Psalm 88. A song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah to the choirmaster according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite. O Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before You. Let my prayer come before You; incline Your ear to my cry. For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol. I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am a man who has no strength, like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom You remember no more, for they are cut off from Your hand. You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and You overwhelm me with all Your waves. You have caused my companions to shun me; You have made me a horror to them. I am shut in, so that I cannot escape. My eye grows dim through sorrow; every day I call upon You, O Lord; I spread out my hands to You. Do You work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise You? Is Your steadfast love declared in the grave, or Your faithfulness in Abaddon? Are Your wonders known in the darkness, or Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? But I, O Lord, cry to You; in the morning my prayer comes before You. O Lord, why do You cast my soul away? Why do You hide Your face from me? Afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I suffer Your terrors; I am helpless. Your wrath has swept over me; Your dreadful assaults destroy me. They surround me like a flood all day long; they close in on me together. You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness. Let's pray. Lord, I pray that You would descend to us in mercy and lift us up out of our despair. Teach us wisdom from Your Word, and cause us, Lord, to lay hold of You and Your promises in the places dark and deep. Speak to us now, we ask, in Jesus' name. Amen. I'd like to begin a series on spiritual depression. I've titled this sermon "Darkness is my closest friend." The dark night of the soul is a phrase that has been used by theologians to refer to a period of deep distress and trouble of soul. R.C. Sproul, developing this idea, says, "This is no ordinary fit of depression, but is one that is linked to a crisis of faith, a crisis that comes when one senses the absence of God or gives rise to feeling of abandonment by Him." It was Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones that referred to this experience as spiritual depression. Luther, by a German word that means an assault. Bunyan as dreadful temptations, and others by the term spiritual desertion or melancholy. It was the Puritan author and pastor Thomas Goodwin who experienced seven years of darkness, particularly with relationship to assurance of his faith and his own soul's salvation. He wrote an entire treatise called "A Child of Light Walking in Darkness." What he meant by that is not moral darkness of sin, but the darkness of not seeing things clearly concerning his soul's salvation. And he wrote this to help others through the same distress that he himself went through. Part of the title of this treatise—when the Puritans write books, by the way, their treatise is as long as maybe three sentences—and so part of the title of this treatise is "showing the causes by which, the cases wherein, and the ends for which God leaves His children to distress of conscience." And that treatise has the opening verse of the treatise from Job 34:29, which says, "When He hides His face, who can behold Him?" C.H. Spurgeon experienced deep depression that came to him from a combination of things. He was preaching in the music hall at Surrey Hills and Surrey Gardens music halls, and there was someone who called, "Fire! Fire!" But there was no fire. But so many people that occupied that place to hear him preach that day started to quickly rush out of that building, and seven people were killed and 28 severely injured. Spurgeon really never got over this thing. It plagued him, the thought that that happened in his ministry. Coupled with this was his ill health. He had kidney inflammation, gout, rheumatism, and neuritis. He was overworked, he was stressed, and frequently criticized. And so Spurgeon himself testified, and others also, that he had regular waves of depression that would lay him low for seasons of his life and his ministry. He would frequently take long breaks and different breaks to try and recover and recruit from these. But such was his situation that sometimes he would weep for an hour, and he wouldn't know what he's weeping about. I guess the question this morning is, how is it with you? How is it with your soul this morning? Is it well with your soul? I love what Spurgeon said, "As to mental maladies or trouble, that is, is any man altogether sane? Are we not all a little off balance?" Perhaps this morning, you are walking near the precipice of depression, right near the cliff but have not yet fallen. Perhaps you have thoughts that assail you, panic attacks of fear and of helplessness, yet you have not yielded yet to their strength. Perhaps you're falling, that life now has become to look dark. You're sensing that you're in a place of hopelessness and meaningless, and you feel that the darkness is closing in on you. Or perhaps you have walked along the precipice, you've fallen, and now you feel like, "You know what, I'm at rock bottom." What you've just described doesn't describe me, things are even worse than that. And you feel as though the darkness has gone on so long, the hopelessness has set in so deeply that it has become an ordinary, acceptable reality of your life, and the only light that appears to be before you is death, which is no light at all. Well, this Psalm is a song of sorrow, and it speaks to the condition of spiritual depression. It speaks to a season in the life of Heman the Ezrahite who struggled with this. Every time God's name is employed in this Psalm, it is it is preceded by the exclamatory word, "O!" O Lord. And it's not "O Lord, how majestic is Your name." It's "O Lord, O Lord, what's going on?" It's dark. I'm helpless. An expression of agonizing, of anguish, of groaning, and of crying. This man's soul in verse number three of the text is full of troubles. He clearly describes his state. He says, "My soul is full of troubles," not just troubled here and there, but if you were to look in my life, it would be packed with troubles. Not just one thing, many things. His heart is burning. It is down, it is depressed. He is affected and afflicted. He describes his experience as drawing near to death, being without strength, being unremembered, being in places dark and deep. And the psalmist has questions for God. He says to God in verse number 10 to 12, he says, "Is your, do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you? Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon, or in the ruinous places? Are your wonders known in darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness, or in the land of oblivion?" And he has questions for God. And the question verse set of questions that he has for God is, "God, what good am I to you dead?" I mean think about it. Do do do you do wonders for the dead? Like when you perform wonders, they're done for the living because the living respond in praise to You. Now what good am I to You dead? He's really struggling with God's purposes in his life and what he's going through in his situation. "What good am I to You in the grave? Is Your steadfast love declared in the grave?" "No, I declare Your steadfast love while I'm living, but I can't now because of all the pressures that are in my life, and my soul is full of trouble, and I feel like all I need to do is die, and what then?" It's a cry of helplessness. Come on God, is this it? Is this my life? My life is basically snuffed out. How is this even good for You? And the next set of questions is a little bit more troubling because verse number 14 says, "O Lord, why do You cast my soul away? Why do You hide Your face from me?" And essentially what he's saying is, "God, why is it that you are behaving and treating me, at least as it appears in my experience, as though you are against me?" I mean, am I your friend or am I your enemy? And if I am your friend, why do these things happen to me? He's confused. Verse four to seven, he says it like this, "I'm counted among those who go down to the pit, like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, cut off from Your hand. Your wrath lies heavy upon me." Does that sound like the experience of a Christian? And this is what he's wrestling with. You're treating me like this. My entire experience of You at this point is one of abandonment. I do not feel Your nearness. I do not feel Your felt presence. All I feel is what an unbeliever should feel as it is should go down to the pit and die. Verse 15 to 18, "I'm afflicted and close to death. I suffer Your terrors. Your wrath has swept over me. Your dreadful assaults destroy me. You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me." Now, usually when we read a Psalm similar to this in the rest of the Psalms, we wait for that glimmer of hope and beam of light at the end. "But Lord, here You are to save me." But you know, it doesn't come in this passage. His experience is of darkness and he sees no light. In fact, in Hebrew, the last word of the Psalm is "darkness." That's the word. And as the NIV translates it, it says, "Darkness is my closest friend." The man finishes off his Psalm by saying, "I am helpless," verse 15. "My companions have become darkness," or as NIV puts it, "darkness is my closest friend." And he uses imagery of waves. It's like, I'm out in sea and the waves, they come to me, but now they start to come over me. And as they come over me, I start to struggle. I feel suffocated. I feel like I can't breathe. And instead of as it were, feeling a hand of rescue to come and pull me out, I am sinking. And as I sink, the lights of the sun that shines into the surface of the water can no longer be seen. Darkness surrounds me. Darkness is my closest friend. This is Heman's response to the "Are you okay?" question of our day. I want to ask you this morning, what would you be your response to that question? If you were to honestly open up your heart before us or before the Lord even this morning and answer the question, "Are you doing okay?" what Psalm would you write? What would be your song? I'm not talking about the song you know to sing that you sing because your theology tells you to sing it. That's good. But I'm asking a deeper question, "How is it with your soul?" Really, truly with your experience of God at the present. Do you know something of what Heman is talking about in this Psalm? The idea that he is not experiencing as it were any sensible tokens of God's goodness or God's presence in his life. Of course, we know God is everywhere, but I'm, it's more than this. He's not bothered by the the the that issue. He is bothered by the fact that I do not feel your presence. I do not sense your smile. Your face does not seem to be shining upon me. Perhaps you feel like God has given you death instead of life, sorrow instead of joy, weakness instead of strength, and you have questions for God this morning too, just like Heman the Ezrahite. You know, the truth is, this Psalm raises a lot of questions for us. Lots. Can this possibly be the condition of a man who regards himself as a Christian? The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. Doesn't