General Consideration
A Sermon on Depression from Pslam 42:5
Scripture
5Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
Sermon Description
This sermon is for the Christian who is unhappy, feels heavy burdens weighing them down, and cannot escape feelings of despair. In this sermon on Psalm 42:5 titled “General Consideration,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones shows how God’s word addresses depression. A depressed Christian is not a contradiction of terms; it is a reality the church must learn to address with the hope-filled truth of Scripture. Dr. Lloyd-Jones addresses the extrovert and introvert, both with their tendency to overanalyze one’s self which leads to weariness and dejection. His challenge is to “get to know yourself” and understand personal triggers. Physical conditions also play a part in spiritual depression, says Dr. Lloyd-Jones. The Christian must be aware of this so as to readily push back against the devil. The enemy cannot control the Christian, but he can and will use exaggerated circumstances to further discourage. The psalmist in turn encourages two things: first, speak the word to oneself instead of allowing the mind as it wander into despair. Second, remind oneself of God and His love. He encourages the Christian to defy themselves and the world by putting hope in God.
Sermon Breakdown
- Dr. Lloyd-Jones is always on alert and watchful for spiritual depression and reactions that may follow after God gives an unusual blessing or experience.
- The ultimate cause of spiritual depression is the devil, the adversary of our souls. He uses our temperaments and physical conditions against us.
- We allow our temperaments to control and govern us instead of keeping them in check. We must guard against our temperaments.
- The devil plays into our temperaments and exaggerates them until they dominate us. There are endless ways the devil causes spiritual depression.
- The devil's goal is to depress God's people to point to them as examples to turn away others. His strategy is to make us unhappy and depressed.
- The ultimate cause of spiritual depression is unbelief. Without unbelief, the devil would have no power. We listen to the devil instead of God.
- The treatment is to learn from the psalmist's example. We must take ourselves in hand and talk to ourselves instead of listening to ourselves.
- Most unhappiness comes from listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself. We must address ourselves, question ourselves, and condemn negative thoughts.
- We must remind ourselves of God - who He is, what He's done, and His promises. We must hope in God.
- We must justify and defy ourselves, others, the world, and hell. We will yet praise God.
- We must understand we must handle our self. Don't listen to self but address self, condemn self, encourage self, and remind self of the truth.
- The devil uses self to depress us. We must stand against him as the psalmist did.
Spiritual Depression
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.