Sing! Fight!

"The LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime; and His song will be with me in the night, a prayer to the God of my life."
Psalm 42:8

Spiritual depression is a war. Though we are told many times in the Bible to wait for God (e.g. Psalm 130:5), we are not to be idle in the meantime. I used to think that my Christian walk could be put on hold while I was depressed. I wanted to close my eyes, grit my teeth, and wait for the whole thing to end. But that is not what the Bible teaches. We are supposed to fight. If you are suffering from doubts and/or spiritual deadness, don't throw your hands up in the air. God has gifted us with spiritual weapons. There are several that can be named, but I want to focus on one in particular: singing. Yes, you read that right.

Psalm 42 is one of the depression psalms. We don't know exactly what situation the psalmist was in, but we can tell that he felt the awful absence of God's presence. In verses 1 and 2 he likened the experience to dying of thirst. The Lord had given him a heart of flesh (Ezek. 36:26) that was designed to desire God. Without the sustenance of God's communion the psalmist had begun to wither. Yet despite his suffering he was not inactive. Not only did he pray, but he prayed with a song.

In the middle of a plane flight the other day, a wave of depression hit me. Providentially, I happened to have a hymnal in my carry on. I cracked that open and started reading. If I came upon a hymn I was familiar with I sang it quietly to myself. When I had read that for a while I got my Bible out and started reading the Psalms. It was hard, but it worked. The depression lifted. I had won my spiritual battle.

In the past, I ran from such battles through sleep. The world was too painful and so I resolved to get out of the world. I do not recommend this at all. I am now resolved to never let my depression best me. This is a war and I intend to fight.

For Christ,
Daniel