Often times when people talk about hope in The Lord, they will go to the verses in the Bible that speak about the great delight found in having it. I think that these are incredibly encouraging and I love reading them, but I never realized that there are many verses that also talk about how difficult it is to have hope.
I think that Psalm 42 gives an amazing example of this. In the first few verses, David speaks about his desire for God to make himself evident and his frustration with what is going on in his life. Saying, " My tears have been food day and night, while people say to me all day long, 'Where is your God?' " I think that the feelings David was experiencing are very relatable. Many of us go through times where we feel God is distant and don't understand what he is doing.
However the Psalm doesn't just stop there. David continues on to say, "Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed with me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God." He reassures himself that he must continue to hope in God and that even though he may not understand what God is doing, he will praise him regardless.
I think that we can learn a lot from David in this Psalm. We are never promised that having hope will be easy, but we are promised that God holds the only hope that will truly fulfill us. Money, family, friends, etc. are all things that people put their hope into. And although none of them are necessarily "bad" things, when our hope is placed in them we will always be let down. God is the only source of hope that can truly fill us up, even when times get tough."
