Let us turn again to God's words
and turning once more to Psalm 23. In the 23rd Psalm, a Psalm of David.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie
down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul. We were looking last time, last
Lord's Day evening, at what is said here in the opening two
verses concerning that divine rest, that rest that the Good
Shepherd provides for his sheep. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters, or as the margin
renders it, the waters of quietness. And we observed also something
of the sovereignty of God in these things, how David acknowledges
the hand of God. He maketh, he says, he maketh
me to lie down. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. It is God who alone can enable
us that we're therefore able to receive His Word. We're able then when God works
within us to rest in His promises. We cannot do this simply of ourselves. There is such a thing, of course,
as a faith that is nothing but presumption. And that's not the
faith of those who are the true sheep of Christ. That is more
the mark of those who are the goats. No, those who are lying down in the green pastures,
those who are resting beside the waters of quietness, they're
very much under the control of Him who is the Good Shepherd. Remember the words that we find
in the book of Isaiah, the acknowledgement there of God's sovereignty in
these things. Lord, says the prophet, Lord,
thou wilt ordain peace for us, for thou hast wrought all our
works in us. And isn't that one of the marks
of the sheep? of Christ's fault. He is the
one who has wrought all their works within them. And I want
us to consider something more of that as we turn to consider
tonight more particularly these words at the beginning of verse
3. He restoreth my soul. He restoreth my soul. We thought then last time of
that divine rest when God brings us into the green pastures and
we're unable to rest in His promises, those exceeding great and precious
promises. But now we're thinking more particularly
of this divine restoration, the way in which the Lord Himself
restores His people. He restoreth my soul. Now to need that restoration
we must of course acknowledge that first of all we have to
be in that condition where we're downcast or we're backslidden. or we've wandered out of that
way, the straight and the narrow way. The hymn writer says, prone
to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, Lord, take and
seal it, seal it from thy courts above. How often with those who
are in that condition where we fear that the Lord is at some
distance from us, that we've wandered out of that right way. Isn't it one of the marks of
the people of God that they do experience these strange changes? We have it there in the 55th
Psalm, where the psalmist speaks of the ungodly man, because they
have no changes, therefore they fear not God. God in the experiences
of his people by those changes that they come into, he teaches
them, he instructs them. He causes them to see what they
are left to themselves, what they are in and of themselves.
But he, like that good shepherd, is the one who will seek them
out and restore them. Now, why is the soul of the believer
ever in such a downcast condition? Well, a number of reasons we
can speak of. First of all, is the believer
not sometimes cast down because of indwelling sin? Because of that old nature that
yet clings and cleaves to us? How the Lord Jesus Christ himself
in the course of his ministry speaks of the source of all our
troubles and the source is to be found in the heart. It is what Christ himself says
there in the Gospel in Mark chapter 7 and verse 21, for from within
he says, Out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries,
fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit,
lasciviousness and evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. What a catalogue of sins! And
he says all these evil things come from within and defile the
man. What defiles us is what we are
by nature. We are those who alas were born
dead in trespasses and in sins. We are the offspring of sinful
parents, and as we've said before, our sin causes down the generations
from our father Adam. And that sin within, it is such
a restless thing, is it not? Again, the prophet speaks of
it there at the end of Isaiah chapter 57. The wicked are like
the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire
and dirt. There is no rest, my God, that
saith my God to the wicked." Well, believers are not, of course,
those who are the wicked. They are those who have known
that great deliverance, and yet there is still within them that
wicked fallen nature that is altogether contrary to God. And we see that this is oftentimes
a thing that is troublesome to the believer. In the Psalms that
we read, the 42nd and the 43rd Psalm, we have that repeated
refrain, as it were. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? And why art thou disquieted within
me? Oh, this is not the place of
quiet rest that the psalmist is finding himself in as he makes
this awful confession three times in these psalms. It's there in
verses 5 and 11 of Psalm 42 and then again at the end of Psalm
43. Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted
within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall
yet praise him for the help of his countenance. How the believer,
you see, is one who is brought to this, he knows something of
himself. If we are to know anything of
the Saviour, If we are to be acquainted with the Lord Jesus
Christ in any way as one who is the saviour of sinners, we
must know ourselves. Aren't these the two great branches
of real knowledge? The knowledge of ourselves and
the knowledge of Him who is the saviour of sinners. And how Paul
discovered the truth about himself, he didn't know himself. until
the Lord took him in hand and began to teach him. And then
he's brought to that confession in the 7th chapter of the epistle
to the Romans, I know, he says, I know that in me, that is in
my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For
the good that I would, I do not, and the evil that I would not,
that I do. And so he cries out at the end
of that great chapter, O wretched man that I am, you shall deliver
me from the body of this death. He knew himself. He knew himself. He was brought to that. He knew
nothing really of himself. He thought he did when he was
Saul, the proud, self-righteous Pharisee. He thought he knew,
but he really knew nothing at all. When the Lord taught him,
he comes to know what he is. I know that in me, that is in
my flesh, the real me. All that awful indwelling sin. And the psalmist is the same.
