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Bible preaching from the pulpit of Choice Hills Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina
We're going to be in Psalm number 43 tonight.
We are going to read parts of Psalm 42, but we're going to read all of Psalm 43.
And as we continue our study through the Psalms, the heart of the Bible.
So if you'll get Psalm 42, we'll start in verse number 3 and we'll jump around a little bit and then we'll go down to Psalm 43.
The Bible says in Psalm 42 verse three,
My tears have been my meat day and night while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me.
For I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise with a multitude that kept holy day. Verse 12. For I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. O my God, my soul is cast down within me.
Therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan
and of the Hermonites from the hill Mizar.
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water spouts.
All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime.
And in the night his song shall be with me,
and my prayer unto the God of my life.
I will say unto God, my rock,
Why hast thou forgotten me?
Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me,
while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Psalm 43. O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man. For thou art the God of my strength.
Why dost thou cast me off?
Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
O send out thy light and thy truth.
Let them lead me.
Let them bring me unto thy holy hill and to thy tabernacles.
Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy.
Yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God, my God.
Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
And why art thou disquieted within me?
Hope in God.
For I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God.
Let's pray.
Our fathers, we come to these couple of Psalms and this repeated
theme. We just want to just give it to you, Lord, and offer it to you and your blessing
that you would use these things to help us, to strengthen us and encourage us
in these times when our soul is cast down in us. Lord, we do again pray for our country.
cast down in us. Lord, we do again pray for our country. Lord, have mercy on our country.
I pray that you would turn the wicked to righteousness. I pray that you would send an awakening to our country. I pray that you would help us. Lord, I know that the number of believers
in this nation is diminishing, but Lord, I pray that you would revive us
and you would strengthen and revive your work
in the midst of the years,
that you would help us to be ever more faithful to you
and to stand and believe and teach and preach
and proclaim righteousness,
not just from a pulpit,
but also in our personal lives as we speak to others.
Lord, that we would be salt and light.
But Lord, we know ultimately these things are spiritual
and the people who are involved and the people who support these kinds of wicked things that we have seen,
Lord, they need Christ.
They need to turn from sin and turn to the Savior lest they perish
Lord we just pray that you would help us bless our time in your word tonight Lord let it be a
strength and help to us we ask in Jesus name amen I want to look at the subject of depression
depression three times in these two Psalms you you see this. I'm sure you noticed
the question in verse 5, verse 11, and verse number 5 of Psalm 43. Why art thou cast down,
O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God. And when we think about,
when we look at these words, no, the word depression is not found in this.
But you see in this passage, you see the concept.
You know, we are so high on the hog.
We are so arrogant in our modern day
and thinking that we're the ones who have developed
and come up with and thought of all of these things
in our modern day.
And we have such a tendency in our society to look at the Scripture
as those were ignorant, kind of backward, bumpkin type of people
that did not understand these things.
And we are well-developed and scientific in our society.
And that is just absolutely false.
That is just wholly untrue. Because we use
medical language to describe something that is part of a human condition. And in our time,
what I'm referring to here is depression. It's called clinical depression. It's also called
major depressive disorder. We have fancy terms to describe something that mankind has been
dealing with since the fall. It's not new. And sometimes I think when we think we're a well-developed
and evolved creature that the Bible loses its relevance to us, but it doesn't. In fact,
what the psalmist is describing here and what you see over and over in scripture is what people would commonly refer to as depression today. It's not a new thing for
sure. Let me just give you this definition, clinical depression, also called major depressive
disorder. The definition is, it is a serious medical condition, notice the term there,
It is a serious medical condition, notice the term there,
marked by a persistently low or depressed mood and a loss of interest in pleasure or activities
lasting most of the day, nearly every day, for at least two weeks.
So it basically means you're sad, seriously sad that it's distracting,
and it persists.
That's the main elements of the definition.
That's clinical depression. There are all kinds of people in the Bible that dealt with this.
