Singing Psalm 73 – especially when sad
Updated: Aug 20
Since the full range of human emotion is expressed in the Psalms which are meant to be sung, I think it is important to explore how this practice can point our hearts to Christ when used as intended, not only in the worship service, but also in our everyday lives. God’s Word and God, the Holy Spirit, direct and counsel our thoughts to bring us to Christ. The Psalms are especially suited to reach deep into our innermost being to reveal what is there and realign our souls when we, like lost sheep, begin to go astray in our hearts.
David Murray, in his article on therapeutic praise writes: “The Psalms not only permit us to ‘vent’ our emotions, but also call for their transformation. We are not left to wallow in our feelings, but are shown how to move from fear to courage, from sorrow to joy, from anger to peace, and from despair to hope.”
As one who finds herself melancholy, my plan is to record all that I can of God’s works in my life, that He might be specifically praised for each one. This idea first came to my mind after singing all of Psalm 73. I sang it while praying for a friend who was in great distress with God’s providence at the time. Singing it brought me from feelings of confusion and sadness over my sin to a crisp glimpse of the greatness of God’s mercy toward His people and a strong desire to praise Him and keep Him focused and clear in my mind’s eye. I praise God for removing the blurry, clouded malaise from my heart and replacing that with hope in Him as my refuge.
August 6, 2012
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Singing Psalm 73 to assess how you formulate personal desires
Looking around and within for your personal desires
Psalm 73 is a psalm of transformed desires. The composer starts out playing a comparison game where he gets the short end of the stick. He’s looking all around him and seeing how well others are faring, and then he looks at himself and doesn’t see anything worth much.
How do we determine what it is we actually want? It seems to be a natural reflex to look around at and want what others have. Is this how it must be done? Is it a wise course? Let’s sift through it to find out.
Singing Psalm 73 to stir up your dead-end personal desires
Looking to Jesus with your personal desires in clear sight
In this complaining state, he sees himself as a brute beast. Then, seemingly out of nowhere enters God. He takes him by the hand, guides him in wisdom, and gives him a vision of glory anticipating the Lord Jesus beseeching navel-gazing people in confusion and bewilderment to come to him to learn gentleness and humility, and he promises to give them rest.
His coming and living among us perfectly, taking our sins upon himself through death, giving us his perfect life, promising to be with us always, and making his home with us as he prepares an eternal home for us, makes it possible for us to be transformed today living life unburdened, free, and full.
When no one else noticed, paid attention, or seemed to care, the Lord not only cares but holistically leads him in heart, soul, mind, and strength, transforming him so that he sees nothing the same. Indeed, nothing is the same once God initiates.
When I have looked to people, activities, food, education, or things to make me happy, these invariably got in between God and me where they didn’t belong. When the result was expected to bring happiness but instead disappointed, I would feel unsettled, anxious, sad, or angry. Things did not make sense, and I went along brutish and ignorant, like a beast. These things, gifts from God to be enjoyed with God, were displacing God, the only one who can make me happy, rescue me, save me from myself.
There is nothing more freeing than having the desire and ability to serve God and those he is calling you to serve, and there is nothing more enslaving when you can’t. Singing Psalm 73 as you lay your personal desires and all that is pressing on you within your heart before the Lord will stir up every dead-end desire, separating them out so you can see and discern each one clearly. Only then can you know what you really want and what you really don’t want and ask accordingly.
Singing Psalm 73 to live in light of your transformed personal desires
Question your new personal desires with confidence
Taking the time necessary to ensure that nothing is getting between God and me, nothing is blocking your access to him for life and joy, not even knowledge, is the key to living in peace with the Lord, others, and yourself. If your desires lead you to love him, you know it was he that initiated to place those personal desires within you. I know there is nothing in me that deserves his presence.
He, through his word and by his Spirit, transforms your twisted thinking and puts your mind and body in order. Loving the Lord is the key to life. Because the triune God, Father, Son, who is Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, entered with compassion, you can sing with this composer:
“Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works.” ~ Psalm 73:25-28
March 26, 2022 update to the August 6, 2012 article on Psalm 73
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Heart ♥️ reflection
November 13, 2024
“As you enter the house, greet it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town.” ~ Matthew 10:12-14
Question: How can I go from the idea of loving God and others to committing myself to the reality of loving God and others?
Heart reflection: There has to mentally be an acceptable place for waiting, suffering, and discerning within you. Die to self. Live for Jesus. But what does that look like? Being available to give your time to understand, care, and pray. You become willing to let go of those who reject the peace of Jesus that you are freely offering. Give instead to those who accept his peace and benefit from what God has given you to give. Continue to pray for those who reject it that they would come to their senses, turn, and God would heal their hearts. Sing the psalms to knit your heart to God’s in the face of relational trials. The Lord uses his word to develop within you an intentional, emotional connection with him who is holy, where God becomes more than an idea to you, where he becomes your very heart’s desire.
“Are You not all I have in heav’n?
