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“Hope in God…”—Psalm 42:11 When our failures and difficulties cause us to be angry and frustrated, we sometimes think God has let us down. We know we can’t live up to our own expectations, much less God’s, and anguish, fear, discouragement, bitterness, and depression begin to poison our hearts and minds. As a self-protective measure, some people harden their hearts, turn from God, and walk away. It’s too much to handle on your own! As shepherd boy, psalmist, and king, David took all that emotional poison and purged it out of his system by dealing with God. That’s why the Psalms are so painfully honest. David didn’t run from God, even when he was guilty of sin and had every reason to be afraid. He poured out his heart, his fears, even his wrath against his enemies. He vented his frustration and lamented over depression. “My tears have been my food day and night,” he admitted. He described his soul as “downcast” and “disturbed” and acknowledged that he was sinking deeper and deeper as “all your waves and breakers have swept over me” (Psalm 42:7). He asked God, “Why have You forgotten me?” Then David turned to his redemption: “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God” (Psalm 42). David knew hope! The story of David teaches us what it is like to be human and that we can never be more alive than when we are honestly dealing with God. Apart from God, we are not fully human and not really alive. People try to live apart from their Creator. But inevitably, circumstances arise, things happen, and life brings us to a screaming awareness of our incompleteness and inability to live abundantly without God. The Holy Spirit works in us, through us, and around us so that we will desire the Lord, and pray for what David sought: “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in his temple” (Psalm 27:4).
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