Sometimes we just get down.

We’re not referring to clinical depression—that’s a whole different matter. Some call it the blues, the blahs, or the doldrums, but whatever it’s called, we’re not at our best.

January 18, 2021, has been identified as Blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year. For fifteen years now, the third Monday of January has been identified as a depressing day because the excitement of Christmas is well past; many have failed in their New Year’s resolutions by this time; they’re now facing the bills and debt accrued at Christmas; and the weather remains bleak.

Well-meaning family or friends will try to “talk us out of” our feelings.

“What have you got to be sad about?!”

“You just need to turn that frown upside down.”

Those clichés don’t help. But the issue remains: what do we do when we have a bout of the blues? King David wrote some amazing psalms of praise, but he also wrote psalms that reflected his troubled soul. Through his words in Psalm 31, we find the best answer to the blues.