06/11/21
Jim Martin
The psalmist is praying for help [in reference to Psalm 42:1-11], because he feels that he has been cut off from the presence of God and is oppressed by his enemies. I believe this past year that many of us have felt at times that we have been cut off from God. We have felt unable to join the “throng and process into the house of the Lord with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving.”
Yet, the psalmist recounts that “By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.” Even in the midst of grief and despair, the psalmist answers his own question. Why does the psalmist allow the adversary to question where the psalmist’s God is. God is with us: Emmanuel. Remember? Do you believe that God abandoned the psalmist?
My question for the psalmist and us is this: Have you allowed your fear and oppression to cause you to entertain the adversary’s question, “Where is your God?” I suppose it is human nature. In times of distress and change and the world is literally turned upside down, it is “normal” to be afraid, whether people care to admit their fear or not.
Let us not allow the adversary to taunt us. For those of us who feel, as the psalmist, that their souls are cast down, well, we have been through a lot these past 16 months—the whole world has. But my word to you is the same as the psalmist proclaims: “Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.”
May the peace of Jesus Christ be with you!
+ Pastor Jim