Psalm 56: When Sorrow Overwhelms You

Some days you are not spiraling with anxiety, you are just sad, and you cannot even explain it. Psalm 56 gives us language for that kind of grief. David writes while surrounded by enemies, worn down by slander, and overwhelmed by fear, yet he keeps coming back to a stubborn, grounding confession: when he is afraid, he will trust God. We slow down and read the psalm carefully, because the Bible is not only theology, it is a guide for what to do with your emotions when life feels hostile.

One line in Psalm 56 hits especially hard: God keeps track of our sorrows, collects our tears, and records each one. I talk about what that means in real life, when you feel broken on the inside and you are not sure why. We connect David’s words to the way sorrow often works in layers, not as one neat problem but as ten smaller wounds that add up. If you have ever wondered whether God sees the details of your pain, this passage answers with a clear yes.

We also share a story from the aftermath of COVID about a friend who felt deep depression without a clear reason, until counseling helped him recognize an ungrieved loss: the abrupt end of a long held dream. That moment becomes a practical invitation for all of us. Sometimes we move on quickly, but our hearts do not move on, and we need God to bring what is hidden into the light so healing can begin.

If you are in a season of sorrow, pray with open hands and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal what is underneath it, then take the next faithful step with God close beside you. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs hope, and leave a review so more people can find this daily Bible breakdown. What is one grief or loss you need to finally name?

Transcript

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Welcome And Today’s Theme

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us and let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Psalm chapter 56. And today's title is When Sorrow Overwhelms You. When Sorrow Overwhelms You. You ever have one of those moments when, you know, it's kind of like yesterday we were talking about in Psalm 55 when anxiety control comes over you, but it's not anxiety as much as it's just sadness. Like I'm not anxious, I'm just sad. I'm, I just they're just overwhelmed with just feeling broken on the inside. You ever felt that way? Well, the good news is, is God has not left you without a plan, without a process, without a way to filter out that sadness through the lens of God's word. And so if you've ever felt just overwhelming sadness for a multitude of reasons, today's for

Why Psalms Helps With Emotions

SPEAKER_01 1:14

you. And so if you have your Bibles, open up with me to Psalm chapter 56. While you're doing that, make sure you take just a second, like, share, subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast. It really does help. And make sure you're going to the Bible breakdown discussion on Facebook. There's an amazing team of people writing devotions there every single day. And we would love to hear from you. We would love for you to comment on those uh posts and let's go back and forth. If you have questions, I want to make sure that you put your questions in there. We want to be able to engage with you with God's word. And you can get all the information to all of that at thebibelbreakdown.com because the more we dig, the more we find. Well, once again, we've been going through the book of Psalms because we believe the book of Proverbs teaches us how to deal with other people. Psalms teaches us how to relate to God. And this is a collection of the greatest hits of the people of God as they are doing life with

Reading Psalm 56 Aloud

SPEAKER_01 2:06

God over the generations. From the time of Moses to the time of Malachi, this is the greatest hits, five song books of the people of God. And we're in psalm book number two, by the way, as we are just doing life with God. And I love the fact that the book of Psalm teaches us how to do all these different things, like how to celebrate with God, how to get angry with God. Yesterday we talked about what to do when we have anxiety. Well, what about today when we just deal with just overwhelming sadness? Like today is David is writing about a time when the Philistines had seized him in an area. Like he had been, he had been captured and he's being taken to the king of Gath, which were enemies. The Philistines were enemies of the people of God. So he feels like he has just been, he's just surrounded by evil, surrounded by difficulty. And he's just overwhelmed with fear and just sadness and doesn't know what to do. And if you've ever been like that, it seems like in those moments when we should turn to God the most, we tend to turn away from God the most. But the great thing is, is that God is with us even when we go through these overwhelming times of sorrow, of fear, and of difficulty. And so to get together, let's read through this and let's see what God's Word has to say when we are dealing with just the uncertainty of sadness. Here we go. Chapter 56, verse 1 says this: Oh God, have mercy on me, for people are hounding me. My foes attack me all day long. I am constantly hounded by those who slander me, and many are boldly attacking me. But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you. I will praise God for what He has promised, and I trust in God. So why should I be afraid? What can mere mortals do to me? They are always twisting what I say. They spend their days plotting to harm me. They come together to spy on me, watching my every step, eager to kill me. Don't let them get away with their wickedness and your anger, O God. Bring them down. You keep track of all my sorrows. You've collected all my tears in your bottle, and you've recorded each one in your book. My enemies will retreat when I call to you for help. This I know, God is on my side. I praise God for what he has promised. Yes, I praise the Lord for what he has promised. I trust in God, so why should I be afraid? What can mere mortals do to me? I will fulfill all my vows to you, O God, and I will offer sacrifices of thanks for your help. For you have rescued me from death. You have kept my feet from slipping, and so I walk in your presence, O God, in your life-giving light.