How these godly men that we read of, or whose writings we can
read here in the scripture, how they understood these things.
What a remarkable Book is the book of Psalms. Look at the language
again of David. In Psalms 38, he says at verse
6, I am trouble. I am bowed down greatly, I go
mourning all the day long, for my loins are filled with the
loathsome disease, there is no soundness in my flesh, I am feeble
and sore broken, I have roared by reason of the disquietness
of my heart." That restless thing, that terrible thing that sin
is, disquieting the man, troubling the man. Well, those who are
dead in trespasses and sins, they know nothing of that. Isn't
that the evidence of their spiritual life in the soul of a person?
If they can speak, as David is speaking there in the psalm,
they know something of this terrible conflict, the flesh lusting against
the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and all these are
contrary one to the other, says Paul. And he cannot do the thing
that he would, or you would do it. to will is present with me. He says, but how to perform that
which is good I find not. Now he constantly is brought
to recognize his complete dependence upon God. Thou hast wrought all
our works. God must do it. It is all of
God, it is all of the grace of God. The believer then may be
downcast because of that in running sin and because of that all nature
that body of sin who shall deliver me says Paul from the body of
this death but then also the child of God may be downcast
because of the world because of the ungodly all about it And
again, do we not see it in the Psalms, the Psalms that we read
there in Psalm 42? Look at what he said at verse 3, My tears have been my
meat day and night, while they continually sound to me, Where
is thy God? And then again in verse 10, "...as
with a sword in my bones, my enemies reproach me, while they
say daily unto me, Where is thy God?" All these taunting questions
that the ungodly throw at the godly man. Where is thy God?
When the believer is in the midst of some trouble, when some terrible
trial has come upon him, when he is surrounded by great difficulties,
and he cannot see the way ahead, as the ungodly will taunt Him.
Where's God in all of these things? If there's a God and He's a good
God, why does He permit such things to come into your lives? It just proves, does it not,
the truth of the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. He Himself
declared, in the world ye shall have tribulation. In the world
ye shall have tribulation. In a sense, it's one of the promises,
is it not? And all those promises in the
Lord Jesus Christ, are they not all yea and amen? There's a sureness
and a certainty, there's no avoiding these things. In the world ye
shall have tribulation, says Christ. But, ah, there's a but. Be of good cheer, he says. I
have overcome the world. And so, the troubles that the
believer experiences in this world, they make the world such
a strange place to the child of God. All these troubles, you
see, they wean him from the things of the world. Those who would
live that godly life, again, listen to the language of the
apostle, Paul, writing to Timothy, says, Yea, and all that will
live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. How significant,
and we can so easily overlook words when we read a text of
Holy Scripture, how significant is the opening words in that
verse. There in 2nd Timothy chapter
3, he says, Yea, It's akin to the verilies that
we find so often in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verily,
truly, there's no contradicting it. Amen. So it must be. And so Paul says, Yea, and all
that will live godly in Christ Jesus, if we desire to live that
godly life, we will find ourselves pilgrims and strangers in this
world because all that live that godly life they have persecutions
they are hated and they are despised by the world and so again we
have the exhortation of the word of God love not the world neither
the things that are in the world if any man love the world the
love of the father is not in him for all that is in the world
the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride
of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. Though this world you see crowds
in upon us, there is that in our all nature, is there not,
that wants the ways of the world. And we want to be respected and
regarded in the world. We don't want people to despise
us and reject us. we want people to be friendly
with us that's quite natural to us is it not all but this
world you see it is the world of the ungodly and our comfort
can only be this that the Lord Jesus Christ is that one who
has come and has overcome the world and then the believer is
downcast because there is a great fall There's Satan himself, there's
the devil. The whole world lies in wickedness,
it says. Or we could render it, the whole
world lies in the wicked one. There at the end of John's first
general epistle. The whole world, under the influence of Satan
himself, And we're not to be ignorant of him, we're not to
be ignorant of his devices, his cunning ways. Oh, he's clever. And he has his strategies whereby
he can so easily entrap us. He's an adversary to our souls,
is he not? He's seeking our destruction.
