“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God” (Psalm 42:5-6a).
It’s been a while since I’ve been able to write anything that I thought would be of help to those who frequent the Scofield Prophecy Studies website. It seemed like every time I would sit down at my laptop to share something with all of you, the events of the past day, week, month and 1½ years would overwhelm my mind. I couldn’t focus or put any coherent thoughts on the page.
There is no question that events, nationally and internationally, have taken some unbelievable twists and turns. From the Covid-19 pandemic, international and national scandals, our presidential election, chaos at the border, confusion regarding vaccines, masks, social distancing, variants and potentially forced vaccinations, cities and businesses being destroyed by criminals hiding behind the mantra of “social justice,” most of whom will never have to face criminal charges or pay restitution, and the list goes on and on. I’m quite certain that I’m not telling you anything that you haven’t seen and wondered about yourselves. “Lord, what is going on around the world, in our country, our state, our city?”
Add to all of that, as a hospital chaplain, I have seen more death in this past year than I have in my entire lifetime. I’ve helped family members put on the PPE (personal protective equipment) so that they could go into the room and say good-bye to their dying loved one in the Covid ICU. From a human perspective, its all been quite overwhelming. To those of you who have lost someone you love to the Covid virus, my heart breaks for you.
But today the Lord brought to my mind Psalm 42:5-6, a song written by the sons of Korah. God reminded me that my “hope,” our hope, is supposed to be in Him. To be honest, my hope has been in many other places: doctors, scientists, medicines, etc. Perhaps some of you have misplaced your hope, or lost it completely, with all that’s been going on all around us.
It’s easy for our souls to become “downcast” when our hope gets misplaced. It’s easy for “turmoil” to overpower the peace that the Lord has given to every believer, when we forget Who is in charge and that none of what we have seen, and are seeing, has taken the Lord by surprise. On the contrary, He is quite aware of what’s happening now and what will happen in the future. And He will use all the foolishness of fallen mankind to bring about the fulfillment of His plans and purposes. Evil people are just too ignorant to know that God’s plans will never be thwarted or defeated. “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds” (Proverbs 14:1) and God is noticing.
The LORD is the God of our “salvation.” Every true believer can say, with the sons of Korah, He is “my God.” We, too, can personalize it. Jesus reminded us that He is “Our Father, which art in heaven.”
If you’ve been struggling with hope, if your soul is “downcast” and filled with turmoil, I would encourage you to read and meditate upon Psalm 42. It is a great place to go when we lose our way.
Our Father is faithful, always. “Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).
May the Lord renew your hope, your strength and may your countenance be lifted up through Him and His glory.
By His Grace,
Gary T. Dromi, Ph.D., D.Min.
