I feel so low. Lower than low. Like I'm nothing. Less than nothing. Like a worm.

When you are low enough for long enough, the feeling starts sounding like a fact about you. David let himself say the worst of it out loud — and the same psalm ends in praise. The words were honest. They were never the verdict.

The conversation

The child: “Daddy God, I feel so low. Lower than low. Like I'm nothing. Less than nothing. Like a worm.”

God: “David said those very words. And so did My Son. 'But I am a worm, and no man.' It's one of the most honest sentences in all of Scripture.”

The child: “Even David felt that way? And Jesus?”

God: “David was a king. Jesus was the Son of God. And both of them said 'I am a worm, and no man.' Not 'I feel like a worm.' 'I am a worm.' They let themselves feel the full weight of that feeling.”

God: “'A reproach of men, and despised of the people.' They weren't exaggerating. People actually looked at them and saw nothing. David before he was king. Jesus on the cross. Both reduced to less than human in the eyes of the world.”

The child: “So feeling worthless doesn't mean you are worthless?”

God: “A king said 'I am a worm.' The Son of God said 'I am a worm.' Were they worms? No. They were speaking from pain, not from truth. The feeling was real. The conclusion was wrong.”

God: “Psalm 22 opens with 'why hast thou forsaken me?' But it doesn't end there. The same voice later says He 'hath not despised the afflicted.'”

The child: “So the psalm moves from worm to worship?”

God: “Every time. That's what honest pain does when it's brought to Me. It doesn't stay at the bottom. It speaks the bottom out loud — and that's when I reach down.”

The child: “So I'm allowed to say 'I feel like nothing'?”

God: “You're allowed to say it. You're not allowed to believe it. I can work with honesty. But I already wrote your name, and it isn't 'worm.'”

The child: “I feel like a worm. But You say I'm beloved.”

God: “And My word outranks your feelings every single time. The worm-feeling will pass. The beloved-truth won't.”

"But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people." Psalm 22:6, KJV