Lamentations 2: Depression

Jerusalem is in ruins

Jeremiah experienced severe loss and change

This was overwhelming

His entire worldview was destroyed

Temple was the throne of God

The city was God’s crown jewel

Jeremiah gives us a picture of depression

The common cold of mental sickness

More than sadness

Many fell that there is no hope

What does depression look like?

Decreased energy

Lamentations 1:11 (ESV)

All her people groan

as they search for bread;

they trade their treasures for food

to revive their strength.

“Look, O Lord, and see,

for I am despised.”

Lamentations 2:1 (ESV)

How the Lord in his anger

has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud!

He has cast down from heaven to earth

the splendor of Israel;

he has not remembered his footstool

in the day of his anger.

Depleted Concentration

Lamentations 3:7–9 (ESV)

He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;

he has made my chains heavy;

though I call and cry for help,

he shuts out my prayer;

he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;

he has made my paths crooked.

Lamentations 3:17–18 (ESV)

my soul is bereft of peace;

I have forgotten what happiness is;

so I say, “My endurance has perished;

so has my hope from the Lord.”

Irritability

Lamentations 1:13 (ESV)

“From on high he sent fire;

into my bones he made it descend;

he spread a net for my feet;

he turned me back;

he has left me stunned,

faint all the day long.

Bouts of crying

Lamentations 2:11 (ESV)

My eyes are spent with weeping;

my stomach churns;

my bile is poured out to the ground

because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,

because infants and babies faint

in the streets of the city.

Lamentations 3:48 (ESV)

my eyes flow with rivers of tears

because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Hopeless

Lamentations 3:18 (ESV)

so I say, “My endurance has perished;

so has my hope from the Lord.”

Lamentations 1:20 (ESV)

“Look, O Lord, for I am in distress;

my stomach churns;

my heart is wrung within me,

because I have been very rebellious.

In the street the sword bereaves;

in the house it is like death.

Disinterest

Lamentations 4:1 (ESV)

How the gold has grown dim,

how the pure gold is changed!

The holy stones lie scattered

at the head of every street.

Withdrawal

Lamentations 4:22 (ESV)

The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter of Zion, is accomplished;

he will keep you in exile no longer;

but your iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he will punish;

he will uncover your sins.

What do we do?

Evaluate your lifestyle

Be honest

Think clearly

Identify spiritual issues

Find support

Lamentations 3:40 (ESV)

Let us test and examine our ways,

and return to the Lord!