The cast sheep; He restores my soul. Psa 23:3; John 10:18; Psa 42.

    

Ps 23:1-3

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside quiet waters.

3 He restores my soul;

He guides me in the paths of righteousness

For His name's sake.

 

We are now ready for verse 3: “He restored my soul;”

 

A soul doesn’t need to be restored if it had not at one time been in fine working order and then in some way fell into disrepair.

 

We have the opportunity to be under the authority of two masters. One is the greatest and the other is the cruelest.

 

So we have the master that is the old sin nature and under his authority we experience death. We don’t experience physical death, nor spiritual death (as believers we will never experience physical death), but we experience temporal death, which is life out of fellowship with God.

 

The analogy to this lifestyle in our Psalm is the sheep that has jumped the fence and is no longer on the green pasture, or as we’ll see it is the cast sheep that has fallen over on its back and can’t get up.

 

The other master is TLJC, our Shepherd, and under His authority we experience life in His care, which means growth, spiritual health, and potential prosperity of soul.

 

Paul is writing in Rom 6, you choose, for you have to be under the authority of one or the other.

 

David, our writer of Psa 23 is an experienced shepherd, but he is also very experienced at being restored.

 

David, like any sinner who is pursuit of living in the righteousness that God has given him at salvation, fell often, settled for less than God’s plan often, and had some major blunders that incurred divine discipline.

 

But David never quit on God and through the use of confession and restoration God often restored his soul.

 

Every believer who is in pursuit of the spiritual live will experience heart breaking failure. The failure is a certainty; the recovery is the question because it involves application of enforced humility.

 

 

 

 

 

David had lost his kingdom to his son Absalom as a part of his discipline for murdering Uriah and taking his wife Bathsheba.

 

This is what he writes about it in Psalm 42:

 

There is an exact parallel to this in caring for sheep. Only those intimately acquainted with sheep and their habits understand the significance of a “cast” sheep or a “cast down” sheep.

 

A cast sheep is a very pathetic sight. Lying on its back, its fee in the air, it flays away frantically struggling to stand up, without success. Sometimes it will bleat a little for help, but generally it lies there lashing about in frightened frustration.

 

If the shepherd doesn’t arrive on the scene in the necessary period of time the sheep will die. Therefore the shepherd must constantly look over his flock every day, counting them to see if they all are able to be up on their feet.

 

If after counting the shepherd comes up one or two short his first thought this that one of them is cast and he must go find it before it’s too late.

 

You remember:

 

Luke 15:1-7

 

A heavy or long-fleeced sheep will lie down comfortably in some little hollow in the ground and then roll on its side to relax and stretch out its legs and then suddenly its center of gravity shifts and it finds itself on its back far enough that its feet are off the ground.

 

Naturally they panic and paw frantically, which frequently only makes things worse and now it is impossible for it to get back up on its feet.

 

Picture yourself in this position. This is you outside of the plan of God for too long.

 

As it lies there gases start to build up in the rumen. As the gasses expand they can cause pressure that will cut off blood flow to the extremities.

 

Mr. Keller writes of his experiences early in the morning, looking over and counting his sheep. If he saw buzzards circling over-head in their long, slow spirals, anxiety would grip him and off he would go, leaving the secure sheep and scouring the other pastures looking for a cast sheep.

 

This is a beautiful picture of our Lord, who always watches us and will run to us when we are cast. We will all be cast from time to time and the Lord will be there ready to pick you up.

 

But at that time, will you let Him pick you up. Remember, this is all figurative.

 

The reality is that when we are out of fellowship and fail to rebound and recover the word of God in our souls Christ will send word to the Spirit to convict us. We might panic; Christ will then send His word to restore us and the Spirit will confirm the efficacy of the word. We might resist being up on our feet; Christ will bring in discipline to remind us that being cast is being in death.

 

You and I as sheep can resist and say no to His efforts, or we can say yes to restoration and be healthy in soul again.

 

In Luke 15 the shepherd delighted to find and restore the lost sheep. He is not willing that any perish.

 

As Mr. Keller shares,

“As soon as I reached the cast ewe my very first impulse was to pick it up. Tenderly I would roll the sheep over on its side. This would relieve the pressure of gases in the rumen. If she had been down for long I would have to lift her onto her feet. Straddling the sheep with my legs I would hold her erect, rubbing her limbs to restore the circulation to her legs. This often took little time. When the sheep started to walk again she often stumbles, staggered and collapsed in a heap once more.

 

All the time I worked on the cast sheep I would talk to it gently saying, “When are you going to learn to stand on your own feet? I’m so glad I found you in time - you rascal.”

And so the conversation would go. Always couched in language that combined tenderness and rebuke, compassion and correction.

 

Little by little the sheep would regain its equilibrium. It would start to walk steadily and surely. By and by it would dash away to rejoin the others, set free from its fears and frustration, given another chance to live a little longer. (end quote)

 

This is the beautiful picture of “He restores my soul.”

 

How often in the Gospels do we see Jesus teaching and eating with the down and out, the ones who thought that God was disgusted with them and had no hope.

 

Luke 18:9-14

 

Humility is knowing who you are and not competing and comparing yourself with other people like this Pharisee.

 

Christ will gently and reassuringly restore the humble to their feet and provide the strength that they need in this evil and disappointing world.