King David suffered from depression

"Though David was mighty in battle, he was weak at home. Though he wrote poetry that soared to the heavens, he often was filled with depression and doubt. We will learn that God seldom removes us from conflict, but uses it to bring about spiritual maturity."
(p. 8, "Growing Through Conflict" by Erwin Lutzer)

"Despite David's failures---glaring failures---he was a "man after God's own heart." Though he died with his share of regrets, God Himself wrote his epitaph: "My servant David" (2 Sam. 3:18)."

"Few people have learned to draw on God's resources as often and as desperately as David; few have found God to be so sufficient in the hour of need."
(ibid, p. 19)

"He offered God his broken heart, and the Lord put the pieces of his wounded soul back together."
(ibid, p. 20)

"David, for all his faults, found satisfaction in his relationship with God."
(ibid, p. 19)

"Read the Psalms and you will be convinced that David reached his greatest heights on the days when he had his greatest lows."
(ibid, p. 19)

"For as he thinks within himself, so he is." (Prov. 23:7)

"...our giants are as big as we believe them to be."
(p. 32, "Growing Through Conflict," by Erwin Lutzer)

"God may want us to live with some giants; He may not remove our irritations, our domestic or vocational conflicts. He uses our battles to purify our hearts, to bring to light those sins that we have so confidently hid."
(Ibid, p. 33)
[note: Lutzer is obviously speaking to Christians in the above quote, as well as generally in the entire book]

"Like David, we must remember that the lessons we learned when confronted with smaller battles will prepare us for the bigger ones."
(Ibid, p. 33)

"Waiting for God becomes difficult when we see other people succeed at the very point where we are failing."
(Ibid, p. 37)

"...Christ asked, "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another, and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?" (John 5:44) We aren't submissive until we can give thanks to God for those who are more successful than we are."
(Ibid, p. 38)

"When we trust God against incredible odds, it just may turn out to be His finest moment in our lives."
(Ibid, p. 42)

Kristen.NewCreation said:

I love the Psalms for that reason... I feel I can relate to David.. and David was so loved by God.

Thanks for reminding us.

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You're welcome. I'm currently going over this material to help myself in what I've been going through, but at the same time, I want to share it with others, in hopes that it will help someone else, too.

childofgod57 said:

a novel idea,personally i dont think he was suffering depression just the things around him depressed him,remember his sin of desiring bathsheba caused retribution on his people by god,to live with that sort of guilt would break almost anybody,he made a mistake as we all do and paid a horrendous price for it,no small wonder he found sanctuary in his poems

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Plus he was running for his life from Saul and from his own son Absalom. He was constantly in hiding, especially from Saul. That could sure depress a person.

Leechness said:

thank you for posting extracts from the book. its been most useful, filling my thoughts with truth rather than destorted ones!

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You're welcome! I'm glad that this material has been helpful to others. The subtitle of the book is "Learn From David How Struggles Can Refine Our Faith." "Growing Through Conflict" is a good book to use as a Bible study on 1 and 2 Samuel, and each chapter directs you to first read a specific section from those two books of the Bible. By the time you finish the book, you will have read all of 1 and 2 Samuel as well.

Here are a few more quotes from it:

"Many times our prayers are nothing more than expressions of worry and manipulative anxiety. Prayer in itself is not as powerful as honest submission, the committing of a conflict to God, awaiting His resolution of the outcome. The test of true commitment is whether we can rest in the knowledge that the outcome has been transferred from our shoulders to God's."
(Erwin Lutzer, "Growing Through Conflict," pp. 42-43)

"For David, Goliath was one problem; Saul was quite another. There was no dramatic answer to the threat of this paranoid madman. God just let the problem drag on, year after year, until David thought that the Almighty had long forgotten about His promise. Why? God was teaching David to wait. He had enrolled him in the school of brokenness.
Gene Edwards suggests that if David had not experienced ten years of pain, he would have grown up to be "King Saul II"."
(ibid, p. 43)

"Saul..." "...revealed a heart that was in direct opposition to the will and purpose of God." "A heart that was obsessed with its own importance."
(ibid, p. 43)