None else on earth do I desire.
Though human strength come to an end—
My flesh may fail, my heart expire—
My heart‘s strength God Himself will be,
My portion through eternity.” ~ Psalm 73:25-26
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The Psalms—Q&A
“For how,” they say, “can God discern?”
And, “Does the Most High really know?” ~ Psalm 73:11.
How does the Lord Jesus leading me to sing Psalm 73 help me grow in my affection for God and in my connection with others?
“Are You not all I have in heav’n? None else on earth do I desire.” ~ Psalm 73:25
When God’s promises become to you as good as their fulfillment, waiting is no longer a drag but a journey of your dreams coming true in increasing surety with every step you take. This is equally true whether your circumstances look as if you are moving toward the goal or away from it. Singing Psalm 73 is your perfect opportunity to explore how your inner world (your heart, your thoughts about your life, your longing for home*) would be transformed.
Even now, with peace that passes understanding, you can sing this psalm and write your memoir that only you and the tri-wondrous God can see. That is enough.**
“Yet constantly I am with You;
Your counsel shows me what to do,
And guides me in the things I plan;
My heart’s strength God Himself will be,
My portion through eternity.” ~ Psalm 73:23a,24,26b
**That is infinitely more than enough considering the unsearchable riches of the Lord’s constant compassionate presence in Jesus who bids you to come to him who is full of not accusations and deceptions but grace and truth.
Ask Leah, Jacob’s wife given to him under false pretense: How did having to wait for God’s deliverance teach you to trust him?
Engage and grow together!
“Iron sharpens iron,
and one man sharpens another.” ~ Proverbs 27:17
For much more on God with you and a story of the before and after of acknowledging the Lord in my life, please visit: https://www.abcsconnection.com/post/sing-psalm-73-especially-when-you-feel-sad
August 14-21, 2026
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On Psalm 73–God with you—continued:
Objection: How could God be desired on earth in the midst of so much evil on earth?
You can see only what is in front of you presently and what has happened in the past. God sees what he will bring about, how he will undo every wrong thing that has ever been done. You are living here now, but as citizens of a future kingdom, the new heavens and the new earth, God will restore all things. Only the Lord sees the big picture.
Though we were not created to manage the knowledge of good and evil, after taking charge as if we were, the Lord thought it best in his grace that we learn to distinguish and discern between good and evil. It is hard learning indeed. He started over with Noah because evil had become too great and threatened to overtake the good. We can distinguish between the independence from the Father of the first Adam, and the dependence on the Father of the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. We can choose who to follow. We can humble ourselves to realize that God knows what we could never know. We can refuse to flatter ourselves to think that we know better than the one who made us.
If you are his, then God is with you. Unsurpassed peace and power will come to you who know that God is with you. If this site is anything, it is an earnest attempt to help you, the reader know God with you, to communicate that God‘s goodness can be trusted in the midst of community on the earth, fallen as it is. While on this earth, I reckon this is the best thing I could be doing. It is renewing my mind, an act of spiritual worship of the God I love. There is nothing else I would rather do.
We are in the middle of God’s story. The end of his story will be revealed for all to see in the new heavens and the new earth. This is why we must learn now to fix our eyes on Jesus. This is why we must set our minds on things above, not on earthly things. Not on our little story, but on how God will use it in his big story. This is why Jesus says that you cannot serve both God and mammon. It’s one or the other. God gives us his heart in his word. Singing the psalms solidifies that heart in you, the people who sing them and make them your own. You make God your own.
I have been thrust into heated discussions with those who I thought, and who presented themselves as if they believed God and his word. I thought they wanted to understand what I was sharing with them about these things, but at that time, they in fact did not. I seemed to them as a self-proclaimed high priestess, and they were offended. It was not the right time for me to share these wonderful truths with them.
How can you help someone know that God is with him or her?
If you are able to be present such that a person knows that you are with him or her that can be a starting place to know that God is also unless they attempt to make a god out of you. As I learn to trust God‘s timing, I don’t attempt to convince others (even if they initiate the conversation) if it seems that it’s going in a direction that is vehemently against their will. In my passion to get God‘s goodness and light across to those who have experienced the darkness of bigotry, prejudice, and rejection in this world, I was foolish, like a brute beast before them. I did not understand how to communicate clearly how important it is to see God by faith whom you cannot see with your eyes. Although I shared with boldness as I should, gentleness• took a backseat. I felt it was my imminent responsibility (as if God was not working or could not use someone else) to get the truth across about God and his good news in Jesus. I did not yet understand God with me who would guide my words and defend himself in his own perfect time.
Yet he will use my weaknesses and failures in thought and speech to bring about an understanding of how good and strong he is. Nothing and no one can thwart his purposes. Not my imperfections in communication and blindness to my sin of impatience that caused undo stress to those I love nor their present unwillingness to seek God’s face in their sufferings.
