When Depression Descends, Do the Next Thing

00:00:00.000 | In his 2008 sermon on Psalm 42, John Piper talked about spiritual depression.

00:00:11.840 | Specifically, what should we do when the darkness of spiritual depression descends

00:00:16.480 | into our lives? Here are the third and fourth points of application John Piper

00:00:21.760 | draws from the text.

00:00:23.760 | He sings to the Lord at night pleading for his life. This man is very strange.

00:00:29.880 | He's so unusual. Oh, to be more like him in my pain. Verse 8, "By day the Lord

00:00:35.800 | commands his steadfast love and at night," now watch this, "at night his song,"

00:00:42.320 | God's song, "is with me a prayer to the God of my life." What does that mean?

00:00:52.760 | It means that late at night, tears flowing down his face, he's singing a prayer to

00:00:57.760 | God for his life. You got my life? I got no other place to ask for help? I'm

00:01:03.840 | coming to you. And he sings it. Ever done that? We need to have a broad enough

00:01:13.960 | hymnology or musicology or whatever you call it these days so that you have a

00:01:20.440 | battery of songs that work on the greatest days of leaping and the worst

00:01:25.760 | days of collapse. You got a song. They're all over the Psalms. Probably the one we would

00:01:34.440 | sing around here. If somebody walked into a crisis situation at Bethlehem,

00:01:38.840 | they'd probably start singing "It is well with my soul." It's got the right

00:01:45.360 | tone to it. It's got "when sorrows like billows overtake my soul."

00:01:52.840 | Here's a couple. Isaac Watts wrote this. Now this is a Christian. This is

00:01:57.880 | post-Calvary. "How long wilt thou conceal thy face, my God, how long delay? When

00:02:05.120 | shall I feel those heavenly rays that chase my fears away? How long shall my

00:02:10.600 | poor laboring soul wrestle and toil in vain? Thy word can all my foes control

00:02:16.840 | and ease my raging pain." He wrote that to be sung, Isaac Watts did. Or here's

00:02:22.760 | another one from the 1912 Psalter. I think it's working with Psalm 13. "How

00:02:28.340 | long wilt thou forget me, O Lord, thou God of grace? How long shall fears beset

00:02:33.840 | me while darkness hides thy face? How long shall griefs distress me and turn

00:02:39.520 | my day to night? How long shall foes oppress me and triumph in their might?

00:02:44.240 | How, O Lord, my God, behold me and hear mine earnest cries, lest sleep of death

00:02:52.000 | enfold me, enlighten thou my eyes, lest now my foe insulting should boast of his

00:02:58.280 | success and enemies exulting rejoice in my distress." That's a good lament, but it

00:03:07.360 | does take a certain emotional wherewithal to sing when you're totally

00:03:16.880 | crushed. It's not a jubilant song. Don't think that song equals happy. Jubilant

00:03:28.360 | happy. These songs are not jubilant. This man is not jubilant. He wants to be

00:03:34.440 | jubilant. That's the whole point of the psalm. "I would like to be jubilant again

00:03:37.920 | and I'm not." And he's got a song to sing while he's not, and he sings it to God.

00:03:44.480 | Number four, he preaches to his own soul. This is one of the most important lessons

00:03:50.560 | in life. Verse 5, "Why are you downcast, O my soul?" So he's talking to his soul. "Why

00:03:58.600 | are you downcast, O my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I

00:04:03.320 | shall again praise him, my salvation and my God." That's a crucial lesson to learn.

00:04:07.840 | Let me read you a paragraph from Martin Lloyd-Jones' book, "It is so Powerful."

00:04:12.760 | When I read this paragraph years ago, I thought, "Got to do that. Got to do more of

00:04:17.600 | that." Here's what he wrote. "Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in

00:04:21.840 | life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking

00:04:25.760 | to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in

00:04:32.520 | the morning. You have not originated them, but there they are, talking to you. They

00:04:38.240 | bring back the problems of yesterday. Somebody's talking. Who's talking? Your

00:04:42.920 | self is talking to you. Now this man's treatment in Psalm 42 was this. Instead

00:04:48.600 | of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. "Why are you

00:04:53.560 | cast down, O my soul?" he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So

00:04:58.560 | he stands up and says, "Self, listen for a moment. I will speak to you." Do you do

00:05:05.780 | that? I find that given the way I'm wired, much of my self-talk is very defeatist. I

00:05:15.200 | tell myself all kinds of bad news. I just... and I can imagine my bad self saying,

00:05:23.080 | "You're supposed to be giving me good news. I've got the bad news." And I team up with

00:05:29.960 | my old self and say some more bad news. He's got bad news, I got bad news, and no

00:05:35.200 | wonder we get discouraged. And so here we are on this side of the cross. Jesus has

00:05:43.280 | come. How would you preach to yourself now? You preach the gospel to yourself. It goes

00:05:52.400 | like this. Listen, self. This is Piper. Listen. If God is for you, who can be against you,

00:06:00.800 | self? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for you, self, will he not with

00:06:12.560 | him freely give us all things? Who should bring any charge against you, God's elect?

00:06:19.760 | Is it God who justifies self? No, it's Jesus who died, yes, who was raised, who's at the

00:06:27.480 | right hand of God who intercedes for you, self? What can separate you, self, from the

00:06:34.120 | love of God?

00:06:35.720 | Amen. This clip taken from John Piper's 2008 sermon, "Spiritual Depression in the Psalms,"

00:06:42.840 | specifically the sermon on Psalm 42. This clip was sent in to us by Jonathan Pearson.

00:06:47.840 | Thank you, Jonathan, for the clip. You can send us your clips and your questions via

00:06:52.040 | email. See desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn to connect with us via email. Well, everything

00:06:59.480 | about God is about everything. Yeah, that's what I said. Everything about God is about

00:07:04.840 | everything. It doesn't get much more comprehensive than that. John Piper joins us tomorrow to

00:07:09.840 | explain. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you then.

00:07:11.720 | [END]

00:07:13.720 | 1. What is the greatest gift? The greatest gift is to be able to ask God. Ask God. Ask

When Depression Descends, Do the Next Thing

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