Psalm 23: He Restores My Soul

Harlan & Connie

Before we move into the other facets of our worship this morning, we want to obey Romans 12:15

Romans 12:15 ESV

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

, which commands us to

Romans 12:15 (ESV): Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

A little over a week ago, our dear brother Harlan Graham fell asleep in the Lord. To the very end, his big concern was to glorify God even in the manner of his death. And he in fact did that by faith. Harlan BELIEVED that his life was hidden in Christ, and now that faith is sight for him. His final illness was only God’s way of bringing that sight to pass. Thus even though for a short time, Harlan was kept from singing to his Lord, he now can speak freely, and that not from seeing words on a screen, but from seeing His Lord face to face.

So we rejoice with him, even while we grieve deeply, with Connie and the rest of the family. This is the strange thing about being a Christian - we grieve, yet not without hope. We have tears, but we look for the day when our Lord will dry each one, by His own hand.

Tim and Harry

This week also two stalwarts of the Christian faith fell asleep in the Lord - Tim Keller and Harry Reeder.

Tim Keller died after a long battle against pancreatic cancer. He was known by many as a great apologist for Christianity, especially among our nation’s urban elite. He was not without his faults - he was human. And yet he was still used by God greatly.

Harry Reeder, on the other hand, was just a pastor, but one that was influential to many, including me. I had him as a professor of pastoral ministry, and I considered it a great privilege that at the end of the course, he asked me to give the concluding prayer. I share all this because many of his principles undergirded OUR church, as we navigated the tumultuous waters of a pastoral transition, a location change, and those two weeks of COVID.

These pillars of ours are gone now. The question is, what will WE do with the baton that’s handed to us?

Rich & Debbie

Next, as I said we would grieve with those who grieve, and we are commanded, in the same sentence, to rejoice with those who rejoice. We rejoice today, with Rich Gunn, and Debbie FORMERLY known as Magistrado. They’re new to Grace, and they’re also newlyWEDS. So please congratulate them, and take them out for lunch and hear their story. If you don’t know them yet, you’re missing out.

Megan and Ella

Well, lastly, we REJOICE today with Megan Brown and Ella Demers, who are graduating from high school this year.

Ella has been a prolific dancer and also a choreographer of modern dance at Sheldon High. I’ve seen her performances and those she has choreographed, and they are singularly beautiful.

Megan has been captain of her volleyball team and has also coached boys’ volleyball, at Bradshaw Christian. If you’ve seen her perform on the court, you know she too exemplifies strength and beauty.

We must also remember that both of these women are children of COVID. We should remember all that they endured, much of it needless, all of it potentially soul-deadening. And yet each of these women has demonstrated much courage and endurance during these angst-ridden times. They have endured, and we love them for it. They have endured with grace and beauty, and we delight in them for it. They have endured with a sense of humor, and with hope for the future, and we applaud them today for it.

Megan and Ella, may the LORD bless you and keep you, and make His face shine upon You.

Amen.

Please be sure to stop by and congratulate them after church, in the foyer.

Introduction

Today we come to the central theme of Psalm 23: this Good Shepherd, David exults - he makes lie down in green pastures, and leads me beside still waters. And in all this, he RESTORES my SOUL.

And once again, we must remember, the syLLABle that David is emphASIzing is this: can you believe it? MY shepherd RESTORES my soul. He says this to himself, to God’s people, but also to the world, wth the implied question: what about YOUR shepherd? How does it leave YOUR soul?

Living life with YOURSELF as your shepherd - that old self-spirit that is both modern and as old as the Garden of Eden - how’s that working out for you, with all your anxieties, your worries, your cares? Your porn, your pot and your pills - how are they shepherding you? Do THEY restore your soul? Or just help you feel better about your slide into the abyss?

Or for those who are shepherded by the spirit of this age. Today so many people are so angry, so full of religious judgment and righteousness, about any number of issues. And yet at the same time, they are SO doggone unhappy. Because their shepherds have not RESTORED anything - just left them in the rubble.

So let us look at David’s shepherd. Because we are all sheep, shepherded by something. David does not boast to taunt, but to share. He wants us to see WHO this Shepherd is; WHAT he does; and WHY. Who, what and why.

1. Who: the LORD

WHO is David’s Shepherd? He is the LORD. He is Yahweh, which as we have said in recent weeks, is God, the God of the Bible. And the God of the Bible is named Yahweh. And Yahweh is Triune - three in One. Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

And later in the Bible, when Jesus walked the earth, he said that HE is that Good Shepherd (John 10:11). In other words, I am the one David was talking about. I am Yahweh, along with the Father and the Spirit. This was a mystery at David’s time, but David relied on him and was shepherded by him all the same. There is of course mystery to this, but it is altogether true, as proved by Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.

