A conversation with your own soul

“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.”Psalm 42:5

Reflection

There is something fascinating happening in this verse: the psalmist is TALKING with himself. He addresses his own soul and interrogates it: "why art thou cast down, O my soul?". It is not madness — it is deep spiritual wisdom. The psalmist realized that often we merely LISTEN to our soul without ever questioning it. We let the feelings of sadness, fear and discouragement talk to us all day, and we simply believe everything they say. The psalmist does the opposite: he stops only listening to the cast-down soul and begins to SPEAK to it.

This is an invaluable practical lesson for discouragement. Much of our dejection is sustained because we sit passively and listen to our soul repeat "there is no way out", "everything will go wrong", "you are alone". But who said our cast-down soul is telling the truth? Feelings are real, but they are not always true. The psalmist teaches us to interrogate our own discouragement: "why, after all, are you so cast down? What real evidence do you have?". Often, by questioning the dejection instead of merely believing it, we discover it does not have as solid a foundation as it seemed.

And the psalmist does not stop at the question — he gives his soul a COMMAND and a direction: "HOPE in God, for I shall yet praise him". He redirects the cast-down soul away from the problem and toward God. Notice the "I shall YET praise him" — even in the midst of the present dejection, he projects a future of praise. It is a declaration of faith: "I may be cast down now, but this is not permanent; the day will come when I will praise again". The psalmist preaches to himself what he needs to believe, instead of simply absorbing what he feels.

Note that the psalmist neither denies nor represses the dejection — he acknowledges it honestly ("thou art cast down"). It is not pretending everything is fine. But he refuses to let the feeling have the last word. There is an enormous difference between FEELING the dejection and being GOVERNED by it. If today your soul is cast down, try the psalmist’s technique: instead of only listening passively to your discouragement, converse with it. Ask your soul why it is like that, question the lies it repeats, and then give it the right direction: "hope in God". Preach hope to yourself, instead of just listening to the dejection. Your soul needs to hear less of your fears and more of God’s truths — and often, it is you who must say them to it.

Bible text: King James Version (public domain).