He Restores My Soul

Today we are up to scene three from Psalm 23. We have been working through the seven actions of God—seven scenes—that appear in Psalm 23. And we have already looked at the first two scenes: he makes me lie down in green pasture, and he leads me beside quiet waters. Today we look at the action of Psalm 23:3. He restores my soul. Once again, we are going to use this phrase from Psalm 23 as a springboard to jump us somewhere else in scripture. This time we are not jumping that far. In fact we are only flipping back a few pages to Psalm 19. And like Psalm 23, Psalm 19 is also written by king David.

I am going to skip the first section of Psalm 19 which speaks about the way in which the creative workmanship of the Lord is evident in Beauty and majesty of the creation. We will pick it up in verse 7 where David moves from the general revelation of God in the wonders of creation to the special revelation of God in scripture.

Psalm 19:7–13 NIV

7 The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. 8 The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. 9 The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. 10 They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. 11 By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward. 12 But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults. 13 Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression.

Reboot

word of the Lord is perfect, trustworthy, right, radiant, pure, firm, precious. gives wisdom, joy, light

Hebrew shuwb = restore, refresh, revive — literally turn around, return, repent

We see in these verses from Psalm 19 one statement after the next of how it is God reveals himself through scripture, and what that revelation of God means and does for the hearer/reader. David says that the word of the Lord is perfect, trustworthy, right, radiant, pure, firm, precious. He notes that the word of the Lord gives wisdom, joy, light. The very first of these statements in verse 7 says, “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul.” That phrase—refreshing the soul—is the same phrase David uses in Psalm 23. English reanimations vary a bit; refresh, restore, revive. They all come from the Hebrew word shuwb. The word literally means “turn around” or “return.” Often the Old Testament translates shuwb into English as “repent.”

Hebrew negesh = soul, life

The other Hebrew word in this phrase is negesh. This translates into English as either “soul” or “life.” Those two terms essentially mean the same thing in Hebrew thinking. The basic literal meaning of shuwb negesh (he restores my soul) is “the Lord turns my life around.” In Psalm 19 it is a bit more focused; the law of the Lord turns my life around. We read that familiar phrase from Psalm 23—he restores my soul—and it can mean 50 different things to 50 different people. I wonder what David had in mind about the meaning of that phrase when he wrote Psalm 23. I think David’s words in Psalm 19 give us a clearer picture.

technology

We have been working through this series with the biblical image of shepherds and sheep as it relates from the world of the Bible. I think today a jump forward into the 21 century might help. Technology is a part of everyone’s life today, whether you like it or not. When technology works like it is supposed to, it’s all good. When my cell phone has good signal strength and all the apps open up and run smoothly and behave the way I expect them to, there’s no problem. When my laptop computer starts right up and the wifi is blazing fast and all the features zip right along and the battery lasts me all day long, there’s no complaint. In fact, we often don’t even think twice about it when our technology works the way we expect.

But when something doesn’t work, that’s when we notice. When my cell phone freezes up so none of the apps can launch, I’ve got trouble. When the battery goes from fully charged to 10% in just an hour, you’ve get a problem. When wifi kicks you off and webpages won’t load, we get frustrated. When technology goes wrong and we just want it to work, it’s nice to have tech support handy and nearby. Just the other week here at church, the band was rehearsing on Wednesday night and one of our pieces of video equipment was not working. But our genius tech support guy here at church stopped in the next day, found the issue, and had us up and running by Sunday morning.

we expect it all to work | when it doesn’t we call for help

We expect it all to work. And when it doesn’t we call for help.

step one is reboot

Since I am the one who installed most of the technology in my house, I am the one who gets asked for help whenever something is not working right. That doesn’t make me a technology expert though. This much I have figured out from tech support websites and YouTube videos. Step one is reboot. Whatever the technology is that is not working correctly, the first question that always seems to be in every troubleshooting guide is, have you tried restarting? Turn it off and turn it back on again. Close all the apps and relaunch. It seems that a good portion of the time whatever the technology issue may be, simply turning it off and starting it up again will do the trick.

There was not the kind of technology back in the Bible times like there is now. But I imagine that our more recent English word “reboot” fits into the category of definitions for the Hebrew word shuwb. The ancient shepherd-turned-king David used language of shepherding with the phrase “restore my soul.” I imagine that if David were alive in our time today, he might phrase the line as “reboot my life.”

Computers and cell phones are complicated gadgets. There are thousands of lines of code that all need to be running in the background in order for these devices to all do what we expect them to. If somewhere along the way some of these lines of code drop or get shifted, errors start popping up. And sometimes rebooting the computer or phone sets all those lines of code back in the right order so everything works right again. Every once in a while, maybe something a little more comprehensive is needed, like that “reset to factory settings” button. This wipes everything out and brings it back as though you were just opening it from the box again. Those buttons are often hidden and can only be pushed using using a small tool. Or in your phone and computer settings, it often asks you like 75 times to confirm if this is really actually what you want to do. It’s a drastic measure, and your technology has to be pretty messed up if this is the only step available to fix it.

