Think About What You're Thinking About

Great to have you with us, great to have everybody over in venue joining us and on Facebook Live. My name is René, one of the pastors here, and this morning we start a brand new summer series we call Songs of Summer. This is a five-week series in the book of Psalms. Now, if you're unfamiliar with the Bible, the book of Psalms is the biggest book of the Bible, and it is right in the middle of the Bible. If you take a Bible, put your thumb in it, open it up to the middle, that is the book of Psalms. There are 150 different songs; they're all song lyrics, and most of them are about 3000 years old. Some are even older, and what's fascinating about studying these song lyrics is they reveal how little human emotion has changed in 3000 years and how little human anxieties have changed in 3000 years because that's what these reveal about the hearts of these divinely inspired songwriters.

I want to start today with one of my favorites of the 150 Psalms as we kick off this series. Before we dig into these verses, I want to start with a slightly more recent story about a woman named Sarah. This is actually the only known photograph of her. Even though Sarah was the richest woman in America in the late 1800s, Sarah was rich, Sarah was famous, Sarah was powerful. But Sarah was miserable. Her life was marked by tragedy; her only child, a daughter, died at just five weeks of age. Her husband died when she was still young, and she was left for the rest of her life alone with her money, with her memories, and with deep guilt. I'll tell you why in just a second, but it was her guilt that drove her to move from East Coast society, where she was sort of the bell of the ball, and she moved about as far away as she could and stay in the state. She moved all the way to the West Coast to a tiny unknown farming village called San Jose, California. You may have heard of it.

It was in San Jose that she bought a little eight-room farmhouse and hired 16 carpenters. For the next 38 years, 24 hours a day, her construction crew never stopped working on that house. The construction stopped only when she died. You know how many houses are measured in square footage, right? Well, hers was measured in acres. The finished house was over six acres, and that's not the size of the lot; that's the size of the interior square footage. The house had 160 rooms, all for one person—just Sarah. Oh, and the visitors. Sarah said the visitors came to her each night. One of her servants would climb up to the bell tower and ring the chimes at midnight to summon them, and Sarah herself would go up to what she called the blue room, designed for her and her guests, and she would stay until exactly two in the morning when she would finally go to bed.

Who were these guests? Well, nobody else could see them or hear them, but Sarah said they were the spirits of Native Americans and U.S. soldiers who were killed by bullets from the most famous gun in America, the Winchester. It seems Sarah Winchester was haunted by the fact that what made her so rich brought so many nothing but death. Now, I don't believe that the ghosts of the dead can walk the earth; the Bible doesn't teach that. I think Sarah was somehow trying to manage, trying to ritualize the voices of guilt and of shame and of regret that came and visited her late at night in her head. She had to find some way of dealing with those thoughts. What we know for sure is this: Sarah spent the last 38 years of her life locked in a castle of regret over the past, haunted by those voices.

Now, you might have guessed you can tour what's left of her house over in San Jose, the Winchester Mystery House, and that's just a fraction of the house that she built. But you know, you don't have to go over to San Jose to see the consequences of lives that are obsessed with negative thoughts because probably there are some people like that on your street. In fact, maybe Sarah's story is kind of your story. Very similar visitors sometimes haunt you at about the same time at night, between midnight and 2. Spirits of guilt and regret and fear, and you wish so badly that you could go back in time and change things, change the way that you lived your life back then. You wish you could go back and apologize, and you find yourself sometimes just wincing at the memories of what you did. But you can't go back, and so you lie awake at night haunted by the ghosts, like Sarah and like the man we meet in our song today, King David.

This is one of the earliest photographic portraits ever taken in America. It's by Julia Cameron, and she called it a study of King David, but she chose to pose her model as David not in triumph, as we often see pictures of David, but haunted by regret. Because she said when I read the life of David, that's how I imagine him to be. And you know, that's accurate because the Bible says that David made some serious mistakes, of course, adultery and very bad parenting and consistent, sometimes destructive leadership. Was he sorry? Yes. Did he repent? Yes. But how did he live with himself at night when the ghosts came out? We know he felt like this because many of the Psalms that he wrote talk about this phenomenon. Like Psalm 51:3, he says, "I recognize my transgression; it haunts me day and night." And maybe you can relate.

Late at night, your mistakes haunt you, or maybe for you, it's not mistakes about the past; it's insecurities about the future, or it's anxieties about the present. So what did David do to silence the voices? If there's sort of a better choice than Sarah Winchester's late-night rituals, well, there is. In fact, let's look at the strategy in the psalm we study today, Psalm 103. I want to invite you to grab your message notes, and let's talk about thinking about what you're thinking about. In other words, controlling the thoughts that come into your brain. I'd like to start by reading the first few verses of Psalm 103 together. It's on the screen; it's in your notes. And so let me hear you. Let's read this: "Bless the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits." Now, the word bless, you might know, just means praise God. In the words, focus, refocus on God, my soul.

