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[0:00] Good morning brothers, sisters and friends, a joy to worship the Lord together. There are intimation sheets at the back door. I'll go through them first and then one hour intimation at the end.

[0:13] Again, the reminder that on Thursday, every Thursday at 7 in the hall, we have our prayer meeting. And everyone is more than welcome to come along to that.

[0:25] And again, it's not just for those who are members, not just for those who are wanting to become members, it is for everyone to come along to. Today, we are remembering Smithton Free Church.

[0:39] They've recently had an induction of an assistant minister, Davy, his wife Emma, and also their family. We remember them, Davy and myself crossed paths for a short time in ETS in the Free Church College.

[0:55] And he was very accomplished, to say the least, back then. So we do pray for Davy and for Emma as they begin their ministry in Smithton. We also pray today for Straff Connan.

[1:08] They're asking us specifically to pray for leaders amongst them who are currently training up to be elders. And also they're seeking to produce a development plan for a way forward for themselves.

[1:24] As we said, this month is our month to pray and to ask the Lord to show us, as Thomas reminded us at the end of last month, what ways can we, within our comfort zone, within our friends and family and our community, what ways can we naturally and normally speak about Jesus or share Jesus to those around us?

[1:47] And the other new announcement is, God willing, a week this evening, we hope to start our youth fellowship. And again, I know there's no Sunday school today, but please do share that with any teens.

[2:03] Well, P7 to S6. So P7 to S6. Now the sheet says 7.30 till 9. It's really, it should be 7.30 to 8.30 at least for the first week.

[2:15] And we'll see what we're doing then going forward. Basically, after church, after church or 7.30, just please do encourage any young people you know, a long food, games and a time of learning together about Jesus.

[2:34] Completely informal, completely relaxed, just a time together around the world, but in a way that hopefully will speak to our teenage friends.

[2:45] The one other point is, of course, this evening's service. We've been having discussions at the door about it. I didn't have time to check all the churches before left.

[2:57] I know that, starting to see before left anyway, that from U.S. anyway, they've cancelled. I'm pretty sure Harris is cancelling. It seems to be working the way up.

[3:08] Now, we've got two choices. We either leave it until, say, 3 o'clock and then phone round and cancel, or we just say just now, it's likely tonight's service won't go ahead.

[3:19] Even this morning, I saw West Niles Police put that warning out not to travel after 3 o'clock, I think it was, or 2 o'clock onwards, until this evening, until 12 o'clock tonight. It's not easy to decide what to do.

[3:33] We can't just cancel every time there's a bit of wind. We know that. But if we get warnings, and police warnings, and safety of life warnings, and where we are here with the car park and the sea behind us in that corner, we know is dangerous, then, as it stands, I am minded to put off and to cancel this evening's service.

[3:56] If suddenly there is rising bright sunshine the rest of the afternoon, then we might phone round, but I'd rather be safe and then be wrong than be wrong and something happen to one of our people this evening.

[4:13] I know it seems perhaps we're being a bit too careful, but all it takes is one loose tile of which I'm sure there are, or one bit of rock, or one person falling, and there's trouble for us.

[4:26] So it's out of concern and pastoral care, but as it stands, I think we'll put off this evening's sermon, and please do, if there's any who come out this evening who are not here today, let them know.

[4:40] We'll try and phone round ourselves too, to any who are missing just now. We're here to worship the Lord. We'll give him praise for that.

[4:51] All our praise today is from the Scottish Psalter, and all our praise is from Psalm 34. We'll be singing, as it were, through the psalm as we go on.

[5:03] Psalm 34 in the Scottish Psalter, that's on page 246. Psalm 34 on page 246.

[5:15] We can sing, first of all then, verses 1 down to verse 7. Psalm 34 verses 1 down to verse 7. God will I bless all times. His praise my mouth shall still express.

[5:28] My soul shall boast in God. The meek shall hear with joyfulness. Extol the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord. He heard and did me from all fears deliver.

[5:42] Psalm 34 verses 1 to 7. To God's praise. But when I bless all times.

[5:57] His praise my mouth shall still express. My soul shall boast in God.

[6:12] Let me shall hear with joyfulness. Exol the Lord with me and us.

[6:29] Exol the Lord with me and us.

[6:59] Not shamed her purposes. This good mankind of her dancing.

[7:16] In come of his distresses. The angel of the Lord comes.

[7:30] His meanwhile, his words areimento. And the love of my friends. Let's unite our hearts together in a word of prayer.

[7:59] Let's pray. Lord our God, we do thank you once more for this opportunity to worship your holy name. Help us, we ask for this short time, to come around your word, to come around this time of sung praise, this time of fellowship together, and to understand that the thing we are doing, it is not just routine, that we're here just now praising, worshipping, glorifying you.

