Why Are You in Despair?

[Christsfreeservant]

“Why are you in despair, O my soul?​

And why have you become disturbed within me?​

Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him​

For the help of His presence.​

O my God, my soul is in despair within me;​

Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan​

And the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.​

Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls;​

All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.​

The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime;​

And His song will be with me in the night,​

A prayer to the God of my life.” (Psalm 42:5-8 NASB1995)​

We who are followers of Jesus Christ, who have died with Christ to sin, and who’ve been walking in obedience to his commands, we are still human beings living in flesh bodies, and so we are subject to human emotions when we go through any kind of difficult circumstances. And so sometimes we have to counsel ourselves to have a right response. I know that I do this. I talk to myself, and I reason with myself, and I give myself godly counsel. This is sometimes how I work through my emotions in difficult times.

And that is what the psalmist was doing, too. He was asking himself, his own soul, why he was in despair. And he was counseling himself to hope in God, and to praise God for the help of his presence, regardless of his circumstances. And then he went the next step in making a proclamation of his decision to remember God, and to say with confidence that the Lord would command His lovingkindness and that His song would be with him, a prayer to the God of his life. His hope, his trust, his confidence were in God.

This is the kind of approach that all of us need to take when we face difficult circumstances in our lives, and especially if we begin to feel depressed or despondent, and we don’t know which way to turn. We need to look to God. We need to call on God for our help and for our godly counsel and/or we need to give ourselves the godly counsel that God has already provided. For we must not let our circumstances get the best of us. We must not let them control us and our emotions to the point to where we feel without hope.

I am going through some difficult circumstances right now. Some are more difficult than others. I did share a current one in the video portion of this devotion as a personal example of how we need to respond to our difficult circumstances and of how we need to trust the Lord in all circumstances, and how we need to keep hoping in and trusting in God no matter what may come into our lives. I believe that is the primary message here. We have to trust in the lovingkindness of God and believe that he is sovereign over all.

[Matthew 5:10-12; Matthew 7:13-14; Matthew 10:16-39; Matthew 24:9-14; Luke 6:22-23; Luke 12:49-53; Luke 21:12-17; John 15:18-21; John 17:14; Romans 5:3-5; Philippians 3:7-11; 1 Thessalonians 3:1-5; 2 Timothy 3:12; 1 Peter 1:6-7; 1 Peter 4:12-17; James 1:2-4; Hebrews 12:3-12; 1 John 3:13; Revelation 6:9-11; Revelation 7:9-17; Revelation 11:1-3; Revelation 12:17; Revelation 13:1-18; Revelation 14:1-13; 2 Corinthians 1:3-11]

All Through the Night

Based off Various Scriptures
An Original Work / December 7, 2013
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Blessed are you when you’re persecuted
Because of your faith in Jesus Christ.
Blessed are you when people insult you,
And falsely say what leads folks to doubt.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is
Great in the heavens. You’re not alone.

When you are persecuted in one place,
Flee to another. God will be there.
You will be hated by all the nations
Because you testify of God’s grace.
Many will seize you and persecute you,
And put to death the foll’wers of Christ.

Yet do not fear what humans may do to you,
For I’m with you all through the night.
I tell you, love your enemies with my love,
And forgive as I forgave you.
Pray for those who do evil against you.
Rest in my love and grace from above.

Why Are You in Despair?
An Original Work / August 21, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Video talk on same subject

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