The Darkness of Spiritual Depression (Psalm 42/43)
The following is a lightly-edited transcript of a sermon titled “Hope in God” from Psalm 42-43. It was preached on 2021.06.18 to the junior high students of Lighthouse Community Church in Torrance, CA.
Because it is a sermon manuscript, it may break best writing practices.
An Introduction to Psalms
The book of psalms is a book of songs, prayers, laments of the nation of Israel. Many were written to music; they were used to lead the nation in worship to God. Just like we have our favorite worship songs—Behold Our God, Before the Throne, Jesus Loves Me, the Israelites would have had their favorite psalms—Psalm 23, Psalm 51, Psalm 103, etc.
We chose to do a psalm series this summer because the psalms speak the language of the soul, the language of faith. Every conceivable emotion—ecstasy, joy, delight, hope, despair, sorrow, wrath, jealousy—is expressed in these sacred songs. They bring us to the heights of heaven—reveling in God, His Word, and His ways—and bring us to the depths of earth—plumbing the horrors of sin and suffering. Most importantly, they teach us, in every situation, how to respond to God.
When I was in middle school, I thought the psalms were boring. It all seemed so irrelevant, so not relatable. All this talk about suffering, running away from enemies—that wasn’t my life. All this passionate language about crying and weeping—that wasn’t me, either. The figures of speech and poetic language—like who talks like that? And, on top of it all, to me it didn’t seem like there was anything about Jesus in the psalms, so like what’s the point, right?
But I was a fool. What book of the Bible does the New Testament quote most? The psalms. What book of the Old Testament gives us the most complete picture of Jesus’ origins, ministry, crucifixion, and coming kingdom? Okay, probably Isaiah, but arguably, the psalms.
As I’ve read psalms, year after year, they have have helped me put intelligible words to the turbulent emotions of my heart. They have been my best friend and only comfort as I’ve suffered through friends leaving the faith, family members dying, my own depression, and other’s lies and deceit. They have taught me who I am truly—before God and before men. As one writer put it, the psalms put “steel in [my] soul…”1 strengthening me for the fight of faith.
I love the psalms. I love the psalms! And I want to share with you their sweetness. As Eric, Leighton, and I were picking out which psalms to preach this summer, I felt like we were selecting the most delicious of foods from the finest banquet to share with you. So, this summer, I invite you to taste and see that the Lord is good.
Psalm 42
42:0 To the choir master. A maskil of the sons of Korah.
[Stanza 1]
1 As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.
[Chorus]
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation 6 and my God.
[Stanza 2]
My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
8 By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God, my rock:
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 As with a deadly wound in my bones,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
[Chorus]
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
[Stanza 3]
43:1 Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
against an ungodly people,
from the deceitful and unjust man
deliver me!
2 For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
why have you rejected me?
Why do I go about mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?
3 Send out your light and your truth;
let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
and to your dwelling!
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise you with the lyre,
O God, my God.
[Chorus]
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
Safe Prayers
When is the last time you ever heard a prayer like this psalm? In 42:9 the psalmist says, “I will say to God my rock, “Why have You forgotten me? / Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” In 43:2, he says, “For You are the God of my strength; why have You rejected me? / Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” If this were not written in Scripture, we might be tempted to say, “You can’t pray like that!”
Well, can we?
Usually, we pray ‘safe’ prayers. We thank God—for our family, our friends, our food. We ask God to heal us and protect us, to help us do well, to give us what we want. We ask Him to forgive us our sins and help us obey Him. These are all good and right things to pray for.
The problem with safe prayers is not what they say, but what they don’t say. If we pray only safe prayers, nice little prayers with pretty wrapping paper and a bow on top, we are actually editing/filtering/hiding our true selves from the God who sees and knows all. When we pray only safe prayers:
We don’t tell God that we’re afraid of death—both for ourselves and for our loved ones.
We don’t pour out our frustration that we can’t get a job.
We don’t beg, truly beg with tears and fasting, for peace from anxiety, for a loving friend, for a greater hunger for Him.
We don’t ask God the pounding questions of our soul: Why did my grandpa die, Lord? Why did covid have to be so hard? Why don’t I feel like loving You?
