Do You Ever Talk to Yourself?


Psalm 118 (selected verses)
1 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!
5Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free.
6The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?
7The Lord is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.
8It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.
13I was pushed hard, so that I was falling, but the Lord helped me.
14The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.
15Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous: “The right hand of the Lord does valiantly,
16the right hand of the Lord exalts, the right hand of the Lord does valiantly!”
17I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord.
19Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.
20This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it.
21I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.
22The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
23This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
24This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
25Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success!
26Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord.
27The Lord is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!
28You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you.
29Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

Unbelief conjures up some weird thoughts in our minds. Back in the 1990s when the New Age Movement was a “thing” I spent quite a bit of time reading what the believers in that philosophy / theology said about the world and their viewpoint of “god”. Some of it was way out there in terms of reality but after reading several books, there was a brief moment when this thought actually went through my mind: “I wonder if they’re on to something.” Just having the thought shocked my senses enough that I was able to step back and regroup. All that reading had created unbelief in my mind. Then I heard in my mind the words of my father quoting Edgar Allen Poe, “Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.” The New Age ideas I was consuming were filling my mind with nonsense. I set those books aside.

5Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free.
6The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?
7The Lord is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.
8It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.
13I was pushed hard, so that I was falling, but the Lord helped me.
14The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.

It is fitting that we should read a psalm that was an integral part of The Passion of Jesus during the Christmas season, as 118 is one the primary Messianic psalms. That Infant was born for a purpose; that of being our Savior. This psalm is part of the Passover collection and as such may have been one of the last hymns Jesus sang with His apostles on Maundy Thursday. Our celebration of the birth of Jesus always looks forward to His death and resurrection. As we ponder the problem of our unbelief, there are several of these verses that bear our scrutiny. As I read them, it almost seems like something I would say to myself as I struggled through a difficult time of doubt. Read over the psalm again and see if there are any verses that might bring you comfort or strength during a time of unbelief. What impact might remembering that the Lord is ever at your side or that He is your helper have on your stress level?

One of the important people in my life has a problem with bouts of anger. He will simply explode when things don’t go his way. But he has learned how to separate himself from the situation and take a personal “time-out”. You can hear him talk himself down from that place of great anger and it sounds slightly familiar to the words in this psalm; a personal reminder that all is well when one is attached to the Lord. Unbelief assails us all, but just because the thoughts stream through your mind doesn’t mean you have to embrace them. Just as the Holy Spirit caused me to put aside the philosophies of the New Age Movement, so too will He help us push aside our doubts.

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