Now, I want you to look at these verses carefully because they're very unique. What makes this psalm unique—it's almost the only psalm like this. There are a few others, but what makes it unique is easy to overlook. David's not talking to God. This isn't a prayer to God, is it? It's not directed to God. And unlike many of the other Psalms, it's not directed to the congregation. David isn't saying, "Hey everybody, I got some great truths to tell you about God." Who is David addressing in the song? Who's he talking to? Himself. He says, "Hey, my soul, my inmost being, my soul." He's talking to himself about what he is talking to himself about. He's saying, "Hey, soul, redirect your thoughts." And here's the sermon in a sentence: I need to talk to myself about what I'm talking to myself about.

Like David does, here's all of us. All of us—not just David, not just Sarah Winchester—all of us have this internal conversation going on all the time. Psychologists sometimes call it self-talk, and usually, if you're typical, we're pretty undisciplined about it, and it can get very negative and very self-absorbed and very self-defeating. But the key to conquering those thoughts is I need to have an honest talk with myself about what I'm talking to myself about. And this principle is all through the Bible. Like Proverbs 4:2 says, "Be very careful about what you think; your thoughts run your life." Do you agree with that? You know your thoughts can discourage you more than anybody else. Your thoughts can distract you; your thoughts late at night can drain you, or they can be a source of life and strength to you. Romans 12:2 says, "Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think." Did you know this is actually what the Greek word repent means? It means transforming your mind, changing your thoughts.

You might have seen repent on a sign like "Repent, for the end of the world is at hand," and it's got some kind of negative connotations. It just means changing what you think about, transforming your thoughts. And here's how much we need to hear this: I read this week about a study. Volunteers were asked to keep a daily diary of their thoughts by a mental health research institute in Chicago because researchers wanted to know in the general American public what percentage of our thoughts are negative and what percentage of our thoughts are positive. So these volunteers kept a daily diary; they each did it for a week. They had thousands of volunteers from the general population do this for a year and a half, and the results surprised them. What percentage of thoughts do you think the people have that are negative? I'm talking about both self-defeating thoughts, bad self-esteem, and also anxiety about the future and so on. What percent do you think are negative? Somebody said 60, 80. I heard somebody say 75 percent; you got it right—90%. Nine out of ten thoughts that the average person has right now in America are negative.

People, even if the ratio is 50/50, that's not a biblical ratio, as you will see as you look at this psalm. But our thoughts are out of control right now. This is why we need to take these verses seriously. 2 Corinthians 10:5 says, "Take every thought captive to obey Christ." Did you know that researchers can now see what it looks like when you take your thoughts captive and when your thoughts are loose, kind of running around crazy? Check this out. They can do real-time brain scans to see which parts of your brain are active, what parts are firing right, and what parts are dormant. What they're seeing now is what they're calling brain on fire syndrome, and that's where the parts of your brain that control anxiety and that control obsession are firing out of control. They're just hyperactive. The fear centers, the obsession centers are just being stimulated right now in our culture all the time.

And what happens is that actually changes your brain chemistry. And when your brain chemistry is changed and these parts of your brain are stimulated all the time, it creates a cycle because they offer up more anxious thoughts and more self-defeating thoughts, more self-recriminating thoughts. And so you're in a cycle of getting worse and worse and worse—brain on fire syndrome. That's the nine out of ten people having those negative thoughts all the time, or 90% of the thoughts being negative. The good news is you can actually change your brain chemistry back to normal. Most people don't even have to take a pill to change your brain chemistry back to normal. Of course, there are brain chemistry imbalances where some people have to do that, but researchers say that most of us can alter our brain chemistry. You know how? By changing what you think about.

And they've proven it because they now can observe in real time the physical change that happens when you stop thinking anxious negative thoughts. It changes your brain; it literally calms your brain down. It's like anybody remember those old commercials? This is your brain, and what came next? This is your brain on drugs. How many remember these commercials, right? Well, what we're seeing now in research is it's kind of like this: this is your brain when you don't control your thoughts. Can anybody else relate to this? Because I have howling monkeys in my head sometimes. But this is your brain on God—settle down, but looking up. And this is where David goes, where he has to go in Psalm 103: settle down, but looking up as David steers his thoughts to positive biblical self-talk in three ways.

