Come back to Psalm 119. I titled this message, Hope for
the Depressed. Hope for the Depressed. In verse 50, this is my comfort
in my affliction. That word afflicted means depressed. in my depression. In my depression. David seemed to, David seemed
to have a problem with that. Even when you read the Psalms.
And I know this, everyone has their time of depression. Melancholy. Some more than others. Cast down. Listen to what David says in
Psalm 43, five. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? And the translation of that is,
why art thou depressed? Why are you so depressed? That's
what he's saying. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? And why art thou disquieted? That word disquieted means great
tumult going on inside of him. There was a great tumult. It
means a loud sound. He was just a war. A war was
going on inside of him. Every believer knows something
about this warfare. Why art thou cast down on my
soul? And why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope in God. Hope in God. For I shall yet praise him. However dark it may look right
now, I have his word. I have his promises, I have him.
I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance,
my face, and my God. As I said, we all get this way
at times, some more than others. From time to time, I get down.
I get down. I've never been deeply depressed. I have some people that I know,
some friends of mine, pastors that have experienced this, deep
depression. I've never experienced it. I've
seen it. I've seen it. It's very real.
It's very real. This usually comes, it usually
comes to believers, and I've thought about this in writing
this. I didn't just write these things down. When our soul is cast down, we
feel depressed. It usually comes from too much
world, too much indwelling sin, too much unbelief, and not enough
time spent in reading God's word and seeking his fellowship and
prayer. That's what it usually comes
from. The very mother sin of depression is unbelief. It's unbelief, not belief in
God. Now this world is depressing,
I'll give you that. It'll drag you down if that's
all you have. If all you have is the world,
it'll drag you to the ground. But if you noticed in Psalm 43,
5, as I read it, David's cure was this, hope thou
in God, hope thou in God. Paul wrote in Colossians 3 to
set your affection as your mind on things above, not on things
of the earth. I believe every time I've ever
been cast down, my mind has been on the things of this earth,
something going on around me. Depression has a lot to do with
what your mind is set on. I know there is such a thing
as chemical imbalance. I know that there is such a thing,
but not as much as the medical world would have us believe.
I don't think. Now we see in this Psalm where
we find real comfort in times of affliction or depression. We are cast down. Our soul is
cast down. Well, first it starts with faith.
It starts with believing God. David believed God. That's why
he said, hope in God. That's why he said that he believed
God. He took God at his word. You
know, this is not just another book. This is not just a bunch
of words written on, on pages that make up the Bible. This
is God's word. This is God speaking to us through
his word, by his spirit. This is how God speaks to us. And so David, he took God at
his word. You know, God, David said in one place, God is made
with me and everlasting covenant ordered in all things insure.
This gave him hope. Now, I think this is part of
what he's speaking about when he says, remember the word unto
thy servant, the word of promise. This is the word of that covenant
that you gave to me. Fulfill it. That's what he said. Fulfill it. He took God at His
Word and He took the Word of God to God in prayer, knowing
that God would be good for His promises. God's good for His
promises. God gives His Word, He keeps
His Word. He keeps His promise. Unbelief,
as I said, is the root cause of all depression. We don't believe
God. There's comfort in God's Word
if you believe Him. If you really believe him, there's
great comfort. And no matter what the situation
is, it doesn't matter. Whatever it is, his word, his word and the living word,
which is Christ, which can't be separated from the written
word will carry you through, give you hope. Now, verse 49, I'm going to go
through 49 through 56, Lord Willie Davis says, remember, the word,
that covenant of promise, or maybe the Lord gave him a special
promise in this situation. But remember the word unto thy
servant, upon which thou has caused me to hope. Spurgeon said
that David was speaking as a man here. I'm glad he was speaking
as a man and not as a theologian. That's the thing. One of the
things I really like about the Psalms is David pours out his
heart before God as a man, as a sinner in need of mercy. I
love that about the Psalms. You know, when I need to really
to read something that picked me up, I can just go to the Psalms
because I can identify with David's writings. We know this. He says here, remember
the word of thy servant. We know that God never forgets
anything but our sins. He never forgets anything but
our sins, which he said he remembered no more. He remembers our sins
no more. And that alone ought to give
us great comfort that God does not remember my sins and your
sins. It's also good to ask God to
fulfill a promise that he's given to you. Come unto me, all you
that labor and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Lord, I come.