Because, as Matthew recorded, when Jesus was crucified, and then raised from the dead, at the same time many who had died came out of their tombs, and lived again (Matthew 27:52-53). It was a picture of what THIS shepherd does, as opposed to all the other shepherds of the earth. He draws his lambs to himself, in life from death. Jesus is the ultimate Shepherd, who RESTORES the soul.

Which is the greatest and deepest and most complex thing anyone could ever do for someone else - to restore their LIFE. That’s what the Hebrew word means, is the all-encompassing soul and life of the person.

And here is where we need to correct a misconception. If we were to bring ancient shepherds up to today, with their robes and staff, with their long flowing hair, sweetly petting the sheep . . . We envision them fitting in best in a commune, strumming their guitar, smokin weed and talking about transcendental love, man. And of course that commune lasts about six months, before it falls apart and everyone has to get real jobs, whatev’s man. In other words, with all the ability of a Berkeley poetry graduate who knows how to maintain a C- garden to live on.

But that conception is completely wrong. An ancient shepherd was nothing like that, and more like one of our modern cowboys. The mystic of the American cowboy, though they existed for just a short time, is that they could do anything, if the situation demanded it. In the same way, from the days of David, up to today, a shepherd, if he’s good, is ABLE to do any number of things. In the army, there are separate roles for sentries, and foot soldiers, and canteen workers, and field doctors, and medics, and lookouts, and lieutenants. But the SHEPHERD has to be ALL of these, in the same man.

He had to have a plan, always. He had to know where the good water was, where the green grass was, how long to stay there, and then to move on, how to keep the water, how to keep the flock docile enough to eat and drink. He has to know that there are always another set of eyes on his flock - that of the predator. And so he watches, and when the predator comes at night, he awakes, and knows how to aim his gun, and fire.

And most of all, he knows to watch for sheep that wander off, and fall over. He knows that if this happens, gases can build up in the gut of the sheep, and they can quickly die. And so he knows how to spot a turned sheep, and get them back on their feet, slowly and gently. The same hands that the night before were literally snapping the neck of the predator are now rubbing the legs of turned sheep, giving them their circulation back.

WHATEVER the sheep need, whatever the situation, they are not alone, and more than that, He is ABLE. WHATEVER they face, whatever foolishness the sheep get into, He is not surprised, and He is not ignorant or impotent. He is able, to RESTORE their soul.

And Jesus says, I AM that Shepherd. The same hands that made furniture in his father’s carpentry shop, put mud on the blind man’s eyes, and gave him sight. And the same hands that said, let the little children come to me, fashioned a cord of wood, and whipped the moneychangers out of the court of the Gentiles. And those same hands, that made bread for the thousands and wine for the wedding, were pierced for us, on the cross.

And then those same hands, folded the burial clothes, the great high priest completing his work, and then he simply WALKED out of his own tomb. Jesus IS ABLE. For what? For anything in the human experience. Anything. All other shepherds have their limits. But Jesus, He alone is ABLE to RESTORE your soul.

2. What: Restoration

The word RESTORES implies that the soul, the life, is either dead, or is on a trajectory of death.

Thus it is noteworthy that even the great King David considers himself a SHEEP, right along with the rest of us. We are SHEEP. This is a most basic but crucial point to understand. YOU, friend, are a sheep. The only question is who or what is shepherding you, and to what end.

Because sheep - news flash - act like sheep. They go their own way, to their own destruction. In his book, Phillip Keller gives three reasons why sheep get turned over and need restoring:

They have too much wool on them; they are too fat; or, they laid down and got too comfortable.

To put this another way, that is very offending to the spirit of our age: we sheep are more dumb than our shepherds. Our shepherds simply know more - a lot more - than we do.

Notice I said shepherdS - plural. There are many shepherds in this world - social media influencers, for instance. The word INFLUENCER is so close in meaning to the word SHEPHERD. They want to influence, shepherd you this way or that. Or I just heard of a US military office that spends millions of dollars to influence the thinking of AMERICAN citizens. TickTock or the Pentagon - same thing, you are being shepherded.

But behind all shepherds, there are only TWO chief shepherds. The sides were set in the Garden. Behind it all there are only two flocks: the flock of the Son and the flock of the Dragon. One is FOR you, leading you to life, and one is the false substitute, lying to you, to lead you to be turned, devoured and destroyed.

