Question and Answer

To speak of the Lord Jesus being “ashamed” of you is to suggest that there might be something you are doing that is displeasing or embarrassing to God, or that you are not living up to God’s standard by intentional choice. Clinically speaking, depression comes about not so much by our choices, but by factors such as our genetics. Depression sometimes runs in families. Biochemistry, personality, and environmental factors also may contribute to depression. These are all things we do not choose.

The Bible gives us an example of a depressed individual. The writer of Psalm 88 begins the psalm confessing, “Day and night I cry out to you” (v. 1), and he ends the psalm saying, “Darkness is my closest friend” (v. 18). Throughout the psalm, he declares that he is “overwhelmed with troubles” (v. 3), “without strength” (v. 4), his “eyes are dim with grief” (v. 9), and he has “terrors” and “despair” (v. 15). Yet we can’t say that God disapproves of the state of the psalmist. Instead, the Lord had the words composed into a song and placed into the book of Psalms by the collaborative efforts of the Sons of Korah and Heman the Ezrahite, songwriters and leaders of music in ancient Israel (1 Chron. 25:1–6; Pss. 42, 44–49, 84–85).

When Israel sang this psalm in worship, they expressed the feelings of depression. The Lord brought these words for us as part of the inspired Word of God—as part of His speaking to us. These words, though difficult, are profitable for Christian living (2 Tim. 3:16–17). The presence of this psalm in the canon of Scripture reveals that (1) God’s people have struggled with depression, (2) they have taken their depressed emotions to the Lord in prayer for help, hope, and mercy, (3) the Lord received their depressed cries as an expression of loving God with their heart, soul, mind, and strength. No, God is not ashamed of your depression. He loves you fully and eternally even while you, like the psalmist, are yet in the midst of depression.

The only embarrassment for a depressed soul might be to miss obtaining help, when the Lord has made available many resources. If you are depressed, you should talk about your depression to a member of your church’s pastoral staff and seek the counsel of a licensed therapist. The pastoral staff member will walk with you through spiritual matters. The professional therapist, gifted by the Lord with knowledge of the sciences of the brain and emotions, will discern factors contributing to your depressed feelings and guide you with the wisdom needed to manage them. Both pastoral care and mental health experts are God’s grace toward those in need of help.