Read: Psalm 42

What voices are you listening to?  So often people tend to listen to the voice in their head that brings them down, discourages them, or paints a distorted view of the world.  That voice is the enemy of God trying to distract us from the hope of God.  Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones commented on this one time when referring to Psalm 42 and he wrote….

“The first thing we have to learn is what the Psalmist learned, we must learn to take ourselves to hand.  This man was not content to just lie down and commiserate himself.  He does something about it, he takes himself in hand…He talks to himself….”   Lloyd-Jones goes on to say, “I say that we must talk to ourselves instead of allowing ‘ourselves’ to talk to us!  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?”

In Psalm 42 the Psalmist is having one of those moments Lloyd-Jones is referring to.  He seems disturbed, downcast, and hopeless because he is listening to himself.  He even hears people asking “Where is your God?”  He then realizes his error and he begins to speak words of hope from heaven into his life and into his situation.  The Psalmist says, “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”  Let’s join him this week and speak words of heavenly hope into our downcast days.

Make It Personal:  If you find yourself listening to negative voices in your mind this week call them out.  Instead of listening to those choose to speak words of heavenly hope with your own voice.  Drown out the darkness with light of Christ and the hope of God. Christian or Worship music can often help us to keep those words in our ears as well.