When I Am Discouraged

I tend to get discouraged. Things don't turn out, people disappoint, the body just doesn't bounce back like it used to, and sometimes it seems God is distant. Psalm 42 was written for me. Not only does the writer talk about some of the causes of discouragement, he also describes how to climb out of it. Whatever was happening to the writer, we are not told in detail. One of the reasons the Psalms are so meaningful is we are not usually told the circumstances behind them. So when we read, it is almost as if we are reading our own story. He lists several reasons that explain why he was discouraged. He seemed to have lost purpose in vv. 1-2. He was basically out of a job and did not know where to go. In vs. 3 he is taunted with the question "Where is your God now when you need Him?" That is a tough one. Then in vs. 4 he struggles with the memory of better times. Things were not always this way. Verse 7 speak of stuff he is going through that seems overwhelming. And in vs. 9 it seems God just doesn't act very quickly in his behalf. But when you read the chapter you see how much he is focused on himself. Pretty easy not to be sometimes.
Fortunately he doesn't conclude with himself; he looks beyond himself. He does ask "why" in vs. 9. Nothing wrong with asking that but even though he is questioning, he is not doubting God. So in vs. 8 he reminds himself of God's sovereign, unfailing love. This part is important. One of the main reasons we get discouraged and depressed is because we are listening to ourselves. Here the writer is speaking to himself instead. He is preaching the Gospel to himself. He knows how he feels, but he also knows what God says and focuses on that instead. In verse 8 he takes it a step further by singing and in verse 4 he remembers God in his past.
The main point in all of this is that he makes one important conclusion: even though it seems like it, this, whatever it is, is not the end of his life. He does seek relief from this but does not seek it apart from fellowship with God. Look at this chapter long enough and it begins to make some sense that one of the reasons these things were happening to him was so that he might hunger and thirst more for God than he ever has - vv. 1-2.
So, he starts telling himself the truth about God and his circumstances rather than listening to himself. He also realizes that he was probably depending on things, plans, other people, to give him what only God can.