Let your doctrine dictate to your heart!

David’s response to difficult times

I know many missionaries in Italy, one of them is my hero. One time in talking with his wife about the difficulties in life, we talked about the time her husband was depressed. The news came to me as a shock, thinking that certain things don’t happen to believers, much more to missionaries.

Have you ever faced something like depression?

So my question for today is, how are we to react if we ever face depression or know somebody that is affected by it?

What is depression.

It is a mix of negative feelings that effect our life to the point that we are unable to do the things that we used to do. It makes us passive and apathetic!

The thing is that those feelings are related to things that happen in life, can you think of some examples?

- loss of job

- loss of a child or a loved one

- having a serious illness

- hormone change

- post partum

In Psalms 3 David was going through some difficult times, what was his response in a time of crisis?

When David was writing this Psalm, his son Absalom was trying to take his kingdom and because of this plot, David is forced to leave his palace and run away for his life was in danger.

v1. Many were those who were against David and that supported Absalom. Many who used to be David’s friends betrayed him, turned their back on David. His own son acted evil against him.

v2. Those who were supporting Absalom probably thought that there was no more hope for David. From a human prospective, Absalom had many people that supported David's friends and enemies had every reason to think that David was done!

David had very right to be depressed, His own son, his friends betrayed him, he was forced to leave.

v3. David, however, knew some important truths: God was his shield - what does a shield do? Protects. David knew God was his protection.

God was the lifter of his head - when I think of this sentence an image comes to mind, the one of a child who is sad, discouraged. As a parent what do you do? You lift his chin up to encourage him. God is the One who lifts our chin up when we are down. God was his encourager.

v4. David cried as he prayed and God answered. What was the answer?

v5. “I lay down and slept” - how many times when we are troubled we loose sleep? We start thinking about the whys, and how's to solve the problems and it feels like a storm in our brain.

“I awoke for the Lord sustains me” - often when things go bad and we feel depressed, one of the major tendency is to want to sleep, almost to say "I don’t want to get up and deal with the problem” or “there is no hope, why do I even bother?” Well, David slept well and He also woke up knowing that the Lord sustained Him. David knew that God was his sustainer, He gave him peace at night and strength to face the day.

6. God took his fear- David was not afraid of what lied ahead, now he was able to fight them because he knew God was the only one who can save Him. One of the first things that we learned from David's life was that as a shepherd he faced so many wild animals. He was confident in God’s help, that is why he wanted to face Goliath, he knew even if he wasn’t as strong as the giant, God was on his side. Sometimes we forget how God has helped us in the past.

7. David’s prayer was the one for God’s urgent intervention.

8. The Lord saves and blesses 

The Psalm never states what the end result was in the battle. We aren't given insights into the battle strategies or whether or not David won or lost. David’s positive reaction was not based on the situations. God in fact had not changed the situation yet. David’s reaction was based on what he knew about God.

- God was his protection

- God was His encouragement

- God was his sustainer (peace at night and strength to face the day )

- God takes his fears

- God saves

Most of David’s strength in this difficult time was in his head, he defeated his feelings by speaking to his mind about God.

How many times do we face difficulties? What is our reaction? I think we know all these truths but for them to be effective we need to live them and be driven by them especially in the difficult time.

Let your doctrine dictate to your heart what it should think and feel!