Friday, April 10, 2026
Scripture Readings
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 42
Devotional Thought
Some mornings you wake up and the distance between you and God feels like a canyon. You pray, and the words seem to fall flat. You read Scripture, and it tastes like dry bread. The psalmist knows that ache. He pictures a deer in a parched wilderness, tongue hanging, ribs heaving, scanning the horizon for a brook that may not exist. That is not a metaphor for casual spiritual interest. It is the cry of a soul that cannot survive without God and knows it. This psalm asks something of us today: not to pretend the drought isn’t real, but to keep panting toward the water anyway.
The singer is far from home. He remembers leading a joyful procession to the house of God, voices lifted, the whole crowd keeping holyday. Now he is in the land of Jordan, near the heights of Hermon, by the hill Mizar, and the memory stings. Worse, enemies taunt him daily: “Where is thy God?” His tears have become his food. He pours out his soul within him. Yet notice what he does in verse eight. In the middle of the flood, he says, “Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the day time, and in the night his song shall be with me.” He does not wait for the feeling to return before he prays. He prays in the dark and lets the song come before the sunrise.
You may be in a season like that right now. Perhaps it is spring, and everything outside is blooming while something inside you is still frozen. Perhaps you have lost a job, a friend, a sense of purpose, and the old joy of worship feels like a memory from another life. The psalmist gives you permission to ask the hard questions. Twice he turns to his own soul and asks, “Why art thou cast down?” He does not scold himself for feeling low. He preaches to himself. He reminds himself that God is still his rock, still the health of his countenance, still his God.
That is the quiet work of faith in a dry season. You do not have to manufacture a feeling. You simply keep turning toward the brook. You remember God from whatever “land of Jordan” you find yourself in. You let deep call unto deep, trusting that even the roar of the waterspouts is still under His command. And you say to your own heart what the psalmist said to his: hope thou in God. Praise is coming. It has not been cancelled. It is only delayed.
Reflection
- When your soul is cast down, do you preach hope to yourself as the psalmist does, or do you simply wait for your feelings to change before you approach God?
- What “land of Jordan” are you in right now, and how can you remember God there instead of only longing for the days when worship felt easy?
Prayer
O God, my soul thirsts for Thee as a deer pants for water brooks. Thou knowest the dryness I carry and the taunts that echo, “Where is thy God?” Yet I will remember Thee from the place where I stand. Command Thy lovingkindness in my daytime, and let Thy song be with me in the night. Thou art my rock and my God, the health of my countenance. When my soul is cast down within me, help me to hope in Thee and to praise Thee again, for Thou hast never forgotten me. Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 42:1 — “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.”