Keeping My Soul
Notes
Transcript
NOTE:
This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.
Engagement
Because I don’t want to embarrass anyone, I’m not going to ask for a show of hands, but I’d like all of you to honestly answer a few questions for me:
How many of you have ever made a New Year’s resolution and failed to keep it for even a month? Maybe your resolution was to exercise more, or lose some weight or to make some other change in your life. I know every year Mary and I see this first hand at the gym when the number of people working out there swells on January 1, but a month later, most of those new people are gone. Maybe some of you even have some barely used exercise equipment lying around your house that testifies to your lack of success.
Or let’s get a little more spiritual. How many of you have made a commitment to read your Bible in a year and ran out of gas right around the book of Numbers? I know I’ve certainly done that on more than one occasion.
How many of you have struggled with some addiction or habitual sin and failed over and over again?
Tension
If you didn’t answer yes to at least one of those questions, you’re either the most godly person I’ve ever met or a really good liar.
I’m convinced that all those failures have something in common, and today as we continue our study of the Psalms of Ascent we’re hopefully going to get a better understanding of why we fail so often, and, even more importantly, what we can do about it.
Truth
We’re going to cover two different Psalms of Ascent this morning - Psalms 130 and 131. You’ll remember that the Israelites would travel to Jerusalem three times a year to observe the feasts that God had prescribed for them and they would sing these Psalms on their journey.
In these two Psalms I get the sense that the worshipers have arrived at their destination and that they are just about to begin their observance of one of those feasts. As they consider the greatness and holiness of the God they are about to worship, they sense their own unworthiness.
As you follow along as I read these two Psalms I want you to look for any words or themes that connect the two Psalms since that is going to help us identify the main idea we’ll develop today.
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
2 O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.
5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;
6 my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.
7 O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.
8 And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
1 O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.
2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.
3 O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.
Are there any particular words or themes that stand out to you in those two Psalms?
[Wait for answers.]
Those are all really good. But out of all those, I’m going to focus on the idea of the soul. To me that is the concept or idea that is at the heart of both Psalms. And the Psalmist is focused on three specific ways that he is going to develop his soul in order to prepare to worship God. And that leads us to the main idea we’ll be developing today:
What I do is determined by who I am
What I do is determined by who I am
As the Psalmist approaches a holy God, he has what I would call an Isaiah 6 moment. In that chapter, Isaiah recounts his vision of the throne room of God and when he observes the holiness and magnificence of God, He is overwhelmed by his own unworthiness:
5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Here we see that same idea expressed in a slightly different way in each of these two Psalms. In Psalm 130 the Psalmist cries out to God for mercy because He understands that he is unworthy to stand in the presence of a holy God. And in Psalm 131, he humbles himself before God and acknowledges that God is great and marvelous and that he is not.
The Psalmist is aware that his life does not measure up to God’s holiness. But instead of focusing on his actions - what he has done or not done - he instead recognizes that the key to changing his outward behavior is to concentrate on renovating his soul.
The reason that we so often fail when we try to change our outward behavior is because we’re focused on the wrong thing. When we give all our attention to attempting to change the behavior, we might succeed for a while, but chances are those changes won’t last.
I just finished reading a book titled Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard. In the opening chapter of the book, Willard writes these insightful words:
External manifestation of “Christlikeness” is not, however, the focus of this process, and when it is made the emphasis, the process will certainly be defeated, falling into deadening legalisms and pointless parochialism.
Willard’s observations are confirmed by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the churches in Rome:
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Paul begins this chapter with what might seem on the surface to be a call to take an external action - present our bodies to Jesus as living sacrifices. But in the very next verse, he reveals that the way we do that is to transform our inner lives:
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
If I want to take the outward action of presenting my body as a living sacrifice, I must first begin by transforming my mind, which is just another way to describe developing my soul. Or, as we said earlier...
What I do is determined by who I am
What I do is determined by who I am
Obviously, today we can’t even begin to scratch the surface when it comes to how we develop our inward life. About all we can hope for is to develop a deeper awareness of why we need to do that and maybe take a couple baby steps in that process. But I am convinced that’s a worthwhile goal for now. Hopefully down the road we can dig into this whole idea even deeper.
So I want to talk for a moment about the soul so that we all understand how the Bible uses that term. And then we’ll get practical and talk about the three actions that the Psalmist took with regard to his soul and how we can do that, too.