Now, I really want this to change your lives, and so I tried to summarize the three parts of this psalm with three words—three G's—because I wanted to make it memorable so that when you are haunted in the middle of the night by those negative thoughts, you can remember three words. I know you can remember three words and take charge and take captive every thought and redirect it toward what will first steer your thoughts toward gratitude and remember God's blessings. Gratitude—remember God's blessings—such a key. David says in Psalm 103:2, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits." Because we forget, and we've got to be deliberate about this. And then David just goes on this riff, and we could go through this line by line, but I just want this to cascade over you. David says, "Because he forgives all your sins and he heals all your diseases and he redeems your life from the pit and he crowns you with love and compassion, and he fills your life with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles." Now, wait a minute—fills your life with good things.

Remember what we know about the life of David? He betrayed people; he was betrayed by people. He committed really bad sins; sins were committed against him. His self-talk could have been wallowing in negativity about himself, about what other people did to him. And as Sarah Bentley, one of our pastors, will show you later in this series, there are times you need to just let loose and lament and just kind of sing the blues. But David always comes back to gratitude. Now, here's a big question: How does this positive biblical self-talk differ from sort of generic positive thinking? Because I was listening to an NPR podcast recently. They asked why, after decades of the self-esteem movement teaching us to think positive, is our society faced with actually an epidemic of despair, depression, and suicide? They said the self-esteem stuff, it's not working. This is NPR reporting science. As one person said, "What good is it if I tell myself to think good thoughts if the good thoughts aren't true?" You know, how do you know that the positive things you're telling yourself are really true?

Well, I think this is why David in the next verse appeals to an authority greater than himself. Watch this. He says, "The Lord gives righteousness and justice to all who are treated unfairly." For example, he revealed his character to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel as evidence of how God treats us. He goes to a Bible story. So what's he talking about? What was revealed about the character of God to Moses and the people? You might remember the story centuries before David; it was part of his scripture. God saves the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt; he sets them free, does miracle after miracle. And what thanks does he get? The people keep complaining; they keep reversing course; they keep rebelling. Yet through it all, God is gracious. Yes, there are consequences to their choices, but ultimately there's the promised land, and David says that whole arc is how God is to us. And David gets so excited about this thinking about the Exodus that this becomes the inspiration for David to kind of launch into a whole new section that takes the psalm to a whole higher level, and this one is about grace. That's your second G word: grace. I need to remember God's character.

See, my self-talk isn't just about what are you saying to yourself about yourself; it's also what are you saying to yourself about God? See, how would you finish this sentence? The Lord is blank. Maybe the Lord is remote; the Lord is unfair; the Lord is uncaring. And I filled in that blank those ways myself at times in my own life. You want to know how the Lord fills in that blank? Next verse, David actually quotes God. I'll explain this in a second. Verse 8: "The Lord is..." Let's read this out loud together: "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love." David here is actually quoting a Bible verse, Exodus 34:5. This is the most quoted Bible verse by the Bible. You see this verse from Exodus quoted at least 14 times in other scriptures, and that doesn't even count the times it's paraphrased. And here's what's happening in this verse: great story. Moses is meeting with God up on Mount Sinai to get the 10 commandments on tablets of stone. It's so beautiful. Meanwhile, back down in the desert, the people decide that God's taking too long with Moses, so they make a golden idol to worship. And Moses goes back down, gets so upset with them, he breaks the tablets over their heads, beginning a long tradition of preachers hitting people over the head with the Word of God.

And he goes back up to the mountain, and he says to God, "These people, I can't take it anymore. Just want to quit. You got to give me something, God. You know what I need from you? I need to see your glory." Like the song Trent taught us earlier, "I need to see your body." That means I need you to pull back the curtain, pull back all the veils, and show me what's really at your heart. Show me the core of your being, what's deep inside you. He's saying, "Show me who you really are, God. Is all this worth it? Is it worth it trying to follow you? Show me your essence, your glory." And it says then God comes down from a cloud and he says, "Here is my glory." And remember, this is right in the very moment of an entire nation's rebellion, so you'd kind of expect God's self-revelation of what's at the core of his being to be kind of like a furnace firing and God saying, "I cannot stand them either, Moses. I shall smite them all." And you almost get the impression that this is what Moses wants to hear, right? And instead, God says, "The Lord, the Lord, his compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry, filled with unfailing love." And this verse is what David is quoting here in Psalm 103:8.

