Psalm 42

   Why are you cast down, 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. (Ps. 42:5-6)

Despondency is not a common word today. But I think it captures what I mean. It is not depression per se because depression connotes a clinical condition in our day. But it is more than simply having a bad day and feeling temporarily gloomy in the evening. Between those two, there is a broad terrain of unhappiness where too many Christians live their lives.

In Psalm 73:26, the psalmist says, “My flesh and my heart may fail.” Literally, the verb is simply, “My flesh and my heart fail!” I am despondent! I am discouraged! But then, immediately, he fires a broadside against his despondency: “But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” The psalmist does not yield. He battles unbelief with a counterattack.

In essence, he says, “In myself I feel very weak and helpless and unable to cope. My body is shot, and my heart is almost dead. But whatever the reason for this despondency, I will not yield. I will trust God and not myself. He is my strength and my portion.”

The Bible is replete with instances of saints struggling with sunken spirits. Psalm 19:7 says,

 The law of the Lord is perfect,
        reviving the soul.

This is a clear admission that the soul of the saint sometimes needs to be revived. And if it needs to be revived, in a sense, it was “dead.” David says the same thing in Psalm 23:2–3:

 He leads me beside still waters.
        He restores my soul.

The soul of the “man after [God’s] own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14) needs to be restored. It was dying of thirst and ready to fall, exhausted. But God led the soul to water and gave it life again.

God has put these testimonies in the Bible so that we might use them to fight the unbelief of despondency. Wherever despondency might come from, Satan paints it with a lie. The lie says, “This is it. You will never be happy again. You will never be strong again. You will never have vigor and determination again. Your life will never again be purposeful. There is no morning after this night. No joy after weeping. All is gathering gloom, darker and darker. This is not a tunnel; it is a cave—an endless cave.”

That is the color that Satan paints on our despondency. And God has woven his word with strands of truth directly opposed to that lie. The law of God, which is now fulfilled in Jesus, does revive (Ps. 19:7). God does lead to springs of water (23:2). God does show us the path of life (16:11). Joy does come with the morning (30:5). So the psalms illustrate for us the truth that unbelief is the root of yielding to despondency; but faith in future grace takes the promises of God and throws them against despondency: “God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever!” (73:26).
John Piper is founder and lead teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. He served for thirty-three years as a pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is the author of more than fifty books, including Desiring God; Don’t Waste Your Life; and Providence.