When you are in the middle of your depression, you may not realize how dark your despair is until you start feeling better. One way you can start feeling better is to bring God’s light into your darkness.

The darkness is filled with despair and pessimism, but God’s light brings in love, peace, and hope. You can find that light through Scripture, especially the Psalms. Today, you will look at some Psalms from the Old Testament to see how you can fix your hope and healing on God when you fix your eyes upon His steadfast character.

"Antidote for Despair" by James MacDonald

¹¹ Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. ¹²Give me not up to the will of my adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence. ¹³I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! ¹⁴Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord -- Psalm 27:11-14.

Despair is an utterly dark place where you don’t want anyone to go. People who go there often don’t come back. The dictionary defines despair as “destitute of positive expectations.” If you’re in despair, you can’t see anything good in your future. You may be tempted to give up.

Instead of surrendering to the darkness of despair, David fired up his confidence in an unchanging God. You and I need to do the same. We need to get hold of some promises. People will say, I don’t know how she can be so strong through this . . . and How can he just keep going with everything that’s happening?

Here’s the answer to those questions—we fix our hope on our promise-keeping God. Psalm 46:10 reminds us to “be still, and know that I am God.” When we come to the place where we can’t do anything else, we must stand still and believe. We may think that’s the worst possible place to be, but God loves it when we’re there. When we can’t do anything, we must let God do it all or throw in the towel.

"I will not despair, God is always good." With this promise, you get to God’s heart. Not only is He with you; not only is He sovereign and ordering the circumstances of your life, but God is also good. God’s goodness is the ultimate rescue net under all of life’s experiences.

The goodness of God is stamped all over Scripture. Psalm 27:13 says, “I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (NASB). I love David’s honesty. Here was the only man called “a man after [God’s] own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14), a former giant-slayer, anointed to be king of Israel, but no stranger to suffering, saying, I would have lost it if I had not believed.

We don’t know what circumstances David was facing when he composed this psalm, but his concluding statement is full of faith. Despair wasn’t avoided by seeing the goodness of the Lord but by believing he would again see God’s goodness. David had seen it, and he believed he would see it again. But at the moment, he had to trust the time would come when he would again see God’s goodness. Why? Because God is good even when we can’t see it.

You will lose hope if your eyes are anywhere but on the Lord. When your eyes are fixed on Him, you will see His goodness. It may not be today, but you can join David in believing that you will “see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”