Despondency is Human, not Unchristian

Lessons in Psalms: 5

“O Lord – how long? Return, O Lord, deliver me!” Psalm 6:3-4

Have you ever felt despondent? Have you ever felt guilty for feeling so? After all, a good Christian should have confidence in the Christ at all times, right? Well then it seems that King David wasn’t a very good Christian by modern expectations even though God declared him to be a “man after His own heart.” There is a disconnect here that we must realistically deal with. Job cried out that God had forgotten him and was his enemy. Yet Job said that he fully expected to see God in his flesh and that he knew that his Redeemer lived. David said, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.”

If we live in false expectations of the “glory road” walk, we can become very discouraged and even greatly depressed at our “failures”. There were not two David’s who wrote two different psalms with different viewpoints. There was one David who was human. The important part in his psalm of pain is that he is still talking to God. Even in his pain he has not forgotten that God is his God and that whatever comfort he finds on earth must come from God. He didn’t walk away from God in his pain. He believed even in his doubts that God was there and that God would, in His own time, both answer and comfort him.

Dear Father, We are prone to be affected by the sorrows and pains of this world. Help us to remember in our greatest moments of pain that You are still our only true hope. Amen.

                                         The Friday Benediction 

Until Monday, my friends, may the good God envelop you with His grace; may you prove the common confession of faith, “I believe in the holy Christian church and in the fellowship of the saints”, and may you be enriched with joy and hope as you exercise that confession this weekend.  Amen

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