Self-Talk: Traversing in Victory through Life's Undualtions
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Defense wins championship is a phrase often used in sports to remind teams that the best offense tends not to win that sports greatest prize without a solid defense.
There are some spiritual disciplines that are offensive and some that are defensive. Both accomplish a sole purpose; change. In our current series on spiritual disciplines we have learned about two spiritual disciplines, meditation and application, that are offensive. Today’s discipline is defensive. This discipline has features of and bears a resemblance to meditation but instead of being offensive it is defensive. This discipline is called self-talk.
Self-talk helps us traverse through a condition called undulation. Undulation is the experience of peaks and valleys. This aspect of Christian life will be experienced by everyone traversing this spiritual pilgrimage. Failure to practice this discipline can be disastrous.
Their nearest approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation—the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks. If you had watched your patient carefully you would have seen this undulation in every department of his life—his interest in his work, his affection for his friends, his physical appetites, all go up and down. As long as he lives on earth periods of emotional and bodily richness and liveliness will alternate with periods of numbness and poverty. The dryness and dullness through which your patient is now going are not, as you fondly suppose, your workmanship; they are merely a natural phenomenon which will do us no good unless you make a good use of it. To decide what the best use of it is, you must ask what use the Enemy wants to make of it, and then do the opposite. C.S. Lewis - Screwtape Letters Chapter 8
Today’s text recounts a real life experience of a believer experiencing spiritual undulations. Let’s learn from those conditions he experienced, their causality, and a curative pathway we must traverse.
CONDITIONS
CONDITIONS
As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.
The Psalmist uses a metaphor in the opening verse to describe those conditions that surrounded him. He then uses verse two to explain his metaphor. “As a deer pants for flowing streams is his metaphor. Deer aren’t dumb. They don’t wait until they are dying of thirst before they search for water. A panting deer is more than just a thirsty deer its one that’s literally dying of thirst. Therefore, a panting deer is a deer that has come down to the riverbed and finds it dry.
The psalmist is saying, “I’m like the deer, and God is like the dry riverbed.” Look at verse two his explanation.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
“My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” It’s not that he doesn’t believe in God anymore, but the psalmist can’t sense God as a living God.
Let’s keep reading. “When shall I come and appear before God?” He is asking, “When shall I see the face of God?” He repeats question in
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation
He has lost the countenance of God. He has lost the face of God. The Psalmist is telling us that he has lost the relational experience of God’s presence. He has lost his spiritual senses. He has no taste, feel, sight, or sound of God in his soul. Thoughts that once comforted and strengthen him don’t resonate. Thoughts that were once sweet as honey are now tasteless. Thoughts that once stirred his soul and sent him into heavens courts are now stagnant. He is describing what its like to lose reality with God.
He has lost the sense of God’s presence. He no longer feels like he posses God. He’s experiencing spiritual dryness, spiritual drought, spiritual darkness, and spiritual deadness. Nothing resonates.
Some of the Psalms deal with spiritual dryness and deadness because of sin. However, this Psalmist deals with this spiritual condition from reasons not relating to sin.
This goes against our popular perspective. Our normal response to this experience is, “what did I do wrong.” We believe that nothing should be wrong if no wrong has been done. When we start to experience spiritual dryness we begin to ask ourselves; what button I’m not pushing. What sin have I committed. Is there something on my Christian to-do list I have missed. Have you confessed all known sin? Have you claimed the promises? Have you rebuked the Devil? Have you pleaded the blood? Have you thanked God for all of your many blessings? How could you be in this condition; if you were daily completing the entirety of your Christian to-do list. You must be doing something wrong.”
The Psalmist has done nothing wrong and he’s dying of spiritual thirst. I see no confession of sin in our text. He is teaching us that this condition can come upon you out of nowhere. Spiritual dryness and deadness can happen as a result of sin and without sin. It can happen to you no matter how faithful you are to complete your daily Christian to-do list. It will happen. It is unavoidable.
This experience is most difficult on new Christian’s. New believers are riding a spiritual high and can’t image what awaits them. When they begin to experience this norm their cultural influence begins to work against them. They begin to tell themselves that something is wrong and this causes them to freak out. They not only freak out but they begin to doubt.
