Make Yourself Remember!

Psalm 42 and 43 issue this rhetorical question 3 times: "Why art thou cast down, o my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me?" I say "rhetorical" because there is no answer required or sought, but only this command to self follows: "Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him."

These psalms remind us, among so much else, that our trust has been misplaced, for why would we have to tell ourselves to hope in God if we were already doing so? Also, when you tell yourself to hope in God, you have to give yourself reason to hope in Him, that is, you have to go to the Scriptures and look at the promises again. But we are not reading pretty promises for encouragement simply because they sound so nice. No, our very life depends upon this. It is not the promise itself that makes it valuable, but the fact that each promise of the Word of God is part of a sketch of our Lord. That is, it describes Him in His character. When we meditate on the promises of God, we are remembering who He is, and what He has said He will do for us because of who He is. So, when we read: "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee," we see a picture of One who is faithful to us even when everyone else and everything else stand impotent to give us any aid whatsoever. We have, by the promise, reason to hope, and as we meditate upon that promise, the hope is rekindled within our hearts until we do finally return to that place of joy and praise, which is what we were longing for from the beginning. So, we must rebuke ourselves for being cast down, and make ourselves remember to hope in God, for there is no hope otherwise.