The Struggle of Depression

1 I am the man who has seen affliction

under the rod of his wrath;

2 he has driven and brought me

into darkness without any light;

3 surely against me he turns his hand

again and again the whole day long.

he has broken my bones;

5 he has besieged and enveloped me

with bitterness and tribulation;

6 he has made me dwell in darkness

like the dead of long ago.

7 He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;

he has made my chains heavy;

8 though I call and cry for help,

he shuts out my prayer;

9 he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;

he has made my paths crooked.

10 He is a bear lying in wait for me,

a lion in hiding;

11 he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces;

he has made me desolate;

12 he bent his bow and set me

as a target for his arrow.

13 He drove into my kidneys

the arrows of his quiver;

14 I have become the laughingstock of all peoples,

the object of their taunts all day long.

15 He has filled me with bitterness;

he has sated me with wormwood.

16 He has made my teeth grind on gravel,

and made me cower in ashes;

17 my soul is bereft of peace;

I have forgotten what happiness is;

18 so I say, “My endurance has perished;

so has my hope from the Lord.”

19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings,

the wormwood and the gall!

20 My soul continually remembers it

and is bowed down within me.

21 But this I call to mind,

and therefore I have hope:

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

his mercies never come to an end;

23 they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,

“therefore I will hope in him.”

25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him,

to the soul who seeks him.

26 It is good that one should wait quietly

for the salvation of the Lord.

Introduction

ILLUST - Julian’s first time at the ocean - scared of the waves

**depression like ocean

In many respects depression can be like the ocean

Can come in waves 

Sometimes they crash

It can sneak up on you and pull you under

You may end up feeling like you are drowning 

At times it seems like there is no end in sight

**Soul - body connection

David

Elijah

Even asked God to take his life

Jeremiah

Martin Luther went through times so dark that his wife would remove all the knives from their home for fear he’d kill himself. “For more than a week I was close to the gates of death and hell. I trembled in all my members.” He wrote, “Christ was wholly lost. I was shaken by desperation and blasphemy of God.’” He had nightmares, sweats and heart palpitations.

Charles Spurgeon, perhaps the greatest preacher to ever live, considered quitting the ministry because he was so depressed. He once told his congregation, “I have spent more days shut up in depression than probably anybody else here.”

For Spurgeon, depression was “like fighting mist, and he had to wait till the “shapeless, undefinable, yet all-beclouding hopelessness” lifted from his heart."

    C. H. Spurgeon, “Lecture XI: The Minister’s Fainting Fits,” in Lectures to My Students, vol. 1, A Selection of Addresses Delivered to the Students of the Pastors’ College, Metropolitan Tabernacle (New York: Sheldon, 1975), 263.

John Wesley was known to struggle with depression.

**Soul - body connection

Discouragement - Depression - Despair - Destruction

Lamentations - book of Laments - 5 laments of prophet Jeremiah

Each poem except chapter 5 is an acrostic

Except for chapter 3 - every three lines start with the same letter

Jeremiah prophesied during the time of the Babylonian conquest. 130+ years after the northern nation of Israel had been taken away by Assyria, God fulfilled his promise of punishment on Judah because of their unfaithfulness to God in idol worship and evil practices.

Jeremiah witnessed all that God had warned about - the invasion of the Babylonian army, the violence as they captured the city of Jerusalem, the destruction as they destroyed homes and families.

Jeremiah’s job was to prophecy to those who had not gone into captivity that they needed to repent or worse was coming.

They did not believe Jeremiah and they took Jeremiah and threw him into an empty cistern where he sank into the mud at the bottom and had to lifted out much later by thirty men.

(ESV)

1 I am the man who has seen affliction

under the rod of his wrath;

2 he has driven and brought me

into darkness without any light;

3 surely against me he turns his hand

again and again the whole day long.

The Cause of Depression (1-3)

Driven = he’s forced    

Sin (Things we do) As you begin to seek ultimate fulfillment in something or someone other than God you can tend to become depressed as those things do not satisfy.

 Circumstances (Things done to us) Sometimes, due to the circumstances around you, you may find your self knee deep in the muck in the deep, dark pit.

“Is my depression caused by sin or by circumstances” is a good question to ask; however, it is not the ultimate thing to focus on.

Because whether your depression is a result of sin or circumstances you need the hope of Jesus.

The Condition of Depression (4-20)

4 He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;

he has broken my bones;

5 he has besieged and enveloped me

with bitterness and tribulation;

6 he has made me dwell in darkness

like the dead of long ago.

Who’s “He?” - GOD!

The prophet of God suspects the God he serves to be the source of his pain and trouble.

