Psalm 42:11 (KJV)

What does this mean?

The psalmist is far from home, cut off from the worship he loves, and his soul is low and restless inside him. He talks to himself, asking why he is so downcast and troubled, and then he answers his own question: put your hope in God, because the day will come when he praises him again. He calls God 'the health of my countenance,' an old phrase meaning the one who lifts his downcast face and restores him.

What does this teach us?

You can talk to your own soul. The psalmist does not wait for his feelings to change before he hopes; he speaks hope to himself while he is still down, and the hope is not a feeling, it is a decision to trust God again.

How can we apply this?

When your soul is low, try the psalmist's way: ask yourself out loud why you are so troubled, and then answer yourself with hope. Say it plainly — I will put my hope in God — and then do one thing that looks like praise, even if your heart has not caught up yet.

Related KJV passages

• “Wait on the LORD : be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD .”

  Psalm 27:14

• “The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD .”

  Lamentations 3:25-26

• “For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”

  Psalm 30:5