“Self. Listen.”
Martin Lloyd-Jones’s classic book, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures, began as a series of sermons on Psalm 42. As a pastor, professor, and physician, Dr. Jones writes as a soul physician of embodied-souls. One of Jones’s most well-known quotes is from his sermon on Psalm 42:5, where the Psalmist says,
“Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you so disturbed (disquieted, in turmoil) within me? Put your hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, my salvation and my God.”
Pastor Jones famously says of this verse:
“Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but there they are, talking to you. They bring back the problem of yesterday. Somebody’s talking. Who’s talking? 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 are you cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: ‘Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you’” (Spiritual Depression, 20-21).
Talking to God About
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