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April 21, 2024
- By Ed Powell
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"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. Psalm 42:5
In God's providence, He records the trying experiences of the most eminent servants, so that we, in similar circumstances, may know we are not walking down untried paths and may know how we should respond and conduct ourselves.
In this psalm, David was fleeing from Absalom. His enemies gloried over him and said continually, "Where is now thy God?" This was a very difficult provocation for David to deal with, because it hit at the core of his heart.
When David was driven from his home and family, he did not grieve over his lost possessions, his deserted relatives, his ruined honors, or the glory, comfort, and ease of his throne. It was the intimate relationship with God that he so ardently desired and thirsted for. Taunted by his enemies about something that was more precious to him than life itself, he longed for the innermost fellowship with God that now seemed so far away. He longed for the nearness of God he had known and cried out, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God" (Psalm 42:1).
Then in anguish of soul he speaks to himself, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me?" Then he assures himself, "Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance." Like Paul, he was discouraged but not defeated, troubled on every side yet not distressed, persecuted but not forsaken. HIS HOPE WAS IN THE INFALLIBLE LIVING GOD! However trying and devastating his trials were, the focus of his heart was on the source of his strength and he assures himself and his men, "I will yet praise Him!"
All of us face the complexities of life, which often shift from one extreme to another, from the splendor of His presence, to adversities that threaten to consume us. We, like David, become overwhelmed with grief and despair, with fear and discouragement, and are tested by the trials and disappointments of life. But how blessed to find our solace and our hope in God, to come into His very presence at the throne of grace, and to have our heart enlarged in prayer...to wrestle with Him even as Jacob, determined to have His hand upon our life in mighty power, and to be restored afresh and anew in intimate fellowship with the Lord of our life.
The refiner does not put his vessels into the furnace to leave them there, but to take them out when they are fitted for his use. God subjects us to the fiery trials of life, that He may purify us to be "vessels of honor." As Job, may we say, "When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." David said, "I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living" (Psalm 27:13).
The remedy to every temporal or spiritual adversity is FAITH IN OUR INFALLIBLE LIVING GOD! He promised to do "exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think, through the power that works in us." We can be "more than conquerors" in our adversities, when we place a steadfast and unwavering FAITH IN GOD!
© 2007 by Ed Powell. Used by permission.
This page was reprinted by permission from: http://litmin.org/dare.php?date=2024-04-21&print=1
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