Restore My Soul Psalms 23:3

He restores my soul.



David writes, " The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters; He restores my soul." David had been through some tough trials in his life. He knew the restoring touch of the Hand of God in his life. Restoration comes when we are led to the green pastures and the still waters that God has planned for us. It is easy to get away from the care that walking with God provides for us as His children. It is so easy to look to our own devices for comfort and pleasure and the lure of the world is always before us. Restoration comes from the Lord.

We confuse activity for productivity. We confuse material prosperity with spiritual maturity. We think success is a sign from God that we are where we are supposed to be. While success can be a blessing from God, we have to remember that our relationship with Him is the foundation of success that God is looking for.

Why does David include this in his Shepherd's prayer? Sheep will lie down and roll over onto their back and when their legs are in the air, they cannot get up on their own. Gasses will start to collect in their stomach and circulation of blood to their legs will be restricted. In the hot summer sun a sheep can die in a matter of hours if it gets in this condition. The sheep needs to be lifted up and placed on its legs. Often times, it is necessary to rub the sheep's legs to get blood circulating in the legs again. The sheep will fall back down until the legs are stable enough for them to stand on their own. The shepherd once again is directly responsible for sheep's well being.

Sometimes, we can take God's blessings and we become self complacent or self sufficient, thinking that we are responsible for our own good fortune. This causes us to walk our own path instead of the path that God has set for us to walk. We wake up one day "cast" as sheep. We cannot stand on our own two feet. We are unable to do for ourselves. We come back to God and He brings to green pastures and He leads us to the still waters and then God restores us!

He shears away the heavy wool, which makes our lives better. He trims away some of the fat that has us weighted down. The process is not an easy process nor is it very much fun. It is however, necessary. God will do what He needs to do to make our lives better, even when it means there may be times of difficulty ahead, which will lead to a season of plenty! God's whole purpose is to restore our soul. Everything else becomes a blessing!