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“Preach to Yourself"

When you think about King David, do you ever think about him preaching to himself? Scripture tells us he did. I do the same thing just like the Psalmist, the man who had God’s heart, did.

These truths and promises are beautiful. They are precious and timeless. The problem comes when we forget them, or we fall for the lies of the enemy who says, “Did God really say that?”

We’re in this together, and for us to be victorious over our constant, nagging war with fear, we must know God’s truth, believe God’s truth, trust God’s truth, declare God’s truth (preach to yourself), and walk in it.

I spent a period of about two years in Psalm 103. Something about that passage resonated with me. Day after day, I felt led to keep coming back to it until I had memorized and internalized it.

In the Psalm, David is preaching to himself, saying with his mouth what he believes in his heart and knows to be true. David is boldly declaring the truth, power, grace, and mercy of our Creator God—the God who forgives each and every sin and nails our shame to the cross.

I have to share some key words from David’s beginning of the Psalm. I love the way the New King James Version says it. Read it (out loud) with me:

Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! And forget not all His benefits:

He forgives, heals, redeems, crowns and satisfies, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

Friends, that’s good news. That’s declaring the good news of the gospel to yourself, and for some of us, we need to declare it again and again. Meditate on this Psalm today.