Psalm 103:1-2, NIV
Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul and forget not all his benefits.
As I have mentioned previously, people who talk to themselves are sometimes thought of as being not quite right in the head! But there is a form of talking to oneself that is very Scriptural and very necessary!
Each of us has three different dimensions to our being. Our body is obvious – a little less obvious is our spirit and our soul, but they are vital to our understanding of how God created us to function in relationship with Him as human beings.
God is Spirit, and our human spirit is made like God so we can have relationship and fellowship with Him. When God speaks to us as believers we become aware of His Spirit impacting our lives. It is here in our human spirit that we gain spiritual understanding from Him and here, also, where many of our most important decisions have their origin – such as choosing to serve God and make Jesus Lord of our lives.
But then action has to be taken to convert what we now understand in our spirit into the reality of human experience, decision making and action. In our Scripture the Psalmist is doing just that. He is speaking directly to His soul and telling it to get into line with his spiritual understanding – for it’s time to worship God.
Many people never come to a place of walking in holy obedience because they think that God should do it all for them, as if by a bit of spiritual magic! But if that were to happen God would be over-riding the freewill He has given us. We have to choose holiness – and then we have to tell our flesh-life (our soul and our body) to come into line with what is God’s best for our lives.
So, David’s spirit is bringing his soul, and then his body, into rightful subjection to his spirit for that is the way that the joy of the Lord (in our spirit) becomes the strength of God (in our flesh) to believe for and do the works of the Kingdom. That’s how vision becomes reality.
Prayer: Lord, help me to live in a God-centred spiritual relationship with you – and then bring all that I am into a place of joyful obedience, so that your true purposes may be known and fulfilled in my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