it raise that kind of question in your mind? We don't see that here. Is the way out of this darkness and depression that Heman is in in the Psalm, is it dependent upon him or is it dependent on God? Because the language seems to suggest that, "God, You put me here. God, You gotta get me out of here." It raises questions. Should he just try harder? Or is this something that God alone can deliver him from? What are the responsibilities for Heman at this point? Another question, even more deeper to consider is, is it sinful to think this way? To express yourself in such language that seems so God-forsaken. Would a person like this feel comfortable in Camden Valley Baptist Church to share, to talk, to sing a song of such sorrow to us? You know, some of these questions are answered in the Psalm's superscription. They're the kind of parts that you don't really, like you breeze over, but we read it this morning. That's the part that is before verse one in the inspired text. It's there. "A song, a Psalm of the sons of Korah to the choirmaster according to the Mahalath Leannoth, a Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite." What does the superscription of this Psalm tell us about the man behind this Psalm? Was he a believer? Yes, most definitely. We could even argue more than a believer. Heman the Ezrahite was the grandson of Samuel the prophet, named one of the seers in 2 Corinthians, one who took leading part in the administration of the sacred services in the temple. Perhaps one of even the sons of Korah whose name actually means faithful. A saved man, a man of worship, a man of prayer, a man who knows that God is the God of salvation, verse number one. A man who understands that it is God who does wonders, a man who even understands that God is sovereign, that the things coming to him are coming from the hand of God, and that his salvation comes from the Lord. And so we get the answer to that. Yes, this is possible for a believer to speak this way, isn't it? A believer even who may be regarded as a spiritual leader in the church of God. Perhaps one that you would not point out as someone who would experience such depression. Yet depression is no respecter of persons. If you belong to the fallen world of which we are all a part, we're not immune from its experiences. Seasons of despondency reach the rich, the poor, the spiritual, the godly, the ungodly, all people on the earth. It was Thomas Goodwin who said this, "That one who truly fears God and is obedient to Him may be in a condition of darkness and have no light, and he may walk many days and years in that condition." Beyond this, what does the superscription tell us about his experience or this experience? Well, this is a Psalm, a song. And it was part of the hymn book of the children of Israel of Israel, meaning this is not the isolated experience of one man and a historical record of his account alone. But the fact that this is a song to be sung by the children of Israel is to say that this is something that is not unique to Heman alone, but we are all potentially subject to, in some way or another, and we ought to sing in such a way that reminds us of the our human frailty and our need for the mercy of God. A song like this will never make a modern hymn book. Maybe someone can craft one, we can sing it together one Sunday on the projector. I'm sure it still won't be that popular. It's a tune and a lyrics here to be ready on the tongues of the children of Israel. Now, what is the error of the church in response to Heman the Ezrahite that go through things like this? I think there has been a twofold error toward men like Heman the Ezrahite by the church, to which I want us to think about in laying a foundation for what we will look at in the coming weeks. I think error number one looks something like this. Sorry Heman, but we cannot help you. An attitude of dismissiveness. Heman, this is not our field. It's all biochemistry. Don't expect us to bear this one with you. Go see a doctor. Don't talk to me about your problems. Isn't there some kind of pill you can take to fix this? You're too difficult for us. Please don't burden us down with your trouble. We only want happy and chirpy people in the church that have big smiles on their face. Yet how shall any soul that is going through affliction like this, believer or unbeliever, be comforted apart from Christ and His gospel? Despite the possible need for medical intervention in many cases, how can the church ignore bruised reeds like this and smoking wicks like this? Aren't these the very people that our Savior minister to? Are not these the very people for whom Christ died? Did He not care for the brokenhearted? Are they not the ones whom He came to heal? And beyond this, does not our gospel teach us that the conscience cannot have lasting rest and sweet peace with God and within until it lays hold of the promises of God in Christ? Is it not us who say to sinners, "Come to the water and drink and you'll be satisfied. Come to the light and you'll be in darkness no more?" How can any conscience have sweet lasting rest of any kind through any kind of affliction that is both physical, mental, spiritual, whatever it may be, apart from drawing from the fullness of Christ? There are hope in God's promises. There is redemption that He offers to the soul and promises one day to the body. To dismiss people that go through such hardship as the church of Jesus Christ is to be acting contrary to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And beyond this, let's think for a moment. How did the children of Israel deal with their trauma? How have people who have confessed the name of God throughout the histories dealt