Despair, part 2 

Psalms 42 & 43 

Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case against an ungodly nation; O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! For You are the God of my strength; why have You rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? 

O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your dwelling places. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my exceeding joy; and upon the lyre I shall praise You, O God, my God. 

Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God. 

Yesterday, I wrote: 

The shifting of emotions in these chapters is shocking. In one verse he says God, where are you? You have forgotten me. The next verse he says, You are my hope and joy.  It seems extreme at first reading but if I really put myself in his place of extreme danger, well, it starts to make sense. Despair is a battle of the mind. It’s OK to go low and express your rawest feeling to God. Take your time, as you need it. But, by God’s grace, don’t stay there. 

To review, 

1. Be honest and fully transparent before God. Unload your misery upon Him. Allow yourself to go deep within your painful, selfish feelings of defeat and despair and express it to God. Don’t take it out on your loved ones or by breaking fine china, etc., but take it out on God. Doesn’t seem very spiritual but that’s what David did. I’m just saying… 
2. Muster up enough strength to say just one word to God: HELP! Turn your eyes off yourself for a moment and upward toward God. Then ask Him to remove the pain and fix the situation causing it. Don’t stay in your misery. Ask God for the strength to endure it but also ask Him to fix the problem causing the pain. When He will fix it, I don’t know. But ask, plead and implore Him. Once again, that’s what David does. 
3. You may go back and forth between 1 and 2 above. You may turn to God and a few minutes later, go back into yourself. We are so darn human. But move, with God’s help, toward spending more and more time looking toward God. REMEMBER Who He is and what He has done. View your situation from a heavenly perspective with eternity in mind. 

How do we move and stay in the #3 phase above? It’s not easy sometimes but David prayed, Lord, send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me; let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your dwelling places. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my exceeding joy.  43:3.  

Light and Truth are personified. They aren’t inanimate concepts. They are real and God gifts them to us to provide divine guidance. They lead us through the depths of darkness and take us to the Throne of Light. God’s light and truth are found in His Word. They are planted deep into our souls when we read and pray through His Word. Fill your heart with God’s Word during the good times so that you can draw upon them, like a deep well of living water, when you go into despair. 

Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16