Return, O My Soul

Return to your rest, O my soul. For the LORD has dealt bountifully with you. (Psalm 116:7)

No one talks to me more than I do.

No one talks to you more than you do.

In the Psalms, King David often spoke in the language of lament. Expressing sorrow is a vital step in moving forward when trials land and linger. He also modeled the full circle process of talking to his soul when the discouragement and despair grew too heavy to carry any further.

“Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again—my Savior and my God!” (Psalm 43:5 ESV)

Life is filled with joy. Life is filled with sorrow. Both are part of a believer’s life. Sometimes both happen on the same day! But more often we experience seasons that are marked more by one or the other. Often it is through pain that God grows us the most.

Wearied by disappointment and desperate for hope, we surrender our attempts to climb out of our circumstances on our own. We cry out, “Lord, you are my chosen portion and my cup, you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance” (Psalm 16:5-6 ESV, emphasis added).

Have the lines fallen for us in pleasant places? When I look at the circumstances of my life, do I see prison walls or loving fences? Fences, perhaps, lovingly placed by my Heavenly Father to pasture me in His goodness? To protect and nourish? To keep me fixed in the pasture of my earthly assignment?

“The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.” (Psalm 23:1-3 NLT)

In my Father’s pasture, I lie down in contentment. I am safe. I am loved. I receive all I need for my assignment here on earth in the pastures He has chosen for this season of my life. Settling into His sovereign control over every circumstance, my soul returns to rest. All is well because I know who my Shepherd is, and my Shepherd knows me. He knows when to move fences.

The truest freedom is found in contentment within the purposed limits our Savior has set. Rest is found in a soul that settles. A soul that settles in to pray before rising to fix. Making sure our rising is His leading and not our attempts to climb out of circumstances that are lovingly allowed for our transformation into His likeness. We wait for Him. While we wait, let us not lose sight of our King of glory, strong and mighty, invincible in battle (see Psalm 24:8 NLT).

My daily prayer this last month has been, “With all my heart Lord, I want Your blessings. Be merciful to me as you promised” (Psalm 119:58 NLT). These blessings are found in the obeying. In the surrendering. In the repetitive speaking of God’s promises to our souls, parched by pain.

“When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water (Isaiah 41:17-18).

As uncertainty swirls around us, it is in our ongoing decision to settle in the Savior’s presence that our soul finds the peace we long for. “This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says, 'Only in returning to me and resting in me will you be saved. In quietness and confidence is your strength'” (Isaiah 30:15 NLT).

No one talks to me more than I do.

No one talks to you more than you do.

That changes with our decision to immerse ourselves in the words of Jesus. His Spirit within us brings the promises of God to mind as we struggle with the voice of “self” and the enemy. By the grace of His strengthening Spirit within us, we hear Him whisper in the depths of our soul that hard is not the absence of His goodness. He is our Good Shepherd who deals bountifully with us.

When storms come, when storms continue…”May we have grace to see in every trouble, small or great, the Father’s finger pointing to Jesus and saying, ‘Abide in Him’" (Murray Abide in Christ).

Return O My Soul.