Put your hope in God!
[Psalms 42]
There is a story about Satan's auction. Satan has brought consumers together to sell things like worry, fear, desire, sadness and self-sufficiency. On one side of the product display, there was an old, worn-out tag labeled "No Sale". Someone asked Satan why this wasn’t on sale. Satan said, ‘There are plenty of other stuff, but this is the most useful thing I have. Without this, I cannot go deep into people's hearts and work. This item is called despair’ (Internet). Indeed, I think that Satan's weapon “despair” can be fatal to our Christian life. What is despair? Despair is a state of loosing courage, hope, and confidence (Kang). In other words, despair is a debilitating state. Despair is sometimes referred to as disappointment. Disappointment means that hope has fallen. Instead of disappointment, we sometimes use the word discouragement. Discouragement is a loss of courage. In other words, discouragement is a loss of confidence. Discouragement is the enemy of those who fulfill their dreams because of the heart of giving up.
In this New Year, I personally think about those beloved brothers and sisters in Christ who are in a situation where they can be truly discouraged, disappointed, and in despair. As we celebrate this New Year, they are suffering from such things as discouragement and despair that aren’t the truly hopeful New Year and that is without vision. What should we do when we faced with this kind of challenge? We the saints should not be in despair if we are in trouble. The reason is because we know and believe in the blessings of the trouble. Then, what are the blessings of the trouble? Dr. Yoon-sun Park speaks in four ways:
(1) The blessing of the trouble is that we receive our personality training through the trouble.
We become more and more like Jesus' character through the troubles.
(2) The blessing of the trouble is that we are trained to thank in the midst of the trouble.
In situations where anyone can thank you, I am sure all of can thank as well. Of course, a person who complains habitually will complain in such situation as well. However, I believe that it is us the saints who can be thankful even in a very difficult situation that seems impossible to thank. Although it seems that there is no condition for us to be thankful, we can thank in all circumstances when we consider the grace of God’s salvation as a gift of Jesus' death on the cross and His resurrection.
(3) The blessing of the trouble is that we will hold onto God's promises more and more through the trouble.
As we hold onto other things, the bigger the pain and suffering caused by the trouble, the bigger we put down all the things we were holding onto and eventually hold onto the word of God's promise. In the midst of that, we find that we aren’t following that word of God's promise, but that word of God’s promise is leading us.
(4) The blessings of the trouble is that we will trust more and more in the omnipotence of God.
In particular, God made me to trust in and seek God’s omnipotence through His word, “Is anything too difficult for the Lord?” (Gen. 18:14), that was given to me at the time of the morning prayer
We see a psalmist in trouble in Psalms 42. We can see that when he was in trouble, he proclaimed to his soul like this and overcame: “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence” (vv. 5, 11). Based on these words, under the heading “Put your hope in God!”, I want to think about what does those who hope in God do in two ways and apply them in our lives.
First, those who hope in God aren’t in despair but long for Him.
In Psalms 42, the word “despair” is repeated three times (vv. 5, 6, 11). Why was the psalmist in despair? The reason was that he was suffering hardship (Park). That hardship that could make the psalmist to be in despair refers to the psalmist being in trouble because he was being disciplined by God for his sin. The trouble that he was in specifically was the oppression by the enemy (v. 9). And the oppression was nothing more than the enemy slandering the psalmist, saying, “Where is your God?” (vv. 3, 9). Eventually, the psalmist was saddened by the constant slander from his enemy (v. 3), and further, by his thought that God had forgotten him (v. 9).
Like the psalmist, we can be in despair. When we are disciplined because we sin against God, and when that discipline lasts for long time even though we wait for the help of God's salvation, we may be exhausted, discourage and be in despair. In particular, we can be in despair when we continue to hear the slander or ridicule from our enemies “Where is your God?” (v. 3). In the midst of that discouragement and in despair, there are times when we sin against God by doubting the existence of God. In other words, we can distrust God in despair. This is truly dangerous. Therefore, we must guard against this pattern: Sin à God’s discipline à Suffering à Despair à Unbelief.
