Well, many years ago, when our children were young, there was an older woman in our church who volunteered to babysit our kids. This was before Michelle's parents moved here. So this woman really became a stand-in grandmother for our children. And she became a very dear friend to our entire family. She was a godly, godly woman. She walked with the Lord. She loved people. And she unselfishly gave of herself to our family. But one day she said something that was rather odd. She told us that she did not believe that a true Christian could ever become depressed. She felt that if you were a believer in Jesus Christ, then depression would never be your experience. And the irony of this is that not too long after she said this, she herself fell into a terrible state of depression, and I suspect that her view that Christians were exempt from depression only added and compounded her feelings of despair. Well, contrary to what our friend believed, experience as well as Scripture teaches us that Christians can and often do struggle with depression. In fact, it's been the testimony of some very godly individuals that they frequently had bouts of depression. In a moment of great transparency, the well-known London preacher Charles Spurgeon once said this to his congregation. It may surprise you that these words came from Spurgeon. He said, I am the subject of depression of spirits so fearful that I hope none of you ever get to such extremes of wretchedness as I go to. Another well-known preacher of the 19th century, John Henry Jowett, once wrote these words in a letter to a friend of his. He said, I wish you wouldn't think I'm such a saint. You seem to imagine that I have no ups and downs but just a level and lofty stretch of spiritual attainment with unbroken joy and equanimity. By no means, I am often perfectly wretched and everything appears most murky. I often feel as though my religious life had only just begun than I am in the kindergarten stage. And one of the church's greatest poets and hymn writer was a man by the name of William Kalper. Cowper struggled, struggled immensely with numerous attacks of depression that were so fierce that many times it led him to desire death. In fact, it's interesting that we should be talking before about John Newton. John Newton was Cowper's pastor and much of John Newton's ministry was trying to encourage this man who was so depressed at times. Now, I want you to know that these men that I've mentioned, they're not rare. They're not isolated examples in church history of Christians who battled depression. Reality reveals that many of God's people have from time to time struggled with being gloomy and down in the tumps. In fact, this condition has been the experience of so many Christians that in ancient times it was given a label, the Black Knight of the Soul. In our day, depression continues to plague numerous believers. In the 1960s, which may seem very far away from many of you, but not from some of us, in the 1960s when Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones was pastoring Westminster Chapel in the city of London, he was so concerned about the lack of happiness, the lack of joy, that he saw in many Christians in his congregation that he decided to preach a series of messages addressing the problem, and he entitled it Spiritual Depression. It's been made into a book. If you don't have it, that's a great book to read. At the beginning of this series, Lloyd-Jones said these words to the people of his church, kind of explaining why he's doing this. He said, Our subject is that which we may describe as spiritual depression, its causes, and the way in which it should be treated. It's interesting to note the frequency with which this particular theme is dealt with in the Scriptures. And the only conclusion to be drawn from that is that it is a very common condition. It seems to be a condition which has afflicted God's people right from the beginning, for you'll find it described and dealt with in the Old Testament and in the New. That in itself would be sufficient reason for drawing your attention to it. But I do so also, he said, because it seems in many ways to be the peculiar trouble with many of God's people and the spiritual problem troubling them at this present time." Now, Lloyd-Jones was absolutely correct. Depression has been troubling God's people since ancient times and it does continue to trouble people, Christians, today. Therefore it needs to be addressed, it needs to be dealt with for two very important reasons. Reason number one is because depression is just a terrible problem. It's a terrible thing to go through depression. Anyone who has ever struggled with depression knows the horrible feelings that it causes. Feelings of utter despair, the lack of clear thinking, the physical symptoms of a loss of appetite, loss of energy, even the loss of any desire to just get on with your life and function in the real world. So it's an important issue because it's a horrible thing to go through. Secondly, being a depressed Christian is a unique problem because it's just a poor testimony for Jesus Christ. It's a bad advertisement. We're talking now about prolonged depression. It is a bad advertisement for the work of grace that God has done in your life through Christ. As one Bible teacher put it about depression in our