We interface with God as if we are separated by a dirty plastic covid shield.
We treat Him as if He can’t handle the truth—or at the very least, that we can’t trust Him to handle the truth.
Thus, we act as if He doesn’t really care about every part of us—yes even our sins and our suffering. We pray half-hearted prayers and live half-hearted lives. We give Him half-hearted praise and half-hearted sacrifice. We’re never really disappointed because we never really expected anything from Him anyways. Our zeal is dead. Our devotion is weak. Our love is cold.
This is why we need the psalms—they teach us to worship the living God as He is—glorious, full of lovingkindness, compassionate, and gracious—and to pray to Him as we are—warts and all. The psalms remind us that we don’t worship a far off genie god. No! We worship the close, the real, the living and active God of reality.
We have a perfect example of that in Psalm 42-43, which should be understood as one unit. The main idea for tonight is the entire chorus
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
Stanza 1: Suffering (vv-1-4)
Stanza one is all about suffering.
This has been a hard year. We’ve endured anxiety, depression, and despair. We’ve lost loved ones, lost opportunities, lost friendships. We’ve asked, “Do I even have any friends? Does God even care? Am I even a Christian?” The world has mocked us, saying, “How could a loving God let a pandemic happen?” Our friends have criticized us, saying, “How could your church be meeting so soon?” Or “Why isn’t your church meeting sooner?”
This psalm is all about how a fellow saint responds to suffering. He does not write as some guru who has found the secret to living a sin-free life. No, we find a man fighting with all that he is to keep on trusting God, someone who is struggling to persevere, a man in progress, just like us.
The Psalmist’s Thirst
1 As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
You’ll recognize these verses from the beautiful song, As the Deer that we sang. They show that the psalmist is a godly man. He wants God. He pants, he thirsts, he longs for, he desires, he faints for God, the living God.
Why? Because God seems far. He says, “When shall I come and appear before God?” because he is geographically far from the temple worship—but it is much more than that. The psalmist feels like God is far.
His soul is parched. He has prayed and found no peace. He has read Scripture and found no sustenance. He has searched for joy and found only despair. Like a vagrant in the desert sun, so he is like a wanderer in a spiritual wasteland—desperate for life, desperate for hope, desperate for God.
If you have been a Christian for more than a month, you know what this feels like. You know what a dry season feels like. Before it seemed so natural to love God, to read the Scriptures, to pray, to serve. You used to be full of joy, peace, thankfulness.
But in a dry season, you’re not. You don’t feel like loving God. You don’t feel like obeying. If that’s you, you’re in good company; let’s learn something from this suffering, godly man.
The Psalmist’s Suffering
His suffering was caused by two things: (1) mockers and (2) memories.
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
These mockers are unbelievers who were taunting the psalmist for his faith. The result: the psalmist cries so much he feels like he is eating tears. The mockers say all day long, “Where is your God?” Answer? “I don’t know!” God seemed far. Where are you God?
Then, it is good memories that torment him.
4 These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.
He used to be a worship leader, leading the many people in joy, in praise, in jubilation! But now, he is far away. He is alone, cut off from God’s people. He longs for what he lost.
To put it in our context, you used to find it easy to share the gospel. You found it a great delight to listen to sermons. You were hungry for truth, hungry for Christ, hungry for fellowship. But now, those memories only torment you. “What’s wrong with me?” you ask. Was it even real?
When we’re presented with such suffering, we always have a choice of how to respond. How has your heart responded to your suffering? This man’s heart responded to suffering by spiraling into depression.
Chorus: Spiritual Depression
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation 6 and my God.
The psalmist first says, “Why are you cast down, O my soul?” Basically, he’s asking, why do you feel so down? Why are you so depressed? Why are you discouraged, in despair, despondent? Why do you feel so bad?”
Then he asks, “Why are you in turmoil—that is, to be unsettled, disturbed, restless. Why are you not at peace? What’s bothering you? Why are you so sad?”
These questions are not directed to God; they are not a prayer. He is talking to himself. He is interrogating himself, asking, “Why? Why are you this way? Why are you so stubborn in your sadness? Why are you moping around? What’s wrong with you? Why soul? Why?”
