WHEN DEPRESSION STEALS THE LIGHT

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Hello everyone. This is Pastor Dean Thompson with a word of hope. When depression steals the light. O Lord God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you. Let my prayer come before you. Incline your ear to my cry, for my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol. You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep. Psalm eighty eight verses one to three and verse six. Psalm eighty eight is the only psalm in the Psalter that does not end in hope. Read it slowly, and you will find no rebound. The last word of the psalm in Hebrew is darkness, and yet there it sits in the middle of the song book of God's people, included on purpose, as if to say to every depressed believer who has ever wondered whether there was room for them in the family of faith, yes, there is room. Your psalm is in the book. If you are experiencing a fog right now that you cannot lift on your own, the heaviness that does not respond to a good meal or a church service, the gray that has settled over everything you used to enjoy. Hear me. This is not a failure of faith. Some of God's most faithful saints have written from the pit You are not less of a Christian because you are tired and sad and unable to feel God's presence today. Psalm eighty eight is attributed to Haman the Ezrahite, a Levite singer who served in temple worship. The Psalm is unflinching. He says God has put him in the pit. He says his companions have shunned him. He says his eye grows dim through sorrow. He prays day and night, and he experiences no answer. And yet almost every line is addressed to God. He does not stop praying. He does not curse the sky. He keeps the conversation going, even when all he has to bring is his despair. That is the deep often missed lesson of Psalm eighty eight. Faith in the dark is not always the faith of victorious testimony. Sometimes it is simply the faith that keeps speaking to God when nothing seems to come back. Eugene Peterson once wrote that Psalm eighty eight is included so that Christians who are walking in the dark know they have not stepped outside the family. They have stepped into a chapter the family of God knows by heart. The Hebrew word translated troubles in verse three Raya, a strong word for evil, calamity, distress. The psalmist does not soften it, and the word for Sheol was the Hebrew underworld of the dead. He is saying his life feels like death, that the grey has the texture of the grave. The Bible takes our depression seriously enough to give to give it the language of Sheol. Charles Spurgeon, who battled depression his whole ministry, wrote The mind can descend far lower than the body, for in it there are bottomless pits. The flesh can bear only a certain number of wounds and no more, but the soul can bleed in ten thousand ways and die over and over again each hour. Martin Luther, who knew depression, he called anfectung, said that when these dark modes come, the best comfort is the company of brothers and sisters and the words of scripture out loud. And in our day, K Redfield K Redfield James Jameson, a Christian psychiatrist who has written about depression and bipolar disorder from the inside, has urged the church not to choose between medication and prayer, but to use them both as good gifts of God. If depression has settled on you, hear these five words. First, depression is not a sin, it is a suffering. Treat it the way you would treat any other suffering with prayer, with patience, with the help of others. Second, get medical help. If a wise Christian psychiatrist or counsellor recommends medication, do not refuse it out of false piety. Medication does not replace the spirit. It can quiet the noise enough for the spirit's still small voice to be heard. Third, do the small disciplines. Even when you feel nothing, open the Bible, pray, even badly, go to church, walk outside, eat the meal. The body is part of the soul's healing. Fourth, find a brother or sister who knows. Depression isolates. The enemy whispers that no one would understand. He is lying. There are saints in your church who have walked this valley. Find one. Fifth, remember Christ in Gethsemane, he sweat blood. He said My soul is sorrowful, is very sorrowful even to death. Matthew twenty six verse thirty eight. The Greek word he used perilupos is the word the Septuagint uses for the deepest sorrow in the Old Testament. The Christ who is with you in the dark knows the dark from the inside. You are not alone. O Lord Jesus, you sweat blood in the guard. Sit with us in our darkness. We bring you no triumphant testimony, only the prayer of Haman the Ezraite, a prayer that keeps speaking when nothing seems to answer. Hold us, be the light our eyes cannot see. And when the morning comes, by your mercy, let us look back on this valley and see your footprints next to ours. Amen. Brothers and sisters, if you are in a crisis, please reach out to someone. Reach out to a pastor, a doctor, a counselor, or a trusted person. The God who walked with you in this song has put people in your life to walk with you too. Use them. God bless you.