Psalm 23:3-6 (NKJV) 3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.
We have been looking at the 23rd Psalm in light of restoration. I believe 2020 is to be a year in which God works restoration both in our individual lives and in the church as a whole. In Psalm 23, the Lord tells us that he will restore our souls. We have looked at many aspects of this. Last time we looked at verse 3. The restoration of the soul requires that we walk in paths of righteousness. This word means to walk in what is right in a moral sense, a natural sense or a legal sense. The peace of God flows from walking in his ways. When we do not, sin has an open door and our souls will be out of place and out of balance.
1 John 1:9 gives us some insight.
1 John 1:9 (NKJV) 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Someone told me recently that because of grace there was no need for a Christian to repent. However, this verse seems to differ. The only reason we would confess our sins is because we repent of them. John tells us that if we do repent, God is faithful and just to forgive our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We are righteous, or right with God, by what Jesus did. Everyone commits sin at some point in their life. This sin will not negate what Jesus did. That is true. Why then does John seem to say the opposite?
This verse is talking about our side of righteousness, not God’s. Thankfully, God loves us even when we sin. He does not throw us out of the kingdom. However, when we let sin remain, it causes us to lose our sense of righteousness. We know that something is wrong. If we ever come to the place sin no longer bothers us, we have a real problem. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 4:2 that our conscience can become seared or hardened until we no longer recognize sin. At that point we are at the mercy of the devil.
When we confess our sin, we take responsibility for what we have done that is wrong. We ask God to forgive us. He then applies grace to us, taking away from us the sense of separation that sin brings. He also closes the door that sin has opened. This is a powerful tool that brings our intellect, emotions and will, into balance again.
I want to add one thing. It says he leads us in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. If we want the peace that passes natural understanding and the joy that overcomes all depression, we must remember that our lives are not our own. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 tells us that we have been bought with a price. Jesus paid for our salvation with his blood. We are not our own. That means we should live to honor God in all our ways. When we do, our thinking will be permeated with the wisdom of God. Our emotions will be touched by the joy that comes from knowing him. Our will comes into submission to his Word and his ways because he is more important to us than we are to ourselves.
Let us move on and see what a restored soul looks like. In verse 4, we see that we can walk in the very shadow of death and not fear any evil thing. Why? The person whose soul is restored is absolutely convinced that God is with him. Sometimes this begins as a statement and attitude of faith. We may not feel anything. However, the more we choose to believe this promise, the more we will feel the reality of it. Paul puts it this way.
Philippians 4:6-7 (NKJV) 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
When we know that he is with us, his peace will come to us in such a way that it will guard our hearts and minds. Even if we do not feel it right away, the more we think on him and his Word, the more it will overrule the things that are working to bring disquiet to our souls.
This is not just a state of mind. David adds something that is very important. He says, “Your rod and your staff comfort me.” What does this mean? The word translated rod means a stick for punishing, writing, fighting and ruling. Gods rod is there to bring correction. This is not something that will hurt us. It is not something that flows from God’s displeasure. It is something that he brings to us for our protection. The sheep who are about to run over a cliff need that rod to turn them back to safety.
It will write for us the wisdom we need to sustain our soul. It is the power of God that fights against our enemies. It helps us rule our emotions, so they lead us to God not away from him. One other interesting meaning of the word is clan. The rod is the protection of the body of Christ to help us maintain our souls in balance.
The staff is a little different. It is also a stick, but this word is feminine in gender. It means sustenance. The name of God, El Shaddai, is similar in nature. It literally means the “breasty one” as in the breast of a mother to a nursing child. That is all that baby needs for food and it looks to nothing else. His staff is a type of all we need. We should never look to anything else until we look to his staff. This word also means a walking stick. It is there to help us walk when we get weak in our intellect, our emotions or our will.
When we are settled in the knowledge that these things are real and that our shepherd is applying them in our lives, no situation, not even the valley of the shadow of death will disturb our soul. Death cannot penetrate his rod nor his staff. They are there to help us in every circumstance. They do many things, but in this psalm, we are promise that they will strengthen our soul, restoring it to a rest in God that will always see us through to victory.
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