How to Get Up When You're Down

God's people are not immune from depression. Moses, that great leader of God's people, got so depressed that he prayed and asked God to kill him. Jonah, the mighty prophet of God, did the same thing and asked God to take away his life from him. Elijah sat under a juniper tree and wished for himself that he might die. The great apostle Paul talked of himself as being depressed or in a state where he despaired even of life. You see, we can trust God with almost anything if we understand why. But God doesn't let us understand why all the time, that we might know who. That we might just trust him with that that we don't understand. Would you find, please, Psalm 42. And in a moment, we're going to begin reading in verse five. And what we're going to do today is to have a session on depression. How to get up when you've fallen and think you cannot get up. I'm not talking about having fallen physically, but emotionally, spiritually. When you're down and don't seem to be able to get up. And I'm not just talking about feeling bad about certain things. Somebody asked a lady, what do you do when you get down in the dumps? She said, when I get down in the dumps, I get a new hat.

Her husband said, I wondered where you've been getting them. And there are times when we get discouraged, when we are unhappy about things. Maybe we lose a job. Maybe we have an automobile accident. Maybe somebody says something bad about us and we're down. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about when the upright get uptight about this or that. I'm talking about depression. A deep mood of despair. It's something that is so terrible, so horrible. It is a matter that sometimes sends people to hospitals or sometimes causes them just to drop out of society. We feel bad sometimes, that's like a thunderstorm and that comes and then it goes. But depression is like a lingering fog that takes all of the sunshine out of our lives. I want you to think with me, first of all, what I'm gonna call the serious problem of depression. Look, if you will, in verse five, why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in me? Now, David wrote this and David is cast down and he's talking with himself. The National Institute of Mental Health reports that depression is more than a billion dollar a year industry, people who are being treated by depression. And according to the research I did for this message, there are millions, millions of Americans who are depressed.

And don't tell a person like that, cheer up. They've done everything they know and nothing would make them feel better than to be able to cheer up, but they can't do it. The serious problem of depression. They say, pastor, I don't need the message this morning. I'm not depressed. Well, somebody you know needs it and somebody that you can minister to needs it or you may need it. And it's in the word of God. How can you get up when you get down? Now, it is a killer disease. Depression puts many people in the hospital and quite a few in the grave. It is the third leading cause of death in many categories and age groups. Those of us who've been in the ministry long enough know that sometimes when we go to the graveside to bury a spouse before long, we'll have the funeral. Well, you say, these are the unsaved people. They don't know what we know. No, let me tell you something. God's people are not immune from depression. Moses, that great leader of God's people, got so depressed that he prayed and asked God to kill him. Jonah, the mighty prophet of God, did the same thing and asked God to take away his life from him. Elijah sat under a juniper tree and wished for himself that he might die.

The great apostle Paul talked of himself as being depressed or in a state where he despaired even of life. John the Baptist got down in a dungeon. A dungeon, not only a literal dungeon, but a dungeon of despair so great, John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ, that even doubted that Jesus was the Messiah. David wrote this psalm now, King David, a man after God's own heart, and he says in verse 5, Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? Outwardly, when this happened, David had every reason to be depressed. He had lost a son that he dearly loved. That son's name was Absalom. Absalom had turned against David, betrayed David, tried to take the kingdom from David. And David had to flee for his own life and then Absalom is killed and David weeps and says, Oh, Absalom, Absalom, my son Absalom, would to God I had died for thee, Absalom. Now David is fleeing from his life, meant to be a king. He's lost his wealth, he's lost his home, he's lost his power, he's lost his financial support. On top of all of that, David had sinned against God. He committed a terrible, horrible sin and he lost a child that he loved, an infant child. And then he had a daughter that was raped. He had a wife that had been assaulted.

He had another son that was killed. And the nation that he was supposed to be king over was in turmoil. I say outwardly, David had a reason to be cast down. Things could not have looked bleaker for David when he wrote Psalm 42. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Now let's look at this psalm and it's almost a clinical case of depression. First of all, David had what I want to call spiritual dryness. Look, if you will, in verses 1 and 2. As the heart paneth after the water brooks, so paneth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? He's thirsty for God, but he feels that God is far off. He feels like a wild deer being hunted by a pack of dogs. He feels this spiritual dryness. He feels his soul shriveling up. And he thinks perhaps God has even forgotten him. Look, if you will, in verse 9. I will say unto God, my rock, why hast thou forgotten me? Here he is thirsting for God, but God seems a billion light years away. Where are you, God? Why have you forgotten me? Spiritual dryness. Now God had not forgotten him.

