Battling Spiritual Depression

[0:00] Thank you.

[0:30] Thank you.

[1:00] If you've got a Bible, go to Psalm 42. Psalm 42, we are continuing in our series called Anxious for What? Anxious for Nothing. That's right.

[1:10] We've been, the last several weeks, we've been talking about topics like worry and anxiety, things that no one here struggles with, right? And now again, the feedback of this series has been phenomenal because, you know, whether it's a little bit of worry and anxiety or a lot, this is something that all of us deal with every day, every week.

[1:29] It's a practical reality for us. Our theme verse for the series has been Philippians 4, 6 that says, do not be anxious about anything. Don't be anxious about anything.

[1:41] In fact, last week, we looked at Jesus's words in Luke chapter 12, where he tells his very own disciples, for those of us that are followers of Christ, he says, therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life.

[2:00] So the apostle Paul addresses worry and anxiety. Jesus addresses worry and anxiety. This is something that the Bible is concerned about when it comes to our life.

[2:10] Now, we've talked about that what this actually means is do not continually be anxious about anything. It's not saying you're never going to have an anxious thought or a worried moment, but we don't want to live in that prison for very long.

[2:26] We want to be free from anxiety and worry. And we've talked about like God's comforting presence. We've talked about things that we need to practice when we feel stressed out and worried.

[2:37] We've talked about how God's very peace comes and guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Last week in Luke 12, we talked about how one of the ways we battle anxiety is to remember our identity.

[2:53] You belong to God. You are God's children. And if God takes care of the ravens and the lilies of the field, will he not take care of you?

[3:06] Remember who you belong to. Well, there's more we can talk about, but I'm not going to end this series without talking about what I think is one of the, it's one of the things we don't talk enough about in church and in Christian circles.

[3:21] And that's spiritual depression, spiritual depression. This is when anxiety and worry takes us to a very dark and difficult place.

[3:32] And there are people that struggle with spiritual depression. And the Lord has given us passages in the Bible, like Psalm 42 and Psalm 43, which we're going to look at tonight.

[3:44] So nothing like a sermon on depression for Memorial Day weekend. So glad you are at church. Let's stand. If you are able to do so as we honor the reading of God's word.

[3:55] And let's look here at Psalm 42, Psalm 42, the psalmist writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.

[4:14] My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night.

[4:27] While they say to me all the day long, where is your God? These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go with the throng and lead in the procession of the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.

[4:45] Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

[4:58] My soul is cast down within me. Therefore, I remember you from the land of Jordan and Hermon and from Mount Mazar. Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls.

[5:09] All your breakers and your ways have gone over me. By day, the Lord commands his steadfast love and at night his song is with me, a prayer to God of my life.

[5:20] 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 all the day long, where is your God?

[5:41] Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me?

[5:55] Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

[6:05] Aren't you glad there are psalms like this in God's word? Let's pray together. Lord, thank you for what you've been teaching us over these many weeks with the battle of anxiety and worry.

[6:21] And we have to address tonight that there are times when that worry and anxiety or the stress of life takes us to a place where we're really cast down in our soul.

[6:32] A place of deep and dark depression. Thank you, God, that by your grace, you've given us passages like this so that we can be real and honest about our struggle.

[6:46] And what I pray that you'd come and teach us tonight, whatever it is. In fact, Lord, though there will be words that you give me to say, but I'm trusting you're going to speak in ways that may have nothing to do with what I say, but you speak to the hearts of your people.

[7:04] And I pray this in the powerful name of Jesus and all God's people said, amen. You can be seated. My name is Asher Lev.

[7:15] That's actually the title of a book. It was actually even turned into a play. And it's about a Jewish boy growing up in a traditional Jewish family in Brooklyn.

[7:26] And as Asher grows up, one of the things that he loves to do is to paint. He develops this love for painting. And it turns out that as he paints more and more, they begin to discover that Asher has an incredible talent.

[7:44] The things that he is able to paint, the things that he's able to create are absolutely amazing. There's just one problem. Everything he paints is about pain and suffering.

[7:59] They always portray life from a place of brokenness or darkness. And as you can imagine, his parents are very, very troubled by this.

[8:11] And so they try to encourage him. Why don't you paint some pretty things like sunsets and flowers and waterfalls? Why can't you paint the beautiful things of life?

[8:25] But Asher couldn't do it. And when his parents asked him why he only painted things that were dark, he replied, I paint the world as it is.

