If Life Has You Down...

Since I decided to spend this year focused on knowing God more, I figured what better place to start than in the Psalms...  So many of them are written by David and it's clear that he had a special relationship to his Heavenly Father.

This morning I read Psalm 42 (I actually started reading the Psalms at the end of last year and that's why I realized it would be a great place to stay focused on God)...

In just 11 verses, twice David writes in 5 & 11, "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?  Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God."

There's really no way to know why David was down...  He could have had a lot of reasons...  Maybe conviction over his sin...  Afterall, he slept with another man's wife and then set her husband up to be killed...  Maybe it's when his son died or his older son betrayed him and tried to overthrow him...  Or maybe it was just the discouragement that sometimes comes when life seems hard to manage....

But here's what struck me...  When David was down, he didn't choose to wallow in it, he fixed his eyes on the One who could truly make a difference.  He praised Him and in verse 6, he remembered all that He had done.  A wise friend told me once that when she's down, or life's problems get too big, she praises God because when we praise Him, we remember how BIG He is and our problems get so much smaller!"

There is NOTHING our God can't handle!!

But something else struck me too...  We can hope in God because not only is He able, but also because He cares!!  The other day, when I was reading Psalm 40, I was so struck by the first 3 verses...


"I waited patiently for the LORD; He inclined to me and heard my cry.  He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.  He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God."

What a personal, intimate picture of God...  Sovereign Creator of the Universe!!  HE will draw us out of the miry pit (even if it's one of our own making!)...  HE will set our feet on a rock and make our path secure...  HE will put a new song in our mouth...

So if life has you down, take a lesson from King David...  Offer up a sacrifice of praise to our Great God (praise often is a sacrifice when we are struggling)...  Think back over your life and remember the great things God has done for you...  And then trust Him to draw you up out of the miry pit...


Not only is He able...  He longs to be the one we trust and turn to!!