When You're Overwhelmed
- Strength For Life
- Mar 3
- 9 min read
Psalm 42 is a passage I recommend Christian people revisit on a regular basis. Not only have I preached from the psalm many times in my years of ministry, but I have also visited it in personal times of need, confusion, and desperation. I know from personal experience that this passage is very relatable to anyone feeling overwhelmed.
Anytime among a church family, there are usually a few in a situation that overwhelms them. In some seasons, many among the redeemed are going through hardship; they have limited mobility, or are recovering from surgery, or are experiencing an unexpected health crisis. If you have not lately experienced an overwhelming situation, thank the Lord and take notes in preparation for the future.
Desperation
There is no doubt that the writer of Psalm 42 is overwhelmed. In fact, he is desperate. “My tears have been my meat day and night,” he says in verse 3. According to verse 5, his soul is cast down. His external tears are a symptom of internal turmoil. This desperate situation has cut him to his soul. Consequently, he has lost his appetite. Some of those reading can relate: there is food in the pantry, in the refrigerator, at the grocery store, and money to buy those things, but you do not want any of it. Psalm 102:3 describes it this way: “I have eaten ashes like bread and mingled my drink with weeping.”
One blessing the psalmist experiences during this time of desperation, however, is found in verse 5, where he gives himself counsel. “Why art thou cast down, oh my soul?" The psalmist is self-aware. Self-awareness is a mental superpower that fewer and fewer people seem to have. In those moments where you have it, recognize it and thank God for a heightened sense of self-awareness. This is not self-indulgence or self-importance, but a sense of who you are and what you are doing. Who you are? You are a sinner. What are you doing? You are giving God glory.
Self-importance, the corruption of self-awareness, insists on its own significance over that of others. One way to develop a healthy sense of insignificance is to go to the airport, the mall, or anywhere large numbers of people are moving. You will quickly realize that everyone has his own life to live, and you are not the center of the world. Observing the night sky takes this principle to the next level. God created the solar system, the galaxy, and beyond, all of which we observe as a fractional speck of the activity of the heavens. Seeing the breadth of what God has made, we ought not have the audacity to become self-important and arrogant.
Another aspect of the psalmist’s self-awareness is that he knows the condition of his heart. "Why art thou disquieted in me?" he asks of himself. If you are familiar with Psalm 42, you know this is a question he returns to in verse 11. The reasons his heart is disquieted are clear in the psalm. This man has taken God’s side, yet he feels like God has forgotten him (v. 9). Even though his enemies are God’s enemies, he feels like they are winning (v. 10). “Why hast thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” His description of isolation is that he feels like a sword has been driven into his bones. It is quite a vivid metaphor for describing emotional pain.
Desire
Having examined the desperation of the psalmist, consider his desire. In the midst of this desperation, what does he desire? The famous answer to that question is in verse 1: “as the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, oh God.” He desires the presence of God. His soul thirsts for God, like a deer running for its life needs water. To be clear, the God he desires is the true God, not the idols around him or, in modern terms, the god of pluralists. He describes God as the living God. He feels like he is dying, but God is the life.
In verse 7, he shifts his metaphor. Here, the psalmist describes being overwhelmed as a feeling of sinking and drowning. We see this in verse 7: “Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water spouts. All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me." He imagines his situation like he is in open water, and big waves are preventing him from staying on the surface. For just a moment, he feels like he can get a breath of air, but just the time he tries to inhale, he gets another mouthful of water.
Notice the way the psalmist describes God in verse 9: “God, my rock.” When he feels like he is sinking into the depths of a bottomless ocean, his God is his rock. The Lord is a firm, safe place to find footing. For this man, recovering his footing looks like a renewed relationship with the Lord, where he hears the voice of his God.
The psalmist desires God, but he also desires God’s people. In verse 4, he remembers how he “had gone with the multitude … to the house of God.” He describes the joy of the people of God—the Old Testament saints—when he “went with them to the house of God.” There was joy and praise among these people who were keeping the Sabbath holyday. When you are in a situation where you feel overwhelmed, it is healthy and helpful to gather with people who love God, have the joy of Jesus in their soul, and whose voice is full of joy and praise to God.
Perhaps in your flesh and in the season of uncertainty, you do not feel like being joyful and praising. But then you get around some people that do, and they strengthen you. While you should not compare your situation with others in a 2 Corinthians 10:12 way, it is often helpful to be around somebody in a much worse situation than you do. Why? Because seeing that brother or sister singing God's praise and adoring the Savior who saved their soul with grace, honor, beauty, and the joy of Jesus helps put the current situation in perspective. If he can rejoice, so can you.
Decision
As we examine these 11 verses, we notice something. The psalmist’s situation does not change, but his attitude changes. Psalm 42 gives us no indication that God shut the mouths of his enemies. The psalm does not tell us that his overwhelming burden has been lifted or removed. Whether those things happen is besides the point. What is important is that, in the midst of carrying that burden, the psalmist recognizes he needs God and remembers the joy and praise of God's people. As a result of seeing those things, the psalmist chooses to focus on three things we find in verse 8: the LORD’s loving kindness, the LORD’s song, and the psalmist’s prayer.
