Pastor's Column: When King David sang the blues
By TIM KLIEWER
Trinity Mennonite Church
I held my umbrella over my head and at an angle to keep most of the water and mist that was swirling around me from soaking my clothes, as we walked behind a sheet of water that was plummeting from 177 feet overhead. We were walking behind the South Falls of Silver Creek in Silver Falls State Park in Oregon. Tons of water was rushing over the precipice with a thunderous roar in a blinding splash of spray and mist.
If we were down where the water was crashing against the rocks, we would have been crushed to death in an instant by its savage impact. But though we stood in a spot of seemingly great peril, we were perfectly safe; for that great veil of watery death passed over us and spent its fury on the rocks below. We were safe because we were passed over.
It is a picture of the redemption which is in Christ for us.
It was a gorgeous sight as we viewed part of God's breathtaking beauty in the Pacific Northwest. That was several years ago as we vacationed in Oregon.
It didn't rain all the time we were there but it rained most of the time. It reminded me of what King David wrote in Psalm 42:
"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?"
Then in verses 6-8, he writes, "From Mount Mizar, deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me."
Have you ever felt that way? Here David was in the presence of the glorious waterfalls. He could hear them roaring but he felt trapped in the waves and breakers below.
We could call this Psalm, "King David sings the blues." It is a Psalm of instruction and teaches us what to do when we are depressed.
David describes his depression this way: "My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, 'Where is your God?'
Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?"
That's when he says "From the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon — from Mount Mizar, deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls."
In the midst of God's glorious creation David recognizes the hand of God. "By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me." That's why he can say when he is downcast and disturbed within, "Put you hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God."
After saying all these wonderful things about how God delivers him from his depression, he finds that his depression returns.
In verse 9 he says, "I say to God my Rock, 'Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?' My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, 'Where is your God?'
Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God."
It rained most of the time we were there so the water falls were flowing full.
Here was all the water you could wish for, when in other parts of the country there was a drought. That's depressing, so the complete solution for depression does not lie in a trip to see the waterfalls. That only lifts our spirits temporarily. The complete answer is found in the next Psalm, verse 3:
"Send forth your LIGHT and your TRUTH, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. Then will I go to the altar of God, to God my joy and my delight."
What is God's LIGHT to direct our paths? Psalm 119:105 tells us: "Your WORD is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." What is God's TRUTH? The Bible says, "His WORD is truth."
Are you depressed? Try a trip to the mountains. Go see some waterfalls, but above all include regular study of God's Word. Then when you feel like David and ask, "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?" Take God's answer, "Put your hope in God," as you faithfully study and meditate and obey His Word. It worked for David, it works for me. Try it, it will work for you too. And be sure to include regular worship with others in the church of your choice.
