Introduction
We
will look at a number of psalms that address different spiritual issues. Today
we will study one of many psalms that address the issue of spiritual depression—Ps.
42 (read).
The author is one of the "sons of Korah"--evidently
a writing guild of Levitical priests who composed poems and songs to teach the
people of Israel how to relate to God. His spiritual vocation requires him to
be in Jerusalem, but he finds himself in the far northern region in Mt. Hermon
(MAP)—probably in exile with David during the coup of Absalom (see 2 Sam.
15-18).
You can see especially from 42:5,11 that the author is spiritually
depressed. His soul is "in despair," and has become "sunk down"
within him.
The fact that he writes a poem like this, which
so graphically expresses spiritual depression, should provide some relief for
you if you believe it is incompatible with spiritual health or integrity (TRIUMPHALISM).
The fact that there are dozens of psalms that express varying degrees of spiritual
depression also refutes this.
In fact, those who have been
effective in leading others to faith often wrestle with spiritual depression (LUTHER).
Even Jesus experienced spiritual depression. On the night of his arrest he echoed
the very words of this psalm to describe his own experience (see Jn. 12:27;
Mk. 14:34). All serious Christians experience spiritual depression to a greater
or lesser degree, for reasons we'll examine in a few minutes.
The issue,
then, is not that you experience spiritual depression, but how you respond to
it. This is why psalms like this one are so helpful—they teach us (maskil)
how to respond properly. But before we look his cure, though, let's examine some
of the common causes of spiritual depression . . .
Common
Causes
Although the author's specific situation is unique, the root causes
of his spiritual depression are the same ones we experience.
Personal
adversity
As we saw, the author is geographically dislocated,
evidently in exile. This is emotionally painful.
In the same way, spiritual
depression usually emerges in the context of some circumstantial adversity (EXAMPLES).
But this is not the main cause . . .
Spiritual
confusion
Not only does he experience the normal emotional
pain of circumstantial adversity; as a follower of God he also suffers spiritual
confusion—the apparent contradiction between his faith and his situation.
He has personally entrusted his life to God, and God has called him to lead the
nation's worship at the Temple. But he finds himself unable to do this. This creates
the spiritual trauma of God's apparent duplicity or impotence or unconcern.
This
is what distinguishes spiritual depression from the normal emotional bruises that
everyone experiences during personal adversity. To experience spiritual depression,
you must have first personally entrusted your life to the God of the Bible—to
rely on his guidance to make sense of your life, and to rely on his love to give
hope to your life. When you have entrusted yourself to God in this way, and then
you see an apparent contradiction between what you believe God is like and what
you are actually experiencing, this is a pain far worse than the pain of adversity.
EXAMPLES:
"God is loving and sovereign" >> TRAGEDY (RTB); "God will
transform my character" >> BESETTING SIN (1974,1975); "God has
called me to teach" >> NO POWER; "God has called me to lead this
home group" >> ONGOING LACKOF GROWTH & SETBACKS.
These things
call into question the most important reality of our lives—that God exists
and that he is good and faithful to me. Like the suspicion of your spouse's unfaithfulness,
suspicion of God's unfaithfulness strikes at the very root of our lives.
The
lack of God's experiential presence
The author's spiritual
confusion is exacerbated because the comforting presence of God to which he is
accustomed is nowhere to be found. Like a hunted deer that can find no water,
he thirsts for God's presence but cannot find it (42:1-2).
The
most wonderful thing about being a Christian is experiencing God's loving presence.
But God in his wisdom sometimes temporarily removes his experiential support from
us. We cry out to God in the midst of our pain, but our prayers seem to die on
our lips or bounce off the ceiling. Some Christians have called this the "dark
night of the soul."
Martin Luther, who helped so many come
to faith in Christ, was himself many times besieged with periods of intense spiritual
blackness when God "hid himself."
Jesus experienced this on
the cross (" . . . why have you forsaken me?").
I
certainly know what it is like to feel overwhelmed for periods of time with a
sense of oppression, negativity, and despair.
Memories
of previous times of joyous intimacy with God makes his present experience all
the more painful (42:4). It only highlights how absent God seems right now, and
presses more urgently the question of why he seems to have abandoned me. These
memories are cruel because they suggest that unless my spiritual experience isn't
great all the time, my faith in God must be a sham or worthless (THINKING ABOUT
SPRING 1971 DURING SPRING 1975).
The accusation of others
In
the midst of this personal adversity and God's experiential absence, others speak
up to confirm the doubts he is already having by saying "Where is your God?"
(42:3). This causes intense emotional and spiritual pain, like having his leg
shattered (42:10).
It is uncanny how often skeptical friends or family members
or "authorities" (or the memory of their objections) verbalize the very
doubts with which you are wrestling (DAD IN 1974). In addition to human voices,
Christians will experience the accusation of Satan and his demons, as they whisper
or shout that your faith in God is foolish and futile.
SUMMARY: The result
is a terribly painful sense of spiritual vertigo and depression that can
last for hours, days, even weeks. Do you have a category for this? How do you
respond to it?
