Psalm 23 pt 3

Psa 23:3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

I wanted to write about this verse for quite some time. I think God revealed something new to me :).

Firstly, He restores my soul. He and me, we're are good buddies :) Such a personal God. Restores speaks of well, restoration. Soul here refers to our soul, our being. So (I think) He restores us - in our mind, in our will, our bodies and implies 'spirituality'. I think many of us see it that way too. He restores it all.

He can leads us to paths of righteousness BECAUSE of his name's sake. Actually most time I see 'FOR' in the bible, substitute it with 'BECAUSE" so that you can find out because of what to know the context.

Again, He leads. We follow. As a sheep we just relax and follow. I don't remember herding sheep with whips.

.. Because of his name's sake. It is really God's pleasure to lead us righteousness and He does it gracefully - literally. At least I think it's much more graceful in shepherding sheep as opposed to buffalos or cows? But then I have never shepherd... just watch TV only and learn only :P

Anyway, what I notice is this: (and I think God reveal this to me)

Did you realiase that the Psalm speak of 'material' want first before 'soul'? First God lead us to 'no wants', food, water, place to rest, then only come 'soul'. It seems that God IS interested in our physical needs. He wants us to be well taken care off! Once that is taken care of, He comes to restore our soul.

Isn't it wonderful to know that God really want us to 'rested'?

It comes quite directly opposite of what I thought I hear about 'set your life up right first... only THEN God will bless you'.

This is the gem I learnt last week. God, like a shepherd takes care of our makan, our living first before He starts talking about our 'spiritualility'. I think, I believe once we have tasted His goodness and live in His restedness - we are already spiritual. That's the relationship of a Father and son.