[8:37] And he wasn't trying to be pessimistic or disrespectful. He was trying to be honest because for Asher, the world, even with all of its beauty, was still a dark and broken place.

[8:55] And as the story develops, I encourage you to read the book if you want to read the book. But as the story develops, there's this distance that begins to develop between Asher and his parents.

[9:06] Why? Because his parents simply refused to accept an artistic vision that didn't see life in beautiful pictures.

[9:18] And Asher's not the first one to be like that. My favorite country singers, a man by the name of Johnny Cash, was known as the what? Man in...

[9:29] You better get that right or I'll kick you out of here, alright? The man in black. And in that self-titled song, these are the lyrics. You wonder why I always dress in black.

[9:40] Why you never see bright colors on my back. I wear the black for the poor and beaten down, living in the hopeless, hungry side of town. Oh, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day and tell the world that everything's okay.

[9:55] But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back till things get brighter. Sing it with me. I'm the man in black.

[10:06] You did good. But what's he saying there? I'd love to wear a rainbow every day, act like everything's okay. But that's not the world in which we live.

[10:20] And if we're honest tonight, Faith Family, there are some people that simply do not know how to handle people like that. Like Asher's parents, there are many Christians that do not know how to handle people like that.

[10:34] They struggle with the Asher-levs of the world. You see, for them, they want to see life like a Thomas Kinkade painting. They want everything to be beautiful scenery and nice and calm.

[10:47] The theme song of their life goes like this. Always look on the bright side of life. Always look on the light side of life.

[11:05] You'll be humming that the rest of the night, right? They bury their heads in the proverbial sands of optimism. I mean, they just want life to be sugar and spice and everything nice with storybook marriages and obedient children and life that never gets messy.

[11:23] But of course, we know that's not how life really is. As much as we would love to paint those pictures, that's not how life really is. In fact, real life has tornadoes that rip through neighborhoods and leave devastation.

[11:38] Life has people that get sick and have to go to the hospital. Relationships that are messy and hard. Soldiers that don't come home. Churches that fight and split over the silliest of things.

[11:54] Babies that die too young. And spouses that die too soon. But nobody wants to see a painting about any of that. So where are you going with this, pastor?

[12:08] What's the point to all this? Here's my point. Lean in close. In the same way that Asher's parents didn't know how to handle his paintings.

[12:21] I'm afraid that we as Christians often don't know how to handle our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who deal with dark and spiritual depression.

[12:32] We are often like, even as the church, we are like Asher's parents who say, come on, can't you cheer up?

[12:44] Look on the bright side of life. Don't you know what Romans 8.28 says? Count your blessings and name them one by one. Or some other often unhelpful cliche.

[12:55] That is, anxiety and worry has taken them to a difficult and dark place. And we don't know how to deal with it. We don't know what to say to them.

[13:07] And that is why I'm glad we have Psalm 42. Because the Bible actually addresses this so that we are able to enter into a much needed conversation.

[13:21] Amen? And so what I hope tonight is as we look at Psalm 42 and Psalm 43, they actually go together as a unit. What we're going to see is the psalmist is in a dark place.

[13:33] In fact, he's in what many scholars call the dark night of the soul. He's not having a bad hair day. He didn't wake up on the wrong side of the bed.

[13:44] He's depressed. He's fighting with his soul for joy and hope. And my hope and prayer is that as we study this passage tonight, it will help us when we are in the dark night of the soul.

[14:02] When our anxiety and worry takes us to a place of depression. Or that it will begin to give us some tools to have a conversation and be ministers to those who find themselves in that situation.

[14:17] Are you with me? So let's start by looking at the spiritual condition of the psalmist. So look at verse 3 of chapter 42. Some of you can relate to this.

[14:29] He says, My tears have been my food how long? Day and night. That is, all day long I'm weeping.

[14:43] While they say to me all the day long, where is your God? Verse 5. Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me?

[14:56] Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him. Verse 11. Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me?

[15:07] This psalmist is troubled. Very troubled. He's experiencing again what Martin Lloyd-Jones calls spiritual depression. It's not, so far as we can tell, it's not physical depression.

[15:21] Though clearly it is affecting him physically. Based on verse 3, he's not sleeping. So he's in such a dark and difficult place. He's not able to sleep.

