LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Spiritual Depression
The famous English preacher Martin Lloyd-Jones, in his book "Spiritual Depression", tries to find the causes and to propose, in the light of the Scriptures, a treatment for spiritual depression. Among the causes of depression, Lloyd-Jones mentions four:
1. Temperament. Introverted people are more prone, because they are permanently turned inward, evaluating everything they do, always looking back, always full of futile regrets.
2. Physical causes: tiredness, exhaustion, stress, or any kind of illness. The best Christians are more prone to bouts of spiritual depression when they are physically weak.
3. The "reaction" - reaction to a great blessing, or to an out-of-the-ordinary experience. This is the case of Elijah, sitting under the juniper tree. He was suffering a reaction to what had happened on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 19).
4. The final cause is certainly the devil, the enemy of our souls. There are countless means by which the devil causes spiritual depression.
Now, for Lloyd-Jones, the author of Psalm 42 was experiencing spiritual depression, and it is precisely there that we obtain the most important key to the treatment of this evil.
The psalmist was not content to sit around feeling sorry for himself. He did something about it: He took control of himself. Even more, he spoke to himself, saying: "Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and art troubled within me?" He spoke to the "I", instead of allowing the "I" to speak to him.
A great deal of unhappiness and disturbance comes from the fact that we hear ourselves instead of speaking to ourselves. For example, the thoughts that come to our mind when we wake up in the morning. We do not originate them, they simply begin to "talk" to us, bringing back yesterday's problems, etc.
That is why the psalmist addresses his soul saying: "Listen for a moment, I want to talk to you". You, like the psalmist, need to turn to yourself -rebuking, reproving, reproving, exhorting- and say to yourself: "Wait on God", instead of grumbling and murmuring in that wretched, depressed way. And then he must go on, remembering God: who he is, what he is, what he has done, what he has promised to do.
Having done that, conclude on this note of triumph: challenge yourself, challenge others, resist the devil and the whole world, saying with the psalmist: "I will yet praise him. He is the health of my countenance, and my God".