The third verse of this psalm begins with, "He restoreth my soul." Just as sheep are quick to
wander off on paths of their own making, so we too have a natural tendency to go our own ways.

"Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it;
Prone to leave the God I love;
Yet Thou, Lord, hast deigned to seal it
With Thy Spirit from above."

A good shepherd is always watchful for a wandering sheep and will quickly bring back or restore
a sheep that has gone astray. Likewise our Great Shepherd has His eye upon each one of His
blood-bought sheep. The moment we begin to wander He works to bring us back to Himself
again. How comforting and assuring it is to know that through each hour of every day I have One
who has His eye upon me. As my High Priest, He ever lives to make intercession for me (Heb.
7:25). He cares for me and is interested in each detail of my life. He desires that I keep near Him,
enjoying His fellowship. How quickly and easily that fellowship can be broken:by reading a bad
story in a magazine; watching something on television; hearing some suggestive joke or remark!
The things we see and hear affect our thoughts and these thoughts often find expression in our
words and lives. It is no wonder that David said, "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation
of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer" (Psalm 19:14).

This wandering from the Great Shepherd can begin so gradually that we often are not aware that
any distance has come between Him and us. The loss of fellowship with the Lord Jesus in those
green pastures and beside those still waters is almost always accompanied by a failure in three
areas of our spiritual life:(1) prayer, (2) Bible reading and study, and/or (3) fellowship with God
s people. When we discover that we are spending less and less time in these three areas, we can
be sure that we are wandering away from our Great Shepherd. God speaks to us through His
Word, while we speak to Him through prayer. Neglecting these two we lose the joy of fellowship
with Him. Further, when we forsake the assembling of ourselves together (Heb. 10:25), we lose
the joy of fellowship with others. Our Great Shepherd wants to restore to us the joy of His
salvation. This is His work as advocate. "If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1). He uses His Word to correct us and turn us back to
Himself. A brother or sister in Christ may be used to bring that Word to us. If our ears are open
to hear His voice, this may be all that is needed to bring us back to Himself.

If we continue to go our own way, our Great Shepherd may allow something to come into our
lives that will cause us to stop and listen to His "still small voice." He will continue His restoring
work in our souls because He loves us too much to allow us to continue on our own way. This
may take months or even years before we finally yield to His control. This will be at a great loss
to us and surely to Him also. I have known some of the Lord’s sheep who have wasted years of
then- life before they yielded to the Shepherd’s leading and guiding. These are years which the
prophet Joel refers to as years which the locust and the cankerworm hath eaten (Joel 2:25).
However, God wants to restore these years to us if we will let Him.

If we come to Him confessing our sins, "He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). When we come to Him in this way our actions
will be brought under the cleansing power of His Word. This will cause us to judge our ways and
to come near to our great, all-gracious Shepherd. We will be restored to Him, brought back again.
We will experience in a fresh way His love and forgiveness and know again the joy of His
salvation (Psalm 51:12). That joy filling our hearts and lives will be a testimony to others as we
follow the leading of our Great Shepherd.

"He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake." The leading of our Great
Shepherd will always be in the paths of righteousness. Righteousness simply means "what is
right." The standards for what is right and what is wrong are God’s standards which have been
revealed in His Word. These paths of righteousness marked out for us will cause us to have right
thinking, right speaking, and right acting and living before both God and man. We will be able
to say with the apostle Paul, "And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void
of offence toward God, and toward men" (Acts 24:16). We will find that walking in these paths
of righteousness will affect us in every area of our lives_in our homes, at school, at work, and
in the assembly.

What a need there is today of this right living in the homes of believers! Our Shepherd has marked
out the paths for every member of the home to follow and only as we are obedient to His Word
can there be blessing in the home. These paths can be found in many scriptures but especially in
the epistles to the Ephesians and to the Colossians.

At school there is pressure to conform to the world’s standards. How necessary to hear our
Shepherd’s voice, "This is the way, walk ye in it" (Isa. 30:21). Others may laugh at us and accuse
us of being old-fashioned and boring. They may say to us, "Get with it_join the crowd." But the
believer who wants to follow His Shepherd’s leading will stand firm upon the unchanging Word
of God. The Great Shepherd has said, "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye;
for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you" (1 Peter 4:14).

At work there may be the temptation to do as little as possible for our employer. This is not
following our Lord in the paths of righteousness. Has He not said, "Servants, be submissive to
your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who
are unreasonable" (1 Peter 2:18 NASV). And again, "Slaves, in all things obey those who are
your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with
sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord
rather than for men" (Col. 3:22,23 NASV).

