For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
An anchor doesn't stop the storm. That's worth remembering when you read a verse like this one — it isn't a promise that grief gets cancelled. It's a claim about what holds underneath the grief while it's happening, something steady enough to keep you from drifting even while the water's still rough.
Maybe you've wanted faith to work like a storm-canceller — pray hard enough, believe correctly enough, and the hard things stop. This verse was never offering that. It admits affliction plainly. What it claims instead is compassion running underneath it, "according to the greatness of his love," available in the middle of the storm rather than only once it passes.
That's a smaller, more honest promise than the ones you've probably heard before. It doesn't ask you to pretend the water's calm. It just asks whether you'd consider that something might be holding you steady in it anyway.
If you've stopped believing in promises that the storm will stop, this one might be worth a look precisely because it isn't making that promise.
A short video on this is coming soon — for now, read on.