David’s confession in Psalm 19 & Psalm 23 — life needs a reboot, and God is the only one who can fix it

David makes a confession in Psalm 19 and Psalm 23. My life needs a reboot, and God is the only one who can fix it. Whatever those lines of code were supposed to be so that my soul would be doing everything smoothly and correctly as God designed and intended, some of those lines got mixed up. The dashboard of my soul has been popping up error messages. And nothing I keep trying to do on my own seems to be fixing it.

What’s the solution? How does that reboot happen? Let me point out two things. First, it begins with an acknowledgement that my soul is broken and needs fixing. It starts with a confession that my life needs a reboot and I cannot do this on my own. I am not very good with car engines. When I was younger whenever there seemed to be a clunk or noise coming from the car engine that I knew was not right, the solution was to turn the radio up louder. If I couldn’t hear the problem, then I wouldn’t have to deal with it. You can guess how that turns out. Pretending that there is not a problem will not get you even one step toward a solution. It starts with an acknowledgement—a confession—that something is broken and needs fixing.

Room for Humility

What does it take for this to happen? Consider this story from Jesus.

Luke 18:10–14 NIV

10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ 14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Humble. Humility. To be humble before God is to openly recognize that I haven’t got life all put together on my own, and I need God. Humility is more here than simply the absence of pride. But recognize this as well; neither is humility a fatalistic attitude that you are worthless or that everything in your life is a mistake and a failure. There is something in between those two extremes of pride on the one side, and worthless failure on the other side. The place where we find true Christian humility falls somewhere in the middle. Consider how this works in our own lives.

between the extremes of absolute pride and absolute worthless failure

there is something in between thinking that everything I always do is absolutely right all the time on the one side, and thinking that everything I always do is completely a mistake on the other side

There is something in between thinking that everything I always do is absolutely right all the time on the one side, and thinking that everything I always do is completely a mistake on the other side. Because I am a broken sinner who has a fallen sinful nature, an attitude of humility constantly places before me the consideration of the possibility that I might be wrong. But hang on. I am not saying that as Christians we need to go around always second guessing every decision and action we ever make. That is not humility.

humility asks: is there another perspective or point of view I have not considered?

Rather, humility is an attitude which actively asks the question, is there another perspective or point of view I have not considered? Is there a way of thinking and acting in any given situation which may be better or more appropriate than what I might be thinking or doing right now? Do you see where this is going? The way of humility is the way in which we do the best we can to see things from others’ point of view, to step into someone else’s shoes.

attitude which is willing to let go of my pride, of my being right all the time, of my desire to always be demanding that everyone else sees things my way | empathy to enter into the lives of others and genuinely consider what it is like to be them | to see as they do | to experience life their way | let go of my own selfish pride and make room for the thoughts, feelings, and actions of those around me to be received

Humility, then, is an attitude which is willing to let go of my pride, of my being right all the time, of my desire to always be demanding that everyone else sees things my way. Humility gives me the empathy to enter into the lives of others and genuinely consider what it is like to be them, to see as they do, to experience life their way. Humility lets go of my own selfish pride and makes room for the thoughts, feelings, and actions of those around me to be received.

After all, this is where Jesus himself began in God’s approach to redeeming this world. The apostle Paul says in Philippians 2

Philippians 2:3–8 NIV

3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!

Paul urges the people of God to live with humility just as Christ himself was humble. And how does Paul describe that humility of Christ? In that Christ put aside the glory of heaven to see through your eyes, to step into your shoes, and to walk in your place. Humility means we live like that because Jesus humbled himself to live like that for us.

Room for Scripture

scripture reveals the way towards the restoring of our souls (vs 7-9)

focus towards humility — by the Word of God we recognize our error, transgression, sin (vs 12-13)

by the Word of God we are steered towards humility | by the Word of God the seed of faith is planted within our hearts | by the Word of God that seed of faith is nurtured and grown

What David recognizes in Psalm 23 and Psalm 19 is that our souls need a reboot in order to get back to that kind of life. Step one—as we’ve just said—is a recognition of true humility. Step two—according to David—is the Word of God. It is the overflowing emphasis of Psalm 19 that the words of scripture reveal the way towards the restoring of our souls. It is the Word of God which reveals the message of his grace to us. It is in the words of scripture that we find the gospel of salvation spoken to us. Look at the words David uses to describe just how much he treasures and values the Word of God in Psalm 19. It is more precious than gold, sweeter than honey. And David does this with an eye towards humility. You see that in verses 12-13. By the Word of God we recognize our error, our transgression, our sin. By the Word of God we are steered towards humility. By the Word of God the seed of faith is planted within our hearts. By the Word of God that seed of faith is nurtured and grown.

how can I make room for the Word of God to restore my soul (reboot my life) this week?

may you in this week find time every day to spend a few moments in the Word of God may you in this week allow God to use those words to restore your soul—to reboot your life—so that you may walk into each new day seeing others around you as God sees them, recognizing your opportunity to humble yourself before others just as Christ humbled himself for you

As followers of Jesus we do not spend time in the Word of God just because it is something to check off a list of requirements. We do not spend time in the Bible just to fulfill an obligation. We take in the Word of God as a part of our daily lives so that God may use his Word to restore our souls, to reboot our lives. May you in this week find time every day to spend a few moments in the Word of God. And may you in this week allow God to use those words to restore your soul—to reboot your life—so that you may walk into each new day seeing others around you as God sees them, recognizing your opportunity to humble yourself before others just as Christ humbled himself for you.