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Why Mental Clarity Arrives at Night · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Do you find that you get your best and clearest
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  Speaker 1: thoughts when you're laying in bed at night, on your
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  Speaker 1: back in the dark, when the world is quiet. For me,
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  Speaker 1: that's true, But why is that what makes that moment
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  Speaker 1: especially suited for mental clarity and for spiritual clarity? Today
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  Speaker 1: I asked Pastor John John Piper is in the studio
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  Speaker 1: again with us to explain how God speaks to us
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  Speaker 1: through our internal dialogue. And we get there from looking
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  Speaker 1: at the great Psalm sixteen, obviously Pastor John's favorite chapter
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  Speaker 1: in the Old Testament, Son of sixteen, great text, amazing text.
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  Speaker 1: And we're gonna look at a verse that we typically
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  Speaker 1: don't focus on, but we just read it in our
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  Speaker 1: Bible reading and maybe you skipped over this verse. We
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  Speaker 1: want to go back and study it. And it's a
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  Speaker 1: question from Zoe in provo Utah. Pastor John High, can
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  Speaker 1: you tell me how to discern the instruction that our
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  Speaker 1: hearts receive in the night to ensure that this is
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  Speaker 1: counsel from the Lord and not from other sources. I'm
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  Speaker 1: thinking of Psalm sixteen, verse seven. That text first speaks
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  Speaker 1: of God speaking to us through his word, and then
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  Speaker 1: it says in the night, Also my heart instructs me?
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  Speaker 1: How does our heart also instruct us beyond the Bible,
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  Speaker 1: particularly in quiet and reflective times of laying in bed?
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  Speaker 1: What is a relationship between God's external counsel to us
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  Speaker 1: through scripture and this self counsel? Can we even call
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  Speaker 1: it that? And should we seek after it?
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  Speaker 2: Ps I'm sixteen. Verse seven says, just to get it
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  Speaker 2: clear again before our minds, I bless the Lord who
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  Speaker 2: gives me counsel in the night, Also my heart instructs me.
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  Speaker 2: So how does the heart instruct David at night? How
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  Speaker 2: does our heart at night instruct us? So let me
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  Speaker 2: make a few comments about the wording of the verse
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  Speaker 2: and its context, and then I'll give some illustrations from
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  Speaker 2: my own life about how I think this works today.
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  Speaker 2: Those two clauses are parallel in verse seven, and they
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  Speaker 2: shed light on each other. The first claw says I
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  Speaker 2: bless the Lord who gives me counsel. And then the
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  Speaker 2: parallel clause is in the night, also my heart instructs me.
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  Speaker 2: The parallel between counsel in the first clause and instruction
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  Speaker 2: in the second clause shows that the word for instruction
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  Speaker 2: probably has a very practical bent to it counsel gives
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  Speaker 2: wisdom advice how to live. In fact, the Hebrew word
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  Speaker 2: for instruction is almost always translated discipline. But I think
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  Speaker 2: in view of the parallel with counsel, we shouldn't limit
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  Speaker 2: it to God's chastisement or correction or rebuke, but rather
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  Speaker 2: say that the instruction is practically oriented. Instruction can include
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  Speaker 2: correction and perhaps even rebuke. The fact that David mentions
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  Speaker 2: that the nighttime is when some of this council and
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  Speaker 2: instruction and correction come is probably owing to the fact
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  Speaker 2: that in the life of a king, you can imagine
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  Speaker 2: who is responsible for overseeing an entire nation. The day
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  Speaker 2: is full of meetings and administration and public responsibilities and
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  Speaker 2: all kinds of pressing activities, and it's not unlikely that
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  Speaker 2: David felt so pressured that it was hard for him
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  Speaker 2: to find time for reflection or meditation. So when the
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  Speaker 2: nighttime came and everybody went to sleep, and he was
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  Speaker 2: all alone and everything was quiet and still, he could
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  Speaker 2: finally pause from the pressures and be more reflective and
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  Speaker 2: receptive to the working of God in his heart. He
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  Speaker 2: said in Psalm forty six, be still and know that
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  Speaker 2: I am God. This is the great source of mental clarity,
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  Speaker 2: isn't it even we all discovered this the great source
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  Speaker 2: of mental clarity and wise counsel just getting crystal clear
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  Speaker 2: that God is God. It's amazing how many things fall
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  Speaker 2: into place in our lives when we stop the hectic
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  Speaker 2: pace of life and our quiet enough to realize there
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  Speaker 2: are a few stunning, glorious, clear realities in the universe. God, Christ, Scripture, Sin,
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  Speaker 2: the Cross, the Resurrection, the Holy Spirit, Heaven, hell, faith, holiness,
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  Speaker 2: eternal life. It's so often then the nighttime when the
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  Speaker 2: cobwebs of life pressures blow away, they just blow away,
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  Speaker 2: and the breeze of eternity is gently blows across our minds,
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  Speaker 2: and there's just a wonderful clarity that comes to many issues.
