WATCHWORD:
As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God.
2 I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him?
3 Day and night I have only tears for food, while my enemies continually taunt me, saying, “Where is this God of yours?” 4 My heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be: I walked among the crowds of worshipers, leading a great procession to the house of God, singing for joy and giving thanks amid the sound of a great celebration! 5 Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again—my Savior and 6 my God! Psalm 42:1-6a
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. 2 Corinthians 4:8-12
Meditation:
Hope
Paul reminds us that though we may be at the end of our rope, we are never at the end of hope! Our perishable bodies are subject to sin and suffering, but God never abandons us.
There is a wonderful painting entitled Hope by the English painter George Frederic Watts. It shows a lone blindfolded female figure sitting on a globe, playing a lyre that has only a single string remaining. The background is almost blank, its only visible feature a single star.
How does that symbolize hope? The artist was showing the closeness that hope was to despair. In the painting the figure is clearly lost in despair and yet seeks to bring music from the only remaining string on her lyre.
Again, lost in despair and yet hope. How many of us have been at that exact point, deep in near despair and yet in our minds and hearts we hear the words of that great hymn “my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness.”
Richard Sibbes was one of the great old Puritan preachers of Cambridge who died in 1635. He wrote a book on Psalm 42:5. He was called “the sweet dropper” because of how much confidence and joy his sermons seem to encourage. He called his book The Soul’s Conflict with Itself because that is exactly what you have in Psalm 42, the soul arguing with itself, preaching to itself. “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God!”
Hoping in God does not come naturally for sinners like us. We must tell ourselves every day, preach it to ourselves forcefully, or we risk losing the Joy of the Lord each day, and give way to worry and a disquieted spirit.
Prayer Reminder — Keep Phil Schwartz and his father Jake, especially in our prayers as they treat to overcome Covid, as well as Leah and Laura.
Morning Prayers:
Dear heavenly father, our hearts are often filled with chaos and confusion. We sometimes feel as if we are drowning in our circumstances and our hearts are filled with fear. We really need the strength and peace that only you can provide. And we find that peace resting in you. In Jesus Name we pray. Amen.
A Prayer Hymn:
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name
On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand
Amen.
