God is Our Hope and Strength - based on "When I Go Down" by Relient K

You can find the song lyrics here:

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/relientk/whenigodown.html

(I prefer to go straight to the band website for lyrics, if not there, a linked website, but if there's none, lyric sites such as this will do... it's just all those unrelated popups are annoying...)

All of us have experienced times when it seems like we've dug ourselves a hole we can't get out of. All of us at some point can identify with the words in the chorus:

When I go down I go down hard
And I take everything I've learned and teach myself some disregard
When I go down it hurts to hit the bottom
And of the things that got me there I think if only I had fought them

We try to live a good life, and when we fail and do something we know is wrong it takes away our momentum, we lose focus and start slipping back into the same hole we were trying to climb out of. Sometimes we try to pretend it's not happening:

And I just pray my problems go away if they're ignored
But that's not the way it works
No that's not the way it works

We can't just ignore our problems and hope they go away. We have to take positive action, and that starts by acknowledging that we're the ones who got ourselves into this mess:

Then and there I confess
I'll blame all this on my selfishness
Yet you love me and that consumes me
And I'll stand up again and do so willingly

That's the next step. To want to get out of the hole we've dug, and to commit to doing that. God's love gives us the strength to do that when we need it most, when we feel our own strength fail. He has the power to pull us out of the holes we dig, and so we can put our hope in Him:

You give me hope, and hope it gives me life
You touch my heavy heart, and when You do You make it light
As I exhale I hear Your voice
And I answer You, though I hardly make a noise
And from my lips, the words I choose to say
Seem pathetic, but it's a fallen man's praise
Because I love You... Oh God, I love You
And life is now worth living if only because of You
And when they say I'm dead and gone it won't be further from the truth

We can hear the hope in the words... We can see ourselves getting out of the holes we are in, and living life the way it was intended to be lived. When we realize that God is our hope and strength and we trust Him to save us from the holes we dig ourselves, then we too can sing:

When I go down I lift my eyes to You
I won't look very far cause You'll be there with open arms
To lift me up again, to lift me up again...