I am going to dig into some of the underlying Hebrew words in these Psalms, not because I am a Hebrew expert, which I most certainly am not, but because that is going to help us better understand some of the important ideas in these Psalms.
Definition of “soul”
Although the concept of the soul is slightly different in the New Testament, this morning I’m going to focus on the Old Testament, or Hebrew, concept of the soul.
The word translated “soul” in both Psalms is the Hebrew word”
nephesh
The first use of that word in the Bible is found in Genesis 2:7, where it is translated “living creature”:
7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
We begin to see here that the soul is the essence of who we are as a person. It is the inner part of our lives that controls us and that continues to exist when our bodies die. It includes our intellect, our will and our emotions. It is essentially the same as the way Paul used the word “mind” in Romans 12:2 that we just read a moment ago. In both the Old and New Testaments, the Bible often uses the word “heart” to communicate that same idea.
As the people of Israel got ready to enter the Promised Land, Moses reminded them of the importance of taking care of their soul:
9 “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children—
The key to doing the right things once they entered into the land God was giving them was to “keep their souls diligently” and to make sure that they taught their children to do that too.
Application
And that is still the key for us. So let’s see what these two Psalms teach us about how to do that.
THREE WAYS TO KEEP MY SOUL DILIGENTLY
THREE WAYS TO KEEP MY SOUL DILIGENTLY
Wait (130:5-6)
Wait (130:5-6)
The word “wait” occurs three times in verses 5 and 6, so it must be something the Psalmist thought was important.
For most of us the word “wait” seems like it is passive. We go to the doctor and we sit impatiently in the “waiting room”. We go to a popular restaurant and we have to wait for a table. Or, if you’re like me, when you go to the grocery store, no matter which line I get in, it always ends up being the slowest and I have to wait. Perhaps God is trying to teach me something, but that’s a whole different sermon.
The verb that the Psalmist uses here is the Hebrew word
qavah
Its original meaning was “to bind together” like how the strands of a rope are twisted so they stay together. A couple other verses where the same verb is used will help us to see that:
9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so.
In that verse, qavah is translated “gathered together”. God gathered together the waters in an orderly manner to form oceans and seas.
17 At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart.
Here qavah is translated “shall gather”. But this is no ordinary gathering. Jeremiah is writing here of the time when Israel and Judah will be reunited and brought into oneness with God.
Let me illustrate: Let’s say that I had a bunch of bricks scattered all over my yard. There are two ways I could gather those bricks. One way would be to just throw them all in a wheelbarrow and dump them in a pile. Or I could build a wall where each brick is systematically gathered together in an orderly form in which they are bound together. That’s qavah.
Before we summarize what it means to wait on God, let’s consider the illustration that the Psalmist uses here - the night watchman waiting for the morning.
When Mary and I lived in Albuquerque we were leaders in the youth group at our church there. I still remember the time we spent the whole night in a lock in with a bunch of high school students. While we certainly had a good time, even then we were old enough that we were looking forward to the morning when the event would wrap up. And what kept us going that whole night was knowing without a doubt that the sun would eventually come up. That’s what the night watchman experiences night after night. He can persevere through his shift because he has a confident expectation that the sun will come up.
And that is what is should be like when we direct our souls to wait for the Lord. That kind of waiting is not some passive event in which I just sit around and do nothing. It is instead a time when I am devoted to seeking to be bound together with God, trusting that He is going to be with me no matter what I might be going through in my life.
The good thing is that most of us already know how to do that:
Our soul waits on God when we meet with Him in His Word, seeking to know Him more intimately.
Our soul waits on God when we lay all our hurts, fears, anxieties, and sins at His feet in prayer, asking Him to change our hearts and help us to trust Him more deeply.
Our soul waits on God when we live life together in community with other disciples of Jesus who can help us transform our inner lives by encouraging us, rebuking us when needed, holding us accountable and celebrating God’s work in our lives.
We just need to make sure we’re doing those things in order to transform our souls, not just to change what we’re doing on the outside.
Calm my soul (131:2)
Calm my soul (131:2)
While we are totally dependent on God to develop our inner life, we also have a responsibility to participate in the process. Notice that the Psalmist has calmed and quieted his soul. In other words, he had to take some actions to allow that to occur.