Christian witness, he said, in a sense, a depressed Christian is a contradiction in terms. And he's a very poor recommendation for the gospel. We are living in a pragmatic age. People today are not primarily interested in truth, but they are interested in results. The one question they ask is, does it work? They are frantically seeking and searching for something that can help them. Now, we believe that God extends His kingdom partly through His people, and we know that He has oftentimes done some of the most notable things in the history of the church through the simple Christian living of some quite ordinary people. Nothing is more important, therefore, than that we should be delivered from a condition which gives other people looking at us the impression that to be a Christian means to be unhappy, to be sad, to be morbid, and that the Christian is one who scorns delights and lives laborious days. So, folks, depression amongst Christians is an important issue, not only because many people suffer from it, and that's a horrible thing to go through, but also because of God's kingdom and our witness to the world. Therefore, it does need to be addressed, but it needs to be addressed from a biblical perspective. It needs to be dealt with in terms of biblical truth and not by the so-called solutions that the world offers. You see, because depression is such a prevalent problem in our world, people are desperately looking for answers to their emotional sadness. And they want relief from these horrible feelings of gloom and despair, these black nights of the soul. But sadly, most people, the overwhelming majority of people, seek relief from depression in all the wrong places. They try to numb their pain through drugs or alcohol, excessive entertainment. sensuality, even the purchasing of new items. In fact, some of you might remember the young lady, Mallory, on the old television sitcom, Family Ties, who once said, and I quote, this is from Mallory, when I get depressed, I go shopping. Well, obviously that was said to be a humorous line, but there's a lot of truth to that. That's really where a lot of people are at. When I'm depressed, I just go get something new. All these so-called solutions to depression, they don't work, not in the long run. They may lift one's spirits for a brief period of time, but in the long run they only add to the agony of depression. They don't cure it. So, the question is, what is the cure to depression? Is there a cure to such a condition? And if so, does the Bible really address this subject by offering us any hope for those who are depressed? And the answer is, yes, it does. In fact, God has devoted an entire psalm to the subject of how a believer is to battle through depression. That psalm is our study today, Psalm 42. If you've not turned to it yet, I invite you to turn to Psalm 42. as the deer pants for the water brooks so my soul pants for you oh God my soul thirsts for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God my tears have been my food day and night while they say to me all day long where is your God These things I remember, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival. Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet again praise him for the help of his presence. Oh my God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan and the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizor. Deep calls to deep at the sound of your waterfalls. All your breakers, all your waves have rolled over me. The Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime and his song will be with me in the night. A prayer to the God of my life. I'll say to God my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me, while they say to me all day long, where is your God? Why are you in despair, O my soul, and why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him, the help of my countenance and my God." Now, even just a passing reading of this, a surface glance at this psalm, tells us, it's not hard to see, that the writer is a man who is very troubled. Although our English word depression is not found in this psalm, it's obvious this man was suffering from depression. That's what he's going through. Notice what he tells us about himself. Three times he tells us that he's in despair. Three times. There's just 11 verses in this. Three times. Verse 5, he says, Why are you in despair, O my soul? Why have you become disturbed within me? Verse 6, Oh my God, my soul is in despair within me. Verse 11, Why are you in despair, O my soul? Why have you become disturbed within me? This Hebrew word that he used that's translated despair means literally to crouch down or to bow down in a physical sense. But that's how this man is feeling emotionally. He's down. He's in low spirits. He's bent low in despair. That's what he's telling us. In addition, he says that his soul has become disturbed within him. The word disturbed means to groan or roar as one would hear the roaring waves of the sea. So here's a man whose soul is roaring with deep groans within him because of his extreme sorrow. In fact he's so sorrowful, he's so down that he cries continually. He's weepy day and night. That's what he says. Look at the beginning of verse 3. My tears have been my food day and night. But notice, not only does he cry a lot, he's also lost his appetite. He