At The Loved Bible Project, our mission is to equip you as a disciple-maker—someone who sees and invests in the people around you with gospel intentionality. But as you grow in helping others follow Jesus, don’t forget this essential truth: disciple-makers must first be growing disciples themselves.

That’s why personal time in God’s Word matters—because as you lead others, you must let the truth of Scripture lead you.

Psalm 13 offers a powerful model for processing emotions through a gospel lens. As Paul Tripp says in The Gospel: One Psalm at a Time,

“No one talks to you more than you do. You’re in a constant conversation with yourself, and the things you say to you, about you, about God, about life, then shape the way you live.”

Thoughts and emotions are unavoidable, and if we don’t manage them, they will surely manage us. There is comfort and joy in the fact that Scripture contains everything we need to face whatever comes our way.  Psalm 13 gives us great counsel for how to manage our emotions before they overwhelm us.  

1. Be honest.  Four times in two verses David is honest with God about how he was feeling about his circumstances –  “How long, O Lord?!”, (vs 1,2). Sitting alone in our emotions places us in a vulnerable position, where both our thoughts and the enemy of our souls can whisper lies. God invites honesty.
2. Look up, not around.  David took his raw emotion to God, not to other people: “How long, O Lord?”  In addition to sharing his emotions with God, David prayed, “Light up my eyes”.  His desire was to filter his circumstances through God’s perspective and not just through his emotions.
3. Remember.  In verse 5, David reminded himself that he had trusted God’s steadfast love in the past, and he would do it again.  When things aren’t great in the present, pause and reflect back on the goodness of God in your past.  
4. Rejoice.  David made a choice to rejoice – not in his circumstances, but in His God.  We can do the same!  Regardless of our circumstances, God’s love for us is steadfast, He has provided salvation for us through the blood of His Son, and one day Jesus will return for us and we will spend eternity with Him. 

As this Psalm closes, notice that, while there is no mention of David’s circumstances changing, it is very evident that David had been changed by choosing to invite God into the midst of his emotions.  He went from despair to joy!