“Unbelief &
Despondency” Psalm 42 Matthew 26:36-42
SCRIPTURE INTRO: Two months ago we studied story in Mark 9
where
Jesus cast the demon out of the boy. Do
you remember the dialogue?
Boy’s father said to Jesus:
“If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
Jesus said: “If you
can? Everything is possible for him who
believes.”
Man replied: “I do
believe, help me overcome my unbelief.”
Do you remember
that?
In my study that week I ran across something very interesting
and convicting
that
I mentioned it in my sermon.
All the sins we commit are rooted in unbelief in the
promises of God.
Whenever sins crop
up in our lives—whether attitudinal or behavioral—
it’s
a sign of lurking, growing, unbelief in God.
The flip side of the coin, the positive side is that all
righteousness,
all
good deeds in our lives come from faith in the promises of God.
Well, that idea of unbelief being the root of our sins
has
stuck with me and I wanted to preach on it.
I ran across a sermon series by John Piper on this very
subject,
listened
to his sermons, found them very helpful.
Also, John Piper has written about this in his book “Future
Grace”
as
well as a book titled “Battling Unbelief.”
So what I want to do is take a break from Mark until
January,
and
with the exception of Christmas Sunday, want us to look at this topic
of
unbelief, sin, and faith in the promises of God.
Each week, what I’m going to do is look at a passage in
which
believers
are struggling with certain sins, trace that back to unbelief,
and then show how
faith helps us overcome.
We’re going to look at despondency today, and then
discontent,
lust, bitterness, impatience, haughtiness, regret, and anxiety.
The list is not exhaustive, there
are things we’re not going to cover.
Some of these will
hit home with you more than others,
but
over the course of this study, will see different ways to fight
the
sins of unbelief by faith.
INTRO: One of the most famous scenes in
Pilgrim’s Progress is when
the
two main characters—Christian and Hopeful get off the path—
and
night comes, and they get lost, and are captured by a terrible giant—
Giant
Despair.
And he takes them to his castle. Do you remember the name of his castle?
Doubting
Castle.
He throws them in the dungeon without food and water.
Every day he comes
and beats them with a club made out of a crabapple tree.
He says, look at the bones in this
dungeon.
These are the bones
of other pilgrims who trespassed on my land.
Your bones will be
here too.
If you know anything about John Bunyan, the author of
Pilgrim’s Progress,
then
you know that this part was very autobiographical.
Bunyan was a Christian who dealt with Giant Despair and
very
often in his personal life.
John Bunyan could have written Psalm 42:
He often asked
himself the very same questions Psalmist asks himself.
Why are you
downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed
within me?
Despair, doubt, downcast, disturbed, depressed, dejected—
I don’t have any
idea why all these words start with “D”
I’m going to use
the word despondency as the catch-all word for this condition.
Look at the way the Psalmist describes despondency.
There is a physical aspect.
“My bones suffer mortal agony.”
Is he referring to
an illness? Maybe.
But it seems more likely he’s saying I’m worn out physically
by emotional strain.
“My tears have been
my food day and night.”
When that happens. When there is such emotional stress there is
a
weariness
and fatigue that goes all the way down to my bones.
And there is a spiritual aspect. “My soul is downcast within me.”
Did you notice how
often he referred to God in both good and bad ways.
His soul pants for God, thirsts for God like a deer pants
for water.
Imagine a deer
being chased by hunters.
Panting, thirsty,
sees a stream and wants to drink—I feel like that about God.
But it doesn’t seem that God is quenching his thirst, or he
can’t get to God.
People say to him: Where is your God? And the question shakes him.
He knows he has to put his hope in God—
but
at the same time, he sees the troubles he is going through and he says:
“all
your waves and breakers have swept over me.”
These troubles
sweeping over my life are from God.
He’s in a dungeon in
with
a crab tree club and saying—look at those bones, you’ll be there.
Can you identify with that?
Can you identify with Psalm 42, Giant Despair?
Some Christians never have to fight this battle.
Some of you can
honestly say: I’ve never experienced
this. Thank God for that.
As I said a minute
ago, I know I’m not going to hit all of you every Sunday.
But even if you’ve never dealt with this personally,
you
have Christian brothers who fight this and who might be in it right now.
So pay attention,
there will be some important application for you.
Some of you have experienced this occasionally.
And for some of you, this is the big fight of your life.
You
say, I’ve been there. I’ve been
in Psalm 42, in
Let’s look at the connection between despondency and
unbelief,
and
see how faith in God is the key.
Look at this subject under three headings.
1. Two important questions
about despondency.
2. The example of
Jesus’ despondency.
3. Dealing with your
despondency.
MP#1 Two important questions about
despondency
Questions are this:
What causes
despondency? Is despondency a sin?
First, what causes
it?
The short answer
is: Many things that are part of living
in a fallen world.
As you look at Psalm 42 and other Psalms written by
believers struggling with
despondency,
you quickly see that there are many things.
We just read Psalm 42.
What’s the cause of this man’s despondency?
It’s hard to tell,
isn’t it? But he does tell us one thing.
