Can I be anxious and still trust God?
Yes. The psalms of lament put anxiety itself into the mouth of believers: souls in despair, tears eaten as bread, questions flung straight at God, and one psalm that ends in darkness without a resolution. Yet every one of these prayers was addressed TO God, which means being overwhelmed has never disqualified anyone from trusting Him.
This question arose from studying Why am I so anxious? and Why does God allow suffering and evil?.
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Go into the Word
Not a summary of these passages: the passages themselves. Read them, then come back to the study below.
The study
What the Scripture says
Anxiety does not silence prayer; desperation IS prayer
The psalm opens with a soul in distress, and the distress is aimed at God: 'As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God.' Thirst, tears, and relentless taunts ('Where is your God?') are all spoken TO Him. Whatever else anxiety is, in Scripture it does not disqualify a person from seeking God; the very ache becomes the address.
As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
Faith talks to its own soul instead of only listening to it
Three times across Psalms 42 and 43 the writer turns inward and interrogates himself: 'Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God!' He does not deny the disturbance; he questions it. This is not pretending to be fine. It is preaching to yourself instead of only hearing yourself, and it is one of the most practical disciplines in the whole Bible for a spiraling mind.
Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence.
Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him, the saving help of my countenance, and my God.
Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him: my Savior, my helper, and my God.
You may ask God 'why' without ceasing to believe
The psalmist's faith is not fragile politeness: 'I will ask God, my rock, Why have you forgotten me?' Notice the contradiction he holds together: God is his rock even while he asks why God seems absent. Psalm 88 goes further still: 'Yahweh, why do you reject my soul? Why do you hide your face from me?' Lament directed at God is a form of trust, because only a believer brings the unedited heart to the One he still calls his rock.
I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
Yahweh, why do you reject my soul? Why do you hide your face from me?
God canonized a psalm that ends in darkness
Psalm 88 never turns. Its final line leaves lover and friend 'into darkness,' with no resolution and no sunrise. That is astonishing: the Spirit saw fit to preserve a believer's unresolved anguish in the permanent songbook of God's people. If you have seasons where faith survives but joy does not return by the last verse, you are not broken beyond the family of God; you are in a psalm.
You have put lover and friend far from me, and my friends into darkness.
Yahweh, the God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you.
Hope is chosen before it is felt
The refrain commands the soul: 'Hope in God!' before any relief has arrived, and grounds it forward: 'For I shall still praise him.' Psalm 43 shows what hoping looks like mid-darkness: praying for light and truth to lead home, and calling God 'my exceeding joy' while the way there is still unpaved. Trust under anxiety is often exactly this: an act of the will performed ahead of the feeling, sustained by remembering who God has been.
Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence. My God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.
Oh, send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill, To your tents. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my exceeding joy. I will praise you on the harp, God, my God.
As you read, you may wonder…
Scripture raises the next question
Studying the Word naturally opens more of it. Follow what you just read: it leads somewhere.
Continue this trail
What did Jesus do when He was overwhelmed?→“He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible to you. Please remove this cup from me. However, not what I desire, but what you desire.””What does God's peace actually feel like?→“In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.”Why does Peter tell me to cast my anxiety?→“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time; casting all your worries on him, because he cares for you.”Why does God keep saying 'fear not'?→“Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.”How can I rest when my mind won't stop?→“I laid myself down and slept. I awakened; for Yahweh sustains me.”When the weight won't lift: what happened to Elijah?→“Yahweh’s angel came again the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.””Explore further
Where is God in my specific pain?→Suffering & God's Will trail“Yahweh is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves those who have a crushed spirit.”Why does God seem silent when I pray?→Prayer trail“Wait for Yahweh. Be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for Yahweh.”We haven't written this one yet. Take it to your church or small group: the Word answers it wherever it is asked. If we study it here later, all the better.
Hold onto these
Verses to meditate on
Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence.
Yahweh will command his loving kindness in the daytime. In the night his song shall be with me: a prayer to the God of my life.
Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him: my Savior, my helper, and my God.
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