He Restoreth My Soul

He Restoreth My Soul

We are in the midst of a series on Jesus who is the center piece of civilization, the summa theologica of all truth, the first born from the dead, the one whose eyes are a flame of fire, The Word that became Flesh, the one who led captivity captive, who conquered sin, hell and the grave, and is coming to judge the living and dead, to name just a few of His appellations.

Last week we began talking about Jesus as the good shepherd, and we looked at John 10, and Psalm 23 and spoke of how the Good Shepherd takes care of His sheep and leads them beside still waters, and to feed in green pastures.

Today we are going to look at another aspect of the Good Shepherd, and that is, that He is the one who, as David said,

Ps 23:3 He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.

In the scriptures we see God restoring many things, the joy of salvation (Ps 51); the rain (1 Ki 18); lost years (Joel 2:25); relationship with the Father (Lk 16); and lost wages (2 Ki 8) among others. I will touch on all these briefly today.

Today we are going to talk about restoration, I will briefly explain what restoration is, then we will talk about restoration in the paths of righteousness, and we will wrap up with a discussion on restoration of the soul.

The Hebrew word translated restore is shoob and it means to turn back to God, to refresh and to repair. When we restore something we bring it back to original condition.

Christian singer Andre Crouch wrote a song entitled, "Take me back," I have sung it many times in my private moments with God. In part it goes:

Take me back, take me back dear Lord

To the place where I first received you.

Take me back, take me back dear Lord where I

First believed.

We are not alone in these feelings:

Jer 2:1 God’s Message came to me. It went like this:

Jer 2:2 "Get out in the streets and call to Jerusalem, ’God’s Message! I remember your youthful loyalty, our love as newlyweds. You stayed with me through the wilderness years, stuck with me through all the hard places.

Jer 2:3 Israel was God’s holy choice, the pick of the crop. Anyone who laid a hand on her would soon wish he hadn’t!’" God’s Decree.

Jer 2:4 Hear God’s Message, House of Jacob! Yes, you—House of Israel!

Jer 2:5 God’s Message: "What did your ancestors find fault with in me that they drifted so far from me, Took up with Sir Windbag and turned into windbags themselves?

This passage clearly shows that God wants us to be restored as much or more than we sometimes do. If you can remember that God wants you to be on fire for Him it will always make the journey back home much sweeter.

So restoration is to bring back to the original condition, but it means much more than that also. It means to take something from the garbage heap and make something very special out of it. I don’t know how many of you have seen the show American Restoration, but I really like the guys attitude, everything he sees, he sees its potential, and everything is awesome to him. No matter what the condition of something is in that is brought to his shop for restoration, he gets excited about it. I think God is that way also. I believe He enjoys restoring things to their intended purpose.

Not only does God take things off the rubbish heap, but he is able to do some things that only God can do.

Joel 2:25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.

How in the world can years be given back? How can they be restored to us? I find an answer in the book of Ruth:

Ru 4:13 So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife, and he went in to her. And the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son.

Ru 4:14 Then the women said to Naomi, "Blessed is the LORD who has not left you without a redeemer today, and may his name become famous in Israel.

Ru 4:15 "May he also be to you a restorer of life and a sustainer of your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him."

Ru 4:16 Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her lap, and became his nurse.