The verb translated “calmed” is the Hebrew word
shavah =
“become like”, “resemble”, “make smooth”
It’s easy to see how the idea of becoming like or resembling something or someone else came to be translated calm. Think about the ocean, for example. When the level of the water is consistent across the board, we say that the sea is calm. But when the water levels vary wildly, the sea is no longer calm.
The same is true for our relationship with God. When our inner lives are in harmony with His purposes, plans and ways, then there is calm in our lives because there is consistency between our thoughts, will and desires and the character of God. That doesn’t mean that I won’t have problems and difficulties in my life, but what it does mean is that I can experience peace and calm even in the midst of those troubles.
I’ll talk more about one practical way we can do that in just a moment.
Quiet my soul (131:2)
Quiet my soul (131:2)
In a recent book I read, the author documented several recent eye-opening studies that demonstrate just how hard it is for us to quiet anything, alone our souls, in the culture we live in today. Consider these facts:
Before Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, the average person slept eleven hours a night. In a recent study only 9% of people slept 8 hours or more.
A recent study found that the average iPhone user touches his or her phone 2,617 times a day. The same study also found that average users spent 145 minutes on their phones and engaged in 76 phone sessions per day.
The average American spends 705 hours on social media each year and 2,737.5 hours watching TV
Those statistics are not just eye-opening - they are quite convicting to me personally. so what I’m about to share is as much for me as for anyone here.
The Hebrew verb translated “quieted” is
daman =
“cease”, “be astonished”, “absence of turmoil”
In Scripture, this verb is primarily used to describe the response of someone who finds himself in the presence of God. It is very closely related to the idea of fearing God - an idea we’ve already seen several times in these Psalms of Ascent. The picture here is of someone who is so astonished with who God is that he immediately ceases from everything else and focuses on nothing else but God.
The problem for most of us is that we never slow down enough, we never get quiet enough, to really spend time in the presence of God like that.
David gives us a great illustration to help us understand what it means to calm and quiet our souls - a weaned child. I want you to think for a moment about the difference between a weaned child and one who is not.
A nursing baby sits on his mother’s lap because he is hungry and wants something from his mom - and he will throw a fit if he doesn’t get it immediately. An weaned child, on the other hand sits in his mother’s lap, not for the purpose of getting what he wants from her, but rather for the joy of the relationship. Even if the world is in chaos around him that child has a sense of peace, tranquility and contentment in his mother’s arms.
When we quiet our souls, we enjoy God for who He is, not because of what He can do for us.
Paul gives us some very practical advice about how we can calm and quiet our souls like that.
6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
When we’re a brand new disciple of Jesus, our tendency is to pray like a newborn baby. We seek only the immediate gratification of our desires. But one of the characteristics of a soul that is calm and quiet is that our prayers become more like a weaned child. We pray trusting that God alone knows what is best for our lives. So our prayers focus more on asking God to show us how He wants us to get our lives in harmony with Him and asking Him to change us from the inside out rather than focusing on all the externals. And when we do that, God gives us His peace, the peace that passes all understanding.
Action
We’ve seen this morning that...
What I do is determined by who I am
What I do is determined by who I am
I’m going to be really honest with you as we close. Developing our souls rather than merely focusing on the externals is not quick or easy. But I can also assure you, based on God’s Word, that it is the only way to make lasting changes in our lives, whether it is trying to shed a few pounds or deal with some sin that we’re struggling with.
I’ve only had time this morning to barely touch on some practices that will help us to renovate our souls and transform our minds. If that is something that you’d like to pursue further, I really sense that God is leading me to focus more of my ministry in helping our church family to do that. So let me know how I can help. And I’m sure that Ryan or any of the elders would love to do that too.
Before I pray, I’m going to ask us all to practice one of the ideas we’ve developed today - silence. So I’m going to ask everyone to put away your cell phones or other electronic devices if you have them out. Put away anything else you have out that might distract you. If you have a hard copy Bible feel free to use that but if you’re using a Bible on one of your devices, I’m going to ask you to put that away.
Once you’ve done that I’m going to ask everyone to spend a few minutes in silence and just allow God to speak to your soul. So that everyone has a chance to do that, unless it’s an emergency, please don’t get up from your seat or distract others.
[Time of silence]
Inspiration
Developing my soul is not easy or quick. But I can assure you that it is the most rewarding and life-changing work we can do in our lives. As we train our souls to wait on God and calm and quiet them, then God will change our lives from the inside out. And when He does that, we are going to be amazed at just how different our lives look on the outside, too.