Day 57

Leviticus 19:1–20:21; Mark 8:11-38; Psalm 42:1-11; Proverbs 10:17

HAVE YOU EVER wondered if your best days are behind you? As if life is taunting you? Or perhaps you’ve been experiencing a season of crushing discouragement. Across thousands of years, the same discouragements leap from the words of the Psalms today: “Day and night I have only tears for food, while my enemies continually taunt me, saying, ‘Where is this God of yours?’” (Psalm 42:3).

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. The cry of the heart from Psalm 42 is brutally honest. In this case, the writer was lamenting losing a homeland and being separated from God’s Temple in Jerusalem. But the sense of loss, sadness, and discouragement is no less real than our own.

“My heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be,” the psalmist confessed (Psalm 42:4). In some way, we can probably all relate.

One of the beautiful things about the Bible is that all the grit, grime, and struggle of life is completely on display. Nothing is skewed toward a happy platitude, as we are often prone to do on our faith journey today. The Bible is honest, and because of this, it is a trustworthy friend on our journey. But while being honest, the Scriptures continually orient us toward hope without being patronizing or shallow. It acknowledges the struggle and offers counsel.

If life has been a heavy burden lately, take comfort in the conclusions of an ancient and enduring refrain:

Now I am deeply discouraged, but I will remember you —even from distant Mount Hermon, the source of the Jordan, from the land of Mount Mizar. I hear the tumult of the raging seas as your waves and surging tides sweep over me. But each day the LORD pours his unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing his songs, praying to God who gives me life.

MEDITATION:

Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again —my Savior and my God!