We've made it to the final 50 psalms!
I've regularly done very long series on Fridays. Writing as much as I do, these Friday series lighten my load as I can let the content of the series guide my thoughts.
So, just to catch new readers up with the idea this series, the conceit is to focus the meditation upon a single line or phrase from each Psalm. Something that, in its conciseness, grabs my attention.
That line from Psalm 101 is: "I will not let anything worthless guide me." CSB translation.
The Hebrew would be more literally rendered, "I will not put a worthless thing in front of my eyes."
Overall, Psalm 101 is a pledge of loyalty and fidelity to God. And what strikes me about the vow is this commitment about not setting a worthless thing in front of your eyes.
How we deploy our attention has a huge impact in shaping us. What we set before our eyes will, in large part, determine the people we become. And as we know, this situation has become even more grave given how social media has been algorithmically created to capture, hold, and funnel our attention. To the point where our perception of reality can become massively distorted. We're increasingly living among people in the grip of algorithmically-generated delusions. We've become a hallucinatory society.
I've been pretty intentional in protecting my attention. Here are some of the things I've done in relation to my digital devices.
Aurally, my default ringtone is silent. (You actually have to buy a silent ringtone for the iPhone as silent is not an option in your sound settings. But it's not a bad investment of 99 cents.) Only Jana, Brenden, and Aidan have their ringtones set to a sound. Same with my text messages. Only texts from Jana, Brenden, and Aidan make a sound, all others are set to silent. So, unless my family contacts me, my phone is silent all day long.
Visually, my phone is set to greyscale. Nothing is in color. Text messages are set to no banner or homescreen notifications. So, in addition to the silence of my phone (and computer), I don't have anything popping up into my visual field.
From an interactive perspective, I don't have any games on my phone. And most crucially, as I expect you've noticed if you looked for me, I have no social media presence. Substack has a social media-adjacent function, where people post notes, comments, and updates, but I don't participate in that.
Basically, I've worked hard to have 100% command of my attention throughout the day, removing anything that would grab it without my consent.
I do, though, want to avoid techno self-righteousness in sharing this. I find technology useful. Plus, I expect if Jesus were alive today he'd preach a parable about the Luddite and the kid on TikTok going up to the temple to pray: "I thank you, Lord," the Luddite prays aloud in his online (!) essay, "for not making me like this kid on TikTok."
Still, you must protect your attention. You become what you behold. Beware setting worthless things before your eyes.
