WINTERY FAITH

The psychology instructor had just finished a lecture on mental health and was giving an oral quiz. Speaking specifically about manic depression, she asked, “How would you diagnose a patient who walks back and forth screaming at the top of his lungs one minute, then sits in a chair weeping uncontrollably the next?”

A young man in the rear raised his hand and answered, “A basketball coach?”

We laugh, but real depression is a serious problem. “Mild or severe, depression affects more people in our culture than any other emotional disorder,” says Harvard psychiatrist, Dr. Armand Nicholi. According to a Newsweek article, an estimated 30-40 million Americans, twice as many women as men, will experience depressive illness at least once. The disorder is so common that it is called “the common cold of mental illness.”

Depression is a complicated and often misunderstood. Some experiencing depression require long term hospitalization with strong medications and intense therapy. Most require less intense forms of treatment with regular visits to a license practicing counselor and/or a prescribed anti-depressant being sufficient.

Our Gracious Creator knows us and knows our needs -especially our psyche. He understands the function of dopamine, serotonin, and nor-epinephrine. He has given us science to understand body chemistry and effective treatments of such imbalances. He knows that much of our depression comes from our fallen nature and from living in a fallen world. In response to this He has given us the Scripture.

The Psalmist wrote this Psalm to show us how to deal with those most common depressive experiences.

Psalms were songs written to awaken, express, and shape the emotional life of God’s people. Singing exist because God made us with emotions, not just thoughts. Emotions are important to our Creator.

This psalm is called a “maskil.” It is a Hebrew verb that means to make someone wise, or to instruct.

The psalms were intended to shape what our head thinks and our heart feels. They help us to think and feel with God.

Did you hear the words of the Psalmist in our scripture text? There is no sign of either a quiet yet confident spiritual serenity or of a hand-clapping religious jubilation. What we do find are words of faith. However, it is a faith that has no smile attached to it.

It is a faith that has uncertainty in it; it is colored by shades of doubt. It is what some call the “dark night of the soul” or a “wintery faith”.

Two truths are clear: The songwriter is depressed and he is determined.

He is not surrendering to the emotions of discouragement. He is fighting back.

As a maskil (a song of instruction) it calls us to pay attention and learn. He wants us to learn how to handle these feelings and seasons in our own lives.

Depression is not an “if” experience but a “when” and when it comes you need to be ready.

Dr. John Henry Jowett of the 19th century once wrote to a friend:

I wish you wouldn't think I'm such a saint. You seem to imagine that I have no ups-and-downs but just a level and lofty stretch of spiritual attainment with unbroken joy and equanimity. By no means. I am often perfectly wretched, and everything appears most murky. I often feel as though my religious life had only just begun and that I am in the kindergarten age. But I can usually trace these miserable seasons to some personal cause, and the first thing to do is to attend to that cause and get it into the sunshine again.

This Psalm teaches us: how to get into the sunshine again.

The great Charles Spurgeon wrote of an 1858 depressive episode, "My spirits were sunken so low that I could weep by the hour like a child, and yet I knew not what I wept for."....He go on to say that his depression was his "worst feature." "Despondency," he said, "is not a virtue; I believe it is a vice. I am heartily ashamed of myself for falling into it, but I am sure there is no remedy for it like a holy faith in God."

The sense that God is far away is not a feeling reserved for the unsaved but the saved. Those who have tasted of the Lord’s goodness are the most sensitive to such experiences.

A student came to his Rabbi for help because he was distressed over the apparent absence of God, he said, "True, God may be hiding, but you know it. That ought to be sufficient." That answer did not resolve the suffering of the student but it helped him to suffer differently.

We should not expect our casting downs to be less when half of Bible promises focus on the subject of doubts and fears. The Lord has provided us with an ample supply of shall’s and will’s for he know our many if’s and perhapses.

The God of all comfort has provided for us a well-filled storehouse of comfort because He foresaw our sorrow.

