Why Am I Discouraged?

Meditations on Christ in the Psalms

September 1, 2022

Why Am I Discouraged?

Send out your light and your truth;

let them guide me.

Let them lead me to your holy mountain,

to the place where you live.

Psalm 43:3

Occasionally, my wife Cheryl travels with friends, and leaves me home alone. I am pretty useless while she is gone. What I do accomplish requires more effort than usual. I know she will soon return. I know she is simply gone from my sight, that's all. She is just the same as when I last saw her, but things seem different.

Perhaps the psalmist had similar feelings in his relationship with Elohim. For whatever reasons, his present reality caused him to use hyperbole to express his sense of loss, his sense of longing for closeness to God. Whatever his inner turmoil, the psalmist was single-minded in his purpose:

“There I will go to the altar of God, to God—the source of all my joy. I will praise you with my harp, O God, my God!” (v.4).

The psalmist knows who alone can fill the God-shaped vacuum in his heart.

My Takeaway: People often have scripture passages bookmarked, taped to their walls, or attached to their refrigerators. Is verse 5 included in your collection? If not, today is a good day to add it to your collection.

Why am I discouraged?

    Why is my heart so sad?

I will put my hope in God!

    I will praise him again—

    my Savior and my God!

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2022 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.