David’s Depression

King David wrote some pretty awesome music lyrics. He praised God for just about everything! But not everything he wrote was about praise… look at this psalm he wrote:

Psalm 13
For the director of music. A psalm of David.

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Look on me and answer, O Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;

my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

But I trust in your unfailing love;

my heart rejoices in your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord,
for he has been good to me.

Psalm 113:1-6 (NIV)

David writes about having sorrow in his heart and wrestling with his thoughts. This particular Psalm comforted and continues to comfort me when I struggle with a depressive episode. The Bible is not all sunshine and smiles; here is a man who knows what it is to struggle with himself even as outside forces also pressure him. And it’s not merely a descriptive passage; this shows how a Christian can struggle with depression.

David is honest with his emotions. He doesn’t tell himself to cheer up. He doesn’t give any kind of shallow platitudes that it’s all going to be ok. He doesn’t say, “Well, all things will work out for my best” and then act as if everything’s fine. He admits what he is experiencing.

This is a difficult thing for us to do in our culture. We think we need to pretend everything is “just fine.” But by including this psalm in his Word, God tells us to bring our darkness to him. Mark Meynell writes, “God speaks through [the psalms] at the level of giving us words for the times when we lack them. They effectively say, “It is OK to say these things to me.”

Rebecca Reynolds writes,

Instead of just praising God, David took time to explain his fear and sorrow with utter clarity, allowing readers to say, “Oh! Me too!” David showed us that he understood despair and loss, and this helps us trust him when he went on to claim that God had restored his soul. Without his raw insights on suffering and fear, his joy wouldn’t ring as true – the inclusion of both helps us transition from paralysis to praise.

David finds comfort in God’s unfailing love. Even in his pain, he rejoices in God’s salvation. He looks forward to singing to the Lord again, because God has already been good to him. David doesn’t turn to himself or his circumstances for comfort. He looks at what God has already accomplished, and what God has promised to accomplish. For us, we can look back at what God accomplished on the cross, and see that his love has not failed us.

If you struggle with depression, I highly recommend committing this Psalm to memory, bookmarking it in your Bible or phone, and rereading it when you feel down. You are not alone. It’s ok to be honest with your struggle. Your salvation is not your emotions; your salvation is secure in Jesus.

This post is part of a series written by Pastor Luke Italiano. New posts in this series will appear on the Bread for Beggars website each Monday morning.