Lament 4: There’s Still Hope
As we’ve learned in this study, lament is bridging the gap between joy and grief. Learning that both can exist in a contented life. Even during any trial or circumstance.
Psalm 42
As the deer longs for streams of water,
So I long for you, O God.
I thirst for God, the living God.
When can I go and stand before him?
Day and night I have only tears for food,
while my enemies continually taunt me, saying,
“Where is this God of yours?”
My heart is breaking
As I remember how it used to be:
I walked among the crowds of worshipers,
leading a great procession to the house of God,
singing for joy and giving thanks
amid the sound of a great celebration!
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!
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.
“O God my rock,” I cry,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I wander around in grief,
oppressed by my enemies?”
Their taunts break my bones.
They scoff, “Where is this God of yours?”
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!
The psalmist is longing. Yearning for hope. For a sense of stillness to his discouraged heart. The psalmist is honest about his broken heart and his agony.
What’s your first thought in the seasons of heaviness? When the plans fall through? When the test fails to show two lines again and again? When the break-up comes or the finances fall short again this month? How do you keep showing up?
It’s hard to make it through life without hope. Webster’s Dictionary defines hope as to cherish a desire with anticipation. As believers, we know that the only true hope comes from a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. A hope of eternity, a constant celebration, and worship.
For me, there’s no way, even right now, that I could be making it without God. Life is hard. There’s much to navigate, and the valleys can be really deep and long. But with the strength and grace God provides, I have hope and faith for the next step that I need to take.
Jackie Hill Perry, author and speaker, shared this regarding hope.
“Why do we struggle with hope?
We are uncomfortable moving at God’s pace.”
Gulp.
Hope is faith that is directed to the future. When our ideas for things aren’t panning out in the way we want, we get upset. We often think we know what is best when, in reality, we don’t know the future or how things will go. It’s hard to have hope when things are moving slowly. I get it. I feel it. I’m learning the importance of relinquishing control back to God, and it’s hard. I’m 100% human.
The comforting thing is that as believers, we have hope that the world doesn’t have. We have a knowledge of Heaven, knowing that one day soon all of the wrongs will be made right, all of the tears will be dried, all of the questions will be answered. Everything will make sense.
I find comfort in Psalm 42:11. No matter what I may face, I know that I am not alone. My hope is in God, and nothing and/or no one can take it away. I can praise God in the midst of all things because God has my best interests in mind. The same is true for you. Even in times of much grief and lament, there remains hope. Give God praise today. Christ is alive, friends, we have hope.
