Thursday, March 7th, 2024
I’ve been reading in Psalms the last couple of days and I want to share a couple of the verses God highlighted to me. I absolutely love how David talks to his own soul when he is trying to build his hope and faith. It reminds me that we really are three part beings (spirit, soul and body) and it’s up to us to make sure that our soul is never the one in charge of the others. Our soul in this case is referring to our desires, emotions, passions, will and mind. We have probably all had times where we let our will and emotions lead the way. The ones that I can think of, didn’t lead anywhere good. On the other hand, I can think about times when I declared scriptures to get my mind to stop taking the enemy’s bait. Or other times where I chose to display the fruits of the spirit instead of anger, fear, pride or heaviness. Those were the times where my spirit was leading the way.
Let’s look at some scriptures. Psalm 42:11 says:
11 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.
That word disquieted in the original Hebrew language (according to Strong’s) means: to make a loud sound (like English ‘hum’); by implication, to be in great commotion or tumult, to rage, war, moan. This to me sounds like grumbling and complaining. This is letting our soul have the reins instead of our spirit. In this scripture, David realizes this is not the correct order of command, so he is telling his soul to hope in God. Hope thou in the original Hebrew (Strong’s) means to wait, to be patient and to hope.
In Psalm 62:1 we see David analyzing the state of his soul again:
1Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation.
Waiteth here in the original Hebrew language (Strong’s) means the silent expectation of divine aid and confidence in God. I think that word “silent” is very important. It’s quite different from the word disquieted above. A disquieted soul is restless. It’s grumbling about its current state of affairs, filling its mind and mouth with lies and curses from the enemy and bearing burdens it isn’t meant to bear. A soul filled with silent expectation isn’t worried or wrestling with itself because it trusts in God. I don’t think it means we never say a word. 2 Thessalonians 5:16-17 says, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing.” These things encourage us in our silent waiting.
I want to look at one more word from the above scriptures. In Psalm 62:1, the word salvation (Strong’s) means something saved, deliverance, victory, prosperity. This is the same word for salvation used in Exodus 14:13 when Moses told the Israelites, as they felt like they were trapped between the Red Sea and the pursuing Egyptians, to stand still and see the salvation of God. This was the salvation that parted the waters of the Red Sea and gave the Israelites dry ground to cross on. This was the same salvation that washed all the pursuing Egyptians away to their fateful end. Do you have any situations in need of that kind of saving power? I know I do.
Final Thoughts…
Lord, show us the places where our soul is disquieted. Help us to see the authority we have over these areas in order to bring them back to a place of confidence in God. We know the weariness that comes from letting our soul have it’s way and we desire to trade this in for the abundant life that You offer. Show us the scriptures to declare to our soul to shine a light into its deepest, darkest recesses. Do it again Lord. Part that Red Sea and lead us all to our promised lands.