He's a foreign angel. and he hates God and as we said
before he hates man because man of course is created in God's
image made after God's likeness and oh the devil hates that and
so we see there at the very beginning of creation the sad record that
we have in the opening chapters of Genesis the fall of our first
parent The Puritan Richard Sibbes says this of the devil. He says,
he himself was cast down. He was cast down from heaven,
was he not? And so what does he do? He labours to cast down. His voice is down, down, down
to the ground. It's the force. He wants to bring
men down. God exhorts us to set our affections
on things above not on things on the earth but on things above
where Christ is at God's right hand but now the devil is the
very opposite of that he will bring us down he'll cause us
to be those who are downcast but here of course we have that
great and gracious promise from God himself that he will restore
his people This is the confession of David here in the psalm. He
restoreth my soul. And so, having said a little
with regards to the way in which at times God's children are brought
down because of themselves, because of their fallen nature, because
of that world that is all about them and that devil who is such
an active foe. Many things to cast them down
to the ground. And yet here we have the great
promise of God. David says concerning the Good
Shepherd, He restoreth my soul. And again we observe that the
work is clearly God's work. He is the one who does it. Just
as we observed last time that divine sovereignty in verse 2,
He maketh me to lie down. in green pastures. He leadeth
me beside the still waters." How God restores His people.
He's able to restore them, is He not? From all their wanderings
and all their sad backslidings. Look at the language that we
find there in the book of Hosea. In Hosea chapter 14 Verse 4,
God says, I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for
mine anger is turned away from Him. Oh God, restores us from
all our sad backslidings, and now often friends, we're guilty
of that backsliding in heart, we can still be going through
the motions, can we not? we can still be attending the
services regular at the prayer meeting even in our own homes
still diligently seeking to set that time apart to read and to
pray to have our private devotions and yet we can do it all in a
mechanical way and our hearts can be far removed from God in
a sad condition backslidden backslidings of heart but God promises you
see he will heal his people he will heal his people he is the
one who restores them now look at the language that David is
employing here is not this the language of appropriation that
we find we see Oh, in restoration there is this appropriation. Look at the opening words of
the psalm. He says, the Lord is my shepherd. Now that's appropriation. He
doesn't say the Lord is the shepherd, because that's a glorious truth. He is the chief shepherd of the
sheep. He is that one who cares for
all those that the Father has given to him, and he watches
over his sheep. and he provides for his sheep,
and he protects his sheep. I am the good shepherd, he says.
The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But David
is not just speaking of him who is the shepherd. No, it's the
language of appropriation. He's mine. He's mine. And we see it also, do we not? in those other Psalms that we
were reading, when he feels himself to be so cast down that mark
the last words in both Psalm 42 and Psalm 43, again the language
of appropriation, and my God. That's where it ends, Joseph.
Oh, this God is our God forever and ever. And what is it to know
this God? Well, remember the prayer of
the Lord Jesus Christ to His Father in the 17th chapter of
John? This is life eternal, He says.
