Lessons From the Secret Place – Intimacy- Lesson 4: Restoration in Christ

Today we will continue our study on intimacy with Christ as we journey through Psalm 23. 

Psalm 23:3a, He restores my soul.

Webster 1828 dictionary defines restore as: To bring back or recover from lapse, degeneracy, declension, or ruin to its former state.

He restoreth my soul,.... Either when backslidden, and brings it back again when led or driven away, and heals its backslidings; or rather, when fainting, swooning, and ready to die away, he fetches it back again, relieves, refreshes, and comforts with the discoveries of his love, with the promises of his word, and with the consolations of his Spirit, and such like reviving cordials. i.

Jesus is the restorer of all things. He promises to restore what was lost (stollen, misplaced, or relinquished by our own will). 

What things might we have lost? Following is a list of potentially lost things:

a. Health

b. Wealth

c. Peace

d. Joy

e. Freedom

f. Vision/hope

First, in Christ we find restoration of health (healing).

Jeremiah 30:17a, For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the Lord. (ESV)

1 Peter 2:24, He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness. “By His wounds you were healed.” (MEV)

Psalm 41:3, The Lord nurses them when they are sick and restores them to health. (NLT)

Psalm 30:2, O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. (ESV)

We know from the Word that sickness and disease are not from God. It is not his will for his children to be sick. Our Father sent our Good Shepherd, Jesus, to be the substitute for us so we could walk in health and wholeness. Isaiah 53:3, But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (KJV)

Second, in Christ we find restoration of wealth.

Deuteronomy 8:18, But you must remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to get wealth, so that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is today. (MEV)

Proverbs 13:22, A good man leaves an inheritance [of moral stability and goodness] to his children’s children, and the wealth of the sinner [finds its way eventually] into the hands of the righteous, for whom it was laid up. (AMPC)

Joel 2:25, And I will restore or replace for you the years that the locust has eaten—the hopping locust, the stripping locust, and the crawling locust, My great army which I sent among you. (AMPC)

Philippians 4:13, And my God will liberally supply (fill to the full) your every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (AMPC)

Poverty is part of the curse (Deut. 28:21-22). In John 10:10 Jesus said, “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).” (AMPC)

Thirdly, in Christ we find restoration of peace.

2 Thessalonians 3:16, Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all.

Philippians 4:6-7, Do not be anxious or worried about anything, but in everything [every circumstance and situation] by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, continue to make your [specific] requests known to God. And the peace of God [that peace which reassures the heart, that peace] which transcends all understanding, [that peace which] stands guard over your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus [is yours]. (AMP)

Romans 8:6, Now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death [death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter]. But the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is life and [soul] peace [both now and forever]. (AMPC)

Isaiah 26:3, You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! (NLT)

Jesus understood that because we are living in the fallen world trials, troubles, stresses, etc. would come against us, however, he promised in John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.] “(AMPC). We can rest in peace knowing that Jesus has already conquered the enemy and He who is in us in greater that he who is in the world!! (1 John 4:4)

Next, in Christ we find restoration of joy. 

Psalm 16:11, You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever. (NLT)

John 16:24, Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. (ESV)

Psalm 51:12, Restore the joy of your salvation to me, and sustain me by giving me a willing spirit. (CSB)

John 15:11, I have told you these things, that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure and complete and overflowing. (AMPC)

Nehemiah 8:10, Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” 

Joy is God’s gift to his children. Joy is not based on what we see with our eyes, what we experience in the natural, or how we feel, it is based on who our Father is and what he has promised to us. Nehemiah understood this. Psalm 30:5b, tells us that “weeping may endure for a night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.” (AMP) 

Fifth, in Christ we find restoration of freedom. 

Galatians 5:1, In [this] freedom Christ has made us free [and completely liberated us]; stand fast then, and do not be hampered and held ensnared and submit again to a yoke of slavery [which you have once put off]. (AMPC)

Psalm 118:5, Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free. (ESV)

John 8:36, So if the Son liberates you [makes you free men], then you are really and unquestionably free. (AMPC)

2 Corinthians 3:17, Now, the “Lord” I’m referring to is the Holy Spirit, and wherever he is Lord, there is freedom. (TPT)

Our freedom was purchased by Christ on Calvary. John tells us that if Jesus sets us free, we are really free. Paul expounds upon that thought by telling us that if Holy Spirit is truly the Lord in our life we will walk in freedom. Freedom comes from knowing who we are in Christ and who he is in us, not from being able to do whatever we want but desiring to do what pleases God. 

Finally, in Christ we find restoration of vision/hope.

Habakkuk 2:3, For the vision is yet for an appointed time and it hastens to the end [fulfillment]; it will not deceive or disappoint. Though it tarry, wait [earnestly] for it, because it will surely come; it will not be behindhand on its appointed day. (AMPC)

Romans 15:13, May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope. (AMPC)

Hebrews 11:1, Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation,the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]. (AMPC)

Zechariah 9:12, Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.

In this passage, Zechariah is prophesying about the coming of the Messiah. He is declaring to the people that when the Messiah comes, he will restore to them double what was taken by their enemy.  When Jesus brings restoration to our life in any area he doesn’t just restore equal for what was lost, he restores double!!

Jeremiah 29:11, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

In closing, Charles Spurgeon wrote, “When the soul grows sorrowful he revives it; when it is sinful he sanctifies it; when it is weak he strengthens it.  “He” does it.  His ministers could not do it if he did not.  His Word would not avail by itself. “He restoreth my soul.” Are any of us low in grace? Do we feel that our spirituality is at is lowest ebb?  He how turns the ebb into the flood can soon restore our soul.  Pray to him, then, for the blessing – “Restore thou me, thou Shepherd of my soul?”


Works Cited: 

i. https://biblehub.com/commentaries/gill/psalms/23.htm

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