He says that he is
oppressed by the enemy.
My foes taunt me,
saying all day long, “Where is your God?”
This is poetry so we’re left to wonder about this enemy, these
foes.
Were these other
people, attacking, criticizing, mocking his faith?
Was the devil
throwing lies at him: Where is God? God doesn’t care.
Or is the enemy
he’s talking about his despondency itself?
Things telling self?
But whether it is the devil or other people, or himself,
it’s an attack.
It’s helpful to think of other Psalms where believers
struggling despondency.
Psalm 38—it’s
clearly brought on by a physical illness.
Psalm
32—despondency is brought on by guilt over a sin committed.
Psalm 73—it’s
brought on by a financial loss
Psalm 88—loss of a
friend combined with a very gloomy personality
So we have a Satanic attack, being
worn down by physical illness,
guilt
over a sin committed, a financial or personal loss, a gloomy,
introspective
personality.
I think that the lesson from this is that we shouldn’t be
too quick
to
oversimplify and say that it’s just one thing.
Secular world quick to oversimplify and say it’s just
chemical.
Church probably too
quick to say it’s guilt over a sin.
But Psalms present
a much bigger picture—it’s life in a fallen world.
And the real sense that you get from the writer of Psalm 42,
is
that he really wasn’t sure what caused it.
Yes, he had enemies.
But what does he say over and over? Why are you downcast, O my soul?”
Why am I responding
this way?
He’s perplexed by
this despondency.
It might surprise you but this was Charles Spurgeon’s
battle.
He was the most brilliant, eloquent, influential preacher of
the 19th century.
But he had
recurring bouts of despondency.
In 1858, he suffered the first one at the age of 24.
“My spirits were
sunken so low that I could weep by the hour like a child, and yet I knew
not
what
I wept for. Causeless depression cannot be
reasoned with.
But he didn’t give up.
He did fight.
“I am sure there is
not remedy for it like a holy faith in God.”
Brings us to the
second question: Is despondency a sin?
The short answer
is: No, but yielding to despondency is.
Despondency is not
a sin, but giving in to it is.
And unbelief is what causes a person to give in to
despondency,
and
allows it to control him and crush him.
That’s an important distinction.
As we’ll see in a
few minutes, even Jesus went through this,
but
he never gave in to it, because he always believed.
I told you that the basis of this sermon series will be that
unbelief
is
the root cause of all of our sins.
The sin is not despondency itself, but yielding to it,
and
refusing to fight it by faith.
The most significant part of Psalm 42 is the way this
despondent believer
responds
to his own questions.
Why are you
downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed
within me?
How does he respond to himself?
“Put your hope in
God for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”
I don’t know the answers, don’t
know why I’m feeling this way—
but
I’m going to fight it. I’m going to
fight it by putting my hope in God.
I’m going to fight
it by trusting him as my Savior.
And that’s what makes this Psalm so great.
Yes, he’s in a
dark, despondent place—but he doesn’t give in to it.
He fights it by
faith. He believes.
He doesn’t allow unbelief to cripple him.
And because of
that, we have this beautiful Psalm,
written
3,000 years ago that still speaks to us today.
And that brings us to another example, even greater example
than Psalm 42
and that’s the example of Jesus’ despondency.
MP#2 The example of Jesus’ despondency
The night Jesus was betrayed he fought the greatest battle
ever fought
in
a human soul against despondency.
He was in
It says that he began to be sorrowful and troubled and said
to disciples:
“My soul is
overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.”
Why was Jesus so distressed and troubled?
John’s Gospel records Jesus saying:
“Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I
say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’?
No, it was for this very reason I came to
this hour.”
In other words, the troubling temptation was to despair
and fail to carry out
his mission.
It was an attack by Satan, very similar to Psalm 42 but much
worse.
“Where is your
God?” God’s not in this. It won’t work.
Satan wanted to produce in Jesus such a spirit of
despondency
that
he would sink in resignation and say—I can’t do this.
There’s no point in
pressing on to the cross any more.
Jesus was a sinless man.
Never sinned in thought, emotion, or deed.
That means that his
emotional turmoil was not a sin.
It was a fitting
response to the extraordinary temptation he was enduring.
And this demonic thought that
was
so horrendous that it caused a shock in the soul of the Son of God.
It says he was troubled.
And that’s the same word Jesus uses in another place when he
said to his disciples:
“Do not let your
hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust
also in me.
Peace I leave with
you, my peace I give you. Do not let
your hearts be troubled.”
How do you reconcile that?
Jesus tells us, Don’t be troubled, but he was troubled.
Is this a
contradiction?
No. What Jesus means
is that when the bomb drops in your life—
whatever
it is, illness, or loss, or moral failure, or anything else
ugly
that happens in this fallen world—
And when Satan colors the shock waves of that bomb with
black hopelessness—
Where is your
God? This is meaningless.
Jesus is not saying that the shock wave won’t shake you,
or
that you won’t be ever be downcast, distressed, depressed, despondent.
He’s saying: Don’t
give in—believe! Fight.
Believe in God,
believe also in me.
