Fighting Problems With Praise

Psalm 86

What is the best and most effective way to rid oneself from depression and feeling blue?  Talking about your feelings with a trusted friend or a certified counselor can be quite helpful.  Going for a walk and enjoying the outdoors is good, as are some other ways to exercise.  King David, who knew what it was like to feel down and discouraged, knew the best way to fight that.  He learned that the best way to overcome his distresses, worries, and depression was through praise and worship of the Lord God.  When Satan and his demon hordes hear a believer speaking or singing forth their praises to the Lord Jesus, and lifting His Name high, they take flight.  The Book of Psalms are filled with many of the praises and worship songs that David wrote.

Do we really believe that God is truly good?  Sometimes, especially during difficult times, we may have our doubts.  Going through all the difficulties that David did, it would be understandable if he might have questioned God’s goodness.  David would have been a prime target of Satan, to bring him down with feelings of depression and hopelessness, and feelings that God was not good to him.  To fight those feelings, and the discouragement that would accompany that, David wrote psalms of praise to Yahweh. We need to remind ourselves that God is always good.  We do that by reading His Word, worshipping Him, and praising Him, especially for His goodness.  Our psalm today, Psalm 86, contains all the elements that our prayers should: petition, or making our requests to God (vs. 1-7, 11, 14-17), worship and adoration of Yahweh (vs. 8-10), and giving of thanks to Him (vs. 12-13).

In verse 2 David calls upon the Lord to rescue him because “I am holy”.   David realized, as we all also should, that on our own we are sinful.  David knew that he messed up plenty of times, as we all do.  However, as believers who have accepted Jesus as Savior, we are united with Him.  We now have Jesus’ righteousness, and are now sanctified, set apart, and holy through Him.  Both David and ourselves have the righteousness of Jesus, and are holy.

When our trouble and pain is so great, when there is no relief in sight, all we can do is cry out to God for His help (vs. 7).  We can be assured that the Lord hears us, and will provide for our needs when we seek Him.  David had this assurance.  He said in his psalm here that God will answer, not perhaps He will answer if He feels like it or if He’s not too busy.  The conviction that God answers prayer will sustain us through the difficult times we each go through.  We can know that we may call upon the Lord God with full assurance that He will help us.

David also knew that, unlike the pagan gods that the heathen worship, Yahweh is alive, and will do mighty deeds for those who love Him (vs. 8-10).  The pagan deities are powerless because they are false, not alive.  They are mere figments of the imagination of those who thought them up.  Yahweh is not one god among many.  He is God alone.  David prayed that he would have an undivided heart, single-hearted loyalty to the Lord (vs. 11).  As we praise His Name, we can trust that those demons take flight, and that the Lord will hear and answer our prayers.

We can be confident that God knows our situation, no matter how desperate it becomes, and we can be confident that He cares.  Difficult situations can lead to a deeper relationship with God.  This will happen when we call on Him to help us in our troubles, and when we seek to follow Him each day, and when we bring praise and worship to the Lord each and every day.