When Your Heart is Weary from Hoping

I’ll always remember that my husband and I got the news on Groundhog Day. Month after endless month, I had squinted at plastic tests on our bathroom counter, hoping and praying for two pink lines, but I only ever saw one. When the word infertility was applied to us for the first time, it wasn’t really a surprise—we’d already been living in its harsh, cyclical reality for a while. But it still landed like a punch to the gut.

A few months later, after more tests, the doctor told us that we might never be able to conceive naturally. If the word infertility landed like a punch to the gut, that sentence blew up our world like a nuclear bomb. The future Collin and I had been hoping for since we got married suddenly seemed completely out of reach—and there was nothing we could do about it. 

Eventually, the discouragement wrung me out. I was weary of hoping for something that seemed increasingly impossible. Maybe you’ve been in that place too. Maybe your heart is sick with deferred hope and unfulfilled longings for a good thing. If that’s the case, I see you—but more importantly, God sees you.

During that season, the Lord used Psalm 16 as a lifeline. As I memorized this passage, sang it, and returned to it again and again for relief, comfort, and hope, He was so faithful and kind to renew my strength and encourage my heart with the truths it contains.

Ten Truths from Psalm 16 to Comfort Your Heart

Here are ten of those truths that comforted, heartened, and upheld me during this restless, wrestling season of my life. My prayer is that they’ll bolster you, too, in whatever season you find yourself.

1. He Is Your Refuge

Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. (Psalm 16:1 ESV)

At the very beginning of this psalm, David cries out, asking God to preserve him because he takes refuge in Him. What a comfort it is that you and I can do the same! Our God is a very present help in our time of need (Psalm 46:1). He will not leave us alone in our suffering (Isa. 25:4). 

2. He Is Your Good

I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord;
  I have no good apart from you.” (Psalm 16:2 ESV)

When we’re suffocated by our unfulfilled longings or pressed by grief, it can be easy to feel as though there’s nothing good in our lives. Our eyes look outward at what is (or isn’t) around us rather than up at the Lord and His character. This verse comforts us and redirects our hearts with two reminders. 

First, it reminds us of God’s character. He delights in generosity (Luke 12:32), every good and perfect gift is from Him (James 1:17), and He does not withhold good from His children (Psalm 84:11; Luke 11:11–13). But we must remember that God sees what we cannot see and knows what is ultimately good for us. Even if He does not give us the things we so desperately long for on this side of eternity, He remains good (Dan. 3:18).

Second, this verse reorients our hearts and reminds us that the Lord has given us Himself. He is our highest good and supreme treasure.¹ Even when the sting of loss and longing is great, it cannot rob us of the treasure we have in Him.

3. Find Delight in God’s People

As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,
  in whom is all my delight.
The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;
  their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out
or take their names on my lips. (Psalm 16:3–4 ESV)

David finds delight not just in God’s holiness but also in the holiness of His people. We can find comfort in doing the same. This verse “doesn’t mean that [we delight] in God’s people instead of God or above God. . . . What [we delight in] about people is how they treasure God and exalt God.”² 

As we walk alongside brothers and sisters in Christ, we will inevitably see them suffer and we will see them rejoice. Both of those things can bolster our own faith by seeing how our fellow saints trust in and serve the Lord, whatever season of life they’re in. The Body of Christ serves as a sweet reminder that we are not alone and that we can glorify the Lord, regardless of our circumstances.

4. He Is Your Portion 

The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup. (Psalm 16:5 ESV)

The Lord is your sustenance, and not just any sustenance but your greatest sustenance. He is like a delicious and filling meal that nourishes every part of your being. He alone can satisfy the hunger and thirst of your soul. 

5. He Holds Your Lot 

You hold my lot. (Psalm 16:5 ESV)

These words remind us that our good God is sovereign over all our circumstances. Nothing that happens to us is haphazard or outside His loving care, even when we suffer (Psalm 139:16, Gen. 50:20). Because of this, we can take comfort in knowing that for those who love Him, He will work all things together for our eternal good and His glory (Rom. 8:28)—even when, on this side of eternity, we struggle to see how.

