We have been dealing with Psalm 23 as ‘DAVID’S JOURNAL’.  It is not that which David wrote in every day but he recorded the high points of God’s dealings in his life.  We looked at verse 1 as ‘THE REVEALING DAYS’ and verse 2 as ‘THE RESTING DAYS’ in the life of David.

This week we turn our hearts to verse 3 which says, “He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”  This verse will open to us ‘THE RESTORING DAYS’ from DAVID’S JOURNAL.  David on several occasions weeps his way back to the Shepherd who restores.  The word ‘restoreth’ means to turn back, to return again to the original point, and to hinder or prevent from going away.  It is He (Jesus, the Great Shepherd) that restores.  It is not the preacher but Him through the preacher who restores.  The Bible does not restore but Him working through the Word that brings restoration to His sheep.

In this restoring work we find there is restoration to the body, soul, and spirit.

He restores us in body when one is weak the Shepherd will come with strength.  How often we can become weary in well doing.  We can all testify to going to church weary in body.  While the service progresses the Shepherd comes with strength and we leave refreshed in our body.  Listen as David rehearses about the restoring strength of the Shepherd.  In Psalm 118:14 he said, “The LORD is my strength and song,” Psalm 138:3 says, “In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength…” Psalm 140:7, “O God the Lord, the strength of my salvation, thou hast covered my head in the day of battle.” Psalm 119:28 “My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.”

Our Shepherd restores the soul when one has come under the circumstances of life.  In Psalm 42 David says that deep within him cries to deep with God.  In this Psalm he asked three times ‘Why art thou cast down O my soul?’  I have spoken before of the disease of sheep in being cast down.  They get on their backs with all fours in the air.  The gastric juices build up and begin to cut off their air.  If the good shepherd does not get to them quickly, set them upright, and rub their little bodies they will die.  David says in Psalm 43:12 “And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face for ever.”  He surely restores weary souls.

We find not only does He restore the body and the soul but also the spirit that takes on sin He restores with sanctification.  David went through a four-fold judgment because of his adulterous affair.  He lost the baby conceived in the affair, one son raped his sister, another son killed his brother, and his son Absalom was killed by an army captain.  David knew the restoring work of the Shepherd when he said, “It is good for me to have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes.”

David closes this part of the journal telling us “he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness…”  The word ‘leadeth’ means to drive or force along.  Righteousness speaks of Christ Himself.  The ‘paths’ speak of Christ likeness.  If we are to take on His likeness we must be driven by force into those paths.  David tells us that all of the restoring work of the Shepherd is done “…for his name’s sake.”  It is not to bring us glory or put us in the limelight but to put down sheep and lift up the Shepherd.