At a moment in his life when his sin was searing his soul with grief, King David turned to the Lord, whom he knew was a God of grace and the justifer of the ungodly. These are words for the broken.

1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 

Psalm 51:1-2, 10-12, 16-17 (ESV)

I spent all day Tuesday at Amicalola Falls State Park. I left my laptop at home and turned my phone off so that I could spend 8 hours with my Bible, a notebook and Jesus. I focused on Psalm 23:1-3a, "1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul."

I could hardly get past that last statement: He restores my soul. It gripped me, and begged so many questions.

• What is my soul, anyway?
• Why would it need to be restored? What is wrong with it?
• So, what is my soul's present condition?

This last question is the dangerous one. It is utterly untheoretical; totally practical. When I looked deeply into the core of my being (my soul) from which I derieve my motives, desires and sense of identity, I was disturbed. My soul was restless. Tired. Anxious. Frantic. Empty. Lacking love. Filled with insecurities. Lacking vision, energy and peace. Whoa.  

Then I began to ask how the LORD restores souls. In one word: rest. Matthew 11:28-29 came to mind, as did other passages such as Psalm 63 and 103. Spiritual rest and physical rest. Emotional rest, too. Resting my entire identity on the promise: "Come to me, and I will give you rest for your souls."  That is the promise of the gospel. Jesus works for us. He fulfills the law; he suffers the penalty. We watch and rest. We believe and receive.

That is why Psalm 23 says that we will lack nothing. We may want stuff, but we'll never be in real need, without the gospel and the presence and power of God—even in the vally of the shadow of death.  As our Shepherd, he makes us lie down in green pastures. There is something about the Lord having to make me lie down. Resting is not natural for a performance based creature like myself. And so Monday, I realized that I was out of gas and knew that I had to get away for a fill up. The Lord was making me lie down in the green grass of the gospel so that I could feed all day—grazing in his grace. He provided still waters from which I could easily drink my fill. It was an opportunity to be still and know.

If you have the opportunity, take a few minutues for some daily restoration, or maybe even a more extended time. If you have not asked the question, "What is the condition of my soul," let me encourage you to do so. And as you do, read Scripture, reflect on it, pray about it, listen to God, and write what comes to mind. Then repeat and repeat until you sense your soul being restored. It may take an hour, or an entire day... or more. It's worth carving the time. After all, I maintenance my vehichles to keep them running. Shouldn't I take time to maintenance my soul with the truth of the gospel, that our Shepherd laid down his life for us, knows us by name, and will never let us go.

This is today's Community Lenten Service Message, "The Great Expedition," from Psalm 15.

Lenten_Lunch_•_Psalm_15.mp3

(download)

Click here to download:

Lenten_Lunch_•_Psalm_15.mp3 (8.69 MB)

Here is the message outline:

1. A Question (v. 1)
2. Qualifications (vv. 2-5a)
3. Our Only Hope (v. 5b)

There is a reason why slow cooked and slowly eaten meals are far more satisfying than microwaved, frozen dinners. However, aside from Thanksgiving, many of us do not think we have the time to prepare or enjoy such meals very often. If this is product of our modernized, advanced Western world, maybe we should consider a wiser and healthier day, when food simmered and families chewed and savored their meals and talked rather than scarfing it while wearing ear buds. Maybe we should slow down, and in more ways than one. Yep, there is a spiritual analogy between slow cooking and fast food.

In Psalm 46:10, the Lord says, "Slow down." Well, actually the verse reads, "Be still and know that I am God" (which does require a slow down of sorts).  This one verse with two imperatives has many implications.

Imperative #1 - "Be still." This is not easy for an ADD culture. We are always moving, doing, going. Rarely just being, and hardly ever still. TV. iPods. Fast food. Radio. Internet. Texting. Email.  By the way, the word "still" can also be translated, "silent." Be still. Be silent. Stop doing and just listen. Listen for what? For implication #2.

Imperative #2 - "Know that I am God." This is much more significant that we think at first glance. Why? Because the alternative to knowing that God is God is living as though I am God. I must be in control. I must make a name for myself. I must please everyone around me. I must never fail. In this phrase, the Lord is inviting us to a remarkable freedom. After all, can I imagine what it would be like (1) to not have to be in control, (2) to have someone else give me a name, (3) to be concerned with pleasing only One person (who, I must say, is remarkably easy to please for those who find their life in Jesus), and (4) to have the freedom to fail, knowing that each time I fall, there is a net of mercy and grace waiting to catch me, and arms of a loving Father who is eager to pick me back up. 

I suppose we could go on and on. And being God for some is different than it is for others. For some being God means keeping a position of power and influence, while for others it means trying to overcome deep insecurities by proving one's self in various ways (through income, weight management, grades, promotions, etc.). 

Anyway, some of us, myself included, probably need to slow down, listen to and take time to digest Psalm 46:10. It is a doorway of grace that will give us rest and enable us enjoy the God who, as the rest of the verse says, "will be exalted among the nations." After all, the Lord is the Master Chef who is preparing an eternal, slow cooked banquet for those who will slow down, stop doing, and begin resting and receiving. 

This morning during family time with the kids I asked them what they were looking forward to today. Catching up in school, playing outside, and reading a new book were some of the responses. I'm looking forward to meeting a friend for lunch, running before picking Ann Ferris up from chorus, and n  a movie (Shawshank Redmption?) with my wife later tonight. It's good to have something to look forward to. Fall weather. A birthday party. Christmas. A hike in the mountains.

And the Bible agrees. Among many passages about looking forward are these:

"Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 1:13b

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." Romans 8:18

Looking forward gives a fuller perspective to life (not to mention eternity). The future gives us more than the past and present, which often leave us shortsighted and without the hope that is ours in the gospel. As I fix the eyes of my faith and hope on Jesus, past failure and present suffering is infused with the supernatural sweetener of grace. Grace that when experienced in 200 proof form will result in Psalm 16:11, "In Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore." 

I am looking forward to that.

Here is last nights message handout from Campus Outreach/Beach Project in Panama City with the blanks filled in.