Hope for Days of DepressionSample

Depths of Depression 

How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

Psalm 13:2

David’s anguished cry reveals the intense psychological battle he faced within himself. He finds his thoughts and emotions turn against him. He wrestles with himself as he finds himself tossed into a tumultuous sea of perplexing and contradicting thoughts. He is plunged into the depths of despair. The circumstances around him are dire and his God is nowhere in sight. Facing a spiritual crisis and overcome by his emotions, David is the clinical case study of a man in the throes of depression! The sorrow within his heart eats him up from within all day. He is utterly helpless.

For David, the struggle was not only internal but also external. He asks how long must his enemy be exalted over him? He is surrounded by men who would have him dead. He is assaulted from every direction. He lives in a constant state of anxiety and fears not knowing when the end might come. David’s world was caving in all around him – within and without! He seeks urgent remedy and implores God, how long he must suffer? The impatience in his words is clear! It is a desperate cry for God to come and relieve him of his misery!

The raw prayer of David reveals that even God’s children are not impervious to depression. It is a Satanic lie that says Christians do not get depressed! Saints such as Augustine, Martin Luther, John Bunyan, William Cowper, and Charles Spurgeon struggled with depression! They had seasons of darkness where sorrow filled their souls. In such moments of deep despair and distress, we like David are to cast our doubts, complaints, and anguished cries upon God! Doctor Martyn Lloyd-Jones in his seminal work, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure writes, “Go directly to Him and seek His face, as the little child who is miserable and unhappy because somebody else has taken or broken his toy, runs to its father or its mother. So if you and I find ourselves afflicted by this condition, there is only one thing to do, it is to go to Him, If you seek the Lord Jesus Christ and find Him there is no need to worry about your happiness and your joy. He is our joy and our happiness, even as He is our peace. He is life, He is everything.” Christ is the only remedy! Flee to him. Cast yourself upon your loving Saviour!