[15:31] There's no sense here that this is a chemical imbalance. Though certainly that is true. And there are many people that struggle with that. Not denying that at all. I'm just simply saying, the text seems to indicate that this is a spiritual condition of the soul.

[15:48] And lest we think, well, then he must be a weak Christian. By the way, don't ever say that in front of me or I might punch you in Jesus' name. This is only the experience of weak Christians or the spiritually immature or those who are in sin.

[16:04] Oh, no, no, no, my dear friend. I would remind you this. The Psalm 42 experience is the experience of many great servants of God. David experienced it frequently.

[16:17] You see that in the Psalms. Elijah that we just looked at a few weeks ago battled depression. Jeremiah was nicknamed the weeping prophet and wrote a book in the Old Testament called Lamentations.

[16:31] Like, you know you have to be upset when you write an entire book called Lamentations. It's just lament after lament. Sorrow after sorrow. The Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 18 gets so discouraged he wants to quit the ministry and would have quit the ministry had God not sent him a vision in the night.

[16:52] This is a very common experience for servants of God. And not just people in the Bible, but certainly people throughout church history. You know the second song that we sang tonight, There is a Fountain?

[17:04] Was written by a man by the name of William Cooper. William Cooper, this is what he said. Here's a picture of him. William Cooper says, One of my favorites from church history, Charles Spurgeon.

[17:37] Charles Spurgeon wrote this, I have sometimes been the means in God's hand of healing a man who suffered with a desponding spirit. Listen. I have been myself depressed and I have felt an inability to shake it off.

[17:57] You don't need to say anything out loud, but I guarantee you there are people in this room tonight that say, I know what that is like.

[18:08] To be at a point where I rise up in despair and I can't shake this downcast soul.

[18:19] So faith family, this psalmist is not in sin. This psalmist is not immature. In fact, this psalmist is the opposite. Look at how the psalm starts in Psalm 42 verse 1.

[18:32] Look at it. As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God and for the living God.

[18:45] When shall I come and appear before God? Does that sound like somebody who's weak in their faith? Does that sound like somebody who's walking away from God?

[18:56] No, that sounds like somebody who wants God, who's passionate for God, who actually says, you know, like a deer starving and thirsting for water, that's how I'm thirsting and hungry for you, God.

[19:12] I want you. I want to be in your presence. This is not an immature Christian. This is not some Christian in sin.

[19:22] This is someone who loves God. So why is the psalmist so troubled? Well, there's a few reasons that the text gives us. Here's the first.

[19:33] I guarantee you, you can relate to this. He feels the absence of God. He feels the absence of God.

[19:45] Look at chapter 42, verse 9. Chapter 42, verse 9. I say to God, my rock. Everybody say this with me.

[19:56] Why have you forgotten me? Have you ever felt like that? Look at Psalm 43. So this is into Psalm 43, verse 2.

[20:07] For you are the God in whom I take refuge. So why have you rejected me? God, I don't understand. I want you, but I can't feel you.

[20:21] I want to come into your presence. I want to experience you, but you seem to be nowhere to be found. You seem to have forgotten me. How many of you can relate to this? I pray, and it seems like God isn't listening.

[20:34] I sing, and I don't feel a thing. I long for God like a deer longs for water, and I can't taste a drop. Here's what's going on.

[20:45] Look at it. He wants God's presence, but what he feels is God's absence. Can anybody, can we just be honest?

[20:59] Have you been there? Some of you are there. Some of you are there tonight, and your soul is cast down because you feel abandoned by God.

[21:10] You just can't sense Him anywhere in your life. Look at Psalm 44, verse 23. I love this real and raw response to God.

[21:22] Imagine saying this. Awake! Why are you sleeping, Yahweh? That's pretty brave. Wake up!

[21:34] What are you doing up there? What are you asleep? Rouse yourself. Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?

[21:47] For our soul is bowed down to the dust, and our belly clings to the ground. Thank you, God. By your grace, you put verses like this in the Bible.

[22:00] God, where are you? What are you doing? Now, part of the reason the psalmist feels this way is because he's been separated from God's people. Look at Psalm 42, verse 4.

[22:12] He begins to remember, as I pour out my soul, look, how I would go with the throng and lead them in the procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude-keeping festival.

[22:28] In other words, this psalmist remembers worship. He remembers what it was like to be with the people of God in the worship of God. See, here's what's going down here.

[22:39] I don't know if you know this, but this psalmist was a southerner. Probably from Tennessee. No, he wasn't from Tennessee, but he was a southerner.

