Let us turn to God's Word and
turning to the 23rd Psalm. I suppose probably the best known
part of God's Word. This lovely portion that we have
in Psalm 23. And I'll read from verse 1. 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. And thinking in particular of
that opening clause there in verse 3. He restoreth my soul. Remember the words of the Lord
Jesus. What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world
and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul. And our souls need many times
to be restored. We need those revivings and refreshings
that come from the presence of the Lord. To keep the heart or
the soul with all diligence, says the wise man, because out
of it are the issues of life. And as we come to look at these
few words for a short while this evening, I want to address the
subject really of the downcast soul restores. The downcast soul restores. David can say with some confidence,
with some real conviction, He restoreth my soul. First of all, we have to recognize
that if we need restoring, it is because first of all we are
those who are prone to be downcast. We know that it's not those that
are whole that have need of the physician, but those that are
sick. And the Lord Jesus says that He has come not to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And how believers
live to prove that they need in their lives to experience
many restorings from the Lord. How the believer is one who does
continually experience a number of changes. That's how our lives
lie before us. In another Psalm, Psalm 55, we're
told of the ungodly, that because they have no changes, therefore
they fear not God. But in all the vicissitudes of
our life, all the changing circumstances of our lives, are we not time
and again caused to cry to God and to call upon His name? There
are a number of things, of course, that that caused the child of
God at times to be in that downcast situation. There is the trouble
of sin, indwelling sin. There's that old nature. And
how the Lord Jesus speaks of all those things that come from
the heart of man as a fallen creature. Remember His words
in the Gospel there in Mark 7. Verse 21, from within, says Christ,
out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications,
murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness,
an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things
come from within and defile the man. Surely there He is giving
us a great catalogue of those sins that lie lurking in our
unbelieving hearts, the hearts that we possess as those who
are fallen, sinful creatures. And that sin within us is very
restless. Or do we not prove that? How
restless our souls are so many times, even in a single day. And we're told, aren't we, of
the wicked. How they're like the troubled sea. when it cannot rest, whose waters
cast up mire and dirt, and there is no rest, says my God, for
the wicked." Well, thank God if we've been delivered and we're
not the wicked in that sense, and yet we know that we still
have a heart that is prone to every evil. I know that in me,
that is in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing, says the Apostle.
there in Romans chapter 7 and we read those words in the
42nd and 43rd Psalms where five times in those two short Psalms
we find the Psalmist addressing his own soul we have that sort
of a soliloquy Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou
disquieted? within them how disquieting sin
is but what a mercy if we feel that of course those who are
dead in trespasses and sins they know nothing of those troubles
that are the portion of the Lord's quickened children and David
the man after God's own heart see how he speaks of his experiences
later in the words of the 38th Psalm and there at verse 6 following
he says I am trouble I am bowed down greatness I go mourning
all the day long for my loins are filled with a loathsome disease
and there is no soundness in my flesh I am feeble and sore
broken I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart. And this is that psalm of David
to bring to remembrance. He remembers these things. He's
mindful then of what he is. He has a sense of the awfulness
of his fallen nature, indwelling sin. That conflict that is the
portion of the people of God, the flesh lusting against the
spirit, the spirit against the flesh, And as Paul says this,
are contrary one to the other, and ye cannot do the thing that
ye would. And then we have, of course,
that whole seventh chapter of Romans taken up with that conflict
that the man of God was so very much aware of. Oh, here is the
child of God and he's downcast. downcast because of what he feels
that he's yet there in his fallen nature. But also there's another
matter that causes him at times to be downcast in his soul. It's because of the world in
which he is living. It's the ungodly that are about
him on every hand. David in those Words of the 42nd
Psalm that we read speaks of his tears and he was taunted
by the ungodly. There in verse 3 and verse 10
of the 42nd Psalm he speaks of the ungodly and what do they
keep saying to him? Where is thy God? Where is thy
God? Oh how at times God's children
feel that the Lord God seems to be at a distance. and there
are those who will come and remind them of that but the Lord Jesus
has told us himself in the world in the world you shall have tribulation
this world lies in wickedness yea all that will live godly
in Christ Jesus we're told will suffer persecution this world
is not the believers home we can't make our nest in this present
fallen world and we have to prove that love not the world says
John neither the things that are in the world 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
and the world is passing away this world is filled with the
young god And God's people feel themselves to be but a very small
remnant in this world. The only ones really who recognize
the one living and true God. And men in the very grip of Satan
walking rather in that broad way that will only lead to eternal
destruction. not only indwelling sin, not
only that that is in our hearts by nature, but all that that's
about us. And then of course, there's the
prince of the power of the air himself. There's Satan. Those words that we've referred
to in 1 John 5, 19, the world lieth in wickedness. Could be
rendered the world lies in the wicked one. The world lies in
the wicked one. Now, we are to be sober and vigilant. We're told that the devil is
a roaring lion. He's walking about seeking whom
he may devour. And what is his business? Why,
his business is to cast men down. To cast men down. When we refer
to Genesis 3, where we read of the entrance of sin, we speak
of that sin in terms of the fall. We fall into sin. Oh, it brings
us down. The Puritan, Richard Sipp says,
the devil since he himself was cast down labours to cast all
down. His voice is down, down, down
to the grave. Oh, we're not to let Satan get
that advantage over us. with not to be those who are
ignorant of his devices he will cast us down he will seek continually
to bring us down to turn our eyes away from God
to be preoccupied as it were with the things of this world
instead of being those who are looking up and calling upon God
and crying to God how oft is the soul then of the child of
God downcast because of many things, a variety of things.