I come. Lord, fulfill this word to me.
Give me rest. Come to him on his promise. Give
me rest. Remember the word. God has given
us many promises in his word, in his gospel. Promises like
rest, Pardon, forgiveness, cleansing. I can go on and on with the promises
God has given to us. You would think you and I would
know these promises by heart, because we need every one of
them. We need every one of them, every promise. Let's take these
promises to the throne of grace. Charles Spurgeon said one time,
it's like taking a check to the bank and getting it cashed. But he's also saying this, make
me remember. Make me remember, bring your
word to my mind that gives comfort. When I'm down and I'm depressed,
bring your word to my mind. Lift me up by your word. Make
me to remember this, all things are of God. Scriptures like that,
make me to remember these things. Apply them to my heart, quicken
me with thy word. And David found hope in his affliction
through the word or through the gospel. He believed
the same gospel we believe. David believed the gospel, same
gospel we believe. He believed on the same Lord
we believe on. He trusted the same Lord we trust. The Lord
said unto my Lord, said at my right hand, till I make thy enemies
thy footstool. David said that. But notice here,
he says, he found hope in his afflictions through the word
of God, because he says, upon which thou has caused me to hope.
Remember, thy word is thy servant upon which thou has caused me
to hope. You know, the gospel of God is
the foundation of faith and hope is the foundation. If you take
away the word of God, take this away. You have no reason for
faith and you have no reason for hope. But here's the foundation
of the Word of God. I'll give you an example. Why
do you expect to be with the Lord when you die? Why do you
expect that? It's because you've straightened
up. You and I ain't straightened up nearly as much as we think
we have. It's not because of that, it's because of his word.
He said, whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall
be saved. That's exactly why I expect to be with the Lord.
I've called on his name. And I call on his name daily,
daily. Now, our Lord said this, he that
believes in me shall never die. He shall never die. You believe
that? He said that. He said, believest thou this?
You believe that? It's his word. I expect to be
with the Lord based on his word." And notice here how David does
not take credit for his hope in God's word. He says here,
he gives the glory of his faith and hope to God alone. He said,
who caused him to hope. He said, you caused me to hope.
You gave me your word. You quickened me. You caused
me to hope. He doesn't take that glory. He
doesn't say, Lord, I hope in your word. No, he said, you caused
me to hope. He's giving God the glory for
his salvation, for his quickening. And then he says here in verse
50, this is my comfort in my depression,
when I am depressed, in my affliction, whatever that is. whatever that
affliction is. Here's my comfort in my affliction. Thy word has quickened me. Your
word has quickened me, has given me hope in these situations. Your word has come to me. The
Holy Spirit has taken the word and applied it in power, and
it's quickened me. It's enlivened me. It's given
me life. It's revived me. It's another
word for that. It has revived me. In the midst
of my depression, your word has revived me. You see, the word
of God has a quickening power. It astounds me how people can
stay away from the word. From the preaching of the word,
from the reading of the word, how do you stay away from the
word? I tell you what, if you do, you
ought to be depressed. I ought to be depressed if I
stay away from it. I ought to be. I ought to be. There's so much comfort
in God's word. This is my comfort in affliction. Without word, it's quicken me.
His word works effectually in the heart where it resides. What
Paul said, Paul said, his word works effectually in you at all
times when you don't even know it. When you're so cashed down,
you can't look up. His word is working effectually
in you. It's keeping you from going to
despair. It doesn't let you go to despair. When the gospel comes in power,
it's transforming. Look over in the first Thessalonians. We're in first Thessalonians.
Look at this. He says in verse 4, knowing brethren,
beloved, your election of God, God chose you. Excuse me for
my coffee. Knowing brethren, beloved, your
election of God for our gospel came not unto you in word only.
But in power, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in
much assurance. as you know what manner of men we were among you
for your sakes." And look, and you can go ahead and read down
through there what it did for them. They forsook their idols.
And he said, you became examples. We don't even have to talk about
you yet. People tell us about you. The gospel, when it comes
in power, it has a transforming power. It has a lifting power.
