He restores my soul.  ~ Psalm 23

This is one of my favorite phrases in the entire Bible. So comforting! So reassuring! So peaceful!

Soul restoration is like a summer rain shower passing through, making everything vibrant with life. It’s like drinking a glass of cold water when you’re outside on a hot day.

In fact, that’s how the Psalmist, David, describes soul restoration too. “He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me by cool waters; he restores my soul.”

But it’s more than just impersonal actions. It involves a person. There’s a relationship there, like a man who lovingly restores a beautiful old car with patience and tenderness. “He leads me by cool waters. He restores my soul.”

God restoring my soul is like a tender hug from the person I trust most and love best. Ah – the very picture of rest! Letting my guard down, letting the light of the warm sun into a cold cave.

In fact, even when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil because He is with me. He comforts me with His presence, guiding me through the dark, keeping me from falling. I am never alone in painful places. Even in that fearful valley, He restores my soul.

As part of the soul restoration process, He prepares a feast for me. HE prepares the feast for ME! Shouldn’t it be the other way around – that I should serve God, not that He should serve me?!

I am reminded of His tenderness that night that He was betrayed – betrayed by Judas, deserted by all His followers, so often betrayed and deserted by me, too! Yet he got up from the table, took on the form of a servant, and washed their dirty feet. He prepared them for the table, even in the presence of His own enemy.

He anoints my head with oil. The oil of healing. The oil of calling. It is an intimate gesture. How my cup overflows with His goodness and mercy – both now and forever!

Knowing Him, being under His tender care, produces a depth of joy indescribable in me to know that I will live… dwell… abide… in the house of the Lord forever! Full soul restoration, where there will be no more mourning or pain or death, but only the joy of my good Shepherd forever and ever. Oh, how He restores my soul!