[8:28] Help us to have that sense of awe in our hearts and in our minds. We come just now before you, a God that is holy, holy, holy.

[8:39] We confess that often we come to these times of worship, and we do not have in our minds the right sense or the right attitude. We come perhaps, and it's all too formal, we come perhaps without our heart engaged.

[8:55] Or we come perhaps, and our mind is not engaged. We're not here to listen and learn. Help us to come with both our heart on you, but also our mind engaged to what it is you are saying to us through your word today.

[9:11] We thank you for the gift of your word, that we come around together just now, reading your word in a language we can understand. And we give you praise for that. But there was a time, not all that long ago, when your word was not in the hands of your people.

[9:26] Your word was in the hands of those who betrayed your glorious word, who twisted it, and who devoured your people in the process, who made a mockery of the gospel.

[9:37] We thank you that times changed, that you enabled your people now to have your word in their own language in front of them, to hear it preached, but also privately we can read it, enjoy it, and learn from it in our own homes.

[9:55] Help us, Lord, then we ask this day to come to this place with a heart and mind ready to listen and ready to grow and ready to learn.

[10:06] And we bring to this place, we know the many burdens and the many strains and stresses of this world. We bring to this place today the anxieties that often surround us.

[10:18] We bring to this place just now worries for ourselves, worries for family members, worries for friends. We bring just now before you those who are heavy on our minds.

[10:30] Pray just now for those we've been praying for now for many years. many decades for some here. Help us and give us the strength to keep on praying for them, to keep on remembering them, to know that where we grow weak and where we grow weary, you do not.

[10:48] We find ourselves tired and failing. You never tire and you never fail. Help us, Lord, then to have that hope and that confidence in you, our sovereign, all-powerful God.

[11:01] We thank you again for this time of worship. We pray also for our brothers and sisters and friends next door as they also join together to worship. We remember just now where your people worship across this island, across our nation, across the world.

[11:19] We remember our own presbytery just now. We pray just now for the services in Graverine Park as the table is served there today. We remember also the vacancies in our own presbytery.

[11:32] We remember South Uist. We remember again Park. We remember Shawbust. We remember soon now Calanish. And we remember Stornoway.

[11:44] We ask for wisdom for these congregations as they seek and as they pray a man of your choosing who would lead them and who would guide them, who would serve them. We ask you would maintain unity in these congregations, that they may serve you well, that they may in waiting they would grow together as a family of your people.

[12:06] We thank you Lord for our own mission field you've given us here in North Tulsa. We thank you for this past year as we've seen evidences of your working in this place.

[12:17] We give you praise for that. The glory is all yours. That we are here as your servants. Give us then that servant heart. Give us then that desire to see more and more of your work going on in this place.

[12:30] Help us to be salt and light. Help us to be faithful witnesses. Help us to be faithful ambassadors as we bring the glorious gospel to those around us who are in great darkness.

[12:43] As we give the words of life to those who are heading towards death. May we pray just now for those who have no care for their souls.

[12:54] Those who do not and who have not prayed for themselves. We pray for them today. We ask that you would work in their lives. You would use us as the means to point, to show the need we have of a saviour.

[13:10] Of salvation that is only found in Jesus. We thank you Lord for the reality that you are working in the hearts of your people. You will not lose a single one of your own.

[13:21] We remember today especially your people here. Remember here today especially your people here who are going through difficult days.

[13:31] Perhaps privately. Perhaps quietly. Perhaps only yourself. And they know about it. But you know them and you see them. We pray just now for those who are going through dark days and troubling days.

[13:44] Those who find themselves in agony within their own souls and within their own minds. Pray just now for those who are grieving not just recent loss but also ongoing loss.

[13:57] You alone can comfort and you alone do comfort. Pray just now for those who are worried. And those who are in great pain. Of bodily pain.

[14:09] Again Lord be with your people. Be with us all as we come just now broken. As we come just now crying out for mercy and for help. As we come just now saying that we have nothing.

[14:20] But in Jesus we have everything. We pray for ourselves once more. Mindful of the plan that a week today we hope to begin our youth fellowship. We do pray just now for teens who are happy to come along.

[14:33] We thank you for bringing these teens to our church. For seeing them grow up through Sunday school. And get older. And to grow in their love and their knowledge of who a saviour is.

[14:44] We ask as they come to youth fellowship they would feel safe. They would feel welcome. They would feel relaxed. We ask first and foremost that it would benefit them in their growth. In their understanding and their love.

[14:57] For a God who made them. And a God who knows them. As we pray for ourselves we are thankful that we are just a small part of your universal church.

[15:08] We join in just now with the prayer and praise of brothers and sisters across our world. Just now as we engage we engage with them. Worshipping you our one God.