So if this is what God says about God, I think it would be insightful to look at these words just a little bit more closely. I think you'll love this. The Lord is compassionate. You might know in the original Hebrew, the word translated compassion here is derived from the Hebrew word for womb—a woman's womb—and it refers to the deep love rooted in a mother's natural bond for the baby in her womb. You know how much do you think expectant moms love their unborn babies? You might know our daughter-in-law Kelly is expecting her second baby, a boy due in November, and you know what? She already loves that baby so much. But why? She hasn't seen the baby; the baby's done nothing to earn her love; the baby hasn't said, "I love you, mommy." The baby hasn't done well at a piano recital; the baby hasn't learned to walk; the baby hasn't gone on to a great university; the baby hasn't gotten straight A's; the baby hasn't done anything to make her proud; the baby hasn't done anything cute. That baby does not even know he's loved; that baby does not even know that he is alive. But he is alive, and he is loved so much.

And that's the picture of the unconditional, no-strings-attached love of God for you being painted in these verses. You don't have to do anything to earn God's love. He just loves you. He loved you before you knew he loved you. He loved you before you were alive. He cherishes you so much that the only place on earth that we can kind of see a hint of it is the love of an expectant mom for her baby. Like that song said, "Chosen in love before all time, formed in the womb for your delight." And God says, "This is my glory." Of all the powerful things that God has done, spun the galaxies into existence, he goes, "You want to know what's the coolest thing about me? According to me, it's how much I love you." And he says he is gracious. That means he not only doesn't give us what we deserve when we sin, but he gives us what we don't deserve; he lavishes grace on us every day.

And slow to anger. It's kind of funny; the Hebrew here literally means long-nosed. And that probably refers to the tendency for our nose to get mad when we get really mad, right? Our nose to get red, right? And God's saying it takes a long time for my nose to get red. In other words, he's in no hurry to judge sinners. And abounding in love. Now watch this: the word used here for love is the great Hebrew word chesed. It's hard to translate; it's translated love and mercy. But I just learned this week linguists say this word is derived from the Hebrew word for stork because the stork was known in Hebrew culture as being a great parent. They were consistent; they always came back to the same nests; they were protective; they built their nests up on high places, and they were faithful. They took care of their chicks for a long time, and here the love of God for you is hinted at in the tender care that these nesting parents show for their little defenseless chicks.

Listen, maybe somebody at some point in your life told you, "I love you," and then they left. And with all my heart, with all my strength, and based on the authority of God's Word, I want to tell you God is not like that. God never says, "I love you; I save you; I cherish you," and then, "Now I hate you." Never. So, let me just ask you: is your self-talk, when you talk to yourself about yourself, is it full of this? God loves me like a mama loves her unborn baby. God loves me like nesting storks love their chicks. Probably not. That's probably not your self-talk. Somebody told me just this week, "René, my prayers are almost always apologies. I'm sorry, God; I know you're mad at me." If that's you, look at where David goes with his self-talk. He's talking to himself: "He will not constantly accuse us." The voice of the accuser—that's not God. "He will not remain angry forever. He does not punish us for all our sins. He does not deal harshly with us as we deserve." That's what he does not do.

So what does he do? "For his unfailing love toward those who fear him"—and fear there just means that honor the respect you have for God is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. "He's removed our sins from us as far as the east is from the west." He will never bring back a forgiven sin. You know God is never going to remind you of an old tweet. Now the howling monkeys in your brain will, unless you take them captive. The Bible says all of us have sinned; we all fall short of God's great glory, every single one of us. Yet God forgives all our sin, and he washes us completely clean, white as snow, when we trust in Jesus Christ. David says, "The Lord is like a father to his children." Now pause. Maybe that doesn't work for you because maybe your dad wasn't around or he wasn't really a good dad, and so David clarifies: "Tender and compassionate to those who fear him." You know, I have three kids, and they all had to learn to walk. And here's how that happened: they would take a step, and they'd fall down, and they'd take two more steps, and they'd fall down. Now, what was my reaction as a father to that? Did I look at them and say, "What are you doing, stumbling? Come on, you're a sluffer. Sluffers don't stumble. We have dignity. Get up. You can do better than that. You disappoint me." Of course not. And yet some of you think that's how God treats you when you stumble. That's not how he treats you. How does he treat you? He doesn't. David says he knows how weak we are. He doesn't treat you like that because he remembers we're only dust. That means he's fully aware of your humanity. He knows why you do the things you do. He knows you; he knows what makes you tick. He knows your weaknesses, and he doesn't expect you to be Superman or superwoman. Did you know that you don't have to be perfect for God to love you? That's what this verse means.

