October 14, 2023

Psalm 42: 11 Why are you so downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. (NIV)

True hope goes beyond wanting God to change things according to our preferences.*

When bad things happen, it’s normal to be sad. You can tell yourself that things will get better – and usually they do. But sometimes they don’t. And nothing is more depressing than hopelessness. In this verse, the psalmist offers a cure for depression: put your hope in God. What is he hoping that God will do? Fix his problems? There’s no promise of that. Turn his sadness into praise? Yes. How can that be? Isn’t it unreasonable to expect that we should be able to praise God even in our darkest hour? Not if we put our hope in him as Savior and God.

Five years ago, my husband was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. It was inoperable, chemotherapy didn’t work, and immunotherapy didn't seem to slow down the growth of the cancer that had spread to his liver. One year in, his oncologist was surprised that my husband was still alive, he was puzzled as to why he was not in pain, and he was astonished by our reaction every time he delivered more bad news. Yes, we wanted healing – for the cancer to go away. I wanted my husband to be healthy and able to enjoy our grandchildren, to be active in church and the community again, and to be able to travel like we used to. Instead, he died two years after being told he would only live six to twelve months. 

But we hoped in the Lord. It was more than hope for good health. It was hope that God had a plan, that we could bring him glory through our troubles, that we would be able to stand before the throne of God and know that it was worth it.  This hope is not wishful thinking.

It may be a mystery to those who place their hope in riches or medicine or wishes, but I claim the promise that Paul wrote about in Philippians chapter four: the peace of God which transcends all understanding. That is how my hope turns into praise.

In every case, suffering offers an opportunity for us to display God’s work.*