Pursuing Truth, Cultivating Virtue, Creating Beauty

Sometimes the holidays hurt. Thanksgiving meals or Christmas desserts can taste bitter because a loved one is no longer there to share them with you. Cold, dark weather can settle on your heart like a gloomy fog. In that darkness, let Psalm 88 give you hope.

Psalm 88 is the saddest psalm in the Bible, but during a period of depression in my life, it became a comforting friend. I encourage you to read the entire psalm, but below are twelve truths and strategies from Psalm 88 to help you fight holiday depression.

Poetry and Music Can be Helpful for Depression

Psalm 88 is described in the title as “A song. A psalm… according to Mahalath Leannoth.” We’re not sure what the final term means, but it’s probably something like “sick and afflicted.” Most likely, this was a sad tune that accompanied these sad lyrics.

You might have experienced how sad music can help you feel better when you’re sad. God created the world with a powerful connection between music and emotion. That’s why David’s harp music eased Saul’s maniacal depression (1 Samuel 16). This is probably why roughly half the psalms are laments, crying out to God from a hurting heart. Furthermore, as Ed Welch points out in his book Depression, people often express their depression with poetic language (7-13).

Try listening to some appropriately melancholy music and writing about how you feel. Or find a psalm that matches your feelings and use it as your words.

God Can Use Your Depression to Minister to Others

Heman the Ezrahite wrote Psalm 88 from his personal experience, but it was intended to minister to others. That’s why it was given to “the choir director.” Now it’s been ministering to God’s people for 3,000 years. If God did that with Heman’s sorrow, what can he do with yours?

You might feel like you have nothing to give, but God comforts you so that you can comfort others with the comfort you received (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). Depression tends to make you focus on yourself, so intentionally loving and serving others can be a crucial step toward overcoming depression. Who can you love and serve today?

Depression Puts You in Good Company

Heman was a leader of Israel’s temple worship (1 Chronicles 6:33-37). David wrote many of the lament psalms (e.g., Psalms 3-7). The great prophet Elijah experienced depression (1 Kings 19). Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet because of his depressive tendencies (Jeremiah 20). Throughout church history, many spiritual giants wrestled with depression, such as David Brainerd, Adoniram Judson, and Charles Spurgeon.

Greatest of all, Jesus was “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” who was “deeply grieved to the point of death” (Isaiah 53:3; Matthew 26:38).

You are not alone in your depression.

Depression Is Not Necessarily Sinful

Can sin cause depression, and can depression lead to sin? Absolutely (see Psalms 32 and 130). In this case, depression is a warning light telling you something is wrong, and you should be willing to examine yourself to see if sin is part of the problem.

However, sorrow is a proper response to certain situations. Laments like Psalm 88 respond to the pain of this world with appropriate grief. Jesus wept at Lazarus’ tomb (John 11:35). Saints groan under the curse as we await full and final redemption (Romans 8:23).

Stoic numbness or a plastered smile in the face of evil and suffering is not a sign of spiritual health. Sorrow is appropriate, and God’s people especially feel this, sometimes intensely. Don’t feel guilty simply because you feel sad.

Depression is Painful Suffering

In Psalm 88, Heman describes himself as “a man without strength, abandoned among the dead… like the slain lying in the grave” (3-5). He feels like he’s in the darkest places under God’s wrath, he’s estranged from friends, and his eyes are worn out from crying (6-9). He describes his depression as suffering, terror, and drowning (15-17).

If you’ve been where Heman was, you know that depression hurts. It’s a specific type of suffering. That means you should treat depression the way you treat other forms of suffering, and the Bible has a lot of help and hope for those who suffer.

God Hears and Cares about You in Your Depression

Heman continually cries out for God to hear him (Psalm 88:1-2). Though the psalm itself doesn’t indicate if God heard him, God obviously did because he preserved this psalm in the Bible. Psalm 34:18 and 147:3 teach that God is near to and heals the brokenhearted. No matter how severe your depression, if you come to God in Christ, be certain that he hears and cares for you.

Practice Lament

In general, lament psalms contain four parts that Mark Vroegop summarizes as TCAT: Turn to God, Complain to God, Ask God, and Trust God (Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy, 29). Psalm 88 is a partial lament that includes only turning and complaining, and if that’s all you can do, it’s a good start. Like Heman, turn to God in prayer and pour out the complaint of your broken heart. Over time, God will help you ask and trust as you lament.

Fight Feelings with Facts

Heman calls God the “God of my salvation” (Psalm 88:1). His faith in this foundational fact emboldens him to cry out to God from his depression. Wrong thinking often causes depression, and depression tempts you to think wrongly. The antidote is biblical truth. If you’re battling depression, use the Spirit’s sword to fight feelings with facts (Ephesians 6:17).

Acknowledge God’s Sovereignty

If your Uber driver speeds down a mountain road, would you rather hear “What’s happening? I can’t control this!” or “Don’t worry. I’m a pro stunt driver, and I’m doing this on purpose”? If God isn’t in control of all things, then you should be depressed. However, God is sovereign, and Heman acknowledges that God controls his suffering (Psalm 88:6-9).

Far from making you doubt God’s goodness, this should encourage you that your suffering is sovereignly orchestrated by your loving Father for your ultimate good (Romans 8:28-30). He knows when to allow it, when to take it away, and how to help you through it.

Community is Important

Depression tempts you to isolate yourself, but Heman acknowledges that one of the most painful aspects of his suffering is being estranged from loved ones (Psalm 88:8, 18). Don’t listen to depression. Seek help. Spend time with others. Gather with a church that will encourage you with Christ-centered, biblical truth.

Depression Takes Time to Heal

Heman indicates that his suffering has lasted a long time (Psalm 88:1, 3, 9, 15, 17). At the end of the psalm, healing hasn’t come. Many times depression takes a long time to heal, so don’t grow frustrated or hopeless if the darkness doesn’t lift right away. Keep fighting, be patient, and wait for God to work.

Christ has Suffered with and for You

We could say much more about depression, but we can say nothing greater than the fact that Jesus suffered with you and for you in your depression. Psalm 88 matches Jesus’ experience before his crucifixion. If you read Psalm 88 and think, “That’s how I feel,” know that Jesus has been there too. He sympathizes with you and knows how to help you (Hebrews 4:14-16). Run to him.

Jesus’ Psalm 88 experience wasn’t his worst suffering, either. He was unjustly executed to provide salvation for all who believe in him, and to reverse the effects of sin on the universe. That includes ridding the world of all sorrow forever (Revelation 21:4). Even if you battle depression every day of your earthly life, remember that perfect, unending joy is a future fact for every person who trusts in Jesus (Psalm 16:11).

Psalm 88 seems hopeless, but it points us to the greatest hope: Jesus. Sit with Psalm 88 in the darkness, and from that vantage point, look to Jesus and the eternal joy he offers.