Now, maybe you feel like your earthly parents did kind of want perfection from you. Maybe no father and no father figure ever said these things to you. But God says to you, "I love you, and I get you fully. I get you; I understand you." David says, "Our days on earth are like grass, like wildflowers. We bloom and die; the wind blows, and we're gone, as though we've never been there before." And many believe that here David is quoting the rock group Kansas and their well-known song "Dust in the Wind." Scholars are divided on this, but David is quoting a song, Psalm 90, which was written by Moses. And let me just give you a sneak preview here: Mark Spurlock has an outstanding message on Psalm 90 that he's going to bring next weekend. Do not miss next weekend if you can make it at all because I'm telling you it's going to change your life. It's already changed my life, and I just read a sermon manuscript, okay? So it's going to be good. Psalm 90—that's what David is quoting here in this verse, and what he's telling himself is, "Hey, soul, remember your days are numbered." And that's actually very healthy self-talk, too. I don't have centuries left to get my stinking thinking right, right? I need to do it now. Our lives are short, but the love of the Lord remains forever with those who fear him. His salvation extends to the children's children of those who are faithful to his covenant, of those who obey his commands.

Now, the key to understanding this verse is the phrase "faithful to his covenant" because a covenant's like an agreement, a treaty. And there's a covenant between God and humanity, and now we can look at this verse through the lens of Jesus because Jesus said he was establishing a new covenant the night he was betrayed. And we're going to remember that in just a few minutes when we celebrate communion together. And he broke bread, and he gave a cup, and he said to his disciples, "I am initiating a new covenant in my blood." And that means Jesus provided the final sacrifice for all time for all your sins. And the way you participate in this new covenant, being faithful to that new covenant, just means I put my full faith in God's total provision. I trust fully in him as the ultimate extension of God's grace. This is how much God loved you—that he came to the cross and he died for you.

And at this point, David's so excited he launches into the third section. That's the quick wrap-up that takes it to another level. He's focused on glory—that's remembering God's greatness. Watch how David ends this song, kind of like an orchestra conductor at the end of a symphony, kind of marshaling all the instruments for this big crescendo at the end: "The Lord has made the heavens; his throne from there he rules over everything." And what David is doing here in his self-talk is this: let's do the little exercise that we do every year or so here at TLC. Are you ready? Put up your hand and point your finger like this. Now point up and say, "God." Now point to yourself and say, "Not." Let's try that again, ready? God. Not. One more time: God. Not. Repeat as necessary. So much of my self-talk is all about how I just want to control everything, and it frustrates me. So when I say, "Hey, self, God, not," that's healthy self-talk too. And then this is the crescendo: "Praise the Lord, you angels, you mighty ones who carry out his plans, listening for each one of his commands. Yes, praise the Lord, you armies of angels who serve him and do his will. Praise the Lord, everything he has created, everything in all his kingdom." And then he brings it back full circle quietly to where he started, to his own soul: "But all that I am, praise the Lord." Do you see how he progresses from thoughts about himself to just thoughts about God's glory? He's reaching a state that a pastor named Tim Keller calls blessed self-forgetfulness.

You know, part of the problem is we're thinking about ourselves all the time. In fact, here's my little theory: most positive thinking is self-oriented, and so we stay self-absorbed. We say things to ourselves like, "I am wonderful. I'm delightful. I'm flowering into my beautiful fullness," you know? And the problem is it's still all about me. I'm still focused on my ego. It's like looking at the chattering monkeys, and instead of silencing them, I'm saying, "You chattering monkeys are so beautiful," right? In contrast, positive biblical self-talk is God-oriented. God has blessed me; God has crowned me; God is a father to me; God loves me like an expectant mom; God is great. See, my problem is not just that I'm telling myself negative things; it's that I'm focused on me all the time. So my ego has set the stage all the time. But biblical self-talk moves my focus from me to God. What a relief! Settle down and look up.

So this week, when you are haunted, when the voices start in that room late at night, take those thoughts captive and remember three words: gratitude, grace, and glory. See, here's the big idea: what to do when haunted by guilt, shame, negative thoughts? Redirect my thoughts very deliberately to God's goodness. And we have a beautiful way to do that right now—the way Christians all around the world are doing it this morning, the way Christians have been doing it for 2000 years—coming to communion, the Lord's Supper. So let's prepare our hearts. Would you bow with me in prayer? Let's pray.

God, so often my self-talk is negative, and I'm self-centered. David's picture here in Psalm 103 is not always my picture. Sometimes I do imagine you as accusing, as always angry, as harsh. So help me to remember how much you love me. As we come to communion, we reaffirm our faith in your covenant, and perhaps some are praying for the first time, "I enter into that new covenant today. I receive Jesus. I don't understand it all, but as much as I understand, I want to follow him." God, help our thoughts right now in these moments and then every day and night to be directed to gratitude for your astounding grace, which is your greatest glory. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.