He cannot ravish. He can only woo. He is prepared to do a little overriding at the beginning. He will set them off with communications of His presence which, though faint, seem great to them, with emotional sweetness, and easy conquest over temptation. Sooner or later He withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all those supports and incentives. He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs-- to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please Him best. We can drag our patients along by continual tempting, because we design them only for the table, and the more their will is interfered with the better. He cannot 'tempt' to virtual as we do to vice. He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys. But of course the troughs afford opportunities to our side also.
There are probably people in this room who have been off the rails for maybe years. A time of spiritual dryness came out of nowhere. You had not done anything wrong you just did not know how to respond.
Let me clarify his doubts. He is not having intellectual doubts. He doesn’t say, “I don’t believe in God.” He says, “I can’t feel him.” If you don’t fight this doubt rooted in feelings it will progress to doubt in your intellect. God will become so unreal to you that it will start to overtake everything. America is littered with people to whom this has happened.
They remember being Christians but they don’t know now what they are. They haven’t completely jettison the Christian faith. They haven’t completely gotten rid of it, yet they have deep and profound reservations about God and themselves. They are in the twilight zone of faith. They’re not sure whether they’re Christians or not.
What started out as a sense of alienation from God became something much more serious, something much more pervasive and sustained. We need to know how to deal with this impending situation.
Now that we see the conditions let us look at their causality.
CAUSALITY
CAUSALITY
This list of causalities is not comprehensive but common to those in this situation. I’m not saying; “if this happens then this will automatically happen”. I’m saying that as a general rule these causalities tend to be associated with the condition of spiritual drought, dryness, darkness, and darkness.
Our first causality was a disruption of community.
These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.
He used to go to the temple located in the south. He used to regularly participate in temple worship, feasting, joy, and praise, but now he’s in the northern part. He’s away from the people of God, away from the temple, away from the worship. We don’t know why but here’s the point. We are made for community not confinement. We are created for interaction not isolation. There are times when we need to isolate ourselves for individual prayer, study, and contemplation. However, we must not neglect our created constitution that requires community. Community serves as to deliver us from our dryness.
He longs for the festivals. A time when the people of God corporately remembered God’s great and mighty acts, that made them a people. The Passover would be celebrated during this time. God’s people would come together from all over the country to read passages from the Exodus. They would recount how God saved them from the mighty Egyptian’s and made them a people. They would remember how they were saved by the blood of a lamb. They would use this time to recommit themselves to God.
Never underestimate the practice of spiritual disciplines with Christian community.
Surveys continue to tell us that 80 to 90 percent of Americans say, “I can be a good Christian without going to church. I can be a spiritual person without being part of another institution. I can be a very good spiritual person, all by myself.”
This idea is totally antithetical to the core tenants of Christianity, and it absolutely contrary to common sense. How do you know you’re right all by yourself? How can you stay in step all by yourself? The Psalmist doesn’t underestimate this as we tend to. This perspective will lead us into spiritual dryness.
We want to come as individuals, get our fix, and then go home. We do this because we don’t want to make ourselves accountable. We avoid regular community because “we are busy” or “we are private people”. You can develop a million reasons why you can’t assimilate but Scripture says they are all antagonistic to true faith.
If you lose your spiritual community you are assured of falling into spiritual dryness.
A second causality found in our text is disillusionment with the events of life.
My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”
There is an enemy in this Psalm that is unlike enemies found in the majority of other Psalms. Most enemies are after the Psalmist’s life. In this case his enemy is taunting him. They are along side of him. They are living with him.
They’re taunting him, “Where is your God?” This taunting is taking a toll on his heart. Look at
I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
“Why have you forgotten me?” What does that question mean? He is struggling with the events of his life. You don’t ask, “Where is your God?” unless there are events happening that don’t fit in with the idea of a good, loving, holy, just, wise God.
“Where is your God?” Can sound like this. “If he’s your God, if he really is for you, if he’s really the God you say he is, why is this happening?” It’s not just a question from outside like in verse 3 and verse 10. It’s a question from inside. The psalmist himself is saying, “Why have you forgotten me?”
