“And the prayer of faith will rescue him who is depressed, and the Lord will rouse him.”
(James 5:15a, ACV)
In the previous teaching we identified the root wound as symbolically-generic, with various possible causes. The common characteristic of all these causes is that it springs from emotional wounds that have either been oppressed or repressed, and for which the person never received healing. If I had to visually represent the root wound of depression, Edvard Munch’s The Scream (which you see above) would perhaps be the most fitting work. There are widely differing interpretations for the psychological basis of the work, but even just a superficial analysis points to a state of existential angst which is manifested through the silent scream that resounds throughout the infinity of the self.
My thesis is that depression is not only a philosophical issue that is largely the result of obsessive thoughts about the emotional emptiness of reality and the meaninglessness of life, the accompanying anxiety, melancholy, nihilism, mounting despair, a Heideggerian “being is always being-towards-death”, no – it has its origin in either a chemical imbalance or in a root wound caused by emotional trauma.
It is of utmost importance that the root wound be identified and handled, although this is often a long-term process. Before those suffering from depression can get to dealing with the cause of their depression they are consumed by a flood of existential angst and despair that leaves them totally immobilised and powerless. The suggested way of handling this complex matter is thus firstly quite short-term, to deal with the immediate experience of lostness (Col. 2:10 & 19), and to anchor the sufferer in the Holy of Holies, there where God resides. Heb. 6:18-20 suggests the following: “that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us …”
Our point of departure is the hope that James 5:15 (ACV) offers to those suffering from depression, as well as those closest to them: “And the prayer of faith will rescue him who is depressed, and the Lord will rouse him.” Job, the prototype of the depressed person in the Bible, makes the following prophetic statement in Job 19:25 (CJB): “But I know that my Redeemer lives, that in the end He will rise on the dust.” Depression’s onslaught is on the dimensions of the body and the soul (will, mind and emotions), in other words on the dust (Gen. 2:7; 3:19; 18:27), and thus we must handle depression on a spiritual level. All other approaches that do not take the spiritual into consideration are doomed to fail. The Redeemer must rise out of the dust!
The steps we are presenting here are in no way a quick recipe or emergency plan for depression, although it should surely provide a practical answer to believers who are on the precipice of despair. It is presented as an unfolding Spirit-led process that aided many depression sufferers over the years, and is a continuous “prayer of faith”, with Isa. 59:19b (KJV) as the starting point: “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.” (About who exactly is seen as the enemy we will discuss at a later point.)
It is interesting that the Scripture mentioned earlier uses the metaphor of a flood, as this is often the direct symbolic experience of people threatened by depression.
In her poem Darkness’ Grasp Leah Sarah-May Wells articulates it as follows: “I’m swimming all alone in a pool of darkness / and I feel like darkness is slowly pulling me under /
I yell for help but no one is there to hear it / I begin to see the water at eye level / and I kick and flail / fighting to stay above the darkness / But the darkness won’t let go of its hold on me / and I slowly begin to give in / to the feeling that lies below the water line / the waters starts to fill my lungs / the lungs that once held so much life / yet now they allow the murky water to replace that / I know that this path doesn’t lead to happiness / But why doesn’t someone grab my hand /pull me from darkness’s grasp? / because no one knows I stand at the boundary / the boundary between light and dark / so I give in to the thing that holds me / All of the strength and all of the courage / that I once held in my heart / can’t save me from the water / So I slowly slip below the world of conscientiousness / undetected by the occupants of that world / I don’t want to fight anymore / I’ve given into darkness”.
The prototypical Biblical figure here is Jonah, but also elsewhere in the Bible we find the pressing metaphor that is used to visualise depression’s onslaught:
- “I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, And He answered me. “Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice. For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; all Your billows and Your waves passed over me. Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight …” (Jon. 2:2-4)
- “Save me, O God! for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary with my crying, my throat is dry; my eyes fail while I wait for my God … 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. Let not the floodwater overflow me, nor let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut its mouth on me.” (Ps. 69:1-3; 14-15)
- “For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to the grave. I am counted with those who go down to the pit; I am like a man who has no strength, adrift among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom You remember no more, and who are cut off from Your hand. You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the depths. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and You have afflicted me with all Your waves. Selah You have put away my acquaintances far from me …” (Ps. 88:3-8).
- “The waters flowed over my head; I said, “I am cut off!” I called on Your name, O Lord,
From the lowest pit.” (Lam. 3:54-55).
David’s prayer in Ps. 42:7 holds the key for moving from the detachment of the stream of depression to the attachment to the Eternal God: “Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; all Your waves and billows have gone over me.” The ISV state is beautifully: “Deep waters call out to what is deeper still …” The ERV states the last section as follows: “God, your waves come one after another, crashing all around and over me.” God responds to the silent scream.
- Selah: To deal with lostness (Col. 2:10 & 19).
- Read: 134; 146-150; 2 Chr. 8; 1 Kings 9.
- Memorise: 134. Make a song from this that you sing to God in dark times.
- For a more in-depth understanding: Read J. Bowlby’s book Separation: Anxiety and Anger.