The Redemptive Aspects Of Depression-Psalms 42 (Part 1)

            Depression in the secular world is considered a disorder and is often treated as a disease, meaning the secular view is that there is no cure for depression, only management.  Depression is something you have to live with, like diabetes.  You have to learn how to live with your disease so you can best manage it.  In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), the following are criterion for clinical depression: 1) depressed mood most of the day 2) a diminished interest or pleasure in daily activities 3) weight loss or gain 4) sleeplessness 5) agitation or restlessness 6) fatigue or energy loss 7) feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt 8) diminished ability to think or concentrate 9) recurring thoughts of death without a specific plan.  According the DSM-IV, if you have five or more of these symptoms, you can be diagnosed as clinically depressed.   The scope of this blog is not to critique the secular world’s view of depression, but rather to show how it has seeped into the church and what has God revealed to us on how to respond to depression.  What I hope to show is that depression, when rightly looked at, causes hunger, thirst and a hope for God.

Psalm 42 and 43 gives us a great picture of a godly response to a person who is downcast.  King David was very aware of pain and sorrow; we see evidence in these Psalms that through David’s pain and sorrow he drew closer to the Lord. My contention is that our pain brings us closer to the Lord.  Since the secular way of dealing with depression has seeped into the church, we have been taught by clinicians to move away from the pain rather than towards it.  I believe the secular clinical side of depression wants to lead us away from pain and the Gospel leads us to our pain because our need for God is made most real in those dark places and we experience the true redemptive love of God.  Let us move to a closer look at Psalm 42.

[42:1] As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. [2] My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? [3] My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”

            We see in verse 1 and 2 our pain and suffering, when rightly looked at, cause hunger and thirst.  This is even spelled out in Matthew 5:6; “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied”.  If we do not trust God, we will tend to run from our pain and suffering and then wonder why we never thirst for God.   There are all kinds of reason why we can be depressed; environment, job loss, relational conflict, loss of loved one, or sometimes you just wake up and gravity seems heavier.  I would like to draw a distinction on depression.  The right biblical view of depression would be walking and enduring suffering and experiencing joy at the same time.  That joy is knowing who you are in Christ, that God is in the middle of your suffering and is holding you and walking with you in the midst of your pain.  The correlation is my pain causes me to need or in this case thirst; now do I go find something else to drink, or do I drink in the living waters of God?  Going someplace else to drink, and that can be literally drinking (alcohol) or some other type of pain reliever which may actually cause a temporary relief of the pain.  Ironically if we do not focus on the suffering and keep running from the pain, it will still be there.  It’s like God wants us to trust him in the midst of our pain.  I believe in adversity, meaning when you are squeezed from the wounds of others or self-inflicted wounds, what you reach for or what you cry for is your gospel that brings you satisfaction.  When you squeeze an orange, what comes out?  Obviously, whatever is on the inside; likewise, when suffering squeezes us, what comes out?  What ever your heart clings to for pain relief. 

It is clear throughout scripture that God does allow adversity but that adversity should build our character and hope.  With more godly character and godly hope, we are in a better place to please God.  We see in Hebrews 11:6, without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever draws near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.  Our faith, given by God, plays a huge part in this paradigm of moving towards our pain rather than away from it.  Romans 14:23 says whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.  God is making it very clear, we must relate to Him with our faith.  Faith is where our concrete existence meets the eternal God.  It is the point of relationship for visible people communing with the invisible God.  In addition, God has perfected our identity through this beautiful exchange at the cross of our Savior, my sin for His righteousness. God has chosen to give me His perfected identity in a fallen body that lives in a fallen world.  I believe this is where God gets most glory, is when a believer is suffering but worships God in the midst of pain and suffering.  The scriptures aren’t clear “why” God lets us suffer, but we know that He gets glory when we choose Him in the midst of pain rather than medicating.   

From Woe to Go- Isaiah 6

One of my favorite scriptures for understanding what transformation looks like when the believer sees God is Isaiah 6:1-8. These versus give us a perfect picture of the believer’s response when God is seen.  God’s grace took Isaiah from “Woe is me!” to “Here I am!” Isaiah had a four-fold experience–conviction that led to a confession that led to his cleansing that led to his commission.  This is how transformation happens—conviction to confession to cleansing to commission.