Things go wrong, and it’s very hard to explain and to understand. They’re inexplicable. For instance; you just committed yourself to Jesus and the next two years of your life are the worst ever. Some people say, “I committed my life to Christ and everything fell apart. Why did that happen?” I have begun to answer that question this statement, “Imagine had your life fallen apart and you weren’t committed to Christ.”
A third causality found in our text is physical deprivation.
My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”
Dr. Lloyd Jones, who was a physician that became a pastor, makes this keen observation. “My tears have been my food day and night …” He’s saying, “Tears not food are my meal.” He has no appetite. This is a sign of clinical depression.
He’s not sleeping. This emotional conflict is lasting all night. There is no reprieve. There is no rest. He is not eating nor sleeping. Deprivation of sustenance and sleep will keep us from being able to deal with our overall condition. We must not dismiss physical causes.
David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, says the following concerning verse 3, “Does anyone hold the view that as long as you are a Christian it doesn’t matter what the condition of your body is? You’ll soon be disillusioned if you believe that. There are some in whose cases it’s clear to me the cause of their depression is mainly physical. On the other hand, people who are physically weak are more prone to attacks of spiritual discouragement and depression.
When we say; “I just don’t feel God,” we automatically conclude that it is purely spiritual and rule out the physical. This is a grave mistake because we are as much physical as we are spiritual.
There’s another kind of person who approaches those discouraged or depressed with the language of morality, “Suck it up. Pull yourself together. Keep a stiff upper lip. Stop sniveling.”
Then there’s a third kind of person who doesn’t reduce everything to the physical or the moral but reduces everything to the psychological and emotional.
These people say, we will listen, accept, and support you.
These approaches have their positive qualities but it’s rare that you discover them all together. Most approaches tend to be reductionistic in their approach. Even most Christian approaches. Christian’s should be the least reductionistic. We should the most nuanced, the most multidimensional, the most balanced. However , we should consider the physical, psychological, and emotional. We should be tender and tough in dealing with these aspects. We should walk with tenderness but exercise toughness by refusing to allow someone to waller in their condition.
As we look at the cures here (which we’re about to now), you will see an astounding balance. Christianity, more than any worldview, has a perfect balance of listening to the emotions and talking to the heart. This text shows us how to be tender and tough.
Now that we see the causality of this condition let’s examine its cures.
CURES
CURES
The Psalmist gives us four cures.
First, he pours out his soul.
These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.
What is his problem? He doesn’t feel God. He is getting nothing out of worship, prayer, and bible reading. There is no sense of God at all.
What is his prescribed cure? Perseverance. He is saying when worship because stale you must stay. When prayer becomes stagnant you must stay. When Bible reading has been sapped of all its life you must stay. Pour out your soul. You say, “But I don’t feel anything.” Then talk about that.
Talk to God about how you’re getting nothing out of it. Talk to God about how much you miss him. Talk to the absent God about his absence. This not the time to ignore spiritual disciplines but to invest yourself into them even more.
Secondly, he analyzes his hopes.
There’s a refrain that comes up three times. This is, in some ways, the theme that runs right through the passage.
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.
He is asking himself, “Why did I get so downcast?” He is not doing this because of sin or wrong doing, but for self-examination. What is he examining? His hopes. He says, “Why am I so cast down? It’s because I’ve put my hope in some things that are now letting me down.” Even though spiritual dryness can come upon you without you sinning. Spiritual dryness is a perfect time to examine your heart, because spiritual dryness reveals inordinate loves and false hopes.
In Psalm 3 David is on the run for his life because the son he loved the most, Absalom, was trying to take David’s throne and kill him. There were two things in David’s life that had been the source of his glory. The word glory literally means weight. It means significance. It means something that makes you matter.
The two things that were David’s glory were, first, the love of his son and family, and second, the love and acclaim of his people. He lost both of them. Yet he says in
But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.
What he’s doing at that point is he’s saying, “My son used to be my glory. My people used to be my glory. I’ve lost them and it hurts me, but I’m not devastated, because what I am doing in this moment is I am relocating my glory in you, your approval, your smile, your love, your support. I have that, and if I have that, then I won’t be devastated by the loss of anything else. I will lift up my head anyway.”