[22:50] He's from Jerusalem. And what did you have? It's Jerusalem, which is the capital of the southern kingdom. And what did you have in Jerusalem? You had the temple of God.

[23:00] And so he's remembering when he was back in Jerusalem, back in the south, where God's from. I'm just kidding. And he remembers what it's like to worship with the people of God.

[23:12] But for some reason now, the psalmist has gone up north, to coin a phrase. And because he's up north, he's separated from his people, separated from the temple of God.

[23:23] And this separation from them is bringing him into a spiritual drought. And it made me think about this. How many of you, if you miss a few weeks at Faith Family, feel that way?

[23:36] You don't need to respond out loud. And I'm not looking to just twist your arm for church attendance. But it made me think about the fact that, like, does being away from God's people engaged in the worship of God affect you at all?

[23:52] It certainly did this psalmist because now he's longing to be back with his people in the worship of God. So here's the point I'm making, Faith Family, that God feels absent and that has affected his soul.

[24:06] He's downcast because the God he wants seems nowhere to be found. Here's the second reason why he's in this spiritual depression. And that is, he not only feels the absence of God, he feels the presence of trials.

[24:22] He feels the presence of trials and suffering and adversity. Look at what he says in verse 7. Verse 7, chapter 42. Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls and all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.

[24:38] He's talking here about suffering. How many of you have ever felt like this? Like you were just being hit with one wave after another. Wave after wave just crashes on your life.

[24:51] And you just think, when is it ever going to stop? You ever felt like that? Like you were going to drown and you just wanted to scream, enough! You lose a parent to death, a child to college, and your job in the same year.

[25:09] You're informed you didn't get into the college you wanted to the same week that your parents inform you of their irreconcilable differences. Your car won't start, your kids won't listen, and your husband won't answer, and it's not even 9 a.m.

[25:22] It's just wave after wave after wave after wave after wave. Like the hymn says, when sorrows like sea billows roll.

[25:34] Oh, this psalmist feels it. This psalmist feels wave after wave of life's adversity. So it's enough that I can't even feel the God I want, but what I can feel is the adversity of life.

[25:53] I've got no problems feeling that. I feel that every day. I feel that every hour, and I wish it would stop. And I'm downcast in my soul.

[26:08] So thirdly, not just the absence of God and the presence of trials, but then notice thirdly here, the harassment of others. He feels the harassment of others.

[26:20] That is, there are people trying to do him harm. People trying to bring him down. Look at chapter 42 and verse 3. My tears have been my food day and night while they say to me all the day long, where is your God?

[26:35] Look at verse 9. 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 all the day long, where is your God?

[26:54] Jump to chapter 43 verse 1. Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people for the deceitful and unjust man.

[27:05] Deliver me. For you are the God in whom I take refuge. Why have you rejected me? Why do I go about mourning? Because of the oppression of my enemy.

[27:16] This man's getting hit from all sides of people that are trying to cause him harm. You know, God must not care about you because look at all the suffering you're going through.

[27:27] Look at how your life is going. I mean, do you really want to serve a God who allows things like that to happen in your life? And it's just one thing after another. How many of you, you became a Christian and life got worse?

[27:41] And you're like, wait, wait, wait, I thought I was going to become a Christian and life was going to get easy. And now it seems like I'm even dealing with more than I was dealing with before. And you start wondering, like, maybe it didn't take or maybe something's wrong.

[27:55] Here's what's going on. Notice it on the screen. Their taunting is impacting his thinking. He's listening to all the voices in his life that are attacking him and he's beginning to doubt and question and struggle with what's being said.

[28:14] He's tempted to listen to others instead of listening to God. So why? Is this psalmist anxious and troubled? It's not because he's immature. It's not because he's in sin.

[28:27] But because he can't feel God. But what he can feel is the suffering of life and his adversaries in the world.

[28:39] And it's just become too much to bear to the point that it has afflicted him deeply. And so here's what the psalmist does.

[28:51] This is so weird, but biblical. Do you know if you're here tonight and you've been here or you are here, what are we to do about spiritual depression?

[29:07] What's the action that we're supposed to take when it comes to the dark hour of the soul? Here it is. You ready? Talk to yourself. Talk to yourself.

[29:20] Seems weird, doesn't it? But it's exactly what the psalmist does. Let me show you. Look at chapter 42, verse 5. Why are you cast down, O my soul?

