Psalm 23:3a

Psalm 23

3a HE RESTORETH MY SOUL:

Thank-You, Lord, for Your Word to me this morning: When I read this verse, I think of Ps. 51:10-13:

10 Create in me a CLEAN HEART, O God; and renew a RIGHT SPIRIT within me.

11Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy spirit from me.

12 RESTORE unto me the JOY OF THY SALVATION; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

13 THEN will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

Renew a RIGHT SPIRIT - a joyful spirit within me. Restore my inner being with HAPPINESS! May I be HAPPY no matter what my husband and children do or don't do. May I be HAPPY no matter what decisions are made...Happy whether I live or die...HAPPY just to be Your child!
Make me truly HAPPY, Lord - no matter what! RESTORE unto me the JOY of THY SALVATION! THEN will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee!

Ah, Lord..Piper's words from his book, A GODWARD LIFE, p. 84-84, blessed my soul today:

Lord Jesus, what did you mean that those who drink the water that you give will never thirst again (Jn. 4:14)? I THIRST this morning...Have we not drunk? Is the promise vain?...

As I cried out, the second half of the verse spoke. Jesus spoke, "But the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." With it came an answer...

It went like this: When you drink my water, your thirst is not destroyed forever. If it did that, would you feel any need of my water afterward? That is not my goal. I do not want self-
sufficient saints. When you drink my water, it makes a spring in you. A spring satisfies thirst, not by removing the need you have for water, but by being there to give you water whenever you get thirsty. Again and again. Like this morning. So drink, John. Drink.

Now as I sit here writing, I see this precious truth in Psalm 23: "The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want." Nevertheless, we cry out, "O Lord, today I have wants! I know a hundred people who have wants who count you as their Shepherd. What do you mean, 'We shall not want'?"

But now I have learned a lesson, First, cry out, then read on. "He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul." Restores. That means the wants rise in my soul and then Jesus satisfies. They rise again, and he resatisfies. Life is a rhythm of need and nourishment - and sometimes even a rhythm of danger and deliverance. "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death..." The valley will (again) break forth onto green pastures, and the still waters will flow (again!) The spring is even now welling up within and will forever. For the spring within is not ourselves but God: "He who
believes in Me, as the Scriptures said, From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive." (John 7:38-39). Thirst is quenched by the Spirit of Christ revealing himself and his
promises for us for our soul's satisfaction. But the thirst is not obliterated, lest we lose our impulse to come to him again and again for all that God promises to be for us in Jesus.

Let the one who is thirsty come and keep coming, until our fellowship is so close that there is no distance between.