Daily Manna from Heaven

“Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?” Put your hope in God for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” -Psalm 43:5

No individual can really be educated apart from a knowledge of the Bible, and the book of Psalms in this grand book contains some of the most beautiful and thought-provoking passages and prose of all the world’s great literature. I, for one, marvel at the profound emotional insights which you find described here—the same emotions and feelings we grapple with today.

In Psalm 42 and 43, which were probably written as one, the writer voices a recurring theme. Three times he asks, “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?” Three times, he speaks of the solution: “Put your hope in God,” he says, adding, “for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”

Hey, friend, can you relate to that? Do you ever face personal bouts with discouragement and depression? You really know things aren’t as bad as you feel, but you just can’t quite get on top of things. You aren’t alone. The writer of this psalm felt the same way 3000 years ago, and the answer to his problem can be your answer as well.

“Hope in God,” he says–not the stock market, not your beauty or charm, and certainly not your ability to fix things. Following two deep valleys of human suffering, Norman Cousins authored a book entitled, The Biology of Hope. “The human spirit,” he wrote, “can’t be diagnosed or dissected.” What Cousins described as “the human spirit,” the writer of Psalms called “soul.” Therapy, tranquilizers, counseling and surgery can never surpass the power of hope when it comes to healing.

In these two psalms, the writer begins by saying that as the deer pants for water, so his soul pants for God, yet he says that tears have been his constant companion. In this soliloquy the writer makes three “I” statements which provide guidelines for us when we feel cast down and our souls are disturbed within. Here they are: First—“I remember…” Then, “I will say to God…” and finally, “I will go to the altar of God.”

When you reach the valley of despair, looking in your rear view mirror is OK. It’s positive to look behind and recognize the hand of God, remembering His blessings on your life. That’s what the psalmist did. He talked about going to the house of God “with shouts of joy and thanksgiving.”

He remembers how in bygone days, God made him a focus of love and gave him a song in the night. No, he didn’t feel like doing this. Remembering was a conscious matter of his will, and so is it for you, too, friend. Forcing yourself to remember is like building a platform upon which you reach towards the strength of the Almighty.

The second step in climbing out of his misery was a frank admission of his depression to God. “I say to God my Rock, ‘Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?’” That’s plain talk. Telling God exactly how you feel is therapy of the soul. It’s OK to let the tears flow. That’s part of breaking up the hardness of what life has done to you. Tears can be a powerful catalyst for healing.

Then the psalmist said, “I will go to the altar of God,” whom he described as “his joy and delight.” There’s just enough time to share a closing thought: When the psalmist was depressed, he turned to God, not on God. There’s a big difference.

He was convinced that God is a refuge and strength, the One in whom he could hope, and the One he called, “My Savior and my God.” When you ask that question, “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?” remember, the psalmist’s solution: “Put your hope in God,” and then you will find cause for praising Him who is your Savior and God.

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“The preceding material was written by Dr. Harold J. Sala, and is copyrighted. Reproduction for sale or financial profit is prohibited. Permission to reproduce this article was granted by Guidelines, Inc.”
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“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” -(Romans 3:23)

There is a three-letter word that spells the difference between happiness and misery, between freedom and bondage, and between heaven and hell. A generation or two ago, this word was commonly used in our speech, especially by the clergy. We used this word to describe wrongdoing and human failure. Then, as some words are prone to do, it gradually began to be replaced by synonyms which were more gentle and kind. That old three-letter word is sin, and in spite of the fact that most people prefer not to think of themselves as being tainted by this word, sin is good news! “And how can that be?” you might be thinking. It’s simple: There is a solution to the problem of sin, an antidote which neutralizes its effect; and that is good news.

The existence of sin is demonstrated three ways: First, by history. Then by the human conscience, and certainly by Scripture. Historian Harold Lindsell wrote, “As long as man has been on earth, wars, tumults, disease, and death have been rampant. All creation bears unmistakably the marks of evil. The pages of history are blackened by its effects.” Some 5,000 years of history display a constant repetition of human failure.

But the effects of history go beyond what takes place on a national basis to what takes place on a personal basis. We are told today that there is a difference between public and private morality—something which no generation has ever believed before; nonetheless, the mentality which wants to believe this is but a reflection of the thinking that it is unfair to hold others accountable for what we, ourselves, are not willing to abide by.

