Why this matters
Feelings are powerful. They shape how we interpret everything around us, including our faith. A believer who feels close to God finds it easy to trust Him. The same believer in a season of confusion, grief or doubt may find that the faith which once felt solid now feels strangely thin.
This is not a new problem. The writer of Psalm 73 wrestled with it openly. He looked at the world around him and found that what he saw did not seem to match what he believed. The wicked prospered. The faithful suffered. His emotions nearly swept him away from God altogether.
But the psalm does not end there. The psalmist finds his footing again, not by recovering a better feeling, but by returning to what is actually true. He moves from the turmoil of his own perspective to the steadiness of God's presence and God's purposes.
This study looks at how faith can remain standing when feelings are unsettled and how the steadiness of God is the ground we stand on rather than the ground we feel.
Read the passage
Psalm 73:21–28 (WEB)
For my soul was troubled, and I was pierced in my heart. I was so senseless and ignorant. I was a brute beast before you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You have held my right hand. You will guide me with your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Who do I have in heaven? There is no one on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
For, behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you. But it is good for me to come close to God. I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.
Walkthrough
When Feelings Nearly Swept Him Away
To understand these final verses of Psalm 73 you need to know what came before them. The psalmist had spent most of the psalm in a state of spiritual crisis. He had watched the wicked flourish. They seemed healthy, wealthy and untouched by the struggles that pressed on him. He had kept his heart clean and what had it cost him? Trouble all day long.
His feelings had brought him to the edge of abandoning his faith altogether. He says in verse two that his feet had almost slipped. He was close to concluding that following God was simply not worth it.
What saved him was not a change in his circumstances. It was a change in his perspective, specifically the perspective he gained when he entered the sanctuary of God and saw things as they actually were rather than as his feelings were presenting them to him.
Senseless and Ignorant
When the psalmist finally gains that right perspective, his first response is to feel the full weight of how badly his feelings had led him. He says: I was senseless and ignorant, a brute beast before You.
This is not false modesty. It is an honest recognition of what happens when we let our emotional state determine our theology. He had allowed his feelings about what he observed to overrule his knowledge of who God is. He had been reasoning from his experiences rather than from what he knew to be true.
There is a sober warning here for every believer. Feelings are real but they are not always right. A season of suffering does not prove that God is absent. A period of apparent injustice does not prove that God is careless. When emotions interpret reality without being checked by truth, the conclusions they reach can lead us far from solid ground.
Nevertheless
Verse twenty-three begins with one of the most important words in the psalm. Nevertheless. Despite everything he has just described, despite the near-collapse of his faith, despite the bitterness and confusion: nevertheless I am continually with you.
He did not arrive at this truth by feeling his way to it. He arrived at it by remembering what is actually true about his relationship with God. God had held his right hand. God would guide him. God would receive him to glory. None of that had changed while his feelings were in turmoil. The facts of his relationship with God were not altered by his emotional state.
This is the heart of what it means to stand by faith when feelings wobble. You do not wait for the feeling to return. You return your attention to what is true. You say nevertheless. You name the reality that exists beneath and beyond your emotional experience.
My Portion Forever
In verse twenty-five the psalmist arrives at something remarkable. There is no one on earth I desire besides You. He is not saying this from a place of easy contentment. He is saying it from a place where his flesh and his heart have failed. It is a confession of re-ordered desire made from the middle of difficulty, not after it.
And then verse twenty-six gives us the ground of everything: God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Not my circumstances. Not my feelings. Not my track record of faithful living. God Himself is the portion, the inheritance, the ground on which the psalmist stands.
When feelings wobble, this is where the believer returns. Not to a better emotion but to a truer reality. God has not moved. He is still the strength of the heart and the portion forever. That does not change with the weather of our inner life.
Anchored truths
Your feelings are real but they are not always right
Feelings are powerful interpreters of experience, but they are not reliable theologians. When your emotions tell you God is absent or uncaring, they need to be checked against what you actually know to be true.
The facts of your relationship with God do not change with your emotional state
God held your hand before you felt the crisis. He will guide you through it. He will receive you to glory after it. None of those realities were suspended while the psalmist struggled. None are suspended for you.
Nevertheless is an act of faith
Saying nevertheless, I am with God even when your feelings are in uproar is not denial. It is the decision to let what is true govern what you believe rather than letting what you feel govern what you believe. This is faith in its most tested and most real form.
Discussion questions
- —Have you experienced a season where your feelings were telling you something different from what you knew to be true about God? What did that feel like?
- —The psalmist says he was like a brute beast when his feelings were governing his perspective. Can you think of a time when your emotional state led you to conclusions about God that were not accurate?
- —What is the difference between feelings that are real and feelings that are right? How do you tell the difference in your own experience?
- —What does it look like practically to say nevertheless in a season of spiritual turbulence? What helps you return to what is true rather than staying with what you feel?
- —The psalmist says God is his portion forever. What does it mean for God Himself rather than God's gifts or comfort to be what you are ultimately living for?
Personal response
Your feelings will have opinions about your faith. They will sometimes report that God is close and sometimes report that He has withdrawn. They will sometimes confirm what you believe and sometimes contradict it.
The psalmist shows us that the answer is not to suppress those feelings or pretend they are not real. The answer is to refuse to give them the final word. He brought his turmoil to God, saw things clearly in the sanctuary and then said nevertheless.
This week, when your feelings wobble, try naming what is actually true before you do anything else. God is with you. He has held your hand. He is your portion. Say that to yourself. Let the truth speak louder than the feeling, and then keep walking.
Closing prayer
Father, my heart is not always steady and my feelings do not always lead me well. Thank You that Your faithfulness does not depend on my emotional state. When my soul is troubled, remind me that You are still holding my hand. When I feel far from You, remind me that nevertheless I am continually with You. Be the strength of my heart in the seasons when my heart wants to fail. You are my portion and that is enough. Amen.
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