Post 21 in Lifting up the Soul
Him shall he instruct in the way that he shall choose.
His soul shall dwell at ease; Psalm 25:12b-13a
David spends the beginning of Psalm 25 showing us how he knows his God and trusts Him. We have these psalms of David to remind us that life is difficult, but it is joyous when we accept the role God has created for us. David, for all the suffering he went through and the wrongs he committed, gladly submitted to God’s commandments and precepts because he saw the good in it. God showered him with love. Later, God exalted him to the highest role of king over His people. Finally, David takes up the role of instructor for the building of God’s temple. This is a physical temple, but this decision—a decision that David made of his own will—resounds in a spiritual way. The temple expresses mankind’s growth from being a receiver of loving acts (like a baby) to the giver of loving acts (like a child toward a parent). It is in this event of the building of God’s temple that God uses Solomon, David’s son, to refer to Himself and His coming Messiah. What an honor, that God would use David’s human efforts as a Biblical portrayal to us of God’s ultimate gift of His Son!
Here is how God speaks to David in prophecy about Solomon, while simultaneously prophesying the kingship of the coming Lord of All.
“When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.” 1 Chronicles 17:11-14ESV
David spent the rest of his life planning for a building that he wasn’t allowed to build and that he would never see completed. He set down the plans of God for the temple and he amassed the materials. He did this in full expectation that Solomon would carry out his instructions. And Solomon obeyed. The temple was built. It was described as an awe-inspiring structure, but it was nothing compared to the true temple of God. That true temple is the Church, you and me.
God has given us instructions. He has laid these instructions out over the vast scroll of time from the beginning of the world. He set His plan for building His home in us before the world existed (Ephesians 1:4). Without Him as our Builder and Instructor, we have nothing. The word for instruct, yara, depicts an archer directing an arrow. Without the archer’s aim and setting up, the arrow would not reach its mark. David expresses in these verses that he could not have peace and take on the role God wanted him to take unless he allowed himself to be instructed—directed—where to go and what to do.
As Christians, we sometimes latch on to expectations without knowing we’re aiming toward the wrong mark. A Christian doesn’t always see what her own underlying expectation is until it is tested and revealed to her. Mary, the mother of Jesus, would never have imagined the role she would play—becoming pregnant while a virgin; facing the distrust and rejection from Joseph (and probably his family); raising and caring for a Son who would be rejected, cruelly tortured, and killed before her eyes. Any mother can know that Mary’s mark, the mark that God aimed her toward, would never have been the mark she would have chosen for herself. Yet, God’s role for her, as difficult as it was, glorified her Creator and worked to give us hope everlasting. We learn from Mary’s example to let God’s instruction turn us and point us toward a mark. We probably won’t take on the role we expect, but it will be the role that glorifies our Creator and works for the good of the Church.
Trust like Mary’s and like David’s is a trust that releases the arrow into God’s hands. Lifting up one’s soul to God means just that. He is the director and instructor. Sometimes the destination is clear; sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes the destination seems completely unreasonable. But the arrow doesn’t question the archer about the mark.
Jesus faced moments when He didn’t know what the Father was going to want Him to do next. For example, Jesus tries to get away with His disciples to rest after they have returned from their missions. But it becomes apparent to Him that it is not the Father’s plan.
“And he said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.” Mark 6:31-34ESV
The Father directed His servant by bringing the crowd to be taught. So, Jesus foregoes resting and eating. He teaches instead, though He is tired and hungry. He trusts in the Father that God will supply for that rest and hunger later. The apostles were tired, too. They had just returned from their first mission, in which Jesus had commanded them not to take any food, purse, money, or another change of clothes. He was teaching them to do what He was doing. He was relying entirely on the Father. We think that Jesus knew all there was to know throughout His ministry—that the future was laid out before Him like a red carpet. He knew what the Father wanted Him to know when the Father wanted Him to know it. He tells the apostles, “And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit” (Mark 13:11). So, what does this mean about the words Jesus spoke? He relied entirely on the Spirit of God to know what to say. He also had the choice of not saying it.
Christians today do not have the Spirit of God prompting us and giving us the words, verbatim, to speak. Instead, we have the written New Testament to comfort and instruct us. There isn’t a formulated script for the situations a Christian woman finds herself in. Because of this, she may second-guess herself. She may say things she wishes she could take back. The scenarios that occur in her life may find her tripping over her words and standing in a moment baffled and unsure. Yet, somehow, the things she does—as foolish and unresolved as she feels at the time—can work out to be exactly what needed to be said or done. Not because she came up with the perfect retort, but because her response, her personality, her unique point of view helped bring about a lesson or a change that she would never have expected. She wouldn’t have been half as sincere or direct had she been warned in advance and prepared for it. God is in charge, and He knows how to make things happen in the most unlikely of circumstances. Sometimes, regardless of how uncomfortable, tired, hungry, or clueless one feels in the moment, God is instructing that soul as His arrow, and she is going to do exactly what He wants her to do.
We live in an age where an “I’ve got this” mentality is expected. This is humanism; ultimately, is the belief that we can save ourselves. The movies reek with these corrupted concepts of “I am strong. I am equipped. I am powerful, and no one can take my power/rights from me!” God is our power. He is great, and no other authority or power comes close. Within the Church, this self-sufficiency finds purchase. Our ministers are praised for and urged to express themselves adamantly, and to think it’s for the cause of Christ. They bang on the lectern about opinions rather than commands. The members of congregations swell with pride when their preachers yell and “step on their toes.” Their relationship with God is not strengthened. Instead, they look up to their preacher as the protector who is going to chase away the “riff-raff” and make their church look “sound.” They take on the preacher’s likes and dislikes, and can just as quickly take on the opposite likes and dislikes when the next preacher is hired. When we are told to be sheep, we are meant to be docile to our great Shepherd and to obey the shepherds who care for our souls. God is the one instructing us in the way we should go, and His elders are to care for the flock’s ultimate destination. There is no room for sister, brother, or “pastor” worship.
Sincere sister, you don’t know the mark. Your Father has a complete plan for where He is aiming you, so don’t try to course correct Him. You are not the all-sufficient one; He is. He will instruct you, that is, aim you, in the way He wants you to go. The result will be peace. These times when you are fighting to keep your soul in His loving hands are hard. Sometimes it isn’t easy to accept the role He places you in today or for a time. It may make you uncomfortable. It may give you pain in this life. You may have to be perceived as the problem for people to realize later that God was using you as His arrow to pierce the hearts of His people with some very hard lessons. You know your God; you can trust Him. He is not going to direct you astray. You are being aimed toward Heaven.
Here are some reminders about how God uses instructions with His children:
…then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk, and grant rain upon your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance. 2 Chronicles 6:27ESV
Receive my instruction, and not silver, And knowledge rather than choice gold; Proverbs 8:10
Through the tender mercy of our God, With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace. Luke 1:78-79
This is the twenty-first post in the Lifting Up the Soul study from Psalm 25. Subscribe to WomEnCourage to be notified as this study continues.