Have you ever found yourself feeling down? Of course you have. Maybe you don’t know why you’re down. Maybe it snuck up on you and you feel bound to this feeling and can’t seem to shake it. You wonder where God is, why do you feel this way, how do you escape this darkness that seems to be closing in like a prison?
Paul and Silas understood this. They were in a physical prison and had been beaten and thrown in there for doing the right thing. What was their reaction? At midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed (Acts 16:25-26 KJV).
Yes they were down, but they were not out. They knew how to break the chains of depression that may have gripped their souls. They began to sing praises to God. Now they may not have expected the outcome that happened, but I’m sure they expected God to show up. Because they knew that God inhabits the praises (Psalm 22:3) of His people. They decided to put on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness (Isaiah 61:3 KJV).
The psalmist also understood this feeling of despair.
Psalm 42:1-11 ISV
1 As an antelope pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When may I come and appear in God’s presence?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, while people keep asking me all day long, “Where is your God?”
4 These things I will recall as I pour out my troubles within me: I used to go with the crowd in a procession to the house of God, accompanied with shouts of joy and thanksgiving.
5 Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for once again I will praise him, since his presence saves me.
6 My God, my soul feels depressed within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan, from the heights of Hermon, even from the foothills.
7 Deep waters call out to what is deeper still; at the roar of your waterfalls all your breakers and your waves swirled over me.
8 By day the LORD will command his gracious love, and by night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I will ask God, my Rock, “Why have you forsaken me? Why do I go around mourning under the enemy’s oppression?”
10 Like the shattering of my bones are the taunts of my oppressors, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
11 Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for once again I will praise him, since his presence saves me and he is my God.
When you read through this you see that they were thirsting for God, they wanted to be in God’s presence, they could not eat for their tears that prevented them, they wondered at the question of those around them of where God was. One can surmise that this question was presented in the aspect of why are you going through this if God is with you. It seems almost out of desperation that he cries out Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for once again I will praise him, since his presence saves me. He mentions the depression of his soul, but declares because of it he will remember God. He reiterates his despair while declaring God’s gracious love. He culminates the psalm and his cry of despair with this statement: Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for once again I will praise him, since his presence saves me and he is my God. He questions his soul again as to why it feels this way. He declares to hope in God, he declares that he will praise, he declares that it is God’s presence that saves him and finally that He is my God! He was lifting God up and also lifting himself out of the very despair that tried to hold him prisoner.
So follow the pattern here. If you are in despair, depressed and disgusted, praise God. Declare His goodness, mercy and grace. Lift up His name and be lifted from your despair.
Psalm 34:17-18 NHEB 17 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. 18 The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves those who have a crushed spirit.
Psalm 40:1-3 WEB 1 I waited patiently for Yahweh. He turned to me, and heard my cry. 2 He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet on a rock, and gave me a firm place to stand. 3 He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God. Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in Yahweh.