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Welcome to Trinity Sermons. Here at Trinity Church, Streetsville, we want to love Jesus,

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live like Jesus, and lead others to Jesus. And today we are continuing our series called

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Summer Playlist and reading about one of the Sadder Psalms, Psalm 42. Rob talks to us today

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about spiritual depression and how we can work through, alleviate, and even treat this

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depression. We hope you learn from and find some hope in today's message. God bless.

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Today's reading is from Psalm 42. As a deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants

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for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet

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with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long,

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where is your God? These things I remember as I pour out my soul. How I used to go to

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the house of God under the protection of the mighty one with shouts of joy and praise among

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the festive throng. Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed with me? Put your

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hope in God, for I will praise him, my Savior and my God. My soul is downcast within me.

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Therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon from

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Mount Mizer. Deep calls to deep. In the roar of your waterfalls, all your waves and breakers

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have swept over me. By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me. A

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prayer to the God of my life. I say to God my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why must

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I go about mourning oppressed by the enemy? My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt

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me, saying to me all day long, where is your God? Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so

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disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my

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God. The word of the Lord.

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Well, most people associate singing with happiness. I mean, there's, you know, that's why people

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say I'm so happy I could sing. And it's true. A good number of our songs are happy songs.

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They encourage us. They lift us up. Even the song that we just sang this morning. This

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is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. That sounds like

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a pretty happy song. And yet there are other types of songs out there. A whole other category

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of song that you would call a sad song. If you go to Spotify and you search on Spotify

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for sad songs, you get a whole bunch of very interesting playlists. Playlists with titles

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like Sad Crying Mix, Most Depressing Mix, Sad Country Mix. They aren't all country songs

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sad, but Classics for Crying, Crying Myself to Sleep Mix, Moody Mix. For some reason,

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human beings like to write sad songs. They like to sing sad songs. And they like to listen

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to sad songs. Songs about heartbreak and loss and loneliness and regret and depression.

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There's a singer called Lana Del Rey. A few years ago she wrote a song called Summertime

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Sadness. And that song seems to trend like every summer ever since. Because people seem

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to instinctively know that even though it's sunny and bright outside, we can still feel

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sad on the inside. And there's been a bit of research about why we like to listen to

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sad music. It seems like sad songs actually help us to realize we're not the only ones

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who feel this way. Obviously other people out there feel this way and that makes us

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feel good. And the sad music actually enables us to process some of our sad emotions along

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with the music. Well this summer we're going through a different kind of playlist. We're

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doing a teaching series called Summer Playlist. And we're looking at a very ancient playlist

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of music. It's found right in the middle of your Bibles. It's called the Book of Psalms.

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It's 150 tracks of all different sorts. But if you open up your Bibles and you start to

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look through those Psalms or start to listen to them, you're going to realize something

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very quickly. And that is a lot of these songs in the Book of Psalms are sad songs. Which

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means that people have been writing sad music and singing sad music for thousands of years.

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In fact there is a type of psalm that is called a psalm of lament. And these songs again have

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been written for thousands of years and they express sorrow and grief and depression and

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anger at what's going on in their lives. Over 40 of the songs in the Book of Psalms, there's

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only 150 of them, are sad songs. So anyways today we're going to take a look at one of

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those songs, the one that JP just read for us. And that is Psalm number 42. And it's

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actually really important that we do this because traditionally the church has not always

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done a good job when it comes to talking about sadness and you know that spiritual sadness

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we sometimes feel or spiritual depression. Now that phrase, spiritual depression, was

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coined by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. And this is Dr. Jones here. He was a Welsh minister

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but before he became a minister, this is during the most of the 1900s, he was a doctor. So

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as both a doctor and an amazing preacher and teacher, he was the minister at Westminster

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Chapel in London, he came up with this idea of spiritual depression. In fact his best

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selling book is a book called Spiritual Depression. And so according to Martin Lloyd-Jones, spiritual

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depression is not only a feeling but it is a state of mind. He goes on to say that it

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is a disease of the soul, this feeling of discouragement, this lack of joy. Now some

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of you know exactly what I'm talking about. You know what it's like to lose your zest

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for life. You know what it's like to have even the smallest tasks seem absolutely overwhelming.

