Directions for the Downcast
What should I do when I’m feeling downcast?
God’s Word for Downcast Hearts
On Sunday evening, Fellowship Reformed Church in Mt Pleasant invited a guest speaker. And Alex Harmon, a pastoral resident from University Reformed Church in East Lansing, preached from Psalm 42. Specifically, Alex addressed the real issues of spiritual depression and discouragement. And he explained from the text how God’s Word speaks to the issue of a downcast heart.
The text of Psalm 42 is included below:
As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.
Why are you cast down (downcast), 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.
My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
I say to God, my rock:
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”
As with a deadly wound in my bones,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
Why are you cast down (downcast), 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.
As Alex worked through the text, he identified that the antidote to despondency is an anticipation of joy in God. And he gave four practical instructions on how to combat discouragement and despair when our hearts are downcast. First, pray. Second, praise God (sing, worship). Third, preach to yourself. And fourth, be convinced of God’s love and sovereign power.