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In Loss, I Praise Thee

Prayer: Why are you downcast, oh my soul? And why so disquieted within me? Put your hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, my Savior and My God. I will praise you, no matter what comes to pass, I will praise You! I do not understand, but I will praise You. When human effort fails and the breakthrough doesn’t come, I will praise You. I will trust that Your heart is good. Your mercies are new every morning, great is your faithfulness. If I find no benefit, I will praise You. When my heart is broken, I will praise you. Let my offering of praise be pleasing to Thee, Oh God. For you bottle every tear, you mend the brokenhearted.

You see what I cannot. I am in time and You in eternity. What may pass on earth is only temporal. Are not the times of overwhelming joy merely a foreshadowing of what eternity will be like with Thee. In the hard places of loss, I say in faith, “It is well with My soul.” We are in transition and groan until we appear before Thee. I release all of those things so dear to my heart to Thee, for in Your hands they are kept safe. I walk about empty, yet filled with Thee. Oh, intimacy with the Almighty that I cannot fathom. Your unfailing love I cannot escape. You are all to Me. I hide in Thee until this storm has passed, and I stay in Thee even in the sunshine. My times are in Your hands.

Psalm 42:1-11

“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 I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty 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 you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”