[15:20] With our one voice. Our one desire. Our one heart. To look forward to that one day. We will all be joined together.

[15:32] The day we see you as you are. The day we see our saviour as we are face to face. The day we are made like him. In our new resurrection bodies. Until that day comes.

[15:42] Help us to be faithful. Help us to be level headed. As we engage with the world. We see a world that is so against us. Pray just now for our own government.

[15:53] Those in leadership over us. We pray especially as we see what looks to be inevitable. Humanly speaking. That these bills will be passed. Bills that will limit human life.

[16:06] Bills that will encourage the killing of those who are a burden onto the system. And those who feel as if their life has no more worth.

[16:18] Lord we admit we come to a situation that is complicated. That is painful. And we do pray Lord for those who are suffering today. For those who feel as if they are a burden.

[16:29] For those who feel as if they are worth not enough to keep on going. We ask that you would shine a light into their lives. And rather than seek to end their lives. They would seek to live out perhaps their days in service to you.

[16:43] We pray just now for those who are making these decisions. You would have mercy on them. As we see perhaps the destruction of human life from birth.

[16:54] Now also at death. We see this as a clear judgement. That where the basics of what it is to be human. The devaluing of the life that you give us.

[17:06] That when we see nations and countries acting this way. We have seen in history at least. That often there is judgement. Lord have mercy on us.

[17:17] Forgive us as a nation. Look on us kindly. We give you praise. That although we may see the gospel cause so small here these days. We give you praise. The gospel cause is not small.

[17:29] But you are bringing your people to yourself. Both here but also across the world. We pray also. As we remind and ask to pray for our own. Within our own denomination.

[17:40] We do pray. This week especially for Smithton. We thank you for that church. Which has so many of your people worshipping there. And so many different ways that they are serving you.

[17:52] Pray especially just now for Reverend De Paula. I do pray for Davy and for Emma. And for her family. We thank you for them. We ask you bless them just now. Bless them as a family.

[18:02] As they have this new change of circumstances. As they begin the incredible privilege. But also the incredible burden of ministry. We ask that you would bless them.

[18:14] You would go after them. Bless Davy as he begins to pastor and lead and preach in that congregation. Lord that you would give him the words to say. That from his ministry.

[18:25] That you would bless your work and your word through him. I would soon hear days of gospel blessing. We also pray Lord for Strafconnen. As they await and they look towards you.

[18:37] For helping them with eldership. We ask now for the men who are considering eldership. That you would encourage them to keep on growing. To keep on learning. And to take on themselves that great burden.

[18:49] But also that great privilege. And pray for them just now also. And all of their strivings in that community. That you would bless them. Forgive us Lord for sin.

[19:01] We come before you today. We stand before you. Accusing ourselves. But also we know of our sins. That we have no understanding of. Sins that to our shame we commit without thinking.

[19:13] Lord you see them and you know them. And we ask you would forgive us for them. Take away from us. The guilt and the shame of it. And help us to turn our minds to Jesus.

[19:24] And to him alone. For all of us here today. Who know him and who love him. He has borne our guilt. He has borne our shame. He has borne the wrath on his shoulders. So we can be free today before you.

[19:36] We ask them that freedom would be known to us. And seen by us. As we come just now. Confessing we are sinners. But also confessing. That in Jesus we have a great saviour.

[19:48] As we find ourselves at times. It seems and it feels clinging on to him. We have a constant reminder. That he holds on to his people. In his name. And for his sake.

[19:58] We ask these many things. Amen. Let's now turn to God's word. We can turn to the book of Psalms. The book of Psalms. And Psalm 88.

[20:10] The book of Psalms. And Psalm 88. That's on page 463. Psalm 88. Page 463.

[20:28] Psalm 88. Let's hear together. God's word. O Lord. O Lord. God of my salvation. I cry out day and night before you.

[20:40] Let my prayer come before you. Incline your ear to my cry. For my soul is full of troubles. And my life draws near to show.

[20:50] I am counted among those who go down to the pit. I am a man who has no strength. Like one that set loose among the dead. Like the slain that lie in the grave.

[21:02] Like those whom you remember no more. For they are cut off from your hand. You have put me in the depths of the pit. In the regions dark and deep. Your wrath lies heavy upon me.

[21:14] And you overwhelm me with your waves. Selah. You have caused my companions to shun me. You have made me a horror to them. I am shut in. So that I cannot escape.

[21:27] My eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call upon you O Lord. I spread out my hands to you. Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you?

[21:39] Selah. Is your steadfast love declared in the grave? Or your faithfulness in Abaddon? Are your wonders known in the darkness? Or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

[21:53] But I O Lord cry to you. In the morning my prayer comes before you. O Lord why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me?

