Resisting Temptations to Despair
Looking beyond the day of decline
“Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them. For God will save Zion and build up the cities of Judah, and people shall dwell there and possess it; the offspring of his servants shall inherit it, and those who love his name shall dwell in it.”
(Psalm 69:34–36)
In times of widespread spiritual decline, it is only natural to feel the numbing influence of despair creeping steadily into the heart. But this, it turns out, is just the problem with despair: it is natural. It doesn’t proceed from faith, and in fact, is one of the furthest things from it.
Despair may be described as the simple loss of confidence and hope. It is that feeling of sad resignation that sweeps over the soul in response to some outward pressure or circumstance. As such, despair begins precisely where faith falters. Faith would have as its object the indomitable light of God’s revelation; despair cannot look past the gloom temporarily eclipsing its light. Instead, it cripples the heart with constant thoughts of temporal trouble.
The feeling of despair is not unfamiliar to the saints. Among the panoply of emotions represented in Scripture, and especially in the psalms, despair is certainly one of them. Like all sin, however, despair is one that must be put to death. And one of the principle ways we do this is by fixing our eyes on the sure and certain promises of God. We might consider David’s words again: “Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them. For God will save Zion and build up the cities of Judah, and the people shall dwell there and possess it; the offspring of his servants shall inherit it, and those who love his name shall dwell in it.”
Derek Kidner comments helpfully on the surprising note of triumph found in these verses:
“It is striking […] that what is added is not petition but praise; and praise which looks beyond the day of decline and insecurity to the full extent of God’s dominion […] and the perfecting of his people’s inheritance. The psalm is yet another reminder that the most desperate of prayers can end, and rightly so, in doxology.” (Kidner, Psalms 1 – 72, 268)
As those who stand on this side of the resurrection, it is the particular duty of the saints to look “beyond the day of decline and insecurity to the full extent of God’s dominion.” The empty tomb ought to banish all frantic, anxious haste.
Instead, guided by faith and strengthened by the Word of God, the church’s privilege in this fallen age is to look out at the carnage of the world with resolute conviction and conquer despair with hope. For “God will save Zion and build up the cities of Judah, and people shall dwell there and possess it; the offspring of his servants shall inherit it, and those who love his name shall dwell in it.”
The resurrected and reigning Lord will make it so.