Therapy

In Psalm 32 David displays an array of issues that many of us would recognize. He reports feeling physically weak and just barely making it through the day (v.3.) He reports feeling heavy, weighed down and oppressed to the point of not being able to sleep. Where he once felt lively he now feels like his life is in a drought (v.4) In other words David is experiencing anxiety, depression, insomnia and fibromyalgia.

Now imagine for a second that David somehow wobbled into the year of 2023 and told someone all his problems. What would the suggested solution be? In a day and age such as ours where people refer to “my therapist” as if it were the same as saying “my doctor” or “my accountant” he would certainly be told that he needs to go see a therapist. Among other things he would be told that he needs to understand his own childhood trauma. And David certainly did have a lot of trauma. His dad seemed to not like him, his mentor tried to kill him, his wife left him & his best friend was murdered. Maybe he would even leave with a prescription for antidepressants.

Now sometimes medical intervention is necessary but the solution that David lays out for us in Psalm 32 isn’t therapy or a new hobby or a new haircut, it is this, listen: “I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.” He says that his problem was actually that he was keeping silent about his sins and harboring guilt. See the solution to most of your mental health problems is confessing your sin and being reconciled to your Creator and His body— the church. Oftentimes, when the spirit is laden with guilt, the body manifests this through anxiety, depression & insomnia. But when we let Christ take away our guilt, ordinarily the body eventually follows.

Letting secret sin and guilt ruminate in the back of your mind is like living in a house with black mold, it makes you sick. So be honest with the Lord about the sins you would rather not acknowledge; maybe you treated yourself to a lustful fantasy, gossipped about a friend, or snapped at your kids. Don’t stay silent. Bring it to the Lord and let Him rid you of guilt.

This exhortation was given to Christ Church, Moscow ID on Nov 12 2023 AD

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