What does the Bible say about depression?

There are some verses in the Psalms which exactly describe this state. The Psalms give us every kind of experience. Sometimes we are carried down to the depths of despair. Then again we are on the mountain top, finding all our resources in God. Almost every experience that can be thought of may be found in the Book of Psalms.

When the soul is distressed or cast down, that is not sin in itself. But sin comes in when there is distrust of God.

The prophet Jeremiah was greatly depressed as he listed many things that weighed him down: "He has set me in dark places — He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out — He has made my paths crooked" (Lam. 3:6-7, 9). In all, he named some thirty complaints about his desperate circumstances, ending on this sad note: "My strength and my hope have perished from the Lord" (Lam. 3:18).

We are not told what caused David to write this psalm that at this time found him so depressed; but it may have been while he was an exile hunted by Saul. While his faith was in the Lord, yet faith wavered in feeling the Lord had forgotten him, and the time seemed so long that he feared it might be lengthened forever (v. 1). Such experiences are indeed a trial of faith, and especially since there is no indication of failure or sin on David's part. Yet the believer today may be lifted high above his circumstances if he only takes to heart the truth of the word of the Lord Jesus, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee" (Heb. 13:5). If it seems He has left us, this word is sufficient to negate such a fear.

If you met a man with a doleful face you would say, "You look very down to-day. What is troubling you?" Now the mind has a very great effect on the body. The Psalmist was so troubled that he could not sleep. He could not pray, and he hardly liked to talk to his fellow-men. What has he been dwelling upon? He tells us. "I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times." People often speak of the good old days, and exaggerate the blessedness of them. He says, "I call to remembrance my song in the night." But that does not help him. He adds, "I commune with my own heart, and my spirit made diligent search." He was trying to find something to lay hold of as a source of happiness in the old days. What will that do for him? The next verse shows us. "Will the Lord cast off for ever? Will He be favourable no more? Is His mercy clean gone forever? Does His promise fail for evermore? … Hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies?" It seems to me as if these questions came out like a torrent, tumbling over one another. What is the man doing? He begins to judge God by his own miserable experiences? He doubts God. Will the Lord cast off forever? Wherever is there anything to give the smallest idea of such a calamity as that? He asks these questions: "Is His mercy clean gone for ever? Does His promise fail for evermore?" We can answer these five questions and say "No" to every one of them. He doubts God because of what he finds in his own wretched heart. Now that is the tendency of us all if occupied with ourselves. It may be that to-day you fear that you have deviated from the right path. The devil would like you to brood over that. It is right to confess this failing, but God desires that having confessed it you should have done with it, so that the happy link of communion between your soul and the Lord may be restored. The enemy would use these things to bend us double, to make us look morbidly within. Nowhere are we told to brood over our failures. We are told to confess our sins. God is faithful and just to forgive them, so that we may go on in communion and in power.

From verses 2 to 6, Asaph tells us what was the state of his mind. The fact is, he was afflicted with a dreadful attack of introspection, which is only another word far self-occupation. Some of us may get occupied with ourselves because we are naturally of that turn of mind and therefore very apt to turn in upon ourselves. We think that in doing so we are seeking the Lord, as Asaph did, for he says, "In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord." As a matter of fact, however, he was seeking some point of rest and comfort in himself, for he goes on to tell us, "My sore ran in the night, and ceased not; my soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God, and was troubled." Think of that! You would expect that a saint could not think of God without a song on his lips. No, he remembered God, and was troubled, because, although he remembered God, what was filling the vision of his soul was simply himself. "I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed."

He felt absolutely at the end of his resources; sleepless by night, and as though he could not speak to anybody by day (ver. 4). We might well have asked, "Asaph, what have you been dwelling upon?" If we want to be happy, we must dwell on happy subjects. If you come across one who is always dwelling on unsavoury things, you will find such a one a very unsavoury individual. A person who is always dwelling upon mournful subjects, invariably goes about with a long face. You may say, "I do get so depressed and cast down." Do not dwell on the gloomy side. Is it not possible to have the eye of your heart lifted off to that which is bright?

Actually, he "remembered God and was troubled," rather than comforted. But God is "the God of all comfort" (2 Cor. 1:3), and even the first five books of scripture could have given Asaph that comfort, but instead he complained and his spirit was overwhelmed. If our resources are only in ourselves, we shall be overwhelmed too. Yet this is an experience that many believers find to be a very real trial.

(v. 2) Under the pressure of the circumstances the soul turns in upon itself — taking counsel in its own soul apart from God. The weary reasonings of the mind bring no relief. The result of self-occupation, as ever, is to fill the heart with sorrow, and to give the enemy an occasion to triumph over the soul.

You have our fullest sympathy. We have met many of God's dear children in precisely your condition. Indeed they have, in stating their exercises, used your very words. “This,” you will say, “is poor comfort for me.” And yet it may not be so. We know a very dear saint of God who was under exercise for years and the only thing that gave him the smallest comfort was Psalm 88. Why? Because there was not a single bit of comfort in it. Yet it was written by a saint of God. Therefore she might be a saint, though she was thoroughly miserable. We write not thus, dear friend, to lead you to be content in your present dark and unhappy condition. Far from it. We beseech you to look off from your feelings, your experiences, your evidences and your faith itself, and rest in Christ and His finished work. God is satisfied with Christ on your behalf. Is He not enough to satisfy you? Do you want to add something of your own to Christ? This is really the question. May God bless you!

On the other hand, the Scripture contemplates a class of believers whose condition is to be seeking righteousness and waiting for light, but who are not in the possession of spiritual liberty and joy. Now as to this, it is certain that Christians, although they have assuredly in Christ, the righteousness, the sanctification, and the redemption, which establish them in Him before the face of God, in blameless meetness for the fellowship of the saints in light, are often, in their actual experience, far short of the enjoyment of their proper blessings. But this so sad an effect proceeds from a cause more evil than itself; for where God's children are not rejoicing in Christ Jesus, it is because the conditions of spiritual joy are not at the time existing in their souls. Unbelief, or ignorance, or a defiled conscience because of some allowed evil, or possibly all these combined (for low indeed may a believer fall whose vigilance is laid asleep, to the neglect of those additions to his faith on which all real enjoyment of spiritual things depends (2 Peter 1:5-11)), must be regarded as the true occasion of darkness in a Christian's soul. For God is light. And faith, receiving this pure message, as from the Father of lights, according to its perfect exposition in the face of Jesus Christ, finds the fulness of its blessing to be there. We joy in God through Jesus Christ (1 John 1; Rom 5:11). The Psalm before us, with many others, contains expressions quite adapted to the state of one who, from a state of distance, is returning in spirit to the Lord. But while comfort in conflict may be drawn from it by such, a right division of the word of truth is heedfully to be observed, that misapplied expressions of the Holy Ghost may not be used to justify a state of soul which is itself a contradiction of the finished grace of God.