For many years now I have battled the enemy of depression and countless times I have asked the question we find in the final verse of Psalm 42. “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?” For those who know the face of depression, you are aware that it can strike in the midst of the happiest day, turning a joyous moment into darkness and despair. It often brings enough turmoil to result in suicide. Many people cannot understand what would lead to such a desperate and selfish act. But in reality depression is simply one way people respond to the emptiness of life. Others drink, some gamble, many turn to sex, some even shop. Our souls are in desperate need of something and without Jesus we will pant like a dog without water tied up in the hot, desert sun.
Psalm 42:1-2
“As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?”
In your tears the world will look at you and try and sell you everything on the earth to fill that need. Just check out the size of the self-help section of Barnes and Noble. They will convince you that it is psychology and pills that you need. They will call you into the clubs to give you booze and offer sex. They will even say you need religion. But they will mock you if you say all you need is God. When things go bad they will ask where He is now.
Psalm 42:3
My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me continually, "Where is your God?"
The writer of this psalm battles through his depression by reminding himself to praise God for He is there and to stay in fellowship with other believers.
Psalm 42:4-11
“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. 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. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God, my rock: "Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?" As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me continually, "Where is your God?" 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.”
But notice where he ends up. “Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” He knows that though the world is ever changing. Though his own faith wavers at times, though the storms and waves seem to overtake him and the world keeps mocking him asking where is your God now, He remembers that he has a rock and that rock is Jesus Christ and He is unmovable.
My friends the only answer is to cry out to God in desperation. Reason with God in prayer by reminding God of His promises because God wants us to do that. It tells Him our trust is in Him and in His unwavering Word. Hunger for God. Thirst for Jesus. Put your trust in Him and praise Him in all things.
I have been so desperate that I have had no choice but to fall at the cross and beg for mercy. Jesus is our rock; we must anchor ourselves to Him. It is the only way.
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