To know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast
sent. What a blessing if we're those
who truly know God. And can we say tonight that that
is our real desire? Above all things else, we want
to know God, and we want to know that this God is our God. You want to know that this God
is your God. It is life eternal. And again,
we see it so remarkably, do we not, in the experience of the
Apostle, where he expresses there in Philippians chapter 3, something
of his desire that I may know him, he says. That I may know
him, he knew him. He'd had a wonderful experience,
he'd been called by the grace of God in a remarkable way. What
a conversion was that of Saul of Tarsus as we read of it in
Acts chapter 9. And yet, there writing to the
Philippians, he says he wants to know more of these things
that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship
of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. Very
striking is the order in which he sets forth something of that
that he desires to know. He wants to know the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ, but he wants to have an experimental
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants to know something of
the power of Christ's resurrection. And what is the power of that
resurrection? Well, it's evidenced, of course, in the great work
of regeneration, when the sinner is first born again by the Spirit
of God. The promise is, thy dead men
shall live, Together with my dead body, says Christ, shall
they arise." Oh, it's that same power that was there when Christ
himself rose again from the dead, that is so essential to come
into the soul of the sinner. That great power of God, the
working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ, says Paul,
when He raised Him from the dead. And this morning we were only
thinking of that glorious doctrine of the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ and those infallible proofs spoken of in Acts chapter
1 and verse 3. Infallible proofs struck me so
forcibly this last week. As I said this morning, those
two words that we find in that third verse in the opening chapter
of the Acts, infallible proofs, it's really one word. It's one
word, but how they have to bring out the force and the strength
of that word by translating it in that particular way. And we sought to show something
of what those proofs of the resurrection of Christ were. How those who
were witnesses, they saw something. they saw it with their own eyes,
and they saw that this was no phantom, this was a real body,
they could handle it, they could touch it. And the Lord Jesus,
risen from the dead, would eat food before them. They would witness Him partaking
of real food. And He spoke to them, did He
not? And it is that glorious truth of the resurrection that
is brought home into the soul of sinners when God puts forth
the same power and that person who is by nature dead in trespasses
and in sins is born again, born of the Spirit of God. All to
know it, to know Him and the power of His resurrection. Once we've had that experience
the others follow, do they not? the fellowship of his sufferings,
being made conformable unto his death. Or what is this life of
the Christian life? It's a strange, peculiar sort
of a life, is it not? It's a life of changes. Fellowship in his sufferings.
Not that those sufferings contribute anything to the salvation of
the sinner, The sin of salvation is altogether and only in the
sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. These were penal sufferings.
He was suffering that dreadful penalty that was the desert of
his people. He died as their substitute in
their room and in their stead. He bore in his own person all
that they deserved to suffer to all eternity. And because
he is the God-man, Why in those three hours on the cross he paid
the price for their redemption. Or the Lord, the Holy Lord of
God was satisfied. There is a uniqueness about the
sufferings of Christ, but there is a fellowship in his sufferings.
There is a fellowship in his sufferings, is there not? being
made conformable unto his death. Peter was one of those who was
a witness to these things. And when we come to Peter's epistles,
of course, he speaks of those things that he had witnessed.
He can speak of Christ in his sufferings, Christ in his resurrection
from the dead. But so, as he speaks of the sufferings,
so at the same time he speaks of the believer as fellowship
with the suffering saving. Look at what he says, for example, in chapter 4 of his first epistle. He says at verse 12, Beloved,
think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try
you as though some strange thing happened unto you. or the reliever's
fiery trial. He's going to be in the midst
of difficulties and troubles. He's going to find the old nature
so alive within him. He's going to wander sometimes
out of the way. He's going to backslide. He's
going to need restorings. This is all part of his life.
But think it not strange, he says, as though some strange
thing happened unto you, but rejoice in as much as ye are
partakers of Christ's offerings. that when his glory shall be
revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be
reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the Spirit
of glory and of God resteth upon you. On their part he is evil
spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. Or when the men
of the world taunt you, you say, and say, Where is thy God? Did they not also taunt the Lord
Jesus Christ? He was reproached by men, and
yet he answered not a guy. Now God, you see, deals with
His people, teaches His people, and He will restore them. He
will cause them to see and to understand in the midst of all
these things that He is yet their God. The Lord is my shepherd. We clearly hear of this language
then of appropriation. He understands that God is dealing
with And God is the one who causes him to lie down in the green
pastures, the promises of the Word of God. He is the one who
leads him besides the still waters. He is the one who restores his
soul. But then it is also very much
here the language of longing and yearning. When cast down,
