“My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear of it and be glad (Psalm 34:2).”
We have spoken before of the soul’s makeup involving the mind, will and emotions. The act of praise and worship is a total soul involvement. The Psalmist declared his intention to “bless the Lord at all times and to have praise always in his mouth (Psalm 34:1).”
Praise, then, is a cooperation of mind, will and emotions resulting in visible, audible or vocal adoration of God. The mind assumes the stance of faith and declares to the emotions and will that it is a viable thing to do to worship God. This declaration of the mind is not without documentation. While the mind is yet without God, worship seems to be among the most foolish of exercises. Once God has gifted the soul with faith, the mind, under the power of the Spirit of God, is changed. The life of God in man’s spirit touches all the faculties of the soul and there is a dramatic shift. Foolish things become wise and viable. With the new birth there is a new thinking system, a new sense of emotion and a new response of the will.
All through the Psalms David and others record their intentions to worship with their whole beings, declaring that it is comely, proper and rewarding.
No stated intentions are more focused than our text: “My soul shall make its boast in the Lord.” In this procedure the mind brings the matter to the table, the emotions add their “amen” and the will prompts the expressions of “boasting in the Lord”. There are times when the order of the worship experience shifts with the emotions leading the way. There are other times when the emotions seem dulled or passive and the will leads the way, pressing the emotions to join the party. To wait on the emotions may be costly to the worship experience as our feelings are often incarcerated by the atmosphere of an area or attitudes we have contacted during the way. While the emotions furnish a rewarding experience, we often must proceed without them with the mind’s knowledge or the will’s strength.
Since our relationship with God is a spirit-to-Spirit experience, God’s Spirit in us stirs the whole conscious being -- the soul -- to engage in worship. The result is loving God “with all our heart, mind, soul and strength (Mark 12:30).”
Nothing affects our environment as powerfully as “boasting in the Lord”. The immediate result is that others will hear and be blessed, “The humble shall hear of it and be glad (Psalm 34:2b).” Gladden your world today; let them hear and see your praises. Say it with me:
“Today I will make my boast in the Lord; Those around will hear and be glad.”
Closing note of interest: This document was composed while the author’s emotions were on a brief vacation and were not in registered attendance while mind and will were considering the issue of worship. At the end emotions were detected hesitantly returning to the room.
JRT
SOUL TALK SERIES # 6 THE SOUL’S TABLE OF CONTENTS
If the soul was a book and had a sub title, a table of contents and chapters under main divisions it would likely read like this order:
Subtitle: The Reality of Who a Person Really is
Table of Contents (general divisions):
The Mind: the Thinker
The Will: the Decider
The Emotions: the Feeler
Then there would be dozens of specific parts of the soul.
To put it briefly: The mind is for thinking, for rationality, for understanding and can process with logic correct or incorrect and reach conclusions, good or bad.
The will reflects the pleasure of God in allowing us to choose to act on his initiatives. It is here at this precise point that we respond to God’s leading when we didn’t have to. We can take initiative or choose to be passive. Right decisions can shape a learned soul and a chain of right choices builds for eternity.
The emotions may serve as a go between standing where spirit and soul meet. Feeling may serve as the first contact point in a vital decision, to give a green light or a red light. We have all heard it said and said the words ourselves, “I don’t know about this situation but I just have the weird feeling that something isn’t right.” It has been said about women (I really don’t know who said it and do you think I would put it into print if I was quoting myself!) “Women’s intution (a gift to a woman’s soul) is fickle, nonsensical, ridiculous and virtually foolproof!”
When these three faculties are working properly, even in a God-vacant person, the results are impressive. In a God-contained person in touch with the Spirit the results are beyond astonishing.
A powerful thought (in my own humble and generally accurate opinion):
I am a soul and in that soul there is a thinking mind,
a deciding will
and feeling emotions.
These are all gifts of God and only he knows how they should work. When his life is in the human soul large and in control. . .watch out, world, you are in for a sight to behold!
JRT
Subtitle: The Reality of Who a Person Really is
Table of Contents (general divisions):
The Mind: the Thinker
The Will: the Decider
The Emotions: the Feeler
Then there would be dozens of specific parts of the soul.
To put it briefly: The mind is for thinking, for rationality, for understanding and can process with logic correct or incorrect and reach conclusions, good or bad.
The will reflects the pleasure of God in allowing us to choose to act on his initiatives. It is here at this precise point that we respond to God’s leading when we didn’t have to. We can take initiative or choose to be passive. Right decisions can shape a learned soul and a chain of right choices builds for eternity.
The emotions may serve as a go between standing where spirit and soul meet. Feeling may serve as the first contact point in a vital decision, to give a green light or a red light. We have all heard it said and said the words ourselves, “I don’t know about this situation but I just have the weird feeling that something isn’t right.” It has been said about women (I really don’t know who said it and do you think I would put it into print if I was quoting myself!) “Women’s intution (a gift to a woman’s soul) is fickle, nonsensical, ridiculous and virtually foolproof!”
When these three faculties are working properly, even in a God-vacant person, the results are impressive. In a God-contained person in touch with the Spirit the results are beyond astonishing.
A powerful thought (in my own humble and generally accurate opinion):
I am a soul and in that soul there is a thinking mind,
a deciding will
and feeling emotions.
These are all gifts of God and only he knows how they should work. When his life is in the human soul large and in control. . .watch out, world, you are in for a sight to behold!
JRT
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