Honest With God: Finding Healing and Wholeness Through the PsalmsНамуна

My friend Mulenga thought he was going on a mission trip, but his trip didn't go as planned.

When Mulenga left his native country of Zambia for Tanzania, his host turned out to be very different from what he had been led to believe. Instead of being an evangelist, this man turned out to be a criminal. Mulenga was arrested along with his host, as they were driving in a stolen car, and the host had committed several other crimes. Both were thrown in prison, assumed to be accomplices.

While Mulenga's story of finding freedom is too lengthy to be told fully here, what inspired me most was the conversations he shared with God. He was honest with God about his fears, yet a relentless hope has always marked my friend. His raw prayers led to acts of courage and obedience, as he cared for the physical needs of the man who lay ill after being taken into custody by Mulenga.

When I think about my friend praying in that overcrowded prison, I wonder if his prayer sounded like David's. "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." (Psalm 42:5 NIV)

King David was speaking to his own soul like a parent comforting a frightened child. His circumstances hadn't changed – the psalm makes clear he was still in exile, still facing enemies, still experiencing the spiritual dryness he describes as being like a deer panting for water. Unlike David, many of us let circumstances dictate our attitude, listening to our worst fears rather than talking back to anxiety.

David's words in Psalm 42 reveal that he learned something crucial about hope: it's not dependent on circumstances changing. Hope is a choice to trust God's character even when God's actions don't make sense.

Later in the same psalm, David repeats his self-counsel: "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." (Psalm 42:11 NIV)

"I will yet praise him" – future tense hope in the present tense darkness. David couldn't see how his story would end, but he knew who held the pen. He couldn't predict when his circumstances would improve, but he could choose where to place his trust. Like David, my friend Mulenga decided to trust God's character even when his circumstances screamed hopelessness. When the man he was caring for recovered, the criminal exonerated Mulenga before the parole board, and Mulenga was set free.

Hope isn't optimism about circumstances – it's confidence in God's character regardless of circumstances.

This kind of hope sustains us. If you need to be sustained through a challenging set of circumstances, be sure to check out tomorrow's devotional for a reminder of God's presence when the pain seems too much.