This is what a good preacher once called spiritual depression. When you’re in despair and disturbed, depressed and restless, your soul is not well. Hope, light, joy have flown away upon the wings of a bird. Darkness, despondency, desperation have squatted as unwelcome company.
Can you relate? Do you know what it’s like when the darkness will not lift?
I do. As I’ve grown older, I have learned that I am prone to despair. I am constantly fighting my own pessimism and hopelessness. By the Lord’s grace, many times I fight well. But in His providence, many times, I succumb—most recently this last December. Why?
We were in our 10th month of online church. My friend’s 19 year old brother died from a heart infection. COVID spiked, and kept me from seeing my family for Christmas. Quarantine kept me locked up away from friends. It was an entire month of despair.
This is why I love Psalm 42. It is my friend, my comrade in the fight. It reminds me that I am not alone in my struggle for joy. Verse 5 is not just the chorus of this psalm; it’s the anthem of my darkest nights.
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
Preach Truth to Yourself
When you are in despair, you must first do this: preach truth to yourself.
Is that not what this psalmist does? He says,
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
He is commanding his soul to hope in God, to cling to Him, even when all his feelings and his circumstances tell him to do otherwise. He is seizing the truth and holding onto it above everything else. He knows that God is worthy to be trusted, that God is worthy of praise, that God is—no matter what anybody says, not even himself—is his salvation and his God.
And he is preaching this truth to himself over and over, not because he feels it is truth but precisely because he does not feel it is the truth. He is forcing his feelings to follow his knowledge. He is walking by faith, not by sight. He is taking the Scriptures, forging the truth into a sharp sword, and plunging it deep into his own being. “Hope in God, soul!” He is taking up his shield and declaring, “I’ll sing even if I don’t feel like it. I will rejoice in Him!” He is shouting the battlecry, once again—“For Him, my salvation and my God!”
One preacher commenting on this psalm wrote this:
…Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? …preach to yourself, question yourself. …exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’—instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. …remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do. …defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: ‘I shall yet praise Him…2
In this life, you will face spiritual depression. And you must respond by preaching truth to yourself.
Why are you so discouraged, O soul? Christ died for you! He took away your sin and brought you to God. He loves you! Why are you so discontent, O soul? Christ is your reward, your hope, your joy, your peace. In Him, you have everything, abundant life forever. Why are you so depressed, O soul? Heaven is one day closer. On that day, there will be no fear, no tears, no death, no mourning. On that day, finally, you will be free from sin, free from suffering, forever in the Savior’s arms. Hope in God, O soul!
This is why we listen to preaching. We are learning the truth that nourishes our soul. This is why we memorize Scripture. We are carving it upon our hearts for the hard times to come. This is why we sing praise songs. We are tattooing lyrics refrains on our minds so that we can sing away the darkness of the night. (As an aside, it doesn’t matter if you don’t feel like singing; that is exactly when you need to sing the most!)
You must not let your feelings dictate who or what you are; God dictates who and what you are, and He is the truth—so believe Him. Fight to believe in Him. Fight to hope in Him.
But hear me rightly. I am not saying, “if you just trust in Jesus the suffering will quickly go away.” No, Scripture does not teach that lie. Rather, what I”m saying is, “in the midst of suffering, you must fight to hope in God.”
Stanza 2: Lament
Part of how you fight is by lament, that is, complaining in faith to God.
Remember God
6 …My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
Basically, this is far from Jerusalem, away from the temple worship.
7 Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
Remember how he was thirsting for God in verse 1 and 2? Now he turns that metaphor to say that the water he sought for satisfaction has turned to be his enemy. God has been to him as a storm, sending giant waves, threatening to sink his ship. He says his suffering comes from God! But that does not let him forget God’s goodness. v8
8 By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
Even in his suffering, he can say that God continues to love him—day and night. This is not just a generic love. It is YHWH’s steadfast love, His loyal, unending, covenantal, forever love. It is not a fleeting affection. It is not a fickle feeling. God’s love is vast, deep, broad, rich, everlasting, true. Even in your suffering, God’s love for you stays the same. Do you really believe that?