The moment Isaiah saw God’s holiness (Isaiah 6:1-4), he was convicted.  He said “Woe is me!  For I am lost…”  As when Peter first met Jesus, and he knew it was the Lord, his first reaction was, “depart from me.  I am filthy.” (Luke 5:8) The glory of God reveals your filth, your uncleanness, while at the same time you see God’s love for you.  In addition, when you see God it puts Him as holy Creator and you as creation.  It puts God where He belongs as Creator and us where we belong as creation. The beautiful thing is that God meets you where you are but doesn’t leave you where you are. Isaiah gives us this picture of a man who was in sin, saw God, and was transformed by the glory of God.  We see in verses 1-4 that Isaiah, a sinner and unclean, was able to see God.  He didn’t have to clean himself up beforehand, he didn’t have to sing the right song, or dance the right dance.  He saw the Lord high and lifted up.

The conviction then led Isaiah to the confession, “I am a man of unclean lips.” (Isaiah 6:5)  We see a right lamentation over sin, as David proclaimed in Psalm 51:16-17.  God doesn’t want a work.  He finds pleasure in a broken and contrite heart, a holy agony over sin.  If you mourn over sin your soul is alive.  Scriptures tell us there is a difference between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow (2 Corinthians 7:9-12).  Worldly sorrow is mournful over the result of sin.  Godly sorrow is mournful over sin and this is only achieved through the Holy Spirit.  In this godly sorrow you experience the cleansing power of God through the blood of Christ. 

Isaiah 6:7 demonstrates the cleansing in both expiation and propitiation, “your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”  “Guilt taken away” is expiation; “Your sin atoned for” is propitiation.  Once you embody the forgiveness and redemption of God through the blood of Jesus Christ, it empowers you to the commission, like Isaiah 6:8.  God asked, “Who are we going to send?”  Unlike Moses, who doubted his ability when God commissioned him to His work, Isaiah—without even asking what he was being called to—said, “Here I am!  Send me.” (Isaiah 6:8).

So the cry of “Woe is me” is not shame or condemnation, it is a reverent fear of God that helps you understand how much you need a Savior and how much you need God’s grace.  I also equate “Woe is me” from Isaiah with Romans 7:24-25, “Wretched man that I am.  Who will deliver me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  Seeing God reveals to you how bad you really are and at the same time it lets you see how good God really is.  It lets you see His grace as you transform into His image and likeness.

Gospel Versus Religion

In religion, man holds himself to his own standards. But simply exerting willpower to achieve moral goals leads to self-righteousness. And when we fall short of our standards we become insecure.

Religion says, “I must earn God’s grace by my good works and by my own efforts.”

Gospel says, “I am fully justified before God, and yet I sin. God continues to pour out His grace and that gives me confidence to live out the likeness of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.” (1 Cor. 4:7-18).

Religion says, “When I suffer, my works failed.”

Gospel says, “I can trust God that all things work together for good because I am included in His purpose (Romans 8:28). God is enough in the midst of my suffering.”

Religion says, “I find my own worth in my own morality.”

Gospel says, “My worth is Jesus sent by God through the Holy Spirit.” (Col. 1:27-28).

Religion says, “My obedience gets me accepted.”

Gospel says, “I am accepted by the unconditional love of God so that I can be obedient.” (1 John 5:3).

Religion says, “Sin is a reminder of how bad I am.”

Gospel says, “My sin reminds me of how good God is, by loving me at my worst. When I am at my worst, He is at His best.” (Romans 5:10).

Religion says, “Try to be a better Christian.”

Gospel says, “The blood of Christ made us Christians. It is by no works of our own. Our good or bad behavior does not make us more or less a Christian.” (Rom. 3:21-26). 

Leading With A Limp

In Genesis 3:15, we see the first mention of the atonement where God proclaims of the seed of the woman, “he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” This is a contrast of the Cross of Christ and the suffering of Satan, ordained by God. In other words, Jesus crushed the head of Satan, as Satan bruised Christ’s heel. The bruised heel of Jesus happened at the Cross in contrast to the utter defeat of Satan at the Cross (1 John 3:8).

It says in Hebrews 2:14 that through the Holy Spirit we share in the flesh and blood.  That is, we now share in this same atoning victory, with Christ, of the defeat of the Devil (2 Corinthians 1:7, Romans 8:17). Additionally, we see in Luke 19, “God through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit has given us the authority of treading on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt us.” My point is, we cannot receive more destruction than what happened to Jesus on the Cross, and the bible clearly states that it was a bruised heel. In other words, we are not going to suffer more than what Christ suffered. Although people can hurt our bodies, they cannot touch our souls. A 16th century puritan William Gurnall puts it like this: “ ‘Upon thy belly shalt thou go’ (Genesis 3:14). This prostrate condition of Satan assures believers that the devil can never lift his head – his wily schemes – higher than the saints’ heels. He may make you limp, but cannot take your life. And the bruise which he gives will be rewarded with the breaking of his own head – the utter ruin of him and his cause.”