[22:05] Afflicted and close to death from my youth up. I suffer your terrors. I am helpless. Your wrath has swept over me. Your dreadful assaults destroy me. They surround me like a flood all day long.

[22:18] They close in on me together. You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me. My companions have become darkness. Amen.

[22:28] And good praise to God for his word. It is holy and it is perfect. We again sing to God's praise. Again from Psalm 34.

[22:38] Psalm 34. Psalm 34. Psalm 34. This time singing from verse 8 down to verse 15. Psalm 34.

[22:49] Verses 8 down to verse 15. O taste and see that God is good. Who trusts in him is blessed. Fear God his saints.

[23:00] None that in fear shall be with want oppressed. The lions young may hungry be. And they may lack their food. But they that truly seek the Lord shall not lack any good.

[23:12] Psalm 34. Psalm 34. Psalm 34. Verses 8 to 15. To God's praise. God's praise.

[23:46] Psalm들이 Surprise. We sing the Lord and Our Father and Our Lord. Psalm 54.

[23:56] Mm. John King. sitteth home. We sing the Lord who was sent a living in the preachers for He would fail on us.

[24:11] Jane true, Lord. ThoubliAP is an負 se, God cannot mouth and iliune.

[24:24] O Canfrancaver, Do me, come! I know do me again!

[24:39] I shall doorknickhe suramid to understand the real Lord to hear.

[24:56] What man will see that I'm in time to see the golden law.

[25:12] Thy lives we live from speaking and from the words I know.

[25:28] Be part of the good good peace and to eternity God I stand on the just I hold them to the God we're looking at that just later on in the second half of our time together today. If you remember we started a new series looking at the gospel and a topic.

[26:22] I know you usually try and go through books of the Bible or sections of scripture verse by verse and I believe that is how it should be done. That is how it should be done. That's how the reformers did it. It's how the early church fathers did it.

[26:34] But sometimes it's good for us to look at topics. And if you remember last time we saw the gospel and grief. We saw what the gospel had to say to those who are grieving.

[26:46] What the gospel had to offer to those who are grieving. The second part of our series today is now the gospel and I've called it mental pain only because I don't want to take in a list of different conditions and perhaps miss one out.

[27:05] The gospel on mental pain by that or mental darkness perhaps by that I mean anxiety, depression, perhaps some PTSD, whatever other terms that folks suffer with.

[27:22] We're very careful here not to give a list. What does the gospel say to those who are suffering in their minds? Does the Bible have something to say to us?

[27:33] Does the word, does God, does our Savior have something to say to those people who are suffering? Now perhaps a point today will feel more like a lecture than a sermon.

[27:45] There's quite a few quotes I want to read out. But they're good quotes. I want to read them out well. And perhaps today might be better suited, you might think, to a midweek meeting.

[27:56] But this is a situation that many people will suffer with and identify with. So as many people as possible perhaps to hear this.

[28:08] It began at the beginning of this week as one sermon. It's now become two sermons as time has gone on. So today we can see a brief summary of the topic.

[28:20] I think, what? That's a waste of time. We're actually only having one sermon today. We're cancelling the evening sermon. Why is he wasting his time giving us this summary? Well, sometimes we have to build the foundations, don't we?

[28:32] We have to build the foundations well first before we build the house. So if you allow me please some time to build the foundations today. Then the rest of today and God willing next week we can as it were build the rest of the house.

[28:46] So today a brief summary and then the biblical description of mental darkness as we see in Psalm 88. Then next week we can see the care of Jesus towards those suffering mental darkness.

[29:03] So again, first of all then, a summary of the topic. There's a few distinctions we have to make first.

[29:17] We are dealing of course today with a topic that is real but also one that is delicate. And there perhaps are some here today and you think, I don't understand this.

[29:32] You can't understand what it is to go through what we're going to talk about today. If that is your story then we genuinely praise the Lord for that. We praise the Lord for that.

[29:44] If you haven't yet or haven't at all, maybe you won't suffer what others suffer in terms of their mental health. If you've never felt great anxiety or times of darkness, times of depression and so on and so on and so on.

[29:58] Then genuinely do please praise the Lord for that. But be mindful that there are those beside you, behind you, in front of you, those at home, those in your community that you love, that you care for, who do know all about this.

[30:13] Who have experienced this, who do experience it. If you can't relate, then those you love certainly can. I was trying to find the most up to date statistics but there's different opinions.

[30:27] Some say six out of ten, others say seven out of ten people can identify with mental health worries. We think, why is this a church service? Why is this a sermon?

[30:40] Because scripture is not silent on these topics. Scripture is not silent. We'll see this over the next two weeks. In fact, scripture says a lot. So much so, I have to break it up into two different sermons to fit it all in.

[30:54] We are made, we know, mind and body and, as it were, soul. And sin affects our world. Sin affects our body. We see that. Our body breaks down at times.