This is not a new thing. This is not a result of chemical imbalances in the brain. This is a
common part of the human condition. We see it here. He asks three times, why art thou cast down,
O my soul? You don't say that because you had a bad day. You say that because of a long-term
despondency. And we could go into, let's just look at a few other places. Look at Psalm 13,
Psalm 13, verse number one. And I just want you to ask yourself as I read this,
does this fit the definition of clinical depression?
Again, persistently low or depressed mood,
loss of interest or pleasure in activities,
lasting most of the day nearly every day for at least two weeks.
So ask yourself as we read these few passages,
does the person in this passage match the description of someone who is clinically depressed?
Okay.
Psalm 13 verse 1.
How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord, forever?
So was this a brief period of time?
No.
How long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall my enemies be exalted over me? I would say he was pretty depressed.
And it had persisted for some time also.
Look at Psalm 31, rather.
Psalm 31, verse 9.
Psalm 31, verse 9.
Verses 9 and 10 say this.
Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble.
Mine eye is consumed with grief.
Yea, my soul and my belly.
Notice that.
My eye is consumed with grief.
Verse 10.
For my life is spent with grief and my years with sighing.
My strength faileth because
of mine iniquity and my bones are consumed. Notice he mentions his strength. What is strength? That's
in the body. He mentions his bones being consumed. That's a body part. In other words, he is so
depressed for such a long period of time that it's affecting him physically.
And this is not a unique or one-off occurrence in Scripture.
Look at Psalm 102, if you would.
Psalm 102.
We'll come back to Psalm 42 and 3 in a minute.
Psalm 102, verse 3.
Psalm 102, verse 3.
Say this.
For my days are consumed like smoke and my bones are burned as an hearth.
Notice the mention of the bones.
My heart is smitten, that's the N word, and withered like grass so that I forget to eat my bread.
That's one of the signs of clinical depression is you can't eat, loss of appetite
or changes in appetite.
I'm talking about from a medical perspective.
He says, verse six, rather verse nine,
for I have eaten ashes like bread
and mingled my drink with weeping.
He's sad, obviously crying all the time
because of thine indignation and thy wrath
for thou hast lifted me up and cast me down. sees his life as a shadow that's declining.
No hope. The sun is setting, in other words. There's no good thing to look forward to.
Look at Job, if you would.
Chapter 30. Job chapter 30. Job 30, verse 16. Job 30, verse 16. Job speaking here, he says this,
Job speaking here he says this and now my soul is poured out upon me
the days of affliction have taken hold upon me
my bones, there it is again, the body
are pierced in me in the night season
my sinews take no rest
that's the ligaments, the tendons
that's also the body
by the great force of my disease
is my garment changed
it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.
He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes.
Verse 22.
Thou liftest me up to the wind, and causest me to ride upon it,
and dissolvest my substance.
For I know that thou wilt bring me to death.
That's how hopeless I look, right? And to the house appointed for all living.
Verse 26.
When I looked for good, then evil came unto me.
And when I waited for light, there came darkness.
My bowels, there's the body again, boiled and rested not.
The days of affliction prevented me.
I went mourning without the sun. I stood up and cried in the congregation. Now, there are many more places in passages of Scripture
where you could see the writer is pouring out his soul to God,
saying, Lord, this is my state.
You know what he's describing? He's describing a hopeless situation. He's describing a situation
where he feels that God is not helping him. He's describing a situation where he has been weeping
for long periods of time. And he's describing that affecting his body, making him sick,
making him ill. You know what's being described?
Depression.
It's not called that,
but that is exactly what's being described.
These verses in Scripture,
first of all, I think they clearly establish that depression is a real thing.
It's in the Bible.
You see people who experience it.
It is a real thing.
People do get despondent and depressed
for many causes that last for long periods of time, and it affects their body. That is a real
thing. But all these verses also clearly establish that despondency and depression is not a modern
phenomenon, though we have kind of medicalized it, right?
We've made it into it.
It's in the definition that I gave at the outset.
It describes it as a medical condition, all right?
Whatever.
But before it was ever described like that, it was in Scripture, and it was in human beings.