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  Speaker 2: And then there's the word heart. So if we focused
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  Speaker 2: on the instruction of the council, we focused on the night,
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  Speaker 2: and now we're felocusing on that word heart in the night. Also,
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  Speaker 2: my heart instructs me. So in the first clause, the
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  Speaker 2: Lord gives me counsel, and in the second clause, my
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  Speaker 2: heart instructs me. And I think we're supposed to pay
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  Speaker 2: attention to that parallel God, the Lord very often deals
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  Speaker 2: with us very deeply, not just with mental ideas, but
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  Speaker 2: with heart felt inclinations and affections. The Lord himself, through
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  Speaker 2: our deep affections, is instructing us. I think the way
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  Speaker 2: the counsel of the Lord and the instruction of the
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  Speaker 2: heart interrelate is that in Psalm one we read that
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  Speaker 2: the Psalmist meditates on the law of the Lord day
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  Speaker 2: and night and night. His mind is not just empty.
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  Speaker 2: He has a word that he meditates on at night.
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  Speaker 2: And Psalm seventeen says, you have tried my heart. You
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  Speaker 2: have visited me by night. You have visited me. It's
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  Speaker 2: not my heart just being independent. So I think David
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  Speaker 2: would say that the Lord visits him with thoughts and
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  Speaker 2: reflections and affections that are the fruit of faithful meditation
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  Speaker 2: on God's word. So let me illustrate how I think
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  Speaker 2: this works today. At least, this is my testimony from
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  Speaker 2: my own experience with God in the night. One of
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  Speaker 2: the most important decisions I ever made in my life,
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  Speaker 2: and that shaped absolutely everything from age thirty three to
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  Speaker 2: this very day, was the decision to leave college teaching
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  Speaker 2: and become a pastor. That final decision, the moment where
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  Speaker 2: I crossed the line from just reflection about it to
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  Speaker 2: commitment to it was forged. That decision was forged in
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  Speaker 2: the night. Everyone was in bed and asleep in my house.
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  Speaker 2: I was in the basement on my knees in my study.
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  Speaker 2: It had been building for a long time, and it
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  Speaker 2: was nighttime when the dam broke and my heart instructed me.