How does our text teach us to approach our depression?

We must preach to our Downcast Soul

The psalmist does not endlessly rehearse the troubled state of His soul. Nor does he ignore his soul. He does not excuse his soul. Instead, he interrupts this unending conversation taking place within his soul.

He interrogates his soul. He challenges his soul. He rebukes his soul and he exhorts his soul to trust in God. In short, he preaches to himself and this, ultimately, makes all the difference and it will make all the difference in your downcast soul as well.

We must begin to talk to ourselves instead of allowing ourselves to talk to us. This is not a turn of phrase it is the truth concerning our problem.

We are down cast because we are listening to ourselves instead of talking to ourselves. What of those thoughts that come fresh upon awaking. Where did they originate? It does not matter, they are there and they are talking. Talking about yesterday’s problem. Last week’s hurt. The betrayal of ten years ago. Your self is talking. And if you don’t start talking it will take you down a road of despair. The Psalmist stopped listening to self and started talking to himself.

Now most of us have spent years listening to ourselves and have rarely talked to ourselves. Talking to yourself is a learned skill. It is a learned skill requiring practice and it involves effort. This will not happen effortlessly. Talking truth to yourself requires effort that is motivated by, and dependent upon, the grace of God. But one conversation with yourself normally won't be sufficient to alter your troubled soul.

Our troubled souls aren't immediately cooperative nor are they instantly transformed. They need more than a single exhortation. A troubled souls needs continuous addressing with truth of the gospel. And that, actually, is illustrated in this psalm.

You want to note the repetition of the psalm. Talking to yourself requires perseverance. It requires repetition. Like the psalmist, you must persevere with this practice in order to experience the transition from troubled soul to hopeful soul.

Now, perhaps you are convinced of the practice but now ask, "What do I say to my soul?"

The psalmist provides us with a sermon for our soul.

HE REMINDS HIMSELF OF THE LORD’S LOVE.

He refuses, in this moment, to be governed by his circumstances.

Troubled souls cannot be trusted, and circumstances often lie to us. They lie to us, informing us that God isn't sovereign, God isn't wise, God isn't kind, God isn't active, God isn't present, God isn't for us—in fact, he has forgotten us.

Such emotions and experiences can only be fought with remembering what is true - specifically repetition in praise and prayer.

Psalm 42:8 ESV

By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.

The Psalmist felt that God was distant and unresponsive, the very fact that he continued to praise and pray was an affirmation of faith in the presence of God.

Scripture teaches us that God is always with us - because God is everywhere. We have reduced His presences to a feeling. It is true that there are times when we “feel” God presences and there are times when we don’t “feel” His presences - so that we will seek Him like a deer seeks for water.

God is greater than our feelings. Therefore, we must continue to address God in praise and prayer, though we feel as if He is not near.

In verse 4 he calls past corporate worship experiences to mind. He remembers past corporate worship experiences.

HE REMEMBERS PAST CORPORATE WORSHIP EXPERIENCES.

Psalm 42:4 ESV

These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.

This memory enables the Psalmist to rebuke his own excessive distress and then express confidence in a future of renewed faith.

Here is yet another reminder of our great need for corporate worship. I’m amazed at how many people refuse to join others in worship during these times. When our souls experience those winter times we must run to corporate worship not away.

We take our gathering together lightly. We fail to realize what we are doing is a real transaction with the living God. Our encounters in corporate worship preserve our faith now. The Psalmist does not remember corporate worship in some sentimental way - the Bible is not a book of nostalgia - he remembers it as a supernatural work of God.

He is confirming his faith in the midst of turmoil and discouragement by remembering how real God was in corporate worship. Such knowledge should make us more serious about corporate worship. Ask the Lord to show you what is at stake here.

So each time we sing together we really are experiencing the fruit of this practice. God desires and invites us to remind and rehearse before him His promises with humility and boldness.

God's promises were meant to be used. What could please Him more than His children bring them before Him. God is glorified when we plead His promises.

