We're reading from Psalm 42 this morning, or this afternoon, Psalm 42. We'll read the Psalm together. We started last Lord's Day a little series on life issues. We thought last week about loneliness and how many have been affected by that and are affected by loneliness. We're going to take another life issue today in the will of God. We're gonna read from Psalm 42, and we'll read the chapter together, and then we'll seek the Lord in prayer, and then we'll bring the word that God has given to me even today. Let's read from Psalm 42, verse number one. The psalmist said, as the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat day and night, for they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? 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 praised with the multitude that kept holy day. Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquiet in me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. O my God, My soul is cast down within me. Therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan and from the Hermonites and from the hill Mizar. Deep calleth on to deep at the noise of thy waterspouts. O thy ways and thy billows are gone 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 prayers shall be 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, as with the sword in my bones? When enemies reproach me while they say dearly, unto me, where is thy God? Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance and my God. Amen. And we'll end at the end of the chapter there. Let's unite around the throne of grace and prayer. And you pray that God will minister to your heart even in this service. Our loving Father, we thank Thee for worship that has been rendered and given to Thee in this house already by song, by prayer, by the giving of tithe and offering Lord, we pray that such worship will be found to be acceptable in thy sight. Help us now as we come around the word of God, the book of God. We thank thee that it is a book that is relevant for every generation and relevant for every situation in life. Thank Thee that the Word of God is God's voice to mankind. And God is a word to say upon every issue. We pray that Thou wilt grant, O God, us to have ears that are open to the Word. And pray, Father, O God, we pray that Thou wilt open our hearts and help us to be receptive to Thy Word and encourage us through it today. For we pray these are prayers and petitions in and through Jesus precious and worthy and wonderful name. Amen and amen. British people rank among most oppressed people in the Western world. So carried the independent newspaper on the 13th of November 2017 as one of its headlines. That headline was the result of rankings that was drawn up by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, the OECD, that placed the United Kingdom 7th place, joint 7th place for adults reporting to have depression out of the 25 countries across Europe and across Scandinavia. In 2014, statistics from the Department of Health showed that 13% of adults living in Northern Ireland had been diagnosed with depression and were currently living with the illness. That statistics were only for people who had visited their GP and had been diagnosed with depression. Thus the Department of Health warned that it was most likely that the number of people who were living with undiagnosed depression was much higher than 13% of the population. That simply means that one in 10 people that you meet on the street, one of those individuals suffers from clinical depression. As I searched a little for the message, I was astounded to read that some of the most well-known and some of the most affluent people in the world and some of the individuals that have reached, we would say, the pinnacle of their career have admitted to being depressed sometime in their lives. Abraham Lincoln, believed by some to be the greatest American president, he said, I am now the most miserable man living if what I feel was equally distributed to the whole human family. He said there would not be one cheerful face on the earth. Some of the young people, I trust you don't know these individuals, but I'm sure you've maybe heard of them. Justin Bieber spoke to NME about how fame had a negative effect on his mental health. He said, I'm struggling just to get through the days. I think a lot of people are. This life can rip you apart. I get depressed, he said, all the time. I feel isolated. When you're in your hotel room and there are fans around and paparazzi following you everywhere, and it gets intense when you cannot go anywhere or do anything alone, you get depressed. I would not wish this upon anyone. Singer Beyonce admitted that there was a time in her life when she went through depression. She told CBS News, I didn't eat. I stayed in my room. I was in a really bad place in my life going through that lonely period. Who am I? Who are my friends? My life changed, she said. Actor Jim Carrey in an interview on 60 Minutes shocked many, a person when he acknowledged that he had spent much of his lifetime in depression. Even sportsmen suffer depression. Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian swimmer of all time. Went to the 2012 London Games with no self-confidence and no self-love. The swimmer told NBC Dateline, I was in the lowest place I have ever been. Honestly, I sort of at one point, I just, I felt like I didn't want to see another day. Depression. is most certainly a real thing. And there are many people who suffer from it. I'm not here to give out medical advice this afternoon when it comes to clinical depression. If you're someone who suffers from such a condition, you need to first of all throw yourself upon the mercy of God. But not only that, you need to avail yourself of advice and also of help from the medical profession. But today I want us to look at this matter of I want to bring a number of truths to your heart as we continue in this little series on life issues that we commenced last week. The first point that I want to draw to your attention is that the best of Christians can suffer from bouts of depression. The best of Christians can suffer from bouts of depression. I would have to agree with Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. Now you'll remember that he was a clinical practitioner, he was a medical doctor, he was the King's physician at one stage, and then he made his way into the Christian ministry. And this is what Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones said, he said, the Scriptures do grant clearly by their teaching that it is possible for a Christian to be depressed. Not that they justify this, but they do recognize the fact. If you take a survey of some of the great Bible characters that we have in Scripture, You'll find that some of them suffered from a melancholy disposition. Individuals who experienced bouts of depression from time to time in their Christian lives. Let me give you just a number of them. I think about David, King David. One of the reasons why the book of Psalms is so dear to many a Christian is because within its chapters the child of God is made aware of the struggles and the battles that some of the most noble souls went through in their lives and they had to endure in their lives. While at times we would find the inspired writers elated and happy and joyful in the book of Psalms, there are other times when we find them in a depressed state of mind. We find him in a state of despair, abject despair. The Psalmist David speaks in Psalm 61 in the verse 2 about a heart that was overwhelmed. When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. He would take that word overwhelm and speak about his spirit. In Psalm 142 verse three and Psalm 143 in the verse number four, he spoke about his spirit being overwhelmed. It's really this Psalm 42 and the next Psalm that really shows us the downcast state that David experienced in this period of his life. Now, we know that the title does not believe or does not suggest that David is the author, but many commentators believe that these two Psalms are Davidic. David was the writer. They breathe the very spirit off the Psalms. David, men like Gil and Spurgeon and Henry all believe that these Psalms were written by King David. And if they were, where do we find this man of God? Where do we find this man after God's own heart? We find him in the valley. We find him in the depths of despair. Note the verse 5 and 6. Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted in me? Here we find the psalmist, he recognizes that he should not have been in such a state, and yet he was. And so he takes to talking to himself. He talks to himself and he says, Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. O my God, my soul is cast down within me. Did you notice the verse number three? My tears have been my meat day and night. He couldn't control himself emotionally. He just went into tears. at any moment of any day, whether it was in the night watches, whether it was through the daytime, this man, he just, he was emotionally unstable, his tears flowed. Note the verse number nine, he speaks about, I, why go I mourning? And then verse 11, Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? And if you skip into the next chapter, you'll find the same words at the end of the verse number, at the start of verse number 5, Psalm 43 verse 5, Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? A man after God's own heart? And yet he's cast down. Surely that's not the case. Cast down. Do you know what that word cast down translates to mean? Depressed. That's what it is in the original. Depressed. Wired by depressed. Oh my soul. And so David experienced depression. A dying cast of heart, a sinking low, being brought low. Emotionally, spiritually. Elijah is another example. Think of that great victory after Mount Carmel over the prophets of Baal. And yet this man of God, he fears for his life and he runs away from Jezebel as far as he can. There in the desert, God's servant, he sits down and prays. He's a defeated and he's a worn-out man. 1 Kings 19, verse 4 shows us how Elijah cut himself off from others. He went a day's journey into the wilderness and he went alone. He went alone. And let me say that loneliness and exhaustion can do all kinds of strange things to a person's mind. Loneliness and exhaustion can do all kinds of strange things in your mind because it certainly made Elijah inconsistent. Do you mean by that preacher? Well, why was he running away? He was running to spare his life. But what does he ask God to do? To take away his life? That's inconsistent. He's not thinking straight, we would say. What he's running away is what he wants to run to. He has become inconsistent within his life, and he comes down and he sits under a juniper tree and he quests for himself that he dies. And he said, it is enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my father's. But what I want you to see concerning that particular event in Elijah's life was that Elijah did not take his life from himself. Elijah