Hope In God

by JOHNSON, J. | Category: N/a | Jul 2006

Most of us know what it’s like to be depressed from time to time; some of us to a greater degree than others, some of us for a longer time than others, and for different reasons. Christians know that the One they follow, Jesus, experienced depression (albeit of an incomparable anguish) in the Garden of Gethsemane the evening prior to His crucifixion. In the Authorised Version of the Bible we read that He ‘began to be sorrowful and very heavy’ while the New International Version translates it as He ‘began to be sorrowful and sore troubled’. He confided in three of His disciples, Peter, James and John, ‘‘My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death’’’ rendered in the NIV as ‘"My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death."‘

In Psalm 42 the psalmist asks,

‘Why are you cast down, O my soul?

And why are you disquieted within me?’

His faith in God appears to triumph for he says,

‘Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him

for the help (RV, health) of His countenance.’

But almost immediately he recognises that he cannot escape the reality of the depression that engulfs him -

‘O my God, my soul is cast down within me.’

There was no escaping the fact of deep depression. But in spite of this he says,

‘... therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan.’

Jordan is the descender. It descends into the Dead Sea, having its origin in the snowy heights of Hermon. It is reminiscent of the grace of the Lord Jesus who came from the pure, unsullied heights of joy in heaven and descended to the depths of the sorrows of Gethsemane and Calvary, to experience being ‘overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death’. He knew that a fearful death awaited Him, a death which meant separation from God, the source of joy. He did this for sinners that we might not be forever depressed.

He experienced the wrath of God,

‘... all Your waves and billows have gone over me.’

But He hoped in God. He believed that He would yet praise Him who was the health of His countenance and His God. Yes, in spite of the judgement that He was suffering on our behalf, He believed that when it was over, ‘The LORD would command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song should be with Him - a prayer to the God of His life.’

Jesus trusted in God throughout the awful darkness of Calvary, throughout the time of being forsaken by God, being banished from God, for He was the anti-type of the goat for Azazel in Leviticus 16. He hoped in God. He would yet praise Him who was the health of His countenance and His God. How unshakeable was His faith in God, how true the psalmist’s words of Him.

‘For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,

nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.

You will show me the path of life;

in Your presence is fullness of joy’ (Ps.16:10,11)

Jesus rose from the dead and lives for ever in the presence of God for us - for us who from time to time become depressed. When, during the evening of His betrayal, the Lord Jesus said, ‘I have given you an example’, we have seen that He has given us an example of hoping in God.

JOHNSON, J. | Jul 2006
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