What should we do when we are in despair? The lesson that the words of Psalms 42 is teaching us is to long for God. Look at Psalms 42:2 – “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?” When the psalmist was in despair, he longed for God. How his longing for God was expressed was that he worshiped God. In other words, since he longed for God's presence, he worshiped God and went to God. This is what he said about his longing for God: “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God” (v. 1). This longing was that when the psalmist hoped in God without giving himself up in despair, he was full of thirst for God while deeply recognizing human utter helplessness and worthless existence. But what we need to keep in mind is that God is more longing for us than we are for Him (Nowen). If we know this, we proclaim to our own souls, “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God” and go to God (vv. 5, 11).
Second and last, those who hope in God remember God and not the past.
The psalmist was heartbrokened when we remembered the past. Look at Psalmist 42:4 – “These things I remember and I pour out my soul within me For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God, With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.” The psalmist remembered the fact that he had acted as a religious leader in the past and felt more heartbroken (Park). In other words, when he faced the suffering that as if God had left, he was heartbroken even more when he remembered the past where he received God's grace and had led others to the Lord. In this way, the psalmist was even more heartbroken when he was in despair in adversity and remembered God’s grace in the past. At this time, the psalmist remembered the Lord. Look at verse 6: “O my God, my soul is in despair within me; Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan And the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.” It is wisdom that we don’t develop despair when we are in despair, but immediately take some measures to defend ourselves from it (Park). And that defense is to remember the Lord. This is what Henry Nowen said in his book, “The Living Reminder”:
‘I am sure there are painful memories in the past that we don’t want to remember and
the wounded memories that we are trying to get rid of. But these memories that we
don't want anyone to know may seem like it has been forgotten, can be remembered
by another painful event in our lives. When that happens, we try to forget those
memories by pressing them again. The more we do that, the deeper the wound becomes.
I think only those who are truly courageous to face their wounds and their painful
memories can be established as wounded healers. To do that, we have to change
our minds. We must open our closed hearts to God. Our hearts can be only opened
by faith. It is our sinful nature not to open the door of our hearts to God unless we
believe in God's healing. The true healing process is to remember my painful
memories again and to constantly connect those memories with Jesus' painful
memories' (Nowen).
We must constantly connect our painful memories with the Lord’s painful memories. In order to do that, we must pray to God as we long for Him. Look at Psalms 42:8 – “The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime; And His song will be with me in the night, A prayer to the God of my life.” The reason why the psalmist longed for God and prayed to God of life in the midst of suffering was because he believed that God would give His lovingkindness in the future. And he believed that God would make him praise God. So he prayed God. He obeyed the Lord’s teaching, “they ought to pray and not to lose heart” (Lk. 18:1). Then what was the contest of his prayer? (1) The psalmist sought God's lovingkindness as he told God that he went mourning because of the oppression of his enemy (Ps. 42:9). (2) The psalmist asked God for His justice as he told Him about the slandering word of his enemy, “Where is your God?” (v. 10).
There are many times in our lives that we suffer in pain because of very unexpected things. And the longer the pain and suffering, the more we can be discouraged and be in despair. But we must proclaim to our own souls like the psalmist did in Psalms 42:5, 11: “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.” We shouldn’t be in despair but should long for God so that we can praise Him by getting help from the Lord. We no longer need to remember the past, but we must enjoy and realize that it is God's grace to participate in the Lord’s suffering as we remember the Lord and constantly connect our sufferings to His sufferings (Phil. 1:29). Therefore, we aren’t to be in despair and not becoming disturbed with us. But I hope and pray that we may praise God as we long for Him and by getting His help.
As I proclaim the words of Psalm 42:5, 11 to my soul and go to God in prayer so that I may not be in despair, but rather to be established as a worshiper who praises God,
James Kim who was easily be in despair
(In the hope of the Lord Jesus Christ)