[29:31] He's talking to his soul. Why are you in turmoil within me? Soul. Hope in God. For I shall again praise Him. My salvation and my God.

[29:43] Look at verse 11. Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, soul. For I shall again praise Him. My salvation and my God.

[29:54] Look at chapter 43, verse 5. Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God. For I shall again praise Him. My salvation and my God.

[30:05] Three times, He has a conversation, albeit the same conversation, with His own soul. Now, I highly recommend to you the book called Spiritual Depression by Martin Lloyd-Jones.

[30:20] If you struggle with this at all, I highly recommend you get that book and read it. In that book, here's what Martin Lloyd-Jones writes. It's so good. This is so good. Listen. Have you not realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?

[30:39] I'm going to read that again. Have you not realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning.

[30:53] Stop. How many of you, anxiety and worry is its strongest in the morning? That would be me. Like, my mind just begins to get flooded with all the things I've got to get done and how's it going to get done?

[31:04] And in the morning can often be one of the most difficult times. So he says, take those thoughts when those thoughts come to you in the morning. You've not originated them, but they started talking to you.

[31:18] They bring back the problems of yesterday. Somebody's talking. Who is talking to you? Yourself is talking to you.

[31:29] Now, this man, that is the man of Psalm 42, this man's treatment was this. Instead of allowing his self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself.

[31:44] I really, truly believe what I'm about to say. Notice this on the screen. The most important sermon you will hear this week is not the one I preach to you. It's the one you preach to you.

[31:58] It's the sermon you preach to your own soul. When your eyes open in the morning. In other words, rather than letting yourself talk to you, you talk to yourself.

[32:13] You speak truth into your soul. The most influential person in your life is you. Do you know why I know that?

[32:25] Because nobody talks to you more than you talk to you. It's not even close. Nobody talks to you like you talk to you. So the question then would be, what are you telling yourself?

[32:38] In the dark hour of the soul, in the dark night of the soul, what, not what is yourself telling you, but what are you telling yourself? And there are three things very quickly.

[32:51] The psalmist tells himself and speaks to his own soul about to overcome this dark night, to overcome this spiritual depression.

[33:01] Number one is this. Talk to yourself about the past. And most specifically, I'm here talking about the past of God's faithfulness. Remember all that God has done for you in the past.

[33:16] Let me show you where he does this in verse 4 of chapter 42. These things I remember. He's going back as I pour out my soul, how I would go with the throng and lead them in the procession of the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude-keeping festival.

[33:36] Listen. Are you all with me? He's presently feeling like God is absent. So what does he tell himself?

[33:48] He tells himself about all the times when he remembers God was near. He goes back and he remembers those spiritual milestones when he could feel God's presence all over him.

[34:07] Why does he do that? To remember that God has never left him. I don't feel you right now but here's what I know.

[34:17] I have a resume from the years that I've walked with you and I remember that conference I went to and I remember that church service and I remember those two or three years where there was spiritual growth like no other.

[34:31] God, if I look back to the past of your faithfulness, I can see how time and time and time again you were always there. So I'm not going to let soul, I'm not going to let you in this moment forget that God has promised he will never leave us or forsake us.

[34:51] I don't feel that right now but I'm going to tell myself the truth that God is with me. You know, one of the best things I'm serious this is like I'm a doctor so take it from the doctor okay?

[35:05] Not that kind of doctor. Here's your spiritual prescription. If you're struggling with spiritual depression tell somebody your testimony. Tell someone how you became a Christian.

[35:19] This is obviously assuming that you're a Christian. Right? Go back to some point in your life when you experience the saving grace of God because you know what that's going to do?

[35:32] It's going to remind you what God did in your life and remind you that he's still with you. Talk to yourself about the past.

[35:42] Secondly, talk to yourself about God. Talk to yourself about God. This is why you should be in the Bible. Why you should be in church. Why you should be learning. That is learning things about God so that you have those resources to talk to yourself about who God is.

[35:58] Look at what he does in verse 7. Deet calls out to deep at the roar of your waterfalls all your breakers and your ways 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.

[36:17] In other words, he's telling himself what he knows about God. First of all, I love how he talks about the fact that it's your waves and your breakers. That is, I believe God that you are sovereign over the sufferings I'm going through.

