You care about the anguish of my soul
Psalms 31:7 Depressed? Sad? God knows your troubles and cares about you. An attitude of gratitude will bring you joy!
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“I will be glad and rejoice in your unfailing love, for you have seen my troubles, and you care about the anguish of my soul.”
Psalms 31:7 NLT
Psalm 31, which contains the verse we’re diving into today, is filled with gems of wisdom. In fact, it is quoted repeatedly in Scripture. Psalm 71 quotes the first three verses of this Psalm, verse 6 is part of Jonah’s prayer from the belly of the whale, Jeremiah references verse 3 six different times, Paul quotes verse 24 in his first epistle to the Corinthians, and both Jesus and Stephen the protomartyr alluded to verse 5 in the moments before their deaths.
David, the writer of many of the Psalms, had more than his share of adversity. Yet through it all, even when he was faced with attacks from other kings or from his own people, he maintained an upbeat and joyful attitude. Why? Gratitude. When David looked at what God had done for him during his life, his heart was so full of gratitude that he couldn’t be miserable.
God had seen his troubles, so David was happy that God never ignored him during those times. God knew David into the depths of his soul during his bad times and good, which would be another reason to be joyful. David reflected on his gratitude for what God had done for him and how He knew David’s innermost thoughts and feelings, and God’s love simply made him rejoice!
As Charles Haddon Spurgeon so eloquently put it, “When we are so bewildered as not to know our own state, he knows us altogether. He has known us and will know us: O for grace to know more of him! ‘Man, know thyself,’ is a good philosophic precept, but ‘Man, thou art known of God,’ is a superlative consolation.”1
When the weight of the world is pressing down on you, when you feel like everything is going wrong and everyone hates you, reflect on God’s unfailing love for you and it will lighten your burden.
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
God, let my fears and troubles be washed away by the flood of gratitude I feel for Your constant concern for the state of my soul, and for all You have done for me during my life. I am grateful for Your steadfast love, and may my life be a reflection of that love as I interact with others. AMEN.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Spurgeon, Charles Haddon "The Treasury of David: Volume 1" (Psalms 1-57) (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1988)