Psalm 23 Part 3 How The LORD Restores Our Soul When We Need it.

Psalm 23:1-3  A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 3  He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 

The Shepherd Psalm has been a source of comfort and hope to generations of believers from the time of King David until the present day.

In David's Psalm, Jehovah is the Shepherd who cares for His sheep.

The sheep are all who repent of sins and trust God's provision of salvation by faith in Christ.

The LORD wants to guide our steps through this life.

He wants to direct our ways, feed us with His good Word and to give us the pure water of His Word (See Isaiah 55).

Only our LORD knows what is best for me and for you and this is why He leads us to pure, still waters and brings us to feed on His Word, that heavenly manna.

Ezekiel 34:2-6  Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? 3  Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. 4  The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. 5  And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. 6  My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them. 

We previously noted duties of a good shepherd from the prophet Ezekiel. 

We saw how the LORD rebuked faithless civil and spiritual leaders because they failed to properly care for the sheep in God's pasture.

Jesus, whose name means "Jehovah saves" literally fulfilled a good shepherds duties to care for His sheep.

He fed multitudes with fish and loaves.

He stilled the violent storms and calmed the raging sea.

He healed all people of illness, disease, deformed bodies, lameness, blindness, deafness, and even raised the dead back to life again.

He cast out demons from those who had been afflicted by them.

He came to call and save the lost sheep of the house of Israel (See Matthew 10:6).

John 10:11  I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. 

John 10:14  I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. 

Therefore, Jesus rightly declared that He is the good shepherd who is known by His sheep.

His sheep know His voice through His Word and will not follow another voice.

He came to lay down His own life in order to save His sheep, and then to secure that eternal salvation by His glorious resurrection from the dead and ascension to His Father.

1 Peter 2:25  For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

The apostle Peter tells us that Jesus is the Shepherd and Bishop of our soul, the one who redeemed us from sin and who will supply all our needs.

1Peter 5:4  And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.

Again, listen to Peter who calls Christ the "Chief Shepherd" who is coming back one day to take His church home to heaven.

He will bring rewards to us for faithful service in carrying our the Great Commission.

He is the "Great Shepherd of the sheep (See Hebrews 13:20).

In the first portion of Psalm 23, we see that a Christian who fully trusts Christ is resting in our Savior's provision.

We feed on the Word of God and receive spiritual nourishment for our soul.

We drink in pure truth from the water of His Word (See Ephesians 5:26; Isaiah 55:10-12; Deuteronomy 32:1-3).

Psalm 23:3  He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 

We learn to follow our LORD as He leads us and to trust Him to guide us in the God pleasing path of righteousness.

Notice the heart work that needs to be done in us, that only our LORD can do for us.

He "restores" our soul. 

The word translated "restoreth" literally means to turn our faces back to the LORD.

We can easily become distracted by life's circumstances.

Our attention can quickly become diverted away from the things of God.

Our fleshly lusts and old man tendencies can lead us astray.

When we experience these things, our LORD will work to turn us back to Himself and that is the heart of this word "restoreth."

When Jehovah restores our soul, He is bringing us back to the right path in our walk with Him.

When Jehovah restores our soul He refreshes our inner man with His presence and with His Word.

In many respects, the word restore is very much like the word revive, because to revive us is to put fresh zeal in our heart, to fill us with a renewed sense of awe because of who God is and for all His mighty works on our behalf.

Psalm 85:4-7  Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease. 5  Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations? 6  Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee? 7  Shew us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy salvation. 

Revival and restoring our soul involves our recognition of our sins and ways that we have turned aside from the LORD.

It is confession of our sins and asking the LORD to extend His mercy to us.

In this Psalm, the psalmist asks the LORD to revive His people so that they might be filled with joy from knowing Him, and rejoice as they praise Him.

Isaiah 57:15  For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Jehovah spoke about revival through His prophet Isaiah.

The LORD is high and lofty, far above us because heaven is His home.

What a glorious reminder about infinite God who is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent.

Jehovah is the Creator God who spoke all things into being, who gave life to all living things and who holds it all together by the Word of His power (See Hebrews 1:1-3).

He created the time, space and matter continuum but He is not bound by it nor is He restricted in any way.

Thus, God who inhabits eternity, is not governed by time and space and matter that He created.

Therefore, although He inhabits eternity, He will dwell with repentant sinners who are governed by time, space and matter.

He will draw near to those whose spirit is contrite. 

The word "contrite" literally means to be ground into powder or dust, such as suffering from the harsh, overwhelming circumstances of life.

He will dwell with those whose hearts are humbled and abased by sin and by oppression or afflictions.

The word "humble" is most often connected with having a right view of self while having a right view of Holy God.

Thus, true humility recognizes our unworthiness to receive anything from God except the wages of sin, which is death.

A humble heart is brought low before God and this is when the LORD will do wonderful, transformative work in our heart.

What has God promised to do for those who spirits are contrite, and those whose hearts are humbled before Him?

He promises to revive us, and each Christian will need reviving and restoring, many times throughout our earthly pilgrimage with the LORD.

This idea of being restored, refreshed and revived is also connected with God command to be filled with His Spirit (See Ephesians 5:18-20).

Psalm 86:11-13  Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name. 12  I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore. 13  For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. 

The idea of uniting our heart to rightly fear and reverence the LORD is also part of how He restores us to walk in the path of righteousness.

We cannot serve two masters. 

We cannot serve our flesh and the new spirit who lives in us. 

We cannot put anything or anyone else above God as our priority.  

But, we often do become double minded people, having one foot in the world and one foot on the path God wants us to walk on.

When He restores our soul He brings a singular focus upon Himself back into the priority place in our heart, soul and mind.

This is the heart work that we need and pray for God to do in us.

This is the heart work that God has promised to do in us.

This is the heart work that David speaks of in this lovely Shepherd Psalm.

Let us pray to the LORD to do whatever it takes in us to fully restore, refresh and revive our heart and spirit.

Let us rest in His provision and fully trust His promises.

Bob