It’s Not Supposed To Be This Way: A 5-Day Challenge By Lysa TerKeurstနမူနာ

The Process Before the Promise

Wrestling through our deepest disappointments is hard. 

In our most private moments we want to scream words we don’t use around our Bible friends at the unfairness of it all. But then there are more hopeful moments… where we want to turn up the praise music, lift up honest prayers, and declare that God is good.

That’s what it is like to be so very human—hurting but still hoping.

And that is where we find David in Psalm 40. In the first ten verses David praises God for delivering him, but then in verses 11-17 he is having to cry out for God to deliver him again. David is hurting but still hoping.

Hoping doesn’t mean we ignore reality. No, hoping means we acknowledge reality in the very same breath that we acknowledge God’s sovereignty.

Our hope can’t be tied to whether or not a circumstance or another person changes. Our hope must be tied to the unchanging promise of God. We hope for the good we know God will ultimately bring from our situation, whether the good turns out to match our desires or not. And sometimes that takes a while. The process will most likely require us to be persevering. Patient. Maybe even longsuffering.

Honestly, I know that can feel overwhelming.

I want the promised blessing of Psalm 40:4: “Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust.” I forget that this kind of trusting in God is often forged in the crucible of longsuffering. God isn’t picking on me. God is picking me to personally live out one of His promises.

It’s a high honor. But it doesn’t always feel that way. I’ve got to walk through the low places of the process before I’m perfectly equipped to live the promise.

We read about some of these low places in verses 1–3 of Psalm 40:

“I waited patiently for the Lord;

he inclined to me and heard my cry.

He drew me up from the pit of destruction,

out of the miry bog,

and set my feet upon a rock,

making my steps secure.

He put a new song in my mouth,

a song of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear,

and put their trust in the Lord.”

The idea of waiting patiently in verse 1 is incredibly important in this Psalm. The Hebrew word indicates that the waiting is ongoing and holds a sense of eager expectancy and hope.

So while I want the solid rock on which to stand, first I have to wait patiently for the Lord to lift me out of the slime and mud and set my feet. That word “set” in the original Hebrew is qum, which means to arise or take a stand. God has to take me through the process of getting unstuck from what’s been holding me captive before I can take a stand.

I also want that new song promised here. Did you notice, though, what comes before the psalm’s promise of a new song? It’s the many cries to the Lord for help. The most powerful praise songs are often guttural cries of pain that got turned into beautiful melodies.

And this is true for you too.

Keep crying out to Him, friend. Keep hoping in Him. And know that God will take every cry you’ve uttered and arrange those sounds into a glorious song.

RESPOND: Reflect on the verses in Psalm 40 we studied today. Which ones speak directly to your situation? How has your perspective changed about the outcome you desire?