Turn and answer me, O Lord my God! Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die. (Psalm 13:3)
David asked God to restore the sparkle to his eyes. The truth is, discouragement dims our eyes with despair. But look at the prayer again, and you will notice that David outright declares that if the sparkled isn’t restored, he would die.
He equated discouragement with death!
Ongoing discouragement in our lives can produce serious emotional and physical consequences.
Those who have lost their eyes due to discouragement have:
- Lost their perspective
- Lost their sense of purpose
- Lost their sense of God’s presence
- Have lost their sense of power and victory over the issues of their lives.
- Will potentially suffer from the physical effects of stress in their bodies that discouragement can cause.
Dealing with discouragement, therefore, is quite serious. And so far, I have encouraged you to do the following five things when discouraged:
- Don’t say, “Here I go again.” Instead, choose to say, “Here I grow again.”
- Remember that grateful equals “great” and “full.”
- When you feel “down and out,” choose “up and in.”
- Don’t allow past hurt to rob you of your present hope.
- Remember that one way through it is to give your way out of it.
Today, can I offer you a couple more ways to overcome discouragement based on the entirety of Psalm 13.
1 O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever? How long will you look the other way? 2 How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day? How long will my enemy have the upper hand? 3 Turn and answer me, O Lord my God! Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die. 4 Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, “We have defeated him!” Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall. 5 But I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because you have rescued me. 6 I will sing to the Lord because he is good to me. (Psalm 13:1–6)
6) When asking “how long?” remember “how long.”
David asked a question we have all asked, “how long?”
- How long will this suffering last?
- How long will this prayer go unheard?
- How long will I have to battle this issue?
David had a long list of “how longs” in Psalm 13. Yet his “how long” eventually pivoted and became, “but I trust.”
In order to overcome discouragement, your “how long” must eventually become “but I trust.”
And what did David trust in? God’s unfailing love.
But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. (Psalm 13:5)
His love is unfailing. This means that…
- His love is without error.
- His love is without fault.
- His love is dependable and steadfast.
- His love is unlimited, reliable, and constant.
Here is another way to say it: God’s love is long!
How high and how wide, how deep and how long, is the love of God. (Ephesians 3:18)
Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. (Psalm 36:5–6)
Another way to say that is “your loving devotion reaches to the heavens.”
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! (Psalm 107:1)
No matter how long the battle has been…God’s love is longer.
No matter how long the delay has been…God’s love is longer.
No matter how long the trouble has lasted…God’s love is longer.
I remember watching a movie one time where two men were in a constant rivalry. One of them looks at the other and says, “How long is this fight going to last?” The guy looks back and says, “I just plan to outlast you.”
God’s love outlasts our “how long?”
When we are discouraged, we need to choose to trust in his unfailing love. When asking “how long,” remember God’s love is longer!
7) Allow your song to shape your spirit.
Look at verse 6:
I will sing to the Lord because he is good to me.
David has declared that he will trust in the unfailing love of God, and then he decides to sing. He decided to worship before the breakthrough came. He decided to praise before the answer to his prayer came. He rose up and said, “I will.”
Nothing will defeat “woe is me” like “I will!”
Elsewhere, David said in Psalm 118:24,
This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.
Rejoicing is a choice, and it is one of the ways in which God takes from us a spirit of despair and gives us a spirit of praise. (Isaiah 61:1-3)
Your spirit consists of things like your overall aura. It is your countenance. It is the look on your face, shaped by what is going on in the depths of your heart. Your spirit is what others sense is going on with you, even when you haven’t verbalized anything. And here is the thing: your song can shape your spirit.
I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me. (Psalm 13:6)
David started off with “how long” and 6 verses later says “I will sing.”
“How long” must not only become “I will trust” but also “I will sing.”
Your song can shape whether your spirit is one of hope or hopelessness, of encouragement or discouragement. Simply put, remember that your worship is a weapon and your song can shape your spirit.
8) Remember that your comfort and courage are often found in your conclusions.
Look at why David chose to sing…
I will sing to the Lord because he is good to me. (Psalm 13:6)
Psalm 13 starts off with “how long” and ends with “because he is good to me.” David ultimately did not allow his discouragement to define the character and nature of God for him. (Read this again.)
Discouragement can be very defining. If we are not careful, we will allow our flesh or the enemy cause us to conclude:
- God has forgotten about us.
- God is holding out on us.
- God is faithful to others but not to us.
A spirit of discouragement can cause us to define (or redefine) our conclusions about God.
David didn’t allow this, and neither should we. We must remember and embrace what David said elsewhere concerning God’s goodness:
- Surely, his goodness and love will follow us all the days of our lives. (Psalm 23:6)
- We will taste and see that the Lord is good. (Psalm 34:8)
- We can be confident that we will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living (Psalm 27:13)
Both my comfort and my courage are often determined by what I conclude about God. Today, I conclude that regardless of “how long” I have been battling, God has been good to me in my past and, therefore, he will be good to me in my present. What are you concluding today?