doesn't desire food. He isn't interested in eating food. That's what he means when he says, my tears have been my food day and night. The time I would normally give to eating, I just weep. See, the psalmist feels overwhelmed by his problems, so much so that he says in verse 7 that he compares his situation to being drowned by waves, just waves and waves of water rushing over him, overwhelming him. He says, deep calls to deep at the sound of your waterfalls, all your breakers and your waves have rolled over me. What he's telling us is that he feels as if he's drowning under the waves of problems. that are just sweeping over him. So it's very clear that here's a man who is suffering from depression. But what's so critical to see about this man and his depression is that more than simply suffering with this problem, he's fighting it. He's battling to overcome his depression because he refuses to allow himself to stay in this gloomy state. Folks, that's the key to this. He's fighting back because he's not about to give in to depression. It is a battle. Notice what he does throughout this psalm to fight his depression. He talks to himself. Not as someone who's crazy, who talks to himself. but as a man who is determined to come out of this depression by telling himself the truth. He always comes back to the truth. Listen to how he speaks to his soul, what he has to say to himself. He says this in verse 5, he repeats it again in verse 11. Why are you in despair, O my soul? Notice he's talking to himself. why have you become disturbed within me hoping God for I shall again praise him for the help of his presence now I'm gonna have more to say about this man speaking to himself as we go through the psalm but for right now I want you to see that that what this tells us is he is not content to remain in his depressed state he refuses to accept the notion that he has to continue being depressed that it's inevitable he must be no he's telling himself what he needs to do to get out of his depression. Instead of listening to all the negative talk that's going on in his head, he's telling himself what he needs to hear. He's telling himself the truth that will bring him out of his depression. And what is that truth? Hope in God. That his hope must be in God. That's where his faith needs to be, in God. In other words, he reminds himself of who God is, and that God is the one who's going to help him and bring him out of this depression. See, this man knows that there's hope for him to overcome his depression. His hope is tied up in God and his faith in God, who the Lord is and what he's promised to do for his people. I want you to notice that I've been referring to the writer of Psalm 42 as this man. I have not referred to him as in Psalms past as David. And the reason for this is because David did not write this Psalm. I'm going to step back for a moment, give you a perspective. The book of Psalms, which consists of 150 individual Psalms, is actually divided into five sections, or divisions, or books, if you will, with each of these divisions consisting of a collection of these 150 Psalms by various inspired writers. Now, why the ancient Jewish people divided the 150 Psalms into five divisions, well, no one really knows for certain. but that's just the way it is. What we do know though is that the first division, the very first section, the first book of the big book of Psalms, are the Psalms that we just covered. Psalm 1 through Psalm 41. All of those we believe were written exclusively by King David. But when we begin, when we began, I should say, our study of the Psalms several years ago it was my intention of only teaching up to Psalm 41 rather than to teach all 150 Psalms, because I felt it was just too long and too repetitive to teach all 150, and I feared that our studies would become wearisome and tedious, and we would just get bogged down in them. So my initial plan was to study just the first 41 Psalms of David, and that I felt would give us a sufficient taste of the greatness of the Psalms, the grandeur of the Bible's inspired hymn book. But the more I studied the Psalms, the more it became apparent to me that there were many Psalms beyond the first 41 that we needed to know why. Because of their spiritual richness, their unique message, their theological importance. Now I still don't plan for us to study 150 Psalms, but for the next few months, and maybe a good few months, I want us to study certain select Psalms because of their significance. Now these Psalms These are the Psalms that were written by other inspired men, besides David. David did write a few of these others. But they were written by other inspired men, including a family of musicians known as the Sons of Korah, which, as you can see from the heading, if you look at Psalm 42, there's a heading or inscription above Psalm 42. And these Sons of Korah are credited with being the authors of this psalm. Notice it says, for the choir director a masculine of the sons of Korah. So who were the sons of Korah and why did one of them, and only one wrote, why did one of them write a psalm about depression? I should say only one wrote this psalm, they didn't all get together. There's one of the sons of Korah who wrote about depression. So who are these men? Well, According to the Old Testament books of 1st and 2nd Chronicles, the