As I and many of you are trekking through the Bible in our daily Bible reading, toward the end of February, one of our reading assignments was Psalm 42. I want to spend a little time in that Psalm today as we talk about the present of God’s presence.
There is said to be a strange plant in South America, which finds a moist place and rests there for a while, sending its roots down and becoming green. When this bit of ground dries up, the plant draws itself together, roots and all, and is blown along by the wind until it finds another moist spot, where it once again sends its roots down. On and on it goes, stopping wherever it finds a little water and staying until the water is gone.
The life of this plant is a good illustration of people who drink only of this world’s springs. They go on from spring to spring, looking for things that make them happy for a while, until at the end of their life, they find they are nothing but unsatisfied. THAT is the situation that you will find if you never allow God’s presence into your life. That thirst will never be quenched.
The writer of Psalm 42 is someone who knew what it felt like to thirst for God’s presence. He writes, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God? Psalm 42:1-2.
This person, before taken into exile, would sing praises of joy and thanksgiving as he led the people in a procession to the house of God. But now, as this person sits in captivity sits in anguish and recalls those joyful days. His captors taunt him all day long asking, “Where is your God now?” But the psalmist reassures himself of God’s presence even while he is in such despair. He remembers when God was with him in the joy-filled days because he had been spiritually renewed.
When you’re spiritually renewed by becoming one of God’s children, you’re prepared for a life in the will of God. As a believer, you have the presence of God in your body and you should always be conscious of the fact that God is present, in the good times and the bad. So the question is, “Where is God in your life?” The answer is, “He is everywhere.”
First, He is present in your joy. Deep in our subconscious minds we know that. But, correct if I’m wrong, don’t we have a tendency to leave God out when things are going well. We tend to forget God when times are good. Are we so blessed that small gifts don’t excite us? The problem might be that most of us have more than we need. We have overlooked our need to be grateful for everything, including the joyful times.
Think of a time in your life when a single letter or a single gift was very precious to you. Or maybe you can remember a time when you were in a less-well-off place in your life when a single morsel of food seemed like a feast. Remember how thankful you were.
What has changed? The prophet Zechariah said in Zech. 4:10, “Who despises the day of small things?” If the answer to that question is ‘you’, then maybe you’ve overlooked the need to be grateful for all things. No blessing is too small not to merit a big thanks to God. The psalmist remembered the joy he felt and how God was present with him sharing that joy.
So the moral to this story is this: as you create memories during the good times of life, let God’s presence be a part of that memory. Thank God for that special time and the memory that will always be a part of you. God is present in your joy.
But God is also present in your despair. Yes, even in the dark times of your life, God is there. Many tend to think that God has abandoned them during their trials of life. Maybe that’s why people tend to come to church more when things are really going badly—the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, the breakup in a relationship, or the attack on our nation. But what seems to be despair from God can actually strengthen us. James wrote, “Consider it all joy, … , when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” James 1:2-3.
Our struggles can make us stronger. A man learned this when he found a cocoon of a butterfly and watched a small opening appeared. He continues to watch for several hours as the butterfly struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress.
It appeared to have run out of energy or strength and it could go no farther. So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of cocoon, allowing the butterfly to get out more easily. The butterfly emerged with a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.
The man continued to watch because he expected at any moment for the wings to enlarge and expand to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings, never able to fly.
The man, in his kindness, didn’t understand that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into the wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. You see, sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in life. Just as God was there and designed the butterfly’s cocoon to complete the task of maturity, God is present in our times of struggle as well.
Do you ever thank God for mosquitoes? One man gives thanks to God and mosquitoes for saving his life. He was a minister in Mozambique. He and 16 others clung to tree limbs for almost 2 days during a flood. The floodwaters came so quickly it was all they could do to get into the upper limbs of a tree to keep from drowning.
They watched as television sets, furniture, and dead cows floated by in the raging waters. The waters seemed to never cease as these people were stuck in the treetop. IF they had fallen asleep, they would have fallen into the waters and drowned. He says that then the mosquitoes began swarming and biting them. He says, “I thank God for mosquitoes because they stopped us from falling asleep. He and the others were able to wade to safety when the flood waters receded.
Our lesson in this is that we should not think that God has deserted us in our despair. We should lean on God even more so during our hard times. The trials, for which we often blame God, may times, are blessing in disguise. God is always with us. He is present in your joy and He is present in your despair.
