The text was Psalm 42.
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.
That's just part of the passage. You need to read or listen to the whole psalm to get the full impact. Piper referenced a book written on the passage by Martyn Lloyd-Jones:
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? Take those
thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not
originated them but they are talking to you, they bring back the problems of
yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking
to you. Now this man’s treatment [in Psalm 42] was this: instead of allowing
this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. “Why art thou cast down,
O my soul?” he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he
stands up and says,: “Self, listen for moment, I will speak to you.” (Spiritual
Depression, 20-21)
I've been hearing "self" tell me a lot of depressing things lately. It never dawned on me that I should talk back. Isn't answering yourself one of the signs of being crazy? :-) Since hearing that quote yesterday I've been thinking about how important it is to speak truth back to myself.
Here's the link for some notes on the sermon and for your reading enjoyment. If you prefer, there's a link to listen instead.
2 comments:
I've never thought of answering myself with the Truth before. I like this!
I think as long as you aren't walking around in a circle while talking yourself, you'll appear sane :)
Good point! I struggle with an intenal self dialogue and Im finding the only way I can even start to combat it, is by repeating phrases back to me. Exactly what you have here, i needed that reminder , thanks!
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