What an awesome truth! The reward of a bruised heel is a crushed head, and I believe our reward is the comfort of God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 shows us that because we share in the sufferings in Christ, we also share in the comfort of God in the midst of our affliction, trials, and pain. It gives us an imagery of resting in the victory of God. In addition, 2 Corinthians 4:7, shows us that we are “afflicted but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed,” again, showing that us that these are bruised heels. I will never tell someone who is suffering “it will get better” because that means I am saying that God is NOT enough right now in their pain.

I want to be very clear here. I am in no way minimizing someone’s pain. Some of the sins that are committed against the saints are horrific. But we want to maximize the glory of God in the midst of their pain, revealing the bigness of God that outweighs the bigness of their pain.  I believe that God calls us to suffer well, and suffering well is allowing God’s comfort in the midst of our pain and sorrow. In other words, pain and suffering is revealing our need for God in a greater way. We spend a lot of time running away from our sufferings or bruised heels when we need to run to them because that is where we will find God and our dependence on Him is most realized. So that, when we are at our worst, God is at His best.

Who Do You Think You Are?

God deals with Four kinds of people in Romans 2

The Pagan: - Ignoring God. (Romans 2:12-16)

The Pagan person says, “I should be acquitted of my sins on the grounds of ignorance. I don’t know what sin is”.

God says, “I have revealed Myself to you; therefore, there is no excuse available to man”. (Romans 2:12)

The Moralist: - I am not as bad as others (Romans 2:1-11)

The Moral Person says, “I should be acquitted of my sins because I’m not as bad as the rapist, murderers, addicts, or prostitutes”.  

God says, “You’re not the judge”. (Romans 2:1)

The Religious: - My works make me good. (Romans 2:17-29)

The Religious Person says, “I should be acquitted of my sins because I know the law of God and do what is right. I go to church, I tithe, I lead a community group, and I have a great marriage. I don’t need a lot of help.”

God says, “You don’t practice what you preach!” (Romans 2:23)

The Therapeutic: I want to feel good. (Romans 2:12-16)

The Therapeutic Person says ―I should be acquitted of my sins on the grounds that I have had so many sins committed against me and I have suffered greatly for them. So, God is ok with my un-forgiveness for people who sinned against me. “They have become a law to themselves” (v.14) meaning they have defined what is good and evil.

God says, “God will judge the secrets of men by Christ Jesus". (Romans 2:16)

When you look at this list, what is your first reaction? “I’m none of them”? Or “I’m one of them”? I know I do.  The truth is we are all of them.  I believe Paul’s point in Romans 2 is to show us we need a redeemer.  Even as Christians we have some blinds spots, so I hope you can use this list to help reveal some of those blind spots.  Remember it’s NOT about how bad you are; it’s about how good God is.

My Take On Spiritual Warfare Part Two

Last week I blogged about spiritual warfare and today’s blog is an extension of last week’s.  I stated that Satan uses three main devices against us: temptation, deception, and accusation.  These schemes of Satan lean more to how he seduces us.  When we think of Satan’s attack what do we mean?  I hear a lot of people use the word attack (including me) when describing what Satan does to us.  Satan definitely wants destroy us but I would like to explore what attack really means, or explore what Satan can accomplish in his attacks. We see a lot of scripture that says Satan was destroyed through the cross like 1 John 3:8 “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” So if we see Satan lost how can he continue to attack?

The best example I can give on how Satan attacks work on this side of the cross is, if I am sitting in my living room and there is a massive storm outside, a really bad storm where you can hear the rain hitting the roof and the wind is blowing so hard the rain hits the windows.  All the while I am sitting in a comfy recliner next to a toasty warm fire.  Am I experiencing the rain? Or am I cold and wet? No. Even though it’s nasty outside I am cozy inside.  In matter of fact the warmth and protection of my house from the storm outside makes me feel cozier.  You see, Jesus is the house!  We are protected and covered by Jesus!  Although we can hear the temptations, deceptions, and accusations of Satan, it is just like rain hitting the roof, because of the absolute truth that we are in Christ.  I believe sometimes when we believe Satan is bigger than he really is, it is like we put on our rain coat and open our umbrella inside the house to protect ourselves from the rain, when it’s a dry cozy 70 degrees inside our house.

How does this happen? How are we protected from the “attacks” of the enemy? By the Cross! Ephesians gives us this imagery of putting on the whole Armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20), “so you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.”

Belt of Truth: We know that God has given us his Holy Spirit to know his Truth (1 Corinthians 2:6-16), and Truth and Gospel are synonymous, making the belt of Truth the understanding of the work of Christ on the Cross. This is absolute Truth and central to our faith: the Atonement.