[36:33] These aren't my waves. These aren't the world's waves. God, these are your waves. They come from your hand and so there's not anything crossing my path that doesn't come by the sovereign hand of God.

[36:48] And, notice that the psalmist reminds himself of the steadfast love of God. In other words, tell yourself this in times of spiritual depression.

[36:58] I may be under the waves, but I'm never outside his love. Tell yourself that. Speak to your soul about that. Do you know who God is?

[37:10] Do you know how God has revealed himself? Do not let your emotions of the moment of spiritual depression determine the character of God. You let truth do that by telling your soul who God is.

[37:25] Not who you think God is, but who God is as he has revealed himself. So talk to yourself about the past, specifically the times when God has been so near.

[37:38] Talk to yourself about who God is and then lastly, I think in doing those things, you can talk to yourself about your future. You can talk to yourself about your future. He does this three times.

[37:49] We'll just read two of them. Verse 5. Notice, why are you cast down? Why are you in turmoil? But then he says, hope in God. Watch. For I shall again praise him.

[38:06] He says the same thing in verse 11. Notice it here. He says, hope in God for I shall again praise him. I'm not staying here.

[38:20] I may be here tonight. I may be here this week. I may be here for a season. I don't know how long I'm going to be in this spiritual condition, but I will not remain here soul.

[38:35] God has been too faithful and God has revealed himself in such a way that I know this it's temporary. I'm going to praise him again.

[38:48] I'm going to hope again. My present may be dark. My future will be bright because I am going to praise God again.

[38:59] He's been faithful in the past. I know his character in the present and that gives me all the hope I need. There'll be freedom from this in the future. Are you all with me?

[39:10] I hope this is either helping you or helping you minister to someone who's let worry and anxiety take them to a dark place.

[39:23] Rather than being like Asher's parents and saying I don't know what to do with you enter in with the hope of Psalm 42 you will praise again.

[39:37] This is not where you're going to stay sister brother friend. This is what helped the psalmist persevere his spiritual depression.

[39:51] He had a conversation with his soul. Didn't expect that application at church did you? The application of this message is talk to yourself about the truth of God.

[40:04] And listen listen here's the hopeful confidence we have as I close. if this psalmist in Psalm 42 can find hope in his spiritual depression how much more can you and I how much more can you and I here's what I mean is that we actually have something this psalmist wouldn't have fully understood.

[40:25] We have more information available to us than the psalmist in Psalm 42 had at that specific time. You know what I'm talking about? Guess who Psalm 42 and Psalm 43 is pointing us to?

[40:41] Zone in here. Listen, listen. When the psalmist in verse 1 cries out in anguish, I thirst, does that sound familiar to anyone?

[40:54] When the psalmist in verse 3 of chapter 42 speaks of being taunted by his opponents, does that sound familiar to any of you?

[41:06] In verse 7 when the psalmist describes the waves coming down on him one after another, does that sound familiar to you?

[41:18] When the psalmist cries out to God, why have you forgotten me? Does that sound familiar to you? Faith family, listen to me.

[41:30] For those of you who struggle with spiritual depression, this is the good news of the gospel. Look at it. The hope for the troubled soul is because Jesus became a troubled soul.

[41:48] No one knows, no one knows what it's like to be in a dark and lonely place more than Jesus. No one knows what it's like to be in a dark and lonely place more than Jesus.

[42:02] And listen to me. No one knows more how there is a day coming when you will be set free more than Jesus.

[42:17] You will be brought into the light. God let not your heart be troubled.

[42:29] You have not been abandoned. And for unlike Asher's parents and many Christians today who have no idea how to deal with a troubled soul, listen to me, Jesus knows exactly how to comfort the troubled soul.

[42:50] He promises you will praise again. And all God's people said amen.

[43:00] Amen. God thank you again for passages like this that we get to study. And I'm sure it's not the upper that many people want to come to church for, but this is real life.

[43:14] And there are seasons when worry and anxiety take us to a place of a dark hour of the soul. And there is hope.

[43:25] It's the hope of the gospel when we are experiencing those kinds of situations and those kinds of seasons in life. So for the people here tonight who are in that season, I pray that this has given them comfort to not be anxious, to not be worried.

[43:43] They will praise again. And for those in this room, maybe they're not going through this, but they know others that are. pray that it will give us the ability to more graciously minister, not with some kind of surface-y cliche, but to really enter in to the pain and the difficulty that they're going through, that we might help them hope again.

[44:11] Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.