He lifted me up from the deep miry clay. He did that through
the gospel. In his deep state of depression,
God's word kept him from sinking into despair. The promises of
God would come into his mind and lift him up. Has it ever
done that for you? It has for me. It has. It's lifted me up. It's kept me from just going
to despair. It has. I thought of this when
I was writing this down. I thought it's the word of God
is like A life jacket on a man who cannot swim. It keeps him
afloat. It just keeps him afloat. The
word of God keeps us afloat. When we cannot bear up a promise,
a word will come to us and it'll carry us through. It'll carry
us through. God's word is a living word.
It's a living word. When I'm cast down, I think of
what I have in Christ, my future is nothing but bright. You can
go over to Revelation, it's what, 21, 22, and you can read your
future. What in the world do we have to be depressed about?
No more sorrow, no more sadness, no more tears, no more death,
no more, no more, no more. That's our future. And I have learned this from
experience. I've learned this from the word
of God, and I've learned this from experience. Whatever befalls
me, it's just for a little while. It's just for a little while.
You just gotta go through it. When you go through the water,
you're going through it. When you go through it, but now
there's the other side. There's an end to it. You're
coming out of it. And that's so comforting to me. He said,
when you go through the water, I'll go with you. It won't drown
you. It won't drown you. The Red Sea
didn't drown one Israelite. It drowned every one of those
Egyptians. It never drowned an Israelite. It won't drown you,
he said. Oh, this is my comfort in my
depression. Thy word has quickened me, has
quickened me, revived me. And I think of Christ the living
word. And you have, he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sin. He's quickened us together with Christ, it says. We've been
quickened in the Lord Jesus Christ and the Christ takes his word
and he quickens us. He revives us over and over.
How many times has he done that since we believed? How many times? You can't count. You can't count. Here's a question. What is your
comfort? What is your comfort? Charles
Spurgeon wrote this. The whirling clutches his money
bag and says, this is my comfort. The spin thrift points to his
gaiety and shouts, this is my comfort. The drunkard lifts his
glass and sings, this is my comfort. But the man whose hope comes
from God feels the life-giving power of the word of the Lord,
and he testifies, this is my comfort. is my comfort. Lord, your word
is my comfort. All I need is your word. Just
give me your word. That's all I need. Where are you going to
fetch comfort from in sickness? When you're sick? Where are you
going to fetch comfort from when you and I come up to die? Then we got to do it. You're
either going to bury me or I'm going to bury you. One of us. It's going to happen. Turn over
to first Thessalonians again. First Thessalonians chapter. Chapter four, look at verse 13. But I would not have you to be
ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, not dead,
nor asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no
hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even
so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For
this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are
alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent
them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and
with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall
we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another
with these words. That's one of my favorite passages
to read and to breathe from at a funeral because he says, comfort
one another, exhort one another with these words, with these
words, not my words, his words, God's word, the word of God,
comfort one another. Those that are asleep, he says,
God's going to bring with him And if we are alive and remain,
we're going to be caught up together with them in the air, and we
shall forever be with the Lord. Now comfort one another with
these words. Now in verse 51, the proud, and
this applies to thy Lord, the proud have had me greatly in
derision, yet have I not declined from thy law. Christ was tempted
in all points as we are, yet without sin. They said, he believed
in God, let's see if God will have him. He was reviled and
he threatened not, yet he never, listen, he never declined from
keeping God's law. He never declined from keeping
one jot or one tittle of God's law, not one time. Our Lord said
this, in this world you shall have tribulation, but be of good
cheer, I have overcome the world. I've said this to you different
times, but it'll always be hard living right in a wrong world.
It always will be. There'll always be trouble. There'll
always be trouble. Being a friend of God and a friend
of the world never go together. It never goes together. We can
be friendly. We can be friendly with the world.
I'm friendly with everyone I meet. But they're not my friends. They're
not somebody that I'm gonna run around with. It just ain't gonna
happen. You're my friends. You know what
the Lord said? He said, you're my friends. The Lord said to
his disciples, you're my friends. You're my friends. I tell you
what, I could know a little bit about this by experience. Running
around with them old ones, they make you depressed. It gets depressing,
because it's just like a fish out of water. It's like a fish
out of water. You're just out of place. But what he's saying here, listen,
he said, the proud have had me greatly in derision. They've
mocked me. They have slandered me. But I
have not declined from following you, Lord. I have not declined
from the gospel. Not declined. What did Paul tell
Timothy? He said, Timothy, Be not ashamed of the gospel,
nor of me his prisoner. Don't you be ashamed. Don't you
be ashamed. Because not all stay faithful,
because Paul said there in 2 Timothy, we saw this last week. This thou
knowest that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me,
of whom is Phagellus and Hermogenes. They've left me. They've left
me. But by his grace, I and you have
not left. I told Henry, not too long before
the Lord took him home, I said, Henry, one of the great comforts
that I have is 40 years, 45 some years have gone by and we are
still here. And I don't mean still here on
this earth. We are still here to service. We are still preaching
the gospel. We still love to sing the songs.
We still believe God. You are still here. Brother,
that's, what a blessing. What a blessing. By God's grace, we've not left.
You know, back when this church split, people were saying all
kinds of things about you. But you didn't leave the gospel,
did you? You're still here. God kept you. Kept by the power
of God through faith. Believe Him. And he says here,
and David takes comfort in this, I remembered thy judgments of
old. See, sometimes it's good when
you can't see forward, look backwards. When you can't see the hand of
God at work, even at present, look at what He has done, because
as He is, so shall He be. God changes not. I am the Lord,
I change not. And He says, I remember thy judgments
of old, and I take comfort in this. He asked God to remember, now
He remembers. God's making Him remember. This
is one of the ways we find encouragement is remembering God's judgments
from the past. They reveal His power to deliver. He remembers God's judgment on
Egypt, drowning them in that sea and delivering Israel safe
on dry ground. He remembers that. He remembers
the flood. He remembers that God drowned
this whole world, but there's an ark floating on top of that
flood, taking God's wrath while those inside are safe. The ark took that wrath. The
ark took the beating of those waves. Noah and them didn't. They was in safe inside. Safe
inside. But David's remembering God's
judgments. He said, I take comfort in your
judgments. In one place he said, your judgments
are right. They're right. God will do right.
Abraham said the judge of the earth will do right. However cast down I may be, however
I may be had in derision, God's judgments will sooner or later
fall. We don't rejoice in the fall
of the wicked, but we rejoice in the fact that God says things
right. He says things right. He says in verse 53, horror has
taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.
Horror, indignation, or anger. Anger has taken hold upon me
because of the wicked that forsake thy law. It's offensive. It's
offensive to watch the wicked men and women, listen, trample
on God's word. You know, you say, we look at
this and we say, horror, anger is taking hold up on me because
of the wicked that forsake thy law. You know, we're thinking
of a bunch of drunks going out there, you know, somebody going
out there and just carrying on like an idiot. It's those who forsake
the gospel and preach another gospel. He said, that makes me angry.
They've taken the gospel and they've twisted it. And they're
making it say what it's not saying. It's not saying that. They're
lying on God. Doesn't that make you angry?
They're lying on God. And he says, that just, he said,
that makes me angry. Horror. Horror. I'll tell you this too. It is,
this is so too. It's horrifying to look at the
wickedness of this world where there's no fear of God. If that's,
you know, if you just look at the world, you look at the world
right now, is it not a mess? Is it not horrifying? I thought,
I think this, I think this is so. I think this right now, the
day we live in, is a repeat of Genesis. When God looked down
from heaven and every imagination of man's heart was evil and that
continually. I think we're in that time. I
know it's always been like that, but my soul, There's not only no fear, there's
not even a wrong fear of God anymore. I mean, there's just
no fear, zero. And that's the fault of that
is straight from the pulpit. God loves you. God loves you
so much. He wants to save you. He that
believes not the wrath of God abides on him. That's what those
that's what rebels are to be told. You remove fear when you're
constantly saying God loves you and he wants to save you. Here's
the truth. You who believe, God loves you.
God loves you in Christ. He loves you with an everlasting
love. But if you don't believe, God's wrath abides on you. God's
wrath abides on you. That's the truth. That's the
truth. He says in verse 54, thy statutes
have been my songs in the house. And that word house can also
mean family. In the family of my pilgrimage,
your family, what do we sing? We sing praises unto the Lord.