Why do we not plead those promises? Do we think He will be exhausted?

Isaiah 40:28 ESV

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.

Do we think He will be over extended by our request? Surely he cannot forgive me again of that same sin.

1 John 1:9 ESV

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Faith lays hold to the Lord’s promises and takes them straight to the throne. Don’t wonder if it is true, take it to the Lord

Matthew 15:21–28 ESV

And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

To grasp a promise and not take it to the Lord dishonors him. Our heavenly Banker delights to cash His promissory notes. Never let the promise rust.

Earthly father’s may grow tired of a child’s urgent and persistent request to fulfill their promises. Yet your Heavenly Father delights in persistence voices. It is His great pleasure to answer those who ask. Remember it is His nature to keep promises.

This Psalm exhorts us to talk to God and remind him of his promises. More time spent talking to God and yourself means there will be less time to listen to your soul. Less time listening to your soul means a more joyful and hopeful soul.

HE RECOUNTS A COLLECTION OF INDIVIDUAL WORSHIP EXPERIENCES.

In verse 6 he remembers a collection of individual worship experiences.

Psalm 42:6 ESV

and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.

The psalmist knows that God hasn't forgotten him but that he has forgotten God. He uses these past experiences to exhort himself to remember God.

Interwoven in these remembrances is what I call the refrain of faith. He is confident while in the midst of tremendous doubting that he will once again praise him.

Is it possible for you to have real faith and yet to have the most grievous unbelief? Yes, they may dwell together in the same heart but they cannot live together in peace.

We see faith and doubt coexisting in Peter and the Psalmist. This Psalmist has faith - my God/i remember you - and yet is there not also great unbelief here?

We are a strange mixture of contradictions. We will never be able to fully understand ourselves but praise God - he knows altogether. The women who heard the angel’s message at the tomb of Jesus, according to Scripture departed with “fear and great joy”. We are a strange mixture.

I will say not only is it possible to have true faith while cast down but to likewise grow in faith while in such a state. A Christian in such a state can be standing taller when cast down than when they were standing upright. We can be flat on our faces and yet nearer to heaven. Paradoxical but true.

The Psalmist reminds himself that circumstances may presently hide his hand, but hope assures the soul that you will eventually see and discern his hands. Spurgeon said, "When you cannot trace God's hand, you must trust God's heart."

WHAT IS THE AFFECT OF HIS SERMON?

Psalm 42:1–2 ESV

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

A PURSUIT OF THE DOWN CAST SOUL’S PHYSICIAN.

He is not thirsting for circumstantial freedom but celestial fellowship.

He is pursuing the Lord because only he knows the cure for the trouble soul.

Hebrews 4:14–16 ESV

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

As the hour for which he came drew near, it would appear that he was alluding to this psalm when he said,

John 12:27 ESV

“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.

The Savior's soul was uniquely troubled and sorrowful as he contemplated his impending encounter with the wrath of God as our substitute for our sin. On the cross he would be crushed by the Father with his wrath for our sin. He would be forsaken by the Father, and he would cry out in indescribable agony, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34)

Listen: The psalmist felt forsaken by God. The Savior was forsaken by God.

The psalmist was troubled in soul because he felt the absence of God. The Savior was troubled in soul as he contemplated being crushed by the righteous wrath of God and truly abandoned by God.

The psalmist's soul was downcast. But the Savior's soul would be crushed with the full, furious, righteous wrath of God against our sin.

The psalmist's soul was temporarily and, one might argue, superficially downcast. The Savior's soul was uniquely troubled and tormented so that the souls of sinners like us would know freedom from the fear of eternal torment of soul in hell.

He was forsaken so that we might be forgiven. He was forsaken so that we might never be forsaken. Because of his sacrifice on the cross, we can sing about the steadfast love of the Lord. Because of his sacrifice on the cross, we can say with the psalmist, now informed by the cross,

Psalm 42:5 ESV

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation