Recently, the quick answer to depression has become drugs. Within the past 13 years, the FDA has approved a number of new antidepressants, including Wellbutrin, Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Effexor, and Remeron. While people may benefit by the use of drugs, some rightly question the materialist mindset that sees all of life from a merely chemical perspective, arguing that the struggles may be from wrong thinking more than wrong physiology. The issues faced in despair go much deeper than one’s neurotransmitters. At the core, it is our very soul that is shaken. The psalm this morning speaks forthrightly about depression, with honest tears and fears. The answer it gives forces us to re-evaluate the way we confront depression, despair, and the all too common malaise we all face from time to time. Some well-meaning Christians also encourage us with a type of pep rally that asks us to put all difficulties behind us. But the stubborn reality is that most Christians, at different periods of their life, are so low that they have to reach up to touch the bottom. While despair should not be a constant companion, it may be a frequent enough visitor that you and others you love need to learn how to deal with it. Psalm 42 gives us great insight into depression and points us to its solution.
The honest lament - verses 1-3 Have you ever been plagued by the sense that God is distant? Before confronting the despair, the writer expresses hope in the face of despondency. He wants nothing more than to meet with God. He compares himself to a deer panting for water. As verse 3 pictures the taunts of others questioning the writer’s faith in God, the picture of the deer may be that of the chase, driven by instinct to self-preservation to find what is essential for life. It offers a most striking analogy to the Psalmist, hunted by enemies, who feels that he cannot live without the spiritual refreshment that he drew from the Temple. Or it may not be so much the heat of the chase, but the slow agony of drought. Verse one is reminiscent of a television commercial a few years ago in which a haggard prospector is crawling in from the desert desperate for a drink. He is offered water, but his thirst, like the psalmist's is for something particular. He will not be satisfied with any imitations. God alone is sufficient to assuage our thirst. Can we affirm the experience of our psalmist here? "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." See the question of the faithful saints in all ages at the end of verse two. "When can I go and meet with God?" This question comes only after bitter experiences. [A Dark Night of the Soul, Max Forsythe]Many people thirst, but do not know that the only thing that will truly satisfy is God. They pant, but try to quench their thirst with materialism, status, work, or a range of other substitutes. But this writer 3,000 years ago knew that only the living God could quench the thirst of the human soul. That is particularly felt when we are depressed. In this psalm, the despair experienced by the writer is intensified, if not caused by, his faith. He knows what life can be, he knows from the past. He knows that things are not the way they were meant to be. A few years ago Jack Nicholson played a mentally unstable author who suffered numerous phobias and neuroses. In the scene from which the film got its title, Nicholson questions the other patients in the psychiatrist’s office: "What if this is as good as it gets?" For the Christian, who knows the God of creation, who knows what Scripture tells us regarding the effects of sin as well as the power of redemption through Christ...we know there is something more, something better. And that knowledge can be even more depressing at times than the hopelessness of the unbeliever. The pain may, at times, be more acute. For the psalmist thirsting after God, dying for a drink of clear, refreshing water, all he gets instead is the salty taste of his own tears – verse 3. It is possible to feel so low, to be so moved to tears that appetites wane. This person has been on a constant diet of sadness. Maybe terrible things happened, or maybe this person’s expectations weren’t realized. In either case, he is desperate. Added to it is that those accusers who seem to just wait and hope for our bad times mock with this: Where is your God? If you’re such a great Christian, either Satan or some other human accuser may be quick to insinuate, "Why is your life not perfect? Where is your God when things are so difficult?" The mocking in this passage seems to be an ongoing, present tense haunt. The first attempt to recover: Remembering God’s People - verse 4 In his first attempt to deal with sorrow, his response isn’t bad. Remember good times in worship. Deprive the Christian of public worship and you incite spiritual lethargy. His mind goes not to the pleasures of ordinary life, to a loving home, a rewarding job. Rather just as his thirst is for God, so his first remedy is to recall great times in the past when his relationship with God was a mountaintop experience. He wants nothing less than the comforting presence of the living God! Rather than focus on the present "low" times, he forces himself to think back to the spiritual "high" times. He recalls how in the past he was not alone, thirsting for God. Rather he was part of the crowd, the big events in Jerusalem, leading the way with other believers. The way to forget the sense of our miseries is to remember the God of our mercies. But this is not enough. Still depression may dog us. Memory of God’s faithfulness in the past helps, but sometimes that is not enough for the present. A forced nostalgia is no substitute for reality, and the first occurrence of the refrain merely emphasizes the depth of his plight. When we try to use experience to correct experience, when we think bad memories can be easily replaced by good ones, we make a terrible mistake. We are looking in the wrong place for help. Of course, our memories can play tricks on us—the good in the past seems better than it actually was. But there is a real sense of longing here—the reminder of how things have changed so much, so fully, and so quickly. In some ways, those memories may only drag him down further. First refrain - verse 5 But those memories are not enough. He begins to talk to himself (which for those around him may cause greater concern over his mental stability). This self analysis, though, is helpful. He must get perspective on this situation. Is this situation as desperate as I imagine it is? We have to learn to avoid saying, "This is the worst it has ever been." It may seem that way, but it seldom is. We need to have a dialogue and ask ourselves, "Is this an appropriate response? Is the crisis of the ages really unfolding in your own life? Has no one ever, or will no one ever again, face such adversity?" Perspective is invaluable, and it comes from this sound-minded discussion within oneself. He understands that while he cannot recapture the past, he can look toward the future. Notice where he places his attention and commands himself to look. "Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him!" His faith reasons with his fears, his hope argues with his sorrows. [Spurgeon]There is a kind of Christianity that promises health, wealth and happiness, and that says that once we trust in Christ, all will be well. But the Bible repudiates the jingoism of much current Christian triumphalism. There is a realism in the word that sobers the false and empty gaiety of much Christian discussion. And here, as in other places, we are reminded that grace does not exclude the presence of despair and depression. It is possible to have every Christian virtue and still live on the edge. It would be so nice and clean if the psalm ended there. If we could just say: "Praise God when low, sing a few hymns, quote Scripture and the gloom will be gone." But for this writer and for you and I that does not happen. He hits the skids, even with the affirmation of faith. Depression remains. The second attempt: Remembering God’s Provision - verse 6 The second lament begins with the words of the refrain and develops them further. He goes back to his memory to solve his despondency. Rather than thinking about the big event of worship, of the crowds and festal nature of worship, he goes to the heart of worship. Now he calls to mind the God he worships. This seems to be a great move. His problem is God seems so far away, absent. So he’ll dispel that distance by calling to mind God’s provision in the past. With a good memory, he can quench his thirst. The exact reason or even the specific location of what he calls to mind is not clear to us today. These places may be his homeland or places during his life when God was very close. Mt. Hermon or Mizar may have been those mountaintop experiences where he knew God’s presence in a special way. At most we know they are to the north of Israel, at the headwaters of the Jordan. His longing for his thirst to be satiated again meets with trouble. He goes past just experiential remedies to God’s own character. He recalls how God in the past was so kind, how he answered prayers before. That seems like a good remedy. Or is it? While we may quickly think of times when God was good to us, we are still the barometers by which we measure what is good. God certainly is eternally and unchangeably good, but do I experience good all the time from God? If I start playing back the tapes from all God has done for me in the past, there will be many happy times, but there are still the times of dark providence wherein God seems mean. What is more, if God was good in the past ... what does that say about today? Has God changed? The recurring lament - verses 7-10 This memory too is unfulfilling. The places of God’s blessing take him from the dry desert to the roaring mountain streams. The water motif is reversed. Before he longed for a drop of water, now the flood deluges him, waves crash on him, and he is unable to get a breath. The scenery around him becomes suggestive of the troubles that have descended upon him. Jonah uses these words when he describes the presence of God in the form of the storm and the giant fish. God’s presence is felt, but not in a way that is very comforting. He speaks again from the perspective of faith. He does not doubt God; he just doesn’t find any comfort in trying to resurrect his memories of either past worship or past provision by God. In verse 8 he knows God’s love; there is a joyous response in song. God is his Rock. But still, he feels forgotten, left alone. The agony from the taunting of others has physical effects as well. While God has apparently forgotten him, his enemies have not. His life seems to typify the old saying, "God, if this is the way you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few of them!" Second refrain - verse 11 He repeats the refrain. Again the question comes: "Why are you downcast? What is bugging you when you consider all that God has done?" Again he takes his mind to the truth of the God who made him and who has saved him. Perhaps he has resigned to the fact that even if he dies, the pain of the turmoil he now faces is not the end, but even in death and for all eternity he will praise his God. But do the same words now solve the problem? As I initially worked through this, I was left unsatisfied, as though the problem is stated but not resolved. Is the answer to just put up with it, keep a stiff upper lip, buck up and move on? With this our psalm ends, rather unhelpfully ... or does it? Answer? Psalm 43 The answer comes in the form of the next psalm. Although we have no textual evidence these psalms were ever joined, and there are no ancient manuscripts that show them as one, there is good reason to read them together. In this second book of the Psalms, each psalm has a heading as you can see, except for Psalm 43. What is more, the theme is the same as well as the refrain. But in Psalm 43 we have the answer to depression. Psalm 42 is a dialogue between person and soul; Psalm 43 breaks the literary bind by bringing a third person into the dialogue. When he stops speaking to himself and addresses God, the beginning of his deliverance is in sight. When one turns from the memories and burdens within the mind and boldly addresses God a plea for deliverance, the first step is taken on the path that leads ultimately to a restoration of the life of praise and to mental and spiritual health. When we cease being introversive, navel gazing, focused on our experiences, be they good or bad, and look outside of ourselves, then real help will come. When all else fails ... pray! What is different about Psalm 43? In the first verse, he places the problem of these evil men at God’s feet, rather than his own. Rather than being swallowed by depression over a situation he cannot control, he casts his cares on a God who cares for him. Next, while he again expresses words of dejection and frustration about those around him, he still goes to God seeking what good memories cannot provide. He wants God’s light and truth to prevail. Rather than relying on what he thinks the past is all about, he goes to God’s Word. The cure for depression is not pasting a smile in the midst of pain, nor pulling oneself up by bootstraps, nor seeking a new emotional high. Rather it is found in the only place where we can ever discover hope: God’s Word. Now the temple will no longer be a place for nostalgic remembrance; rather it is the place where he will find the living God. God’s truth is the only certain thing that will guide him. Then he will find God, the God who is his joy and delight, the God who will give him something to sing about. With this, he once again repeats the same refrain. The words are the same, but so much has changed. What he could only profess to be true has a ring of resolution. The depression may still remain, but now he knows what alone can lift the dark pale of melancholy from his life. In the Scripture portion read earlier in the worship service from Matthew 26, we have a scene in which Jesus expresses sorrow beyond our comprehension. In that turmoil we have the answer we need to both understand this Psalm as well as to put it into practice. It is not enough just to know that memories will not lift depression. It is not enough to say: "Go to God’s Word for comfort." What you and I need is a Savior who not only gives us a perfect picture of defeating despondency, but one in whom we can find the help we need when we face times in which we sense God’s dark providence clouding our lives. When Christ suffered in the Garden, he did not ask the disciples for encouragement to get him through this time. He did not try to stand up underneath the turmoil on his own. Rather, he prayed. He voiced his fears to his Father and committed to Him His care. This tells us more than that we should pray like Jesus. Rather the power of the gospel is that his prayer is now ours, his walking through depression is now ours. Christ willingly took on the final cup, the cup of God’s wrath for our sins, so that we might enjoy the cup of redemption we have laid out on the table before us this morning. It is here that we have our confidence. Here we can face despair, for we have a Savior who will feed and nourish us, give us water to drink when we are parched and thirsty. All he asks is that you come, believing he will provide. And he does. This meal is the kiss of God’s grace.
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