He Restores My Soul - That's Restoration

Psalms 23:3 - He restores my soul;”

I love the words of the The New Living Translation, “He renews my strength.” The Prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 40:31, “But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.”

We are a tri-part being. We have a spirit, soul, and body. The Apostle Paul affirms this is I Thessalonians 5:23, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He restores my soul means He comforts or refreshes me. The Barnes Notes of the Bible says, “He causes my life to return.”

“The word soul here means life, or spirit, and not the soul in the strict sense in which the term is now used. It refers to the spirit when exhausted, weary, or sad. The reference is not to the soul as wandering or backsliding from God, but to the life or spirit as exhausted, wearied, troubled, anxious, worn down with care and toil, the heart, thus exhausted, He re-animates. He brings back its vigor. He encourages it; excites it to new effort; fills it with new joy.” ^[1]

Phillip Keller writes in his book, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, “Even David, the author of the psalm, who was much loved of God, knew what it was to be cast down and dejected. He had tasted defeat in his life and felt the frustration of having fallen under temptation. David was acquainted with the bitterness of feeling hopeless and without strength in himself.”

Keller continues, “Now there is an exact parallel to this in caring for sheep. Only those intimately acquainted with sheep and their habits understand the significance of a “cast” sheep or a “cast down” sheep. This is an old English shepherd’s term for a sheep that has turned over on its back and cannot get up again by itself. A cast sheep is a very pathetic sight. Lying on its back, its feet in the air, it flays away frantically struggling to stand up, without success. Sometimes it will bleat a little for help, but generally it lies there lashing about in frightened frustration.”^[2] If the owner does not arrive on the scene within a reasonably short time, the sheep will die.

This is why we need an attentive shepherd. John 10:11-14 says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.” Our prayer is Lord restore, reinvigorate, and comfort my soul.

^[1] Barnes Notes of the Bible, retrieved from the internet 1/23/22, https://biblehub.com/commentaries/psalms/23-3.htm

^[2] Keller, Phillip, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, page 48.

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