Psalm 23:3
Scripture Reading - Psalms 23:3 KJV
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
In today’s lesson we will continue looking at the 23rd Psalm historically known as the psalm of “The Good Shepherd”. Of course the Good Shepherd is no doubt the Lord Jesus Christ because in the New Testament according to St. John 10:14 Jesus boldly proclaims, “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.” In this particular Psalm we must always acknowledge who is The Lord and who is not. Since we know that The Lord is Jesus Christ Himself, or we could generally say God it is important to note that this psalm is being shared from the perspective of a sheep. That means we as sheep need a lot of help, not just help physically as far as food and drink but shelter too. We also need help when it comes to direction. How many times in your life have you been at a cross road? Yes, we (ihlcc) can think of several times where there was a big decision to be made that would affect our whole family and we needed divine assistance for what is the right answer to the decision. Thankfully, we see in the verse that the Good Shepherd leads us in “the paths of righteousness”. The “paths of righteousness” are at least two fold, the first being “the path of His Righteousness” which means the “spiritual righteousness” of inheriting Jesus right standing with God by being the Sinless Lamb of God. Thus, leading us in “the path of His Righteousness” we are being coached, encouraged and trained to walk in the ways of God’s Word. Yes, it is “the Word of Righteousness” that we received directly from God in the form of the Holy Bible and in the Person of the Holy Spirit inside of our heart. The Holy Spirit bears witness to the “righteousness” within us as a fruit of the Spirit. Philippians 1:10-11 KJV states this, “That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.” This means “the fruit of righteousness” is within us and that specific fruit will produce whenever “right things” are thought, said or done. The second fold part of “the path of righteousness” is of course doing what is right. There is a distinct difference between Jesus doing everything right to fulfill the law which restored our fellowship with God and saved our souls as compared to our living right through the power and grace of God. Yes, one is a “righteousness” that was received as a gift from God forever, whereas the other we pursue in deeds and conversation daily to make the “right decisions” and do things the “right way” which is basically doing everything we can according to God’s Holy Word with following the promptings of the Holy Spirit to guide us into “all righteousness”. Some examples are going to church because it is right and it is “righteousness” when your church preaches and teaches on the spoken Word of God being received in love. Working faithfully unto God because it is right to work and it is “righteousness” in action when you work faithfully unto God wherever and whenever you work. Likewise it is right to love people but it is “righteousness” to love people with the Love of God. Yes, the same love God shows to you is the exact same love you should show toward others. Notice, that when you believe right, think right and do right you are inherently “restoring your soul”. Yes, The Good Shepherd “restores your soul” by speaking over you blessing and promises of good. Therefore, to receive the “restoration of our soul” we must be willing and obedient to believe as Jesus (or we could say God) and think like Jesus and act (do) like Jesus. Most people know when it comes to restoring anything it takes time, patience, money and work (energy) because you must be willing to keep intact as much of the original as possible. Yes, we need to appreciate the original good things of every person because all people have something good within them because they were created by God. “Restoring your soul” is God’s Way of removing all the bad and negative things (thoughts, memory, words, etc…) and at the same time revitalizing any and all good things that were already within man but ignored for so long that it became unfruitful (dormant). This is why we must first become born-again because that will cause the heart of man to be open before God and God’s People. We all must be willing to trust the Lord Jesus with all of our Life to even be considered a true disciple of Christ Jesus our Precious Lord and Savior. Part of “restoring the soul” is the renewing of the mind because then and only then will God’s higher thoughts be in your head as your thoughts and God’s higher way of talking will be able to influence you to talk higher too. The psalm states that Jesus will do this for three primary reasons which are you, us and His Names sake. This basically means that because God is Love He thought about you first and that thought alone was motivation enough for Him to die on the cross the horrible death of the crucifixion. It is said, “If it were only one sinner to save on the face of the whole wide world Jesus would have still went to the cross to save that one soul.” That is God’s Great Love and we (all believers) are so blessed to have it. Remember Romans 5:5b KJV which states, “. . . the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” Therefore God not only thought about you first in times pass but He Is also thinking about you all the time (including right now) whether day or night. God also did it for us (ihlcc) because God loves others just as much as He Loves you. Yes, God alone is Thee God of All Love but we must understand that God loves all people equally and all people compassionately therefore we must love others as He loves us. We also noticed that God leads us in “the paths of righteousness” for His Name Sake and this is an important point to make very clear because it is important to understand that everything you do He (God) is involved with it in one way or another. What we (ihlcc) are saying is that once you come into the family of God you are representing God in one form or fashion all the time. This means when you do things “the right way (righteousness)” with the accompanying godly results God is able to receive the glory and honor due His Name by providing the right outcome. However, if you do wrong things the people of the world system and sometimes immature Christians will ridicule you because they don’t see any good fruit of God in the outcome of what you did and some will go so far as to mock God. This works against establishing the Kingdom of God and all “His Righteousness” simply because when people don’t see God clearly through you they just don’t see God at all. We all as Children of God must remember the only bible some people read is you. So please remember God is leading you down “His paths (multiple) of righteousness” to renew your mind to think like Him to act like Him and when you do that consistently you will bring glory, honor and praise unto His Name. For the Name of Jesus is more than enough motivation for God to do all things for His Names sake because with the Name of Jesus we are everything and without His Name we are nothing. Amen!