Experiencing God's Power and PresenceSample

When You Are Depressed

I admit it. I’ve struggled with depression. In light of all the biblical characters who went through deep, dark times of discouragement—David, Jonah, Elijah, Job, Jeremiah, and others—depression ought to be a common topic of discussion among Christians. Unfortunately, it’s often seen as an anomaly. Yet most human beings experience times of stress, fatigue, discouragement, and lack of motivation that lead to a breaking point or deep despair. I went through a long period of feeling numb, exhausted, and uninterested until I finally pulled back, rested, and began to see glimmers of hope. Such experiences are not unusual in a fallen world.

Scripture shows us every season of the soul and the heartfelt cries that come out of them. One of those cries is Psalm 77. It not only reveals human desperation, but also a way out of it. It teaches us how to bounce back when we hardly feel like bouncing at all. God doesn’t offer a magical cure or a one-size-fits-all solution. Depression is complex, and he helps people out of it in different ways. But this psalm offers some principles common to all of them. 

Asaph, the author of this psalm, begins by crying out to God (vv. 1-3). From there, we see an extremely significant progression: from crying out to recalling past blessings (vv. 4-6), then asking God the hard questions (vv. 7-9), choosing to redirect our thoughts (vv. 10-12), choosing to see God as big and problems as small (vv. 13-18), and then trusting God to be our deliverer (vv. 19-20). This perspective-shifting process retrains our brains and our spirits to think and see differently. When we work this thought process into our lives, the depression very often begins to lift.

Depression can feel like a cold, dark tunnel without any light at the end of it. It’s easy for the mind to lean toward how bad things are and to conclude that the future will be more of the same. Only a reorientation from the darkness to light, from current situations to past mercies, from problems to promises can bring us out. Like Asaph, we take a mental time-out and choose different thoughts: “I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds” (v. 12). This willful choice to redirect our thoughts, whether we feel like it or not, shifts our perspective. And darkness begins to give way to light.