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Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
-Psalm 43:5 NIV
For those of you that have been coming to either the drive-in or the indoor service, you might have heard one of the Psalms sung during the Prelude. Heidi and I have been incorporating Psalms into the Prelude almost every week, usually following the lectionary. And we’ve found some really good, and also really crazy, stuff in the Psalms. The blood of goats (Psalm 50), lusty eagles (Psalm 103), and dead bodies given as meat to the birds (Psalm 79). Yikes!!
This Sunday, to go along with the scripture and Brian’s sermon, we chose Psalm 43 to sing, as it is one of many Psalms about hope. It’s quite short, at only 5 verses, but I think this last verse really captures a truly human emotion well. I’m sure you’ve found yourself with a heavy, downcast soul, or a pained and disturbed heart. It’s something we all have to deal with in life.
What’s so great about this Psalm is how the psalmist speaks not to the reader, but to his (or her) own soul directly. “Put your hope in God.” When I’ve been troubled with a heavy heart, I don’t think I’ve ever literally commanded my heart to trust God. Instead, I usually dwell on the pain for too long and mope about. Unfortunately, pain doesn’t just disappear, even if we have the right attitude and take healthy steps to work through the pain.
You may have heard the phrase “fake it til you make it”. I’ve heard it in reference to psychology, but I think the concept can actually work for us in our relationship with God, too. When our hearts are heavy or when we feel distant from God, perhaps we can “fake it” - that is, do just as the psalmist says and praise God, even if you don’t feel like it. When we reach out to God, even in our doubt and despair, God is there to save us. That’s why he’s our savior, after all! If we are to truly call ourselves Christians, then we have to believe that God can and will save us in our time of need.
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