Salmos 42
John Piper · Citado em PreceptAustin
Salmos 42:5
Piper writes "We have a big sign on the west side of the church that reads, HOPE IN GOD. And we have a banner on the roof facing east which says, HOPE IN GOD. This is not a coincidence. It's because we believe that this command, "Hope in God," is the very heart of what God commands and delights in....The secret to flourishing in difficult relationships is not to get your strength from those relationships, but from God. Hope in God. Look to God for the love and the security and the joy that you long for. Then you will be able to have strength for others—believer or unbeliever in your life....Let your hope in God go to work on your inner being and make you a gentle, quiet, fearless person. I'm talking to men and women here. It will have its distinct, complementary form and expression in men and women, but it will be there in both, if they hope in God and not themselves or in other people or circumstances. O my soul, why art thou grieving; Why disquieted in me? Hope in God, thy faith retrieving; He will still thy refuge be! —Psalter Hope—in—God—Alone - Many years ago a submarine was rammed by another ship and quickly sank off the Massachusetts coast. Although rescue was impossible at that depth, a diver was dispatched to determine if there was still life aboard the disabled vessel. The diver placed his helmeted ear against the sub's hull and heard a faint tapping sound. Carefully he made note of the dots and dashes and decoded the following question: "Is—there—any—hope?" With great remorse he slowly signaled back: "Hope—in—God—alone." (6000 Plus Illustrations for Communicating Biblical Truth) Illustration - As German bombs rained down on England during World War II, the situation grew desperate. Hearts were filled with discouragement and thoughts of defeat. Then Winston Churchill’s voice came over the radio. It caused the nation to take heart and restored morale to a people ready to quit. On a spiritual level, believers have hope in a God whose voice still rings out through the pages of His Word. In moments of discouragement, Christians are a testimony to those who have never met God or heard His voice. Billy Graham on have hope in God - How can we have hope when there isn’t any reason to have hope? Some people, I’ve found, are just naturally optimistic; no matter what happens to them, they almost always react with a brave smile and a positive outlook. “We must keep up our hopes,” they say—even when they have no reason to hope. Unfortunately, their hope is little more than wishful thinking. And that isn’t the kind of hope the Bible urges us to have. The Bible tells us to find our hope in God—not in our circumstances, or our natural optimism (or pessimism), or our family or friends—but in God. How is this possible? It happens when we realize how much God loves us. His love is so deep that He was willing to give His Son’s life for us. And it happens when we realize that this life is not all, but ahead of us is Heaven. Is your hope in Jesus—both for this life and the life to come? Chris Tiegreen - The psalmist talked to himself as an exercise in Presence. He spoke to his own soul about truth. That happened a lot in the Psalms, in fact. David told his soul to bless the Lord (Psalm 103:1-2, NKJV) and resolved to constantly praise and boast in the Lord (Psalm 34:1-2), for two examples among many. Here, an unnamed psalmist asks some probing questions about his own discouragement and then declares an intent to praise. There are times, it seems, when self-talk is entirely appropriate. It’s easy to see why. God wants us not only to know truth intellectually but to believe it deep in our hearts. When we mentally agree with Scripture but let circumstances or feelings dictate an opposite view—for example, when we believe God can do the impossible but then despair in an impossible situation—we are not in sync with Him. We have to assert truth against circumstances and feelings, just like Abraham, who “against all hope” continued to hope and believe (Romans 4:18, NIV). The hearts of those who tell themselves to do that will beat with God’s heartbeat. Hear His desire: “My truth is real and unchanging, regardless of how you feel in any given moment or what you see with your eyes. Much of life is a decision about how and what to see—the reality I tell you about or the ‘reality’ you perceive. My people, those with My heart, learn to insist on seeing from My perspective rather than theirs. That pleases Me more than you know. I show My favor to those who look past apparent contradictions to see Me. When you choose to tell yourself the truth, I choose to fill your decision with My Presence.” (The One Year Experiencing God's Presence Devotional) Below is the great hymn Blessed Assurance (Play Hymn) by Fanny Crosby who was physically blind, but by the Spirit of Christ she was spiritually able to look ahead and describe our Blessed Hope with the beautiful words "Watching and waiting (description of Biblical hope), looking above, filled with His goodness, lost in His love." Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Norn of his Spirit, washed in His blood. Refrain: This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long; This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, perfect delight, Visions of rapture now burst on my sight; Angels descending bring from above Echoes of mercy, whispers of love. (Refrain) Perfect submission, all is at rest; I in my Savior am happy and blest, Watching and waiting, looking above, Filled with His goodness, lost in His love. (Refrain) RELATED RESOURCES: Detailed discussion of powerful principle = HOPE IN GOD! See also study of "The Blessed Hope"… The Blessed Hope: Part 1 The Blessed Hope: Definition The Blessed Hope: Source of The Blessed Hope: Part 2 The Blessed Hope: Stabilizing Effect The Blessed Hope: Sanctifying Effect Other Resources on the Blessed Hope Thomas Watson… Question: How does faith work patience? Answer: Faith argues the soul into patience. Faith is like that town clerk in Ephesus who allayed the contention of the multitude and argued them soberly into peace (Acts 19:35,36). So when impatience begins to clamor and make a hubbub in the soul, faith appeases the tumult and argues the soul into holy patience. Faith says, "Why are you disquieted, O my soul?" (Psalm 42:5). Are you afflicted? Is it not your Father who has done it? He is carving and polishing you, and making you fit for glory. He smites that he may save. What is your trial? Is it sickness? God shakes the tree of your body so that some fruit may fall, even "the peaceable fruit of righteousness" (Heb. 12:11). Are you driven from your home? God has prepared a city for you (Heb. 11:16). Do you suffer reproach for Christ's sake? "The spirit of glory and of God rests upon you" (1 Pet. 4:14). Thus faith argues and disputes the soul into patience. Pray to God for patience. Patience is a flower of God's planting. Pray that it may grow in your heart, and send forth its sweet perfume. Prayer is a holy charm, to charm down the evil spirit of impatience. Prayer composes the heart and puts it in tune, when impatience has broken the strings and put everything into confusion. Oh, go to God. Prayer delights God's ear; it melts his heart; it opens his hand. God cannot deny a praying soul. Seek him with importunity and either he will remove the affliction—or, which is better, he will remove your impatience! (The Godly Mans Picture) Octavius Winslow In all His dispensations—the severest and the darkest—have faith in God. This is, perhaps, one of the greatest achievements of faith. To believe in God when He smiles, to trust in Him when conscious of His nearness, to have faith in Him when the path is flowery and pleasant, were an easy task. But to have faith in Him when "He holds back the face of His throne, and spreads His cloud upon it; to love Him when He frowns; to follow Him when He withdraws; to cleave to Him when He would seem to shake us off; to trust in Him when His arm is raised to slay—this were faith indeed. And yet all this the faith of God's elect can achieve. If not, of what value is it? Of what possible use to the mariner would be the compass which would only work in the day, and not in the night? which only served to steer the vessel in light winds, and not in rough gales? Faith is the believing soul's compass, guiding it as truly and as certainly to the heavenly port through the wildest tempest as through the serenest calm. To change the figure, faith is that celestial telescope which can pierce the thickest haze or the darkest cloud, descrying suns and stars glowing and sparkling in the far distance. It can discern God's smile under a frown; it can read His name to be "love" beneath the dark dispensation; it can behold the Sun of Righteousness beaming through the interstices of gloomy clouds; and now and then it can catch a glimpse of the harbor itself, with the towering turrets and golden spires of the "new Jerusalem" glittering in the distance. Oh, it is a wonderful grace, the precious faith of God's elect! Is God dealing with you now in a way of deep trial, of dark providence, mysterious to your mind, and painful to your heart? Is He even chastening you for your backslidings, correcting you for your sins? Still "have faith in God." Sensible appearances, second causes, cannot in the least degree affect the ground of your faith which is God Himself—His immutable nature, His unchangeable love, His eternal purpose, His everlasting covenant, His own Divine and glorious perfections. Believe that you are in His heart, and that your interests are in His hands. Have faith in His wisdom to guide, in His love to direct, in His power to sustain, in His faithfulness to fulfill every promise that now relates to your best welfare and happiness. Only believe in God—that all things in His disposal of you, in His transactions with you, are working together for our present and eternal good. All that He expects and requires of you now is to have faith in Him. The cloud may be dark, the sea tempestuous, but God is in the cloud, and "the Lord sits upon the flood." Even now it is the privilege of your faith to exclaim, "My soul, hope you in God. He is my God; I will trust, and not be afraid." Oh, what inspiring words are these—"hope you in God!" I hesitate not to say, my reader, you may hope in God. Though your case may seem desperate, to your eye cheerless and hopeless, not merely too intricate for man, but too unworthy for God—yet you may hope in God. Take your case to Him, hoping against hope, and believing in unbelief. Will He close His heart against you? Never! Will He repel you when you fly to Him? Never! It is not in the heart of God, no, nor is it in His power, to do so. Take hold of His strength—I speak it humbly, reverentially—and you have overcome God. You disarm Him of the instrument and of the power to punish you; you have laid your hand of faith upon the strength of His love, and have made peace with Him. You cannot cherish a hope too sanguine, nor exercise a faith too implicit in God, hopeless, cheerless, and extreme as your case may be. Impossible! God never appears so like Himself, as in the season of the believer's darkness and suffering. At the very moment in which he sees the least of God, God appears the most what He is. The tenderest unfoldings of His heart are in sorrow, the brightest exhibitions of His character are in darkness, and the most glorious displays of His wisdom, power, and grace are seen gleaming through the mist. Hope in God! His mercy is great unto the Heavens, His grace is as free as the air, His love is as changeless as His nature, His promise is as immutable as His love. Hope in God, for you shall yet praise Him. He will save you for His own sake, and present you before assembled worlds as a monument of His mercy, and a trophy of His grace! - James Smith Warren