That's not the issue. He felt that God had forgotten him. And then continual crying jags. Look, if you will, in verse 3. My tears have been my meat or my food day and night. David is weeping. Uncontrollable weeping. This is the mighty man of God. Now we all have blue moments. We all have times of sadness. But not continual weeping. That's the mark of depression. Not like a summer shower that falls and then passes away. But like the lingering, continual dropping on a foggy day. David has shame. He feels defeated. Look at the last part of verse 3. My tears have been my meat day and night while they continually saying to me, where is thy God? He knows that his enemies now are mocking him. He's ashamed. He feels he's a poor witness for Jesus Christ. And indeed he was. You know, some of us try to witness, but we don't have joy and we don't have victory and that just increases our shame. David's sense of guilt made him feel that he disgraced God. That's compounded by lingering memories.

Look, if you will, in verse four, when I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me. For I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God with a voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy day. He looked back on better days. He looked back on days when he had joy and peace, when with the multitude, he was praising God in the house of God. And all of that is now is just a memory. It's not real to him anymore. It seems to make his distress all the more real for he feels those good times that he once had are now lost forever. On top of that, he just has overwhelming circumstances. Look, if you will, in verses six and seven. Oh my God, my soul is cast down within me. Therefore, while I remember thee from the land of Jordan and of the Hermonites from the hill, Mizar, deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water spouts. Write in your Bible there, waterfalls, all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. The river Jordan is called the river of death. Jordan means descent and judgment. Starts up on Mount Hermon. Mount Hermon reaches towers 9,000 feet above sea level. It takes a torturous path down to the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is 1,300 feet below sea level. And the river Jordan just flows down to the Dead Sea,

never to emerge again. So in Bible typology, Jordan has been a picture of death and despair. I've been up to the headwaters of the Jordan where the waterfalls are. And David feels like he's just being washed over by circumstances. God's water spouts are coming over him. He is deluged with problems and he doesn't know where to turn. He has overwhelming circumstances. I say sometimes people like this can become suicidal. A 16-year-old boy wrote this letter before he took his life. Dear world, I don't want to get my hair cut. I don't want to tend kids. I don't want to see Tina at school Monday. I don't want to do my biology assignment or English or history or anything. I don't want to be sad or lonely or depressed anymore. I don't want to eat, drink, talk, breathe, sleep, move, feel or live anymore. Mom and dad, it's not your fault. I am not free. I feel ill. I am sad. I am lonely. That's depression and it's sad. The serious problem of depression. Now here's the second thing I want you to see. I want you to see the spiritual provision for depression. Thank God you don't have to be depressed.

God has made provision for you, for me, for our friends, those who are depressed. Number one, you need to look within and analyze your heart. Look within and analyze your heart. Look, if you will, in 42 verses five through seven. Why art thou cast down on my soul? And why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. Oh my God, my soul is cast down within me. Therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan and of the Hermonites from the hill Mizar. Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water spouts. All thy waves and billows are gone over me. But now I want you to notice particularly now as David begins to talk to himself. You say, can you talk to yourself? David did. David said to his soul, why are you cast down on my soul? Now this is where you have to take control. You have to take your soul by the nap of the neck. Hold your soul up in front of you and talk to you. That's what David did. You have to look your soul straight in the eye and say, Soul, why are you feeling this way? Perhaps you have sinned, done some grievous thing, and you're being haunted by the host of guilt. What do you do? Confess it to God. If you need to confess it to someone else and ask forgiveness, do it.