There's himself, there's the world, there's Satan. He's involved
in this conflict all his days. The Apostle says we must through
much tribulation enter into the kingdom. All the soul is cast
down. But what does the text say? He
restoreth my soul. What is David saying here? Well,
he's reminding us that the work is God's work. We cannot restore
ourselves. He's reminding us again, is he
not, of God's sovereignty? We see it in the previous verse.
"'He maketh me to lie down in green pasture,' says David. "'He
leadeth me beside the still waters.'" He's speaking of the works of
God. He's speaking of the way in which God, as that one who
is the good shepherd, is ever aware of the needs of his sheep
and he attends to them and he ministers to them. He maketh. He leadeth. He restoreth. All the work is very much God's. He restores His people. How often
we need that restoration because of our backsliding hearts. How
with those who instead of pressing forward and moving onward, we
slip back, we grow weary and worn. What does He say through
the Prophet Hosea, I will heal their backsliding? I will heal
their backslidings, I will love them freely." In spite of all
the provocations of our departures and our wanderings, yet His love
is a free love. There's nothing in us to cause
Him to love us, but He's that God who is faithful and true
to Himself, to His words, to His promise, to His covenant,
all that promise confirmed by His own oath and so God says
He will heal His people, He will restore them from all their backslidings. Now what do we have here in the language of the Psalmist?
Well, three things to observe with regards to the language
that is being used. First of all, it's very much
the language of appropriation. We find restoration, really,
in that sort of language, where the psalmist, as it were, is
laying hold of God and dealing with God in very personal terms.
The opening words of the psalm, the Lord, says David, is my shepherd. my of course is a word of appropriation
as the Lord Jesus himself instructs us in prayer when we pray to
say our father when we use the plural our of course we embrace
others in our prayer but this is even more personal because
this is the singular it's my shepherd the Lord is my shepherd
and in that psalm that we were reading,
Psalm 43 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou cast down my soul? and here of course it's my soul
again but it's also there in the psalm my God, isn't it? when he addresses God there at
the end of that 43rd Psalm, Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
And why art thou disquieted within me, hoping God? For I shall yet
praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God. All the very final words of that
Psalm, as also in the previous 42nd Psalm, is that language
again of appropriation. Both times he speaks of my, my
God, my God. And of course, do we not really
have the example of the Lord Jesus Christ himself? When we see Christ in a very
low place, when he makes his soul an offering for sin, As
we read in Isaiah 53, speaking of the suffering servant of the
Lord, He makes His soul. The sufferings that He's enduring
there upon the cross, it's all sufferings. He's the great sin-bearer. He's bearing in His own person
that punishment that was due for eternity. to fall upon the
sins of his people, and he cries out in agony, My God, why hast
thou forsaken me? And yet how strange it is that
even when he's in that low place and he feels so bereft in his
soul, so separated from his father, the mystery of it really because
he could never be separated because Father, Son and Holy Ghost are
ever and always one God and yet the reality of his sufferings
there but even as he cries out feeling that awful desolation,
that dereliction in his soul it's still my God my God why
hast thou forsaken me? what a blessed pattern the Lord
is to us This is the one that we're to follow. This is the
one that we're to know in a very real sense, an experimental sense. Life eternal. He says, to know
thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. And remember, when Paul expresses
his own desire for that knowledge of the Lord Jesus, that I may
know Him, he says, and the power of his resurrection, and the
fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his
death." Conformable unto his death. And it's interesting,
isn't it, there, because it's after resurrection, and it's
after regeneration, new birth, newness of life, that we read
of desertings. and restorings it's the power
of his resurrection first there in Philippians 3.10 and then
the fellowship of his sufferings and conformity to his death I
often read those words and thought, why that order? doesn't the resurrection
come after the crucifixion? the resurrection after the death
that Paul needs that life of Christ to be in his soul in order that he might be conformed to
the image of the Lord Jesus to know something of the fellowship
of his sufferings and to learn to cry to God in those times
of desertion just as the Lord himself cries upon the cross,
my God, my God why hast thou forsaken me? it's the language
then of appropriation when we come to God to address him not
just as God but to say my gods and to say our father but it's not just the language
of appropriation there's also aspiration here there's desire
it's a language of longing Well, when we're in that cast-down
place, do we not long to know the gracious
smilings of the face of God, the Lord looking upon us, the
Lord lifting the light of His countenance upon us? The psalmist
says in Psalm 4, There be many that say, Who will show us any
good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon
us. the light of thy countenance.
