Strengthen Yourself in the Lord

⁵ Why, my soul, are you downcast?

    Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him,

    my Savior and my God.

⁶ My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you

from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.

⁷ Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls;

all your waves and breakers have swept over me.

⁸ By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me—

    a prayer to the God of my life.

⁹ I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me?

Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?”

¹⁰ My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me,

saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

¹¹ Why, my soul, are you downcast?

    Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him,

    my Savior and my God.

 PSALM 27:4-8 (NIV)

Whenever you're feeling down, the best place to turn is the Psalms. In today's passage, the writer asks: "Why are you in despair, O my soul?" (v. 5). Surprisingly, this question is the first step in overcoming discouragement.

Look within. Before you can deal with your despair, you need to know what is causing it. If you're not sure, ask the Lord to help you figure out what's going on inside you.

Look up. The next step is to lift up your eyes to the Lord and place your hope in Him. Remember, discouragement comes to everybody at one time or another, but it doesn't have to stay. In the course of time, you "shall again praise Him for the help of His presence" (v. 5).

Look back. Despair has a way of erasing our memory of all the good the Lord has done for us over the years. Instead of wallowing in our present misery, we must make an effort to remember His past care and provision. Then our faith will overpower discouragement (v. 6).

Look Ahead. Knowing that God's plans for us are good, we can look forward to what He going to do in the future. His lovingkindness will support us by day and bring comfort by night as we trust Him to work all things out for our good (v. 8).

When your focus is right, you'll respond correctly to discouragement. The key is to fix your eyes on the Lord. Circumstances may cause you to think He's forgotten about you (v. 9), but His Word promises that He's there and will bring you through the valley. Even if you feel lonely, you're never alone.