The ancient songwriter felt it. “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! (Ps 130:1-2).” He was drowning in the depths of spiritual depression.
Maybe you’ve been through a season in life where you felt like you were drowning. The only word you could squeak out to God was just “help!” You were down in the depths.
Almost fifty years ago, Martyn-Lloyd Jones wrote a book about this common problem, called Spiritual Depression. He says there are many different causes:
1. Temperament.
Some people are wired a certain way that makes them more susceptible to sadness and depression, just like some people are wired a certain way that makes them more susceptible to cancer or heart disease, or diabetes. Your temperament has no impact on whether or not you’re going to have a relationship with God — he is sovereign — but it does have an impact on what kind of relationship you’re going to have with God. In fact, Jones says the way we’re wired to be introverted or extroverted has a lot to do with it. If you’re more introverted, you’ll spend a lot of time by yourself, in quiet and silence, and you’re going to have a lot of time to analyze yourself, and your life. You’ll have more opportunities to find things about your life that aren’t good. That can lead to spiritual depression.
Martyn Lloyd Jones says, “We are meant to examine ourselves periodically, but if we are always doing it, always putting our soul on a plate and dissecting it, always talking to people about our problems and troubles, then it probably means that we are all the time centered upon ourselves.”
2. Physical Conditions.
That may be surprising to some superspiritual people who think that as long as you’re a Christian, it shouldn’t matter what condition your body is in. Jones says, “You cannot isolate the spiritual from the physical for we are body, mind, and spirit. Even when the greatest and best of Christians are physically weak, they are more prone to an attack of spiritual depression.”
3. The Devil.
Satan has a plan for your life, and it’s to make you sad, and lonely, and angry. In the book of Revelation, he’s called the Accuser. He wants to tempt you to do things you know are wrong, so then he can throw them in your face. He loves to make Christians depressed, because then he can say to everyone else in the world, “Look at those Christians. Do you really want to be like them?”
No matter what causes spiritual depression, there is only one cure: “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope” (Ps 130:5). When you’re down in the depths, there are many different things you could wait on. After a hard day at work, maybe you can’t wait for a drink. After a hard night with the kids, maybe you can’t wait to get back to work. After a hard few months of life, maybe you can’t wait to escape to Vegas.
But the songwriter wasn’t waiting for an escape from his problems, or a distraction to take his mind off his problems. He was waiting for the Lord. Because there’s hope in the Lord, and in his promises. This guy was so confident in God’s word that he said, “My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning” (Ps 130:6).
When you’re working a graveyard shift as a police officer, fireman, or ER nurse, there are many disturbing and depressing things that you might see at night. But the one thing that’s certain is that the morning is coming. It’s undoubtable. No matter what you might suffer at night, morning always comes.
It’s guaranteed that the sun will rise, and it’s guaranteed that God will keep his promises. Promises like he made to Israel: “When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them” (Deut 30:30-31).
When you’re in the depths, go to God. Cry out to him. Then wait on him to respond, as he’s promised he will.