Devotion • July 18
Today's Scripture
Psalm 42
As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?
My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, “Where is your God?”
These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your cataracts; all your waves and your billows have gone over me.
By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and 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 walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?”
As with a deadly wound in my body, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me continually, “Where is your God?”
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God. (NRSV)
Reflection
As I was pondering what to write for this devotion, I lamented to a good friend that I don’t feel like I have anything to say. I’ve already written about essentially this same psalm several times: God, life is hard and I feel far from you, but I trust in you and that this too shall pass. I’m not sure I have anything new or insightful to say.
Maybe that’s OK. There is something beautiful about reading a psalm or a poem or listening to a song that says something your heart wishes it had the words for — maybe that you didn’t even know it needed to say. We place so much value on coming up with things that are new or different, an iteration or an improvement. There’s a push to do more and be better. I’m no different. An enormous amount of my self-worth is tied up in my ability to solve problems and have new ideas about how to approach my work.
In this moment, I’m finding it liberating to allow myself simply to appreciate the psalmist’s way of sharing their struggle. I’m leaning into the idea that sometimes I don’t have anything to add. I don’t have a new perspective. And that’s OK.
Prayer
Lord, keep me humble and allow me to see and appreciate the incredible gifts of others. Amen.
Written by Nicole Spirgen, Member of Fourth Presbyterian Church
Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church
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