Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – April 4, 2020
You kept my eyes from closing; I was too troubled to speak. I thought about the former days, the years of long ago; I remembered my songs in the night. Psalm 77:4-6
Over the past few weeks, I imagine many of us have experienced sleepless evenings, much like the one the psalmist describes in Psalm 77. Perhaps you’ve found yourself staying up way too late, anxiously reading the news, or checking in on sick or elderly loved ones, waking the next day weary and unrefreshed as you remember the heavy weight that has settled upon our daily lives. As unwelcome as this pandemic has been, I do wonder if we, as a people, are just now starting to have the emotional capacity to enter into the depths of longing, the desperation for God to act and intervene, that we find in the Psalms? And even more so, perhaps as never before, we are able to find in the Psalms a deep well of hope and encouragement, something we desperately need as we navigate these troubled days.
Author and musician Andrew Peterson calls seasons like these, “The storm before the calm, the pain before the balm, and the dark before the dawn.” If I’m being honest, I find myself resistant to embrace this reality! I’d much rather find myself firmly within “the calm, the balm, and the dawn.” And yet, this doesn’t seem to be the moment we find ourselves in. What then, do we do? We learn to be a people of hope.
The Lord has been faithful in the past, and will be faithful in the present. You and I must cling to this truth and learn the ancient Christian practice of remembering. What did the psalmists do in the face of great uncertainty, anxiety, and fear? They remembered God’s faithfulness. They rested in the fact that God had displayed his might to people caught in the fear of famine, to a nation broken by years of slavery, longing to be free.
If God did it in the past, he can and will do it again, and again, and again. As such, it is possible for us to live as free, joyful, and hopeful people, while at the same time living through times of great darkness and uncertainty. Whatever our circumstances may be, we are people of hope!
“Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments” (Deuteronomy 7:9).
Prayer
Father, no matter what we face, teach us again and again to be a people forever rooted in your perfect peace and hope, we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Application
As a way to exercise your “remembering muscle,” read the Psalms daily for the next week, looking closely for examples of God keeping his promises and caring for his people.
Related Reading
Genesis 28:15; Exodus 2:24; Psalm 105:8
Post/Tweet today
As unwelcome as this pandemic has been, are we, as a people, just now starting to have the emotional capacity to enter into the depths of longing, the desperation for God to act and intervene? #hope #WisdomHunters #Jesus #truth
Worship Resource
4 minute video- Andrew Peterson:
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