sons of Korah were Levites. Levites who were descendants of a man named Kohath, the father of Korah. Now, you may recall that name Korah, K-O-R-A-H, because he was the man who led, in the Old Testament, a rebellion against Moses. a rebellion of 250 Jewish leaders, community leaders, against Moses. And God judged Korah and these men by opening up the earth and swallowing them alive. That's the Korah we're talking about. Now for some reason, for some reason, God chose to spare his sons. He chose to spare the sons of Korah from this horrible death of the earth, opening up and swallowing them. And it would appear that in response to the Lord's mercy in their lives that these sons and their descendants dedicated themselves to writing and performing music to praise God first in the wilderness tabernacle and then later in the more permanent temple in Jerusalem. And one of the songs written by one of these unnamed, we don't know his name, sons of Korah is Psalm 42. And he wrote it as the inscription says, as a maskill. So what is a maskill? Well, to Hebrew word simply means teaching or instruction. Which means that Psalm 42 is a psalm that was written in order to teach us how to handle our depression by battling through those dark nights of the soul. That's the purpose of this psalm. That's the instruction. That's the theme. That's the message. And it's very likely that Psalm 43 The next psalm was originally connected to Psalm 42 as one unit, one psalm. But at some point in history, some scribe divided them into two psalms. And one of the primary reasons for believing that they were composed as one unit is that they actually repeat the same words. And they're connected by the same subject matter. It's the same thing. how to battle through depression. Look, if you will, it's Psalm 43, verse 5. The whole Psalm is just five verses. Why are you in despair, O my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God. It's the same thing. And I emphasize that they deal, both of them, one unit, we'll treat it as one, they deal with battling through depression. Because that's the theme of both of them, which is really one unit. Since what we see with this man, this son of Korah, is that he refuses to give in to his emotions. He refuses to give in to his downcast mood. He recognizes it but he's not content to stay there. So he battles and he fights to come through this depression. And folks, that's why Psalm 42 is so significant and so relevant for us because it gives us hope, great hope. Because it teaches us that we don't have to accept depression as something that's inevitable, inescapable, or just a way of life. Just as this man fought through his depression, so can you. And this psalm tells us how to do that. See, what we find in Psalm 42 and 43 is a series of three statements in which the psalmist repeats himself and he says essentially the same thing. His remedy for depression. Says it in verse 5, verse 11, and then verse 5 of Psalm 43. He tells us his remedy, his remedy is to speak to himself, why are you in despair oh my soul? That's what he says. And between each of these remedial statements, his remedy, this remedy for being so downcast, he tells us the reasons why he's depressed. So the Psalms message is simply this, the reasons and the remedy for depression. but listen very closely the fact that the psalmist states the remedy to his depression not once not twice but three times would seem to indicate that his cure was not immediate it was not instant didn't happen right away but it took him some time as he struggled to work through all of this But at the end of the day, he was a confident man, confident that he would have victory over his depression because he just keeps coming back to this. This truth, this one truth that he knew would bring him through this dark night of his soul. Hope in God, have faith in God because he will bring me through this time of despair and I'll once again praise him like I did in the past. Now, with this as our background, we're ready to see the first series of statements about the reasons for this man's depression and then the remedy for his depression. It's found in the first five verses. The reasons and the remedy for depression. He starts off as the deer pants for the water brook, so my soul pants for you, O my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? Now, as the psalm begins, as it opens up, this man, the son of Korah, the psalmist, tells us of his passionate longing for God. He compares the longing of his soul for God to that of a thirsty deer panting for a drink of water from a cool water brook. Now, what this panting after God tells us about this man is that he was going through a dry season of his life. That's why he's thirsty. He feels spiritually barren Dry, empty, far from God, and I'm sure that if you're honest you would say, I felt like this at times. All of us have. All of us have gone through seasons of dryness, where we feel like we're in the wilderness. We feel like we're out in the desert, dry. Spiritual life just seems to dry up. Our joy is gone. And we're left with this feeling like our tanks are just empty. We've got nothing left spiritually. So dry in your soul that there's this tremendous thirst for God. Because you haven't experienced in a long time any intimacy with Him. Any real fellowship with Him. You