New Year HOPE

As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" 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. 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. 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. Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls; All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me. 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. I will say to God my rock, "Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?" As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me, While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" 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. Psalms 42:1-11 NAS95

Hope. Hope seems to be the word for today. It is New Years’ morning as I write this musing. I just checked social media to see what is happening in my world, and as always people are posting New Year’s related messages of what they “hope” the next 12 months will bring. I am sure there are some resolutions in your life that go something like I hope to lose some weight, I hope to make more money. Personally, I hope to finish volume two of Disturbed Thinking.

Generally, I would not post a whole chapter of the Bible. I tend to take a few verses and expound on them. Today is different. If you read the passage you read all of Psalm 42. This Psalm has been used for many worship songs in the last 30 years, “As the Deer Panteth for the Water,” “Deep Calls out to Deep,” and the very upbeat “Why so Downcast Oh My Soul.”

I enjoy every one of the Psalm-based songs and these are three of my favorites. Then I read this passage from the New American Standard Version of the Bible this week, and I have been disturbed ever since. The image the songs leave in my mind is of David, longing for God’s presence, the depths of his soul calling out to the deep things of God to be revealed to him, and finally, hey it is ok, everyone has a bad morning, get HAPPY. I missed something in this passage until I read it this week.

However the week I noticed David is in a bad state. He is trying to pull himself up (by the bootstraps) out of the mire of the despair of his very disturbed mind. Things look bad and are getting worse in his mind. His only recourse is to put his hope in God.

This morning I logged onto the page for a support group to which I belong. There was a post from a 28-year-old woman who was in despair and hoping someone could help. She was asking for support in dealing with, and I quote, "the challenge God has laid" before her. I reached out to her, I do hope I get to share this blog with her. I hope she finds comfort in the things I said. I hope this year is better for her. I hope, I hope and I hope some more.

Then I realize how desperate David was when he wrote the Psalm we call the 42nd Psalm. His life was in shambles when he writes:

My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" 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.

Am I trying to be Donnie Downer this morning? Nope. Let me explain. Today is the beginning of a New Year. If you are reading this and it is not January 1st that is okay, today is the beginning of a new year, so will tomorrow be a beginning, as was yesterday, etc. I hope you get the point. Every day starts something new, if we will let it. Today is the day to declare MY HOPE IS IN GOD! If you are hoping the new diet will help you lose weight, change your health, etc. I have news. The diet is a piece of paper, an idea, a person who controls your intake, etc. Diets can not make you lose weight, etc. Hoping in them is not going to change your world. We are responsible for our own changes. We are responsible for our own attitudes. There is a lot of stuff that can help, and I suggest you take advantage of everything possible, but…in the end you are responsible.

David got it. He turned to himself and said: Why are you so disturbed and in such despair? DAVID, Put your HOPE in GOD! (emphasis mine). Get busy and desire God as much as the deer desires water at the brook. Let your innermost being call out to God. Be honest about your despair, and put your hope in the only One who can change you and your situation.

If you want a better year beginning today, then remember the words of Saint Ignatius or maybe Saint Augustine (there are conflicting reports of who said it first) “pray as if everything depends on God, and work as if everything depends on you.” Work hard, pray harder, then put your trust in the One who can change things.

Let me end with a portion of a verse from James:

… The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth (can accomplish) much. James 5:16 KJV

Have the Happiest of New Years.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay