I am So Discouraged!

Psalm 25 for the deeply discouraged

Discouragement has many addresses. It may sit beside a hospital bed, in the empty chair of bereavement, in a marriage that has broken, in the loneliness of singleness, in the shame of a teenager who feels he has failed, or in the study of a pastor who wonders whether his labour has achieved anything. Sometimes discouragement darkens until your hear in your heart, There is no way out.

Psalm 25 was written for such hours. David is speaking from a very low point. He has enemies, memories of past sins, uncertainty about the future, loneliness, pain, and inward distress. He says, *“Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses.” (vv.16-17) *

The word translated “desolate” can mean solitary or alone. The word for “troubles” carries the thought of straits or pressures. David knows what it is to feel hemmed in, with the walls closing around him.

Yet Psalm 25 is not the diary of a man sinking into hopelessness. It is the prayer of a man learning where to look when he cannot see his way .

This is where I want to bring any of my readers to be also.

Lift your soul to God

David begins, *“Unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in thee.” (vv.1-2) *

Discouragement pulls the soul downward. We stare at ourselves, our circumstances, our failures, other people’s opinions, and tomorrow’s imagined disasters. David deliberately turns upward. He does not say, “I feel strong.” He says, “I trust in thee.”

A man fallen into a well, does not lift himself by examining the darkness. Someone above must pull him up. So bring your whole soul to God, not merely words. Tell Him the fear, disappointment, anger, confusion, and even the numbness.

Ryle rightly said, “It is trying to carry their own burdens which so often makes believers sad.” [1]

John Bunyan pictured something similar in the Slough of Despond (Pilgrim’s Progress) . Christian was sinking under his burden until a man named Help came, stretched out his hand, and pulled him onto firm ground. Bunyan even tells us that Christian had missed the firm steps because fear was driving him so hard. What a picture of discouragement. Fear can make us forget what we know.

Sometimes God sends “Help” with a human face.

Ask for guidance before relief

David prays, *“Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me.” (vv.4-5) *

Notice what he asks for. Not merely, Remove the trouble , but, Show me how to walk while I am in it.

Discouragement is a dangerous counsellor. Under severe pressure people make hasty decisions. They abandon a calling, leave a sound church, destroy a relationship, return to an old sin, or conclude that God has finished with them.

Calvin saw this danger in Psalm 25. He wrote that when our minds are settled into patience, “we undertake nothing rashly or by improper means, but depend wholly upon the providence of God.” [2]

You may not need the whole map today. You need enough light for the next obedient step .

Pray. Read the Word. Attend worship. Ask wise counsel. Do the duty already made plain. Then wait.

Take you guilt to God’s mercy, not despair

Perhaps your discouragement is partly connected with sin. David does not evade this.

*“Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me.” (v.7) *

Then later:

*“For thy name’s sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.” (v.11) *

What a remarkable prayer. My sins are great , therefore I run to mercy.

David does not minimise his guilt, but neither does he make an idol of it. Repentance looks honestly at sin and then looks to the mercy of God. Despair keeps staring at the wound as though there were no Physician.

Have you fallen badly? Confess it. Forsake it. Make restitution where necessary. But do not imagine that your misery purchases forgiveness.

Thomas Brooks understood the temptation of a believer who has lost all sense of spiritual comfort. He counsels us: “Though my comfort is gone, yet the God of my comfort abides.” [3]

Your feelings may change overnight. God has not.

Keep your eyes up when your feet are trapped

Here is perhaps the greatest word picture in the Psalm:

*“Mine eyes are ever toward the LORD; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.” (v.15) *

Spurgeon beautifully describes the believer’s strange condition: “his eyes are in heaven and yet his feet are sometimes in a net.” [4]

That may describe you exactly.

Your feet are caught in circumstances you cannot quickly change. A bereavement cannot be reversed. A separation may have left deep scars. An illness may remain. A child may still be wandering. Your marriage may still be painful. Your ministry difficulty may still be unresolved.

Faith does not pretend the net is imaginary.

Faith looks above the net.

Matthew Henry says, “Those that have their eye ever towards God shall not have their feet long in the net.” [5]

And Thomas Watson adds this important qualification: “They who walk with God shall never be wholly left of God.” [6]

This does not mean every earthly trouble disappears tomorrow. It means no net can finally defeat the saving purpose of God.

Say plainly how bad it feels

David says, *“I am desolate and afflicted.” (v.16) Then, “The troubles of my heart are enlarged.” (v.17) *

Spurgeon pictures the heart as a lake swollen by enormous floods. Trouble has broken its banks. It seems to be everywhere. Yet David still speaks to God.

There is no virtue in pretending.

The Bible does not tell the bereaved mother, the abandoned husband/wife, the lonely teenager, the exhausted parent, the disappointed pastor or the depressed Christian to paste on a smile and say, “Everything is fine.”

Tell God the truth.

And tell a trusted person the truth too.

If your discouragement has become so dark that you are thinking of ending your life, do not remain alone with those thoughts . Suicidal thoughts are not commands to obey. Treat them as an alarm calling for immediate help. Tell someone now.

Seeking such help is not the opposite of trusting God. God ordinarily helps His people through other people.

Your trouble is not the whole story

Psalm 25 ends by suddenly widening the horizon:

*“Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.” (v.22) *

David begins with his own soul, but finishes praying for the whole people of God.

Discouragement shrinks the world until all we can see is our own pain. Prayer opens the windows again.

Above all, the Christian looks to Christ. He is not a distant Saviour shouting advice from the shore. He is *“a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” * *(Isa 53:3) *He knows betrayal, loneliness, false accusation, bodily pain, Gethsemane and Calvary.

Yet He rose. He reigns. He intercedes. He keeps His people.

So what should you do when terribly discouraged?

Lift your soul. Ask for God’s way. Confess sin without surrendering to despair. Keep your eyes upon the Lord. Tell Him exactly how bad the trouble is. Seek the help of His people. Wait upon Him.

Your feet may be in the net today. Keep your eyes toward the Lord.

Endnotes

J. C. Ryle, A Call to Prayer (New York: American Tract Society, 1867), p. 35; also reproduced in Practical Religion .

John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of Psalms , vol. 1 (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1845), exposition of Psalm 25:4-7.

Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices (first published 1652), section III, Device 6, Remedy 1

C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1869-1885)

Matthew Henry, An Exposition of the Old and New Testament , commentary on Psalm 25:15-22.

Thomas Watson, The Godly Man’s Picture Drawn with a Scripture-Pencil (London: Thomas Parkhurst, 1666)

John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress , Part I

For the Hebrew terms in Psalm 25:16-17, see Brown-Driver-Briggs entries for yachid , “only, solitary”, and the terms associated with distress in Psalm 25:17.