David Powlison (1949–2019), a dear colleague and friend, was a polymath who knew much about many things. After working with him for almost forty years, I still chuckled at his passing references to specific flowers, trees, and birds; archaic novels; quotes from early church fathers; details of a solar event scheduled to appear later that evening; and trivia about Philadelphia sports.
But these were peripheral adornments on a man who knew Jesus and loved him, fed on the word, was wholly engaged with the person in front of him, could enjoy teasing close friends and family, and was honored to be teased. He went through life knowing that he was created in God’s image yet also had much in common with the grass of the field that passes quickly.
And he was, among other things, a remarkably mature counselor. With my friend David in view, consider with me for a moment the making of such a counselor.
Christians Are Counselors
The first task is to repackage the word counselor. It suggests an occupation — something professional, someone trained, working perhaps in a tastefully decorated office — which is not how Scripture leads us. Instead, counseling is about giving “grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29), and as David knew and taught, it is the mission of every believer. It happens during the rigors of life, in the unplanned moments more often than the scheduled ones.
Scripture lays out several clear duties in the Christian life. We obey, pray, worship, and praise. We care for those with diaconal needs. We also care, with wisdom and love, for the souls of those around us. They, like ourselves, are created to need the help of God and his people in their daily sins and sufferings. Under the old covenant, we could have passed off this duty to priests and kings who, of course, often did this quite poorly and needed the occasional intervention of prophets. Ministry was the task of officers in the Hebrew community. Today, however, we have been given the Spirit, who puts the word of Christ in our hearts and in our mouths.
Jesus lived that life. Now we follow him. The care of souls is given to us all.
Counselors Receive Care
An essential feature of mature counselors is that they themselves live under Christ. The most anticipated and life-changing assignment in our CCEF curriculum continues to be a self-counseling project from David’s course Dynamics of Biblical Change. This was an opportunity for students to consider one area in which they wanted to see real heart change. As they worked on this assignment through the semester, students took their hearts to task with Christ’s good words to them, they were increasingly open about their struggle, and they reached out to friends for help and prayer. Counselors give what they have received.
Jesus describes this heart change in the initial beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3–6), which came up often in David’s classes. We aim to be among the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Such people are keenly aware of their need for Jesus, and they listen to him. The psalmist puts it this way: “As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me” (Psalm 40:17). The apostle Paul might call this quality weakness, which includes physical hardships that reinforce our need for God’s spiritual strength.
David learned this too, as he labored under real physical weaknesses for much of his life at CCEF. I once visited him in the hospital soon after a major heart surgery. When I entered the room, he was repeating, “God is an ever-present help in time of trouble” (see Psalm 46:1). Years later, the last thing he wrote were notes for a charge to the Westminster Seminary graduating class of 2019. It appears on the CCEF website as “Weakness: The Doorway to True Strength.”
The needy and dependent look to Christ and his words for food that sustains us in the conflicts, troubles, temptations, and sins of daily life. To this end, David’s habit was to read daily from the Old Testament, Psalms, Gospels, and Letters, and he would always be ready to talk about his insights from his morning reading. He also used four different highlighters, which highlighted (I think) sections about God, sin, faith, and the person. What inspired me was that he preferred to go slowly through Scripture.
From that devotional foundation, David also had a paperback Bible handy. He would use one for each topic he was studying. I noticed this first when he was writing the book Good and Angry. He simply read through the paperback Bible and highlighted everything that was relevant to anger. I cannot tell you how many paperback Bibles he went through, but it was far more than a dozen.
Depending on Christ is something we do together. For those who are married, it appears in praying and reading Scripture as a couple. David’s wife, Nan, introduced him to Samuel Bagster’s Daily Light for Your Daily Path. They read it daily. She introduced it to me too, and now I read it with my wife. It is possible to read Scripture for mere information, in such a way that it glances off your heart. But when you read with a spouse or someone close to you, and he witnesses your life, you receive help in pressing for biblical application and spiritual worship.
Counselors Give Care
The beatitudes then turn us toward serving others (Matthew 5:7–9). Those who receive mercy now show mercy. Enemies who have known God’s peace in Jesus Christ are sent out as peacemakers. We receive the care of Christ, we give what we receive to others, and we give it in the name of Jesus and in his signature style — “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2).
This was most notable in David not so much in formal counseling but in the way he cared for people within CCEF. New employees would inevitably receive a note from him on their first day. It included a warm welcome and a word of encouragement from a particular Scripture. When he became Executive Director, he decided to lead the institution’s daily devotional times, which met from 9:00 to 9:30 each morning. We were the beneficiaries of his time in Scripture. What his morning in Scripture gave to him, he would pass on to us. He usually worked from his own Powlison translation of a text, from which we saw familiar words in new ways. He loved every “Behold.” Anything that was intended to capture our attention in Scripture, he brought to our attention: “Look! See! Come awake!” He wanted familiar texts to quietly light a new fire in us, which seems to be one of the Spirit’s delights as he works in us.
David was a man in the present, by nature and nurture, and this was refined by the Spirit. Planning and certain deadlines were secondary to those things, and those people, in front of him. When he stopped to talk to you, he was unhurried, engaged. During one of our last conversations, we went for a brief walk. The sky was as blue as a Philadelphia sky can be. There were a few puffy clouds suspended over us. The conversation was sweet. “What a beautiful day,” he said. “How could anyone have worries on a day like today?” I could think of plenty to worry about — my friend dying being foremost. But he was drawn into the moment.
Another time, he was working on his dissertation in CCEF’s basement, and somehow water ended up all over his computer, and he lost a good week’s worth of work. I was there when he came up from the basement, and we started talking about something. I didn’t know until the following day that he had lost so much work. In other words, I was in front of him.
Though you might not have known David personally, I hope you get to know him through his articles, books, and lectures, and that God invites you, as he did him, into the mature counselor’s rhythms of care. The Lord connects with you, you connect with others, others connect with Jesus, and you receive their care. The mature counselor thrives in them all.
If you want to benefit more from David Powlison’s books, articles, messages, and other resources, we have published an exhaustive bibliography along with an accompanying guide.
Desiring God