Psalm 42 - Too much!
If you are reading this blog for the first time this is the third day I have reflecting on Psalm 42 (read ‘Thirsty for what?’ and ‘Longing for you’), I hope you don’t mind, but it is an awesome Psalm. It is a Psalm that is full of life; it’s full of hurt overcome by hope, pain enveloped by praise. It is a Psalm of rescue, of salvation, of God’s faithfulness in our troubled times. It is a Psalm that teaches us no matter how dark the night gets to keep our eyes fixed on Christ (our hope, our salvation, our rescue) because the dawn is coming.
When I was at University, back in 1995, I was asked to edit a short competition film for a Fuji Scholarship Award. I eventually won, and I was awarded my prize by none other than Emma Samms (aka Fallon from ‘Dynasty’).
To edit this short film we managed to wangle the use a BBC edit suite. The guy that arranged this for us provided me with a huge amount of invaluable advice, however he never saw eye-to-eye with the film’s director. This ‘hostility’ grew until they finally refused to meet. This left me as the middle man, liaising between them. This went on week after week, slowly grinding me down mentally and emotionally until it eventually broke me. In the end I could even get out of bed without breaking down in tears. Everything, absolutely everything, was too much to handle.
Psalm 42:5-6 (NIV)
Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Saviour and my God.
My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
Living is not always easy. Sometimes we feel swamped by it all.
This is how v6 appears in the Amplified Bible: “O my God, my life is cast down upon me [and I find the burden more than I can bear]; therefore will I [earnestly] remember You…”
This is not where it ends though; there is hope. We have a saviour in Jesus Christ!
We were not meant to walk through life alone, you and I were made to live with God (not just exist knowing that He is ‘there’, but to live with Him). He shares our burden, but we easily forget this. Our tears cause us to loose sight of our hope. It is OK to question our emotions (this is different from ignoring them or burying them, neither of which are healthy). Sometimes our emotions take hold of us because we loose sight of our hope, and so we need to speak over them, bringing them into line with what we know to be true.
When the burden is more than we can bear, it is then that we must remind ourselves; we are not alone!
We may wake up feeling that we are on a knife edge. But this it not the case, it is never the case. “I'm absolutely convinced that nothing--nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable--absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.” Rom 8:38-39 (Msg)
Our hope is in God alone.
This is our praise. The darkness cannot overcome the light of our salvation, not even our darkest night. Giving thanks to God is our strength, our security. He is our hope, our promise, our strong deliverer.
“Rejoice in the Lord always [delight, gladden yourselves in Him]; again I say, Rejoice! … The Lord is near [He is coming soon]. Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God. And God's peace [shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace] which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Phil 4:4-7 (Amp)
When I was at University, back in 1995, I was asked to edit a short competition film for a Fuji Scholarship Award. I eventually won, and I was awarded my prize by none other than Emma Samms (aka Fallon from ‘Dynasty’).
To edit this short film we managed to wangle the use a BBC edit suite. The guy that arranged this for us provided me with a huge amount of invaluable advice, however he never saw eye-to-eye with the film’s director. This ‘hostility’ grew until they finally refused to meet. This left me as the middle man, liaising between them. This went on week after week, slowly grinding me down mentally and emotionally until it eventually broke me. In the end I could even get out of bed without breaking down in tears. Everything, absolutely everything, was too much to handle.
Psalm 42:5-6 (NIV)
Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Saviour and my God.
My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
Living is not always easy. Sometimes we feel swamped by it all.
This is how v6 appears in the Amplified Bible: “O my God, my life is cast down upon me [and I find the burden more than I can bear]; therefore will I [earnestly] remember You…”
This is not where it ends though; there is hope. We have a saviour in Jesus Christ!
We were not meant to walk through life alone, you and I were made to live with God (not just exist knowing that He is ‘there’, but to live with Him). He shares our burden, but we easily forget this. Our tears cause us to loose sight of our hope. It is OK to question our emotions (this is different from ignoring them or burying them, neither of which are healthy). Sometimes our emotions take hold of us because we loose sight of our hope, and so we need to speak over them, bringing them into line with what we know to be true.
When the burden is more than we can bear, it is then that we must remind ourselves; we are not alone!
We may wake up feeling that we are on a knife edge. But this it not the case, it is never the case. “I'm absolutely convinced that nothing--nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable--absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.” Rom 8:38-39 (Msg)
Our hope is in God alone.
This is our praise. The darkness cannot overcome the light of our salvation, not even our darkest night. Giving thanks to God is our strength, our security. He is our hope, our promise, our strong deliverer.
“Rejoice in the Lord always [delight, gladden yourselves in Him]; again I say, Rejoice! … The Lord is near [He is coming soon]. Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God. And God's peace [shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace] which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Phil 4:4-7 (Amp)
posted by Andrew at 7:17 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home