My Talk With Me

“Praise the Lord, I tell myself, praise his holy name.”  Psalm 103:1

A few days ago, I called myself—twice in one morning!  The explanation is too long and dull to recount, so suffice it to say that the first was an accidental call from my cell phone to my land line, and the second was me dialing my own number thinking I was calling back the person I thought had just called me!  Hearing a recording of my own voice caused me to pause, look more closely at my phone, and realize that I was the one doing all the dialing!  I had to laugh, (what else does one do when questioning her own sanity??), but I also wondered—“What would I tell myself if I could really call myself?”

Most likely my conversation with me would be filled with reminders of things I need to do or want to do, and, actually, such dialogue would be quite Biblical.  Repeatedly in the book of Psalms, the writer talks to himself about things necessary and needed, and the discussion always includes the words, “O my soul”—a rather poetic way of saying, “I tell myself.”  So what does the psalmist keep telling himself?  To praise the Lord, to remember His grace, and to rest in God alone.

“Praise the Lord, I tell myself, praise his holy name.  Praise the Lord, I tell myself, and don’t forget the benefits of being his—he forgives your sins, heals your sickness, redeems your life from the pit, crowns you with love and compassion, and fulfills your desires with things that are good (Ps 103:1-2).  That’s great stuff for you to tell you—and for me to tell me—over and over.  We know that our amazing God deserves constant adoration for who He is and what He does, but the pressing matters and petty distractions of each day often push worship down or off our priority list.   And so we need to repeatedly say, “Praise the Lord, I tell myself, praise his holy name.”

We also need to regularly remind ourselves that our contentment, significance, and fulfillment are found in God alone.  Our hang-wringing fretting and heart-gripping worry will greatly diminish when we take our own advice to “find rest, I tell myself, in God alone.  Your hope comes from him”(Ps 62:5), and to “be at rest once more, I tell myself, for the Lord has been good to you(Ps 116:7).  The peace that passes understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus when we place our requests before God and trust in Him to bring about His best(Phil 4:6), but since we are easily stressed, we need to tell ourselves often to rest.

Praise the Lord, remember His grace, and rest in God alone. 

It’s good to tell those things to others.  It’s even better to tell them to yourself.