What s Your Spiritual Emoji? Depression Psalm 88: 1-18 At 63, comedian Robin Williams took his own life. The world mourned! How could anyone who cause us to laugh find himself in such a dark place...and the rest of us left shocked that he would do so? Was he like the writer of Psalm 88 who ends the psalm with the words darkness is my only friend? Williams and the psalmist are a part of a union of the depressed. Abraham Lincoln suffered from depression throughout his life and led the nation through a Civil War. Carlyle Marney at one time the influential Baptist pastor of Myers Park Baptist in Charlotte back in the 1960s suffered from depression. Sheila Walsh the Christian singer has battled with depression and manages it with medication. In the Bible you find and Moses, David, Elijah, Job and Jonah had bouts of depression. Depression is the like the common cold of the mind. So Psalm 88 is good for us to read because it s evident...here s the cry of a depressed person. BUT unlike all the other Psalms...Psalm 88 leaves us no hope. It s like watching a tragic movie. Some wonder why it was included. Scholar Walter Brueggemann calls this psalm "an embarrassment to conventional faith." He even asks, "What is a psalm like this doing in our Bible?" I can tell you why...it s there because it gives a voice to those who suffer. It puts our depression into words of prayer. It reminds us that people...even good and faithful people have seasons in their lives when they can fall into depression. The Church needs to understand this. Churches need to learn and come alongside those who are depressed or suffer from any other mental illness and be hope to those who suffer. From this Psalm I offer you three things to consider: First The Endurance of the Depressed. Second, The Empathy From the Church and thirdly The Elevation by the Savior. Please don t misunderstand my focus. I nor this Psalm is talking about those seasons when we feel a little blue. When we re having a bad day. This Psalm reminds us that for some people Depression is Something Endured Consider the writer of this Psalm. It wasn t David. The writer was most likely Heman the Ez*ra*hite. The reason for his depression is a mystery. It s possible that he was chronically ill. Many who suffer from debilitating illnesses, cancers, physical abnormalities...also have to cope with the side effect of depression that such diseases create. It s likely that Heman had battled a consistent darkness in his soul most of his life. In verse 15, he writes that he had been this way since his youth. 1
Some have proposed that Heman may have contracted leprosy. One day he s in the court of David, singing the praises of God, then as soon as his leprosy...the most dreaded disease in the Bible... is recognized by others, he s separated from his responsibilities, and his community...wouldn t you say that s a good reason to be depressed. Persistent outward circumstances is a good reason why depression strikes. But think for a moment about what was going on internally. In verse 3 he sees no end to his situation...heman is overwhelmed with troubles and my life draws near to death. In verse 8, he felt abandoned by his companions: You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them. In verse 18, he is separated from his beloved in Hebrew that could imply, family or spouse. In verses 13-14 But I cry to you for help, LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you. Why, LORD, do you reject me and hide your face from me? He feels so abandoned by God that prayers aren t even heard. Do you see the outward and the inward forces that the depressed person has to endure? There are people who suffer their entire lives with depression. Now let me widen this idea just a bit. We are not just talking this morning about depression...some suffer...no only from periods of depression but periods of mania...we call that being bipolar. There are those who suffer from other diseases of the mind. Anxiety, compulsive behaviors, Schizophrenia, what about substance abuse and addiction. We have a horrible opioid crisis in this country...addiction is a mental illness that some suffer with all their lives. Don t they deserve treatment? Should any form of mental illness be seen any differently that the person who suffers from diabetes, or High blood pressure? You may ask; Can depression be caused by sin? Yes! In some instances, there are some levels depression that are caused because our hearts are in rebellion against God. One can come to know that the Holy Spirit is bringing conviction in our lives over sin and offering us the new birth in Christ. Ian Thomas put it this way: The Holy Spirit is like a man with a lamp entering a dark and dirty room, and what you have learned to live with in the dark becomes repugnant in the light. 2
But we don t want the light! We want to live our own way...indulge in the sins that give us pleasure. But that freedom we demand can also leave our souls depressed...due to argument that exists between our old nature and our new natures. So if you are blue this morning...a spiritual inventory may be need. Again, I don t think this was the type of depression that is felt by Heman. The other thing that s amazing is that God allows these emotions to be expressed. It shows that the Holy Spirit was involved in the assembling of the scriptures. Those used by God to collect the scriptures felt strongly that the addition of this sad psalm should be considered God s word. Wouldn t they have been tempted to cut it out? It didn t promote an image of the Christian life as one that is always happy? So, Christians we need to stop always equating depression with sin or saying that depression is sinful. What s needed is The Empathy From the Church A Barna study reveals that