But more than anything, He is present in your hope. He is our hope. God proved His existence by becoming flesh and blood in the form of Jesus Christ and therein lies our hope. We should never give up and throw away our hope. This true story may help to reinforce your hope when you think all is hopeless.
Born the son of a French harness maker, Louis was an unlikely candidate for the notoriety that was waiting for him. He lived in a small village just outside of Paris. In 181, at the age of 3, Louis was playing in his father’s leather shop. As often happens with any 3 yr. old, Louis disappeared from his father’s attention for a few moments. The curious child picked up a sharp knife.
Grasping the tiny blade in his clumsy little hands, Louis accidentally slit one of his eyes. It was obvious then that the eye would never see again. This being a time before modern antibiotics, the resulting infection took the vision from Louis’ other eye.
For several years, Louis attended the village school with his brothers and sisters. By the time of his tenth birthday, his father realized that Louis needed a special education. He was taken to Paris and enrolled in the National Institute for the Bling. Louis excelled as a student and upon graduation he was asked to remain on campus as an instructor.
Louis always struggled with frail health. He contracted Tuberculosis and developed a constant cough that made it impossible to lecture in a classroom. Finally, he had to give up his position and return where he died at the young age of 42. What a hopeless story, right? Wrong!
Although he lived with blindness for all but the first 3 years of his life, Louis is best remembered for his vision. At age 11, while a student at the Institution for the Blind, Louis was introduced to an invention of an officer of Napoleon’s army. It was a system of raised dots called “night writing” that was used to send coded messages.
Brilliant young Louis realized that a modification of the military code system would allow blind people to be able to read. Louis went to work and nine years later he introduced a new system of raised dots that was simple enough to allow a quicker and more accurate read. The vision of this Louis Braille has given blind people the ability to read for nearly 2 centuries. Louis Braille rekindled the hope in many that had lost all hope.
The psalmist in today’s Scripture passage was a slave in captivity and could have easily given up. He was teased all day long. “Where is your God?” In his despair, just as he was ready to quit, he reminds himself of the presence of God. Talking to his own soul, he says in Psalm 42:
Verse 4 – “These things I remember and I pour out my soul within me.”
Verse 5 – “Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence.”
Verse 8 – “The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime; And His song will be with me in the night, A prayer to the God of my life.”
Verse 11 – “Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.”
This person writing this Psalm could have exhibited someone who had given up on God. Instead, he continued to show the strength of his faith, his trust, and his hope in the One who was ever-present with him. And that’s how a Christion should be.
Do you live in the presence of God? Since our hope comes from God, Christians should exhibit a countenance of faith, trust, and hope. After all, we have the greatest hope anyone could ever have and that’s the hope of one day seeing Jesus face-to-face and living with Him forever.
But many times, people put their trust and their hope in things besides God.
I read a Reader’s Digest article that told of a 67-year-old man who had donated over 100 pints of blood over the years. The final paragraph in the article read: “When the final whistle blows and St. Peter asks, ‘What did you do?’, I’ll just say, “Well, I gave 100 pints of blood.’ That ought to get me in.”
This man should be commended for his humanitarian act of giving so much blood. But if he is counting on giving 100 pints of blood to get him to heaven, someone ought to tell him he’s trusting in the wrong blood. Because it’s through the blood of Jesus Christ that we are cleansed and made whole. It’s through Jesus’ blood that we have the hope of eternal life.
The Bible says this:
“In (Jesus Christ) we have redemption through His blood. . .” Ephesians 1:7
“You who were formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:13
“But God demonstrates His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
You see, we have hope. And God is ever-present in our hope. He is the reason for our hope.
Yes, we have a lot to be thankful for—the joy in our lives, the despair in our lives, and the hope of everlasting life. And God is present in it all. The psalmist knew that. We should as well.
“. . . for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you, He will not fail you, or forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6 Thank God for the present of His presence.
“As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God? Psalm 42:1-2
“Who despises the day of small things?” Zech. 4:10
“Consider it all joy, … , when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” James 1:2-3.
Psalm 42:
Verse 4 – “These things I remember and I pour out my soul within me.”
Verse 5 – “Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence.”
Verse 8 – “The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime; And His song will be with me in the night, A prayer to the God of my life.”
Verse 11 – “Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.”
*****
“In (Jesus Christ) we have redemption through His blood. . .” Ephesians 1:7
“You who were formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:13
“But God demonstrates His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
*****
“. . . for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you, He will not fail you, or forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6