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You know what it's like to kind of lack the energy to kind of get out and live your life

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the way that you want to. But what he's talking about and what we're talking about, it's not

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just oh I've got the blues today or I'm a little bit sad. It is something deeper. It's

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something that kind of lingers longer in our minds and in our hearts. And it may come because

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of some traumatic experience that we went through or it may come for no apparent reason.

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But when Martin Lloyd-Jones looked at Psalm 42 and Psalm 43 by the way, which were originally

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one song, they got split up later, he saw all the signs of someone who's going through

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a period of spiritual depression. Which may be surprising because the Psalm itself is

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written by a worship director, a worship leader. Right at the beginning of the Psalm, if you

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were to open your Bibles you would see that it says this is for the director of music,

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a song by the sons of Korah. The sons of Korah, you probably haven't heard of them, but back

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in the day they were big. They were a worship team that led worship all around Israel. They

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would lead worship in the temple. They would lead worship in big festivals and in big processions.

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Ladies and gentlemen, the sons of Korah. Woo! The crowd would go crazy. Everyone loved the

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sons of Korah and they loved to lead worship. But you might say that does not make any sense.

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How could a worship leader of all people suffer from depression? They're always happy. They're

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always on stage. They're always got a smile on their face. They always seem so full of

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energy. They can't possibly be sad, but of course they can be. And so can you and so

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can I. And that is a good reminder for all of us that no matter what someone looks like

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on the outside, we don't know what they're feeling on the inside. And so today it's time

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for a little bit of summertime sadness. Let's look at Psalm 42 and let's ask a few questions

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or let's look at first the truth of spiritual sadness, the triggers of spiritual depression

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and the treatment for spiritual depression. I should let you know that we've got a little

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cheat sheet here that we've handed out to everyone to help you take some notes as we

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go along. This is actually a pretty important topic. So we want you to get the most out

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of this as possible. So first we got to start by talking about the truth of spiritual depression

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because for many people, depression is something that they question, something they doubt,

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something that they criticize and mostly because they've never experienced it themselves or

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they, they just don't understand it. So that's why one of the biggest false hoods out there

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is that people go around saying depression isn't real. It's not something that really

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happens. It's all in their head. It's all made up. It's just their imagination. But

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according to the Canadian mental health association, we read that depression is a mood disorder

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that's going to affect one in eight Canadians at some point in their life. We read that

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6.5% of Canadian youth experience major depressive episodes once per year. And that's not just,

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you know, teenage moodiness. That's a real depressive episode. We read that 7% of senior

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citizens will feel the same. Women experience depression twice as much as men do. And if

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you already have an underlying illness or a chronic illness or disease, chances are

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one in three that depression is going to be something that gets laid on top of that for

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you. It just seems that human beings are very, very delicate creatures. And the Bible says

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as much, the Bible says that God created our inmost being, our mind and our heart and knit

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us together with such precision and intricacy. We're fearfully made. Yes. We're wonderfully

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made. Yes. And that delicate balance is amazing. Yes. But at times that balance can be thrown

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off, can be thrown off by stress, thrown off by major life changes, thrown off by addiction,

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thrown off by hormones, by our age, by all sorts of things. Substance abuse can throw

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off the delicate balance of our minds and our hearts. Even just our biochemistry, managing

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that, if you've got serotonin levels that are too low, then that's going to make it

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difficult for you to sleep. And that actually affects our mood. If you've got norepinephrine

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levels that are too low, then that creates fatigue and that affects our mood. If your

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cortisol levels are too high, then that increases your fear and anxiety. And all those things

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can kind of lead to times of sadness, despair and depression. All that I'm trying to say

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is our brain is a really complex organ and there's a lot of beautiful stuff in there,

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but it's also, there's a lot that can go wrong and be affected and disrupted. And to deny

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this is wrong. And to deny it is actually not helpful for people who actually do struggle

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with depression. So that's the first falsehood, the falsehood that, hey, it's not real. A

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second falsehood is that therefore, you know, Christians can't really struggle with depression,

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right? Because as the argument goes, if we are Christians, if we've given our life to

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Jesus, life's problems will automatically be solved, right? Right? You will always be

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healthy. You'll always be wealthy. You'll always be happy. You'll just cruise through

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life and when you come to church, you'll have a smile on your face and you'll say, how are

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you doing? I'm doing good. How are you doing? I'm doing good. You good? I'm good. You good?