Being understood and helping others understand are useful goals, but knowing God with you even when you are not understood and are not able to help others understand is a must-have. This is the only way you can truly keep a pure, sincere heart, genuinely desiring the best for all others even in disagreements, disappointments, and distress, resisting temptation to drink the bitter stew. When you know God with you, you can be at peace in the midst of conflict.
It is possible (but sad) to make an intellectual exercise out of the things of God (his greatness, how he rescues, how he satisfies, how he is most high over all the earth, how he answers, helps, fights for us, hears us, covers our sin, how he is faithful, how he judges, how he blesses, gives truth, saves, sustains, protects, chooses, is holy, how he thinks of us, how he loves, forgives, shows mercy, grace, and covenant love, how you give him thanks, to name just a few). The one idea that I think is difficult, if not impossible to turn into that kind of exercise is what I’ve been alluding to all along: the mindblowing concept of God with you.
God with you: desiring his presence (and quickly), not wanting to be forsaken, wanting to never be cast off from him, seeking and looking upon his face, God as your portion, your cup, your inheritance. He bids you to hide yourself in him. You ask him to allow you to hide in him. You stay near to him and want him to stay near to you. You want to be in him, in his house, called his own. You beseech him not to leave you and to never be far off from you. I was struck by how many verses, at a quick glance through the psalter, capture the motif of God with you (2:12b, 4:3, 5:12b, 9:10, 11:7, 14:5, 16:5, 8, 10, 11, 17:8, 18:1, 2, 21:6, 22:10–11, 19, 23:4, 6, 24:6, 25:14, 27:4, 5, 8, 10, 28:9, 32:7, 33:12, 34:4, 18, 36:9, 38:21, 41:12, 42:2, 43:3, 44:23, 46:11, 51:11, 52:8, 61:4, 62:2, 63:8, 64:10, 65:4, 66:6, 13, 68:6, 35, 69:17, 18, 35, 36, 70:4, 71:9, 18, 72:14, 73:23, 74:1, 75:1, 80:3, 7, 19, 82:8, 84:4, 10, 86:16, 88:14, 89:29, 90:1, 91:1, 92:13, 94:14, 95:2, 6, 96:8, 100:3, 4, 101:2, 102:2, 105:4, 106:4, 5, 118:9b, 19, 20, 119:2, 10, 57, 94, 151, 121:5, 122:1, 9, 125:2, 132:5, 7, 135:4, 139:7, 8, 10, 18, 140:13, 141:8, 142:5, 143:7, 10, 145:18, 148:14; Psalm verses—God with you).
But all these references are really not surprising since the Lord did indeed make you for himself. The God-breathed word is beautifully breathed out by you when you sing the psalms your best for him, engaged and from the heart, no matter how you sound to yourself or anyone else. The Lord himself beckons all the earth to “make a joyful noise!” ~ Psalm 100:1 I love singing through the entire psalter. It cracks open the universe before you giving you a glimpse of what perfect communication is like with your maker who is your husband. Singing the psalms doesn’t just give you information about God, who he is, and what he has done, and the waxing and waning of our trust in and willingness to wait for him, though it does give you that.
Singing the psalms gives you to God and gives God to you.
It’s impossible that Jesus would ever forsake, cast away, or say “away from me, I never knew you” to you who embrace the opportunities he gives to know him. You come to him, trust him such that you depend on him. You worship, follow, and genuinely delight in and love him and his people. You’re truly known by him in affectionate, close friendship (as opposed to being known from afar.)
“For He knows each heart and the secrets within.” ~ Psalm 44:21b
“And when he hears disturbing news
He will not be afraid;
His heart is fixed; his confidence
Upon the LORD is stayed.” ~ Psalm 112:7
As in the best of marriages, you can be secure to admit and repent of your sins. Although you are a sinner, Jesus does not hold your sin against you. You have his heart. And he has yours.
All that matters to you is that you are with God and that God is with you. There is nothing like his presence to move you to joyfully trust him. If he sets you free from trouble and shame, but then leaves you and is not with you, what good would that do? This is what peace looks like. More to be desired, even than having peace, is having the God of peace with you. And having him, you have all. You lack no good thing.
“How good that God is near to me!
I refuge take in God the LORD,
That all your works I may record.” ~ Psalm 73:28
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•Is it possible to present as gentle outwardly but not be compassionate inwardly? On the flipside, can a person be passionate outwardly while maintaining a gentle, compassionate heart?
“The most tender and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because she is so delicate and tender, will begrudge to the husband she embraces, to her son and to her daughter, her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears, because lacking everything she will eat them secretly, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your towns.” ~ Deuteronomy 28:53-57
Abigail to David:
“Now then, my lord, as the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, because the LORD has restrained you from bloodguilt and from saving with your own hand, now then let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be as Nabal.” ~ 1 Samuel 25:26
“He’ll hide me in his tent
When comes the evil day.
He’ll set me high upon a rock;
I’ll in His shelter stay.” ~ Psalm 27:5
August 14-21, 2026
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