"Hope In God ... Then Comes The Praise"

Psalm 42:1-2

As the deer pants for the water Brooks, 

So pants my soul for You, O God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. 

When shall I come and appear before God?

My tears have been my food day and night,

While they say to me, "Where is your God?"

When I remember these things,

I pour out my soul within me.

For I used to go with the multitude;

I went with them to the house of God,

With the voice of joy and praise,

With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.

Why are you cast down, O my soul?

And why are you dispirited within me?

Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him

For the help of His countenance.

I love this psalm. I love that it starts out with words that are declaring what we all, as believers, have in the very depths of our souls. "So pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." I also love that as it continues on from that place of longing it unvails a truth that as believers we all also know and understand. It's a truth that as believers we all discover as we long for 'God, the living God.' The truth?

Simply this ... that when we thirst for Him and seek Him and put our hope in Him ... Then no matter what the situation is, good or bad,  we can praise Him! Why? Because as the psalmist said: " Hope in God, and praise Him for the help of His countenance." And what that means is when you seek His face know that His is turned torwards yours.

   Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When You said, "Seek My face," My heart said to You, "Your face, Lord, I will seek." Psalm 27:7-8

"And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; ..." Jeremiah 29:13-14