The
dark night of the soul.
A lonely, private
Hell.
My heart is empty. All the fountains that should run with
longing are dried up in me.
I could weep by the hour like a child, and yet
I knew not what I wept for.
The only thing that you
know is that you are guilty, shameful, and worthless.
I fear everyone
and everything.
My bones wasted away
from my groaning all day long.
My soul refuses to be
comforted.
Darkness is my closest
companion.
All of these
statements – and so, so many more like them – describe what we call depression.
Depression (or “Melancholia” -as it was
called in generations past) is part of the fallout that came into the world as
a result of the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve.
Depression is a painful attack
on the mind – an attack by the combined forces of our three great
enemies: The world, our own
fallen natures (what the Bible calls the flesh), and the Devil. God’s people in the Bible have experienced
it: Job, Jacob, Elijah, Asaph, and
Jeremiah (“The weeping prophet”) come to mind.
No doubt you’ve experienced it either briefly or for longer periods of
time. Pastors and other counselors deal
with it regularly in the people they’re called to serve.
My guest pastor to
help me and to help you as we wrestle with questions about depression is
Pastor Meint Ploegman of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Bohemia here on
Long Island. Pastor Meint, welcome again
to A Visit to the Pastor’s Study.
Here’s a link to the full program:
Yours in the God of all comfort,
Pastor
Bill