So this kind of experience, human experience, is not new.
It's not unique. And for
this reason, because we see people in scripture who experienced that, what is now called depression,
we can look at them and the help that they received and find help for us today also.
Because they experienced the same thing we experienced. It might be termed differently,
but the experience is one. But also the help that these same people that we read about received
is available to us as well. Can I get an amen? Amen. We can find help for depression and despondency in our day.
And these remedies that are given in Scripture work.
They work.
Now, there are a number of sources of depression.
You have to remember something about your body. Now, this is where doctrine and theology and the practical matters of life kind of interface or come together.
From a doctrinal perspective, the human being is tripartite, right?
Body, soul, and spirit.
Okay, does everybody understand?
That God made man, body, soul, and spirit.
That's clearly, that's what's called a theological fact.
But here's the practical truth in that, which is also born out in Scripture,
that what happens in your body affects your soul.
And what happens in your soul, your inner man, also then affects your body.
They are not separable.
They're inseparable because the human being is not just the soul.
He is body, soul, and spirit.
And so those things are interrelated.
Those things are interrelated.
Someone has used an illustration to describe this relationship
between the three parts of a human being as a hand within a glove.
And that might be a good way to describe it.
So if I was to put a glove on my hand like you do when you work outside or you do carpentry,
if I was to put a glove on my hand and I was to hold a nail in my hammer
and I was to miss the nail, yes, the glove was hit, but the finger sure did hurt too, right?
Right?
Both are affected by the same thing.
And here's the point.
You can't separate the body and the soul.
So when someone has a physical condition, it can absolutely lead and cause depression.
Because they're connected.
And if someone is depressed for a non-physical condition,
it can absolutely affect their physical body. It absolutely can. And you don't have to go any
further than the scripture. No, the scripture is not a science book. It's not intended to present
information in that way. It's presented as a revelation of God. But whatever it touches is
true. And what you see here is you see the psalmist saying,
my body's messed up because I am in the dumps.
I'm depressed.
Right?
Now, there are some somatic causes of depression.
Somatic refers to the body.
Some physical causes of depression
that are totally legitimate.
And when you deal with a person who is depressed, you really have to rule these things out. In other words, you have
to take tests to find out, is there something wrong with you physically? And those things are shown
with evidence and diagnostic tests. So you can go to the doctor and they can test you and they can
find out what's, you know, if you have a physical problem. Things like endocrine problems or hormonal disorders. Things like, I know for instance,
my mother, she had a problem with her thyroid and she went into depression as a direct result
of something that could be tested in her body. And when she took the medicine to regulate that, she instantly came out of the
depression. All right. Because it was caused, remember, you can't separate the body and we're
foolish if we make light of legitimate causes of depression that come of the body. We're foolish.
You know, we just, we want to be, we want to sound ultra spiritual. You just need to get the Lord in your life
and you just need to encourage yourself in the Lord.
Amen.
Well, hold on.
There might actually be a physical cause
because your body and your soul are related.
Right?
It's been in the Bible the whole time.
But other causes of depression
could be medications that you take,
chronic pain and illness. Right, Brother Jim? Why are you laughing? If someone was to have a neurological disorder
or a neurological injury, an injury to the brain, that can cause depression. So we don't,
in other words, we don't look at someone who has depression
and you shouldn't automatically think, well, they just need to get right with God.
Well, hold on.
There are actual physical causes.
And just like other physical conditions,
there are other physical conditions that affect the inner or the spiritual condition.
You think of someone that gets Alzheimer's or dementia.
You know, that effect, all of sudden, someone who's a saint, and I mean that colloquially, is using foul language, right? That is a direct result. That doesn't mean they've
gone off the rails and they're not following the Lord anymore. No, no, no. They have a disease,
right? Effective medications, I've already mentioned those, chronic pain and illness,
that can affect your spiritual life that can affect your inner man
so we acknowledge that there are physical causes that's not what we're seeing here
we're there physical causes of depression or despondency
but although there are some physical causes of depression it would be false to assume
that when a person is
depressed, it is simply and only a medical condition that needs medical treatment.