[31:09] It affects our mind too. We are mind and body and we're soul. And sin affects our physical world. It affects our bodies. Because sin is in the world, we can have broken bones. We can have diseases.

[31:25] And the same for our minds. Because we live in a world that is tainted, that is infected by sin. Our minds at times also suffer. A broken world results in physical pain.

[31:38] A broken world results in mental pain. And a broken world results at times in spiritual pain also. To help us, as it were, lay the foundations.

[31:51] Some here, and a good number of us here will know this already. But just to bring us all together going forward. There are, in general, three different levels, we could say, or three different perspectives, we could say, of those struggling in mental darkness.

[32:07] There are those struggling with clinical issues. That is, medical issues. Those who suffer, and this is a suffering faced by many, even, I'm sure, of our own number.

[32:22] Who, through no fault of their own, it is just a medical situation. They are born that way. Or at times, they are faced with a situation in life, something so hard, something so traumatic, but it causes something in their brain, as it were, in their mind, as it were, just to spark slightly differently.

[32:43] And others are born that way. There are some brothers and some sisters who will say that, right from their earliest memories, they have suffered with a real spiritual darkness.

[32:55] We see that in the psalm here. And later on, our good brother Spurgeon was one who identified really that way. This is not an issue of disbelief.

[33:09] It's not an issue of sin. It is simply and just sadly, at times, a chemical imbalance or something similar that takes place in someone's mind. There's nothing they can do about it.

[33:20] It's not their fault. It wasn't caused by them. It is just life. It is living in a fallen world. Now, clinical, again, depression or anxiety or mental health is best helped by medication.

[33:39] It is best helped by counseling. And I won't go into depth here. But just to say, the idea that Christians who suffer from this should not engage medical help, that is a worldly thought.

[33:52] That is nothing to be found in Scripture. That is not based on any kind of pastoral advice we're discussing in the vestry. You know, turn to the Puritans and will turn to them in a short while.

[34:04] Turn to the Puritans. They have no problem. No problem. This is ministers discussing their own mental health and giving hints and tips to their congregation as best they could.

[34:15] Now, the terminology has changed. The medication has changed. But way back then, they were trying their best to help their people to understand that sometimes folks are just born with issues and worries.

[34:30] They are born anxious. They are born depressed. It is the way their mind is wired. That is clinical depression or clinical anxiety or clinical mental health. There's also what's so-called ordinary.

[34:44] There are those who, for no clear reason at times, and some for many times, suffer regular or severe periods of depression, darkness, anxiety, so on.

[34:56] We see that in Scripture. Often the prophets, especially. See this next week. Often the prophets face great times of darkness and depression, anxiety, and they cry out for help. They call to the Lord.

[35:07] We see all the way through the Psalms as they declare to the Lord how empty they feel, how broken they feel, how worried they feel. This can affect any single one of us.

[35:21] And we might be surprised next week perhaps how much we see of this in Scripture. It's seen all the way through church history.

[35:33] And brothers and sisters, it's seen amongst ourselves too. So there's clinical, there's the ordinary, but also there's this category here we would call spiritual slash sin.

[35:49] And we're careful here. Because sometimes, and it comes really from the Victorian age onwards. It doesn't predate that. The Puritans knew what we're talking about.

[36:00] The Reformers were good here too. The Victorians had a strange view. But every single time someone's suffering almost, it's because of their own fault, their own sin.

[36:11] As Jesus encountered, is this person unwell because his parents sinned? And sometimes to our shame, we think everyone who suffers with some kind of mental health situation is because of some unseen hidden sin in their life.

[36:30] That's not the case. But rarely, rarely, there is a place, and Martin Lloyd-Jones addresses this as deep spiritual depression.

[36:42] There is a place where if we're engaging in ongoing sin, ongoing unrepentant sin, that our minds, our bodies, our spirits will go down.

[36:55] But this is something that only yourself knows about if you're engaging in this ongoing sin. And to our shame, sometimes we assume that this is always the case.

[37:10] Every time someone is somehow afflicted mentally, it's because of some secret sin in their lives. The reality is, in church history, in scripture, that seems to be the rarest of reasons.

[37:23] The rarest of reasons. For the spiritual cause then, for the sin-caused mental health, the answer is, come back to Jesus. Repent, turn from sin, and remind yourself of his promises to you.

[37:38] For those suffering, as it were, clinical mental health issues, the answer is medication. The answer is often counselling alongside medication. And that is for yourself and your doctors to discuss.

[37:50] But just know that there is no shame in seeking out help for these things. Think of one minister, many of whom will know of him. And years ago, he preached a sermon, perhaps a series on sermons.

[38:04] And in that series, he declared that a true Christian will not face mental health problems. A true Christian will not be depressed. A true Christian will not face anxiety.