nearly one-fifth of young adults leave church because their faith does not help with depression or other emotional problems they experience. I can think of no greater indictment against the church than for us to shun and or be afraid of those suffer from chronic emotional pain. If their struggle is real...so is a God who wants to show His love through his people in His church. It has been written that Christians and Christian Churches need to become Christian firemen, Christian Firehouses running towards those burning with mental illness while everyone else runs away. How do we do that? Well, we first see the need, then we create a safe environment, we listen to them, for they are our brothers and sisters. We minister to them with the trifecta of truth: hope based on God s love, appropriately applied medicine and professional counseling, and the ultimate truth of the Word. But I m not a doctor! I m not a counselor! One of way you can help is to share the Psalms with those who suffer. Encourage them to take these words and make them their own. You can also be a place of safety, security, and grace. To do this, we need to avoid judging, being too quick to offer solutions, instead of making the person your personal project. Make sure you help them to see themselves as adults who can contribute much, in their own ways, to Kingdom work. Churches are quick to help the hungry, the homeless, the fatherless, the victims of natural disaster, and almost every disease known to man...except the disease of the mind. Those that suffer often see our backs 3
turned against them, see them as irritations, show our discomfort...even our fear in their presence. That is incompatible with the mission statement that God s people should aspire to fulfill in Isaiah 61:1 3). The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD s favor... to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. Can you think of any other passage that commands us that the church is in the mental health business? Yes this psalm is hopeless...but that doesn t mean there s no HOPE to be found. Those that have to endure such depression and have the benefit of being founded and cared for by empathic churches...they will one day know The Elevation by the Savior Let s remember that Christ came to redeem our souls...but He also came to redeem our bodies. AND THE MIND... as well as the body is waiting to be redeemed. Paul told the Corinthians: Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. There is coming a day when we will be free from our wheelchairs, free from our pacemakers, free from our glucometers, free from our Lexapro our Zoloft and our Prozac. I believe that because Jesus put to death the power of sin and the fear of the grave. One day my body and my mind is going to be elevated to a place of beauty that s beyond my understanding. One day eternity will provide us bodies and minds that are mysteriously and wonderfully perfect. Until then we have to be patient. But I m not telling you this morning to become a Christian, in order just to be healed. Christianity isn t just another therapeutic discipline in order for you to feel good about yourself. Nor is a death, when self-inflicted, a short cut that you can take in order to receive that which God is preparing for you. God wants our hearts and lives to be totally dedicated to the worship and praise of him. Even if broken and bruised...our bodies...and our MINDS can still be used today. God commands that they be used today to worship Him and serve His purposes in the world. The Bible says 4
Your body is not your own...you ve been bought with a price...so glorify God with your body. Our task...our privilege is to elevate the name of Christ in our lives and in our world. When our focus is on elevating Him...He will elevate us in due course. And once elevated...there will be no going back. Many of you know that Charles Haddon Spurgeon was the greatest preacher known to the world before Billy Graham. When Spurgeon s congregation grew so large, they had to rent the Music hall in Surrey Gardens. On June 7, 1891, an overflow crowd filled this huge building. As Spurgeon was praying, someone (there s debate about whether it was a prankster, or someone just wanting cause trouble) yelled, "FIRE." The crowd panicked ran toward the exits. Seven people were trampled to death. Dozens more were taken to the hospital. Spurgeon collapsed! He was devastated. He fell into such deep depression that he later said he doubted that anyone had ever passed as close to madness, as he, and yet escaped with sanity. Some say Spurgeon never got over the horror of that event, and it was known that he could spend days after Sunday services in bed due to his depression. Spurgeon serves as a reminder that people of great faith in God can be brought low in depression...and still be used of God, in spite, of it. This is liberating to those who have suffered like Spurgeon suffered. What made the difference in Spurgeon s life? What will make the difference in my life? The difference is Christ! The difference is, like Spurgeon, or like the Heman you follow his example in verse 1 and pray today. LORD, you are the God who saves me; day and night I cry out to you. If you are suffering from depression, or any mental illness. The place to find yourself is to acknowledge it without shame, to manage it...through medicine, through counsel, through the support and encouragement of believers who aren t afraid but willing to keep your suffering company. But in the end know that one day you will be saved from it. Not by your own hand but through the nail pierced palms of Christ...who saves binds our brokenness and saves us from our all our diseases...by whose stripes we are healed. 8:30 #451 tell it to Jesus 11:00-Come as you are 5