“My God, my soul dissolves over me,

thus I remember you from the land of the Jordan—

From Hermon to Mount Mizar.”

(Psalm 42:7 {verse 6 in English Translations})

The psalmist is looking to the north (Hermon) and to the east (Jordan) and realizing that while enemies surround him, particularly coming from these two directions, God will be with him and will redeem him from sure destruction. Note the language that the psalmist employs—his soul “melts or dissolves” over him. The concept of the soul in Hebrew encompasses the entirety of the person’s being, physical and spiritual.

What is interesting about the language that the psalmist uses here is that while Hermon here represents the desolation of the edge of the promised land, it is the likely location where Jesus would take his disciples and be transfigured before their eyes. As with so many other things in Jesus’ ministry, he took what was considered outcast and desolate and redeemed it to the glory of God His Father. And how he also does the same in our own lives. He takes the mess that we bring to him and not only heals us, but he makes that mess holy. It is like what takes place when the master pianist sets down beside the young student of piano. While the young student diligently plucks away at a few keys, the master fills in the sounds adding life and depth and color to what is heard and such becomes a masterpiece. The student participates but the life of the piece comes from the master. Such is true in our lives as well, often in the midst of our greatest weakness.

Loved ones, how quickly, when things go badly, we tend to fall into despair. Yet, the glory of the scriptures is to point out to us that in Christ Jesus there is no reason to despair or faint for your life. God is in control and Christ will redeem his own! That is good news, for if you are trusting in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, that means that Christ will redeem you and that means he will never let you go and that as messy as your life is, he will make it into something that glorifies his name. What more could one desire than that? What greater hope is there, Christian, than to know that God has you in the palm of his hand and that powers and principalities of any magnitude can do nothing to pluck you out. Indeed, our God is good—remember his good works.