Someone has called this the prozac generation. Mood altering drugs are commonly prescribed to children and to adults as an aid to coping with life. I noticed these kinds of drugs are not used in Ukraine as commonly as they are here. Up to this point, it is pretty much a western phenomena and practice. Recently, I have been seeing commercials advertising some kind of prozac type drug that lasts for a week - I suppose the patient takes just one pill which works the whole week. The advertisement shows a happy middle aged woman with her family. Everyone is smiling and happy. The message is that life will be bearable and happy with the pill and depressing and unhappy without it.

I am not interested in debating the need or effectiveness of any of these drugs so popular today. I am not a medical doctor or psycyiatrist and am not therefore in a position to judge anyone’s use of such drugs. But I am here to say that God has also prescribed certain cures for depression. He has written about it in the Bible. Mood altering drugs are popular because people are depressed and want to be happy. People ought to have the same interest in God’s prescription and cure for unhappiness and depression.

The subject of Psalms 42-43 is spiritual depression and its cure. The author’s soul is "downcast" and "disturbed" (42:5). He is in a state of "mourning" and "oppression" (42:9) and "suffering" (42:10). Ever been there? Maybe this morning you are there. Certainly, sometime in life you will be there. So pay attention.

The author does not acquiesce in his condition, but three times, he questions himself about his despondency and summons himself to trust and hope in God. So the Psalm forms three stanzas. Each begins with the psalmist’s expression of grief and depression and ends with the refrain in which he admonishes himself to cast off the depression and hope in God.

Psalm 42 begins with an explanation of the source of the psalmist’s depression. He can’t go to the temple. He is not able to attend the church meeting.

42:1-4

For whatever reason the author can’t get to the "house of God", he can’t go to the temple. It appears from the context the author has been driven out of the land of Israel, maybe even taken captive by the enemy, making it impossible for him to attend the temple worship. He remembers better days when he was able to "go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God." When you think of church and the church meetings, what do you remember? Do words like "joy’, "thanksgiving", "festive" come to mind? He asks himself not when he has to go to the house of God, but rather, "When can I go and meet with God?" Now the psalmist is hindered from going, and he weeps.

Whatever are your troubles and problems, being unable to go to church is probably not one of them. It may not be something you think would cause you to weep or be depressed at all. And indeed, it is true that many people, even Christian people, are thankful for any excuse to give them cover for not going to church. And many of us who are Christians may not appreciate the blessing of being able to go to church till we are one day unable to go.

Till a few weeks before he died, I don’t know if I ever saw my father miss a Sunday church meeting. Maybe he did, but I don’t remember it. But when he couldn’t go, it troubled him - a lot. He was depressed about it. He missed it. He wanted so much to go. He looked forward to going. One of my joys is knowing he was able to go to his home church one more time before he died. It was surely a joy to him also.

We often thank God in our prayers that we are able to meet for church without fear or molestation. But really how thankful are we? How much do we appreciate the privilege of freely going to the church meetings? I am afraid we are not enough grateful for this privilege till, like the psalmist, we lose it.

It is true that we can worship God anywhere. The psalmist was not required to be present at the temple to worship God. Indeed, he speaks to God from his present location away from the temple. But what the psalmist could not do in his present predicament was collectively meet with God’s people at the temple for public worship. Today it is still true that one can worship God anywhere (and those who choose not to frequent the church meetings are want to make this point). But still, one misses something when he misses the church meetings. He misses the collective and public worship with fellow believers. You don’t get that when you worship alone.

The author says, "As the deer pants for the water, so my soul pants for you, O God." When does the deer pant for water? I know when cattle pant for water, when their tongues hang out panting for water. It is when they are very thirsty or after I have been chasing them. Deer pant for water when it is hot and dry and when hunted. Once I shot an elk. He was running from hunters and his tongue was hanging out panting for air and water.

Like a deer panting for air and water, the author pants for God. "...My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." We all know what it is to thirst. But for what do we thirst? People thirst, they have great desire for any number of things. Money, pleasure, hobbies, hunting or fishing, cars, property come to mind... But how many of us ever have anything like an experience where we actually thirst for God? The majority, even in this Christian land, live in careless forgetfulness of God, pretty much indifferent to Him. But there ought to be within each of us a thirst for God. Especially if we are Christians, there ought to be a thirst for God. And a Christian’s greatest thirst and desire of all ought to be for God. Let us cultivate and nurture and seek for and pray for a thirst for God.

So the psalmist is depressed because he is hindered from going to the church meetings. He is further depressed because people do not share his faith in God. Indeed, they use every opportunity to justify their own unbelief. It was like when people today to justify their unbelief and disobedience say things like, "How can I be Christian when there are people and preachers like so and so in the church?" Or "How could I ever be a Christian when God allowed or allows such and such..." It gets depressing when people persist in this attitude, especially if they are friends or family.

So this is the psalmist’s source of depresssion. What is yours? What makes you depressed? Some problem, need, distress, disappointment, tragedy like David’s...

But observe closely with me his cure.

42:5

It is remarkable how the author speaks to himself. He will not give in to his moods. He takes himself to task and reproaches himself for his depression. He asks himself why is he so depressed. Instead of answering his own questions, or excusing himself, he immediately prescribes his remedy: he must trust or hope in God. He must give up his introspection and self-pity, his wistful reminiscences and his resentment at the mockery of his enemies.

42:6

The cure for depression is neither to look inward to our source of grief, nor back to our past, nor outward to our problems, but to look upward to the living God.

But it is interesting how the psalmist struggles with and vacillates in his depression. He tells himself what he ought to do, but then he finds himself dwelling again on his problems.

42:7-10

Anyone who has been in a state of depression because of some problem knows how hard it is to keep his mind off the problem. He has told himself what he ought to do and challenged himself to do it, and then he finds himself right back in his previous state of depression, consumed by his problem.

I have always been irritated by those who act like a Christian should somehow not have to struggle with depression, that it is somehow a quick and easy decision for any Christian to just rid himself of worry and depression. This is a really simplistic approach to the problem. It is not as simple as that. One can know how he ought to think and he can tell himself what he ought to do, but he should not be surprised if like David he keeps struggling with the depression. David’s cure? He keeps telling himself the same thing...

42:11

And he prays for deliverance and help...

43:1-3

And he anticipates God’s salvation...

43:4

God is his source of joy and his delight. In God he can find joy and something in which he delights.

Finally, he reminds himself one more time...

43:5

But there is one subtle but significant difference in this refrain and that of 42:11 compared to the first one in 42:5. This does not come out in the New Iternational Version but it does come out in the King James which reads this way:

Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
And why art thou disquieted within me?
Hope in God: for I shall yet praise him,
who is the health of my countenance,
and my God.

So here is God’s prescription for depression. When you are depressed, here is what He says can make you smile again. He is the health of your countenance.