God is the God who longs to comfort us in His love. He is the God who desires to shelter us under His wings. He wants us to find our all, our security, our home, our shelter, our solace, our victory, our happiness—in Him.
Dear Christian, do you know how much you are loved? The bloody cross stands immovable even in the storm of your despair. Christ remains the same, yesterday, today, and forever, as our compassionate Savior. He knows. He cares.
You must not interpret God through the lens of your suffering. You must interpret your suffering through the lens of God. God is good. God is love. God is gracious. God is perfect in all His ways. Remember His love for you. And because that is true, we can pray honestly, just like this psalm.
Bring Your Despair to God
9 I say to God, my rock:
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 As with a deadly wound in my bones,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
The first application from tonight is preach truth to yourself. The second application for tonight is bring your despair to God.
Copy the psalmist in these verses—shocking as they are. He has given us language to put our deepest feelings into words, in a way that is productive and God-ward. This is a lament, a complaint to God. Now, why is this “complaining” okay? Because God knows everything already! What, if you pray, “God, I’m depressed,” is He going to say, “Gasp, I had no idea! Why are you depressed?” What, if you say, “God I don’t feel like reading the Bible,” is He going to say, “What! How dare you! Since when?”
Nothing shocks Him. He already knows. In fact, He knows your despair and pain even more than you do. And since He already knows, you can trust yourself into His loving hands. Bring your despair to the God who loves you. Bring your depression to the God of joy. Bring your all—the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly—to your God.
If you don’t know where to start, say, “God, I don’t even know what to pray.” If no other words come, read the psalms out loud; make them your prayers. Let them be the springboards for your own prayers. Ask someone who loves you to pray with you, and let the Spirit of God within them pray for you.
You need to be honest with the God of heaven and earth. Pray boldly in your suffering. “I’m dying here, God! My life is full of mourning, oppression, mocking. Why, Lord? Where are You? I know You love me. Why does it feel like you’ve forgotten me? Aren’t you good? Why must I suffer? Help me, Father. Help me to hope in You. Remind me of Your great love. Save me, O God!”
Honest, raw prayer is not an optional part of the Christian life. If you cannot be honest with God, you won’t be honest with anyone, not even yourself. If you can’t trust Him, the perfect One, to handle the most intimate fragile parts of your life, you won’t trust anyone, and you’ll become a stranger—to yourself, to your family, and your friends. You will know only the husk of true life, taste at best the faintest whiffs of eternal joy, and become ever increasingly hollow, empty, lost. As one Christian said, prayer is like breathing. And truly, you can only hold your breath for so long.
And after you have prayed honestly, return again and preach truth to yourself. Look at the 2nd chorus.
Chorus 2: Spiritual Fight
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
There are no magic spells that just make suffering go away. I don’t know if you are spiritually depressed right now. But what I do know is that if you are in it, you are in a fight for your life.
Listen to the determination in this chorus: ‘Soul, even though you’re cast down, even though you’re in turmoil, I will praise Him.’ Or, to put in the modern vernacular, “Even though I feel like trash, even though I’m depressed, even though I just don’t feel like it—I will praise God. I will not bow to my feelings. No! My feelings must bow to my faith! I will remember that God is my salvation. I will sing because God is my God!”
Right feelings will follow right faith. We believe what is right, in hope trusting that God will help us feel rightly. We do what He commands, in hope trusting that God will help our hearts follow, all the while praying, “Change my heart, O God.” In faith, we submit even our feelings under the authority of God and His Word.
I know that hearing this can be discouraging. Many of you want to love the Scriptures, delight in prayer, be zealous for evangelism, love Jesus more than life. But, if we’re honest, we don’t as we know we should. I’m in the same boat. “Gasp, pastoral internKeith, sometimes you don’t feel like reading the Bible?” Uhh yeah. Last time I checked I was a sinner. Yep, still am. There is only one perfect GodMan. I’m not Him; you aren’t either.