with their struggles? Think about it for a moment. The children of Israel in slavery and in bondage. Imagine being there when Pharaoh decrees that the children that are young, that are being born, that are male children, must be thrown, must be killed. And Moses was spared, but Moses was one of the only ones that was spared, if we could say, or a few that were spared. What about all the mothers that had their children ripped from them at the point of birth and destroyed? You don't think they would have experienced very difficult trauma and hardship? Of course they would have. Some like we may have never even known and experienced in our day. How do we how do we think about David and his warfare experiences, seeing dead bodies slain young and old and children, even participating in in some of that violence? Don't you think when he put his head down at night that he had post-traumatic stress disorder? Of course he would have struggled deeply in his own mind and at flashes in his thoughts and wondered about himself and what he has done and struggled. That's perhaps what's fueling a lot of his Psalms. Making decisions that result in lost soldiers, wives losing husbands, children losing fathers because the captain of the commander is making decisions, some good and some bad, some that he regrets, and he bears the burden of the nation of Israel upon his shoulders. What about anxiety? Don't you think he would have experienced anxiety when Saul is chasing him? And he says I'm like like a bird fleeing to the mountains, constant and assault on his mind and upon his heart, that any corner I turn might be my enemy with the spear to come and take my life. What distress, what hardship. But the children of Israel, where did they find their strength? Where did David find his strength? He found it in the Lord. He cries to God. He pleads with God. He calls upon the name of the Lord. He pours out his heart to God. He cries to God. He remembers God's rule. He remembers God's righteousness that God will deal with sinners and with sin. But he also remembers God's mercy and God's grace and God's promises and His steadfast love, which all becomes for him a bulwark and a shield and a high tower which his soul can run into and find rest, even if it's rest for a minute in the midst of a deep, troubled soul. And he keeps coming back to that rest when the trouble assails him again. And so error number one is, "Sorry, Heman, we have no help for you." But error number two perhaps of the church looks something like this. "Heman, confess your sin, mate." It's all sin. What are you hiding? If you confess, all will be well. And as Job's friends, we cannot think in complex, nuanced ways, and we are, just like Job's friends were to Job, miserable comforters. That's what Job said to them. You are miserable comforters. The error of an oversimplified approach to the complexities of the heart and of the soul is also the issue that we must face. Generalized sweeping answers as if it's just going to solve everything. Just let go and let God. If you just surrender more, if you just confess some secret sin, or worse, your depression is because you have a demon. And there are websites online where you can go to deliverance websites and you can fill out a form that asks you what you're going through and it tells you, "You know, depression this, that," and they they believe that you can be delivered from this. Which for many people just throws them deeper into depression as they find no deliverance and feel like they have no help in sight. This is very damaging. But I'm also going to suggest to you that it could also be any one of the things that I just mentioned or a combination of some of the things that I just mentioned that actually will work to someone's deliverance and to someone's help. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that the church must learn from her Lord Jesus Christ how to handle souls. Because Jesus did not dismiss the needs of people both body and soul. He healed not only the brokenhearted, but He also healed the sick. Physical sickness and mental health are the business of the church. I'm saying not to the exclusion of medical help, but it is the business of the church. We ought not to dismiss the brokenhearted, and neither are we meant to dismiss the sick. We should not be dismissive. We should be involved. James chapter five says it this way in its instruction to believers, "Is any suffering or that is afflicted, let him pray," simply saying that your affliction, physical and mental, can be helped by means of prayer. And this is what the Psalms are, aren't they? Prayers and songs of prayer, whether it be sorrow or of praise or of trust or of hope, it is all prayer, songs of praise. If any are afflicted among you, let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms or sings praises. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call a doctor. Yes, if you need to see a doctor, see a doctor. But look at the business of the church also included in this matter. Let him call the elders of the church. Let him anoint him with oil. Let him pray over him. And the prayer of faith will save one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up. Simply saying that there are many means at the disposal of the people of God, including medical help, yet the reality is it is God who ultimately heals. It is God who ultimately saves. And therefore, as God's people, we ought to not be dismissive of those that are struggling, but offer whatever help that we can help to those in need. But Jesus also understood the relationship between the physical and the psychological and possibly even the demonic. This might be new for you to think about, but there's