down, and look to God! Talk to yourself, “put your hope in God”, and “praise him”. He is steadfast, secure, a ‘Rock’ (v. 9).
One of the things we often do when we read our Bibles is to look for personal application: what should I do, how should I feel. And that’s good and right, but another focus – at least as important – must be: what does this passage tell me about God?
This latter focus is so vital if we want to read the book of Daniel without ending up downcast and disturbed. On Sunday evening, we saw from Daniel 8 the encouraging truth that our sovereign God knows; he is in full control of all of world history (which includes our lives!).
If we only focus on Daniel’s example, we can quickly get discouraged: for who among us is so courageous, so faithful, as he was? It’s a challenging example worthy of following indeed, but if we only look there, we probably become downcast. Therefore, let’s see what God reveals about himself in this book, and then build our hope and trust on that steady foundation! So we can praise him, our Saviour and our God.