Today, we'll be looking at a psalm, Psalm 13, which we already read, Psalm 13, short psalm. Now, this is titled, An Answer to Depression. Now, this doesn't mean that David's depression was exactly like your depression, or that his answers are exactly your answers. That's why I say, An Answer to Depression. But this is David's experience, OK? But we can apply it to ourselves. If you're not thinking about these things, you may be missing the very thing that you need to help you out of depression. So this is something for you to consider if you are depressed. We're going to look at it in more detail. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thanks for this psalm. Thanks that David was honest with you in his prayer, and even so honest that he published this Hebrew poem about his state. And we pray we learn from it. May we benefit from it. May you be glorified in it. And we ask it in the name of your son, amen. So Psalm 13, looking at the Psalm in your bulletin or in your Bible, imagine writing about your depression writing a poem about it, giving it to the choir director, and saying, sing to the people about my depression. Wow. And I'm sure other people have done this in similar things, similar fashion. But there it is for us, recorded thousands of years ago. I don't mean an audio recording, but written thousands of years ago, so we can see it today. And he starts out in verse one. So this song has six verses. You might say, really it has three verses. And we've broken it up into three portions for the outline. I've broken it up. David starts out in verse one. How long, oh Lord, Look at how many times he says, how long? He says it twice in verse one, how long? How long? And then in verse two, he says, how long? He also says, how long again there? So that's four times, but also in verse two, he says, all the day. So it seems like it's a long time and it's all the time. So the first characteristic we see of David's depression, and maybe yours, if you're depressed, or if you ever become or have become depressed, is that the person who is depressed sees no end. He sees no end. There's no light at the end of the tunnel. It's all darkness. How long, oh Lord, How long? How long, he says. Four times he says, how long? How long? And then in the middle of verse one he says, forever. Will you forget me forever? There's no end to it. I don't see an end. Depression sees no end. There's no way out. It won't stop. The next thing that is a characteristic of depression, and what David is doing is he's admitting in prayer to the problem. God, this is the problem. I'm not gonna tell you I'm happy. I'm not gonna tell you I'm joyous. I'm gonna tell you that, well, we'll see what he says, okay? We don't wanna go into the whole chapter at once, The whole book, the whole psalm, let's put that, the whole psalm at once, but he's talking to God in prayer. He's admitting that he's got a problem. And as I said before, he's also then later wrote it down and everyone's singing about David's problem. So he sees no end. And secondly, he admits in his prayer that he sees no good. It's all darkness. There doesn't seem to be any light. See what he says here? First he says, how long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? It seems to David that God has forgotten about David. Isn't this the God who was with David when he threw the stone in his sling and knocked Goliath in the head and down he tumbled. But now he feels like God's gone. Where is God? And the person who's depressed doesn't see any good. He just sees the fact that God seems to be missing. Will you forget me? And the second half of that verse one, how long will you hide your face from me? When the Bible says the face of God is talking about his blessing, okay? When he shines his face on you, okay? God doesn't really have a face. Now, Jesus Christ has a face. So God in Jesus Christ has a face. But spiritually speaking, when it's God's face towards us, that's the blessing, the kindness of God toward us. God's hiding that. It's like the clouds are hiding the sun. So the sun is hidden. The sun represents the light, and the clouds the darkness, right? And God's face that shines is blocked. God's hiding his face. When will I receive goodness from you? I don't see any good. Your face is hidden. There's no good. What is better than God? Nothing. And when God is hidden, then nothing seems good. There's emptiness. It seems like there's no blessing from God. What else? What is David also admitting to in his prayer? What are the characteristics of his depression? He's looking inward. He looks inside and he sees darkness. He sees sorrow. Look at verse two. How long shall I take counsel in my soul? There's another Psalm that talks about depression. where he talks to himself, and he says, Saul? And he tells him to straighten up. Straighten up, Saul. We're not looking at that Psalm right now. So there are times to talk to yourself in a positive way. But in this case, he's only looking inward and seeing sadness. He's looking inward and not in any other direction. How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart all the day?" So it's constant. This is not a moment of sorrow or a short period of sorrow, but it seems like it will be endless and it's constant. Now, your depression may or may not be exactly like that, but this is David's situation. It's constant. And how long? He doesn't see an end to it. It's all day and he has sorrow. And the next thing that David does is he admits in his prayer that he's looking at his present circumstances. So he says, how long will my enemy be exalted over me? So that's what's happening right now. His enemy is exalted over him. He doesn't go into detail. We don't know what occasion this is referring to, at least I don't, and the commentaries don't say this is a specific time. I mean, it could be when he's being chased by Saul, who knows? But his enemy is exalted over him. He is not having success over his enemy. His enemy is having success. He's looking at that circumstance. That's what he sees. He sees what's happening right now. It's not good. So these are the characteristics