Knowing God October 24th issue
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“He restores my soul.” (Psalm 23:3, NKJV)
The twenty-third Psalm is not a prayer but a series of wonderful declarations made by David about God to God. These truths David knew deeply, declared confidently, and held dearly. What we know and believe about God determines the way we live and living before God, under His all-seeing eye, is not optional for any of us.
David declares that God “restores my soul.” This restoration he needed, and apparently very often. Once he cries out, “my soul is among lions; I lie among the sons of men who are set on fire, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.” (Psalm 57:4) We, too, need soul restoration and our Father knows exactly what we need.
Our souls need to be restored from the ill-treatment and damage we have experienced in this hostile world. We must forgive, forgive everyone and everything. How long since you sat before God, opened up your soul fully to Him, and faced honestly any festering wounds, bloody bruises, and lingering infections? Our souls cannot ever be restored until we forgive. The poison of unforgiveness must be removed or sick we will stay. God commands us to “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:31-32)
William Shakespeare wrote “Who from crimes would pardoned be, in mercy should set others free.” And Mark Twain has beautifully declared, “Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.” Forgiveness is our duty and as much like Christ as we can become in this life. Forgive today and allow God to restore your soul.
In January 1865 President Lincoln stood to deliver his second inaugural address in which he made the famous statement “With malice toward none; with charity toward all.” Standing behind Lincoln, above him and leaning on a railing, there stood a “dashing young man with raven hair and black mustache, wearing a fashionable stovepipe hat.” This man, John Wilkes Booth, would murder the President on April 14, Good Friday, shooting him at Ford’s Theater. Mary Lincoln, the president’s wife, cried out in a “deranged, incomprehensible terror.” Malice, evil revenge, and demonic blood-lust had struck again.
God please give us sense enough to allow You unhindered access to our souls. So that when restored we may with assurance say we have malice toward none and charity toward all. Amen.