Discovering Peace in Anxiety, Part 2
Psalm 42
St. John’s United Church of Christ
Greeley, Colorado
April 14, 2024
Rev. Juvenal Cervantes
In 2013 brain surgeon Lee Warren received a phone call that propelled him into a season of trauma, sorrow and mental distress. His son was found dead with eight stab wounds stabs to his neck and his son’s roommate also died and he had one stab to his neck.
A few weeks after his son’s horrific death, Dr. Warren said, “I had to make a decision, do I want lie here and die or stand and live?” As he asked himself this question, he remembered the words from the Old Testament, “I have set before you life and death, choose life!”
Last week we looked at the problem of mental distress, depression and anxiety: alienation. Today we’ll look at the solution: perseverance. We get to the chorus of this song in Psalm 42. The refrain is in verse five and verse eleven, it comes back around.
Notice verse five:
Why are you cast down, O my soul, (notice he’s speaking to his soul, this is critical, this is so important. Sometimes we need to stop listening to our own minds and to the lies that we’ve learned to believe, we need to speak truth to our soul) and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. Psalm 42:5-6a
The prominent question when we walk through seasons of despair and depression is “Why?” Don’t miss this, “why?” is a prayer, Jesus prayed it when he was on the cross, “Why have you abandoned me?”
The psalmist is reminding us of the truth of the gospel, the truth of God. Not a false gospel that says “Wow, I’m struggling so there must be something wrong with me…,” no, that’s not Christianity. We may be tempted to say, “Wow, something’s wrong with me, I must not believe the gospel,” preach the gospel to yourself.
You do believe, you can continue to believe. You see, the psalm teaches us that even though our feelings are real and we need to address them, and expressed them in appropriate ways, at times they’re not accurate depictions of reality. The truth of God is our anchor. Why do we remind ourselves to be on his word every single day? Because we’re hearing lies all day long and this is what happens in isolation when we walk through depression. The psalmist’s physical circumstances haven’t changed, his emotional life has not changed and the solution to make it is prayer.
Persevering in prayer. He does not say, “Well that did not work, I’ve got to move to something else.”
He’s staying in, look at verse six:
My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar (he’s describing hills up in galilee, this is where Jesus ministered).
The point is that he’s far from Jerusalem. The presence of God is Jerusalem and he is way northeast of Galilee and he’s questioning where is God.
Look at verse seven:
Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.
A constant barrage is coming at him. Notice that he says, “your waves, your waterfalls, your breakers.” God has spoken all things into existence. And God can bring his power and light into your dark seasons and he’s doing it today, he’s doing it while you’re here today.
Times of mental illness, depression, and anxiety is like grief. Grief does not have an expiration date on it. We don’t get through it. We live with it, we don’t get over it, but we do get pressed into it, and God gives us strengthen in it and we glorify God through it.
Look at verse eight:
By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
Look, beside his night filled with darkness and filled with tears, it is also filled with song. This is so powerful. Have you ever sung through weeping? Singing and weeping can go together. Some of the great psalms are weeping, like this one, songs to God.
Verse nine:
I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
It is common to feel forgotten in times of mental illness. Notice the relapse, he’s up, he’s down, and up and down, and this is the way it goes.
So what do we do? Here are some applications:
Six individual or family habits for mental health and wellness:
In my life and with my family, this is what we do. You can do this if you are single and or have a roommate. If you are a grandparent, you can enforce this in your house with your grandchildren.
1. Normalize talking openly about our struggles.
We need to talk about our anxieties, our depression. We say, “you’re only as sick as your secrets.”
2. Practice active listening and value honest communication.
We need to honor and value courageous honesty in our family.
3. Combat negativity with gratitude.
Praise God for his goodness, he’s always doing something good.
4. Share the best and worst parts of your day with each other.
We can say “Share your highs and lows” or What’s the weirdest thing that happened today, the funniest thing?” What made your glad, what made your sad?
5. Craft intentional unplugged time together without screens.
Gen Z is the first generation that has grown up all their lives with screens and we’re seeing devastating results. A lot of work is being done, intensive research, Jonathan Heigt is one who believes that young people should not have social media at all until they’re sixteen years. Why? Because we’re seeing the impact this is having on our students, especially young girls. In fact, a recent study suggests that 25% of middle school and high school girls have written a suicide plan.
Parents can set restrictions with children. Establish a no phone zone, where the phone is not in the room and at night time don’t let your kids go to bedtime with screens in their room. Establish long periods of time of free range play outside with kids and don’t let your restrictions be limited to your kids, model the role, put your phone down. Then parents might engage with children like we should be.
6. Commit to holistic wellness: walk, journal, pray, sleep.
The problem is alienation, the solution is perseverance and the Hope is healing.
The hope: healing.
Look at verse 10:
As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”
Look at this, he feels like he has a mortal wound. Folks who have an anxiety attack say, “I just felt like I was going to die.”
Again, who are these adversaries coming at him. It could be voices in his head, it could be self-medication, unhealthy habits, believing the lies of the adversary. There is an adversary. There is an accuser, you know this, and he seeks to kill, steal, and destroy. And this is what he’s doing in regard to mental health, it’s a part of living in this fallen world and it needs to be address by spiritual forces and the word of God.
Look at verse 11:
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.
He’s not feeling better; it has not been resolved. But it is not wishful thinking. Biblical hope is rooted in reality. He ends with a statement of faith and it comes from another who suffered before us, long before Jesus shows up.
You can find almost all of the seven words of Jesus when he went to the cross: I thirst, why have you abandoned me? I’ve got a mortal wound in my bones. Listen, we have a resource that the psalmist did not have. Jesus has come. He was abandoned so that we would never be. He was really abandoned. He was really thirsty. He took on the thirst that comes in a lost world with those who are separated from God.
In our singing we are going to proclaim this truth together. This is not self-talk. This is not cognitive behavioral therapy. CBT says: I’m a great person and I deserve it and I am going to be happy today. No, that’s not what this is. This is speaking truth as a child of God.
Romans 8:16 says, “The spirit bears witness that I am a child of God, and I belong to him and I’m speaking truth about what I know about him.” And it’s from the one who spoke the words, Jesus himself.
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
Spirituality is a universal truth of the human condition. Throughout the bible, from Genesis to Revelation we hear,
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
The grace of God has come to us and as the deer pants for the water our soul cries out to God because he has made us for himself and you will never find rest, until you turn to him and give your life to him.
Friends, here’s the call to action: don’t alienate yourself. Persevere with hope and never give up. Because God, he is our savior and our God.