did not take the matter of taking his life from himself. He said, Lord, take away my life because he recognized as a Christian, as a Christian, that God was sovereign over the issues of life and over the issues of death. And individuals can get to such a downcast and depressed state of mind that then things come into their mind, suggestions come into their mind, and yet they must ever remember that God, God gives and God takes away. And that is left out of our control and out of our hands. And we must be very, very careful when we come to these matters. Jonah, David, Elijah, Jonah, He was a prophet, experienced a low time in his ministry. The amazing thing is that he got depressed when God was blessing. Did you know that even in revival, even in revival, such can be the attack of the enemy and such can be the state of mind and heart that an individual can get so low that they want their own lives to be taken from them. Jonah 4 verse 3, therefore now O Lord I take I beseech thee my life from me, Jonah said, for it is better for me to die than to live. Have you ever been there? Have you ever been there where you feel that it's better for you to be dead than to be alive? Jonah was there. Things hadn't gone his way with the Ninevites. You see, he had thought that God should have destroyed the Ninevites because of their sin and their wickedness. But God showed mercy. And God brought them into the family of God. And God moved in a mighty way within that nation and within that particular city. But Jonah got discouraged in the middle of revival. In the middle of revival. Think of Job. Job was the righteous man. He lost nearly everything, literally everything. So great was his suffering and tragedy that his own wife in Job 2 verse 9 said, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die. Curse God and die. But Job maintained his faithfulness. But that did not mean that he did not struggle from time to time with dark, foreboding thoughts. And those thoughts, they find vent or expression as we make our way through the book of Job. Let me give you a number of them. Job 3 verse 11, Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? Job 6 verse 8 and 9, Oh that I might have my request, and that God would grant me the thing that I longed for even, that it would please God to destroy me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off. Job 10 verse 1, my soul is weary of my life, I will leave my complaint upon myself, I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. Here's a man downcast, but you need to ever remember folks that the book of Job is but a snapshot of Job's life. It is but a small window of his life. Life for him was not always going to be this way. God's going to turn the captivity of Job. God's going to bless Job again, so he is. But there was a period in his life when he felt that life for him wasn't worth the living. Why did I not die at birth? That's what he says. Maybe you're in some situation and you feel yourself to be like that. Why did God not cut me off? These problems, these troubles, these worries, these anxieties, this sickness, whatever it be, you find yourself downcast today. Job was there, a man who was righteous. Before God and before men hast thou considered my servant Job. Oh, we read of him in the book of James, about the patience of Job, and maybe that's just what you need, patience. patience to endure the trial. I think of Jeremiah. Here's a man preaching, and nobody in the congregation wants to listen. All preachers sometimes feel like that, though that may not be the case. They go home discouraged, they find themselves wondering, am I getting anywhere? Is the Word getting anywhere? Is the congregation hearing the Word and are they living out the Word of God? Here's a man who was ridiculed and rejected by the people that he came to minister among. Here's a man who found himself, yes, with great faith and great strength, and yet there were times when he wrestled with great failure and disappointment in his life. And really, Jeremiah chapter 20 really is the low point in Jeremiah's life. In a sense, we find within the confines of this chapter, as it were, he's ready to hand in his resignation letter. Verse number 9, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. Speaking of God. Imagine that, a servant of God, commissioned by God, anointed by God, called by God, separated by God, and he's got to the stage in his ministry that he feels, no more preaching, no more preaching. So downhearted, so downcast was he. Verse 14 and 15 of that very chapter, Cursed be the day wherein I was born. Let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed. Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee, making him very glad. Verse 18, Jeremiah 20, wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labor and sorrow that my day should be consumed with shame. Those statements by Jeremiah are certainly not statements of an individual that's on one of life's mountaintops. This man is in the valley, a deep valley. Biblical history, It has its many examples of those who suffered bouts of depression, but church history is also replete with examples of those who suffered from times of depression. Some examples include the Protestant reformer Martin Luther. He wrote on one occasion, having all but lost my Christ. I was beaten by the wheeze and tempest of despair. Having all but lost my Christ, I was beaten by the wheeze and the tempest of despair. John Bunyan said, I am now a man of despair, rejected, abandoned, shut up in