That is a bridge too far, because that's not the case. In fact, I would dare say that probably
the bulk of issues with depression do not have to do with the physical
man at all. They have to do with something spiritual or something inner, inward, or perhaps
a circumstance that happened in their life that they haven't been able to deal with or whatever.
But if this depression does not have a physical cause, what do we do? What happens is, I'm depressed.
I've been depressed. Oh, well, doctor says,
all right, you are diagnosed
with major depressive disorder.
And so here's your medication.
And what does the medication do?
The medication does not heal the cause
because the cause is not in the body.
The medication heals,
is an attempt to heal
and get rid of the symptom of depression.
And now we come back to the Bible,
because that's what we're talking about.
Depression, so this is where the drugs can be administered
to artificially deal with symptoms.
But here's the thing.
If a person, if a believer is depressed and despondent
and has no physical problems
to what should he turn
for his relief and comfort and hope? That's the question.
You see the instinct that we've been
trained to instinctually turn to doctors for despondency,
when there is no physical problem with us.
But the psalmist didn't turn to that because that wasn't even available.
That wasn't even on the radar at this point in time.
It is for us.
And we acknowledge that when a person,
even without a physical problem,
when they get depressed,
it affects their appetite.
It sometimes makes them sick.
It causes sleep disturbances and fatigue.
They can't concentrate and they're restless
and they're moody and all of these other things.
It changes them, right?
I would say that the personality of David and Job changed when they got despondent.
Wouldn't you agree?
In fact, we read it when the psalmist and when Job says, I can't eat, I don't want to
eat.
It's affecting my body and my bones.
You see, the danger is when every instance of depression is attributed to a medical condition,
even though there's no reason to think that.
The doc checked you out and you're good.
And so sometimes people say in that place, well, I have a chemical imbalance.
Oh, really, what test did you take that demonstrated that?
Oh, well, I'm depressed. Well, that means I have a chemical imbalance.
Brother Jim agrees.
Well, hold on.
We're just saying stuff.
Do you know why we're saying that?
The chemical imbalance, that is such a farce in so many cases.
Because by doing that, you make it into a medical condition.
And the same thing is done with alcoholism and drug addiction.
Yes, does that affect the body? Of course.
But that's not all it's from.
Now here's where the rubber meets the road,
and then we're going to look at, we have about 10 minutes.
You see, when you take something that is scriptural,
a part of the human condition like despondency and depression long term,
which is what we're reading
and you say oh you just have a chemical imbalance
and there's no reason to think that.
There is no physical problem there.
What you've done is you've taken something
that is spiritual in nature
and you've removed any personal responsibility
because after all it's a disease.
People do this all the time with alcohol, with drugs.
In other words, how can you blame somebody for getting COVID-19 or getting the flu, right?
You can't blame somebody morally because they got a disease, because they got cancer,
or because they got, you know, Parkinson's.
You can't blame them.
And so that's what they say.
That's what I have. I'm depressed and it's not my fault. You can't blame them. And so that's what they say. That's what I have.
I'm depressed and it's not my fault.
It's a medical condition.
But the other thing, and this is the real sad part,
is by saying that, you remove, you take off the table
the remedies that God has provided
because you said it's medical
instead of a problem of the soul.
When in fact, I would say, I don't have statistics on this,
but I would say probably the majority of the time,
when you're talking about an actual depressive state like we read in Scripture,
it is an issue with the soul.
Sometimes it directly has to do with sin in the person's life.
That can be a cause.
It doesn't always have to be, but it can.
So when we look at these verses,
and back in Psalm 42 and 3, if you look back there,
he says this,
Why art thou cast down?
Verse 5, Psalm 42, verse 5. why art thou cast down, O my soul?
Why art thou disquieted within me? Let's look at a few things, how he responds to this depressive
state, this despondency. Here's, first of all, I want you to see this. The psalmist asks his own soul why it's despondent.
You notice that?
