Hope

 October 7, 2020

“Vindicate me, O God, And plead my cause against an ungodly nation; 

Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! 

For You are the God of my strength; 

Why do You cast me off? 

Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? 

Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; 

Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your tabernacle. 

Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; 

And on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God. 

Why are you cast down, O my soul? 

And why are you disquieted within me? 

Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.”

Psalm 43:1-5 

This psalm was our springboard for prayer with my pastor friends this morning, and apropos it is! The writer looks around him and seeing ungodliness, deceit, injustice, and oppression, it sends him into an emotional and spiritual tailspin. His strength was gone; it felt like God had abandoned him, and he was depressed—in mourning. I can’t think of a more accurate depiction of what is happening in our country today. Looking around us, things seem pretty bleak. 

It’s that look around us that is at the heart of the matter. Hope is in short supply these days; the shelves of optimism are nearly bare, and unless we ask the same question this psalmist asked, we’ll not find our way out of despondency. The question is simple: “Why do we let the oppression of the enemy drag us down?” The Enemy of our souls is an oppressor; he came to “rob, kill, and destroy,” according to Jesus. Incessant looking around at the state of the world will rob us of our joy, kill our contentment, and destroy our hope. 

The writer doesn’t leave us in despair, however. Instead, he prays, “Send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me...” Instead of looking within, instead of dwelling on past sins and failures, instead of looking around at the state of the world, he looks up; he goes to God, his exceeding joy, and praises him in song. Joy cannot be found in the things of this world; it is found in God alone. Interestingly, he notes that Truth always leads to the worship of God. Our world is dying for the Truth it refuses to acknowledge, Truth that offers hope because it leads us into the presence of the Living God.