First Psalm 42:8 promises that “the LORD will command His lovingkindness.” Notice that the verse begins with “yet.” In the face of his situation, the psalmist gives himself a pep talk. He talks truth to himself. Despite his burden, “yet” some things are true. A famous piece of counsel he reminds himself of is in verse 11: “hope thou in God.” Understand that, as the Bible uses the word, “hope” is not wishful thinking, but rather confident expectation. The psalmist expects that the living God, who is His rock, will show him lovingkindness. The word for lovingkindness carries the idea of steadfast love. Often it is translated “mercy” in the psalms. The psalmist expects that he will experience God’s mercy, kindness, and steadfast love.
Notice the times he expects the Lord to show Him grace: “in the daytime, and in the night.” Remember how, in verse 3, his tears had been his meat day and night. Now that he is aware of God’s many mercies, the tears are going to dry up. When I meet church members for breakfast or fellowship early in the morning, we will often pray together. In those times, I am mindful to praise the Lord for the sunshine, the brisk air or the rain, or even the summer humidity. We ought to for the aspects of creation we often take for granted: blue sky, clouds, the colors of the sunrise and sunset. I thank the Lord for those things primarily for my own sake, to remind myself that they are signs of God's loving kindness. Any breath you breathe on this earth is evidence that God has been merciful to you. After all, we deserve hell.
Second, Psalm 42:8 promises that “in the night His song shall be with me.” Previously, the night was a time of burdened tears, but here the psalmist chooses to focus on the LORD’s song. I have given personal testimony many times about how much the songs I learned as a teenager in North Minneapolis ministered to me. As a teenager, coming from the drama of a broken home, I would stand and sing as Marc Monte led us in songs like “Somebody Loves Me,” “Jesus, Hold My Hand,” and “I Need Thee Every Hour.” Those songs cut through my 15-year-old attempt to be cool in my thrift store jeans, to sing but not too enthusiastically, and I realized the songs were actually helping me. I would return home to the drama, but those lyrics would stick in my head. The Holy Spirit helped lodge the truth in my heart to the point that 30 years later, I still am mindful of those song lyrics in my desperate situations. Psalms are the songbook of the Old Testament, and more modern hymns are also powerful. Find a song that that draws you closer to the Lord during your valley time, and the Spirit of God will use that Bible-based song to lead you through it.
Third, the psalmist decides to direct his prayer back to the Lord. Notice verse 8 again: “in the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.” Here he reminds himself of the importance of maintaining a substantative prayer life. He has been asking the question, “Where are you God? I really want to feel your presence, but I do not sense it. I have been talking to you and it seems like you are not even there. However, I will keep on praying because your Word tells me to pray." Remember the words of Jeremiah 33:3. "Call unto me," God says, "and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not." Of course, it is according to His time and His will to show us great things, and it is for his glory. However, God also has the ability to answer our prayers “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20) or, as Jeremiah 33:3 says “great and mighty things which thou knowest not.” God is capable of exceeding the limits of our imaginations.
So yes, the psalmist says, I have had tears day and night, but during the day I purpose to look around and see God's lovingkindness in his merciful creation. I will sing a song to get me through the night. And then I will remember that He instructs me to talk to Him. Dear Christian, this privilege of prayer is possible because of Christ. We can go boldly into God's throne room.
A final decision the psalmist makes is in verse 5. He says, "I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance." The help here is not the help of lifting the burden. Rather, it is the help of His countenance. What does that mean? It means that the writer is praising God not for solving the immediate problem, for who God is. As I often say, if God never does anything else for you, you still ought to worship Him the rest of your life just because of who He is. He is worthy of worship.
By the end of Psalm 42, our psalmist has gone from praising the Lord “for the help of His countenance” (v. 5) to saying “I shall yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance (v. 11). Do you see what changed? The psalmist praised God for who He is and pep-talked himself into hoping in God. By the end of the psalm, his countenance has changed. Instead of tears night and day, he is healthy. The situation is probably the same, but instead of tears and a disposition of being downtrodden and overwhelmed, he is thinking about who God is and what God is capable of doing and what God has done in the past, and it has changed him. He remembers that God has done great things for others in the past, and He can do them for the psalmist’s situation. That realization affected his countenance.
When you are in the midst of turmoil and feeling overwhelmed, make sure your desire is for God and for His people. Then sing a song about God, notice God in His creation all around you, and you will be able to give God lots of glory in the midst of an undesirable situation. In that moment, as unsaved people around you who know your situation observe you, you will be “an epistle known and read of all men” (2 Cor. 3:2). You will not be bitter or turn your back on God. Instead, you still desire God, and the effect will be evangelistic. You can be evangelistic even when you're overwhelmed, just by depending on the Spirit of God and obeying the word of God in the midst of the unexpected trying times of your life. May we be a people that conducts ourselves in that way for God's glory and with God's power.
The above article was written by Pastor James C. Johnson. He is the pastor of NorthStone Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fl. To offer him your feedback, comment below or email us at strengthforlife461@gmail.com.
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