6. You Have a Beautiful Inheritance 

The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
  indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. (Psalm 16:6 ESV)

If we’re in Christ, the boundary lines have indeed fallen in pleasant places for us—even if they aren’t the ones we would have chosen for ourselves. Why? Because Christ has hemmed us in (Psalm 139:5) and given us Himself. Pastor John Piper describes it this way: “[God’s] sovereign goodness has fenced me in to God himself. . . . God is the sovereign who holds my lot. And he uses that power to make himself my beautiful inheritance—to fence me in to the pleasures of knowing him.”³

7. He Gives You Counsel

I bless the LORD who gives me counsel;
  in the night also my heart instructs me. (Psalm 16:7 ESV)

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6) . . . this is who counsels our hearts when we are distraught and discouraged. This is who upholds us with His righteous, omnipotent hand. This is who enables us, in the darkness of night, to say, “Why, my soul, are you so dejected? Why are you in such turmoil? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him, my Savior and my God” (Psalm 42:11).

Friend, take comfort in knowing that the Lord does not leave you to your own devices or abandon you in your despair. Instead, He meets you there as both the Man of Sorrows acquainted with grief (Isa. 53:3) and the Wonderful Counselor.

8. You Are Secure in Him

I have set the LORD always before me;
  because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
  my flesh also dwells secure.
For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
  or let your holy one see corruption. (Psalm 16:8–10 ESV)

David reminds us that even in the face of death, we can rejoice because the Lord holds us fast. Suffering and death do not have the final word for those who are in Christ (Acts 2:25–32). Similarly, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4 that we “are afflicted in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair; we are persecuted but not abandoned; we are struck down but not destroyed” (vv. 8–9). No matter what we face—trial or death—we are secure because the ultimate victory belongs to Christ who has already won.

9. He Makes Known the Path of Life 

You make known to me the path of life. (Psalm 16:11 ESV)

The Lord promises that if we are in Christ, He will bring us safely through the trials of this life to eternal life with Him. What a special grace! What a great comfort! What we experience here and now is not all that there is, and no matter what twisted, difficult, or painful way the Lord may call us to travel while we are here, He will lead us safely home on the path of life. 

10. In His Presence Is Joy

In your presence there is fullness of joy;
  at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11 ESV)

Joy and pleasure are promised to us when we are in the presence of our God. No more longing. No more grief. No more suffering or striving or sorrow. Fullness of joy. Pleasures forevermore. Maranatha! Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

And still, we live in the beauty and tension of the already-not-yet. As we experience God’s presence while we’re on this earth, as we soak in His Word, gaze at His character, and worship Him for all that He is, we can taste the sweetness of that joy and pleasure. Not perfectly, and not without the sting of our sin-cursed world, but enough to whet our appetite for all that is to come when we see Him face to face and our joy is made complete.

We Are Not Abandoned 

Psalm 16 doesn’t promise that all of our good desires will be fulfilled in this life, but it does comfort us with the hope that the Lord does not abandon His people. It reminds us that He cares for us, watches over us, and gives us Himself even when He may withhold other things we so deeply desire. It fixes our eyes on the One who is our joy, our good, and our satisfaction, whatever our circumstances may be. And it points us to our coming joy, when we behold our God face to face and see the reality promised to believers in Revelation 21:

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.

Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new.” (vv. 4–5)

Until that day comes, friend, keep clinging to His Word. Keep clinging to Him. 

¹ John Piper, “The Path to Full and Lasting Pleasure,” Desiring God, August 11, 2015, www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-path-to-full-and-lasting-pleasure.

² Piper, “The Path to Full and Lasting Pleasure”

³ Piper, “The Path to Full and Lasting Pleasure”