AUGUST NUMBER for boys list

Psalm 43
Boy # 43

HOPE in time of discouragement! In the face of discouragement, our only HOPE is God.



Part of the psalmist’s heart, it seems, is right now taking refuge in God. God has not let him go, and he has not let God go. But he is perplexed why God would allow his enemies to get the upper hand this way. Although it’s not my oppression by the enemy as in Psalm 43, I too have had a divided heart, a torn heart, when contemplating the oppression of the orphan and widow! I want to believe and trust in God and yet I struggle trying to understand why God allows such suffering.
Mark 9:24, “I believe, help my unbelief. Romans 7:19, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”

“Defeat these enemies, Lord! Give me victory!” It is not wrong to pray that God rescue us from our enemies—whether they are people or natural disaster or disease. It’s right and good to pray for deliverance and for rescue and for healing. This is what the man in Psalm 43 does, but he doesn’t stop there.

As John Piper shared in one of his sermons

 The other two things the psalmist does are not natural. They are not something anyone would do without the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. These two things are deeper and more significant than the mere desire to be vindicated. The first is that he speaks to God (in verse 3 and 4) and asks for God to lead him not mainly out of trouble, but to God—and specifically to God his exceeding joy. The other is that he speaks to his own soul (in verse 5) and calls on his soul to hope in God.

“Put your HOPE in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”

I’m thankful that God continually draws me closer to Himself as I learn to put my HOPE in Him alone!

More tomorrow on Psalm 41 (our sibling number) and Psalm 65 (our girl number)