We build our own spiritual and psychological house with each decision we make about what is real and how things work.
We build a theology about who God is – what is fundamentally true with our choices and decisions. We are made free or imprisoned by our philosophy about what is real and how things actually work. These are the bricks and mortar of our “Spiritual House”.
You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Psalm 139:5 NASB.
Skip Moen Phd. describes Psalm 139:5 as “The-god-trap” and comments on this scripture while referencing Arnold Bennett.
” Do you want to be free? Free to determine your own way? Free from the expectations of others? Free to explore who you really are? Free to choose God? Then get ready to be constrained! Human freedom is not the clear path we expect. Human freedom necessarily entails anxiety—and passion—and spontaneity—and structure—and fear—and hope. There is no freedom without fences. The “back and forth” mixture of human emotion is the twin sister of freedom. And since there can be no knowledge without emotion, all human freedom is found within the dialectic of the emotional spectrum.”
Moen goes on to suggest;
“This dialectical mode of learning has the very texture of human freedom. ‘You hedge me before and behind; You lay Your hand upon me’ (Psalms 139:5). God’s hand laid on man in creation set him apart from all other creatures, according to Rashi (1:27); they were made ‘by His word,’ determined, made precisely according to His will, while man was formed out of the symbolic freedom of the unmediated creative process. Rashi quotes this verse from Psalms, in his commentary on the creation of man, to sharpen the contrast between the human and the nonhuman, between freedom and determination.
The first part of the verse . . . evokes the peculiar process by which human beings are created. Aḥor and kedem (‘Behind and before’): between delay, belatedness, anxiety, and structure, on the one hand, and spontaneity, courage, and passionate encounter, on the other, the human being is besieged, challenged, pressed by God’s hand. The image conveys all the tension of a condition both constrained and—strangely—free.”
My experience confirms this to be true. Being constrained is the reality of my choice for discipline and growth in truth. I have been blessed to be free to follow the Spirit of Truth or to choose my own selfish, self serving, self actuated way.
I frequently consider the prophetic words of Moses after the delivery of Torah “Today I set before you life or death, blessing or the curse…Choose LIFE”.
This morning I was in prayer and meditation. I saw in my spirit Yeshua Messiah (Jesus the Christ) sitting quietly graciously beside me; waiting…
I sensed his incredible patience and kindness, his amazing grace to allow me freedom to choose. Yeshua is the personification of grace in absolute truth = REALITY.
My favorite theologian Robert Zimmerman AKA Bob Dylan sings prophetically (He speaks for God) on his album “Love and Theft” in the song “making my last go round”; he sings, “I will baptize you with fire so you can sin no more, I’ll establish my rule through civil war”. In the Hebrew scriptures fire denotes the spirit, the civil war is between our animal nature and our higher rational, cognitive nature. Becoming truly human and not a sensual, appetite driven beast requires good choices and learning from failures.
All these thoughts, and Skip Moen’s comments in “Today’s word”. again remind me that I must choose life to find reality. That is the amazing freedom given us by our creator. I must choose between whom I will serve (as described in the Hebrew) the Yetzer Hera (The beast within) or the Yetzer Hatov ( My spirit man, or higher self)…It’s my choice and that choice leads to life or death blessings or the curse, truth or lies, illusions or reality; freedom or bondage.
We all are building our own spiritual and psychological houses with each choice we make. Every decision about what is true and how things really work are bricks in the walls.
We build a theology about who God is and what is True with our choices and decisions. We create our own philosophy about what is real and how things really work as well.
Choose carefully for in your choices you define your life! You are building a house in which you experience reality or illusion. Your house is your safety or your prison; these choices are the building blocks.
works of words 