We all go through those times when it feels as if God has moved on without us. There is a definite feeling of loneliness and loss. It feels like everything we do is wrong and it will never be right again. If you’ve felt that, you’re in good company. David did too.

He starts by describing his loss in vivid terms (Psalm 42):

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

There is desperation in this tone, he is in anguish:

My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”

Not only is he distraught, he’s being mocked for it. He can’t be himself with anyone because of this internal pain:

how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.

He’s too broken to celebrate with the crowd.

But here is where David shines. He recognizes that his heart needs help. He’s very pragmatic about his depression:

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

This technique must have worked for him well because he used it often.

I think that God uses these times to see what we’re made of. It’s easy to trust Him when life is rosy, but what do we do when it gets hard? Do what David did. Make the decision to trust God anyway. God is still God and He is still with us, always. Just keep reminding yourself and the joy will come. It’s a promise.