TURNING NEGATIVE THOUGHTS AROUND
(Friday, August 23)
“By night I pondered in my heart, and my spirit asked: Will the Lord reject forever, and will he be favorable no more? Or will he cut off his mercy unto the end? Has he brought an end to his word from generation to generation? Or will the Lord forget to be merciful? Or in his wrath will he shut up his compassions? And (then) I said: Now have I begun; this change is of the right hand of the Most High. I remembered the works of the Lord; for I will remember your wonders from the beginning…” (Ps 76: 6-11, Septuagint-translation)
The above-listed questions or fears sometimes kept the Psalmist up at night; fears based on the uncertainty of the future. But then he would re-focus and re-affirm his faith, by “remembering” the good works of the Lord, Who always took care of him, even up to this sleepless night. Thus the Psalmist would make a new beginning and change his way of thinking, replacing fear with faith: “Now have I begun,” he would say, and he would recognize that “this change is of the right hand of the Most High.” It was a small miracle, in other words, that he could re-focus and make a new beginning, because the negative thoughts about God cutting off His mercy or “forgetting” to be merciful had seemed so overwhelming that he couldn’t handle them without the gentle nudge of “the right hand” of God back into His direction.
I am so grateful for this psalm, which encourages me to make a new beginning, whenever I need to do that; whenever God seems distant or indifferent, because I’ve lost sight of His presence. I turn my thoughts around this morning, once again, by the grace of “the right hand of the Most High”; of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who sits at the right hand of the Father. “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,” as You always have, – I say this morning, as I remember Your goodness to me, a sinner, beloved and led through many ups and downs by You.