an iron cage from which there is no escape. She expurged and admitted to his congregation, I am the subject of depressions of spirit, so fearful that I hope none of you ever get to such extremes of wretchedness as I go. He would later describe his depression as a seething cauldron of despair. Great men of God. Great men of God. in the valleys of life. What I'm simply trying to convey to you from these Bible and from these church history examples is that depression has been experienced by even the best of Christians and those, therefore, for you here today who maybe suffer from bouts of depression, never think in your despair Never think that you're the only one who has ever suffered in such a way. Many have walked life's dark pathway before you. And do you know what they've done? They've proven God's grace. They've proven God's help and God's grace and God bringing them through grace that will be sufficient for you, my child, whenever you pass through the dark night of Saul. Even the best of Christians can suffer bouts of depression. Secondly, as we think about the matter of depression, especially in the life of the Christian, I think, secondly, about the causes of depression. The list is not exhaustive, I grant that to be the case. But there are a number of reasons why believers can find themselves in this state, in this depressed, dejected, disconsolate state. I say, first of all, depression can arise from inward conflict, inward conflicts. Christian can find themselves downcast and rejected whenever they come to consider their own corruptions of heart, their own sinfulness. The Apostle Paul, we all know, has struggled with the flesh. It causes him to cry out in frustration in Romans chapter 7 verse 24 these words, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? You know that word wretched? That word wretched is literally the word miserable. O miserable man that I am. This is Paul. This is the Apostle Paul, the great servant of God, and yet he says for himself to be a miserable man, and what was it that made him miserable? It was his inability to do what God wanted him to do, and his readiness to do what God did not want him to do. You see, he found himself very quickly and very easily running to sin because of the flesh within and with the old nature, the carnal nature within. He found himself happy to do that, ready to do that, but when it came to what God demanded of him, he found that to be much more difficult, and as a result of this conflict, this battle that was going on within his very inner being, he found himself crying out, oh miserable man that I am. Have you ever been there? I have. struggling with sin, downcast because of some besetting sin, drives me down into despair, and I find myself crying out, God, will you ever deliver me from it? And you find yourself in such a state, that you leave off praying, and you stop coming to the prayer meeting, and you leave off coming to the house of God, all those things that you should be doing, when you find yourself in such a state. All these means of grace, whereby God will help you and enable you through, but, ah, what happens? We find ourselves struggling with some besetting sin, we feel, and what happens? To add insult to injury, the devil jumps onto the bandwagon. And in times of failure, he suggests to that struggling Christian, you can never be saved, you can never be saved. After after doing that, you could never be saved. Maybe there's a Christian here today and that's the reason why you're found in abject despair. Well, let the Word of God and the God of the Word draw you out of that place and that pit of despair. Let the Word of God remind you and let the God of the Word remind you that sin shall not have dominion over you. Sin shall not have dominion over you. Remember, child of God, this. The redemption that Christ secured for you by His death on Calvary's cross is a redemption that is adequate to deliver you from all sin. all sin. And I know that to be the case because of what Paul said to young Titus in Titus 2 verse 14, that Jesus Christ gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of God's work, the cross, the cross. Living in the cross and in the victory of the cross will enable you to come out of your valley of despair and hopelessness. Christ has died for your sin and Christ has secured for you a life of victory. Triumph in Christ. Conquer in Christ. Take your sin to the cross. Kneel it there by faith and leave it there Take God at his word, sin shall not have dominion over me. Sin, and I must be honest, sin can bring a person into despair. But depression can also arise from physical and spiritual burnout. From physical and spiritual burnout, I believe that happened in the life of God's servant Elijah. Elijah's confrontation with the prophets of Baal and Mount Carmel and the ensuing events of that whole particular time within Elijah's life involved great physical exertion on the part of God's servant. I'd never noticed it before. I find myself studying and I thought to myself about individuals and we have thought about them today, about individuals that suffered depression and I automatically obviously went to 1 Kings chapter 19, Elijah under the juniper tree. But folks, you need to go back and you might need to review all that has happened prior to this because life circumstances brought him there. And as I started to study it out, I started to think about the actual physical endeavor that Elijah had to make as he confronted the servants of the prophet of Baal. Let me