In the Lord I Take Refuge: 31 Days in the PsalmsSample

A miserable Christian is a contradiction in terms.

To be sure, life is hard. The pain accumulating throughout one’s journey in this world is a strong temptation to cynicism. The Christian life is not one of painted-on smiles, pretending that all is right in the world when in truth, there are horrors all around. Sometimes the pain in life is so great that rejoicing seems distant and a mockery to our true emotional state.

Yet we must receive what the Bible says in passages such as Psalm 100 because the Bible itself acknowledges the deep pain of life, not only in other books (such as Ecclesiastes) but even in the Psalms. And even more deeply, the Bible gives us resources for wading through the pain of life with joy and calm that transcends the darkness. As this psalm concludes, “The Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations” (v. 5). Your pain never outpaces his love. The deeper reality of his goodness surrounds your difficulty. He proved it by sending his own Son for you. Even in the pain of life, we lift our hearts and our voices to the Lord.