Be Strong And Let Your Heart Take Courage
Be Strong And Let Your Heart Take Courage
Psalms 31:24 We can’t make it through rough times on our own, but the Lord gives us strength
“Be strong and let your heart take courage, All you who hope in the Lord.”
Psalms 31:24 NASB1995
Psalm 31 is widely quoted elsewhere in Scripture. It is dedicated “To The Chief Musician - A Psalm of David”, and is a song dedicated to grief and difficulties. Not all songs are filled with praise to God; some of them are like the “blues” of their time, speaking to the listener of hardship and woes.
Verse 24 is at the tail end of this litany of sadness, and it offers hope to those who listened to the psalm in David’s time and to those of us who read it now. As King, and friend of many of the influential people of his time, David ended the psalm with words of encouragement, asking others to look to God for strength and courage.
God’s people have good reason to be courageous, as He strengthens all who have trust in Him and hope for the future.
I know I quote the “Prince of Preachers” Charles H. Spurgeon quite often, but it’s simply because his commentary is as clear and powerful now as it was when he wrote it in the mid-19th Century. Here’s what Spurgeon had to say about the ending of Psalm 31:
“Dear friends, if you want to get out of diffidence, and timidity, and despondency, you must rouse yourselves up. This is incumbent upon you, for the text puts it so: ‘Be of good courage.’ Do not sit still, and rub your eyes, and say, ‘I cannot help it, I must always be dull like this.’ You must not be so; in the name of God, you are commanded in the text to ‘be of good courage.’ If you are indolent, like that, you must not expect the grace of God to operate upon you as though you were a block of wood, and could be made into something against your will. Oh, no! You must determine to be of good courage.” 1
In the all-too-common times of difficulty, it’s up to us to “take courage” and trust in the Lord.
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
Father in Heaven, sometimes life’s twists and turns can make us discouraged and soul-weary. We turn to friends, family, and even strangers for comfort, but You are the only true source of strength in hard times. When we put our hope in You alone, You strengthen us and help us make it through each day. Your strength is all we need to overcome the difficulties of our earthly lives. We trust in You and You alone, AMEN.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org.
Spurgeon, Charles Haddon "The New Park Street Pulpit" Volumes 1-6 and "The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit" Volumes 7-63 (Pasadena, Texas: Pilgrim Publications, 1990)