of depression. Typical. You don't see an end to it. You don't see any good. Everything's bad. You're looking inward. Woe is me. It's constant. There's no relief. And you're looking at your present circumstances. Next we want to see how David takes some first steps out of his depression. So first he's admitting to the problem. Next he begins looking to God. He's not looking at the circumstances. Instead he's looking to God. Verse three, consider and answer me O Lord my God. Notice he says consider. He's saying to God, God, it's up to you to look at my case. I'm petitioning the judge. You're the judge. You're the commander in chief. You are the sovereign creator. Please consider my case. Okay, he recognizes that God's sovereign. God is over these things. So he's turning towards God now. Okay, that's a good thing. He says, consider, okay, and answer me, oh Lord, my God. So he's recognizing God is the one who needs to do something. And he calls on God to rescue him. Call on God to rescue you. He's looking to God. He's calling towards God. Enlighten my eyes. Enlighten my eyes. Calling on God to rescue him. You know, the eye is the window to the soul. And you look in the eye and you see into someone's soul. And someone with bright eyes, you say, ah, I see joy there. Someone with dark, sad eyes, you see the sadness. I mean, you can look at an arm, you don't get much emotion out of it, okay? But you look at the eyes, you see the state, right? You can't look at the elbow and tell something, but you look at the eyes, then you tell. So he says, enlighten my eyes so that when someone looks at me, they can see the shining of the face of God in my face and the joy that I have in you. So enlighten my eyes. So David's calling on God to rescue him. Consider and answer me, O Lord, my God. And see, he's the Lord, he's God. O Lord, that's he's Yahweh, he's Yahweh. The creator God, creator and sustainer of the universe. Enlighten my eyes. And then he acknowledges his dependence on God. He says, enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death. Exactly what he means, I don't know, but he feels like he's going to die. It's that bad. It could be that if he doesn't see a way out of his situation, then his enemy will kill him. Maybe that's it. We don't know. We don't know the details, but whenever you're depressed, you might want to kill yourself. And that could be what he's talking about too. If I don't get out of this deep depression, you can look in my eyes and tell I'm depressed, I'm going to sleep the sleep of death. Whether that's figurative, or I kill myself, or my enemy kills me, whatever the case, You have to enlighten my eyes, God. I can't do it. I'm depressed. There's no way I can do myself. That's why I'm calling on you to rescue me. Otherwise, this is the result. It's up to you, God, to rescue me. So he calls on God to rescue. He's acknowledging his dependence on God. He's acknowledging his dependence on God. Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death, and my enemy will say, et cetera. So he's depending on God. Enlighten my eyes, or. Those are the choices. You enlighten my eyes, or else I'll still be here. Finally, The last of the first steps, okay, are that he gives God in his prayer a spiritual reason or reasons for bringing him out of depression. He says, he doesn't say to God, God, bring me out because I don't like to be sad, you know, but he's saying bring me out for these spiritual reasons, okay? He said, basically in his case, the spiritual reason is the enemy's gonna have victory. If you don't bring me out, then you're giving the enemy victory, a spiritual victory over me. And the enemy can say, pah, I have overcome him. I've overcome David. David could not win against me, even though he has God as his God. You're giving God a spiritual reason to rescue you. What else does David say? And my adversaries will rejoice when I'm shaken. God, you don't want the enemies of David, who's the king, perhaps at this point, or maybe not. certainly the one you've chosen to be king, you don't want the enemy rejoicing over the destruction of your chosen king, oh God. And of course, this won't apply directly to us, but whatever the rejoicing is. You see, in David's case, he being the king, an attack on him is an attack on the nation of Israel. And we have to remember that when we see some of the things David says, okay? But they're gonna rejoice over David's being shaken, and that's a negative in God's reputation, right? And so he's calling on God to rescue him for God's sake, not simply for David's sake. Rescue me for your sake, for your honor. So these, you know, if you want to get out of depression, you need to stop wanting to get out of depression and start wanting God to be honored, okay? See, see what I'm saying here? Tell God, this is how you will be honored when you bring me out of depression. This is what won't happen, this is what will happen. The spiritual reasons for bringing you out. And now, the final steps of coming out of depression. And some say, well, this psalm isn't really about depression. It's about, it's simply about overcoming difficulty. But considering how he introduces it in verses one and two, it seems clear that he's depressed. I mean, we went over the characteristics. He sees no end. He sees no good. He looks inward. It's constant. And he's looking at his circumstances. He's depressed. All right. So finally, the final steps out of depression. At the beginning, you know, He was looking at his circumstances, and he was looking inwardly. The second thing that we saw is that he began to look at God, and now he's going to look from God's perspective. He's going to look from God's perspective. So he's going to be looking from God's perspective, begin looking how God looks at things instead of how man looks at things. So first he says he's going to look at the past. Look at all these past tense verbs here, okay? But first we'll look at the first section, how it was present tense, or how it's forever. You're forgetting me, you're hiding, this is what my enemy's doing to me right now, I'm sad right now, it's