In The Yet to Come

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. 

- Psalm 42:5 (NIV)

Waiting is hard - contrary to our pleasure and to our comfort. I used to tell my daughters, "It's good for young ladies to learn to wait." Not a fun or popular message to hear. I think there's attitude that exists today which caters to our desire for immediacy. It reveals itself in many aspects of our lives. I've found it amusing as a software developer at the prevailing concern of users to minimize mouse clicks to get to the content that interests them more quickly. I've had to re-architect systems to eliminate mouse clicks from the user's path to information. Ok, enough complaining on my part.

On the contrary, God is not interested in us having a quick and efficient journey through life. He's not running a business; he's not placed us in a corporation. We are in his kingdom, and his kingdom operates under different parameters, following a different pattern than we are sometimes accustomed to. The Lord, at times, shocks our way of thinking.

I used to feel guilty, like I was a "less than" Christian, if I wasn't uttering praises during the times my soul was down. "Where is my faith?" I would ask myself. I think it's sad and debilitating when we misunderstand scripture. Faith is the substance of things to come, what we hope for. And the sons of Korah (who wrote Psalm 42) expressed that kind of faith when they sang "I shall yet praise Him". The "yet" shows us that their hope and trust was not in their praises, but in the one who puts a song of praise in us.*

There are times when we must wait for the praise to come, for the move of God in our lives that will reawaken joy. There is an important lesson learned in our waiting, for it serves to align our person to the true object of our hope and trust. Our deliverer is not our praise, our faith, our words, our strength, or our deeds. Our deliverance is in God's great provision - his Son, Jesus Christ. That's where we put our faith and hope and trust. It is important that we avoid the snare Gideon fell into. Even though the Lord removed all reason for Gideon to trust in the saving power of his own strength and army, he eventually took the spoils of victory and made an object of worship out of them. 

You can be honest with God (without fear of the words you speak) and tell him that you are down, that you are greatly afflicted, knowing that you will yet praise him, if not at this moment, then in his good time. 

Wait for the Lord;

be strong and take heart

and wait for the Lord.

- Psalm 27:14, (NIV)

Scriptures References & Notes

He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.

- Psalm 40:3 (NIV)

The LORD said to Gideon, "You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, 'My own strength has saved me.'

- Judges 7:2 (NIV)

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

- 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)

I trusted in the Lord when I said, “I am greatly afflicted”

- Psalm 116:10 (NIV)

* Let me be clear, I'm not saying praising God in the storm is wrong. There are times this is necessary. But our hope must not rely in our praise, but rather in the one to whom we give our praise.