Hope in God--This, Too, Shall Pass

With all of the heartbreaking, high-profile suicides of late, I've felt such a burden for those who feel abandoned and alone.  I've experienced depression before, I won't lie.  I remember a time when the only relief came during sleep, and when I'd wake up in the morning I thought, "What? Daytime again?"  It felt like prison.  It felt unending.  And yes, at times, it felt hopeless.

The thing that SAVED me, however, was having a deeply ingrained knowledge that despite my current situation, no matter how bleak, God was still in control.  He loved me, He held me, He ministered to me, and He gave me 4 simple words that offered an abundance of hope: This too shall pass.  As comedian Mark Lowry once said, "It didn't come to stay.  It came to pass."

In the past year, I've tried to develop the discipline of spending the first part of the morning in the Word of God, and I've felt to focus on specific books.  Last summer, I spent a lot of time reading in Psalms, and I at one point, I especially noticed the word “countenance.” I knew it had to do with the face, as in expressions or the mood that is apparent on our faces, but I wanted to look a little deeper, especially when I saw it two or three days in a row in my reading. Note the final verse of Psalm 43, verse 5:

Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God.

When I looked up the definition, not surprisingly, it said “a person’s face or facial expression.” This absolutely makes sense in the context of the verse, since they’re speaking of being “cast down” or depressed, and “disquieted”, which means worried or anxious. It was interesting to look at the Hebrew for each word, to try to dig out the deeper meanings, for the Word of God consists of multiple layers of meaning.

One of the words that stood out to me, though, was HELP—“the help of my countenance and my God.” The Hebrew word used here for help is—are you ready for this, Bible scholars?—yeshuwah. Does that sound familiar? The name of Jesus, in the Hebrew, is Yeshua!

“Yeshuwah” (Strong’s concordance H3444) means:
• Salvation
• Deliverance
• Victory
• Aid
• Prosperity
• Welfare

Put that in the verse! What do YOU need today? Hope in God!

Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him,
The DELIVERANCE of my countenance and my God.
OR—
For I shall yet praise Him,
The VICTORY of my countenance and my God.
OR—
For I shall yet praise Him,
The PROSPERITY of my countenance and my God.
OR—
For I shall yet praise Him,
The WELFARE of my countenance and my God.
OR, best of all:
For I shall yet praise Him,
The SALVATION of my countenance and my God.

And Yeshua, whom we call Jesus, is ALL of those things: deliverance, salvation, victory, prosperity, and welfare! IMAGINE that, when we are BAPTIZED IN HIS NAME (Acts 2:38, Acts 8:16, Acts 10:48, Acts 19:3-5), we are baptized into prosperity! Into a healthy welfare! Into victory, deliverance, and salvation! Hallelujah! NO WONDER He “helps” our countenance! Of course we should ‘hope in God’…ALL OF THE ANSWERS LIE IN HIM!

Don't lose heart.  When you allow God to carry you in your trial, and you hold to His unchanging hand, you'll see the truth of it all:  It didn't come to stay.  It came to pass.