[38:15] And so on, so on, so on. This same individual then suffered ten or so years of these conditions. A faithful man, a good man in terms of a service to the Lord.

[38:29] But the Lord showed him that he was not, he was not different to anyone else. But indeed, a good Christian can and does suffer all the various physical elements and mental elements of this world.

[38:49] It's like saying, if you're a Christian, it means you can never have a broken bone. If you're a Christian, you can never have cancer. We know that's not true. The same with our mental health. If you're a Christian, you can, and indeed brothers and sisters, we will suffer many of these things.

[39:05] Now, some will say this is a modern thing. You know, in my day, we never heard about this. We never talked about this. I hope you don't think that or say that, but some here might.

[39:16] Well, that's not true. Well, that's not true. The church fathers write about it. Yes, they use different words and different explanations. They write about it.

[39:27] They write about a melancholy of the soul, a darkness of their own souls. The Puritans at length write about it and preach about it. The reformers, your Calvin and your Luther especially, writes about it so clearly to his people.

[39:43] And perhaps best known to many of us, Spurgeon. Spurgeon was a man who seemed to have been born with a level of mental health issues.

[39:57] All his life he suffered with what we perhaps would call depression today. And at times, situations in his life made that worse. Spurgeon, in writing to his students about how the Lord can use suffering in our lives to help others, he says to them, It is a great gift to have learned by experience how to sympathize.

[40:23] To learned by experience how to sympathize. Ah, I say to them, I have been where you are. This is Spurgeon. I have been where you are.

[40:35] They look to me and their eyes say to me, No, surely you have never felt as we do. I go even further and I say to them, I, I think, feel worse than you ever have.

[40:49] Indeed, I could say with job, my soul chooses strangling rather than life.

[41:00] Spurgeon goes on to say, I could readily enough have laid violent hands upon myself to escape from my misery of spirit.

[41:12] The great preacher, the great Christian, the renowned Charles Spurgeon, a normal man who all the way through his life suffered greatly.

[41:24] Great friends with Reverend Kennedy of Dingwall, that great free church father. And Kennedy at times would have to write letters to Spurgeon to cheer him up, to encourage him to get him going again.

[41:37] And we have these letters, we're in the free church college. I'm pretty sure that's where they are anyway. Christians facing depression, anxiety, so on, have been there from the start.

[41:49] Yes, the terminology has changed, but the experience has not changed. Perhaps Spurgeon is too recent for us. We can go further back then to the Puritans. There are so many we can quote.

[42:01] And you forgive me for this long quote, but it's a quote that is so important for us to hear. This is a Puritan who I have not heard much of before, but in passing.

[42:16] But he writes this and he wrote this. Timothy Rogers. Timothy Rogers. Again, a lesser known Puritan. There are better known Puritans who wrote more about it.

[42:29] But he wrote very personally. Timothy Rogers, the Puritan wrote this about himself. That are seasons when minutes seem to pass like hours, which in turn seems to pass like days and days pass like months.

[42:50] He carries on. There are periods of time when our days seem to vanish as quickly as a vapor. There seems to be nowhere for the soul to find comfort and release from such a relentless and horrible condition.

[43:05] This great Puritan then says, No amount of doctrinal understanding, reading, praying, church ordinances or counseling from ministers and friends will quiet my spirit.

[43:20] I seem to be in utter despair without all hope. Being careful that we do not miss the mark of salvation, we go too far, becoming sinfully obsessive with the matter.

[43:31] Our minds do not give us rest. And he ends by saying of his expedience, All is night and there is no sun to shine on our faces.

[43:45] Winter is constant and there are no summer days. There are storms but no calm. I hope that's enough of the foundation for us to say, brothers and sisters, just as we face mental health crises and mental health issues, physical crises, sorry, and physical conditions, the same has been said and can be said for our mental health.

[44:14] Why shouldn't it be? Why shouldn't it be? Again, Scripture is not silent. We're not going further than Scripture goes for us. That's why we read in Psalm 88.

[44:25] We've covered this Psalm at a different angle before, but just to go through it very briefly today together. This Psalm, Psalm 88, is often called the darkest of passages in Scripture.

[44:36] Humanly speaking, the darkest passages. Why? Because Psalm 88, and I hope you saw this as you read it, is a dark Psalm. Where the Psalmist is openly and honestly declaring to the Lord, crying out to God that he is completely hopeless.

[44:56] This is a man who is on his last legs. This is a man who has nothing left to give. Let's go through the Psalm together just now. We see, first of all then, the reasons and the feeling of his pain.

[45:12] We see he endures both mental but also physical turmoil. And often these things go together. Often, at times, physical suffering can then bring about a mental suffering.

