Here is another good one I found.
If you are suffering from depression, you need to know that God loves and accepts you the way you are. You are a unique person. No one else has your exact combination of genetics and life experiences. Your thoughts, desires, temptations, and feelings – even the ones that you prefer others not know about – are completely normal for you. They are the thoughts, desires, temptations, and feelings that your unique combination of genetics and life experiences has produced. You might not be average, but you are normal. Moreover, every one of your feelings, desires, temptations, and behaviors is a feeling, desire, temptation, and behavior that is common to the human race. The Apostle Paul implied that there is a commonality in human race in I Corinthians 10:13: “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” So, you do not have to force yourself into a mold that does not fit the person you are just to please others. And you most certainly do not have to do so to please God. Accept yourself as you are because God has accepted you as you are.
The book of Psalms contains some of the most comforting and tranquilizing passages in the Bible. Several of them speak not just to the human mind but also to the human spirit. Some of the best were written about 3000 years ago by the Jewish King David.
David was the most revered of all Jewish kings. He was described in the Bible as a man after God’s own heart (I Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22). Not only was David a great king, but he was also a great warrior, an accomplished musician, a wonderful poet, and the author of many of the Psalms of the Old Testament. God had chosen David to be king, and He greatly blessed his reign. However, David was not a perfect man by any stretch. At the height of his career, he fell into one of the most shocking and grievous sins recorded in the entire Bible. One day while walking on the roof of his palace, he spotted a beautiful woman on a nearby roof bathing. He was so captivated by her beauty that he commanded his servants to bring her to his palace. The problem was that she was a married woman. In fact, she was married to one of the best and most loyal soldiers in David’s army. But David allowed himself to be overcome by infatuation and passion, and failed to properly consider the ramifications of his actions. His adulterous affair with Bathsheba and the subsequent arranged murder of her husband is one of the most well-known accounts in the Bible.
David suffered great emotional anguish over his affair with Bathsheba and its aftermath. He wrote as many as three Psalms expressing his grief and anguish during those dark days of his life. Psalm 32, Psalm 38, and Psalms 51 were probably written during this time. They express the deep contrition he felt over the affair. But, the Bathsheba affair was not the first time David experienced depression in his life.
Years earlier, while a loyal servant to King Saul, David fell under Saul’s jealous mistrust. David’s prowess as a warrior in battle together with his great popularity with the people led Saul to view David as a threat to his throne. Even though David had been completely loyal to Saul and had given him no reason to doubt his loyalty, Saul had decided that the best way to deal with this perceived threat was to eliminate it. So, Saul launched into a concerted effort to kill David. David was forced to flee Jerusalem and hide in caves and the rugged countryside of Israel. He was forced to rely upon the favor and generosity of the Jewish people for his sustenance. Thanks to God’s protection and the support of the Jewish people, David was able to avoid capture despite Saul’s best efforts to find him. Those days of being on the run from Saul were, prior to the Bathsheba affair, among the very worst days of David’s life. David put some of his feelings into numerous Psalms during those difficult days. Psalm 34, Psalm 35, Psalm 40, Psalm 52, Psalm 54, Psalm 55, Psalm 56, Psalm 57, Psalm 59, and Psalm 63 are some of the Psalms that David probably wrote during this period of his life.
Reading Psalms written during a periods of David’s great stress allows us a window into the inner turmoil he experienced. These Psalms speak to us at a deeply emotional level. When you feel depressed, these Psalms are well worth reading. Many of David’s Psalms are also Messianic in nature in that they express the deep turmoil within the heart of Jesus who bore the weight of the sins of whole world in His body. So, even though David was writing about his own inner turmoil, his words often reflect the heart of Jesus in the worse moments of His life. Below are some excerpts from a few of David’s Psalms that can speak to the very soul of a depressed person. As you read some of the Psalm excerpts below, feel the anguish that Jesus felt as He hung on the cross baring the full weight of our sins in His body. In particular, pay close attention to the words of Psalm 69. I have reproduced it in its entirety. It is the last one quoted below.
Psalm 34:4-7:
4 I sought the LORD, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
5 They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed.
6 This poor man cried out, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them.
Psalm 38:1-10:
1 O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your wrath, nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure!
2 For Your arrows pierce me deeply, and Your hand presses me down.
3 There is no soundness in my flesh Because of Your anger, nor any health in my bones Because of my sin.
4 For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
5 My wounds are foul and festering because of my foolishness.
6 I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.
7 For my loins are full of inflammation, and there is no soundness in my flesh.
8 I am feeble and severely broken; I groan because of the turmoil of my heart.
9 Lord, all my desire is before You; and my sighing is not hidden from You.
10 My heart pants, my strength fails me; as for the light of my eyes, it also has gone from me.
Psalm 40:1-3:
1 I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry.
2 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps.
3 He has put a new song in my mouth—praise to our God; many will see it and fear, and will trust in the LORD.
Psalm 55:4-8:
4 My heart is severely pained within me, and the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
5 Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me, and horror has overwhelmed me.
6 So I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest.
7 Indeed, I would wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. Selah
8 I would hasten my escape From the windy storm and tempest.”
Psalm 69:
1 Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck.
2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
3 I am weary with my crying; my throat is dry; my eyes fail while I wait for my God.
4 Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; they are mighty who would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully; though I have stolen nothing, I still must restore it.
5 O God, You know my foolishness; and my sins are not hidden from You.
6 Let not those who wait for You, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed because of me; let not those who seek You be confounded because of me, O God of Israel.
7 Because for Your sake I have borne reproach; shame has covered my face.
8 I have become a stranger to my brothers, and an alien to my mother’s children;
9 Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.
10 When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting, that became my reproach.
11 I also made sackcloth my garment; I became a byword to them.
12 Those who sit in the gate speak against me, and I am the song of the drunkards.
13 But as for me, my prayer is to You, O LORD, in the acceptable time; O God, in the multitude of Your mercy, hear me in the truth of Your salvation.
14 Deliver me out of the mire, And let me not sink; Let me be delivered from those who hate me, And out of the deep waters.
15 Let not the floodwater overflow me, nor let the deep swallow me up; And let not the pit shut its mouth on me.
16 Hear me, O LORD, for Your lovingkindness is good; turn to me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies.
17 And do not hide Your face from Your servant, for I am in trouble; hear me speedily.
18 Draw near to my soul, and redeem it; deliver me because of my enemies.
19 You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor; my adversaries are all before You.
20 Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness; I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.
21 They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
22 Let their table become a snare before them, and their well-being a trap.
23 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see; and make their loins shake continually.
24 Pour out Your indignation upon them, and let Your wrathful anger take hold of them.
25 Let their dwelling place be desolate; let no one live in their tents.
26 For they persecute the ones You have struck, and talk of the grief of those You have wounded.
27 Add iniquity to their iniquity, and let them not come into Your righteousness.
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.
29 But I am poor and sorrowful; let Your salvation, O God, set me up on high.
30 I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving.
31 This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bull, which has horns and hooves.
32 The humble shall see this and be glad; and you who seek God, your hearts shall live.
33 For the LORD hears the poor, and does not despise His prisoners.
34 Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them.
35 For God will save Zion And build the cities of Judah, that they may dwell there and possess it.
36 Also, the descendants of His servants shall inherit it, and those who love His name shall dwell in it.
