Talking to Your Own Soul

Ever catch yourself mid-spiral and think, wait, why am I talking to myself like this? Psalm 42 opens with a deer panting for a stream that has run dry. Psalms 42:1 English - ESV That is the writer's picture of what it feels like to be homesick for God when everything in you feels far away.

Psalms 42:1-2 English - ESV

Halfway through, something shifts. The writer stops complaining to God and starts talking to himself instead.

Psalms 42:5 English - ESV

Same line comes back three times in a row across Psalm 42 and 43 Psalms 43:5 English - ESV, almost word for word. That is not the poet running out of ideas. It is someone who has to keep saying the true thing until his heart catches up to it.

Hope in God is written here as a command, not a mood. He is not waiting to feel better before he decides to trust. He tells his own soul what to do, and trusts the feeling will catch up.

You do not need to feel hopeful to command your soul toward hope. Say the true thing to yourself until you believe it again.

Psalms 42 Berean Standard Bible - Bob Souer

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