Right at the outset this shows us two things:

The Bible is brutally and beautifully honest.

It is amazing that this is in the Bible. I love that the Bible doesn’t shy away from our pain - it confronts it. The Bible is honest, and that should be an encouragement to us.

This means we can and should be completely honest with God about how we feel. WE should never be disrespectful, but we should always be honest.

You may have grown up in a house where expressing your feelings was not allowed, was ridiculed.

I wonder if the reason why God chose to include this rant by one of his prophets was to serve as permission for us to express our feelings to God.

We’ll see in a moment the prophet doesn’t stay here - that’s key - he expresses his feelings and replaces them with truth.

2. If you struggle with depression you’re in good company.

You’re in good company

David

(ESV)

1 Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck.

For the waters have come up to my neck.

2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me.

where there is no foothold;

I have come into deep waters,

and the flood sweeps over me.

3 I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.

my throat is parched.

My eyes grow dim

with waiting for my God.

Elijah

(ESV)

And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”

Even asked God to take his life

Jonah

(ESV)

3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

Job

(ESV)

1 “I loathe my life;

I will give free utterance to my complaint;

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

Moses

(ESV)

32 But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.”

Martin Luther went through times so dark that his wife would remove all the knives from their home for fear he’d kill himself. “For more than a week I was close to the gates of death and hell. I trembled in all my members.” He wrote, “Christ was wholly lost. I was shaken by desperation and blasphemy of God.’” He had nightmares, sweats and heart palpitations.

Charles Spurgeon, perhaps the greatest preacher to ever live, considered quitting the ministry because he was so depressed. He once told his congregation, “I have spent more days shut up in depression than probably anybody else here.”

For Spurgeon, depression was “like fighting mist, and he had to wait till the “shapeless, undefinable, yet all-beclouding hopelessness” lifted from his heart."

    C. H. Spurgeon, “Lecture XI: The Minister’s Fainting Fits,” in Lectures to My Students, vol. 1, A Selection of Addresses Delivered to the Students of the Pastors’ College, Metropolitan Tabernacle (New York: Sheldon, 1975), 263.

John Wesley was known to struggle with depression.

While I don’t think I would ever find myself o the same list as these ment

Notice what Jeremiah says about his condition of depression and see if you can relate:

it hurts - depression can physically hurt.

he feels crushed or besieged. . . with bitterness

everything is dark, shaded and jaded - lifeless

with bitterness

7 He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;

he has made my chains heavy;

8 though I call and cry for help,

he shuts out my prayer;

9 he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;

he has made my paths crooked.

Ever felt like this? trapped and blocked so that it seems that even your prayers aren’t working?

Every time you seem to make headway, you’re blocked and can’t seem to move forward.

he has made my paths crooked.

10 He is a bear lying in wait for me,

a lion in hiding;

11 he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces;

he has made me desolate;

12 he bent his bow and set me

as a target for his arrow.

13 He drove into my kidneys

the arrows of his quiver;

Jeremiah’s view is that God is vicious and malicious - looking for ways to hurt him - ‘tore me to pieces’

Jeremiah feels like he has a target on his back - like God is aiming right for him. No one else seems to get the attacks that he does.

Can you relate?

14 I have become the laughingstock of all peoples,

the object of their taunts all day long.

15 He has filled me with bitterness;

he has sated me with wormwood.

(a symbol of God’s wrath)

16 He has made my teeth grind on gravel,

and made me cower in ashes;

17 my soul is bereft of peace;

I have forgotten what happiness is;

18 so I say, “My endurance has perished;

so has my hope from the Lord.”

19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings,

the wormwood and the gall!

20 My soul continually remembers it

and is bowed down [depressed] within me.

This is a picture of a man with no hope. I would know. I was once that man.

I remember going days, weeks, and months without hope.

Coming home and going to bed. Crying for no reason. Struggling to even remember what it felt like to be happy.

Few people knew. I was able to hide it well. I was able to keep up appearances while I was sinking deeper and deeper.

My parents truly did not think I would make it to my 18th birthday.

I have felt the conditions of depression, but by God’s grace and for purposes only he knows, I am here and I can say there is a cure for depression.

*It starts with being honest then. . .

The Cure for Depression (21-26)

21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:

There is an intentionality here - people don’t stumble out of a pit!

call = repent, return

mind = heart - seat of the will

“This” gives him hope - the opposite of despair

What is the “THIS” that Jeremiah calls to mind?

and therefore I have hope:

God is ALWAYS loving.

The opposite of this statement is one of the biggest lies Satan uses when we are depressed.

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

covenant love - He cannot NOT love you.

