Finding Hope in Depression • Psalm 43

FINDING HOPE IN DEPRESSION

Some days, life feels relentless.

Just when I have come to terms with the wave that almost toppled me, another one comes up unexpectedly. Nothing feels safe, and I wonder if the waves will ever end.

Right now, my physical losses confront me daily. Years ago, I gave up painting and scrapbooking because they were too taxing on my arms. Writing became an alternative way to process my pain. While it wasn’t my first choice, I grew to love it because I saw God using it. Now, I fear that gift will also slip away because my arms are wearing out, even with voice-activated computer software and a trackball mouse. I’m tired of continually adjusting to a new normal. I want the old one back.

I feel myself slipping into depression, and I don’t know how to pull out.

This depression, which is largely based on the lies I’m telling myself, is much harder than the suffering. What I am telling myself about my future is more debilitating than the actual pain I’m feeling.

God feels distant, mostly because I’m pulling away.

Psalm 43 pulls me back. Like the psalmist, I cry out, For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you rejected me? Why do I go about mourning? (Psalm 43:2)

For the psalmist, darkness is falling quickly, and the walls of his life are closing in. He has known the Lord intimately. God has been his refuge. He has experienced God’s steadfast love and presence, but now, with troubles all around him, he feels rejected. He is mourning. It seems like the enemy is triumphing over him.

FINDING HOPE IN DEPRESSION: PRAY

So what does the psalmist do?

Rather than continuing to listen to himself and spiral downward, he starts talking to God.

Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling! Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God. (Psalm 43:3-4)

In his trouble, the psalmist pleads with God for light and truth. He knows that God’s light and truth can lead him out of his darkness and lies – that darkness that seems hard to penetrate and the lies the enemy loves to whisper to us. Lies like:

• “It’s only going to get worse.”
• “God doesn’t care about you.”
• “Your life is going to be miserable.”

God brings his light and truth through His Word and presence, which are the best way out of depression. The psalmist knows the power of God – and he knows that God can miraculously lift the enemy’s oppression and give him joy again. So, he is looking past his circumstances, choosing to ask God for what seems impossible right now.

FINDING HOPE IN DEPRESSION: REMEMBER TRUTH

After the psalmist talks to God and asks for help, he begins talking to himself. He questions why he is depressed: Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? (Psalm 43:5a)

These are important and revealing questions. I often feel vaguely depressed, unable to articulate the core of my fears. Still, when I purposefully write down everything troubling me, I can look at my situation biblically. If I can follow my fears to the worst potential conclusion, I can face them. Even if the worst happens, I know that God will be there. He will walk with me through the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:4). He will never ever leave me (Hebrews 13:5), and He will make sure the waves do not overwhelm me (Isaiah 43:2).

Lastly, the psalmist exhorts himself to hope in God: Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. (Psalm 43: 5b) His situation has not changed. If it had, he wouldn’t need hope. As Paul writes: Hope that is seen is not hope. Who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. (Romans 8:24-25)

FINDING HOPE IN DEPRESSION: BEGIN TO PRAISE GOD

The psalmist trusts that God will bring him to a place of praise.

Right now, everything looks dark. His soul is cast down. He is in turmoil. He feels rejected by God and is mourning what used to be.

Yet he chooses to tell himself truth based on who God is rather than listen to himself based on his fears. He doesn’t let his assessment of the circumstances have the last word. He lets God’s word have that.

In his book Spiritual Depression, Martyn Lloyd Jones writes, “Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?”

FINDING HOPE IN DEPRESSION: PREACH TO YOURSELF

When we listen to ourselves, we allow our emotions to take over, and the voices of self-pity and defeat become deafeningly loud. In those moments, God calls us to start preaching to ourselves, and the best way to do that is to read the Bible, reminding ourselves of God’s promises.

Paul Tripp reinforces this idea in his devotional, New Morning Mercies: “No one is more influential in your life than you are because no one talks to you more than you do. It’s a fact that you and I are in an endless conversation with ourselves. We either preach to ourselves the gospel of aloneness, poverty, and inability – or the true gospel of God’s presence, power, and constant provision, the gospel that produces fear and timidity –or one that propels you with courage and hope. Today, when it feels as if no one understands, what gospel will you preach to you?”

So today, when life feels overwhelming, what gospel will you preach to yourself?

First published: September 2018 at Dance in the Rain.​ *Published with permission.