Cures
John Stott correctly observes,
"The cure for spiritual depression is neither to look in at our grief,
nor back to the past, nor round at our problems, but away
and up to the living God. He is our help and our God, and if trust in him
now, we shall soon have cause to praise him again."[1]
The psalmist illustrates some practical ways in which we can do this.
Express
your thoughts and feelings to God and other believers.
We have
this psalm precisely because the author did this. He didn't try to hide or repress
his spiritual depression—he expressed it in this beautiful poem.
When
you are spiritually depressed, you often feel like no one can relate or understand.
You may also feel like such feelings are morally wrong, so you must hide them
from others. But ignoring them or repressing them only drives them deeper.
On
the other hand, when you admit them to God and his people, you discover that you
are not unique or alone—and this in itself is often a great help and comfort
(ME WITH DEN THIS WEEK). This is one of the great benefits of being in personal
fellowship with other Christians (PROMOTE HOME GROUPS).
But
you can't stop here. You also have to challenge the validity of your thoughts
and feelings ("my soul").
While the psalmist freely
expresses his thoughts and feelings, he also takes issue with their validity and
the conclusions to which they are leading him. His refrain (42:5,11) is to remind
himself to wait for God rather than yield to his present despair.
This is
a crucial step, and one which is especially difficult for people raised in a therapeutic
culture that teaches that our feelings are an infallible guide to reality. As
Lloyd-Jones says, take yourself in hand and talk back to yourself.[2] Decide not to cave into them or act rashly
on them before you consider all the evidence. If you're going to doubt God, be
sure to doubt your doubts, too!
NOTE: Sometimes the main problem is that
you have misinterpreted what God promises (e.g., HEALTH & WEALTH).
Remember
why you have trusted God thus far.
When the psalmist remembered
only his previous experience (42:3), he became more depressed. But now he chooses
to remember God in a different way that will encourage him (42:6). Although he
does not say specifically what he remembered about God, it was undoubtedly the
track-record of his past faithfulness.
He may have reflected
on the record of God' historical faithfulness to his people (read Ps. 44:1-3,
which may have been written at the same time).
Such objective
evidence can be a powerful antidote to spiritual depression (THEISM; BIBLICAL
INSPIRATION; JESUS' RESURRECTION; SKEPTICS ' CONVERSIONS; BIOGRAPHIES). Is it
really true that your faith is irrational? Is there really no more evidence for
Christianity than for other world-views? Is it possible that your emotions have
distorted your perception of reality? To recall this, you must learn it (FMS)!
He
may have reflected on the record of God's personal faithfulness in his own life
(read Ps. 40:1-3 as an example).
Such personal evidence
is also a powerful antidote to spiritual depression (CHARACTER CHANGE; ANSWERED
PRAYERS; PAST DELIVERANCES). When has trusting God ever burned you in the past?
What compelling reason is there for viewing this situation as any different?
GUINNESS:
It is those who are willing to back to the basis for their faith that are able to
go on with God.
Enlist the
help of other Christians in both of these areas. They can supply you with and/or
remind you of both lines of evidence.
Affirm to God that he
remains faithful in your present situation.
Read 42:7. As the
author watches the melted snow gushing forth in waves from the mountain cataracts,
he sees in this a picture of his own present situation as blow after blow descends
upon him. But notice he does not say "these breakers and these
waves have rolled over me." He says "your breakers and your
waves . . . " This is very important, because he is affirming
that the situation is not out of control or evidence of God's lack of concern—but
rather that God is sovereignly (even if mysteriously) at work through these sufferings
for an eventual outcome that will be good and vindicate his choice to go on trusting
God (read 42:8).
This is something the Bible teaches over and over again—the
rhythm of trials followed by blessing (Ps. 66:10-12; Lam. 3:21-36), suffering
followed by hope (Rom. 5:3-5), "death" followed by "life"
(2 Cor. 4:11). Read 1 Pet. 5:10.
Choose to affirm this
truth to God, thank him in advance for the good that he will bring out of this,
tell him that he remains your only reliable foundation ("my rock"),
and then keep doing whatever it means to be faithful to him in your situation.
At the proper time, he will lift you up and you will find that your trust in him
has been strengthened through the very things that caused your spiritual depression.
Conclusion
Recommend
Doubt and Spiritual Depression for further reading.
NEXT:
Psalm 22 (an outreach opportunity)
Footnotes
[1] John R. W. Stott, Favorite Psalms
(Chicago: Moody Press, 1988), p. 57.
[2] "I suggest that the main trouble in
this whole matter of spiritual depression in a sense is this, that we allow our
self to talk to us instead of talking to our self . . . Take
those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have
not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems
of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking
to you. Now this man's treatment was this; instead of allowing this self to talk
to him, he starts talking to himself. 'Why art thou cast down, O my soul?' he
asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says:
'Self, listen for moment, I will speak to you.' Do you know what I mean? If you
do not, you have had but little experience . . . We must
stand up as this man did and say: 'Why are you cast down? Why are you disquieted
within me?' . . . instead of listening placidly to him and
allowing him to drag you down and depress you. For that is what he will always
do if you allow him to be in control." D. M. Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual
Depression: Its Causes and Cure (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1982),
pp. 20,21.