INTEGRATING THE DIMENSIONS OF THE SELF - At any moment it is your soul that is running your life. Not thoughts, intentions, or feelings, but your soul. The soul is that aspect that integrates the dimensions of the self and how they interact with each other. The soul lies almost totally beyond conscious awareness.
In the person with a well-kept heart, the soul is properly ordered under God and in harmony with reality. The outcome is a person who is capable of responding to the situations of life in ways that are good and right, such as the person in Psalm 1. He does not determine his course of action by what those without God say—even their latest brilliant ideas.
Living within only human “wisdom” makes it “necessary” to do what is wrong and to prepare explanations of why one who does wrong things is still a good person and why those who do otherwise are fools. This person is an expert scorner, putting others in their place with appropriate doses of contempt, which is an essential element of scorn (see verse 1).
In contrast, the Psalm 1 person delights in the law that God has given. He dwells upon it, turning it over and over in his mind and speaking it to himself. It is where his whole being is oriented. For many, this ideal arrangement of life under God remains an impossible dream, for their soul is running amuck and their life is in chaos. Enslaved to their desires or their bodily habits, or blinded by false ideas, their soul cannot find its way into a life of consistent truth and harmonious pursuit of what is good.
The individual soul’s formation is seen in how thoughts, feelings, social relations, bodily behaviors, and choices unfold, and especially how they interact with each other. Many times an individual is in deep self-conflict. However, one must not underestimate the powers of recovery of the soul under grace. God is over all. The soul manifests amazing capacities for recovery when it finds its home in God and receives his grace.
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