Day 2: Not My Soul, But My Spirit

Yesterday, we’ve seen that many Christians, mostly unknowingly, are often guided by their emotions than by their spirit. I want to turn, first of all, to some words of David at the beginning of Psalm 103, the first two verses of the psalm. This is what David says:

“Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.”

Now, if you analyze those words at first sight they’re rather strange. David is speaking to his own soul. And he’s challenging his soul to do something. So, if David is speaking to his soul then it’s not David’s soul that is speaking. I believe it’s David’s spirit that is speaking to his soul. David’s spirit is in contact with God. David’s spirit is aware of the things of the spirit world, aware of spiritual obligations, but his soul, as often with many of us, is slow to respond. His soul doesn’t see things the way his spirit sees things. His spirit is willing, but his soul, if I could say so, is somewhat sluggish.

So David’s spirit is stirring up his soul. But David’s spirit realizes that for things to happen, it’s not enough for his spirit to be stirred, his soul has to make the decision.

To clarify this, I could use a simple illustration: his soul is the switch that turns activity off and on. The current, you could say, comes through his spirit. But the switch is his soul. His soul has to make the decision.

Now, in order to appreciate this more fully, you need to have at least a basic picture of man’s nature. Man was created, the Bible tells us, in the likeness of God. The Bible reveals a triune God; that is, one God in three persons. And the fact that man’s nature is like that of God, leads us to the conclusion that man’s nature is triune. He’s one person, but there are three elements in his personality.

This is brought out very clearly by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, where he prays this prayer, or wishes this wish:

“And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Paul is here praying for God’s will to be perfectly worked out in the total life and personality of each believer whom he’s addressing. And referring to that total personality, he uses this phrase “your whole spirit and soul and body.” I personally believe that’s a full description of man’s total personality. He is a triune being. One person with three constituent elements to make up their total personality and those three constituent elements are the spirit, the soul and the body.