One of the things I have noticed as I have grown older is that my body tends to ache and pain more than it used to. Just little stuff here and there – muscle spasms, joint pains, bone aches. Just a reminder that God created our bodies to be temporary.

But I have also noticed another pain as I have grown older, a “soul pain.” I think I have become more sensitive to the things that hurt me spiritually, and I am more aware of soul pain in others. I would gladly choose any physical pain over the ache that I sometimes have in my spirit.

Various things cause these soul pains – people have hurt me, circumstances have disappointed me, my own sins have beset me. Negativity has a painful effect on me these days too, and of course, the stress of everyday life can weigh on anyone.

I get the feeling I am not alone in feeling soul pain. Can you feel my pain?

So where do we turn for healing? God has drawn my attention quite a bit lately to Psalm 42. In a refreshing display of transparency, one of the songwriting sons of Korah penned these words:

Why are you downcast, O my soul? 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. – Psalm 42:5-7

Downcast. Disturbed. Describe you? Does me, sometimes, I am sorry to say. But look at the remedy: put your hope in God. In the Bible “hope” is not the subjunctive wish or desire that it is in our contemporary English language. When we say “hope so” we are expressing a desire but not a confidence that something will happen. When the Bible uses the word “hope” however, it speaks to a confident and quieting assurance that the object of our hope – in this case, God – is a sure thing.

We can claim the promise of verse 5: I WILL YET PRAISE HIM. Things may not look like it right now, I may not feel like it right now, circumstances may seem to indicate otherwise, but the fact (not feeling) of the matter is that God will come through and I will break out into a praising hissy fit eventually. In those moments of despair, the songwriter said he “remembered” God; he reminded himself of God’s past faithfulness and used that memory to give him the strength to take things one day (or one hour even) at a time.

Hang in there, friend. Stick it out. And in the meantime know that God will bring us through. He has great things in store for us and we will yet praise Him.