One of My Favorite Places April 26, 2010

We’re continuing this week with the final posts of our series on “talk” by revisiting some posts we did two years ago on redemptive speech.  It’s amazing to us that these posts are speaking to our own hearts once again!  We’re grateful for God’s gracious understanding that we have to visit topics over and over to make the progress that the gospel promises us.  So join us this week as we re-read some former posts…

Okay, yesterday I left you wondering just where one of my favorite places is. If you are joining us for the first time in a while, this post is part three of a three part look at an article from the Journal of Biblical Counseling titled Watch Your Language, by E. Bradley Beevers. Please read the first and second post before reading the conclusion below. It really will serve you so much better if you do. It’s kind of like reading the end of the novel first; It spoils everything, and you never know what you missed! Click HERE for the first and HERE for the second.

Just where is the favorite place I promised we’d visit today? It’s the book of Psalms! The author takes us there as he concludes his point on the term “I’m Bummed”:

“Doesn’t the Bible speak of these “bummed out” emotions with primary reference to the person, to God, to what is right, rather than simply to the situation? Notice, for example, Psalms 42 and 43. When the Psalmist is “cast down” and “disturbed,” it is not because he no longer goes with the throng to the house of God. It is not because he is taunted by his enemies, by deceitful and unjust men. These things are happening. But the cause of his distress is that his soul does not hope in God. He wouldn’t describe himself as “being bummed.” He sees it more clearly: “Why are you downcast, O my soul?…Put your hope in God.” The focus of the Psalm is that he thirsts for God as a deer longs for flowing streams.

“How different is this picture from the blame-shifting and self-pitying of worldly speech! The Psalmist’s vocabulary indicates that he studies his heart carefully; he figures out the true problem and looks to God for a solution. This is the goal for your own vocabulary!”

Who knew that the simple term “I’m bummed” could have such a huge meaning, or should I say, lack of meaning? I hope this will help you as it has helped me to really listen to what I say and be like the Psalmist who ‘studies his heart carefully’.