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Psalm 23:1-3 (NKJV) 1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.
(Once again I apologize for repeating these posts so soon, but I believe we need to believe for the restoration God promised this year. In this post we can see some of what is happening today and God’s solution.)
In our last post we looked at David’s wonderful shepherd’s psalm, Psalm 23. We began by looking at the restoration made necessary by the fall of man. We were created spirit, soul and body. Our spirit is the part of us that is in vital connection to God. Our bodies are the physical house in which we live. They enable us to be part of and connect with the physical world. Our soul was designed to be a bridge between the two. Our soul is the seat of intellect, emotions and will. In the fall of man, the spirit went dark. Our soul became the determiner of morality and the distinction between good and evil.
If you remember the two trees in the Garden of Eden, you can understand the problem. The two trees in the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:16-17 tells us that one of these trees is forbidden to man.
Genesis 2:16-17 (NKJV) 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Man could eat as much of the fruit of the tree of life as he wanted. There is much discussion about this tree. If man found it today would he live forever. I believe the answer is no. In John 17 Jesus tells us what life is.
John 17:3 (NKJV) 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
I am not going to speculate on the physical nature of this tree or its fruit. Jesus said eternal life is to know God the Father. That is what this tree represented. Adam was free to know God. What about the other tree? We get a clue from its name. It is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What was the problem with this tree? Did God want Adam and Eve ignorant of what was good and evil?
I do not believe he did. However, this second tree represented this knowledge apart from their relationship with God. The knowledge of good and evil must flow from the life of God. If it does not, it is by nature arbitrary. Today we use the term relative. Good and evil are not relative terms. They are absolutes. The problem with the second tree is that it leaves man to make this determination via his soul. It is God who determines good and evil and when we eat from the tree of inner relationship with God by the spirit, the determination is automatic.
The book of judges speaks of this.
Judges 21:25 (NKJV) 25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
This same statement is made in the 17th chapter, but I wanted to quote it from here because it is the last sentence in the book. With all that happened in the book of Judges, they ended up in the same place they began. To some, this statement is the way things should be. In the context of Israel, the Bible says they had no king. We find in 1 Samuel that God wanted to be there king. Nevertheless, there was a problem with this. Because God could not have connection with man in the spirit, man kept making the wrong choices. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not up to the job.
When man’s soul is the determiner of good and evil, it becomes relative. There were people that God raised up to lead in the book of Judges. Some of them were good and some were bad. They led on the basis of what their minds, emotions and will determined. Some tried to walk according to God’s leading, but when you read this book you will see that most made mistakes. In the end they were in the same place as when they began. Their condition had not improved, and they were not a force for God and his Kingdom.
A king appointed by God was not much better. As you read Israel’s history under the kings, you find that few made the right choices in God’s eyes and only one was called a man after God’s heart. Even this king, David by name, made some terrible mistakes. He allowed evil to get hold of him and he committed adultery and then murder. It was his repentance that set him apart. In the end he acknowledged that he was not the one who must determine good and evil.
Psalm 51:3-4 (NKJV) 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me. 4 Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight– That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge.
As you read through this psalm, you find David understood that God determined good and evil. He saw that the fruit of his choice opened the door to death and destruction. He is among the very best the old testament had to offer, yet we would convict him and send him to prison for the rest of his life or worse.
So, what does David mean when, as a young boy, he writes the words, “He restores my soul.” I think part of what God is saying here is that our souls, our intellects, our emotions and our wills must be brought back under the control of the tree of life.
We were not designed to determine good and evil without our connection to God in the spirit. It is the spirit that communicates with the God of the universe. It is our spirit that then conveys through our soul what the wisdom of God reveals. Our intellect makes sense of it in a way our outward life can use. Our emotions thrill in the beauty of holiness, righteousness and the God who made everything. Our wills keep us moving and living according to what we learn from God in the spirit.
When the spirit, in vital relationship to God is in control, all is in balance. When the soul is the only inward voice we can follow, things are not in balance. Our experiences, our cultures, our hurts, our ambitions, our emotions and everything both good and bad deposited there, produce a competitive and unbalanced view of life. This is what has opened the door to most, if not all, of the misery man experiences on the earth. That was never what God intended.
How can God restore our soul? He does it by restoring our spirit. He puts us back in touch with the tree of life. This will not happen if archeological research finds the Garden of Eden and therefore a physical tree of life. That is not necessary. The tree of life came to earth. He destroyed the power of sin, fear and death. He made it possible to come back to the tree of relationship that was lost in the Garden of Eden. We can once again choose the life of the spirit by receiving Jesus the Christ as our savior and our Lord. Let me close by quoting one more scripture.
John 15:4-5 (NKJV) 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
When we let Jesus in, he restores our spirit. When he restores our spirit, our soul comes back into the place it was meant to have. Many things are tied to this. Next time we will begin to look at how this changes the way we live life.
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