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Today we will read Psalm 43:5 which says, “Why am I so depressed? Why this turmoil within me? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise Him, my Savior and my God.”

If there’s something in us that thinks we need to clean ourselves up a bit before approaching God then perhaps there’s an equal temptation to shape up our attitude, put a smile on our face, or pull up our bootstraps before approaching God. And if that’s the case then David, or whoever wrote this psalm, was way off base - often. 

“Why am I so depressed?” Could that question be any simpler? The writer doesn’t even understand the nature of his or her own depression. It’s simply there - turmoil - weighing them down. 

Are you depressed right now? Maybe not you. Wonderful. Just wait an hour. You, or someone close to you, is right now weighed down, depressed, and in turmoil. What to do? A self-help seminar? Take your mind off it? Meditate it away? The psalmist tells us, “Put your hope in God, for I will still praise Him.”

Your depression is not a barrier to God. It’s an honest thing about you to take to God. Why would you deprive God of the reality of where you’re at especially when He loves you so? 

But you may ask, “How do I know God loves me?” Well, then once again we are right back where we always end up. Throwing ourselves by faith onto the altar of His character and praising Him in hope.

“God I don’t understand myself - or my sadness, depression, turmoil. But the answer is always You. Where else could I go? I will still praise You.”