long to have that closeness with Him that you once had, but He seems so far from you. Well, that's how this man is feeling. He's longing to have a sense of God's presence back in his life. So much so that he thirsts for it. Like a deer, panting deer, who would thirst for just a drink of water in a cool mountain stream. That's what he's going through. Now why was this man feeling this way? That's the question. What was taking place in his life that he felt so absolutely dry and empty? Well, look once again in verse 2, because he tells us something very significant about his situation. He says, My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? Now, what does he mean by this question, when shall I come and appear before God? And what does all this have to do with being depressed? Well, the fact that he speaks of his desire of coming and appearing before God in a Jewish context means that he was far away from the public worshiping of God, which took place at the temple in the city of Jerusalem. It was in the temple that he longed to be. This was the great longing, the great desire of this man's heart. That's what his soul was panting for. That's what he was thirsting for. He yearned to be worshiping the Lord in Jerusalem at the temple. But he wasn't there, and that's bothering him terribly. This is one of the reasons he was so depressed. He wasn't there. He wanted to be there. So where was he? Why did his absence from Jerusalem make him so depressed? Well, we don't know precisely where this son of Korah was when he wrote the psalm. But we do know the general vicinity of his location. If you look at verse 6, we read, Oh my God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore, I remember you from the land of the Jordan and the peaks of Hermon from Mount Mizar. Now, what we learn from this statement is that his location, because this is what he's telling us, his location is here. It was somewhere beyond, when he says the Jordan, he means the Jordan River. Somewhere beyond the Jordan River, in the northeast part of Israel, in the region of Israel's tallest mountain, Mount Hermon, apparently in one of the hills in the whole mountain range named Mount Mizor. Now, that is a good distance from the city of Jerusalem, so he feels far away from the one place on earth that he wants to be. He wants to be there so he can worship God in the temple. But note this, his longing to be in the city of Jerusalem, that's not a denial that God is present everywhere, that He's omnipresent. He's not denying that, or that he can't worship God in some other location. After all, the very fact that this man is praying to God, being far away from Jerusalem, tells us that he knows that God is everywhere. But remember who this man is. He's one of the sons of Korah, which means he's a Levite. He's a professional musician in the Lord's temple. That's what he does. That's his ministry. His ministry is to lead the people of God in worship as they gather to praise God in the temple. But he can't do that right now because he's far away from home. He's far away from his work. He's far away from leading the people in worship. So he feels cut off from his ministry, which makes him feel cut off from God himself. And just in case someone might be thinking that they would minimize his trouble, someone might be thinking, well, big deal. So what? That he can't be in Jerusalem leading the people in worship. He's just overreacting. There's no reason for him to be depressed over something like this. After all, I want to go to Jerusalem too, but I can't afford it. And you might be thinking something like that. What's the big deal? Now, if you are thinking along these lines, then it's important that you understand this man's absence from Jerusalem meant an absence from the work he loved as well as losing a sense of being useful to the Lord. In other words, his entire identity, his entire purpose for living was tied up in his ministry in Jerusalem. Remove this from him and you've removed his reason for living and thus the reason for his depression. Now, in case you still can't see this, this would cause this man to be so downcast, then perhaps the words of James Montgomery Boyce might help you to have some compassion, some sympathy, empathy, and appreciation for this man's plight. Boyce writes this concerning the psalmist thinking. He says, perhaps you have felt the force of that one way or another. I'm sure you have. If you've ever lost a job or perhaps are stuck in a dead-end job, an early forced retirement will lead to depression like this for some people. So will old age when a person feels that his or her useful days are done. Now perhaps that gives you a little taste, a little bit of help, so that you see why this man was so depressed being away from Jerusalem. But as we read on, we discover that he had even more that was on his plate, more to be depressed about. Notice verse 3. He says, My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all day long, Where is your God? Now what does this mean? Well, what he's telling us is that he's so down that he cries day and night, weepy, crying. During the time, as I said before, they would normally eat food, he found himself just weeping again and again over his situation. But notice what he goes on to tell us about his situation. He tells us that there are