Dealing with Discouragement - Part 1

DAILY BYTE

(This week’s BDC was written by Rev Gareth Killeen)

He had forgotten.

Not forgotten in the sense of a gradual fading away, but rather with the suddenness of a sledge-hammer blow. For you see, something so devastating and painful had occurred to him that it managed to push everything else way into the background.

Discouragement and disillusionment now so crowded his thoughts and dominated his emotions that there was absolutely no room for anything else. Not even for things he had long held dear.

For he had always been renowned for being a faithful God-follower – in fact he was famous for it – but now even God seemed so very far away from him. God’s constant loving presence was nothing but a faded memory.

He was discouraged because of that sledge-hammer moment of pain and in the hurly-burly days that followed he couldn’t remember just exactly when God had faded into an abstraction, seemingly powerless to make sense of where his life was presently at. But he could pinpoint the exact time and moment when he remembered again … when he remembered that in fact God was good and was always with him, despite how he presently felt.

And he was so touched by this moment of remembering that he wrote a song about it, and even though he wrote this song thousands of years ago, we still sing it today. It was that good, it was that real.

This song has served to encourage the discouraged for 3000 years which is unsurprising when we remember where it has come from. Except today we don’t really call it a song but rather a Psalm and it is probably the most famous Psalm of them all. It is beloved by both Jews and Christians and has traditionally been used to comfort and encourage the disheartened and grieving. It is commonly used at sickbeds and at funerals.

You may well have guessed by now that we are talking about Psalm 23. According to legend, David wrote this Psalm after his beloved son Absalom rebelled against him and tried to usurp his throne. Which makes sense really because clearly this Psalm is about living out our faith in a world where fear and loss have to be faced up to on a daily basis. Ps 23 is not this glib answer to some of life’s more discouraging moments but is instead a deep statement of profound faith - faith that has been furnished in life’s furnace of uncertainty and turmoil.

In many ways the world hasn’t changed much since Psalm 23 was first penned. We still face up to moments of fear and loss. We always have and probably always will, which accounts for the Psalms popularity over the last 3000 years.

The Psalm is a reminder to us to hold onto our faith in God no matter how discouraged we may be feeling. This week we will be discussing exactly how the Psalm can bring encouragement to all those who are struggling with disillusionment and despair.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord, sometimes we allow discouragement to so dominate our minds and hearts that everything else is crowded out – even our memories of your goodness and love. Help us to hold onto faith in you through these difficult moments – help us to never forget your love and grace. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Read through Psalm 23.