gonna go on forever. But now we're gonna look at the past. I have trusted, verse five, I have trusted. He's looking at the past. Look at verse six, the last half, because he has dealt, he has dealt the past. To get out of depression, once we've done the first part, we need to start thinking about the past instead of just the situation right now. Look back, look back. That's gonna encourage you, okay? Look back, look at the past. Also look at the future, look at the future. Verse five, the second half, my heart shall rejoice. It's going to happen. That's what's going to happen. And verse six, the first half, I will sing. That's the future. I will sing. We're looking at the past. We're looking at the future. We're not just looking at the present circumstances. We're not just looking at right now. So we're going to remember about the past, what? that God has blessed you in the past through faith. God is good. We've seen that God is good. In the past, we've seen that God is good. Remind ourselves, in prayer to God, that God is good. Look at the verses, right? I have trusted in your loving kindness. That's what happened in the past, through faith. Trust is faith, okay? I have trusted, I have faith in your loving kindness, in your goodness. God, you're good. I've trusted in that, and it was a good thing to do that, because you are good. You are good. See, you're starting to see some good. Remember, at the beginning, you could see no good. But now you're saying, oh, I see that you are good. I'm looking at the past. You were good. You were good. And in the future, I will sing, I shall rejoice in your salvation. But also, in the past, the last half of verse 6, he has dealt bountifully with me. We'll come to that in a minute. But realize that you will soon be thanking him for bringing you out. Verse five, the second half, he says, my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. That's what I'm going to do pretty soon. I'm going to be out of depression because I'm looking back and I'm seeing that you were good in the past. I trusted in your goodness, your love and kindness. And you did things that were great and good. And so I shall rejoice in your salvation. It's coming. So you're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. You realize that you will soon be thanking him for bringing you out. In fact, you will even be singing about it. And so he wrote this song. And then they all sang about it. Isn't that interesting? I will sing to the Lord. And all these, and the choir, the choir director will lead everyone singing to the Lord. My psalm that I'm writing now about the depression that is past, when he finally wrote this, okay. But I will sing about this. I'll sing to the Lord. I'll be singing about it. I'll be thanking him for bringing me out, rejoicing in God's salvation and singing to the Lord. Why? Because God will answer this prayer. This prayer, and we go through this very quickly today, right? This may take days for the person in depression to sing this song inside their heart until finally they come out. But because God will, this is why he will sing, because God will answer your prayer beyond what you deserve, okay? You can't just say, well, I deserve to be depressed. No, God's going to answer your prayer. That's fine. Yeah, you do deserve it. Okay, you're right. You deserve to be depressed, but God's going to answer your prayer beyond what you deserve. He says, reading the verse, He has dealt bountifully with me. Bountifully means a bounty. It means your cup's overflowing. It means when you go to get your harvest, there's more food than you can possibly give away, okay? It's bountiful, much more than you worked for, much more than you sought for. You're gonna get even more. So when you come out of your depression, you're gonna realize that God did for you way beyond what you could ask or imagine, as the New Testament says, okay? God is able to do for us beyond what we could ask or think, or imagine, some translations put that. And so God will answer your prayer beyond what you deserve. That's why I'm going to be singing, that's why I'm going to be rejoicing, because he has dealt bountifully with me. So there's three phases. in this prayer and in the life of David, admitting to the problem, right? It's a problem. It's not something you want to stay in, and you need to talk to God about it. Stop, and those are some of the things we need to realize aren't appropriate, right? We don't see an end to it. Well, by the end of this prayer, we see an end. We haven't experienced the end, but at least we see it, okay, that it's coming. We see no good at the beginning of this prayer. But at the end, we look back in the past and we say, God is good. We started out. We admit we're looking inward. But finally, we begin and we're looking at circumstances. But finally, we're looking at God. And then we're looking at the past and the future instead of present circumstances. That's the two bookends. But in the middle, what is it? We're recognizing that God's in control. We're calling on God to rescue. We're acknowledging our dependence on him. And we're bringing before God the spiritual reasons for rescuing us. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thanks Lord for this psalm. We thank you that your word says more about depression than just this one psalm. But we thank you for this, which If we remember even some of these ideas, Lord, it can help us when we're having trouble. So, Lord, may you bring by your spirit to remembrance of our minds these things, that we may bring a spiritual fruit to you in our lives by your spirit and by your power. We thank you for it. We thank you, Lord, for what we've studied about the armor of God, and when depression is one of those darts that Satan hurls at us, May we put up the shield of faith that we believe these words, and we believe the words that David penned, and we believe that we can extinguish that dart with faith, the faith in these words, by believing and applying the words of this psalm. And we'll praise you, Lord, as we see ourselves rescued by you, we'll praise you. In Jesus' name, amen.