We live in a sin-cursed earth, in a sinful society, in a sin-riddled body, with a sinful heart. Suffering, depression, despair, disobedience, fickleness, half-heartedness, struggle, cowardice, failure, etc. are in a sense ‘ordinary.’ Not until heaven comes will we be complete, perfect in affections and obedience. That truth tells us how to persevere, for our goal is not to become so godly that we live above the suffering (as if it didn’t affect us), but to be so godly that we trust Him even through the suffering. How do we do that? By seeing, as the psalmist says, that God is our salvation.
God Our Salvation
You need to trust God’s purposes for your suffering. He is so wise that even suffering is His instrument. Suffering reminds us that we are not yet Home to glory. Despair teaches us that there is only one hope that will stand for eternity. Depression drives us to flee to the fountain of eternal life. The darkness reveals that we need the Light of the world.
It is precisely when you do not feel hopeful that you realize you need hope. It is precisely when you feel in danger that you know you need a Savior.
So often, we let our suffering drive a wedge between us and God; but God intends for our suffering to drive us to the Savior. Think of it; if the psalmist did not suffer, he would have never written this beautiful psalm for our great encouragement. If he did not know what it is to thirst, to feel like God had forgotten him, rejected him, abandoned him, then he would never had known how desperately he needed God. The only reason he can write, “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” is because he knew what it was like to be far from God.
John G. Paton knew what it mean to suffer. Paton was a 20th century Scottish missionary to the islands of the New Hebrides, to the east of Australia. The islands were known to be inhabited by cannibals, and yet Paton insisted on going to preach Jesus among them. They often threatened the missionary’s life with clubs, knives, and muskets. Many times he courageously prayed out loud to fend them off; other times he threatened the judgment of God upon them if they harmed him. Sometimes he just ran away.
One time, he was attacked at night. He writes about the incident:
I climbed into the tree, and was left there alone in the bush. …I heard the frequent discharging of muskets, and the yells of the savages.
Yet I sat there among the branches, as safe in the arms of Jesus. Never, in all my sorrows, did my Lord draw nearer to me, and speak more soothingly in my soul, than when the moonlight flickered among these chestnut leaves, and the night air played on my throbbing brow, as I told all my heart to Jesus.
Alone, yet not alone! If it be to glorify my God, I will not grudge to spend many nights alone in such a tree, to feel again my Saviour's spiritual presence, to enjoy His consoling fellowship.
If thus thrown back upon your own soul, alone, all, all alone, in the midnight, in the bush, in the very embrace of death itself, have you a Friend that will not fail you then?
autobiography of John G. Paton
Dear Christian, let suffering, bridled by the bit of God’s reins, drive you to Him.3 God is our salvation—from mocking, from despair, from depression, from suffering, from oppression, from persecution, from cannibals, from death, from hell. He has sworn that He will save us unto eternity; will you trust Him to bring you safely Home?
I’m not saying it’s easy. I’m not saying your suffering is insignificant. I’m not saying that you just lack faith. No. What I’m showing is the way that the psalms teach us to fight the despair that clings so closely—with a godly stubbornness, with an uncompromising commitment to the truth—that God is good, that God is love, that He is our salvation. The dawn is coming beloved; let us wait, in hope, upon Him.
That brings us to our last stanza.
Stanza 3: Hope
43:1 Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
against an ungodly people,
from the deceitful and unjust man
deliver me!
2 For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
why have you rejected me?
Why do I go about mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?
3 Send out your light and your truth;
let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
and to your dwelling!
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise you with the lyre,
O God, my God.
In this last stanza, we see the psalmist’s progression. In stanza 1, he mostly dwelt on his suffering. In stanza 2, he brought that suffering to God. And in this last stanza, he prays for God’s deliverance and intervention—meaning that the psalmist has placed his hope solely in what God can do.
Hope in God
Listen to his pleas:
Vindicate me (43:1)
Defend my cause (43:1)
Deliver me (43:1)
Send out your light and truth (43:3)
Lead me (43:3)
Bring me to your holy hill (43:3)
These are prayers of a heart poured out to God, asking for God to act! These are desperate prayers: God, I want this! Help me! In stanza 2 he brought his suffering honestly to God. In stanza 3, he brings his desires honestly before God. This is no safe prayer; this is a prayer of a man who knows the love of God, who trusts in Him, and boldly pleads for salvation. He has his feet firmly planted in reality: the reality of his depression, yes, but also the reality of his God.
