38 Bible Verses about Pessimism

Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my storehouses and build larger ones, and I will store all my grain and my goods there. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many good things stored up, [enough] for many years; rest and relax, eat, drink and be merry (celebrate continually).”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own all the things you have prepared?’

For we are sojourners before You, and tenants, as all our fathers were; our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope [of remaining].

“My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,
And are spent without hope.

“For there is hope for a tree,
If it is cut down, that it will sprout again,
And that the shoots of it will not cease nor fail, [but there is no such hope for man].

“Though its roots grow old in the earth
And its stump dies in the dry soil,

Yet at the scent of water [the stump of the tree] will flourish
And bring forth sprigs and shoots like a seedling.
read more.

“But [the brave, strong] man must die and lie face down;
Man breathes his last, and where is he?

“As water evaporates from the sea,
And a river drains and dries up,

So man lies down and does not rise [again].
Until the heavens are no longer,
The dead will not awake nor be raised from their sleep.

“But if I look to Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead) as my home,
If I make my bed in the darkness,

If I call out to the pit (grave), ‘You are my father’;
And to the worm [that feeds on decay], ‘You are my mother and my sister [because I will soon be closest to you],’

Where now is my hope?
And who regards or considers or is even concerned about my hope?
read more.

“Will my hope go down with me to Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead)?
Shall we go down together in the dust?”

“What strength do I have left, that I should wait [and hope]?
And what is ahead of me, that I should be patient and endure?

“When I expected good, then came evil [to me];
And when I waited for light, then came darkness.

He has broken my teeth with gravel;
He has [covered me with ashes and] made me cower in the dust.

My soul has been cast far away from peace;
I have forgotten happiness.

So I say, “My strength has perished
And so has my hope and expectation from the Lord.”

Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is lost. We are completely cut off.’

“But as a mountain, if it falls, crumbles into nothing,
And as the rock is moved from its place,

Water wears away the stones,
Its floods and torrents wash away the soil of the earth,
So You [O Lord] destroy the hope of man.

“If indeed you [braggarts] vaunt and magnify yourselves over me
And prove my disgrace (humiliation) to me,

Know then that God has wronged me and overthrown me
And has closed His net around me.
“Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not heard;
I shout for help, but there is no justice.
read more.

“He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass,
And He has set darkness upon my paths.

“He has stripped me of my honor
And removed the crown from my head.

“He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone;
He has uprooted my hope like a tree.

“He has also kindled His wrath [like a fire] against me
And He considers and counts me as one of His adversaries.

“His troops come together
And build up their way and siege works against me
And camp around my tent.
“He has put my brothers far from me,
And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.

remember that at that time you were separated from Christ [excluded from any relationship with Him], alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise [with no share in the sacred Messianic promise and without knowledge of God’s agreements], having no hope [in His promise] and [living] in the world without God.

“So are the paths of all who forget God;
And the hope of the godless will perish,

For his confidence is fragile and breaks,
And his trust is [like] a spider’s web.

“He trusts in his house, but it does not stand;
He holds tightly to it, but it does not endure.

What the wicked fears will come upon him,
But the desire of the righteous [for the blessings of God] will be granted.

When the wicked man dies, his expectation will perish;
And the hope of [godless] strong men perishes.

Do not get upset because of evildoers,
Or be envious of the wicked,

For there will be no future for the evil man;
The lamp of the wicked will be put out.

“Then the spirit of the Egyptians will become exhausted within them and emptied out;
And I will confuse their strategy,
So that they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead,
And mediums and soothsayers.

“It shall come about in that day,” says the Lord, “that the heart and courage of the king will fail (be paralyzed), and also the heart of the princes; the priests will be appalled and the prophets will be astounded and horrified.”

And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them, will be like a foolish (stupid) man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods and torrents came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great and complete was its fall.”

Now we do not want you to be uninformed, believers, about those who are asleep [in death], so that you will not grieve [for them] as the others do who have no hope [beyond this present life].

But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people [of Canaan], for they are too strong for us.” So they gave the Israelites a bad report about the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we went, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants. And all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”

Where can we go up? Our brothers (spies) have made our hearts melt [in fear] and demoralized us by saying, “The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large, and fortified [all the way up] to heaven. And besides, we saw the [giant-like] sons of the Anakim there.”’

This day I will begin to put the dread and the fear of you on the peoples (pagans) under the whole heaven, who, when they hear the reports about you, will tremble and be in anguish because of you.’

and she said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the terror and dread of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted [in despair] because of you.

I left full [with a husband and two sons], but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, since the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has afflicted me?”

When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

When the men of Israel saw that they were in a tight situation (for their troops were hard-pressed), they hid in caves, in thickets, in cellars, and in [dry] cisterns (pits). Also some of the Hebrews had crossed the [river] Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people followed him, trembling [in fear and anticipation].

There he came to a cave and spent the night in it; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He said, “I have been very zealous (impassioned) for the Lord God of hosts (armies) [proclaiming what is rightfully and uniquely His]; for the sons of Israel have abandoned (broken) Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I, only I, am left; and they seek to take away my life.”

If we say, ‘We will enter the city’—then the famine is in the city and we will die there; and if we sit still here, we will also die. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Arameans (Syrians). If they let us live, we will live; and if they kill us, we will only die.”

When the house of David (Judah) was told, “Aram is allied with Ephraim (Israel),” the hearts of Ahaz and his people trembled as the trees of the forest tremble in the wind.

Ashkelon will see it and fear;
Gaza will writhe in pain,
And Ekron, for her hope and expectation, has been ruined.
The king will perish from Gaza,
And Ashkelon will not be inhabited.

But Thomas, one of the twelve [disciples], who was called Didymus (the twin), was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples kept telling him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the marks of the nails, and put my finger into the nail prints, and put my hand into His side, I will never believe.”

Since neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small storm kept raging about us, from then on all hope of our being saved was [growing worse and worse and] gradually abandoned.

Why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become restless and disturbed within me?
Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall again praise Him
For the help of His presence.

Yet we have the same spirit of faith as he had, who wrote in Scripture, “I believed, therefore I spoke.” We also believe, therefore we also speak, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and will present us [along] with you in His presence. For all [these] things are for your sake, so that as [God’s remarkable, undeserved] grace reaches to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of [our great] God.read more.
Therefore we do not become discouraged [spiritless, disappointed, or afraid]. Though our outer self is [progressively] wasting away, yet our inner self is being [progressively] renewed day by day.

‘Do not fear [anything], for I am with you;
Do not be afraid, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, be assured I will help you;
I will certainly take hold of you with My righteous right hand [a hand of justice, of power, of victory, of salvation].’

But this I call to mind,
Therefore I have hope.

It is because of the Lord’s lovingkindnesses that we are not consumed,
Because His [tender] compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;
Great and beyond measure is Your faithfulness.
read more.

“The Lord is my portion and my inheritance,” says my soul;
“Therefore I have hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him.”

But we have this precious treasure [the good news about salvation] in [unworthy] earthen vessels [of human frailty], so that the grandeur and surpassing greatness of the power will be [shown to be] from God [His sufficiency] and not from ourselves. We are pressured in every way [hedged in], but not crushed; perplexed [unsure of finding a way out], but not driven to despair; hunted down and persecuted, but not deserted [to stand alone]; struck down, but never destroyed;