certain people around him who taunt him, mock him, scoff him, and they do it by asking him a question, where is your God? In other words, what they're saying is, where is your God when you need Him? I thought He was so great. If your God is so great as you say He is, then why hasn't He delivered you and brought you back to Jerusalem? See, when we put this verse together with the previous one, being away from the temple in Jerusalem, it appears that the psalmist has been taken captive by these men, they would not be Jewish men, be pagan men, who taunted him and forced him to leave the very place that he loves. Now we don't know historically what's going on here, but that's what it appears to be. And they've taken him by force, they're leading him away, perhaps to Babylon, we don't know. certainly leading him away from the ministry he loves. And if that's the case, then it would explain why he was so far from Jerusalem in the Mount Hermon mountain range when he wrote this psalm. It wasn't that he wanted to be away from the temple. He wasn't on vacation. He was forced to be away. He was taken captive by pagans. And now these pagans are only adding to his suffering by taunting him about his God's lack of ability. to rescue him and return him back to his homeland. Listen, you may never have been forced to leave your home against your will, nor experience the taunt of enemies challenging you about the power and the love of God, but each of us knows only too well the thought when we are in trouble, where is God now? Where is he when I need him? Where is he? Why hasn't he rescued me? We've all had those thoughts that have gone through our minds when we're facing dire circumstances. Where is God? I thought He was so great, but I seem to be just forgotten. God seems to be far away, can't sense His presence, feel abandoned, uncared for by Him. That is a cause for depression. That's what this man is feeling. That's exactly what he's going through and that's why he's so depressed he feels spiritually dry he's far away from the very work that he loves and finds so fulfilling in his life and it seems as if God has abandoned him no wonder he's so downcast and it's in this state of being depressed that he does something that really it just adds to his depression deepens it doesn't help him verse 4 these things I remember and I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival." Now what these statements tell us is that in the midst of feeling so down, so blue, so gloomy, the psalmist thinks back to happier days when he was back in Jerusalem joyfully leading people in worship as people from all over Israel would come to Jerusalem, come to the house of God during one of the Jewish festivals, and he would be leading them, singing and dancing in happier days, praising God with the people. Now, you know what? Good memories can be a wonderful encouragement, but not when you're going through depression. Because, like the psalmist experience, these thoughts only remind you of how good you used to have it, and how bad your situation is now. They only deepen depression. So there you have it. That's this man's predicament up to this point in the Psalm that he's telling us. The reasons for his depression. He feels cut off from God. He feels spiritually dry and barren. He's alone in a place he doesn't want to be. Isolated from the house of God and the work that he deeply loves. He's weepy. He's got no appetite for food. He's forced from his home by pagans who taunt him about the character of God. And on top of all of this, he's reminiscing about the good old days that seem so distant and without any prospect of ever happening again. And as he thinks on all of this, with all these negative thoughts floating through his mind, suddenly he stops. He stops. He comes to his senses and he states the truth that will bring him out of depression. And so, in the flow of the psalm, we move from the reasons for his depression to the remedy for his depression, the cure for his depression. Verse 5, Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet again praise Him for the help of His presence. instead of entertaining all of these negative thoughts and dwelling on past memories he just stops and he asks himself nobody else he asks himself a question why are you in despair oh my soul and why are you so disturbed now these questions that this man asked may seem like an insignificant thing you may have read this psalm or other psalms like this and just passed over it here's a man is talking to himself but this is a key you see the key to battling depression and to having victory over your depression is this this is it you see what the psalmist is doing is he is refusing to give into his depression he's refusing to let his circumstances dictate his emotions by telling him how bad things are instead he turns on himself Instead of letting his bad circumstances talk to him, he starts talking to himself. And he does it by asking himself why he should be so down and depressed and in despair. And his answer to these questions is that there is no reason to be depressed because he has God in his life. So he tells himself he's preaching to himself he's grabbing himself by the throat and saying listen hope in God which means trust God have faith in him believe what his word says that he loves his people and he helps his