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I good. We're all good. Everybody's good. But come on, people of faith get depressed,

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right? Just read through the lyrics of some of the Psalms. Why my soul are you so downcast?

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I'm worn out from all my groaning all night long. I flood my bed with weeping. My God,

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I cry out to you by day. You do not answer. My eyes grow weak with sorrow. My soul and

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my body with grief. I'm overwhelmed with troubles and my life draws near to death. It's true.

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This gives us hope and joy and strength, but it is phony and wrong to pretend that we feel

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that way all the time. For many people in our world, becoming a Christian doesn't make

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life easier. It makes it harder. It means more stress, more danger, more isolation,

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more rejection. So it's a falsehood to say, Christians can't experience depression. It

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just doesn't make sense. And that brings us to the third falsehood we have to address

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is that is that for some reason, therefore depressed people are less spiritual. If you

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were really spiritually mature, you wouldn't struggle with sadness and depression. But

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come on, think of heroes of the faith. David, a man after God's own heart, obviously struggled

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with deep sadness and sorrow at times in his life. Think of Elijah, the great prophet clearly

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had suicidal ideation from time to time. Think of Job, who we are told was the most righteous

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man on earth at the time. And yet in that same story, he curses the day that he was

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born. Think of the apostle Paul, who said that he despaired even of life at one point.

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Another notable preacher, it was a Charles Spurgeon who was called actually once the

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prince of preachers in the late 1800s. He was just so well known for his sermons and

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his writings. And, and yet he confessed to his own congregate congregation. He said,

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I have been in the depths, which I hope none of you ever go. There are dungeons, he said,

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beneath the castle of despair. So for this reason, we should never stigmatize people

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who suffer from depression or sadness as being less spiritual than others. So that's the

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truth about spiritual depression. But now let's talk about some of the triggers. What

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are some of those things that happen in our life that cause the depression to erupt? Psalm

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42 actually gives us some of these triggers. And I should say what I'm talking today is

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not from a medical perspective. I'm not talking to you from a clinical perspective. I'm not

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a psychologist. I'm, I'm a preacher. I'm looking at what these possible spiritual triggers

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might be as we read them in Psalm 42. Okay. The first trigger that seems obvious is that

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depression can hit you when your hopes get dashed, when hope fails you, when life disappoints

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you. You know, sometimes in life we, we want to be here, but we're here. Uh, we wish we

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were there, but we're stuck where we are. And, and that sense of disappointment of not being

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where you want to be or doing what you want to do can really, really beat you up and leave

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you feeling flat. The writer of Psalm 42, he says as much, but you kind of got to read

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between the lines. He says, as the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for

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you, my God, my soul thirsts for God, for the living God. And then he says, when can

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I go and meet with God? And what's he talking about there? What he's talking about is again,

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he's a worship leader. Where does he want to be? He wants to be in Jerusalem. He wants

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to be leading worship. He wants to be doing what he does best, what fulfills him. And

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for some reason he can't be there. He can't do what he wants to do. Now some scholars

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have hypothesized that it's because he was on the run with David. David had to flee Jerusalem

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during his time as a, as an upcoming King. And as a result, uh, the sons of Korah also

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maybe got exiled from Jerusalem and find themselves now on the outside looking in and he's stuck

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and he doesn't want to be where he is. He wants to be there. He's thirsting to be back

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in the temple. He's longing to be back doing what he loves to do, doing something else,

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but he can't do it. And hope that is deferred makes the heart sick. Cause we read in Proverbs

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and some of you know is exactly what he's talking about. You wanted to be in a certain

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relationship and you're just not there. You wanted to be somewhere in your career and

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you're just not there. You wanted to have saved so much money by now, but you're just

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not there. You wanted to have moved on in some way. You wanted to have, have a job by

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now, moved out of your parents basement by now. You wanted to finish your degree by now.

