David "encouraged himself in the Lord" when everything around was dark and depressing. Satan's object is to hinder us in having this confidence in the Lord. He would fain lead us to make present things at all times the boundary of our soul's horizon; he would seek to surround us with a thick, dark, impenetrable cloud, so that we might not recognize our Father's countenance and our Father's hand beyond it all. But faith pierces the cloud, and goes upward to God. "For all that is in the world... is not of the Father" (1 John 2:16).