Expect God to Act
All your waves and billows have gone over me, and floods of sorrow pour upon me like a thundering cataract. Yet day by day the Lord also pours out his steadfast love upon me, and through the night I sing his songs and pray to God who gives me life.
— Psalm 42:7-8
In our lives here on earth, we will experience pain, grief, sickness, and the death of loved ones. I know we don't like to think about that reality, but since it's true, we might just as well come to grips with it and stop running from it.
When you're younger, you don't necessarily understand this. As you get older, however, you usually experience the death of your grandparents first. And then as time passes, your parents will die. As you continue to age, you know that day eventually will come for you, too, and your children will bury you.
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Hard as those realities may be to deal with, there are situations that are even more difficult still. And those are the unexpected deaths that we encounter in the course of our lives. It might be the death of a sibling, a spouse, or a child.
No one ever wants to bury their children. And suddenly we are made aware of our own mortality. Our world seems to come crashing down around our ears, and we cry aloud to God.
How does God feel about that? When we read the Psalms, we learn there were many times when David and the other psalmists told Him exactly what was going on in their hearts. They cried out to Him and emptied the contents of their souls in His presence.
In Psalm 42, the writer says, "O God my Rock . . . why have you forsaken me? Why must I suffer these attacks from my enemies? Their taunts pierce me like a fatal wound; again and again they scoff, 'Where is that God of yours?' " (verses 9-10, TLB).
So the psalmist is saying, "Lord, from where I sit right now, it sure seems to me like You've forsaken me . . . like You're not even paying attention to me." And then he corrects himself and says in verse 11 of the same psalm, "But O my soul, don't be discouraged. Don't be upset. Expect God to act! For I know that I shall again have plenty of reasons to praise Him for all that He will do. He is my help! He is my God!"