He's asking his soul, why are you down?
Why are you depressed?
You know what that tells me?
That he might not even understand it himself.
He might not understand why he's in the dumps, why he's despondent himself.
He might not even know the cause.
Now, there might be obvious causes of trouble, but even with those causes of trouble,
he might not know exactly why this trouble is causing him to be in the dumps.
So it's not unusual for us, and every one of us has periods when we're despondent, right?
That's not new, that's not unique, that's not odd.
It's not unusual when we get to a place of despondency
that we don't exactly know the source of it and why we're that way.
Soul, what's wrong with you? Why are you down?
Has anybody ever felt that way? I've felt that way.
Has anybody ever felt that way?
I've felt that way.
And then the psalmist also encourages his own soul.
Now remember, this is a man talking to his soul.
He tells his own soul,
Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
And why art thou disquieted within me?
Hope thou in God.
He encourages his own soul to look to the source of relief and comfort.
In other words, though he knows where the comfort is supposed to come from, though he knows God is the answer and is the source of comfort and hope,
he's saying, look soul, you know the God that you serve, God that you have what are you doing being cast down
he's talking to himself now his own soul you know where you should look to for help do it
you see this kind of struggle in other words what he knows and what he does are not the same
I felt that right you get down you don't want to to God. You kind of want to sulk a little bit. And you
won't seek God. And you tell yourself, stupid? He's the answer. You know it, but you find it difficult to do it.
This is the inward conversation the psalmist is having with his own soul. But it does, he also says,
hope thou in God.
You know what that tells us?
That hoping in God
in the midst of depression is a choice.
He's commanding his soul to do it.
That means there is an act of the will,
a volitional choice involved in this.
And when someone is down and depressed,
yes, there is a certain
responsibility to choose to hope in God. Oftentimes we shift our hope to something else that's not God
in pursuit of comfort or hope when we should choose the Lord.
hope when we should choose the Lord. He tells his soul, hope in God. We're not just simply helpless victims of an illness in the cases where there is no bodily cause. We can choose
to hope in God. I fear sometimes what we want to do is we want to wallow. And that's
one of the effects of depression and despondency is it causes us
to want to wallow.
As
counterintuitive as that might sound.
Notice
verse 5, Psalm 42 verse 5
is also in the verse 5 of 43.
He says, for I shall
yet praise him for the help of his
countenance.
Who is the help of my countenance and my God, he says.
So here David, he's arguing with his soul and he's saying,
why are you cast down?
Hope thou in God.
And then he says, even though he's still depressed,
even though he's still despondent,
and he hasn't yet come out of it,
he's in the same sentence practically,
and he says, I'm still gonna praise him.
The psalmist gives praise to God
in the midst of his depression and despondency.
You know what this is?
This is praise by faith.
This is praise when you don't feel anything happy or good.
This is praise without any accompanying feeling.
Job 13, Job does the same thing.
Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.
It's a choice to praise God in the midst of the despondency.
Psalm 42, verse 6, he says,
O my God, my soul is cast down within me.
Therefore, will I remember thee from the land of Jordan.
When we're cast down, we must remember the Lord our God.
We cannot choose to ignore him because we're down.
That actually short circuits the help.
We must turn to him because he's the answer.
And this fact, you know what?
This fact is often scoffed at by these self-appointed and self-satisfied experts on the subject.
They'll say things like, well, you're just throwing Bible verses at people.
We can actually help.
All that religious and that spiritual stuff won't fix the problem. But these kinds of voices that say this kind of thing represent the godless and the faithless and the worldly wisdom of the wicked.
Because either the scripture is true and we're reading it.
Or what those voices say, those godless voices say are true.
But both cannot be true.
And when we read the scripture, what do we see?
We see Job, we see the psalmist,
and those who are despondent,
we see them turning to God and finding help.
Is the Bible true or not?
And they did all of that
without any modern psychological methods.
But when we're despondent and cast down
and we ignore the Lord
in pursuit of some other salvation
or deliverance,
we do so to our own peril.
