Moving from Despair to Joy: A reflection of Psalm 13
It has been a while since I have written on here. In my personal devotion time I have been reading the Psalms. The Book of Psalms is Israel’s hymn book, each one written at various points reflecting on various times in the history of the people of God.
Today, I read Psalm 13, a Psalm I have read numerous times. But as I have spoken to others, counseled others, whether church members, community members, or pastor friends serving through difficult seasons, I believe David’s experience in Psalm 13 can be of help to many of us.
At the beginning of the Psalm, David voices that he is in a season of despair, despondency, discouragement.
He feels forgotten by the Lord, “How long, O Lord will you forget me forever? He is exceedingly sorrowful: How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart all the day?”
This is not the feeling of just some individuals. This is something every believer feels and experiences at some point in their life.
In his commentary on the Psalms, W.S.Plumer writes,
Dark days are to the people of God no new thing. David saw such times. All the saints have seen them. Trouble outward and inward, of body and spirit, fightings without, and terrors within, vexations from heaven and earth, from God deserting and men pursuing may fall upon a child of God.”
Th things that cause us despair can come from many things. Even the most godly of men suffer from despair, despondancy, discouragement and depression. Charles Spurgeon, known to many as the prince of preachers, and likely one of the first “megachurch” pastors, battled depression for much of his life, and almost the entire duration of his ministry.
But how do we endure these moments. David lamented that his enemies would be exalted over him. In Psalm 3, his enemies have increased in number and are pursuing him.
I doubt you are int he same situation as David. But maybe the bills are mountain, and the income isnt increasing. Maybe you have losted loved ones, received a terrifying medical diagnosis, experienced a strain in relationships. Maybe your idea of what life would look like at this point has not become a reality. Things are very different. Maybe just the general direction of the world has caused anxiety and despair.
What do you do, where do you turn?
First, pray. Thats what David does. He prays real honest prayers, acknowledging his emotions. He feels as if God has forgotten him. God knows David feels this way. David doesnt need to hide it. Come to God, and pray real, raw, honest prayers.
David comes expecting God to answer, “Consider and answer me, O Lord my God, enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death.”
God does answer David. God brings to David’s mind His own covenant love and salvation for his people.
Heres my second admonition. Read the Bible. Where do we learn of God’s love and faithfulness to his redeemed? In His Word. Fill your mind with Scripture, even on the days you dont feel like it. Remember what God has done for his people. Dane Ortlund notes in his devotional on the psalms, “David saw God’s steadfast love only in fairly abstract terms, in past acts of deliverance through events such as the exodus. We see God’s love on concrete terms, in the great climactic act of deliverance in the person of his own Son.”
With that, the third admontion is reflect on God’s steadfast love demonstrated at the cross. When times are hard, when you are tempted to despair, calibrate your perspective, set your mind on things above, and remember what God has done for us in Christ, providing us an eternal salvation, and an everlasting hope.
This is what moves David from Despair to Joy. “But I have trusted in your lovingkindness; My heart shall rejoice in your salvation.”
To the Christian working a normal job, or staying home with the kids, encountering every day battles, your situation may not improve, but just as God delivered Israel out of Egypt, Jesus has died, he has rose again, and he is coming back to deliver his people from this broken world and to establish the new heavens and new earth where there is no more sin and suffering.
Rejoice in that. Rejoice that God’s full and final salvation will become a reality. Rejoice, that he has given to you the Spirit as a pledge of that inheritance.
And even on your darkest days, you can remember that God has dealt bountifully with you in sending Jesus to redeem you thorugh his death and resurrection, and therefore, even on your darkest days you can sing to the Lord, you can rejoice, because God is a God who saves.
