During 2025, Peachtree Church is focusing on the Book of Psalms with a series called Dwell, through which we seek to deepen our conversation with God and open ourselves to hearing his response. The practice of praying three times each day will unite the voices of our hearts and souls as we seek the day when we will see the full realization of the Kingdom of God, promised in Revelation 21:3: “…Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”
We will email devotionals twice weekly with Monday’s providing an overview of the Psalm as a whole, and Wednesday’s focused on that week’s Daily Dwell.
Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Psalm 42:5
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
Devotional
One of the aspects of ministry that I truly cherish is that I often have the opportunity to walk beside families while they are in the midst of a time of grief. Whenever I share those words with people, they tend to look at me a bit strangely as they come to understand that I actually enjoy an area of ministry that leaves most of us feeling rather uncomfortable, and I tend to respond that this part of my calling is one where I simply feel comfortable in being able to hopefully be a comfort to others.
Part of what this understanding means in my life can be seen in the words preceding this week’s Daily Dwell and then our prayer for the week itself. For nearly all of us, we will have times of our lives when our soul will feel downcast, when we will be disturbed in body, mind, and soul, and the root of those times differs nearly each time that we experience it. Yet in the midst of those times, we are reminded to “Put your hope in Go, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”
While it can sound a bit strange to have that reminder in our most difficult times, I often see them in light of a story that one of my theology professors told about a visiting scholar teaching a course about the creeds of the church. During the course, a young seminarian asked the scholar what they should do during a time when they weren’t sure if they still believed in the words of the creed. The scholar, who had years of ministerial experience both in a church and in a classroom simply responded, “Those are the times when you need to say them twice. Once for what you aren’t sure that you believe, and once for what you will soon believe again.”
This week’s Psalm is one of those which we must often read in the same light as that scholar expressed that the creeds of the church should be said, once for what we aren’t sure that we can hear, and once for what we will soon be able to hear and believe again. “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”
For Reflection
- What words from Scripture have helped you the most when your soul has been downcast?
- How can you support others when they are in such a time?
Prayer
Lord God, you call us to put our hope in you, yet we confess that all too often we lose sight of the promises of redemption that you offer to us. Help us to put our hope in you rather than in our own abilities. Turn our hearts from grief to praise through the gift of your grace. In Jesus’ name we pray; amen.
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Devotionals