Struggling But Surviving (Depression) Series

SERMON OUTLINE:

Reason for Psalmists depression:

• Separation (vs 6)

• Attack (vs 3&10)

• Grief (vs 3,5 &7)

Remedies to the Psalmists depression:

• He prays (vs 9)

• He affirms (vs 8)

• He sings (vs 8)

• He preaches (vs 5&11)

• He remembers (vs 4)

• He thirsts (vs 1-2).

SERMON BODY:

Ill:

• A little boy watched as his mother gently rubbed cream all over her face.

• He then asked his mum the question, “Why are you rubbing cold cream on your face?”

• His mother replied, “To make myself beautiful,”

• A few minutes later, she began removing the cream with a tissue.

• The boy looked at her and said, “What’s the matter? Are you giving up?”

• TRANSITION: When it comes to life,

• Many people feel like giving up!

• Life is meant to be beautiful but for many it is miserable and sad.

One insight that jumps out of this psalm is that the writer had depression!

• He is downcast, disillusioned, and very depressed.

• Depression is not a new thing,

• It has troubled people everywhere, and in every age,

• And today, depression is a mental illness that affects around one in four people,

• It may not be as severe in each person,

• But it can still cause many people to be disheartened and down.

Note:

• If you suffer from depression, then you are in very good company!

• Throughout history many deeply spiritual men and women have experienced depression:

• i.e. Charles Spurgeon, one of Britain’s greatest preachers,

• Was immobilized for weeks at a time by depression.

• In a biography of the "prince of preachers", Arnold Dallimore wrote,

"What he suffered in those times of darkness we may not know...

even his desperate calling on God brought no relief.

'There are dungeons', he said, 'beneath the castles of despair.'"

Other well-known Christians who suffered depression include:

• Martin Luther; John Calvin; John Wesley; William Cowper; Emily Dickinson,

• Sir Isaac Newton; Florence Nightingale and C.S. Lewis,

• And those are just a few, the list could easily go on and on and on!

• And when you look into the pages of the Bible,

• We will come across well-known names of those who suffered with depression.

• Abraham, King David, Job, Jonah, Elijah, Jeremiah, Moses. John the Baptist.

• Once again, the list goes on and on and on!

• TRANSITION: throughout Christian history,

• Many deeply spiritual men and women have experienced depression.

Question: Can anything good come out of these dark times of depression?

Answer: is yes!

• God can use all our experiences in life – including those dark times.

• To teach us and to use those experiences to shape our character,

• And make us some help to others who are going through similar experiences.

Ill:

• How a pearl is formed.

• YouTube: https://youtu.be/934totJgo_U

Quote: Stephan Hoell

“A pearl is a beautiful thing that is produced by an injured life. It is the tear (that results) from the injury of the oyster

<video called it the: ‘Peral sack around the disturbance’>.

The treasure of our being in this world is also produced by an injured life. If we had not been wounded, if we had not been injured, then we will not produce the pearl.”

• TRANSITION:

• God can use all our experiences in life,

• To teach us and refine us and through them shape our character,

• And make us some help to others who are going through similar experiences.

Now, the reasons for depression can be many and varied,

• There is no one diagnosis that fits every person,

• People are unique and they may share common symptoms with others,

• But there is no one cure for every person.

• This sermon is not going to claim to be the remedy for depression,

• What it will do is give some good principles that will help when we are down.

• It will remind us that God can use our difficult times, our tears,

• To produce something beautiful from our pain.

NOW DEPRESSION IS A KEY THEME IS PSALM (#42):

• One reason for writing a song is to tell others exactly how we feel.

• Songs are poems set to music,

• That express our feelings, our moods, our emotions.

• Songs are written from then heart and not just the mind.

• And that is why we so easily identify with them.

• Although the writer of this psalm is not named,

• Later tradition attributes it to ‘A maskil (scholar) of the Sons of Korah.’

• “Sons” can also mean descendants as well as a biological son.

• We may not know the name of this scholar,