Encourage Yourself

Donald Lawrence and the Tri-City Singers perform “Encourage Yourself,” a song built on a line that can sound odd until it is explained. “Sometimes you have to encourage yourself, sometimes you have to speak victory during the test,” the first verse says, and adds that “no matter how you feel, speak the word and you will be healed.” The instruction is to speak to your own situation and not wait for others to do it.

The second verse names the pressure: “the pressure is all around, but God is present help.” The enemy has built walls, but “remember giants, they do fall.” The bridge is more candid, as the leader admits he is ministering to himself too: “life can hurt you so, 'til you feel there's nothing left.” The vamp turns the instruction into a result when the voices sing “I'm encouraged,” echoing the title in the closing line, “encourage yourself in the Lord.”

The idea is from 1 Samuel 30:6, where David, in distress and with the people talking of stoning him, strengthened himself in the Lord his God. God as present help is Psalm 46:1, and falling giants recall David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17.