I Will Put My Hope In God!

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! Psalm 42:5-6

THERE IS SO MUCH JOY IN PARENTING. But it can also be profoundly disheartening. We can become discouraged about our seeming inability to break patterns in our parenting that lack wisdom and grace. And we can become troubled by the direction the lives of our children are taking. Because we love our kids so deeply, such discouragement is not easily overcome. We need divine help. And that is what we’re given in Psalm 42.

The psalmist uses vivid imagery from his surroundings that helps us understand what he feels like on the inside. The first image he uses is that of a panting deer that dips his head into what should be a flowing stream only to find a dry creek bed. He feels dried up inside, full of longing with no relief. And later the psalmist gives us another vivid image, taking us just north of the Promised Land, outside of its borders, to where the streams and waterfalls flowing down from Mount Hebron create the headwaters of the Jordan River. He writes, “your waves and surging tides sweep over me” (verse 7). So in these two images we understand that the psalmist feels dry like a deer that cannot find water, but he also feels as though he’s drowning.

However, the psalmist doesn’t just accept his thoughts as his reality; he announces the gospel to himself —not the gospel in general terms but applied personally to him: “I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again —my Savior and my God” (emphasis added). The psalmist pours out his complaint to God, but he also intentionally remembers and recites how good it is to be close to God. He speaks to his own soul, telling himself to put his hope in God.

Lord, in this psalm you have given me words, not just to speak to you or say about you, but words to preach to myself. And so when I’m deeply discouraged, when I can’t see the way forward and my emotions are telling me that nothing good is ahead, I will speak these words to my own soul, saying, “I will put my hope in God!”