Bible Study with the Cincotti’s – He Restores My Soul – 11/14/2025
Today’s Bible Study, Authored by Arthur Cincotti.
Listen to our Bible Study Discussion at: He Restores My Soul – Audio Podcast
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He Restores My Soul
“The LORD will not allow the righteous soul to famish,
But He casts away the desire of the wicked.” Prov. 10:3
We speak frequently of the soulish realm. Today we shall look at the soul more carefully in order to more fully understand this sphere of our being. Last week, in our study about offenses, we observed how Eve took the bait and allowed herself to be offended at the false notion that God was withholding some good thing from her. This offense occurred in her soul. Her physical body was just following orders. This becomes a first cause and a pattern of where and how Satan will seek to infiltrate our being from that point on.
The soul is not limited to the mind, will and emotions. Jack Hayford explains in his commentary that “Unlike the English word ‘soul,’ which usually describes only the inner person and is contrasted with the outer person, nephest (the Hebrew word) describes the whole person as a unit, that is a life, a living creation.” When we consider our soul it’s easy to notice that there is a transcendent aspect which makes it to be confused and often used interchangeably with spirit. Our imaginations can transcend space and time. And yet it is curiously attached to a corruptible, two and a half pound lump of flesh trapped in our cranium. Does the LORD, in our title verse from Ps. 23:3, aim to restore the lump of flesh? The LORD is committed to our whole being, body soul and spirit, but as we will see, the point of access is our soul.
When Jesus dwelt among us, He, the second person of the Trinity, took on human flesh and dwelt as a man, a triune image bearer, with body, soul, and spirit. He thought, laughed, cried, made choices. The difference was that His soul was fully informed by and in communion with the Father. He said to His disciples, in Mt. 26:38, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.”
Yet even in His questioning He did not sin.
In the first part of Ps. 23 we see how the LORD brings the whole person, “to lie down in green pastures” and “beside still waters” in order to restore the damaged soul. Restores presupposes the need for restoration. Our soul endures a vast degree of input from the world around us including the prince of the power of the air, and also the yappings of our own flesh. As Spirit filled believers we process this with our renewed mind in order to discern what we will cling to as truth and reject as lies. Our soul, in it’s most literal sense, is the tipping point for which way our flesh will follow. If I end up, somehow, in the valley of the shadow of death, I have the optional power not to cave into fear, which is a soulish emotion.
Our soul is pliable and subject to what we feed it. Faith occurs in the soulish realm and we read in Scripture that faith is pliable; we read of weak faith, strong, faith, little faith, great faith and exceedingly great faith. Rom. 10:17 says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” We yet possess, even in our renewed state, the power of personal choice to agree with the word of God or agree with the lie. When we agree with the lie, our soul is damaged and in need of restoration.
How does God restore our soul? Often it is through chastening. The Psalm goes on to say, “Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” What do you think the shepherds rod and staff were for. Hebrews 12:7 says, “If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?” Hayford describes the word for “comfort” in the Psalm: “nacham does not describe casual sympathy, but rather deep empathy, it is like ‘weeping with those who weep,’ or actually ‘sighing with those who sigh.’” Every parent knows that there is a mutual sorrow in chastening.
The late Pr. James Finn did a sermon once entitled, “Crucified Between Two Thieves…The regret of the past and the fear of the future.” Once again the emotions of regret and unhealthy fear reside in the soul. Suppose that the past is not the problem and the future is not the problem because they are both abstract and without substance. The problem is in the present. That’s where we can meet God. His presence is in the present and that is where we will find all we need for life and Godliness. Our whole being can and should live in the present, yet the distractions of the past and future inform the variety of information that we have to process in the present in order to make decisions and move forward in righteousness. I, personally, am often able to talk myself off the emotional edge by reminding myself that, in the present, I am warm, I am fed, I am whole, and I am loved. Now I understand that you may not always, in every situation be warm, feed or even whole, but Rm. 5:5 says, “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy spirit who was given to us.” Love sustains us and covers a multitude of sins, past, present and future.
Our soul, in it’s state of disrepair, can not communicate with God. As we have seen, though it has transcendent qualities, it is still tethered to space and time. I Co. 2:14 says, “the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” Our new creation man, that is our spirit man can and does hear from God. The issue is, will the soul obey?
Pr. Finn use to say, when the old woman – that is the soul (nepes, is a feminine noun) – feeds the new creation man, the flesh does what it likes. He sites Gen. 3:6, “she also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.” and Gen. 16:2, “So Sarai said to Abram, ‘See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.’ And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai.” The soul must not seek to instruct the spirit.
Our soul should be informed by our spirit which is informed by God. This produces the healthy outcome that leads us in “paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” Our soul is susceptible to fall into disrepair by chewing on the junk food that the world has to offer and in this time in history that is voluminous. We have constant access to titillating information and images that offer to bathe our souls with warm fussy ideas. When we find ourselves entertaining such thoughts, we should probe to find the root of what it satisfies. Learn to ask yourself hard probing questions, like: “What does this thought satisfy in me?” Does it satisfy a sense of pride? Does it satisfy your sense of order, even if it is contrary to God’s order? Does it stimulate an offense that doesn’t even exist except in your thinking? This is the process of, “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” II Cor. 10:5
David councils his soul and asks it the hard questions: “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.” Ps. 42:5
“Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is I you, just as you walk in the truth.” III Jn. 2,3 The prosperous soul is a restored soul; one that functions well according to its design. This is the apostle John’s prayer for his friend Gaius. This is a prayer that looms over all of us. A prosperous soul feasts on the delicacies of the kingdom, even in the presence of enemies. Those delicacies include truth, goodness, mercy, the oil of gladness, joy unspeakable and full of glory.
“As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” Ps. 42:1-2
Nourish your soul on the things of God. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.” Mt. 5:6
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