He Restores My Soul

Psalm 23 is one of my favorites. Maybe yours too.

I hear in its promises not only a declaration of God’s majesty and power, but also a declaration of His nearness and compassion. Among those promises is a lifeline: “He restores my soul” (23:3).

Do you need your soul restored today?

The promise is right there in God’s Word! My friends, our God – the Great Shepherd of the sheep – is in the soul-restoring business. That’s what He does. That’s what He does because that’s what we need.

The BBC hosts a show called “The Repair Shop” (you can find over a dozen seasons). The furniture restorer, Jay Blades, leads a team of skilled craftsmen who bring people’s much-loved items – usually with historical significance – back to their former glory. It was broken … it was damaged … it was useless … now it’s beautiful again … ooh … aah … tears of joy … or some other version of sheer delight.

If I understand this psalm correctly, our Lord is reminding us that – from time to time – you and I need a trip to the Repair Shop. The psalmist David – both as a shepherd boy, and later as a mighty king – needed that. So does everybody else. It doesn’t seem to matter where we are on life’s journey: we get messed up.

Sometimes we need a season of grieving. That might seem a bit counterintuitive – after all, I was just talking about sheer delight. But what I mean is that sometimes we get stuck. We can’t go forward because we haven’t properly processed the past. You and I, generally speaking, don’t grieve well. We try to avoid grief at all costs. We try to steer around grief, if possible. We know that there is a time to mourn – thus saith the Lord – but we don’t really enter into grief voluntarily. We don’t lament well. So, sometimes the Lord leads us into a season of lament so that we can take the next step toward sorely needed soul-renewal. (If I were preaching this, I’d title it, “From Soles to Souls.”)

Sometimes we need to be brought near to God, again. When the Bible references our soul, it’s talking about the very depth of our being – the very essence of who we are. The root of the Hebrew word for “restore” here is a word that means to turn back. So the Word is describing the great love of God for us, in that He brings back the essence of who we are to Himself. We, like all sheep, have wandered, so the Lord brings us back. This may be an entirely internal transformation, as we haven’t gone anywhere, geographically speaking – but our souls have moved away. Often, you and I are not aware that we’ve moved away until we reach some kind of crisis point. Enter, our Shepherd. He gives us fresh wind and fresh fire. He helps us process our troubled emotions. He gives us new hope for the future.

Sometimes what we most need is to be aroused from our spiritual slumber. Shepherds tell us that sheep get into trouble when they roll over on their backs. They can’t rescue themselves. And they usually get into that predicament for one of two reasons. One, the sheep finds a comfortable spot to lie down, but the spot is too soft and can’t properly support the animal. Or, two, the sheep has too much wool and can’t maneuver as a situation demands. It’s my understanding that no sheep likes to be sheared. So as I think about sheep – the animals – I recognize how perfectly they describe us. You and I spend a lot of time seeking our own comfort, rarely recognizing that comfort is no indicator of rightness. How much trouble we cause ourselves in this way! And we spiritually wooly creatures don’t like the idea of God removing any of the “protections” that we felt were in place around us. That wool felt familiar and good, but we didn’t recognize it as the pride and obstinance that it was.

Yes, we need our souls restored. We may not know, but God knows what we need.

Do you need your soul restored?

Are you hurting?

Are you lonely?

Are you frustrated?

Are you angry?

Are you feeling overwhelmed by the pressures of life?

Are you bitter and depressed?

Have you been putting off grief, but you know that it’s time to grieve?

Have you moved away from God, perhaps without even knowing it?

Have you confused a life of ease with the blessing of God?

Have you made an idol out of your own comfort, or wealth, or health, or status, or prestige?

Are you angry at God? (It’s O.K. to admit that. He can handle it.)

Or … do you simply need some rest?

These are just some of the many ways in which I regularly need my soul restored. You must do what I must do: Run to the Shepherd! He is gentle and lowly, and His arms are open wide.

In Christ, you and I are ambassadors of the gospel – the best news the world has ever heard! But the Bible makes it clear that we carry this gospel treasure in jars of clay. I suppose that means that we can think of ourselves as crackpots. This requires a humbling admission on our part. We’re finite creatures. Our bodies and our souls need rest, and restoration. Overworking – or overthinking – may impress those around us, but both will fight against what God is doing in us. He is reproducing His character – the character of perfect peace – in our souls. Sometimes, our “busyness” is hidden rebellion, because we’re trying desperately to avoid submitting to God.

Sooner or later, the ways of this world take a huge toll on all of us. Our thoughts get corrupted. Our hearts get deceived. Our priorities get out of whack. Our pace – the rhythm of our daily existence – gets frantic, which is not the way of Jesus. You and I must be re-centered on a regular basis.

“He restores my soul.” Oh, how we need Him to do just that!

Pastor Charles