O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me; let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your dwelling places. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and upon the lyre I shall praise You, O God, my God. Psalm 43:3-4 (NASB)
If you’ve ever experienced despair, you’re not alone. The writer of Psalm 43 has been there, too. The unjust dealings of his enemies had started to make him feel like God had rejected him. His prayer from the midst of his struggles has a lot to teach us.
In our suffering, we need God to lead us—not just out of our circumstances—but into worship.
Listen to how the Psalmist describes God in verse 4: “God my exceeding joy.” He knows that true joy isn’t found in temporal things, but in who God is. And He longs to climb into God’s presence and see Him rightly. Because seeing God for who He is always leads to worship. And worshiping our all-sufficient God is to find joy.
But sometimes our eyes get so glued to the wrongs done to us or on our own feelings that we forget the character of God. And despair takes the place of worship. It’s in this place of helplessness that we can cry out with the Psalmist,
“O send out Your light and Your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to Your…dwelling places. Then… I shall praise You.”
When your circumstances and feelings make it hard to worship, ask for help. Ask God to send you His light and His truth—flashes of who He is—to lead you into worship. Ask Him to show you His character today—in your Bible reading, through an answered prayer, with a memory of His faithfulness.
And when His light and truth appear, drop everything and chase them until you fall down at the feet of Almighty God and worship.
Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation. www.lockman.org