Unbelief causes you
to give in. Faith is how you fight.
That’s exactly what Jesus did.
No one knew better than he did that if he didn’t
immediately
respond with faith then he would be done for.
Look at the way Jesus responded to the despondency that was
surging in his soul.
He basically did
two things:
1. He made use of ordinary things.
2. He re-affirmed his faith in his heavenly
Father.
The ordinary things he made use of were people, his
disciples.
Not all of them. But out of the twelve disciples, three closest—Peter, James, John.
He said, come with
me. I need you three friends.
And then he opened his heart to them.
“My soul is
overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.”
He told them what
was going on inside.
And then he asked them for help in the fight he was going
through.
“Stay here and keep
watch with me.”
Pray for me. Talk to me. Just sit with me and show me your support.
Then the second thing he did was re-affirm his faith in his
heavenly Father.
He poured out his heart to his Father in prayer.
He told him exactly
what he wanted.
“If it is possible,
may this cup be taken from me.”
It’s ok to pray that way.
Father, take it away.
It’s ok to ask God
to take away bad things and make things right.
But then Jesus rested his soul in the sovereign will of God.
“Yet not as I will,
but as you will.”
And, of course,
that is the ultimate reaffirmation of faith.
It’s saying, Lord I utterly trust you.
I believe all your
promises that you have good things planned for your people.
Weeping may remain
for a night, joy in the morning. All things for good.
Now let’s apply this to ourselves. Brings us to third point.
MP#3 Dealing with your despondency.
You deal with your despondency like the Psalmist did, and
like Jesus did.
First, make use of the ordinary things that you need.
Despondency has many causes as we saw earlier.
If you do know of
some of the causes, and there are ordinary things
you
can use that will help you with your despondency, then use them.
If there are physical causes to your despondency then go to
a good doctor.
Follow the treatment
and take the medicine that is prescribed.
Modern biographers of Charles Spurgeon have noted that if he
had been
able
to get medical treatment for his gout, which was unavailable in his time,
then
he might have gotten some relief from his depression as well.
If there is a physical or chemical component to your
despondency
that
can be helped by medicine, then by all means use it.
If you’ve suffered a loss of some kind—and that has pushed
you to despondency,
then
realize that the big thing that you need is simply time.
Time to process this loss, and for the
sharpness of it to be mellowed.
And you may need
some healthy diversion, or vacation.
If you have a melancholy, gloomy personality that tends to
despondency,
then
you need the thing you probably don’t want—you need so spend some time
with
cheerful friends. And you cheerful friends, call this despondent friend.
Bug her. Make her go
out with you for coffee, and tell her good things.
If there seems to be some kind of spiritual attack that is
causing your despondency,
if
disturbing thoughts keep intruding your mind, lies that pull you down—
wise
Christians through the ages have all said the same thing—you need music.
That’s what Richard Baxter, famous Puritan minister said.
Sing some Psalms, that will drive out the lies.
Martin Luther, when he had bouts of despondency would play
the guitar
with
his Christian friends, and sing—and drink beer.
This is my point.
Jesus Christ himself, perfect Son of God, did not try to deal
with
his despondency just by praying to God, he made use of his friends.
But his example is also a warning—his friends weren’t much
help.
Remember, they fell
asleep, and then all ran away.
That’s just a reminder that even thought we should use all
of the good, ordinary
things
God gives us when dealing with despondency,
whether
friends, or medicine, or music, or vacations—
but
we shouldn’t put all of our faith in them.
Because they are part of the fallen world as well—they can
all fail.
Use them, yes, but
don’t put all of your faith in them.
You have to put
your faith in God.
Brings us to the second thing you have to do in dealing with
your despondency:
Reaffirm your faith
in your heavenly Father and in Jesus Christ.
To quote the Psalmist:
You have to say to yourself:
Self, put your
trust in God.
Like Jesus, you have to take your faith in the sovereign
goodness of God
and
reaffirm it—Father, Your will be done.
Jesus could say
that because he knew his Father’s will is good.
What that means specifically is that you have to believe the
promises of God
concerning
your condition. You have to remind
yourself of them.
You have to preach
to yourself and quit listening to yourself.
“Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the
morning.”
“Humble yourself under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift
you up in due time.”
“All things work together for good for those who love God,
who have been called . . .”
When Christian and Hopeful where in Giant Despair’s dungeon,
at
the darkest time, Saturday night, they began to pray,
as
light began to break on Sunday morning Christian said:
What a fool I’ve been, I completely forgot that I’ve got a
key in my pocket
called
Promise, that will open any door in
Hopeful said, well get it out. And they did, and the door to the dungeon
opened.
Bunyan’s great parable is absolutely true.
The Lord has given
you the key to fighting and escaping despondency—
it’s
the promises of his word—stand on them in faith. Remind yourself of them.
But the greatest thing of all is that your ultimate hope is
in Jesus Christ.
He knows the awful
power of despondency.
His soul was
overwhelmed to the point of death.
He was left without
any ordinary helps—all for you.
So that in him, and through him, you never
have to lose hope.