Psalm 42:11 “As the hart pants and longs for the water brooks, so I pant and long for You, O God. My inner self thirsts for God, for the living God”. Our Psalmist doesn’t hide his vulnerability, the condition of his soul. He’s cast down, disquieted, burdened…believing himself to be forgotten. Our psalmist is surrounded by enemies taunting him, asking him, ‘Where is your God?’ Perhaps, for even just a moment, he wondered the same thing. ‘Can He hear me’? ‘Does He see me’?’…does He care’? ‘How long…Lord’? In between how he feels…how we feel when we’re suffering or afflicted, if we’re listening, is God’s still, small voice planting Truth in our hearts. He’s the God Who Sees and Hears. The God Who holds our Hope, the God Who’s ‘right here’, the God Who’s name is Help. “Yet the Lord will command His loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me”. Instead of our Psalmist questioning God, he begins to question his own soul as he grabs hold of the Truth, knowing the One Who is his Help, knowing the One Who is able to lift his countenance…and he’s willing to wait expectantly for Him. He lays his petition out to God, but he doesn’t ‘stay there’. He doesn’t get comfortable in his suffering and fall as prey to a spirit of Self-Pity. He takes hold of the Truth, he’s attentive to the reality of God‘s presence in himself, of Who He is in all His power and glory. We take note, we choose to listen, to wait expectantly, knowing Who He is, Who He is in us. Lord, we bring our petitions before You, we lay them at Your feet. Thank You for taking our face in Your hands, adjusting our focus to rest on Your promises. Help us to wait patiently and expectantly, knowing our Hope, our Help is in You. We want to go deeper, we want more of You…