We sing, we sing about his statutes. We sing about his grace. We sing
about his mercy, his blood. We sing. In the house of my temporary
abode, Amid this evil world, even that evil that's within
me, God's statues, God's gospel has been my song as I pilgrim
through this world. What's your song? What's the
song of your heart? What is it really? You and I are bombarded with
so many songs. I mean, you're just, it's mind-blowing
what we're bombarded with. But he says, thy statues, they're
my songs. I sing of the Lord. All these
psalms, I mean, all these psalms he wrote and put to music. David
did this. And then I wrote in verse 55,
night thoughts. You ever have night thoughts?
Totally different than night sweats. Been a little funny there. But night thoughts. I was just
trying to see if you listened to me. In verse 55, I have remembered
thy name, O Lord, in the night, and have kept thy law. This is
beautiful. I know this one. Most of the
time, my best thoughts in meditation is when the Lord wakes me up.
And I've come to realize that I used to think I'd just wake
up and this is what I'm thinking about. I don't think like that
now. I think the Lord wakes me up.
Because when I wake up and a scripture's on my mind, and it's just rolling. I mean, I'm not trying to think,
but it's just like a river rolling. It's just one thought after another,
one scripture after another coming together. It's like scripture
interpreting scripture, and it's just rolling. Those are night
thoughts. When I wake up in the night,
two o'clock, three o'clock, four o'clock in the morning, and I'm
thinking upon the Lord. I'm thinking upon, I have remembered
thy name, O Lord, in the night, when all is quiet. I'm thinking
upon your name. I'm thinking upon Jehovah Jireh,
the Lord shall provide. When things look a little tight,
the pocketbook's a little tight, I think upon Jehovah Jireh, the
Lord will provide. When I'm sick, Whether emotionally,
you know, depressed or physically when I'm sick, I think upon Jehovah
Rapha, the Lord who heals. The Lord can heal me. If you
will, Lord, you can heal me if you will. I know you can. If
you will, it's not never a matter of power. It's a matter of will. And when I'm restless, my soul's
trouble. I think up on Jehovah Shalem,
the Lord who is peace. He's my peace. Peace with God. Those are night thoughts, night
thoughts. When I feel guilty, you ever
feel guilty? If God saved you, you know what
that feels like. Guilt. There's nothing like guilt. That's why you have so many therapists.
That's why the therapist's offices are full. Guilt. If you can get
rid of guilt, You can probably put them out of business. When my soul is guilty and I
feel the guilt of sin, I think of Jehovah Sid Canoe, the Lord
our righteousness. I can go on with that. I started
to write a whole list of that out and just make the message
out of that. One of these days, Lord willing, we're just going
to do a series on the names of God and how they apply to us. And last of all, verse 56, this
I had, this I had because I kept thy precepts. Now I know our
Lord did this. He kept every one of them. Our
Lord Jesus Christ, He kept every jot and tittle. But this comfort
I had because I kept, now look that word up, kept. That word
means guarded. Garden That's what Paul told
Timothy Keep that which God has I'm gonna paraphrase keep that
which God has entrusted to you You keep it you guard it You
know, we we keep the gospel here don't we keep the gospel We keep
to the Word of God We stay with the Word of God. We keep we keep
it and we preach it as it is We don't put we're not we don't
take the edge off of it trying to fill the pews up We keep the Word of God. This
I had, this comfort I had because I kept Thy Word. This comfort
I had because I have kept Thy Word, not perfectly, but by Thy
Word I've hid it in my heart and I've kept it. I've kept it. And David goes back to the root
of his comfort. That's God's word, his precepts. But Spurgeon
said this, and I'm going to close with this. We are not rewarded for our works,
but there is reward in them. There's reward in them, comfort,
peace. Nobody's going to have comfort
and real comfort and peace that living like a rebel. That's contrary
to God's word. I'm not going to do it. I have to, I was going to close
with that, but I have to go. Let me step back to the first
55. I mean, I just going to read you a quote from somebody. I
overlooked it. I wanted to read it. One, one
writer said this, if we don't remember his name in the night, we won't walk with him in the
day. I thought that was good. When we lay down at night, if
we can't remember him in the night season, we won't walk with
him when we get up in the morning. All right.