11 years ago, I was coming back to school after having been to Urbana 2000. It was a positively AMAZING experience (and I don’t say that lightly) but I had developed a severe case of bronchitis which triggered a depressive attack. My mom had dropped me at my dorm and I had unwrapped my new 2001 calendar which she had given me and had pictures of nature with snatches of Psalms on them. (My mom isn’t Christian which should tell you how wonderful that gift was to me.) The January picture had Psalm 13:5 on it which reads as “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.” Seeing that, I decided to read the whole psalm and started weeping in a mixture of sadness and joy because it was like “THANK YOU LORD!!! YOU KNOW THAT I’M SUFFERING AND YOU CARE!!!”

Someone who has become a friend of mine is dealing with depression right now and I thought that it would be fitting to post Psalm 13 again as it is an appropriately Lenten psalm and also one that speaks to depression. I’m posting the King James Version because as I’ve said before, the psalms just sound so much more elegant in Elizabethan English.

How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;
Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.
But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.
I will sing unto the LORD, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.
–Psalm 13 (KJV)