what's that God's children want. They want to know those gracious
smilings of God's face. How sinuously causes separation. Sin hides the face of God. What do they want? They want
to know that God is looking upon them and smiling upon them. There'll be many who say, who
will show us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light
of thy countenance upon us. Oh, when God lifts up the light
of his countenance. It is, of course, that great
blessing, that Aaronic blessing that is mentioned at the end
of Numbers chapter 6, that blessing that the priests were to pronounce
upon the tribes of Israel. Speak unto Aaron, and unto his
sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel,
saying unto them, The Lord bless thee, and keep thee. The Lord
make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The
Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put my name upon
the children of Israel, and I will bless them." Oh, when God's smile
is there, David needed that. He needed that smiling of God's
face in order to the restoration of his soul. Now notice again
the language in those two Psalms that we read. And the interesting
difference is really in verse 5 of Psalm 42. He asks himself
the question, why aren't there cast down all my soul and again
my heart thou didst quiet it in me and he says in verse 5
hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him for the help of
his countenance. He marked the words I shall yet
praise him for the help of his countenance and then in the last
verse of Psalm 42, and it's repeated at the end of Psalm 43, the same
questions, and then he says this, "...for I shall yet praise Him
who is the health of my countenance and my God." And again at the
end of Psalm 43, "...I shall yet praise Him who is the health
of my countenance and my God." First of all, it's the help of
His countenance. And what is a help? Why it brings
help? when God is pleased to look again
upon His child and to grant restoring mercies? Why? He brings health
into His very soul. I shall yet praise Him for the
health, who is the health of my countenance. And you know Where is it that
we find the countenance of God? Where is it that we see God? It is the Lord Jesus Himself
who is the image of the invisible God. All remember that great
verse of the Apostles 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 6. God who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in
our heart, He said, to give the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It's there. It's in the
face of the Lord Jesus Christ. All to know the gracious smilings
of Christ. And yet, when John sees the glorified
Christ, there in the opening chapter of the Revelation, what
does he say concerning his eyes as a flame of fire? Well, he
sees us. He sees us as we are His eyes
burn into our very souls, we can conceal nothing from Him.
He knows us through and through. The amazing thing is, with regards
to His people, though He knows us, He loves us. He loves us. We have any love to Him? Why
is it? Because He first loved us. Here, surely we see something
of the language of longing in the Samis. He wants God to look
upon him. He wants God to smile upon him.
That will bring restoration into his soul. And then, also here,
in the restoration of the soul, we see anticipation, do we not? In restoring, God causes the
sheep to look forward and to look upwards. He restoreth my
soul, but to what end? Well, again, in those Psalms
that we read, the end of Psalm 42, the end of Psalm 43, it says,
Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him. Now, again, we
have to be careful and we have to examine the Word so carefully
and so closely. It doesn't just say, Hope in
God. It says more than that in those
two verses. verse 5 and verse 11 of Psalm
42 we have the pronoun introduced not just hope in God but hope
there in God and he addresses himself and encourages himself
he must put all his hope, all his trust, all his confidence
in God. Now what is this hope? that the
psalmist is speaking of. Now hope that is seen we're told
is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth
he yet hope for it? Hope has to do with things unseen.
We look not at the things that are seen, but at the things which
are not seen. For the things which are seen
are temporal. And the things which are not
seen are the eternal things. And this is what we have to do
with. unseen things, eternal things. That's where we are to
put our hope. And so Paul can say, I reckon
that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory that will be revealed in us. Oh, what a wonderful restoration
then. when the child of God reaches
that blessed abode, even heaven itself. Why? His restoration
will be altogether complete. My soul, says the psalmist, waits
thou only upon God, for my expectation is from Him. And again, see,
the emphatic nature of that verse in Psalm 62, my soul waits Thou,
he says. He doesn't just say, my soul,
wait only. No, he emphasizes it. Wait Thou only upon God, for
my expectation is from Him. This is that complete restoration
that will be enjoyed when The child of God is taken into the
very presence of God himself. The blessed end of all things. Hope thou in God. That's restoration, is it not?
To be where God is. Whom have I in heaven but thee,
says the psalmist. There is none upon earth that
I desire besides thee. or the gracious ministry of this
One who is the Good Shepherd, the Lord, the Covenant God of
Israel. That is the One who is spoken
of, is it not, here in the opening clause of the psalm. Lord, as
we have it in the Authorized Versions spelt in capital letters,
it's the Covenant Name. It's that God who is faithful
to His people. and David, and he knew something
of what it meant to be a shepherd. He was a shepherd boy himself,
was he not? As we said last time, the Lord
is my shepherd. I shall not want. Why so? It is the Lord who restores my
soul. Or might we know that gracious
ministry then of God who comes to us. and restores us time and
time and time again, and eventually that restoration is to be completed,
even in heaven itself. The Lord bless His Word to us.