“Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will dwell in the shadow of the Almighty.” (Psalm 91:1)
A good friend of mine led me to this Bible verse in a time when I was dwelling too long in the darkness of my mind and not looking to the promise and protection of God. Since then I have used it as a place to start when I am feeling sunk down low and depressed.
It helps me to draw near to God and remember that as long as I live in God’s protection, His light, and His shelter I will rest in His protection, His light, His comfort and His covering for whatever it is I am going through.
In this verse God is referred to as the Most High and this reminds me that He is greater and higher than whatever it is that I’m going through in the moment and when I rest there and stay there I often do find rest and protection there in His shadow.
God is so large and His light consumes the darkness and even His shadow as I think on it would be radiant. So when I think on these things resting in God’s light there isn’t even any room in Him for my darkness.
In the Bible we hear of many people who dwelled in the pit of suffering and depression as we can sometimes experience.
The Bible doesn’t necessarily refer to it as depression but instead uses words like “mourning”, “brokenhearted”, “despairing”, and “troubles”. But these words often carry the message to our hearts of what we are feeling.
David was one of the people in the Bible who went through hard times and difficulties. In the psalms we get a look at David’s closeness to God and we see a man who clinged to the hope and promises of God and God’s deliverance of him in the past, in the middle of his moments of weakness and despair.
“My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.” Ps. 38:4
“Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” Ps. 42:11
In 1 Kings 19:4 Elijah is discouraged and afraid. This is a man who won many spiritual victories and yet he ran for his life from the threat of Jezebel and cried out to God to take his life.
“I have had enough Lord, he said. Take my life, I am not better than my ancestors.”
Then we have Jonah a man called to preach the word of God to a people God believed were in need of His mercy; mercy Jonah wanted to deny them.
Jonah ran from God’s call over His life and spent his time in the belly of a large fish until God caused the great fish to spit him up. But instead of rejoicing at his rescue when the people turned to God Jonah cried out
“Just kill me now, Lord! I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.”
We now move on to Job a man who lost everything: his children, his livelihood, his health, you name it.
In Job 2:9 his wife even told him, “Are you still holding onto your integrity? Curse God and die!”
Job held on and didn’t curse God but he still struggled with the pain.
“Why wasn’t I born dead? Why didn’t I die as I came from the womb?” (Job 3:11)
“I have no peace, no quietness. I have no rest; only trouble comes.” (Job 3:26)
“I am disgusted with my life. Let me complain freely. My bitter soul must complain.” (Job 10:1)
In the book of Jeremiah we meet a man who is constantly rejected by the people he loves. God reaches out and calls him to preach but forbids him to get married to any among those who had turned from Him and would die an awful death and to have children to call his own.
He was alone, poor, and rejected. Even though Jeremiah still remained strong in his faith he wrestled with despair and feelings of failure.
“Yet I curse the day I was born! May no one celebrate the day of my birth.” (Jeremiah 20:14)
“Why was I ever born? My entire life has been filledwith trouble, sorrow, and shame.” (Jeremiah 20:18)
Are you noticing a pattern? All of these men suffered while remaining close to the Lord. So if you are suffering and are doing all you can to follow God and things aren’t working out in your life and are instead going from bad to worse do one thing keep on abiding in Christ and know that you aren’t alone.
1 Corinthians 10:13 says,
“The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.”
So where is the hope? you might be saying or wow Crystal “I wasn’t depressed but now I am.” and I say wait for it. If you are suffering there is hope in Christ and as you wait for it I pray it will help us all to wait for the mercies of God which are indeed renewed every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23) if we just wait for them.
The last man I’m going to mention is really the first and where our hope lies. But we must never forget what He endured so that we could live. Jesus was whipped, beaten, spit on, hated, rejected by His own people, homeless, ridiculed, and murdered. He was willing to die for you and for me but He anguished over what God called Him to do and suffered long before the end.
“He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.” (Isaiah 53:3)
He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.””He went on a little farther and fell to the ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting him might pass him by. “Abba, Father,” he cried out, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” (Mark 14: 34-36)
“He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.” (Luke 22:44)
Jesus Himself was in anguish and despair.
Hebrews 4:15-16 tells us that, “Jesus understands every weakness of ours, because he was tempted in every way that we are. But he did not sin! So whenever we are in need, we should come bravely before the throne of our merciful God. There we will be treated with undeserved kindness, and we will find help.”
All of these men suffered, were discouraged, and were depressed. They wanted their lives to end even but they also didn’t take their own lives. For God is the giver
of life and in the 6th commandment he forbids man from taking it.
The truth is though that through it all God was with them and He stayed very near and these men waited on God to reveal Himself to them and to lead them out of their misery.
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.” (Psalm 34:18)
God was there for them in the good and dark days of their lives and wherever you are in your life, in your struggles, anguish, despair, depression, and season of life He is there with you too.
He didn’t condemn any of those mentioned here for their pain and questioning or tell them to tough it out. He reached down and uplifted them out.
He cared. He showed compassion, offered mercy, and brought hope. He gave victory and brought them purpose.
God is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8) so He still works in the same way. We have a savior who is intimate with pain, suffering, and sorrow and who understands yours even better than you do because He closely examines and works in our hearts. He doesn’t judge you but reaches out with compassion to give you life, light, restoration and hope.
He is healer, redeemer and best friend.
Our suffering is never wasted. As Joseph told his brothers in Genesis 50:20 “You intended to harm me but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.”
God has saved me from many things in my life. Drugs, psych wards, the shelter, abuse, attempts at suicide, self harm, depression and a whole lot more that I only mention because it can help someone. But I have learned that where God is concerned there is always an intervening “But then God” when I wait for His light to shine a path into the darkness.
So if you ever find yourself depressed run to God and run to others.
God often uses our Christian Brothers and sisters to encourage and uplift us when we need it the most. And remember God can use whatever it is you’re going through to encourage and to bring hope to someone else.
Remember God’s mercies are renewed ever morning (Lamentations 3:23) and this is another of those verses I cling to when I’m in the pit of depression because I now know if I don’t wait around to see it I will miss the opportunity to see God being faithful.
Wait for the light my brothers and sisters and when it comes for you, choose to be the light in someone else’s life. May the Lord our God bless you and keep you in the light of His love now and forever. Amen.
Facing Life In Christ 