Your conscience is only as good as its understanding of right and wrong. When a person doesn’t know what a straight line is, it is difficult for him to understand why a crooked line is different. But, nonetheless, the consciences of almost all men and women, at some time or another, nag at them, saying, “What you did is wrong” And when that wrongdoing violates others and God, it is sin—unvarnished and plain.

The Bible says that men and women are sinners by choice and by nature as well. “All have sinned” is the dictum of Paul to the Romans. We sin because of our human compulsion towards selfishness and wrongdoing as well as by our personal choices which, at times, we know are wrong—yet we prefer that to doing what we know to be right.

Suppose you went to your doctor because you had a lump on your thyroid and it just wouldn’t go away, and he ran some tests and then asked you to sit down as he said, “There’s nothing to worry about. Our tests show that you have a lymphoma, but this is perfectly natural. You have a beautiful smile and a wonderful personality. Think positively of yourself and realize you are much better off than most people.” If you heard what I’ve just told you, you would be fuming with anger. You’d probably break your fingers punching the buttons on your phone as you called your attorney.

But if your doctor says, “You have a problem here, but there is a solution, which is surgery followed by radiation. The answer isn’t terribly pleasant, but we can assure you that you are going to be OK” –then you have hope. The Good News about sin is not that you have failed but that God has an answer, a solution to your wrongdoing, and that solution is in what Jesus Christ did in paying the price of your failure.

No, sin never makes us feel good about ourselves, but it should bring us into confrontation with the grace of God, which can make us right with God. And that’s good news.

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“The preceding material was written by Dr. Harold J. Sala, and is copyrighted. Reproduction for sale or financial profit is prohibited. Permission to reproduce this article was granted by Guidelines, Inc.”
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“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” -Romans 15:13

On Saturday, the 12th of November,” writes a friend of Guidelines, “I was so depressed that I wanted to kill myself. This is not the first time, either. No matter what, I can never stop feeling this way.” She then told what triggered this depression. She explained, “There was a misunderstanding this morning between my sister and me and I took it personally.”

Another letter tells of a woman who is struggling to cope with a teenager, an alcoholic father, and a husband who abuses drugs and alcohol, and then she said, “My problem is that I have lost my hope.” Then she asked, “Do you know what I mean?”

A third letter focused on a common theme. The person who wrote said, “I’ve been going to church for over eight years, and like the children of Israel I’ve backslidden to a point where I didn’t think I could ever receive grace in God’s eyes again. My sins were so great… that I often felt like suicide was the only way. I cried out to God for mercy and my cries fell on deaf ears. I’ve often wondered how I could sink so low…”

In the New Testament you find three phrases which all describe the nature of God and our relationship to Him. The writer of Hebrews refers to God as the “God of peace,” a phrase Paul used four times in his letters. Paul also used the phrase “The God of all comfort” when he wrote to the Corinthians. But in his letter to friends in the church at Rome, Paul called God “the God of hope.” He said, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).

Now, hold on to that thought for a moment as you ponder the words of an old Scottish preacher who said that the real profanity of men is not in the “swear words” they sometimes use, though he added, “Such words are certainly wrong and foolish. The most profane word man can use,” he said, “is the word hopeless. When we say any situation is hopeless,” he added, “we are slamming the door in the face of God.”

Question: Do you know the God of hope, the one Paul was talking about when he wrote to the church at Rome? Or is the God you know an angry God who determines to beat the daylights out of all of us who mess up our lives, often violating our conscience, and stomping under feet what we know is right, unable to control our passions or the circumstances of life?

Strangely enough, the God that we often picture in our minds is not the God of the Bible. He’s the god of our childhood misconceptions, the One whose true image has been distorted by the ideas of the world and—let’s face it—the blurring of the image of God as Satan strives to keep you from making contact with Him. Of course, the devil (and there is a very real one) prefers to keep you from remembering that God is the God of all hope, that He is the God of comfort, and the God of peace.

Paul’s prayer for the Romans was that the God of hope would fill their hearts with joy and peace through the power of God, the Holy Spirit. That’s the secret of hope in a hopeless situation. Where there is God there is hope, and where there is life, there is God. Never forget it.

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“The preceding material was written by Dr. Harold J. Sala, and is copyrighted. Reproduction for sale or financial profit is prohibited. Permission to reproduce this article was granted by Guidelines, Inc.”
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