Talk To Yourself

Psalms 42 and 43 were most likely written as a single psalm. There's a reoccurring refrain in these psalms that asks: "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."  The author is somewhere in exile, far from the Temple in Jerusalem where he once enjoyed sweet worship with God's people.  But now his soul is in anguish.  He's taunted by his enemies and feels abandoned by the Lord he loves.  Besides crying out to God, he talks to his own soul.  His will exhorts his emotions and he chooses defiantly to maintain his hope in God.  He clings!  Our oppressed brother reminds us of God's steadfast love even as he reminds himself.  Hope is his anchor and his anchor is cast forward centuries--all the way to Jesus his Rock.  Peter reminds us: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade..." (1 Peter 1:3-4a NIV with emphasis)  Let us therefore talk to ourselves, trust the Anchor to hold, and cling to Hope in our God.