It's that blessing, isn't it? That great blessing that the
priests of Aaron were to pronounce upon the tribes of Israel. At the end of number 6 they were
to put God's name upon all the children of Israel. The Lord
bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine
upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee and give thee peace. And it is a triune blessing that
they're pronouncing there because it's three times Lord. Just as
the angels before the throne of God have that song of praise
and worship in which they say holy, holy, holy, three times
holy, Lord God of hosts. But what is it that is contained in those words of
blessing? Well, it's the face of God. Make His face to shine. Lift
up His countenance. And doesn't David need the Lord's
smile in order for his soul to be restored? Oh look at what he says again
in that 42nd psalm that we read at the end of verse 5 I shall
yet praise him for the help of his countenance the help of God's
countenance when the Lord looks and when the Lord smiles it's his countenance there in
verse 5 but then it's also my countenance, when we look
at verse 5 in the following 43rd Psalm. I shall yet praise him
who is the house of my countenance. It's interesting to draw the
contrast between the end of verse 5 in the 42nd and the end of
verse 5 in the 43rd Psalms. First it's thy countenance, or
his countenance, the countenance of God, and praising God for
the help of his countenance. And then when we come right to
the end of the 43rd Psalm, it's the health of my countenance. And where does that countenance
shine? Is it not in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ? The God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts. to give
the light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus
Christ. Oh, what aspirings in here, what
longings that the Lord God would look upon Him, the Lord would
smile upon Him. And David then will praise his
God for the help of His countenance. This is what brings restoration.
This is how God restores the souls of His people. It's the
language of appropriation. It's the language of aspiration,
longings. And it's also the language of
anticipation. It's anticipating something.
When God comes to restore the souls of His people, He will
cause them to look forward and to look upwards. Or when he restores
us, you see from the backsliding, there's a turnaround. Of course,
that's repentance, isn't it, really? Repentance is such a fundamental
change of mind. The life is turned about, the
life is turned inside out, the life is turned upside down. There's
a change. And we need this repentance.
how we have to look forward and as we look forward also we have
to look upwards He restoreth my soul it's really the future
tense here He will restore my soul it's the language of hope and
isn't that how David really addresses himself to God in those
two Psalms 42 and 43 those soliloquies. Why art thou
cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope thou in God, he says. Hope thou in God. And it is so emphatic there in
the 42nd Psalm verses 5 and 11 because the singular pronoun
is brought in. It doesn't just say hope in God.
No, it's hope thou. Or David is very much addressing
his own soul. Hope. The grace of hope. That's the language of anticipation.
Hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why does
he yet hope for it? But if we hope for that we see
not, then do we with patience wait for it? Oh, there's a waiting
in hope, you see. It's something that we're looking
forward to, anticipating, that the Lord will yet appear. Looking
not at the things that are seen, but the things that are unseen,
because the things that are seen are only temporal, and the unseen
things, these are the eternal things. And so what can Paul
say when he considers his situation? I reckon that the sufferings
of the present time, he says, are not worthy to be compared
with the glory that shall be revealed in us. There will be
restoration. But there is to be that constant
looking to God, looking forward, and looking upward. My soul wait
thou only upon God, For my expectation is from Him. We read in Psalm
62. My expectation. God will appear. God will restore His people.
Hope thou in God. So He addresses His own soul. I love those soliloquies that
we have there in those two Psalms. Three times we have that, you
know. in verses 5 and 11 of Psalm 42, and then again in verse 5
of Psalm 43. Now we need to address our own
souls, hoping God. For I shall yet praise Him who
is the house of my countenance and my God. The Lord is my shepherd,
says David. He restoreth my soul or that
we might know then those blessings, those restorings, those renewings
as the Lord visits us and grants us our daily repentance and grants
us that faith that he's always looking with expectation to him
that he will yet appear for us. May the Lord be pleased to bless
his work. Now let us sing our second praise
before we turn to him again in prayer we sing the hymn 333 and
the tune is Dismissal 671. O my soul, what means this sadness? Wherefore art thou thus cast
down? Let thy griefs be turned to gladness.
Bid thy restless fears be gone. Look to Jesus and rejoice in
His dear name. 333, TUNE 671.