[45:23] Many of us will know this. I've seen it in my own family, with family members. Certain types of chemotherapy can almost always induce a sense of mental depression afterwards.

[45:37] And when life is sometimes physically as hard, our mind often follows. And the Psalmist is no different. My soul, verse 3, is full of troubles.

[45:48] My life draws near to the grave to Sheol. I am counted among those who go down to the pit. I am a man who has no strength.

[45:59] This is a man who knows the Lord, who loves the Lord, who has served the Lord. We see that he is a writer, one of the sons of Korah.

[46:11] He is a temple worker, a temple servant, who spends his days close to God's presence in the temple. And yet he is saying, I feel like I'm done.

[46:24] I feel like I'm done. My soul is full of troubles. My life feels like it's drawing near to the grave. Carries on, doesn't he?

[46:38] Carries on. He mentions his physical pain too. We see that a few places, but in verse 15 to help us in verse 15 we see that, afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors.

[46:51] I am helpless. This is a man who has faced lifelong suffering. A man who seems from his very early days till now, he has endured mental pain.

[47:06] This man, brothers and sisters, is not unique. With physical ailments, with the effects of physical health, it can be seen.

[47:19] You know, we see it. Broken arms and broken legs can be seen. Cancers can be seen. And the treatment for these ailments can be seen.

[47:32] Casts and chemotherapy and so on. Often, when we go through times of mental pain and mental suffering, we keep it hidden.

[47:44] We don't share that. Because of shame. Because of embarrassment. Because of other reasons. And all these things, they're not biblical, they're cultural, but yet we still feel them. And at times it goes unseen, it goes unsaid.

[48:00] And people are suffering. Brothers and sisters, there's people beside you or behind you. Brothers and sisters, this might be you. And you can identify so far with this man.

[48:12] To some level, you can say yes, identify that I have been, there's been days or weeks or years, I've cried out and cried out. I felt as if I'm on my last legs.

[48:23] Like Spurgeon, like Puritan said before you. Days where I've got nothing else to do, nothing left to give. At times also, it's caused by situations in the world.

[48:38] We see this in the psalmist. He is facing abandonment, isn't he? Verse 8, we see his companions have shunned him. At the end, verse 18, his beloved, those closest to him, have gone away from him.

[48:53] His companions have become darkness to him. He feels all on his own. He is suffering in such a way, he feels like he is all alone in this world.

[49:07] There is no one to help. There is no one he finds hope in. He is completely all alone. Sometimes, as we said, our mental health is often affected by what takes place around us.

[49:27] And as perhaps we far abandoned, perhaps in grief, as we said last time, when parents go, when siblings go, when children are taken away from us. When friends abandon us, when parents abandon us, when those who are closest to us betray us, and so on and so on.

[49:45] That causes us, of course, great mental pain. And the psalmist cries out so easily and so freely to the Lord.

[49:58] There are tears here. There is agony here. There is great distress here. He is tired and he is lonely. And note one thing.

[50:12] How honest he is to the Lord. How honest he is. Verse 10.

[50:23] Verse 11. He's crying this out. Do the departed rise up to praise you? Is your steadfast love declared in the grave or your faithfulness in the bad?

[50:34] In other words, Lord, why is this happening to me? If I'm gone, I can't praise you. Then why am I going through this? Perhaps some here know this cry.

[50:48] That confused cry of what's going on. That confused cry of why is this happening? Or how do I get through this? How do I get past this?

[51:04] Some come to this psalm and they find no hope whatsoever. You find hope in this psalm by the fact it actually exists in the first place.

[51:18] What is a psalm? What are the psalms really? They're prayers. Yes, we sing them. And yes, they're written to be sung. We know that. But they're prayers, really.

[51:32] They are words to God from us and from the psalmist. And this poor man, a real man, in his day, a normal man.

[51:47] Yes, he feels all that he is feeling. But he is praying. He feels alone. He feels abandoned. He feels dark.

[51:58] He feels distressed and so on. But yet, he does not stay silent. Now, there are times when things are really heavy. When things are really bad.

[52:09] When we can't perhaps get our thoughts together. We can't get our words together. That's fine. The Lord does not need.

[52:21] The Lord does not require from us eloquent prayers. The Lord knows our hearts. He knows our spirit. He knows what our minds are doing. And brothers and sisters, when you find yourselves perhaps in the greatest levels of darkness.

[52:37] And those of you who have been there will know this. It's at these times when you can't even perhaps string words together to pray. You find your heart and your soul, as it were, praying.

[52:50] And it's hard to describe. But you feel as aware the Lord's spirit within you intercessing and working and praying for you. And you're aware that the Lord is there.

[53:00] Where you feel him, where you understand that, where you still think that, the Lord is still there. And the psalmist seems to acknowledge this. Back to verse 1.

