The Daily Devotional Podcast

The Road to Abide - 2 | Psalm 42

• Waypoint Church

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0:00 | 4:35

This reflection reveals that abiding includes honest struggle, where we bring our real emotions before God while choosing to return to hope. It invites us to continually turn back toward Him, even in seasons where connection feels distant or unclear.

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“May the Lord bless you and keep you — and may His presence guide you this week.”


SPEAKER_00

Today I'm reading Psalm forty two. As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God. Where can I go and stand before Him? Day and night I have only tears for food, while my enemies continually taunt me, saying, Where is this God of yours? My heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be. I walked among the crowds of worshippers, leading a great procession to the house of God, singing for joy and giving thanks amid the sound of great celebration. Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God, I will praise him again, my Savior and my God. Now I am deeply discouraged, but I will remember you. Even from distant Mount Hermon, the source of the Jordan, from the land of Mount Mizar, I hear the tumult of the raging seas as your waves and surging tides sweep over me. But each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing his songs, praying to God who gives me life. O God, my rock, I cry, why have you forgotten me? Why must I wander around in grief oppressed by my enemies? Their taunts break my bones. They scoff, where is this God of yours? Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God. I will praise him again, my Savior and my God. There was a time around a year ago where inner turmoil overwhelmed me. Nothing had really changed externally, but something was completely off internally. I was restless. My motivation to keep moving forward was almost completely wiped out. Even my faith felt dampened. Like I could believe with my words, but my heart could not connect beyond surface level. Going through the Psalms was one of the most cathartic and reparative things I did. It's filled with language that expresses the very feelings I had no words for. Psalm forty two is a great example. The psalmist doesn't hide what he's feeling. He describes a deep longing for God, but also a sense of distance. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Where can I go and meet with God? That tension sits at the center of the passage. There's desire for God, and at the same time a feeling of absence. What stands out is how he responds to it. He begins to speak to his own soul. Why, my soul are you downcast? Why are you so disturbed within me? He doesn't ignore what he feels, and he doesn't let it go unexamined. He brings it into the open and names it honestly. Then he does something even more important. Put your hope in God for I will yet praise him. Hope is not presented as a feeling that suddenly appears. It's something that he deliberately returns to. In the middle of discouragement, he directs himself back toward God. That movement is part of what it means to abide. Abide is not a constant sense of closeness or clarity. It includes moments of tension, questions, and even spiritual dryness. What defines it is not the absence of struggle, but the directions we take within it. The psalmist does not resolve everything in a single moment, but he continues to turn back toward God.

SPEAKER_01

That quiet return again and again is where abiding begins to take shape. Before I close in prayer, here's a question to wrestle with. God, you see what's happening beneath the surface of my life.

SPEAKER_00

Help me to be honest with you about what I'm feeling, and give me the strength to keep turning back to you in the middle of it.