a couple of texts of scriptures I want you to think about with me just for a moment. We must not merely think materialistically, as if it is all biochemistry and chemical imbalances. There is a realm of the spiritual that impacts the physical and the psychological. There was a boy with an unclean spirit that they brought to Jesus. He was mute. He was having seizures. He was being thrown down. He grinded his teeth and became rigid in his body. And when they asked him how long it's been happening, it's been happening to him since childhood. And so here are some physical manifestations that Jesus, when He deals with this demonic spirit that was troubling this boy, the boy is healed of his physical ailments also. Same is true of the lady that was bent down backwards for 18 years, and she could not get help for her condition. But Jesus said, "Satan has bound her for these 18 years," and He loosed her and she basically stood upright. It's very it's very interesting, isn't it? How can a spirit physically derange an individual? And if someone presents, if you're a doctor in your clinic like this, how do you think? Do do you have categories, I'm saying? Medical categories, spiritual categories, all the categories that exist in the New Testament to help troubled souls. It was Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones that tells a story, he was a medical doctor that left the medical field, one of the top medical doctors who went to one of the top schools in London. He left the medical field to become a pastor. But throughout his entire ministry, people wanted to get advice from him about medical issues. Doctors even came to him and asked him questions about these things. And he tells a story about a poor girl who was supposed to be paralyzed, and many doctors had fallen into the trap that since she could not walk that she had an organic disease. She was bedridden for eight years. She didn't leave her bed. She couldn't walk. And doctors couldn't work out what this organic disease was. And so it fell to the lot of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones to see her, partly as a doctor and partly as a minister. And he says this, "And what struck me immediately was that this was not an organic disease at all, but it was clearly a case of devil possession." He says, "How did I know that?" "Well, one of the reasons was that when I approached her bed with her doctor and her own minister, the expression on her face changed to something I shall never forget, and though she had not been able to walk for eight years, she began to make the most violent movements with her arms, legs, and head and continued this for 10 minutes." Later, listen to this, as the result of the conversion of her two sisters, she was carried to church at first, and finally, she herself was converted. Nothing was ever said about her paralysis, but it was just completely it just completely disappeared. Interesting, isn't it? My wife has a degree in psychology, and she used to be a case worker that helped people integrate back into society as they had mental health illnesses and trouble. And early in our relationship, I remember Natalie sharing with me this experience she had where she was working with a woman who had been an ex-prostitute who was trying to integrate back into society, and this woman was diagnosed as mentally ill with schizophrenia, and she had hallucinations, very real experiences that she'd been having. And so Natalie probed further to try and understand when these hallucinations began, to which the lady responded after she had visited a hypnotist. Now, what are we to make of that? I'm saying as Christians that thinking categories that are not merely atheistic and materialistic. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Do we have a category of thinking like this? And there was another case in our experience where the opposite was true. We had this lady that was convinced that she was demonically possessed, and we sat with her for months and hours, examining her situation, and it was clear to us that she was not demonic possessed. But she had believed the lie of the devil that she was, and she was debilitated. She had two major psychotic episodes that ended up her being on the strongest medication that was available at the time. Poor lady had been trapped in these thoughts. We must remember that things aren't as simple as they may seem to us in these issues, and therefore we must be careful. That depression, spiritual depression is varied. The reasons are varied. There may be issues due to sin. There may be issues due to failure of one's duties, a lack of doing what you know you're supposed to do, and feeling a sense of guilt that compounds and compounds and compounds upon your soul and your unwillingness to address that and face that and come to the light in that causes you to have soul trouble. It could be a lack of assurance of faith, the onslaught of temptation even, not possession, but even oppression from the enemy. There could be spiritual desertion in the case of Psalm 88 where he feels that God's presence is far removed from him. It could be affliction, even physical affliction that affects your mind and affects your heart. Could be the fact that you feel unuseful, often experienced by people that come into times of retirement. And it could be certain physiological conditions themselves. And it could be things like overtiredness and burnout that affects people severely with their mental state. And we have to be careful that we do not categorize everything merely as sin. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones tells another story about a woman who was losing her power of concentration and was deeply lethargic. And she was struggling severely because she didn't have desire for spiritual activities anymore, and she felt like there's something wrong with my spiritual life. And so she wrote to some preacher who by correspondence tried to help her, but her condition only got worse and worse. And Martyn Lloyd-Jones said this, "This is his own words. He said, 'I only had to take one glance at this good lady to see that she was suffering from a disease known as pernicious anemia.'" Which is basically a severe B12 deficiency leading to low red blood counts that cause fatigue, pale skin, and shortness of breath. And as a result of her anemia, she was losing energy and power of and power of concentration. Isn't it fascinating? Poor lady probably being cobbled thinking that she's not godly or spiritual, but she just needs some pills to help her get her B12 back up. Spurgeon said, "Do not think it unspiritual to remember that you have a body. The physician is often as needful as a minister." And we should do well to remember that. These variety of cases that I'm bringing to your attention are for this sole purpose as we work through this issue of spiritual depression to teach us that we must continually avoid extremes. We must think holistically about man. We must approach these issues eclectically. We must keep away from mechanical approaches, like things like five steps to a happy life. Oh man, I reckon those books have increased depression over the years. You know, or pray this prayer and all your depression will be dispelled. It's like, do you really understand the complexities of the human heart? Do you really understand spiritual warfare? Or is it just mechanical? You push this button and all is well. Man, that might sell books, but it won't help souls. Our help comes from the Lord, the Bible says, and our expectation is from Him. And these things are not automatic. They are not just a matter of pushing a button or taking a pill to ultimately fix your problem. These things may aid in the help, you're getting help, but ultimately your help is going to come from the Lord, which simply means that we must be a people who remember that it is God who saves, it is God who delivers. I need the Lord. So the woman in Luke chapter eight verse 43 that had a discharge of blood for 12 years, that saw spent all her living on physicians and could not be healed, Jesus does not rebuke her for seeking physicians out. You understand? But her attitude shifts when she meets of this man named Jesus who heals people, and she says, "If I could just touch the hem of his garment, I will be healed." And she pursues Jesus, lays hold of the hem of her garment, and that which the doctors were unable to free her of, she is freed and healed by the healing streams of Jesus by the hand of a sovereign God. What's the point? The point is your hope must be in God for any kind of healing. We must not adopt any ideology that dismisses personal responsibility and increases inactivity. Dismissing responsibility for sinful conduct is not going to help you or your family or your friends. We should never minimize human responsibility. We cannot explain away terms sin and disobedience in terms of the medical. A condition may a condition that you have or a sickness that you have may create conditions where temptation to sin is easier for you. Yes, most definitely. Your upbringing may create conditions in which it is easier for you to sin in certain ways, most definitely. But it is not your bipolar that sins. It is not your depression that sins. It is not your anxiety that will stand before God one day and give an account of itself. It is you that will. It is how you exercise your will in light of the struggles. It's how you respond in your struggle and temptation. We must be aware of fatalistic approaches that keep us away from applying means. We fall into condemnation and give up and throw up our hands and say, "I can't do anything about this." We must continue to fight. We must not lose heart. You know, we must continue to believe that even though there are many causes for our soul's trouble, that there is no ultimate cause that is genuine enough for us to settle for a life of discouragement and a life for being downcast. What I'm saying is there's never, the Christian should never have the mentality that these verses don't apply to me because I am sick. You understand that? This should be a constant desire to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. This should be a constant longing. And if it means more crying out to God, then more crying out to God. If it means more struggling on, then it means more struggling on. But do not rest for a fatalistic view where you throw your hands up and say, "I'm done for. I can do nothing about this." No, you must be like David who interrogates himself and says, "Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me?" He's not going to settle for a life of anxiety or for a life of downcast. He's going to encourage himself in the Lord with everything that he has. And when he cannot encourage himself, he is going to move towards people that can encourage him and he's going to seek God and do all that he can, even though his praying feels like it's doing nothing. Therefore, whatever the cause, you must continue to hope in God. Heman here in this passage has a dark night of the soul, but Heman is doing one thing that encourages us. He's praying constantly and incessantly to God. There is no hope and light in the Psalm. You understand that? But there is a lesson that sheds light on us as readers of the Psalm, and that is that Heman believes that his help comes from God. Heman understands and knows that he does is not wise to isolate