With so much to worry about these days, it’s easy to feel distressed. In addition to our personal difficulties and disappointments, we read the headlines and hear news reports about suffering and sorrow throughout the world, and sometimes we wonder if everything will be all right.
Because the world’s problems receive such wide publication in this day of mass communication, it may seem as if our generation has more than its share. The truth is, however, that trouble is not new. Those who went before us had to face problems that, though different from ours, were just as challenging. And knowing that so many from generations past saw their way out of difficulty and apprehension, we too can hold on to the hope that things will get better.
Thousands of years ago, the Psalmist gave assurance that still brings comfort today: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” ¹That message of positive expectation, of faith in the future, is a most comforting and universal hope. Tomorrow always comes, and with it, the chance for improvement, recovery, and renewal. But our hope, if it is to have any depth or meaning, must rest on something greater than ourselves.
More than a hundred years ago, German composer Johannes Brahms set to music the words of 17th-century poet Paul Fleming: “Let Nothing Ever Grieve Thee.” The message both reminds and inspires us to look to the divine source of hope and there find reassurance, comfort, and peace.
Let nothing ever grieve thee, distress thee, nor fret thee;
Heed God’s good will, my soul, be still, compose thee.
Why brood all day in sorrow? Tomorrow will bring thee
God’s help benign and grace sublime in mercy.
Be true in all endeavor and ever ply bravely;
What God decrees brings joy and peace; He’ll stay thee.
Program #4065
¹Psalm 30:5.