I read the following article here and though it might be of help to someone especially as we head into the colder, darker months in Northern Ireland.
Yesterday I finished a sermon by C.J. Mahaney from Psalm 42 on “The Troubled Soul.” What a timely word for any believer who finds himself or herself a bit down or very downcast. 1 Corinthians 10:13 reminds us that “No tempations has seized you but what is common to man.” There is no new trial or temptation under the sun. And one of the helpful sections of the message was a reminder that men far greater in spiritual maturity than us struggled with despondency and troubled souls. Here’s what C. J. said,
“Would you be surprised tonight to learn that those we rightly respect and revere in and throughout church history are familiar with this experience?
Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892)
Charles Spurgeon wrote the following:
Why, I tell you, young Christians, that the most experienced believers, the men who have great doctrinal knowledge and much experimental wisdom, the men who have lived very near to God and have had the most rapt and intimate fellowship with their Lord and Savior, are the very men who have their ebbs, and their winters.3
And Spurgeon himself was very familiar with those ebbs and the winter season of the soul. John Piper, in giving a biographical address about Mr. Spurgeon, noted his recurrent battles with depression. John Piper writes,
It is not easy to imagine the omni-competent, eloquent, brilliant, full-of-energy Spurgeon weeping like a baby for no reason that he could think of. In 1858, at age 24 it happened for the first time. He said, “My spirits were sunken so low that I could weep by the hour like a child, and yet I knew not what I wept for.”….
He saw his depression as his “worst feature.” “Despondency,” he said, “is not a virtue; I believe it is a vice. I am heartily ashamed of myself for falling into it, but I am sure there is no remedy for it like a holy faith in God.”4
Spurgeon would once write, “This depression comes over me whenever the Lord is preparing a larger blessing for my ministry.”5 Charles Spurgeon was very familiar with a downcast, troubled soul.
Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758)
So was Jonathan Edwards. In his biography on Edwards, George Marsden writes, “We know that he [Edwards] also suffered from depressions throughout his life….Even as he kept the disciplines of the faith, he was frequently afflicted by times of spiritual deadness.”6 Jonathan Edwards was frequently afflicted by times of spiritual deadness.
Martin Luther (1483–1546)
And so was Martin Luther. On one particular occasion when he was greatly discouraged—which was not unusual for Luther—he was forcefully reminded of this by his wife, Katharine. Seeing him unresponsive to any word of encouragement, one morning she appeared dressed in black mourning clothes. No word of explanation was forthcoming, and so Luther, who had heard nothing of a bereavement, asked her, “Katharine, why are you dressed in mourning black?”
“Someone has died,” she replied.
“Died?” said Luther. “I have not heard of anyone dying. Whoever can have died?”
“It seems,” his wife replied, “that God must have died.”7
Luther got the point.
These men were familiar with the experience of the psalmist. And if this is your experience at present, or when this is your experience in the future, these stories should give you hope. And most importantly, we should derive hope from the divinely inspired author of this particular psalm. His soul is downcast. He is thirsty for God. He is passionately seeking God. He longs to experience communion with God. And yet his soul is downcast, in turmoil, and troubled because it seems God has forgotten him. He is more aware of God’s absence than he is of God’s presence, and the result is a troubled and downcast soul.”