He looks toward the future, yearning to be in the temple and worshiping God. He wants to be with God, his God, whom he calls His exceeding joy. Remember, this is a godly man who is struggling through spiritual depression and despair. He wants to sing to the Lord. He looks forward to praising God with the lyre (which is like an ancient guitar). He wants to sacrifice on the altar of God. He wants to find satisfaction, joy, peace, in his only Savior and God. And he places his hope that God will grant that desire to him.
Dear discouraged soul, hope in God. Our hope is not wishful thinking, but assurance based on God’s promises.
Hope that He will not abandon you in your despair
Hope that your suffering is a short season of life
Hope that God will meet you in His goodness
Hope that in Christ, the best is always yet to come
I know it’s hard to hope when you can’t see a future. But isn’t that literally the definition of hope? We hope for what we do not see with our eyes, because we see the promises of God as even more real. Faith triumphs over sight; dear Christian put your hope in Him.
To Unbelievers
So far, I have spoken directly to the Christian soul. But now, I want to speak to you who are not Christians. Friend, you need hope for this life. But where is your hope? When the stability and assurance of your life gives way—and believe me, it will—what will be your steadfast hope? When your grandparents die, when your friends abandon you, when you don’t make the team, when your grades fall, when you don’t get into that school, when your health spirals, when your sibling gets into a car accident, when another pandemic comes, when an anxiety attack hits, when depression rears its ugly head, when death comes knocking at your door, what will be your hope?
Apart from God, there is no hope. Is it any wonder that you’re depressed? Is it any wonder you feel you have no purpose? To fill the gaping hole within your soul you’re grasping for food, friends, plans, media, distraction. It will never satisfy!
You were made for more; you were made for God. There is only one hope that will never be shaken, and that is the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God the Son, come to rescue us from our sin. He is the final sacrifice for sinners, who died on that bloody, brutal cross—in our place for our sin. He is the resurrection and the life, who conquered sin, death, and the grave, who will reign forever as King. And He is our everlasting hope, who offers to us not only eternal life after death, but abundant life now trusting in Him.
Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
For a Christian, Jesus Christ is our hope in life and in death. If you are not a Christian, will you not make Him yours? Say with us that Christ is God, your God, the living God, God of your life, your rock, your salvation, your exceeding joy. I have been a Christian for 13 years; never has Christ, my hope, failed me. If you trust your all to Him, He will bring you safely home.
Chorus 3: Praise the Lord
To close, let’s look at the chorus one last time. Read verse 5 out loud with me, one last time. Can you do it from memory?
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
I hope that now you see what a beautiful psalm this is. So far I have given lots of applications:
Preach truth to yourself
Bring your despair to God
Trust God’s purposes for your suffering
Fight to hope in God
I want to finish with one more: 5. Praise the Lord together. This psalm is a song, and the psalmist longs to worship together with God’s people.
You need to sing together with God’s people. You need to hear the voices of your brothers and sisters singing, reminding you of the truth. You need to see the suffering mom, the discouraged dad, the depressed teenager, the struggling youth leader lift up their voices and sing. If you are depressed, discouraged, disheartened, discontent, you might not feel like worshipping God will help. Praise Him still; it is medicine for the soul.
This Sunday will be the first day we get to sing unmasked, side by side, since March 2020. I’m praying for a packed out sanctuary, and that we’ll sing loud—for our God is worthy, for our brothers and sisters need to hear us, and for the good of our own souls.
May God be merciful to you, and show you His love, His salvation, His worth, and give you strength to persevere even through spiritual depression, even through suffering. You are not alone in this fight.
Your hope, your life, your joy, is in your salvation, your great God.
Footnotes
W. Robert Godfrey, The Whole Counsel of God. Ligonier Ministries, 2021, 10.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression, Marshall Pickering, 1998, 20-21.
https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/blog-entries/10-spurgeon-quotes-for-wounded-christians/
Photo by Nihal Demirci on Unsplash