Bible Men: King David: Depression, The Scriptural View

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. Psa 42:5 

Suffering as a Christian

“Beloved, think it not strange… But rejoice (to be full of cheer).” So the apostle Peter offers in his take on Suffering as a Christian (1Pet 4:12-19).

Jesus’ rendering is even more arresting in his beatitudes on the same subject. According to Christ we are not only to rejoice, but be “exceeding glad (properly jump for joy)” (Mat 5:11-12).

Did the old believers believe this? Yes, every word. They literally lived their faith.

And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. Heb 11:36-38  

And these were historical facts and not myths. But we of the present generation are usually attended by many fears, so our faith lacks power.

Present Suffering Means Nothing Compared To Eternal Glory

Every believer is a sufferer. By virtue of his carrying a “burden” in his chest from the Lord therefore he can’t run away from his calling as Jeremiah found out:

Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.  Jer 20:9  

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 2Co 4:17 

The hunger for peace is real. Daily we pine for it. For some even the dropping of a needle is enough to rustle their peace. It is like a reed growing beside a stream. So the psalms of David sometimes ring with a haunting loneliness.

And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest. Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. Selah. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest. Psa 55:6-8  

My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? Psa 42:2 

And that is every believer’s hunger too. We hunger for a glory which is quite beyond this life. We hunger for it because it is what the Lord himself has promised us.

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. Rom 8:16 -17

For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. Rom 8:22-23  

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Rom 8:28  

The palms are a pathos galore. They shake with pain. But (and this is the chief difference between a believer and a non-believer) they also irradiate with joy. No matter what the suffering might entail but in the end they always resound with praise!

When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops. Hab 3:16  

Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Hab 3:17-18  

Reading through the Lamentations of Jeremiah is like weaving a tapestry around a block of pain.

I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light. Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day. My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones. He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail. Lam 3:1-5  

But in the end this is what Jeremiah sees:

This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. Lam 3:21-23  

So Paul too chooses to see glory (joy not misery) in his own infirmities “for when I am weak, then am I strong.”  Likewise Paul glories (make boast) in tribulations with a view to the graces it would bestow on him.

And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. Rom 5:3-5.  

The exemplary nature of the love of God is that it hides nothing. It doesn’t shy. Rather faith shocks. Do I doubt God? I tell him! (Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him!)

Do I feel a rising repugnance for him? I tell him! (O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived!)

And so too we can say of depression that it is not anything new. “Brethren, think it not strange.”

 For elsewhere (in prison!) Paul breezes:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Rom 8:35 

For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Rom 8:15  

God Gives Songs Even At Night

And at mid night Paul and Silas sang! Are you at a place like that fellow believer? Have you tried singing? Have you tried praise? Think God.

When peace like a river attendeth my way

When sorrows like sea billows roll

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say

It is well with my soul.

Yes, you too can sing my brother and sister, in any circumstances. Hope thou only in God, and in the night his song shall be with you. Amen.