He Restoreth My Soul

Many people have the idea that when a child of God falls, when he is frustrated and helpless in a spiritual dilemma, God becomes disgusted, fed-up and even furious with him.

This is simply not so.

When I read the life story of Jesus Christ and examine carefully His conduct in coping with human need, I see Him again and again as the Good Shepherd picking up "cast" sheep.

Most of us, though we belong to Christ and desire to be under His control and endeavor to allow ourselves to be led by Him, do on occasion find ourselves cast down.

As with sheep, so with Christians, some basic principles and parallels apply which will help us grasp the way in which a man or woman can be "cast."

There is, first of all, the idea of looking for a soft spot. The sheep that choose the comfortable, soft, rounded hollows in the ground in which to lie down very often become cast.

In the Christian life there is great danger in always looking for the easy place, the cozy corner, the comfortable position where there is no hardship, no need for endurance, no demand upon self-discipline.

Sometimes if, through self-indulgence, I am unwilling to forfeit or forego the soft life, . . . then the Good Shepherd may well move me to pasture where things aren't quite so comfortable - not only for my own good but also His benefit as well.

There is the aspect, too, of a sheep simply having too much wool. . . It is much easier for a sheep to become cast, literally weighed down with its own wool.

Wool in Scripture depicts the old self-life in the Christian. . . Here is where I find the clinging accumulation of things, of possessions, of worldly ideas beginning to weigh me down, drag me down, hold me down.

A sheep. . . being cast because it had too long and heavy a fleece (would need to be sheared clean).  . . Sheep do not really enjoy being sheared and it represents hard work for the shepherd, but it must be done.

When it is all over both sheep and owner are relieved.

Similarly in dealing with our old self-life, there will come a day when the Master must take us in hand and apply the keen cutting edge of His Word to our lives. . . But what a relief when it is all over. Oh, the pleasure of being set free from ourselves! What a restoration!

The third chief cause of cast sheep is simply that they are too fat. . . Their weight simply makes it that much harder for them to be agile and nimble on their feet.

Turning to the Christian life we are confronted with the same sort of problem. There is the man or woman, who because they may have done well in business or their careers or their homes, feel that they are flourishing and have "arrived." They may have a sense of well-being and self-assurance which in itself is dangerous. Often when we are most sure of ourselves We are the most prone to fall flat.

Material success is no measure of spiritual health.

In Hebrews 12 we read how God chooses to discipline those He loves. At the time it may prove a rough routine. But the deeper truth is that afterward it produces a life of repose and tranquility free from the fret and frustration of being cast down like a helpless sheep.

If He is the Good Shepherd we can rest assured that He knows what He is doing. This in and of itself should be sufficient to continually refresh and restore my soul. I know of nothing which so quiets and enlivens my own spiritual life as the knowledge that - "God knows what He is doing with me!"

-From A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 by Phillip Keller; pp. 48-55