people now folks I want you to see exactly what this man is is doing to battle his depression so that you can apply it to your own life that's the point I want you to see the principle of this in your life. The best way I can show you this is by letting you hear from none other than Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones and his explanation of this man's behavior and how we can put what this man did into practice. Here's what Lloyd-Jones said. We must talk to ourselves instead of allowing ourselves to talk to us. Do you realize what that means? I suggest that the main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression in a sense is this, that we allow ourself to talk to us instead of talking to ourself. Am I trying to be deliberately paradoxical? Far from it. This is the very essence of wisdom in this matter. Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you're listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you. They bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who's talking to you? Yourself is talking to you. Now this man's treatment was this. Instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. Why are you cast down on my soul, he asks. His soul has been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and he says, self, listen for a moment and I will speak to you. Folks, this is brilliant. This is insight. This is, as he said, wisdom. This is what the psalmist is teaching us. This is what God is teaching us. What he tells, what this man tells his soul is exactly what you and I need to tell our souls when we are down and we are depressed. We have to challenge ourselves to place our faith in our Lord. If you're a believer, He has given you faith. We'll see that, by the way, tonight in our study of Ephesians. Faith is a gift from God. It's what Jesus said to his disciples when they were so worried and troubled and fearful on the Sea of Galilee, thinking they're gonna drown. He said, where is your faith? This is what this man says. He's down, he's depressed. He challenges himself to apply his faith in his Lord. See, that's the key to coming out of depression. Stop focusing on your problems the problems that have made you so depressed and tell yourself the truth to have faith in God. He has given you his help in the past. He will do it again in the future. Trust him. Trust him. Listen, if you're depressed, I want you to know there's hope for you. Learn from the Psalmist. Stop listening to yourself and all the problems going through your head and start talking to yourself. Preach to yourself. Lecture to yourself to put your hope in God because You'll never find a cure to depression ultimately outside of God never and if you are not a Christian And I say you have every right to be depressed because you have at this point. No hope you have no hope But Jesus died for sinners just like you in order to lift you out of your hopeless situation your hopeless condition How does he do this? He gives you new life, a new life in which you have a relationship with God, the forgiveness of your sins, peace, the assurance of going to heaven when you die. But to enter this new life, you must turn from your sin of being your own king, and you must turn to Jesus Christ and trust Him as the sacrificial one, the one who died on the cross for you. And in turning to him, you turn with an attitude of, you be my king, Lord. I've messed up my life enough. You be my king. You cast yourself upon his mercy to save you. You do that, you will have hope. You'll have a new life. You'll not need to feel this hopelessness and despair. Let's bow for prayer. If you are a believer in Christ, I urge you, apply these truths. You don't need to be depressed. you don't need to be blue you don't need to be gloomy hope in God talk to yourself tell yourself the truth the truth is that God is wonderful and he will bring you through this and you will again be praising him don't listen to yourself talk to yourself if you're not a Christian I urge you there is no hope outside of Christ turn to Jesus Christ he's real He's a person, he was raised from the dead, he is here right now by his spirit, and he is willing to save you from your sin if you will come to him. Jesus said, come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give rest for your souls. You come to him. Father, we thank you for this psalm. Precious, practical, so very helpful. It gives us hope, Lord. Gives us hope that when we go through downtimes, we don't need to stay down there, we don't need to listen to our emotions, we don't need to fall apart. Help us. Help us as your people to put into practice what we've learned today. To talk to ourselves and to talk truth to ourselves. To be, as it were, almost violent with ourselves, yelling at ourselves, this is the truth. Hope in God. Lord, we thank you that you are the God of all hope. And I pray for anyone now going through a very downcast time in their life, that this will bring them through this. That this truth applied will bring them through it. And I pray for those who don't know you, Lord. those who are without hope in the world, without you in the world, I pray you'll open their hearts to the gospel and that they'll see that only in Christ can they be saved and given new life. All of this we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.