your soul's trouble from a relationship to God. He sees them as coming from God and he sees that I must go to God for the help that I need. He is a man that his trouble stir him up to seek God. And this is where we must remain where Heman remains. Even though there is no light at the end of the tunnel as it were for you and you cannot see it and all is dark, you must pursue God. You must agonize with Him. He doesn't give way to inactivity. He wrestles with God. I love what Ecclesiastes says, a better is a living dog than a dead lion, right? You know, this is what this is what it's about, right? He's not navel-gazing, he's crying out. He's calling on the name of the Lord. He's wrestling with God's purposes. He's struggling. He's questioning God. And I like that about Heman because he's real. And he's not giving up. That's the lesson we should learn from him. He doesn't give way to inactivity. He is like one who has true faith. True faith, not that makes you happy and chirpy, but true faith that perseveres. True faith that says something like this, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table." What persistence of faith. Like the widow that knocks, knocks, knocks, the unjust judge is like, "Get away from me, this woman's troubling me." "Ah, she just keeps on knocking." And then the judge gives in and gives her what she requests. And and Jesus says, "That's exactly the faith that you need to have. Keep on praying, keep on asking, keep on knocking, because God will eventually will come through in His time and in His way." The kind of faith like Jacob in his trouble and in his wrestle with this angel, he says, "I will not let you go until you bless me." That's the attitude of Heman. I'm not giving up, Lord. This is the kind of faith that should help us through our soul's trouble. And one more thing I want you to see in closing in this Psalm. If we don't see this in the Psalm, we don't see really where our help comes from. I see Jesus in this Psalm. Say, "How can you see Jesus in such a dark place like this?" I see Him there agonizing in the garden, crying out to His Father, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me." And I see how it corresponds to the psalmist's soul that is full of trouble, for Jesus says, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful." I see him as one who goes down into the pit, one who is forsaken of God, one who is forsaken of his friends. And it could very well be said of Jesus that darkness became his closest friend while he hung there upon the cross and cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Where is his disciples? They're sleeping when he's in the garden. He's in his circle, his closest friends. Darkness has become his closest friend. On the cross, he's crying out, "Where is his help?" It is far from him, but he cries out for our redemption. He cries out for our salvation, forsaken of God. There in the garden, there on the cross, the psalmist says, "Your wrath lies heavy upon me," and Jesus could say the same, "Your wrath lies heavy upon me," as he bore our sins in his own body upon the cross. Here is a Savior that knows what it's like to be a friend of the darkness, to have darkness as his closest friend. Here is a Savior who knows what it's like to have the felt presence of God removed from him as he hangs there alone and forsaken, who could cry something out like this, "I am helpless." And such was the darkness that the sky testified to it in the middle of the day as all went dark there while Jesus hung upon the cross. Brother and sister, you are not alone in your dark night of the soul. The cup of wrath, the cup of sorrow, the cup of anguish that our Lord drank, He drank, and He had that experience even though He was without sin. But He was made like unto us in His humanity, in His frailty. He went to the darkest night, but not only did He go into the darkest of night, He came out conquering the darkest night. Jesus knows the pathway into the dark shadows of the night, but He knows that the light eventually comes from the Lord, and the day dawned on the resurrection day when up from the grave our Savior arose, conqueror over sin and over death. God did not leave his soul in hell or in Hades. Neither did He suffer his holy one to see or allow His holy one to see corruption. And the truth then is for us also that if we are united to Christ through faith, neither will our soul forever remain in the grave. I say that both physically as a reality, but also spiritually. The day will dawn one day when this corruptible will put on incorruption, and then will be brought to pass the saying, "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?" You see, the dark night of the soul is only a temporary experience for the believer because the hope of heaven awaits him. It is only that we must wait and hang on just a little bit longer, and soon Jesus will come forth in blazing light and redeem us from this corruptible body and all its ailments. And more than this, Jesus, the One who is king and redeemer, is also priest forever, the One who sympathizes with us in our weakness. And no matter how dark your night is this morning, I want you to understand and realize in closing this, that Jesus Himself says to you, "I see you. I feel your pain. I have tasted of the darkness of that night, and I am no miserable comforter. If you come unto Me, you will find rest for your soul." Therefore, He had to be made like unto his brothers in every respect, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because He Himself has suffered when He has when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted. Therefore, let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Let us pray.