GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
PSALM 23:3
3 He restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
The Hebrew word involved in the word “restore” is a word often translated as “turn” (Hebrew shub, shuv). God restores our souls by doing for them — for us — what we could never do for ourselves.
During World War II, when my father-in-law was a little boy, his mother would always wash the socks inside-out. When the boys got their socks back, they had to pull them right-side out again. Because of sin, we pull ourselves and our lives inside-out. We’re dirty socks and we’re turned around and we’re every which way. And yes, because we’re our mothers’ children and we inherit sin, you could say that our moms (and dads) did this to us — but we do it to ourselves on a much bigger scale.
And like dirty socks, we can do nothing to fix ourselves. But God is the one who has washed us clean and pulled us back the way we’re supposed to go — he restores my soul. And he sets us on the right path — the path of righteousness. But he doesn’t do it because we deserve it (dirty socks such as we are). He does it for his own name’s sake. He is holy, and his name tells us that he is. And our holy God makes us holy, just because he loves us.
Brother and sister socks, rejoice on your path today. God cleaned you and set you there.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota