[4 minutes, 710 words]
Do you talk to yourself? I do, and fairly often I might add. Don’t judge. I’ve heard it’s actually a pretty healthy activity that helps improve one’s cognitive function. It’s also an indicator that you’re a verbal processor, aiding in clarifying thoughts and solving problems. Self-talk does become problematic if one were to, say, carry on an entire conversation with one’s self — out loud, mind you — in the supermarket, on the public bus, or while waiting in line at the Chikfila.
Psalm 42 offers a classic example of why it’s so important to preach the gospel to ourselves when we are starting to go dark. One of Israel’s ordained worship leaders1 was shaken to his core.2 He had hard questions for God. He asks why He’s not coming through for him eleven different times. It’s an intensely personal psalm, packed with 50 personal pronouns.
In the middle of his pity party, this anonymous son of Korah recognizes how asinine his accusations against God have been and gives himself a good talking to.
Why, my soul, are you so dejected?
Why are you in such turmoil?
Put your hope in God,
for I will still praise him,
my Savior and my God.
And for good measure he chastises himself once again — using the very same words — at the end of his psalm3. Apparently, he’s a lot like you and me: we need to remind ourselves we aren’t God, we don’t know everything, and we aren’t always our own best counselors.
I pray this often: Lord, give me a love for Your Truth so that I will not be deceived. I don’t even want to deceive myself!
The Apostle Paul gravely warned the Corinthian believers:
Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become a fool so that he can become wise.
1 Corinthians 3:18
When’s the last time you’ve had a sure enough come-to-Jesus meeting with yourself? Is it long overdue? Sitting and stewing and spewing out dark words without reprimand will harden you over time. If left unchecked, unbridled blame and bitterness will stain your soul.
“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?”
— Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression
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“Don’t just listen to your worries, preach to them.”
– Michael Reeves
The psalmist wearied of listening to the sound of his own voice. His vinegar words were like hot desert sand in his throat, drying up his reserves of inner peace and consolation.4 His onerous self-talk sounded like this:
God, don’t you care about me?5
Why should I trust you?
I’ve prayed and prayed until I’m blue in the face; you don’t listen. What good are my prayers?
I thought you were good. I guess not.
If you are entertaining these thoughts, it’s time to tear up that script and find another. If that kind of language is living in your heart, repent. Find a better sermon to preach to yourself.
Hey yo, I’m preaching to myself.
Every time I’ve said, “God, can’t you see what’s happening? Can’t you fix this?” (which is more often than I’m comfortable admitting), I’ve heard the Lord’s voice in my ear say, “What makes you think I don’t see? What makes you so sure I don’t have this?”
Why my soul are you so dejected? Why are you in such turmoil? Put your hope in God! C’mon, Scott, you know better!
I’m such a dunderhead sometimes. In those wildly unattractive moments, I need to stop listening to myself and start talking to myself. I need a long-winded, Spirit-led, grace-filled, life-changing sermon to get me to the altar.
Join me in this new year, won’t you, and may we reform our ways; let’s stop listening to our thoughts and emotions and begin preaching a better gospel to ourselves.
As such, we should take a page from the psalmist’s playbook:
- Put your hope in God6
- Praise Him in all things
- Remember all the many other times He’s come through for you7
- Never question how much He loves you…unfailingly so8
- Trust in God’s round-the-clock protection9
Selah, beloved.
- The signature for this psalm is given as a “son of Korah.” Such were entrusted with the organization and implementation of temple worship ↩︎
- “turmoil,” v5, pictures a loud moaning that can erupt into a scream; Jeremiah uses it in Jer. 4:19 to describe his anguished heart beating loudly inside him ↩︎
- Psalm 42:11 ↩︎
- Psalm 42:1-3 ↩︎
- Psalm 42:9 ↩︎
- Psalm 42:5, 11 ↩︎
- Psalm 42:6 ↩︎
- Psalm 42:7 ↩︎
- Psalm 42:8 ↩︎