He is saying is, “I’m so downcast because of the events of life that have made me wonder. I’m downcast because I have placed misplaced my hope in certain people and possession.
Spiritual dryness causes us to examine the placement of our hope. It causes us to consider the origin of our real significance and our true rest. Dryness seeks to relocate our hope from shifting sand to solid ground. This not a sackcloth and ashes type of repentance but a serious audit of his heart’s hope. t
Thirdly, he remembers the loving-kindness of God.
and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
He is very deliberately thinking about and remembering something. He’s not only thinking about God in general.
By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
He is thinking about God’s loving-kindness. In Hebrew word this word means covenant faithfulness, unmerited grace, unconditional love. He’s thinking about his entire life. He’s thinking about the history of redemption and his own personal history. He is turning his meditation into music.
This Psalm was written by one of the sons of Korah. First Chronicles 6 tells us the sons of Korah were professional musicians, full-time artists. Notice this one happens to be a string instrumentalist, because at the end he says, “I’m going to pick up my harp again someday.”
What he’s doing is turning the grace of God into a song. He’s remembering the grace of God, he’s re-analyzing his hopes, he’s pouring out his soul, and then finally … This is the key, in a way. He takes all that, and what does he do?
He preaches to his heart.
When he says, “Why am I cast down, O my God?” He’s not talking to God but to himself.
Dr. Lloyd-Jones in his famous sermon on this text says this is the key. You’ll never get out of spiritual dryness unless you learn how to do this. He has listened to his heart. He has poured his heart out. He has analyzed his hopes. He has thought about the grace of God. Now he stops listening to his heart and he starts talking to his heart. “Why are you cast down, O my soul?
In times of spiritual dryness and discouragement you have to grab your heart and say, “Listen, heart. Be quiet and listen.” Do you know when to do that? Do you see the balance here?
If you have listened to your heart and found its false hopes, then you have to learn how to preach the grace of God to yourself.
Notice the realism of this psalm. He doesn’t say, “Hope in God; I do now praise him.” That would be denial. Nor does he say, “Hope in God; I’ll never praise him.” That would be despondency. He says, “Hope in God; I will praise him.” If you look carefully, you’ll see a progression. I don’t have the time to trace it out, but you’ll see that bit by bit by bit … He starts in the dumps and he moves himself up.
In verse 5 he says, “Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.” That simply means, “All I want is to see him come back.” By the time he gets to the very bottom it says, “Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance …” That’s his way of saying, “I can feel him already beginning to lift up my face, lift up my heart, lift up my spirits.” The results will happen slowly, but they will happen.
I don’t know how he preached to his heart about the loving-kindness of God, about the grace of God, but we have a resource he doesn’t have.
Let me tell you a way to preach the gospel to your heart with a kind of vividness and effectiveness he didn’t have. The biggest problem during times of dryness is you say, “I think God has finally given up on me. He’s not there. It makes sense. I’m an idiot. I’ve been a failure. I’m inadequate. He has abandoned me.” “No,” says the psalmist to the heart. “I will yet praise him. He’s a loving, kind God. He’s a gracious God. He will not abandon you.”
Well, how do I know? Here’s how you and I know. Here’s something you can use on your heart. Read Psalms 42–43 and listen to the One who really said, “I thirst,” who really said, “I’m dying of thirst.” Read it and hear the One who said, “My God, my God, why have you forgotten me?” Read it and think of the One whose enemies taunted him, “Where is your God? Let’s see if God will come and save him.”
Don’t you see? Jesus Christ really experienced not just the loss of the feeling of God; he lost God, even though he was trusting in God. He had the ultimate cosmic thirst. He was really forgotten by God. He was really forsaken by God. He really experienced the thirst of God. Why? So that in spite of your failures and inadequacy, God will never give up on you. God treated him and punished him and gave him the things we deserve so we can receive his commitment and his love unconditionally.
If you say that to yourself, if you preach Christ to yourself, you’ll get out of the trough, and you’ll be better for it. When you deal with spiritual dryness properly you don’t just get back on track, you get back on farther down the path, farther ahead, far humbler, far happier, and far stronger than you were before.