Psalm 42-I will YET Praise Him.

Heart of my worship:

-If you are a P.K. (priest’s or preacher’s  kid) or an L.K. (Levite’s or Leader’s kid) whose parents blew it bad, few will have been as bad as  Korah at his “kremation” (the original Krispy Kreme—ations.) Yet, from father-failure, came a generation of kids who loved the Lord and served him mightily. And you? Check out Numbers 16.

-Picture your 1st year in Babylon or living with the Assyrians after 40 years of 3 times a year going to Jerusalem for the feasts. Think of the missionaries during WW. II kept in Japanese concentration camps or a pastor of a Chinese house church kept in a Laogai or prison.

-What is quenching our thirst? After the bombing of Hiroshima, the survivors drank the rain…tainted with radioactivity. What is quenching your thirst?  Is the water from a pure source? How can we become even more thirsty for God? 42:1-2

Where are we exiled to, and away from? What are the wonderful things we remember…in between tears? A family Christmas. A son’s birthday, his last one before cancer struck him down. What festive days do we recall amidst mourning? 42:4

What has brought us low…downcast? Three times. Then THREE times Korah’s Kids tell us: “PUT YOUR HOPE IN GOD for I will YET praise him.” And you know what? They did, both put their hope in God…and return to the Promised Land!

Once again we see in a Psalm, the writer struggling with doubt, darkness and depression. Don’t beat yourself up if you do as well.

Sometimes events or people have torn us away from our faith community. A professor who taught  evolution devoid of God; a  philosopher who taught us a new humanism or the  New Atheism of Hitchens, Harris and Christopher Dawkins; a legalistic pastor & church that ran us out and away from God. We are mocked with the phrases: 43:3, 10-WHERE is your GOD? Where is your FAITH?  We even question God’s existence because of our condition-exiled.

Between the Tears EVERY day-v. 3, God directs his love daily, v.8 & amidst our weeping in the darkness of v. 3, God  every evening will put his song in our hearts, v. 8!

So, today, Put your hope in God,  for You and I will YET praise him!