Daily PresenceSample

One thing the Psalms aren’t short on is emotion! There’s praise, desperation, heartbreak, joy, judgment, and despair. Enneagram fours love it 😝

Yet one thing all the writers come back to is their desperation for God. There are imprecatory psalms calling for judgment, there are psalms of ascent calling for praise, and there’s psalm 74 where Asaph is reeling in desperation. Yet no matter the circumstances or situation, the psalmists always circle back to their inability to live without God, and His transcendent ability to change the circumstances.

It’s like having small crazy kids! More times than my parenting pride would like to admit I’ve found myself crying out to God saying, “I don’t know what to do with these kids. Lord help me, or I’m sending them to you!” Every time the Lord reminds me He calls these babies blessings, and I know in my heart I wouldn’t want to live a moment of my life without them. Is it hard sometimes? Of course, it is. But is God still good and my life still filled with blessings? Without a doubt.

Confessing frustration, despair, or depression to God isn’t a bad thing. Staying there is. Notice the pattern throughout the psalms – desperation or despair is always contrasted with the goodness, power, and grace of God. We’re called to embody the same pattern.