“By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.” (Psalm 42:8)

Scripture contains many examples of people wrestling with God while struggling. The writer of Psalm 42 expresses a deep longing to experience the peace of God’s constant and powerful presence. He acknowledges his tears and his depression over the grief he’s endured. His inner turmoil ebbs and flows with confident praises, as he reminds himself of God’s faithfulness. Encouraging his “soul,” the psalmist writes, “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” He’s tugged back and forth between what he knows to be true about God and the undeniable reality of his overwhelming emotions.

God designed us in His image and with emotions. Our tears for others reveal deep love and compassion, not necessarily a lack of faith. We can approach God with raw wounds or old scars because He knows we feel. Each prayer, whether silent, sobbed, or shouted with confidence, demonstrates our trust in His promise to hear and care for us.

Daily Questions

1. What emotion have you tried to hide from God?
2. Why is it often hard to be honest with God about difficult or overwhelming emotions?

Daily Thoughts

Unchanging Father, thank You for assuring us that You know we feel and need to process our ever changing emotions.

Psalm 42

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how One with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng.

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.

By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.

I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?” My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

Why, my soul, are downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

Bonus Information

Eleven psalms, including Psalm 42, are attributed to “the Sons of Korah.” Numbers 16: 1-3 identifies Korah as the leader of an insurrection in the days of Moses and Aaron that resulted in deaths by earthquake, fire, and plague. yet even though the earth literally opened up and swallowed the leaders and followers of this rebellion, Korah’s children weren’t wiped out. Responsible for the care of the sacred tent of worship, members of this family became worship leaders of Israel who gave us some of the most memorable words in the Psalms.