Winston Churchill describes the depression that he experienced calling it by the name “the black dog”. Charles Swindoll writing about this Psalm referred to the experience David had as what his father had called being “under the pile”. Some refer to it as interpreting life “seeing blue”. Sometimes when we experience long-term stress it gets to us.
At a time like this, it is no time to study the book of Job, look at dark things or even difficult questions. Sometimes we still have to bugger on. Churchill could not postpone WW2. Abraham Lincoln suffering depression had to carry on to save the union. And here in Psalm 13, David had to find hope to carry-on in a 12-year struggle of survival against the threat of death by Saul.
Long-term stress can take its toll.
How do we get through it?
Psalm 13 just being six verses (see picture) can be very helpful. Psalm 13 we described as a lament Psalm. This type of psalm fits well with the picture of a mountain. At the base of a mountain is the emotional outcry of feelings we find hard to express. It is good that we have someone we can actually share these things with. Because I see people in the Bible expressing them to God is a great encouragement. God is someone we can always share our feelings. We cannot always act our feelings where they would be harmful to us or to others, we can share them with God. Look carefully at the "how longs" in verses one and two.
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| Ps. 13 Overcoming "the Black Dog" |
From our perspective, we may feel these things but eventually, we're going to have to confront them. Does God forget us? Does he hide his face from us? Note verse two painful thinking comes from within ourselves. Our state of mind is not how God sees things. 12 years David has been harassed by King Saul to the point of death. That is a very long time but soon David will not only survive but triumph over his enemies. Hard to see that in the struggle.
We discover in these lament Psalms a point where the difficult feelings turn to prayer and off for a rational prayer request. We saw that in verse three. David wants light=life to be restored in his life. He needs God to heal him. (Psalm 23:3)
In verse five we see the next necessary step in the healing process as we focus on God's faithful love and deliverance (for David from Saul) for us the mountain of "the black dog." Confronting the lies of depression always begins with some truth that contradicts the depression. Hope begins to grow.
As their depression lifts, we see the mountain of the black dog thrown into the sea. If you look at Mark 11:22 the mountain Jesus was referring to was the Mount of Olives. Now you can stand in front of that mountain with the loudspeaker and you will never see the mountain thrown into the sea. We know the mountain will be there until Jesus comes back. The mountain that Jesus is referring to is the significant obstacle that we face that causes us to cry out with strong emotional language.
Finally, as we look back we see how Lord was with us. Note David saw God’s care as being very generous. Whatever the mountain we face it is good to know that God wants us to experience life being blessed. Looking back how did we get through it? We see the Lord as being there.
We all suffer loss and face disappointments, God wants to hear us. We start at the base of the mountain as we begin our climb to prayer, faith through the darkness to life. Keep walking
