View Cart

Honesty About Depression

Truth in Love 103

Christians can experience feelings of depression and still remain faithful to God and live obediently.

May 22, 2017

Heath Lambert: This is mental health awareness month, and this week on the podcast we want to talk about the most commonly diagnosed mental disorder, and that is the one in the family of depression. More Americans, and more western Christians, are diagnosed with this mental disorder than any other one—and those numbers are going up, not down. When we talk about mental illness in general and depression, in particular, you can come at it from a couple of different directions. On the one hand, you can talk about how to think about and understand these problems in the right way and from a perspective that is fully informed by the Scriptures. Another way to think about these problems is how to respond to people who are diagnosed with them.

We have a number of resources about how to think about the problem of mental illness and depression that I’ll recommend at the end of the podcast. But on the podcast today, what I want to do is talk to you if you are struggling with depression or if a loved one is struggling with depression and you’re wondering, “How should I think about this in my own life? How should I respond to it in my own life?” What I would want to say to you is that the Bible is very, very honest about the existence of, and the experience of the kind of sorrow and sadness that we call today, depression.

There are so many places in the Bible that talk about this, but just one of them is the 102nd Psalm. In the 102nd Psalm, the psalmist gives us a very, very candid explanation of the kind of realities you struggle with depression. He talks about feeling sorrowful because of the fleeting nature of life. Verse 3 says, “My days pass away like smoke.” He also talks about how his body aches, and he has physical trouble because of the sorrow. He says, “My bones burn like a furnace.” In verse 4 he talks about not just his physical ache, but his spiritual ache. He says, “My heart is struck down like grass and has withered.” He is honest that he isn’t eating. He says in verse 4, “I forget to eat my bread.” He groans. Verse 5 says, “Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my flesh.” So he’s groaning so loud that it’s producing physical consequences. He can’t sleep. Verse 6 says, “I’m like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places; I lie awake; I’m like a lonely sparrow on the housetop.” He can’t sleep, he’s up at night with his sorrow. He’s experiencing the cruelty of other people. He says in verse 8, “All the day my enemies taunt me; those who deride me use my name for a curse.” He even wonders about the love of God. He says, “Because of your indignation and your anger; you have taken me up and you’ve thrown me down.” This is a man who is thinking about the fleeting nature of life, he’s got an aching body and soul, is not able to eat, he’s groaning, and he can’t sleep. Others are being cruel to him and he wonders if God himself even loves him.

It’s so important for us to think about this as Christians and it’s so important for you to hear this. Because so many people wonder, “If I’m depressed, can I still be faithful?” To word it another way: “Can I be depressed and still be a Christian?” The reality is, the psalmist here is someone who has faith in God, but he’s being honest that he is in the bowels of depression—he’s honest about that. It’s good for you to know that you can be honest about this as well. The Words of Scripture here can give expression to your own struggle as you confront this sorrow. That’s a kind of good news to know that the Bible gives expression to your struggle—that means that you’re not isolated, alone, or experiencing a problem that God does not understand. But we don’t want to just understand the experience, we don’t want to just understand the struggle. The Bible isn’t just honest in the identification of the problem of sorrow, the Bible is also honest about a response.

After the psalmist lists all of this expression and this experience of sorrow, he says, in verse 12, “But you, O LORD, are enthroned forever; you are remembered throughout all generations.” He starts to think about God. He moves from his own experience, his own understanding of this painful sorrow, and he stretches that pain out to the Sovereign God who’s enthroned forever. Indeed, he stretches his concern out to what the nations should think about that God. In verse 15 he says, “Nations will fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory.” There’s a powerful principle here where the psalmist has moved from a very particular focus on his own small existence—even in the midst of his very real pain—and he stretched it out to the very large vistas that include God himself and the nations over which He reigns as King. The psalmist looks to that God in the midst of his pain and he calls out to Him. The superscript of the Psalm—that is the text that’s written right before the first verse—identifies some information about the Psalm. The superscript of Psalm 102 says, “A Prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the LORD.” This is a text that admits that this is a person who is afflicted, he’s faint, but he’s not stopping at his own experience—he’s pouring out his complaint before the Lord. We don’t have to just be honest with ourselves about the experience of our pain, this is an encouragement to be honest with the Lord about our pain. Verses 1 and 2 say, “Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry come to you! Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress! Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call!” It is so important to take our experience of pain and turn it into a call and a request to God. Because as soon as we start to call out to the Lord for help, that is the response of faith. It’s a response of faith to say, “Lord, I need your help. Would you draw near to me?” Here’s the really good news: when the psalmist calls to God, God hears. Verse 18 says, “Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD: that he looked down from his holy height; from heaven the LORD looked at the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die.” He’s saying that the Lord who exists in heaven, who’s on a throne, who reigns over the nations is hearing my week cry for help, and he listens. God cares, God is concerned to help. The note that the Psalm ends on is not just that God hears, but that God helps.

Verse 25 says, “Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same and your years have no end. The children of your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before you.” He again goes big. God who made the heavens and the earth—He never changes. Everything changes, everything gets burned up, except God. In that reality, how can I be safe? Well, I’m safe in the one who never changes, “The children of your servants shall dwell secure” (Psalm 102:28). You who are sad, you who are depressed, your experience is real. You can be honest about that because the Bible is honest about that. You can turn to God because the psalmist gives a model of how to do that. But you can also have hope and know that your help is certain, not because your problems aren’t serious and not because you’re such a great person, but because by faith when you trust in the Lord, you become secure in him.

So, ultimately, the response to depression is not just to be honest about the experience of it, but to be honest as you draw near to the Lord who alone can help you in it. It doesn’t mean the problem will go away immediately. It doesn’t mean that things will immediately get better. But it means that when your trust is in the Lord, even your pain begins to make sense and there’s hope in the midst of the pain.