Breastplate of Righteousness: We have been made right by God; we have been justified before God. This is, as Luther calls it, “the great exchange.” We give Him our filth; He gives us His righteousness. This happened at the Atonement.

Shoes of Readiness, given by the gospel of peace: We are prepared by the Gospel, given the Truth, through the atoning work of Christ by which we now have peace with God. This gives us a readiness to withstand the schemes of the devil and share the Gospel of peace with others (1 Peter 3:15). The Gospel of piece comes from the Atonement.

Shield of Faith: which extinguishes all of the flaming darts: We know the darts are predominantly the accusation, deception, and temptation of the evil one. Scriptures tell us, “in all circumstances,” take the shield of faith. And where is our faith? That we absolutely stand with Christ, in right relationship to God by the Holy Spirit—again because of the atoning work of Christ. I John 5:1-12 says that our faith is that we have victory. (Please note vv. 4-5)

Helmet of Salvation: Again, this was done by the atoning work of Christ; he has reconciled us back to God. Salvation encompasses everything: that he paid the penalty (penal substitution); he not only paid for our sins but removed them (propitiation/expiation); he has justified us therefore making us right before God and giving us His righteousness (justification); so that we can have peace with God (reconciliation). Christ paid the price (ransom) and redeemed us (redemption).

Sword of the Spirit: This is given to us from Genesis to Revelation, the full story of God. What is the story of God? Christ’s death and resurrection on the cross to bring His people back to himself. The central theme in the bible is the humiliation of our God on the cross to pay man’s debt. 

 

So we see through this, that the armor of God is the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross by the Gospel of Peace, Belt of Truth, Helmet of Salvation, Breastplate of Righteousness, Shield of Faith, and the Word of God. Again, I’m not saying there isn’t anything for us to do. I’m saying that the very thing that saved us, which is the Cross, is the very thing that destroyed the Enemy. And understanding this truth is what sets us free from the “attacks” of Satan.

My Take On Spiritual Warfare

I have been getting slammed by the enemy lately, so I wanted to share what I think spiritual warfare is.  Have you ever been bombarded with lies? Or bombarded with accusation? Or bombarded with temptation?  I believe deception, accusation, and temptation are the three main tools of Satan. Often when we are being attacked we tend to believe we are in the room with Satan alone. Have you ever wondered where God is when you are under the attack? I believe God is right there!  I wonder at times, if we are more enamored by the power of the enemy than the power of the cross.

In Colossians 2:12-15, of which verse 15 says, “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” Also, Jesus says He has “given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.” (Luke 10:17-20)

Humans have always been attracted to the absolute self-sufficiency of God, desiring to be autonomous themselves. Satan uses that very desire to entice man away from God. As we see in Genesis 3:1-7, the first words to man from Satan are “Did God actually say to you, you shall not eat from any tree in the garden?” This says two things: it accuses God of withholding the truth and it tempts the man and woman by appealing to their desires to be entirely self-sufficient. They desired to be their own gods. Satan then uses deceit to promise gain to Eve in her desires of autonomy.

In Genesis 3:6 it says, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” Satan did nothing to Eve as he spoke with her. He merely used Eve’s own desires, “good for food,” “delight to the eyes,” and “to make one wise” to seduce her through his temptation, deceit, and accusation. In the same way, Satan uses these three devices against us. We are not victims under the attack of Satan, but rather participants, as our own evil desires entice us to sin (James 1:14).

Throughout the New Testament, we are repeatedly told that we are in Christ; we are of Christ; we have union with Christ (1 Corinthians 1:30, John 17:20-26). Therefore, we can see that Satan’s attack is on Christ and not on us. In other words, Satan’s lies, accusation and temptations will always be what God didn’t complete in you, or what God hasn’t accomplished through the cross in your life.  That is why the attack is on the character of God and not you and we know Jesus won the battle defeating Satan, sin and death.  We have baptized into His victory, so we are no longer victims of attack. I believe Satan tempts us by appealing to our desire to be god-like and fight a battle that only Jesus could have won.

You can clearly see that, though Satan attacks, you are not subject to the intent of the attack; Satan cannot undo what God has done through the Cross. Therefore, when you as a believer experience the attack of the enemy, it is no longer what the enemy does to you that determines the outcome in your life, but how you respond to the attack. The enemy has no “real” power over you. It is vital to see that there really is a difference between what Satan does to you verses your response to his three main devices of temptation, deception, and accusation.

So for me personally, when I am attacked and I believe Christ is the real victor, now when the  the lies, accusations and temptations come, I am reminded how good God is not how bad I am.   

There is so much more to say about this so I will talk more about it in my next blog and unpack the armor of God in Ephesians 6.  I would love to hear your thoughts of this as well.