"O Lord, the God who saves me, day and night I cry before you…
The darkness is my closest friend."
Psalm 88:1,18
Many people struggle with depression. Sometimes, it lasts a few hours. Other times, it lingers for several days or weeks.
When the shadows creep in, and the darkness threatens to overtake my mind, I turn to one of the bleakest chapters in the Bible, Psalm 88. It might sound odd to find encouragement in a psalm that, on the surface, seems so discouraging.
But think about this:
In His infinite wisdom, the Lord included this psalm in His Word, demonstrating His deep love and concern for the depressed.
And in the poetic verses of Psalm 88, we’re reassured that there’s at least one person who knows how we feel: the author, Heman the Ezrahite.
Heman was a man of deep faith and wisdom (1 Kings 4:31). He led worship in the house of God (1 Chronicles 6:33). In other words, this guy was no spiritual slouch.
Yet, he finds himself in the pit of depression. Heman’s troubles have piled up like bricks, building a wall of despair around him (verse 3). His world has become as dark as the gloomiest dungeon. And the Lord? Well, it seems that He’s nowhere to be found.
Have you ever felt this way?
It’s been said that the Psalms show us what it looks like to praise in "the presence and absence of God." At a time when it feels like God is distant and unresponsive (verse 14), Heman composes a worship song. While it’s not a cheerful song of worship, it’s a worship song, nonetheless. Each of the psalm’s eighteen verses is aimed at the "God who saves" (verse 1) and reminds us that the Lord is big enough to handle our raw, heartfelt cries.
Yet, when we’re depressed, it feels as if the Lord doesn’t hear our desperate pleas. Thankfully, Psalm 88 affirms that this is just not a reality.
Ligon Duncan explains, "Imagine being able to speak to Heman the Ezrahite and telling him that his lament is part of Scripture, preserved for thousands of years in God’s Word so that other followers of the Lord might know how to bare their soul to God. What might Heman realize? He would realize that the Lord did hear him! The Lord not only heard these words, but He also inspired them so that other Christians might sing them in the coming ages to express their own sorrow to God."
Though it might appear to the contrary, the Lord does indeed hear our songs in the darkest night. His deliverance, however, might not come exactly when or how we’d like, but it always comes.
Until His light breaks through, we must follow Heman’s example. Notice he did not allow depression to drive him away from the Lord, but towards Him.
Author Randy Alcorn counsels, "Don’t wait till the depression passes to seek God. He’s not waiting for you to come out of it before walking with you, but He’s eager to walk with you in the midst of it."
Remember, we have a far better picture of the God who walks with us than Heman ever did, for we live on the other side of the old, rugged cross and empty tomb.
Jesus, the full manifestation of the "God who saves" (verse 1), has promised to "never leave us, nor forsake us" and to walk with us through "the valley of the shadow of death" (Hebrews 13:6, Psalm 23:4).
The One who overcame the darkness of Gethsemane and Golgotha has met me in my depression.
I pray that He will meet you too.
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