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You had goals, you had aims, you had aspirations, but they're just not happening. You're not

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where you want to be. And that can weigh on you. And it can be a trigger for spiritual

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depression. So that's the first trigger when hope fails you. But secondly, when people

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criticize you, look at this, when you are criticized, attacked or beat down by the people

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around you, that can really make you question who you are. When they say mean and nasty

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things to you. Look, look at the Psalmist. He says, they say, who are they? Well, his

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enemies, his critics, they say, where is your God? And my bones suffer, mortal agony is

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my foes taunt me. And he says, why must I go about mourning oppressed by my enemy? When

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we're criticized, you know what it does? It erodes our sense of self-esteem. That can

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lead to depression. It makes us feel rejected and isolated. That can lead to depression.

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People are mean. People can be nasty. Frederick Nietzsche said that man is the cruelest animal,

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whether it was some bully at school that got you really depressed or whether it's a coworker

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who's so competitive or whether it's a spouse who is verbally abusive to you or criticism

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can trigger that feeling of depression. Another trigger though, is when problems overwhelm

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you. Now we all have problems. One problem here, no problem, no problem. I can handle

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a problem here and a problem there. But sometimes it rains and then sometimes it pours and sometimes

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your basement just gets flooded like it did a couple of weeks ago. When, when problems

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keep coming at you, one problem after another, a relationship problem, a career problem,

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a financial problem, a health problem, pretty soon we feel like we are overwhelmed. And

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it's when too many things come at us once that it can lead to depression. The Psalmist

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gets at this when he says deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls, all your waves

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and your breakers have swept over me. He's using this metaphor of waves and breakers

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and water because it gets at what we're talking about. Have you ever walked in the ocean and

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been knocked over by a wave? That's not so bad. But when you're trying to get back up,

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another wave hits you and now you're kind of tumbling and then another wave and now

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you're like losing your orientation and pretty soon you're gasping for breath and you're

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being pulled back out to sea, right? We can handle a problem, but when lots comes at us

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at once, then we are in that space where we can lead to sadness and depression. There

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is in fact is this stress test you can do called the Holmes and Ray stress scale. And

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it says that according to their findings that if you score between 200 and 300 on this test,

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then you are at high risk of a nervous breakdown or some deep, deep depression. And so for

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example, the death of a spouse is a hundred points in one year span, a hundred points,

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divorce 73 points, retirement 45 points, pregnancy, buying a house, starting school, moving, trouble

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at work, vacation, Christmas, it goes on and on. All of these things have a point value

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and we can tolerate some of it, but when too much of it comes and the waves keep coming,

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then we're overwhelmed. Another trigger can be when the past reminds you. Now lots of

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times our memories are very encouraging and they actually cheer us up in times of sadness,

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but in the case of this guy, it was actually the past that was pulling him down. He was

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remembering better days, what used to be, what life was like before. He says, Oh gosh,

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I remember, I remember how it used to be. I used to go to the house of God and we were

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under protection. We didn't have to run for our lives. We were protected and there'd be

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shouts of joy and we get to lead the worship among all these people. Oh, those were the

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good old days, the good old days. When I get together with some of my friends from high

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school, we're always reminiscing about the good old days, remembering back to high school,

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the stupid things we did, telling stories and laughing at it. And that can be good,

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but it was Warren Wiersbie says, he says the past should be a rudder to guide us. Can't

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be an anchor that holds us back. And so the lesson is if you think life as it is right

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now is always going to be this way and never going to change, then you're heading for a

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crash because life changes. The way things are going to be tomorrow is not going to be

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like it is today. And the way it is today is not like it was before. It's longing for

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another time, longing for another situation can trigger that feeling of depression. Finally,

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depressive feelings often spiral and increase when we're preoccupied with ourselves. When

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all your thoughts are focused on you. Psalm 42 and Psalm 43, we come across the words

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me, my, and I 51 times. And that's okay because God is interested in all your me's and my's

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and I's, but the word God is only used 21 times. So that's a little bit out of whack.

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And when we focus too much on ourselves, man, if you're always looking at yourself, it can

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lead to this self-criticism. It can really throw us off balance because we're often losing

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our perspective and it magnifies the problems that we have in our life and the negativity

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can increase and depression can intensify. So here's the triggers. These are the system

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triggers that seem to be hinted at in Psalm 42 that when hope fails you and people criticize

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you and problems overwhelm you, the past reminds you, and when everything is about you, you

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could be headed for a time of depression. So these are warning signs that we should

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all be paying attention to. But let's end, not by talking about the truth of it or the

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triggers, but let's end by talking about the treatment of our spiritual depression. How

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do we alleviate the symptoms? How do we raise ourselves out of depressive moments? Many

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times we try to just do it on our own. We treat our depression by drinking too much

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or eating too much or doing drugs or whatever. Sometimes, actually I read that 35% of people

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who are depressed say they solve it by watching TV. Those aren't great treatments. Obviously,

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doctors have medical treatments and psychologists and psychotherapists will have their treatments.