The fact may not match the feeling, but the feeling cannot change the fact.

his mercies never come to an end;

Each day is an opportunity to experience God’s grace.

his mercies never come to an end;

his mercies never come to an end;

23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

The beauty of the morning is its newness.

great is your faithfulness.

God is all you really need.

24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

We are often depressed over things that WE believe we lack, but if we have Jesus we have all we need -

(ESV)

“therefore I will hope in him.”

10 I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. 11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Jeremiah saw everything that was dear to him taken away.

Still he said “God is enough”

God responds to your seeking not your perfection.

25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

Doesn’t say God is good to those who are perfect. Doesn’t say God is good to those who are good.

wait = active hoping

How do you wait quietly?

Prayer

seeks = seek with care, enquire

to the soul who seeks him.

Jesus is your full and final hope.

26 It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

Are you a quiet waiter?

for the salvation of the Lord.

How do you wait quietly?

Prayer

For Jeremiah the salvation was from the physical dangers he was in, but hope will ultimately come through Jesus.

In fact, that what Jesus’ name means

(ESV)

21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Once Jesus accomplishes salvation through his death and resurrection there is ultimate hope that CANNOT be taken away.

] (ESV)

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Four practical steps to apply the truths we just learned:

Call to God in your pain

Talk to God

(ESV)

1 Save me, O God!

For the waters have come up to my neck.

2 I sink in deep mire,

where there is no foothold;

I have come into deep waters,

and the flood sweeps over me. . . .

(ESV)

13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord.

At an acceptable time, O God,

in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.

Depression grows where there is no voice.

Be honest - tell God how you feel.

Call to mind His truth

Hear the Truth of God

Depression lies to you

It may take a truth but exaggerate or twist it until it is untrue

kings 19:4 ‘I have been zealous. . . ‘TRUE ‘Israelites rejected. . . ‘ TRUE, ‘They killed. . . “ TRUE, ‘I’m the only one left - FALSE

it’s all over

They will never change

I’m done for

I will never get any better

(ESV)

2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

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? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them but they are talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. . . “…there is a sense in which what the Scriptures do is to teach us how to talk to ourselves.

— Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Call godly friends for help

Give Thanks to God

(ESV)

9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!

What is true physically is in this case true spiritually as well.

A Friendship Bench is quite literally a park bench—with a higher calling. In Zimbabwe, friendship benches are located on the grounds of medical clinics around major cities. They're a safe place where trained community members counsel folks struggling with what they, in the local Shona language, call kufungisisa ("thinking too much") or what Americans call depression.

Dr. Dixon Chibanda, a psychiatrist at the University of Zimbabwe, came up with the name Friendship Bench back in 2006. In Zimbabwe, as in most places, there's a lot of stigma around mental illness. Chibanda figured out that while people were hesitant to head to a mental clinic and speak with a medical professional about their mental health, they were generally willing to sit on a park bench and share their worries with someone within their own community. At these benches, community counselors and patients meet weekly to discuss intimate issues—and develop a plan to overcome difficulties.

The strategy seems to be working. According to a study that tracked 573 patients with anxiety or depression for a six-month period, only 13 percent of those who participated in the Friendship Bench program still had symptoms of depression.

Maanvi Singh, "The Friendship Bench Can Help Chase the Blues Away," NPR (1-10-17); submitted by Van Morris, Mt. Washington

Call on Christ

Jesus has tasted all that brings us down in order to bring us up. It’s by looking to Jesus that we can truly know the depth and power of God’s love.

Jesus died for you so you wouldn’t die! For the depressed person, your life is not worth living for, but for Jesus, your life is worth dying for!!

Jesus was the one under God’s wrath (1)

Jesus entered the place of the dead. (6)

Jesus is the one who cried out to God, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (8)

It was Jesus’ back that was torn open to pieces (11)

Jesus was mocked and became a ‘laughingstock’ (14)

Jesus received the pear to the side (13)

Jesus was given vinegar to drink on the cross. (15)

Conclusion

(ESV)

55 “I called on your name, O Lord,

55 “I called on your name, O Lord,

from the depths of the pit;

from the depths of the pit;

56 you heard my plea, ‘Do not close

56 you heard my plea, ‘Do not close

your ear to my cry for help!’

your ear to my cry for help!’

57 You came near when I called on you;

57 You came near when I called on you;

you said, ‘Do not fear!’

you said, ‘Do not fear!’

58 “You have taken up my cause, O Lord;

58 “You have taken up my cause, O Lord;

you have redeemed my life.

you have redeemed my life.

That is what the cross is all about - redemption.

**Pray and Prepare for Communion**.