Depression

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. So the series we've been in is called Jesus, I Have My Doubts. And often Christian Church Sunday morning is kind of a... It's just all about motivational speaking to whip up the sentiments of people, to be excited about being a Christian for one more week, to give more, to be more, to do more, and especially to give more to the church. And I'm not always sure if that, the message that comes across, I love having it up in prayer and worship and the message, but I'm not sure if that doesn't communicate subtly that you never can be, or should never have, any doubts at all, any weaknesses of any type, any questions that if you're facing anxiety or worry or depression or sadness or grief, well, don't talk about it. And if you do, just expect kind of people to say, well, nothing much and just walk away. Or to say, well, maybe you need to pray about that more. Somehow you must not have a strong enough faith if you're not always up, positive, confessing the right things, have this understanding. And so kind of almost a Sunday morning becomes a believe in believism. Believing in believing, having faith in your own faith. Faith is not in itself. Faith, according to the scriptures, is always trust in God. And sometimes, sometimes, and for long periods of time, sometimes God does not seem present, but absent. So today we are going to be in a message that's going to be a little down at the beginning. Sorry. We're looking at one of the darkest Psalms in all of the Psalter. There's 150, and there's two Psalms particularly that end on a very down note, with not much hope in them at all. And I've never preached on one of these before. No, have you? We don't even read these two too often because they're kind of like, oh my gosh, it ends. So Psalm 39 and Psalm 88, today we're looking at Psalm 88. And we're meeting a man named Haman, H-E-M-A-N, and not the same one that's in the book of Esther. But Haman, who is a musician and a poet with the sons of Korah, and he writes this Psalm, 88 himself, and he is experiencing both objectively on the outside, exteriorly, and subjectively on the inside, what we'd probably today call depression. He calls it darkness. And that's kind of the topic. The last word of the Psalm in the Hebrew is the word darkness. It's the word that comes up quite often. We're going to read that Psalm today, and then we're going to talk about it under four points. But let's read Psalm 88 to start with. O Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you. Let my prayer come before you, incline your ear to my cry. For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol. I am counted among those who go down to the pit. I am a man who has no strength. Like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand. You've put me in the depths of the pit, in the region dark and deep. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. You have caused my companions to shun me. You have made me a horror to them. I'm shut in so that I cannot escape. My eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day shall I call upon you, O Lord. I spread out my hands to you. Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah. Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon? Are your wonders known in the darkness? Are your righteousness in the land of the forgetfulness? But I, O Lord, cry to you. In the morning, my prayer comes before you. O Lord, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me? Afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I have suffered your terrors. I'm helpless. Your wrath has swept over me. Your dreadful assaults destroy me. They surround me like a flood all day long. They close in on me together. You've caused my beloved and my friend to shun me. My companions have become darkness. Wow. Darkness is the theme in this psalm. And you might go like, why in the world is this in the Bible? Why would it be in the Bible? Wouldn't the edit, you know, the psalms were edited by somebody. Somebody collected the 150 psalms together. And why would this one have stuck? Okay. You kind of wonder that. We're going to listen. I think there's a good reason for things like this to be in the Bible. We're going to look at this under four points today. I know four points. Four faster points than normal. First of all, people of faith can be in darkness for a long time. Secondly, darkness is a great place to learn of God's grace. Thirdly, darkness weans us from a false faith. And fourthly, darkness, though it feels final, is not the last word. Now, the first point is going to be a little dark, a little down. And that is, people of faith can be in darkness for a long time. And people of faith, Haman was a perso...