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But again, spiritually speaking, spiritually speaking, the psalmist suggests a few treatments

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that we can take with us today based on what he said. First, tell yourself the truth. Did

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you notice how the psalmist is always talking to himself? He writes, oh, my soul, why are

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you downcast? Why are you, as if he's talking to us, why are you so disturbed within me?

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Put your hope in God. He's talking to himself. He's saying, hey there in their soul. Hello,

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anyone home? I'm talking to you. Listen. Put your hope in God. Don't listen to what they're

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saying. Are you listening to me? Hello, anyone home down there? And he's talking to himself.

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And according to Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, this is exactly what we should do. He writes, we

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must talk to ourselves instead of letting ourselves talk to us. Most of our unhappiness

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in life is due to the fact that you're listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself.

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Rather than listening to those discouraging thoughts, we should be speaking God's truth

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to ourselves. Somebody after the first service said, I've heard it said this way, Rob, that

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we need to preach the gospel to ourselves. As soon as those inner voices start dragging

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you down, say, no, no, no, no, shut up. Listen. Listen, soul. Don't listen to him. Listen

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to me. I'm a child of God. I'm made in God's image. God loves me. God's never going to

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leave you. This is a strategy. We need to preach to ourselves. We need to talk to ourselves.

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That is one of the first treatments for spiritual depression, to remind ourselves about God's

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truth. The second thing though is to train our eyes on Jesus. Psalm 42 ends with this

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line, put your hope in God for I'll yet praise him, my savior and my God. He's changed his

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focus by the end. He's no longer focusing inward. He's focusing upward. He's taking

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his eyes off himself and instead training his eyes on God, the savior. Now the Psalmist

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doesn't even know what we know. We know that God is such a savior that he sent his one

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and only son because he loved the world so much. He sent his one and only son so that

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all that believe in him would not perish but have eternal life. Everyone would be saved

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through Jesus. So you see, if we train our eyes on Jesus, we train our eyes on our savior

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in times of sadness, that can lift us out of despair. Corrie Ten Boom, who found herself

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in a concentration camp, she didn't fall into depression. Why? Because she said, if you

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look around, you're going to be distressed. If you look within, you're going to be depressed.

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But if you look to Jesus, you'll be at rest. So to treat spiritual depression, tell yourself

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the truth, train your eyes on Jesus. And finally, think about the future. Both Psalm 42 and

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Psalm 43 are sad songs, but they both end with hope about the future. Put your hope

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in God for I will yet praise him. This isn't the end of the story yet. There's still more

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to come yet. Paul puts it this way. He says, I focus on one thing, forgetting the past

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and looking forward to what lies ahead. So friends, whatever's happened in the past,

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it's the past. It cannot be changed. But when we focus on the future, gives us hope, gives

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us peace, gives us assurance. We know how the story ends. Depression works by saying, you're

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stuck in this moment and it's always going to be that way. But the gospel tells us, no,

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it's not always going to be this way. God has prepared a place for you. God has a future

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for you. Keep your eyes on Jesus and think about your future. That can help lift us up

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out of our momentary struggles. So that's why we sing sad songs, because summertime

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sadness is a real thing. We get sad. Depression is real. If you are experiencing some of this

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deep sadness we've been talking about today, one thing I'd like to offer you is why not

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reach out to Trinity? Why not email us at care at trinitiestreetsville.org and maybe

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we can connect you with the help that you need. Maybe we can pray with you or put you

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into a community of people who can walk with you. But in the meantime, tell yourself the

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truth, train your eyes on Jesus and think about your future. Amen.

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Thanks again for listening today and we hope you found the sermon both helpful and hopeful.

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Come back again next week as we continue singing our way through the book of Psalms. Today's

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sermon was taken from the July 28th, 2024 service at Trinity Church, Streetsville in

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Mississauga, Ontario.