If you can make restitution, do it. Do what you do, and then close the door behind it. Analyze. Look at your heart. Ask yourself, why am I cast down? But you need to do something else. Not only look inward and analyze your heart, but look upward and recognize your help. Listen, once you see what the problem is, now notice what David did. Look in Psalm 42, beginning in verse 7. Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water spouts, all thy waves and thy billows are going over me. Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me. And my prayer unto the God of my life, I will say unto God, my rock, why hast thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? What is David doing now? He's looking upward, not only inward, to see why I feel this way. But he's looking upward. He's looking to God, and he's saying, God, you are my help. You are my hope. You will command your loving kindness to me. What a friend I have in Jesus. All my sins and griefs to bear. You see, somebody said God is too good to be unkind, too wise to make a mistake, and when we cannot trace his hand, we can trust his heart. Look inward and analyze your heart.

Why am I cast down? Look upward and recognize your help. And thirdly, look onward and realize your hope. Look again in verse 11. Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him. God wants me to tell somebody here today, no matter how bleak your circumstances, God is with you. Don't lose hope. God has a future filled with hope for you. I shall yet praise him. David took his soul, and he says to his soul, hope in God. Now, hope does not mean a vain wish. It means a definite assurance based in anticipation. There are only two places where hope is impossible. One is in heaven, because you don't need hope. You have fulfillment. The other is in hell. If you die and go to hell, you're beyond all hope. But hope is always possible. Jeremiah 29 verse 11 is for you today, my precious friend. Listen to it. For I know the thoughts that I have toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end, or as some translations give it, a future and a hope. Don't you let Satan blow out the candle of hope.

I'm telling you, you need to look inward and analyze your heart. You need to look upward and realize your help. And you need to look onward and realize your hope. God wants me to tell you that he's going to turn your Calvary to an Easter. God is going to turn every tear to a pearl. God is going to arch the rainbow of his grace over your sorrows. Hope thou in God. He is going to meet the deepest needs of your heart. And God will never be satisfied until your greatest desire is for him alone. So we've talked about the serious problem of depression. We have talked to you about God's hope for you. Let me give you the sure promise one more time. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him. You may have fallen, but I'm telling you, you can get up. And if you're depressed today, God loves you. Not a sparrow that has fallen to the ground goes without its notice. I know many of us give you a hug and a slap on the back and tell you things are going to be better. But friend, listen to me. There is no real hope in this world or the next world apart from Jesus. Friends all around me are trying to find what the heart yearns for by sin undermined. I have the secret.

I know where it is found. Only true pleasures in Jesus abound. Jesus is all this world needs today for sin has blinded and darkened their way. Oh, to pull back the grim curtains of night, one look at Jesus and all will be light. As I thought about what I was going to speak on today, I said, Lord, I don't want to talk on depression. I want to talk about something that's happy or something that's upbeat. The Lord said, Adrian, there's someone that needs that message. There's someone who's depressed. The Lord said, speak that message. So from God to you, let me tell you something. If you're down, you can get up. God has a way for you. Not by some cheap pop psychology. Not by somebody slapping you on the back and saying, attaboy. Hope thou in God. He will see you through. And God's people said, Father God, I thank you that we have such a wonderful Savior. Lord Jesus, take this message today and bind up the wounded. Let them know that underneath are your everlasting arms. Give strength and help and hope. Lord, I pray today for those who may not know Jesus, who may not be truly saved, that today will be the day that they will trust him.

Now keep your heads bowed. Would you begin to pray for those around about you and pray for your own heart. If you're not absolutely certain that you're saved today, may I lead you in a prayer. And in this prayer, you can receive Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. And I promise you that God will save you instantaneously. He will keep you continually. He will never forsake you or leave you. Would you pray this prayer? Dear God, I know that you love me and I know that you want to save me. Jesus, you died on that cross to save me. You shed your blood to pay for my sin. Thank you for doing that, dear Jesus. I don't deserve it. It's by your love and grace that you died for me. Lord Jesus, you promised to save me if I would trust you. And I do trust you. Right now, this moment, sitting here with my head bowed, I receive you into my life as my Lord and Savior. Come into my heart. Forgive my sin. Save me, Jesus. Say it. Pray it. Mean it. Save me, Lord Jesus. Did you ask him?

Then pray this way. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for saving me. I don't deserve it, but I receive it by faith and that settles it. You're now my Lord, my Savior, my God, and my friend. Lord, I give you my life. From henceforth, I will live for you because you died for me. Give me the courage now to make this public. In your name I pray, amen.