He restores my soul

And the King said unto his servants “Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?” II Samuel 3:38

There is something that I feel God doing to my spirit and indeed my entire life; it is something that mere words even fail to describe. There is calmness about it and a confidence in it, there is a hunger within me as I desire more of him. And alas, sometime yesterday a phrase came to mind…a phrase that gives the closest hint to what I feel God doing. It is from the 3rd verse of the 23rd Chapter of the book of Psalms, and it is simply this: He restores my soul.

Restoration.

The word restoration implies that there is something that you are being restored to; it invariably intimates that there is a purpose, indeed a destination of this restoration.

It does not mean that I am being restored to something I used to be-even though there is restoration in this sense-because I also feel God taking me to places I have never been. Rather I am convinced that God is restoring me to who I was meant to be, the person that he pictured when he created me.

Man’s wrestle with restoration

I believe that ever since mans fall from grace man has been trying to restore himself by himself. But alas only God can restore us and beyond being an impossible task for us to accomplish, I believe it a dangerous business when we go about trying to restore ourselves to whatever we feel our rightful place is, be it spiritually or in the physical world.

The best examples I find of this quest for self restoration are in the both books of Samuel.

Saul’s quest for self restoration:

Saul disobeyed God when God commanded him through the Prophet Samuel to go and destroy the Amalekites, everything down to their sheep and oxen. But when Saul had destroyed the Amalekites he saved the best of the sheep and the oxen to sacrifice unto God instead of completely destroying them. This act brought forth the word of the lord which said “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice” 1 Samuel 15: 22. The bible says “And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee for thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being King over Israel” I Samuel 1:26

From this day forward the rest of Saul’s life was spent in trying to restore the Kingship that God had taken away from him. He embarked on a quest for self restoration.

When God anointed David (Who in Psalm 23 said “He restores my soul”) to be King over Israel, the bible says that the Spirit of the Lord came into David. The bible also says in 1 Samuel 16:14 “But the spirit of the lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him”.

Saul made himself an enemy of David and made many attempts to take his life. All of this led to the death of Saul on the Mount of Gilboa, as wounded in battle he fell upon his own sword.

The story of Saul is a tragedy that tragically applies to many men and women in the world today. You see, when one is without the spirit of God there is a void that is created. Christians who are trained in the spirit can tell when they have done something wrong and the spirit is grieved, but those who are not do not understand what it is that is lost, what it is that they seek so faithfully to restore. I believe that Saul did not understand what it was that needed to be restored – His soul. He thought it was his kingship, which is why he pursued after David’s life. And so if he knew that it was his soul that needed restoration he would have abandoned this foolish quest and gone somewhere to inquire if this merciful God will yet have mercy on his soul but he did not.

And so many in the world who are devoid of the spirit know not how to fill this void, and so they try to fill it with fulfillment in various spheres of life – Successful careers, beautiful spouses, money, wealth, possession, everything that the world tells you is worthy of our pursuits. But in the words of CS Lewis “Everything that is not eternal is eternally useless”. These people soon find that the void they are trying to fill cannot be filled by anything that they can comprehend. If someone like you or I do not tell them about the Holy Spirit, they will never know what it is that can fill that void and bring about the restoration that David spoke of.


Joab’s attempt at restoration (II Samuel: 3)

After the death of Saul, there was a certain man by the name of Abner who fought against David on behalf of Saul’s heir. But at some point the lord touched his heart and he vowed to transfer the Kingdom of Israel from the house of David to the house of Saul and so he met with David and spoke to the elders of Israel on behalf of David. After a meeting with David as he was going home he was overtaken by Joab, one of Davids men, whose brother was killed by the hands of Abner in the days when Abner fought against David. And Joab killed Abner for the blood of his brother.

Joab took vengeance into his own hands even after David had told him that Abner had made peace with him and was now on his side.

As I read this my soul cried out for mankind. It is easy to take matters into our own hands and try take what we feel is rightfully ours. When we are grieved it is easy to lash out because we feel that our actions are justified, “how can they not be?” we rationalize, as the person who grieved us committed a legitimate wrong. We attempt to restore our pride and position, our honor and reputation...but all the while God wants us to trust him with our reputation, position and all of our lives.

To Joab the avenger David cursed saying “Let it rest on the head of Joab, and on all his father’s house, and let there not fail from the house of Joab one that hath an issue, or that is a leper, or that leaneth on a staff, or that falleth on the sword, or that lacketh bread” II Samuel 3:29

Of Abner the repented slain David lamented, refusing to eat anything until the sun went down. Of him the bible says “And the King said unto his servants: Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel” II Samuel 38.

We have choice to make

Brothers and Sisters, he restores my soul.
I believe that we all have a choice to make today: We can either let God restore our souls to their rightful place, surrendering all of our affairs to him even as David did, or we can try to take matters into our own hands as Saul and Joab did. The end result is plain in II Samuel 3:1 “Now there was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David, but David waxed stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul waxed weaker of weaker”.

The lesson is plain – The one who lets God restore him will wax strong, while the one who seeks to restore himself will even become weaker than when the futile quest began.

Letting God take control is not easy and can only be accomplished by trusting and surrendering to the Holy Spirit. It requires patience knowing that we may not see the results when we like but it will surely come in God’s time. Many years passed between David’s anointing by Samuel and his acceptance by the elders as King of Israel, but it was worth the wait and God restored his soul.

May you rest in the lord this day, may he restore your soul to amazing heights that he envisioned when he first thought of you.

To God be the glory and honor, who reigns with the Son and Holy Spirit as one God, now and forever. Amen.