When Discouragement Comes

Do you remember this little song from childhood days?

“Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, Think I’ll go eat worms,

Long, thin, slimy ones; Short, fat, juicy ones,

Itsy, bitsy, fuzzy wuzzy worms.”

To tell the truth, I’ve never been quite so despondent that I ate a worm, but there have been times in my life that I wondered if I would make it through overwhelming circumstances.

David the writer of many Psalms knew what it was to face discouraging circumstances in his life. While David and his army were off to war in another part of the country, bandits attacked their hometown of Ziklag, stole their belongings, burned their homes, and kidnapped their wives and children. When David’s army returned, expecting a welcome-home party, they found a burned and deserted city. David and all his men broke down into tears, not knowing if their families were dead or alive. It didn’t seem like things could get any worse, but they did.

“And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.”  I Samuel 30:6 KJV.

David was a musician, so he probably got his harp out, started to strum, and made up a new song about God’s great deliverance.

David probably sang,I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.  My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; The humble shall hear of it and be glad.  Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.” Psalm 34:1-4 NKJV.

David sang until his heart was encouraged, then in verse 8 it says, he prayed, “Shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he (God) answered him, ‘Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.’” And that’s exactly what David and his men did, they went after the bandits, recovered their families and fortunes, and brought them home to Ziklag.

Sometimes you have to encourage yourself and remind yourself of the goodness of God.