God Counts Tears And Stays Close

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Wow. I love this. I want to go back to this verse eight when he says, You keep track of all my sorrows. You've collected all my tears in your bottle. You've recorded each one in your book. Other words, that's a very, very songish way of saying, you see all my problems. But look at this. He says, When my enemy or my enemies will retreat when I call on you for help, this I know, God is on my side. I will praise God for what he has promised, and I trust in God. Why should I be afraid? So, once again, you keep track of all my sorrows. This I know, God is on my side. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Psalm 23. David wrote this. He says, Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not be afraid. Why? For you walk close beside me. What David is writing in this psalm is he is saying there's so many bad things happening. And he's talking about some of the reasons why he is so sorrowful. And that same for us, many times there's so many different reasons for being sorrowful that it's hard to pinpoint just one. Or maybe in your life, it is very specifically. It's because of a loss of a family member or a loss of an opportunity or grieving the death of a dream. Whatever it is. The thing is, is that I love how he says, you, God, keep track of all my sorrows. Just like we talked about yesterday from Psalm 55, sometimes there's so many little anxieties that we end up feeling overwhelmed and we don't even know why, because it's not just one thing, it's 10 things. But the amazing thing is, is that God knows all 10. And when it comes to sorrow, God knows all 10.

Grieving Lost Dreams After COVID

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I remember right after COVID happened in 2020, there was a friend of mine who was going through a deep depression and he didn't know why. He just knew he was sad. And he was telling me how he went to a counselor. And many times the reason why going to a counselor is so important is because they can get a different perspective than what you or I have. And that that person was listening to his story. And what had happened is he had just got through starting a business two years beforehand. But because of COVID and the shutdowns and all that, his business had to come to an end. And he was able to move it into a different business. So he was okay, but he'd never really grappled with the loss of that first business. And that counselor said, Did you ever take a moment to grieve the loss of that dream that you had? And at first, that guy was like, No, because we were able to move it into this, and it was fine. I said, But wait a minute. You'd wanted to start that business for like 20 years. And then you got to have that business for two years. And then it ended abruptly. That was the end of a dream. Did you, did you process that? Did you grieve over that for a little while? And my friend had never even thought about it. He'd been so busy doing the next thing that he had moved on, but his heart hadn't moved on. And that was what it was. And so we took it to the Lord and he prayed and he grieved over it. And he just, he just made his peace with it. And he was so much better after that. And he said, I would have never seen that if God hadn't used that person to bring it to my remembrance. And it just reminds me over and over again there are things that have happened in our life that we just moved on so quickly that we don't realize our heart is still there. And we haven't grieved the loss of those things or the ending of those things. But you know who has kept up with those things? The Lord. That's why we have to go to God when we feel so much sorrow and so much difficulty is because the Bible says God is on our side and we can trust in him when we can't trust anything else. And he has the ability to bring healing to things that we don't even know are broken in our life. And so the answer to the question, what do we do when sorrow

How To Bring Sorrow To God

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overwhelms us? We realize God has never left us. And sometimes one of the most beautiful things that we can do when we just feel sorrow in our life, and we don't even know why, is we just go to God with open hands and say, God, I'm feeling so just sad and sorrowful. Holy Spirit, will you bring to my mind why? Is it an unresolved sin that is causing grieving in my heart because it's separation from us? Is it because of the death of something I haven't processed, or is it because of an unmet expectation over here? Whatever it is, I want to resolve it so that I can have joy in your presence. And that doesn't mean that in the Christian life we're always going to feel happy. We we have all the emotions like everybody else. But there's a difference between having a sad day and having sorrow. And so I want to encourage you, if you're going through a season of sorrow and you don't know why, take it to God and just say, God, I know that you have kept track of all of this, but for some reason my heart has tried to cover this. Will you show me so that I can bring it to the light and find healing? Maybe you know exactly what it is. It's also time to take it to the Lord because God is on your side. And though we may walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we do not have to be afraid. Not because the valley is not long, not because it's not in a shadow, not because death is not close. We are not afraid because God is with

Prayer And Closing Blessing

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us. Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, God, that you see us and that you know us. That Lord, there are sometimes we hold things deep in our heart and we hold it so deep that we don't even see what it is, but we know that you do. And so we trust you today to reveal it in due time so that you can heal it all the time. We celebrate you right now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, God's Word says in Psalms 34, verse 1, say it with me. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Psalm chapter 57.