Psalm 63 - Bodies that Worship: Soul - Michael Hinnen - 7/11/21 - BCC FQ: What do we learn about our souls and how to use them to worship God? DT: Our soul is designed to delight in God. Outline: Our soul desires God (vs. 1), our soul delights in God (vs. 2-8), and our soul is defended by God (vs. 9-11). Intro- SOS- Save our souls – Although SOS officially is just a distinctive Morse code sequence that is not an abbreviation for anything, in popular usage it is associated with phrases such as "Save Our Souls" and "Save Our Ship". Only Jesus knows can do that—DT: our souls are designed to delight in God-- In fact, Jesus says this about our souls- Mk. 8.35-37—Jesus is saying this in the context of discipleship, in the context of following him- which means there is a war being waged over our souls. We can trade what our soul needs for something else… something that actually goes against the design of our soul and causes our soul to disintegrate. But what is the soul? — Sometimes we think of this (Soul Disney Movie, or maybe this, a death experience where the soul is separated from the body after death…). But I think there are two really helpful pictures of the soul in the Bible. Gen. 2.7, “then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” Ps. 103.1, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!” The soul is the totality of our being, it is all that we are. It includes our bodies, but it is even more than our bodies. — See Dallas Willard graph— All of these components, our hearts, our minds/thoughts, our bodies, shape our soul and who we become. The soul is the totality of our beings, sometimes also described as our inner world. Sometimes we will say things like, “man, I really need a vacation.” Or, “Wow! I felt so close to God on that walk outside.” Or, “My job is really sucking the life out of me!” All of those statements are indicators of what is really going on deep inside of us, inside our souls. The soul is the totality of your life, but it is also your inner world. So, let me ask you: how’s your soul? How’s your soul? Everything we do forms and shapes our soul in some way. And if we are not aware, our soul is going to be like a car without a steering wheel. We might still be running, but at some point, we are going to wreck and crash. Because our soul is designed to delight in God. So today we are going to look at Psalm 63, because it will help teach us about the soul and how to worship God with our souls. 1. Our soul desires God (vs. 1). “A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” Our soul desires God. We don’t know exactly when this Psalm was written in David’s life, but it was probably written when he was running away from his son, Absalom, somewhere in 2 Samuel 15-17. His son, Absalom, wanted to be king and so he chased his own father out of the kingdom and into the wilderness. David is in the wilderness, and he desperately wants to experience God’s presence. David is in the desert. Since David is in the desert, it makes sense why he would say that his soul is yearning for God, thirsty for God. This is a very palpable image. David is dehydrated and yearning for the living water that only God can provide. You ever been dehydrated before? … Like every morning when you wake up your body is longing for some water, and you guzzle down that water. Or you’ve been outside mowing on a hot and humid day, and you go inside, and drink some nice cool water to refresh yourself. David is saying here that this is what he is longing for. He is longing for his soul to drink from God’s goodness and experience his refreshment, like he has in the past! Our souls NEED God. Harry Potter- The Mirror of Erised was a magical mirror, which, according to Albus Dumbledore, shows the "deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts." Harry wanted to see his parents. His trusty sidekick and best friend saw himself as a quidditch star. They say someone healthy would see themselves exactly as they are right now… If you looked in a mirror like that, what would you see? I think if we are the healthiest we can be, we would see the person of Jesus in that mirror because our souls find their greatest satisfaction in him. In John 4, Jesus is talking to the woman at the well, a woman who has had 5 husbands and has no friends. She is ashamed of her life. And she is at this well, in the heat of the day, alone. And Jesus says to this woman (John 4.13-14 ESV), “Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Jesus knows that he is the living water that we all need. Jesus knows that he is the one who can satisfy our souls. And we know that deep down too. Augustine says it this way, “Our souls are restless until they find their rest in God.” Deep down, all of our souls desire God. But what do we do when we are in the desert, like David was? Remember at the beginning of our Psalm, David can’t feel God’s presence. So, what does he do? This is important for all of us because there are going to be moments when we feel disconnected from God. There are going to be moments when we read that first verse of Ps. 63, “I seek you… thirst for you… faint for you…” and say, “I wish that was me… but I just don’t seem to desire you, God. You seem too far away. You seem too distant. I don’t want you right now.” WHEN you get in a moment like that in your life, which will happen, be honest with God and tell him… “God I don’t yearn for you. Please help me to desire you.” That’s the first step. All of God’s people will have to go through a wilderness, a desert journey before they get to the oasis. But then listen to David and how his soul finds delight in God. 2. Our soul delights in God. (vs. 2-8). “So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.” In his moment of dryness and drought, David goes back to the sanctuary and uses his body to worship. David goes back to the time and place that he has experienced the beauty and presence and living water of God. He goes back in his mind to the sanctuary, where he would worship God day after day because it was there in the sanctuary that he beheld, he saw, he experienced God’s power and glory. I’m reminded of Ps. 27.4, where David says these words, “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.” The only thing David wants to do is dwell with God and look upon his beauty. David is using his eyes to gaze on God. But not only does he use his eyes. He also uses his lips and his hands. Look at vs. 3-4, “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. 4 So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.” David knows that God himself is greater than life. It doesn’t matter if he dies, as long as he has the LORD, he has everything he needs. He will praise him with his lips, and he will lift up his hands. David is using his entire body to worship, to help his soul delight in God. Our souls are designed to delight in God. And to help us in moments of desperation, worshiping with our bodies can pull us out of the drought that we are in and help our souls delight in God. That’s what this series is all about… worshipping God with everything we have. Because if we worship God with our bodies - our eyes, our heart, our hands, our feet, our mouths - even when we don’t feel like it, our soul will follow suit. So, David worships God with his body to help his soul delight in God. The Apostle Paul also finds his delight in God in Philippians 3.8-9.