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  Speaker 2: It was not primarily a calculation of a list of
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  Speaker 2: gifts and possibilities and opportunities. It was much more visceral
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  Speaker 2: than that. In fact, the words in Psalm sixteen seven
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  Speaker 2: is kidneys. They were translated heart as kidneys, literally the
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  Speaker 2: King James reigns. It was a Jewish way of speaking
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  Speaker 2: of something much deeper than mere thought. Yes, there was
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  Speaker 2: a lot of praying, a lot of meditating, Yes, a
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  Speaker 2: lot of reasoning. But in the end, my heart instructed
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  Speaker 2: me art said you're done, resign as a teacher and
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  Speaker 2: seek a pastorate. Now I didn't this relates to one
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  Speaker 2: of the questions. I didn't treat that as infallible. I
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  Speaker 2: sought the confirmation of my wife, the chairman of my department,
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  Speaker 2: the dean of the school, my trusted friends, my father,
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  Speaker 2: and at every point there was That's right, you heard
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  Speaker 2: from God, your heart instructed you in the night. Art
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  Speaker 2: other times, I've been lying awake at night, anxious about
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  Speaker 2: some upcoming conversation that's going to be so hard and complicated,
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  Speaker 2: and I'm not at all sure how to approach the crisis,
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  Speaker 2: and I lay there and out of the blue, or suppose,
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  Speaker 2: let's just say, out of the darkness, the thought came,
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  Speaker 2: what about this? What about starting a conversation like this?
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  Speaker 2: What about asking this question? And a great piece comes
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  Speaker 2: over you. Yes, yes, that's right, that'll work. That's of God,
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  Speaker 2: and you give thanks and you go to sleep. I
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  Speaker 2: could give other illustrations, for example, how insights into puzzling
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  Speaker 2: biblical texts. I mean, I'll knock my head against the
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  Speaker 2: desk all day on working on a look at the book.
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  Speaker 2: I can't figure out something in a verse that it
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  Speaker 2: just doesn't make sense to me. I go to bed.
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  Speaker 2: The cobwebs blow away, the clear bruises of eternity blow
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  Speaker 2: and oh yes, oh yes, I see how it works.
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  Speaker 2: Or a less happy example would be bad habits, bad
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  Speaker 2: habits in my life that just need to be clearly seen.
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  Speaker 2: That's a bad habit, Piper, don't talk that way, or
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  Speaker 2: don't do that. It's a bad habit. You just got
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  Speaker 2: to be done with this, and in the peace of
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  Speaker 2: the moment, with clarity of moral instruction, you just say
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  Speaker 2: I'm done. I'm going to put my hand to the
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  Speaker 2: plow and not do that anymore. So. I think as
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  Speaker 2: long as we are bathing our lives in prayer for
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  Speaker 2: God's guidance and saturating our minds with meditation on His
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  Speaker 2: word day and night, and are willing to test all
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  Speaker 2: things by the Bible and good counsel, we can welcome
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  Speaker 2: this gift. Yes, I think we should ask for it
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  Speaker 2: in the night. Also, my heart instructs me Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: God often instructs us in the quiets of the night
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  Speaker 1: through thoughts and through spirit shaped affections. Such inner guidance
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  Speaker 1: should be welcomed, but always tested by the Bible and
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  Speaker 1: with wise counsel from others. It's so helpful on a
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  Speaker 1: verse that we typically just skip over. Ps. I'm sixteen seven,
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  Speaker 1: so good, And speaking of having a quiet mind, we
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  Speaker 1: need a quiet mind to read scripture as well. We
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  Speaker 1: tend to go to the Bible with our minds just fragmented.
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  Speaker 1: Our hearts are scattered, and just like the Psawmis found
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  Speaker 1: that he needed his mind and heart to be focused
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  Speaker 1: and brought together before he read scripture. Pastor John wrote
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  Speaker 1: a one minute prayer that you can pray that he
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  Speaker 1: uses to quiet his mind. You can use it each
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  Speaker 1: morning before you read your Bible. It's just made up
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  Speaker 1: of four verses from the Psalms. You can see that
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  Speaker 1: and you ask Pastor John book on pages sixteen and
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  Speaker 1: seventeen for more on what that prayer is and how
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  Speaker 1: he uses it. Well, Christianity is the best religion in
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  Speaker 1: the world. We make that claim implicitly every single day.
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  Speaker 1: So why are we so sure of this fact that
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  Speaker 1: Christianity is the best religion in the world. Pastor John
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  Speaker 1: makes the case next time. I'm Tony Ranky, see you
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  Speaker 1: on Thursday.