Part one of:

~Psalm 23~ 1-3

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not

be in want.

He makes me lie down in green

pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters,

he restores my soul.

He guides me in paths of

righteousness

for his name’s sake.”

There are many statements of truth and promise in this short passage. I will share what God has graciously shown me. Let’s analyze part of this psalm by looking at some of the “he’s” (I will post the second half next week).

• He makes.

“He makes me lie down in green pastures,” God’s ideal for mankind is for us to follow Him and with that, He intends rest. I often have held standards of what I thought God was wanting from me when really those standards ‘I had to live up to’ where my own. He isn’t a God who wants us to suffer or struggle. He wants us to rest in His arms, in that luscious green grass, not in the kind that gives chiggers or is prickly and dead. He has made us alive.

• He leads.

“He leads me beside quiet waters,”

In the game ‘Simon Says’, Simon is the leader; everybody else follows. In Christianity, Jesus leads, I follow. Jesus does not abuse His leadership. It’s not the, *You say jump, I say how high kind-of-thing* His leadership is righteous.He is a God of justice (Isaiah 42:1). And he does not change (Hebrews 13:8). Simon Says can be an easy game, but following Jesus isn’t always easy because we are required to trust a God we cannot see. God will not lead us in the wrong direction; He is stable and has plans of prosperity and beauty for His people.

• He restores.

“He restores my soul.”

I love the word ‘restoration’. There are two definitions I found that I would like to share: “to receive back more than has been lost to the point where the final state is greater than the original condition. The main point is that someone or something is improved beyond measure.”And

“To give in place of, or as satisfaction for.” Jesus is our restoration. He cleans us up, makes us worth it, gives us purpose, transforms our lives into something we could not have dreamed up. Jesus satisfies our souls and only Him.

https://www.reference.com/world-view/biblical-mean...

http://biblehub.com/topical/r/restore.htm.

• He guides.

“He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”

Yes, He does. Hearing His guidance is a struggle sometimes. For me, it’s over-analyzing instead of just trusting Him to work it out. I put too much control into trying to figure out what’s right and what’s wrong, and I wear myself out. All of life is for Him. He’s guiding us for His glory. Everyone who is a child of God who is doing something wrong will, I believe, eventually figure it out if that child is seeking Him for an answer.

“They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.” –Isaiah 61:3c It’s all about Him! :)