Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. Psalm 62:5

King David often talks to his inner self, which I find quite interesting. Often he is upbeat and tells himself: "Praise the Lord,O my soul!" (Psalm 104:1), "Forget not His benefits,O my soul" (Psalm 103:2), "Bless the Lord, O my soul" (Psalm 104:1). Then there are times his despair is quite evident such as: "Why are you downcast, O my soul?" (Psalm 43:5), "Be at rest once more, O my soul" (Psalm 116:7), "my soul is troubled exceedingly..."(Psalm 6:3), etc.

Here, in Psalm 62: 5 King David reminds his soul to be calm about the prevailing situation and encourages that his help comes from the Lord. He is giving hope to a soul that is ready to give up waiting.

Barne's notes on the Bible explains:

The idea here is, that all that he expected or hoped for must come from God. He did not rely on his fellow men; he did not rely on himself. God alone could deliver him, and he confidently believed that God would do it.

Often are we in such circumstances that we feel that our only "expectation" - our only hope - is in God. All our strength fails; all our resources are exhausted; our fellow-men cannot or will not aid us; our own efforts seem to be vain; our plans are frustrated, and we are shut up to the conclusion that God alone can help us.

So we get the message. We need not panic or despair; but train our souls to be calm. Let us repeat King David's statement to ourselves: "Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from Him!"

Amen! It will!

Be at rest once more, O my soul

Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you. Psalm 116:7

Please read Psalm 116 in full if you have few minutes today. It is a grateful song by King David as he remembers how God delivered him from the many afflictions he had once faced and reminds his soul to be calm.

This is how Barne's notes on the Bible puts it:

The meaning seems to be, "Return to thy former tranquility and calmness; thy former freedom from fear and anxiety." David had passed through a season of great danger. His soul had been agitated and terrified. That danger was now over, and he calls upon his soul to resume its former tranquility, calmness, peace, and freedom from alarm.

We can all relate to similar season when we were agitated and terrified; we feared danger and called upon the name of our Lord. He came and rescued us!

But our souls have not returned to the former tranquility, calm, peace of mind or freedom from alarm. We are at guard fearing danger, being upset, feeling unhappy, hurting deep, brooding over our past failure & misfortune. We are unable to love those individuals who caused it, we have not forgiven, we can't forget, we don't want to forgive or forget, we can't let go of the hurting past, but why?!

It seems to me that the focus has somehow shifted back on us, instead of our Saviour! Somehow as the days passed we forgot how God came through and lifted us out. Not only that, we started relying on our ability for our present and future needs which only adds more stress & pressure on us... how sad is that!

Today, let us tell our souls, it is okay to relax! Let us invite our souls to rest and abide under our Lord's presence. Let us stop worrying about the future and trust that the same Lord who helped us through our past afflictions is mighty to save us in the future.

While at it, let us also remind our souls of all those times our Lord brought us out of the miry pits, and once again train our souls to return to the former state of peace, singing, praising and glorifying our Lord God Almighty!