Torah of Restoration…

 
Torah of Restoration…
 
Perhaps you once learned Psalm 19:7 as, “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul.” However, the Hebrew text might better be translated as, “The instruction (i.e., Torah) of the LORD is perfect, returning back the soul.” Remember, the word soul [נפשׁ, nephesh, neh’-feshin] in the bible means “properly a breathing {creature} that {is} animal or (abstractly) vitality ; used very widely in a {literal} accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental)” Nephesh [נפש] in the Old Testament is never the “immortal soul” but simply the life principle or living being. Clearly, then, in the Old Testament a mortal is a living soul rather than having a soul. Instead of splitting a person into two or three parts, Hebrew thought sees a unified being, but one that is profoundly complex, a psychophysical being.
The word converting shouldn’t be there because it is the word [שׁוּב, shûb], shoob which means “a primitive root; to turn back ({hence} away) transitively or {intransitively} literally or figuratively (not necessarily with the idea of return to the starting point); generally to retreat.”
So, we all know that sin has a way of affecting the whole body… “…by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.” 2 Peter 2:19. It is so very often described throughout the whole bible that sin enslaves us, controls us, puts us in bondage, and lives with us while we are in these “nephesh”, breathing bodies. 
David here writes that the Torah of Yahweh [God’s name] is [תּמים, tâmîym, taw-meem’] which mean “entire ({literally} figuratively or morally); also (as noun) {integrity} truth: – without {blemish} {complete}”. So God’s Torah is the entire Truth we need to return to that can make our bodies whole again.
This is the message of teshuvah (תְּשׁוּבָה), or “repentance.”[contains the word shoob right in the middle]
This passage captures what true repentance is all about. Repentance involves casting all your sin from yourself. The turning away from them is in effect a renouncement of all your sin and any claims it had on you. God tells us to “get” a new heart and a new spirit, implying that both are already available to us if we simply will go after it and get them. IN HIS WORD!!! Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of any one, says the Lord GOD; so turn, and live. Ezekiel 18:31-32. God gives us the ability and desire to follow after him. All we have to do is respond in faith and obedience, receiving what he has already done for us.
Paul pointed out that there really are only two masters you can serve in this world. It’s interesting that the real master of evil is sin. Sin mastered even Satan, who earnestly works to enslave as many people as possible to sin. There is no salvation for the devil, but there is for each of us through Jesus Christ.
Our power to choose plays a major role in our walk to freedom. Paul wrote to former slaves to sin in verses 17-18. Paul said they had chosen to obey “from the heart” the doctrine taught by the Apostles. That same doctrine is available to us in the Bible, which contains specific instructions on how to live for God.
When we choose to obey God, we became slaves to righteousness. This is a good thing, because we receive God’s power to live a renewed life, pleasing to God. He in turn grants us with all kinds of spiritual blessings that enrich our lives. These blessings include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:21-22). When we’re serving God, God helps us live in righteousness. The power to do so comes from the Holy Spirit which lives in us through our faith in Jesus (John 14:16).
The path of obedience is not easy, as it involves exerting our spirit over our body. The difficulty of any sin addiction is that it exerts the body and its carnal desires over the spirit. If we are slaves to sin, our bodies are mastering our spirits. If we are slaves to righteousness, our spirits are mastering our bodies. The belief in the “evil inclination” that resided in everyone was widely accepted and taught throughout the whole Bible. Many prayers thousands of years old were to ask the Lord God to keep us from giving into the “evil inclination”.
 Teshuvah is therefore first of all a matter of faith, of trusting in the miracle of God to accept us as we ‘turn’ back to Him. 
Psalms 32:10 offers a consoling message with which many Christians can identify: “Many are the sorrows of the wicked; but he who trusts in the Lord, loving-kindness shall surround him.”
This verse requires no explanation for the reader to grasp its literal meaning. The psalmist merely described two different types of people, the wicked who deserve punishment, and those who trust in the Lord. The ones trusting in the Lord benefit from his loving-kindness surrounding them.
Consider again Psalms 32:10. The average reader can easily appreciate its message. Moreover, the person of faith finds comfort and assurance in it: “But he who trusts in the Lord, loving-kindness shall surround him.”
In Matthew 5:45, Jesus said, “…for He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Jesus did not say that God sends rain on the righteous and lightning on the unrighteous: he does good to both parties. Jews in the first century recognized that God loves people, and does good things for them, even when they do not deserve it.
Faced with the potentially divisive implications of Psalms 32:10, the rabbis and sages circumnavigated the verse’s plain meaning. They accomplished this by creatively expanding the wording of the verse: “Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but even if the wicked one repents and trusts in the Lord, loving-kindness will surround him.”
From this rabbinic comment on Psalms 32:10, we learn that God remains on alert for any sign of repentance from a sinner or wicked person. He responds to the repentant cry of a thoroughly wicked person just as he does to the repentant cry of an average sinner. Once remorse is detected, he moves in and surrounds even the most morally depraved with loving-kindness.
The following benediction comes from a version of a Jewish prayer older than the one that appears in contemporary prayer books.
Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old. Blessed are thou, O Lord, who delightest in repentance.”
AMEN

תּוֹרַת יְהוָה תְּמִימָה מְשִׁיבַת נָפֶשׁ
עֵדוּת יְהוָה נֶאֱמָנָה מַחְכִּימַת פֶּתִי

to·rat · yahweh · te·mi·mah · me·shi·vat · nafesh

ei·dut · yahweh · ne·e·ma·nah · mach·ki·mat · pe·ti

“The Torah of Yahweh is perfect Truth, returning one’s whole being,
The testimony of the LORD is reliable, making wise the simple.”
(Psalm 19:7)

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