We think, well, I'm different.
This is different.
No, it's not different.
That's the whole point.
Two more things and we'll be finished.
When we're cast down,
we must seek God in serious, persistent prayer.
Serious, persistent prayer.
This kind of prayer, when we're depressed and despondent,
is not some vain repetition.
It's not just repeating words.
It's not that.
It's not the routine.
It's the pouring out of our soul to God.
Listen to these verses.
1 Samuel 1 15.
And Hannah answered and said,
No, my Lord, I am a woman of sorrowful spirit.
I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink,
but have poured out my soul before the Lord.
Psalm 62 8.
Trust in him at all times, ye people.
Pour out your heart before him.
He is a refuge for us.
Selah.
Lamentations 2 19 says this. Arise, cry out in the night. In the beginning of the watches, You see, when you get in a low place, it's not enough to just pray a little prayer.
You've got to pour your very soul out to God.
And that works to help bring you out of despondency. It's not that God's just going to snap his finger and everything's going to be better.
Because sometimes circumstances, you think the family of Charlie Kirk, they're going to have just a moment and everything's going to be better. It's not.
Tomorrow they're going to wake up without a husband and a father.
Tomorrow they're going to be in the depths of despondency.
But one thing, even though that's not going to change in their life,
that circumstance that is causing that is not going to change.
Yet they can pour out their soul to God
and sometimes the very pouring out of the soul in serious earnest prayer to God
is the thing that gives comfort.
Because the person in faith finds an outlet in the Lord
and a place of safe expression of their heartache.
And that helps them.
That helps them.
If any of you have ever been to a place,
a low place in your life,
and you've gone to God and you just,
it just gushed,
and you came out of there,
you came out of that prayer closet
different than when you went in,
you know this is true.
This is not regular old prayer.
This is serious prayer.
This is not throwing Bible verses. This is serious prayer. This is not throwing Bible verses.
This is the real thing.
And it works.
Lastly, when we're cast down,
we need God's light and God's truth.
Psalm 43, verse 3.
Oh, send out thy light and thy truth.
Let them lead me.
The light of God.
The truth of God. The truth of God.
We need the light of God's, God's light and God's truth.
We need his word.
As I said before, just like with prayer,
depression has the effect of making us want to avoid
the very things that God has designed for our comfort and help.
When we're in darkness and when we're confused,
we need light and we need truth. And God has
both of those in His Word. And again,
this is not Romans 8, 28.
Although that's true. And we know that all things
work together for good.
That's a true verse.
This is not throwing a Bible verse at somebody and slapping across the face with it and say,
hey, be happy.
Here's a verse.
I'm going to go on with my life and go to the coffee shop.
No, no, no, no.
If you've ever been in a deep place of despondency,
when you sit before God and you are broken,
and you say, God, I have to have something now.
And you open up the word of God, the scriptures,
and God talks to you from the text and the words of scriptures.
And you come out of that place different than when you went in,
you'll know that this is true.
The light and the truth of God minister to you to lift you out.
And the truth is you might have to do that over and over and over and over and over and over until finally the Lord, as in the time of Job,
he turned the captivity of Job.
Psalm 119.25, he says this,
My soul cleaveth unto the dust, despondency.
Quicken thou me according to thy word.
You know, when God finally spoke to Job, God did not say,
All right, Job, everything's good.
Here's why I did everything.
He didn't tell him all that.
In fact, God rebuked Job.
Where was thou when I did this and I did that?
What right do you have to question me?
That's basically what God said to Job.
And all of a sudden, at the end of that,
that the Lord's statements to Job,
at the end of that, you know what?
He's better.
You know what made him better?
Hearing from God.
Job was healed
of his despondency by God's
word. If you want to take that
as an application.
His despondency
vanished.
So these are some ways that
when we deal with despondency and depression,
and we will from time to time,
the Lord says this is the way to find help and to find comfort.
And it works.
It is real and it works.
And it helps God's people see the light and walk in His ways
and come out of those low points in their life.
Let's pray together.