show them to you. In 1 Kings chapter, I don't have the references, you can read the two chapters together, 1 Kings 18 and 19. But if you read those two chapters very carefully, do you know who made the altar? Do you know who built the altar? Elijah. That involved carrying 12 great stones, putting them together. It was Elijah who built the altar. Do you know who dug the trench? A trench that was so big that it would contain two measures of seed. Who dug the trench around the altar? Elijah. Did you notice that it is Elijah who places the wood on the altar? Lifting the wood and putting it physically on the altar. Did you realize that it was Elijah who butchers and who cuts the bullock? Elijah does that. Do you think of that there? Cutting through the sinews and the bones of a full bullock. Elijah physically exerts himself to do that and then he takes to himself to pray. He prays for the fire of God to descend. That happens. What happens then? Does Elijah go home down the mountain and have a nice sleep? No. He goes down the mountain, Mount Carmel, and he goes to the brook Kishon. Who slays the 450 prophets of Baal? Elijah. Elijah does it. Killing 450 men. Now think of all that he's done already on this day. And now he's down in the valley. He's down in the lowest part of the valley of Jezreel. And he's found himself now killing 450 men. Does he go home for a sleep after that? No. He climbs 1,791 feet. But that's how tall Mount Carmel is. We find that he goes back up to the top of Mount Carmel again, and he takes himself to pray. And he does so on seven occasions until there is the cloud of a size of a man's hand. And then what does he do? He descends 1,791 feet and he takes to himself to run 16 miles to the city of Jezreel. And he does so in such a way that he runs faster than the very chariot of Ahab. As he arrives at that city, he finds out that Jezebel wants to kill him. So what does he do? He takes to his heels again. And he travels two days journey into the wilderness. Can you imagine? Can you imagine how physically, how mentally and how spiritually exhausted God's servant must have been after doing that in probably a period of 24 hours? Is it then any wonder that Elijah sits down under a juniper tree? And he requests for himself that he might die and say that it is enough now, Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my father's. Physically and spiritually, he was exhausted, and that led him to such a place, I believe. Now yes, the devil was also involved, but it played a part, it had to. How do I know it played a part? Because God meets Elijah at the point of his need. And we do not read that he rebukes the devil. Do you know what we read? We read that he needs two good sleeps and two good meals. That's about all he needed. He has two good sleeps and he has two good meals. And under the end result of that, he's able to go 40 days to the mountain of God. There he's gonna meet with God. And God's gonna show him that there's still something for him to do. Maybe that's what you need. Maybe that's what I need. Rest and refreshment. Now don't get me wrong. God's people are not to be on a perpetual holiday. I fear this is coming into the church, into the Free Presbyterian Church. There are some of God's saint and they're on a perpetual holiday. You come to the month of May, it's getting earlier every year. And people take themselves off, never seen again until September arrives. Folks, we're not to be on a perpetual holiday. There are duties and responsibilities as a church member within a local congregation that you are to fulfill. But let me say that I believe that there is a time that you need to come apart and rest a while. Because if you don't come apart, you'll come apart. You've heard that time and time again. There's a time to rest, time to refresh the body. Depression can also arise from domestic and family trials. A prodigal son or daughter that causes great depression. A family that has not lived up to your expectations. A family that has sinned and you feel ashamed of it as a believer. can lead to times of depression. A debilitating illness, that can lead to a downcast spirit. Marital stress, extended family troubles, bereavement, unsaved loved ones, pregnancy. I was listening to an individual, he's a reformed preacher in America, great servant of God, came originally from Scotland, and then he's now serving the Lord in America. He said that as a pastor, he dealt with people with depression, and he says, I did great damage. I did great damage with respect to my pastoral visits. Because you see, he assumed at all times that spiritual depression was because of a spiritual sin in an individual's life. That's what he always thought. But as we've seen in the life of Elijah, here's a man who stood up for God. You can't point to his depression to some sin in his life, can you? He did great damage. And then he said, then it came to my home. Depression. He says, my wife was going through her fourth pregnancy. And she ended up being deeply depressed. And then God started to work in his life and in her life, and he brought them through it all. It took them nine to 12 months, but God was bringing him into the crucible. God was showing him that it just wasn't as simple as he thought it was. What happened, that lady was able to He said the best thing for her was to have a sleep. She had the pressure of being a mother. She was homeschooling the children. She was also a pastor's wife and he started to relieve her of some of those burdens and to help her even