Salmos 42:5
Piper says “we must fight the fight of faith (1Ti 1:18, 6:12, 2Ti 4:7). We must PREACH to our SOULS a sermon of hope…We must set before our own soul the banquet of promises that God has made to us and feed our faith to the full (Ro 10:17, Mt 4:4, 1Pe 2:2). Then it may be said of us as it was of Stephen and Barnabas: “They were filled with faith and with the Holy Spirit." (Acts 6:5, 11:24) (Ed: Recall that what “fills” us controls us! Ep 5:18).” "Brethren beloved by God" (1Th 1:4), are you cast down and discouraged? You may not be able to change your circumstances, but you can still choose to Hope in God. The great preacher C H Spurgeon was subject to frequent bouts of dark depression and so could testify from his own experience that "HOPE IN GOD is the BEST CURE for DESPONDENCY. When you have no hope in yourself, nor in your graces, nor in your experience, “hope in God.” He is loving, faithful, powerful and true, so “hope in God.”… If you cannot do anything else, yet HOPE. The New Zealanders call HOPE “the swimming thought,” because when everything else is drowned, up comes HOPE at the top of the wave. You cannot drown HOPE! Snatch from the altars of the FUTURE, firebrands (pieces of burning wood) with which to kindle the altar of TODAY." Note in Ps 42:5 how our choice to HOPE precedes & invigorates our desire to PRAISE. When we preach to our soul the truth of His “saving help,” this promise of His presence for perpetuity lifts our soul so that we are enabled to respond with praise to Jesus. As Spurgeon affirmed "I am not always going to be low. I have hung the harp upon the willows, but I have not broken its strings. I shall take it down again. “I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.” If He does but look upon us. If He does but have pity upon us, let us be content with that, and abide His time." And so when we find ourselves in the "slough of despond," feeling downcast and without hope, remember that our Faithful God always provides the way of escape (1Cor 10:13), which in this case is to preach to your soul “Hope in God.” "As old Master
Salmos 42:5
Piper adds that "the best sermon you preach to yourself this week may be only three words long: HOPE IN GOD!" May God grant us Spirit enabled desire & power to preach hope to our souls in our times of dark despair and "may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, Who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and GOOD HOPE BY GRACE, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word." Amen (2Th 2:16-17) Below is a link to the great hymn BLESSED ASSURANCE by Fanny Crosby who was physically blind (certainly a reason to be downcast), but by God’s grace she was enabled to spiritually see into the future & to describe our BLESSED HOPE (Titus 2:13) with the beautiful words "WATCHING AND WAITING, looking above, filled with His goodness, lost in His love". As God's grace enables, may we like the psalmist, like Jeremiah, like Job and like Fanny Crosby choose daily to set our mind on the things above and not on the things that are on the earth (Col 3:2), so that we might “AGAIN PRAISE HIM” (Ps 42:5), as the Spirit of Christ (Ro 8:9) puts a song in our soul enabling us to joyfully sing… This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long; This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long. Play song Marinate your mind with Truth of Biblical Hope Click here F B Meyer's Devotional May 19 THE SILVER LINING IN THE DARK CLOUD "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him, Who is the health of my countenance, and my God."-- Ps 42:5, Ps 42:11; Ps 43:5 THESE TWO Psalms are evidently one. See how the same refrain rings through them both! They are generally allocated to that sad time in David's history, when the rebellion of his favourite son, Absalom, drove him as an exile beyond the Jordan (2Sa 15:14). But amid the great sorrows that rolled over his soul, there was one glad ingredient. Thrice over the Psalmist encourages himself to Hope! For many a sorrowful soul, this is a true emblem. Amid all the disappointment and despair of life, there is always one chord of Hope--God! We may stand amid the wreck of our earthly hopes. Through misconduct or mistake, as the result of folly or sin, we may have reduced ourselves and those dear to us to the last degree of misery; but the soul may always turn from its low estate to God, sure that He will have mercy, will abundantly pardon, and will turn again the adverse pressure of the tide. See how the broken-hearted may still speak of God! This man had grievously sinned. He seemed to have forfeited all claim on God's recognition and care. He had brought shame and disgrace on the cause of religion. All down the years the story of his wrong-doing would give the enemies of truth abundant reason to blaspheme. And yet see how he dares to speak of God! He describes Him as the God of his life, as his Rock, as the Health of his countenance, the God of his strength, and the Gladness of his joy. This is a great lesson! We may change, but God changes never. We may turn our face from Him, or allow some evil thing to loom between ourselves and the clear shining of His face. But he shines on, and when we confess our sins, and put them away, we find ourselves afresh in the clear shaft of His illuminating rays. You may have lost all hope in yourself, your friends, your circumstances, but you must never lose your hope in God. The past, which can only be viewed with repentance, is forgiven; the present, in which God is willing to be All-in-all; the future, when again the soul shall praise Him with joyful lips.Hope looks into the future. I shall yet praise Him. PRAYER - Our Father, forgive, we pray Thee, our murmuring and discontent, our perverseness and waywardness. Teach us to discern the silver edge of the lowering clouds, and to trust Thy love, which is leading us safely and by a right way to our home. AMEN.