On Psalm 42:
… the first thing we
have to learn is what the Psalmist learned—we must take ourselves in hand. This
man was not content just to lie down and commiserate with himself. He does
something about it, he takes himself in hand. But he does something which is more
important still, that is he talks to himself. This man turns to himself and
says: “Why are thou cast down O my soul, why art thou disquieted within me?” He
is talking to himself, he is addressing himself. “But”, says someone, “is that
not the one thing we should not do since our great trouble is that we spend too
much time with ourselves? Surely it contradicts what you have already said. You
warned us against morbidity and introspection, and now you tell us that we have
to talk to ourselves!”
How do we reconcile
the two things? In this way. I say that we must talk to ourselves instead of
allowing “ourselves” to talk to us! Do you realize what this means?
I
suggest that the main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression in a
sense is this: that we allow our self to talk to us instead of talking to our
self.
Am I trying to be
delibrately paradoxical? Far from it. This is the very essence of wisdom in
this matter. 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 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.” Do you
know what I mean? If you do not, you have had but little experience.
Martyn-Lloyd
Jones