[53:16] Because who is he crying out to? O Lord, God of my salvation. Capital O-L-O-R-D. We've done enough Hebrew lessons now to know what that means.

[53:29] Capital L-O-R-D. That's the title of God. Yahweh. O Yahweh. O covenant keeping God. O fully sufficient God.

[53:40] God, you are who you are. You need nothing. You need no one. You have all power. All glory. You are totally sovereign. It's to you I come just now.

[53:54] I can't help myself. I can't look after myself. My mind is betraying me. My heart is broken. My heart is broken. So I come instead to Yahweh. To the promise keeping God who promises not to lose or forget or to stop loving any one of his people.

[54:14] And he is the God of the psalmist's salvation. He isn't feeling it just now.

[54:26] He is feeling far away. He is feeling hurt. He is feeling confused so clearly. But yet he trusts that God is who he says God is.

[54:42] And he addresses God as his God, as his salvation. But he then still gives this incredibly honest cry out to God.

[54:53] Brothers and sisters, we, and some here will know this, we are not guaranteed a life free of mental agony, free of mental anguish.

[55:10] Just we're not guaranteed a life free of physical agony, physical anguish. As you read Psalm 88, there's a similar cry of dereliction not come to mind.

[55:27] The very words of our Savior, who knew what it was to be alone, to be abandoned, to have friends shun him, friends abandon him.

[55:38] And we praise and every week we preach a Savior who is like us in all ways apart from sin. Therefore we come to a Savior who knows what it is to have faced the full stretch, the full spectrum of mental anguish.

[56:01] He knows what it is. He is not ignorant to the suffering of his people. Brothers and sisters, when you perhaps can't share with anyone else, when you perhaps don't have words to share with anyone else, when even you can't have words to put a prayer together at times, know that he knows.

[56:27] Know that he has suffered before you the great mental anguish. So much so, we see him in the garden, we see a Savior mentally at the very limits of capacity.

[56:40] So mentally strained that his capillaries, the blood vessels, they begin to rupture under the stress and pressure as blood, as it were, seeps through his pores.

[56:51] A Savior who is so stressed, who is so anxious, who is so mentally in great pain, he sweats great drops of blood. Do not think then that he is able to take you and to lead you and to be with you.

[57:10] To the struggling Christian, perhaps no one else knows your struggle. Perhaps you haven't shared or been able to share with anyone else your worries and anxieties, depression and so on.

[57:25] But your Savior knows. And your Savior cares. And God willing, next week, we'll see that. We'll see what Jesus says to those who are suffering.

[57:37] We'll see what Jesus, and also then later on what Paul says to those brothers and sisters, Christians who are going through times of great distress and times of great trial.

[57:51] O Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you. Let my prayer come before you. Incline your ear to my cry.

[58:04] We have a Savior. We have a King who promises to always hear the prayers of his people, who will not leave us or forget us or abandon us.

[58:17] Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Lord, we thank you for the gift of your word, even in challenging passages such as that psalm where we find ourselves dealing with the reality of living in a sin-sick world where destruction, where sin, where darkness permeates all that we see and all that we do and all that we are.

[58:39] Lord, we thank you that throughout the many years of your church, you have allowed your servants to speak and to preach and to write openly about their own struggles, allowing us to see that we are not alone.

[58:54] A reminder that even though when we do feel alone, we have a great Savior who is close to his people, who cares for his people in a way that no one else can. We do pray just now, especially for any here today, perhaps in a hidden way, in a quiet way, who are going through great times of trouble, great times of trial, that they would find their hope and their rest and a Savior who knows them and who made them, who cares for them and who will never leave them, even through the darkest of days.

[59:27] Let's call these things in and through and for his precious name's sake. Amen. We can conclude then with, again, Psalm 34, verses 16, down to verse 20.

[59:42] Verse 16, down to verse 20. The face of God is set against those that do wickedly, that he may quite out from the earth, cut off their memory.

[59:56] I want us to just read just now together verse 19. The troubles that afflict the just. Brothers and sisters, we are justified in Christ. The troubles that afflict the just in number many be, but yet at length, out of them all, the Lord doth set him free.

[60:12] We can sing Psalm 34, verses 16, down to verse 20, to God's praise. The peace of God is set against those that do wickedly, that he may quite out from the earth, that he may quite out from the earth, the earth of the heaven of the earth, the righteous.

[60:56] The righteous cry unto the Lord, he unto them good cheer, He bore the world say to may.

[61:13] Thy joy that can be seen. The water of the earth, he tive lama Phi di tennya ground.

[61:23] And that he may quaming the land, and that he may quite out from the earth, that we may why. day is before the earth, how Thank you.

[62:12] Thank you.

[62:42] Thank you. Thank you.

[63:14]  Thank you.