In the local assembly as well there is a great need for following our Shepherd hi the paths of
righteousness. We must "follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord
out of a pure heart" (2 Tim. 2:22). In each of these areas it will cost us to follow our Shepherd.
But He has been there before us and His life is a perfect example for us to follow. This pathway
of suffering is a pathway that we have been called to "because Christ also suffered for us, leaving
us an example, that ye should follow His steps. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now
returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls" (1 Peter 2:21-25). We will experience the

fellowship of His sufferings and know His joy and love in a very real way (Phil. 3:10).

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil:for Thou art
with me." In this verse we find that the speaker of the Psalm turns from speaking about His
Shepherd to speak to the Shepherd Himself. We see this from the use of the personal pronouns
"I" and "Thou." How very near He is to us as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
Sheep are often led through dangerous ravines and valleys in order to get to good grazing ground.
There are many natural enemies of the sheep in these places and only the knowledge of the
shepherd’s presence keeps the sheep from fleeing in fear. We, too, are passing through a valley
which has the shadow of death upon it. Death itself has no fear for the believer. Our Great
Shepherd passed through death and judgment for us when He died for our sins upon the cross. His
death has taken the fear of death away for us. But this world lies under its shadow and because
of this we should not be surprised if we experience sorrow, suffering, disappointment, and all
kinds of tribulation. As the Lord Jesus told us in John 16:33:"In the world ye shall have
tribulation; but be of good cheer:I have overcome the world." By faith in Him we too can
overcome the world (1 John 5:4,5). We need not fear any evil of the Evil One himself because
"greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4). He has said, "I will never
leave thee nor forsake thee" (Heb. 13:5,6). Resting in faith upon His promises we can say with
David, "I will fear no evil:for Thou art with me." How can I be afraid when my Great Shepherd
has promised to be at my side, holding my right hand? (Isa. 41:13). "I will trust, and not be
afraid" (Isa. 12:2).

As we walk with Him through the valley of the shadow of death we will experience the comfort
of His rod and staff. "Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." The shepherd uses his rod to
protect the sheep from danger and also to discipline them when necessary. This rod would remind
us of God’s Word which is the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17). As such it is able to defeat all our
enemies and put them to flight. In the use of the rod as a weapon one shepherd tells how he
watched native shepherd lads of Africa practicing throwing their rods for hours. They would have
competitions to see who could throw their rod with the greatest accuracy across the greatest
distance. If I am to use God’s Word effectively, then I must "strive diligently to present myself
approved to God, a workman that has not to be ashamed, cutting in a straight line the Word of
truth" (2 Tim. 2:15 JND). I must read, study, and meditate upon God’s Word before I can use it
in the spiritual battles which I will face every day. However, the knowledge of God’s Word alone
will not, in itself, be enough to meet the enemy. We must also be under the control of the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit then will be able to lead us to use the right scripture for any given
situation. We see an example of this when our Lord Jesus met Satan in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-
11). He used just the needed scripture to meet each of Satan’s temptations. Modernism,
humanism, and all the cults twist the scriptures to fit systems of error. But scripture taken in its
context, and used in the power of the Holy Spirit, will expose these false systems. It is a comfort
to me to know that I can depend on God’s Word to meet every situation.

The shepherd also uses his rod to discipline his wayward sheep. Our Great Shepherd would use
His Word to correct us when we go astray. The Holy Spirit will bring to our remembrance a
scripture which will speak to our hearts and cause us to return to Him. God’s Word will also
search out and reveal our hidden faults such as self-will, pride, etc. David wanted the Great

Shepherd to correct everything that was wrong in his life, so he prayed, "Search me, O God, and
know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and
lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139:23,24). Our shepherd will correct us but always in
love. "For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth"
(Heb. 12:6). What a comfort we find in our Shepherd’s rod.

The shepherd’s staff, too, brings comfort to his sheep. Whenever a sheep needs special attention
the shepherd will usually use his staff. If he wants to examine a sheep more closely he will use
his staff to draw the sheep to him. He will use it to rescue a sheep that has fallen into a crevice.
Or he may use it to guide a particular sheep along a new path.

There are times in our life when we need special attention. We may feel the need of being drawn
closer to our Shepherd. We may be in trouble and need to be rescued. It may be that we are in
special need of guidance. It is at times like these that the Holy Spirit will give us the comfort of
the scriptures. There will be the special verse that will answer our need and get us through the
day. We see the Shepherd’s staff being used one day in the apostle Paul’s life. He had almost been
killed by an unruly mob. He was now alone in the prison. Then we read, "And the night following
the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul:for as thou hast testified of me in
Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome" (Acts 23:11). Paul was encouraged and
strengthened by that timely word. So our Great Shepherd comforts us in times of difficulty with
His rod and His staff. (To be continued)