October 15 | Bible in a Year: Isaiah 45–46; 1 Thessalonians 3

Cross With God

Why, my soul, are you downcast? . . . Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God. Psalm 42:5

READ Psalm 42

“I’m cross with God!” grumbled my eight-year-old as he stomped home. He should have been playing his first after-school football match, but constant heavy rain had flooded the pitch.

“God is in control of everything, so why did He let it rain today?”

It might sound strange, but I was encouraged that my son’s thoughts had gone straight to God. And he was asking the question that we all ask when things don’t go as we’d hoped. If God can do anything, why did He let that happen?

The psalmist too was full of questions and sorrow (Psalm 42:1–3). For whatever reason, he was being mocked (v. 3) and was unable to worship God at the temple (v. 4). “I say to God my Rock, ‘Why have you forgotten me?’” (v. 9). God could have transformed the psalmist’s situation in an instant—so why didn’t He?

Yet the psalmist was then able to say to his own soul, “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him” (vv. 5, 11). I gave similar encouragement to my son that day. God is always at work for His people, even when we don’t see or understand what He is doing. He is achieving something far greater in our confusing circumstances. And when we finally do see it, we will have even more reason to praise Him.

Let’s wait for Him with hope, for we “will yet praise him”.

By Chris Wale

When have you been frustrated with God recently? How does it change your perspective to remember that you “will yet praise him”?

Father God, help me to trust Your work in my life, even when I can’t see what You are doing. Show me again today the many reasons I have to praise You.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

In Psalm 42, what might the “thirsty deer” imagery picture? Some scholars see it describing a deer being pursued by a hunter, running for its life and desperate for water to continue its flight from danger. Others imagine the deer in a season of drought, also desperate for the water necessary for survival but facing a very different kind of threat. Ultimately, the word picture reminds us that in our own desperate seasons, we’ll only find what we need in God. Only He can truly satisfy us.