But the Good shepherd is ABLE, to RESTORE us, for we have all been led away by the pied piper dragon. We’ve all listened to his song and been led away into the words. There are three occasions that the Good Shepherd restores us:

The first occasion is for the joining of his flock in the first place. We like to think ourselves as belonging to the Good flock, just by our own goodness. Just because we’re on the right side of history. But slave merchants in the 1800’s and Nazi party officials in the 1900’s all thought the same of themselves, too. We’re all sheep, we all can be led astray, so easily. That old dragon has plenty to work with, in the beautiful but dark complexity of the human heart.

No one, in fact, is actually good enough to JOIN the good flock, under the loving care of the Good Shepherd. No, not one (Romans 3:10). We are all estranged, stolen from the flock we belong, but stolen willingly, all to eager to cooperate with the Dragon.

So the Good Shepherd, like the battle-hungry cowboy, becomes the HOUND of HEAVEN, hunting us down. Have you heard, have you felt the footsteps of his horse, coming for you?

I’ve heard it, I’ve felt the ground rumble under MY feet, as He hunted me down. Have you? He is the hound of heaven. He is the seeker of the lost sheep. And he comes, riding hard and swift, to take back what was stolen from him. To take back what he rightfully purchased, with his own life, on the cross.

Is that you? Do you feel his steps? Can you hear them, relentlessly seeking you? The only right response is to have the courage to stop running with the old flock, and aks, how’s the Dragon’s shepherding working, for me and for my world. And then relent. Relent, and give yourself over to the GOOD Shepherd. And He will not only cover all your sins with his blood, he will also share his new resurrection life WITH you.

He will RESTORE your soul.

But then, in his wisdom, he chooses to share that life with us gradually, not all at once. Thus walking under his care is a process of growth. And that means that sometimes, even his own sheep, under his own care, wander off. A Christian CAN find themselves, in a season of grievous sin. We are all prone to insane obsessions, from our old life.

And here again, our Shepherd is ABLE. Yes, even for YOUR ridiculous, embarrassing obsessions. He is not afraid of them, and He is not ashamed. He is not ashamed to leave the 99 and come find you, in the dead of night. And when he finds you, turned over in the mud, the gases from your sin building up inside your soul, he is not ashamed to get down in the mud with you.

He ate with tax collectors and prostitutes, because we needed that, too.

3. Why: the Win

Now, I said that there were THREE occasions that he restores us. But for many Christians, we focus only on the first two: that he saves us, and then he keeps picking us back up in our sin. And those are both true. But we wrongly, sadly, pitifully stop there.

But there is a third occasion for his restoring work. And it leads us to WHY he restores us in the first two ways. Why?

Hint: it’s not about us. I mean, it is about us, gloriously so. And there it is: he does it for His OWN glory. For His glory to GROW in the world, to the point that it would cover the world, just as the oceans cover the sea (Hab. 2:14).

And so Jesus restores us, to set us on a mission - one that is so much grander than ourselves, and our little lives: to spread the news about him, across the globe, to every nation. He does not restore us to leave us hot and cold, failing and getting up again, in our middle-class lives. He restores us for HIS victory. And he has stated the objective of victory very clearly:

Matthew 28:18–20 (ESV): And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Now, this is therefore a project of world conquest. Not with weapons of man, but with bread and wine and water - the good news of Jesus’ body broken, his blood spilled, and his baptism commanded. But it is world conquest all the same.

And so the darkness WILL not go quietly into its own night. It fights back, often with lethal effect. You see this today: the whole world is inflamed. It seethes with hatred.

This is the third occasion for the Shepherd to restore us: from our wounds of war. But our Good Shepherd promises us:

Mark 10:28–31 (ESV): 29 “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

That restoration, of family and lands, there is Jesus is thinking about the church. And in the end, he will raise us up with him, from the dead. No matter what they take from us, we win, IN HIM. Whatever they take, HE WILL restore it, a hundredfold in this life, in the church, and a thousandfold, in the life to come. That’s a good trade. For He is a GOOD, GOOD shepherd. He RESTORES our souls, our lives.

Thus the Christian life, the ONLY life there is under this Shepherd, BANKS on that promise. And aims for the win.

I would like to sum all of this up today, by speaking to our graduates, and by extension, all our kids. And the adults can listen in, too. Words of exhortation, for YOUR life.

The first is this:

- Don’t live fearing to lose.

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- Live fearing to lose.

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- The Bible knows more than you.

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- Do not live to find yourself.

You are designed with a beauty that you cannot comprehend, but He does. - -