within the marital home. And by that she was able to read the scriptures. He actually said that there got to a stage in her life that she read the scriptures and they became a terror to her. She couldn't find the promises of God for her. But whenever she rested, she started to think right again. God started to speak to her through again. The word and prayer became a delight, and the word of God became a delight to her. And God delivered her from that depression, and he found himself, now I can minister. And folks, I don't know all the answers. I don't know all of the answers, but can I say family trials? financial, bankruptcy, all these things can come to our doorsteps and bring us deep into despair. Can I say another thing? Depression can arise from the low spiritual state within the church and nation. The psalmist admitted, he says, I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. And spiritually, And spirituality is at a low ebb within the church and state. And the preaching of the gospel seems to be ineffective. When there is a turning from faithful preaching on to fables, this adds to the despondency already felt within the hearts of God's people. Such can develop, so much so that the Christian is brought to a place of despair. We find ourselves asking like Asaph, Psalm 77 verse 8 and 9. Will the Lord cast off forever? Will he be favorable no more? Is his mercy clean gone forever? Doth his promise fail forevermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in his anger shut up his tender mercies? This is a man of God. You see, whenever spirituality is at a low ebb within state and church, the enemies of Christ are not long to ask the question, where is thy God? They did so in this Psalm 42 verse three. Is it then any wonder that this godly saint of God is cast down and disquieted? God's honor's at stake. And it seems to me that God is doing nothing. and so he's cast down and disquieted. The lack of divine intervention led the psalmist to such a place emotionally. Many are the reasons why you can be brought into the valley, but let me very quickly end with the thought of some helps to overcome depression. I would have to say that the depression that is the easiest to overcome is that which stems from unbiblical living, that which stems from unbiblical living. Such can and will be dealt with as you deal with your sin biblically. In other words, when you repent of your sin and when you seek the pardoning of them, then subsequently, you live then subsequently a life that is pleasing to the Lord. If you do that, Then you'll find yourself being delivered from a low state of mind and heart. What you may be experiencing is conviction of sin. Conviction of sin. Even in the life of God's people. Obedience will bring happiness and joy and satisfaction. And so the easiest depression is that which arises from an individual living an unbiblical life. living in rebellion against God. The psalmist said, I was brought low. The Lord helped me because of sin. But let me say that all depression is not as a result of sin. You see, you might be an individual like the one that we read of in Isaiah 50 verse 10. Who among you is that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? I said this before, maybe it was last week, but here's an individual, he fears God, he obeys the voice of God's servant, and yet he's walking in darkness. What is such an individual to do? Well, the verse goes on to say, let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God. Three helps that will help you to overcome the state of depression. First of all, There is a renewing of faith in God. A renewing of faith in God. That was what this individual in Isaiah 50 verse 10 is encouraged to do. Let him trust in God. Let him stay upon his God. There's the answer if you're in the darkness today. Stay your mind on God, stay upon Jehovah. Hearts are fully blessed, that's why we sang the verse. C. H. Spurgeon said, despondency is not a virtue, I believe it is a vice. I am heartily ashamed of myself, he said, for falling into it, but I am sure there is no remedy for it like holy faith in God. like holy faith in God. On another occasion the Prince of Preachers remarked, I find myself frequently depressed and I find no better cure for that depression than to trust in the Lord with all my heart and to seek to realize a phrase, the power of the peace speaking blood of Jesus and his infinite love in dying upon the cross to put away my transgressions. This is the way. Look to Calvary. Look to God. Look to your God. Your God. Look to your God today, child of God. Yes, He is your God. Did you notice that in verse 11? At the end of it, for I shall yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance and my God. He's still your God. He's still your God. Oh, there's an individual here today and you think, well, is he my God? I'm cast down, I'm in the valley, is he still my God? Oh, underline it, circle it, take it home with you today, child of God. He's my God, he's my God, he's going to see me through. Let faith rise, let faith rise within the soul. Folks, God is a refuge for his people. He's a refuge for you in distress. He loves you with an infinite love. He guards you by his mighty power. This is the very route that the psalmist takes in Psalm 42. Speaking to himself, he asks this rhetorical question. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? And then he speaks these words of counsel to himself. Hope thou in God. Hope in God. For I shall yet praise him. In our times of depression we are to hope in God, we are to have faith in God. A God of infinite wisdom. A God of infinite love. A God of infinite power. Oh, trust in a sovereign God. A sovereign God, that's why We dealt with the attributes of God. So as you might understand who your God is, one preacher says, my confidence in the sovereignty of God precludes me from becoming depressed. My confidence in the sovereignty of God precludes me from becoming depressed. I don't know what has brought you down. I don't know why you're in despair today, but I want you to remember that those events were hard for you to see at this present time, I admit. Those events have been ordered to come to pass into your life by a sovereign and an all-wise God. And you'll just have to leave it before him and say, I have faith in you, God. I have faith in you. This is, Lord, what thou art bringing me through, and when I am tried, I am going to come forth as gold. Second help, a renewed faith in God, a refilling by the Holy Spirit. Christians can grieve. They can quench. They can resist the Holy Spirit in their lives through sinning. Consequently, the joy of their salvation can be taken from them. If you need evidence of that, go to David's great confessional psalm. In Psalm 51, when he cries to God, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. The individual who comes to Christ and who comes to God and to the Spirit of God That dejected state of mind and heart can know the lifting up of their heart by the filling of the Holy Spirit. What is one of the gifts of the Spirit? Joy. Joy. Abundant joy. Joy in God. Joy in understanding who you are. You're now in Christ, a member of the family, protected, provided by Almighty God. That great text there in Ephesians chapter 5, to be filled with the Spirit, it points to that continual filling of the Spirit. Not this once and for all experience and never needing to be filled again by the Spirit. Oh, to be filled by the Spirit of God. You know, He is the divine comforter. And is that not what a downcast saint needs? A comforter? Oh, to know more of the Spirit in our lives. Oh, to know more of His ministry in our lives. Oh, to know the tender support and the compassionate assistance of the Holy Spirit as we walk through life's dark valleys. Finally and thirdly, there is a refocusing on Jesus Christ. a renewing of faith in God, a refilling by the Holy Spirit, and then a refocusing on Jesus Christ. You see, the answer to the downcast one is to know the triune God. When our minds and our hearts are downcast and dejected and despondent, what we're prone to do is to think of ourselves and to think of our circumstances, and yet we are to be those who continually look on to Jesus. the author and finisher of our faith, you know, the disciples. And they find themselves locked behind the doors in the upper room prior to Christ's appearance. They were mourning. They were downcast. This one that they had trusted in They believed that he was still lying in the tomb, but now he appears before them. And what do we read in John 20 verse 20 with respect to these despondent disciples? Then were they glad when they saw the Lord. They were glad when they saw him. All to get a vision of your Christ today. A vision of the crucified, the exalted one, a fresh view of Christ ought to gladden the heart of any downcast saint of God. He is the fairest of 10,000. He is a friend that sticketh closer than any brother. He is the altogether lovely one, a vision of him. Are you in the valley of despair this afternoon? If you are, Take solace in knowing that the valley experiences of life are as integral a part of your spiritual experience as the mountaintop experiences. These are sent to conform you, to sanctify you. Remember in life's dark valley that God has not abandoned you because he is the lily of the valley. No, no, he's the lily of the valleys. Remember that other believers, by the grace and by the help of God, have traveled the dark path that you now walk. And child of God, they completed their journey. And so will you. And so will you, I. We'll complete the journey as we walk through the valley. God, by His grace, will enable you to do the same. So, hope thou in God. Look away to God today. May God enable you to rise from the fog and from the midst of despondency and despair. May God help you to walk in victory. and walk with God. May God be pleased to bless even this word to your hearts today. For Christ's sake, amen. Let's bow in prayer together. O God, our Father, we rejoice this evening or this afternoon that there is a God who cares and a God who understands and a God who promises to draw alongside, one who is able to provide succor for us in our time of need. We pray, O God, that those who are maybe traveling down the dark pathway, they find themselves in such a state today, or that they'll not just remember this message for these moments, But oh God, throughout their journey of life, God has given them help today. May they recall that help. May I recall that help when I find myself down, down in the valley. Help us to find that God is not only the God of the mountains, but he's also the God of the valleys. Carry us through, Lord. carry thy children through, and help us, O Father, to deal with these matters biblically, and encourage us, dear Father, and help us to walk the road to heaven and home. Answer prayer and be with us, and bring us safely to this house again to hear thy word, for we pray these, our prayers, in and through Jesus' precious name. Amen and amen. Thank you.