As I pause to reflect after my readings this morning, I find myself hovering over Psalm 42.

Looking back through my journal, Psalm 42 is by far the “winner” when it comes to the passages meditated on this day in my reading plan. Whether it’s the song’s lament of a soul panting for God as a deer pants for water (42:1-2), or its melancholy remembrances of happier days gone by with the people of God (42:4), or its twice-repeated chorus echoing the “how long” questions that come with deep depression (42:5, 11), there’s something about this song that causes you (or, at least me) to pause, reflect, and so often connect.

In particular this morning, it’s the “day and night” verses that capture my attention.

My tears have been my food day and night,
while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”

(Psalm 42:3 ESV)

By day the LORD commands His steadfast love,
and at night His song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.

(Psalm 42:8 ESV)

By day . . . at night . . . the God of my life. Chew on that a bit.

The God of my life. All of my life. The God of all my seasons. The ups, the downs. The mountains, the valleys. The mornings when I jump out of bed, and those when I don’t want to get out of bed. As David puts it, the God of those days when I would, “with the throng”, rejoice “with glad shouts and songs of praise”, and the God of round-the-clock weeping. The God of my day and of my night.

But not a passive God by day, not an absent God in the night. For He is the LORD who sends His faithful love by day and the LORD who sparks within me His song of salvation at night. The God whose presence is promised each day of the journey (Deut. 31:6,8; Jos. 1:5), whose mercies are assuredly new every morning (Lam. 3:23-23), and who prompts me to acknowledge His presence and thank Him for His mercies during midnight conversations. And in that dynamic, I remember that He is the God of my life. All my life.

And it is believing in this day and night God, and knowing this day and night engagement, as we endure our day and night turmoil which allows us to, even in our tears, answer the questioning of a deeply disquieted soul.

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him,
my salvation and my God.

(Psalm 42:5, 11 ESV)

I shall again praise Him . . . for He is the God of my life.

Thus is my hope. A hope for all my life.

By His grace. For His glory.