The Semicolon and the Soul

"He restores my soul;
He guides me in paths of righteousness
For His name's sake."  -Psalm 23:3 NASB

I have been  granted a new title in the past few months, Communications Guy. Anything that leaves the church office in an official capacity is supposed go through me for approval/editing. My internet history tab used to be filled with potential Bible studies, youth games, and the like. Now I bookmark my favorite grammar websites that I use to help me wade through newsletter articles and bulletin advertisements. All this proof reading has changed how I read. I used to be rather reckless in my reading, skipping over punctuation and carelessly structuring the sentences and phrases especially the more familiar passages.  Now I read with intent and my proof-o-meter always seems to be on even if it is a bit faulty. You won't have to look too hard to find grammatical errors in this blog. Anyway, sometimes this is not so good; it is difficult to read text messages from teenagers and from some adults now. Other times this is good; my Bible study is richer than before. I know why there is a semicolon instead of a period. I see how it radically changes the meaning of the sentence.


As I was reading last week, the semicolon in verse 3 jumped out at me. Before, I had always treated it as a period and moved on. Sadly, some newer translations omit the semicolon and put a period in its place to make it easier to read. I guess I should take a moment and explain the difference between a period, semicolon, and comma before we go much further. I'm sure all of you are excited at the thought of a grammar lesson. A period at the end of the sentence indicates a full stop. It gives a sense of finality and completion. There might be other sentences that follow the same theme to help further explain the topic, but each period ending sentence is able to stand on its own. The semicolon, however, is a strong pause but not a full stop. It is used to link two sentences that could stand alone, but they make more sense when they are grouped together. It is used to specifically to point out the relationship between the two sentences, or because one provides important information for the other. Instead of starting and stopping, the phrases should be read together. A comma, on the other hand, is used for all sorts of things, but when it comes to connecting phrases it implies a small pause or slowing down like you would for a flashing yellow light in the U.S.  Everything is one complete thought with a comma, it just helps to structure the sentence for ease of understanding. Aren't you glad you decided to read this today?

So, let's take our grammar lesson and apply it to this verse. If we replace the semicolon with a period, it looks like this: 

"He restores my soul[.]
He guides me in the paths of righteousness
For His name's sake."

When verse 3 is structured this way, we get something resembling a list. The perception of a list is magnified when we add in verses 1 and 2 and exchange their semicolons for periods as well.

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures[.]
He leads me beside quiet waters.
He restores my soul[.]
He guides me in the paths of righteousness
For His name's sake." 

One could legitimately read these verses as as a simple list that gives examples of what the Lord does as a shepherd. When I memorized this psalm as a boy, this is how I grouped it in my mind. As a matter of fact, when I would recite this, I would put a stanza break after "He restores my soul", which I'm sure many of us have done. But when we do that, we change the "how' and the "why" behind the truth that He restores our soul. The restoration of the soul becomes linked with laying down in green pastures or resting beside quiet waters. We equate the restoration of the soul to rest, relaxation, and the absence of wants or cares; our unconscious spiritual goal becomes sitting back and allowing God to take us to this wonderful place of perfectness. Sadly, this is how many people view the Christian life.

Enough of that! Let's put the semicolons back in.

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters.
He restores my soul;
He guides me in the paths of righteousness
For His name's sake."

 Now we have one paragraph, or stanza since this is a song, with 3 parts. Each sentence is it's own verse. I would put the verse numbers in, but this blog doesn't allow me to do superscript and I detest the way it looks when I put a big fat number at the front of each verse. Anyway, first we have the introductory statement. Since it is two phrases connected by a comma, the sentence is two phrases that are to be read as one complete thought. Grammatically, it makes the unequivocal declaration that if the Lord is your shepherd, then you shall not want.The psalmist is saying that when you make the Lord your shepherd, you do not need worry because He will take care of you. How will He take care of you? We find the physical answer in verses 2 and the spiritual answer in verse 3.

The Lord gives us what we need, but not necessarily what we want. That becomes a problem for many of us because there is quite a bit that we want that God doesn't promise He will give us. The two phrases in verse 2 are concerned only with what we need to survive. Sheep need food and water to survive. If a sheep has plenty of green grass and access to clean, calm water, it's set. Too many of us read that first verse, see the word "want", and read in it the fulfillment of all our dreams and desires. But here's the wake up call; sheep don't have dreams and desires.  No shepherd has ever received a petition signed by the various members of his flock asking for better treatment. He doesn't sit down with the lambs and listen to their dreams for how their life will be. The shepherd is the one who controls the flock; the job of the sheep is to simply follow. The future of each sheep rests in the hand of the shepherd. He uses them as He sees fit. 

It all comes down to trust; do we trust God enough to let Him lead us? If we give lip-service to God by saying that we are giving Him control, but we decide not to follow where He leads, then we will not be taken care of. You might still be one of the Lord's sheep, but you will find yourself on your own looking out for yourself until you turn back to the path He led you to. Are the lives of the Lord's sheep without troubles? No. If nothing else, we live in a fallen world. When sin entered into the world, it changed the perfectness of God's creation. Death, sickness, natural disasters, are all effects of sin on the world God created. This sinful world affects everyone, but the sheep of the Lord don't have to worry because the Lord watches over them. And thankfully He concerns Himself more with our spiritual well being than with our physical well being. As we will see when we get to the next verse, God is more concerned about the state of your soul than He is the state of your finite body and its time here on earth. This does not mean that God is not compassionate about the pain and the losses in our lives. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says,

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions..."

Psalm 56:8 says this,

"You have taken account of my wanderings;
Put my tears in Your bottle.
Are they not in Your book?"

Not only does God care, He also watches us wherever we go, takes note of our troubles, and is there to offer comfort through whatever we face. The truth is, the physical only lasts for a season, but the soul lasts for eternity. When you look at it in those terms, is it more important to have your physical needs met, or your spiritual?

 Now we are back to verse 3 where we started. David says, "He restores my soul." Look closely at the word "restore." What comes to your mind when you read that word? I automatically think of an antique piece of furniture discarded along the side of the road. Parts of it are missing. It has scratches and scuff marks, and the wood is discolored. But the Restorer happens upon it and falls in love; the discarded item gets brought to a new home. The Restorer sets it up and begins to strip the old and broken away. Why? Because they hinder the function. The ruined parts must be replaced if the old item is to be restored properly. After the bad is chiseled away, new parts are carefully added. It's not a quick process, but a slow, delicate one. Each part is placed purposefully. There's a reason for every little movement of the Restorer's hand though we may not see it at first glance. Finally, the furniture is repaired, and now it is time to make it shine! What will the Restorer do? Will it be painted? Will it be stained and varnished? Will it be left unfinished so the beauty of  natural grain can show through? That's up to the Restorer. He knew what it needed to be when He first saw the furniture in the trash, and everything was done with that final product in mind. Here's the interesting bit about the Restorer; He doesn't wait until the piece is finished to display it. He wants people to see what it once was and what He has turned it into. He likes to display His creativity and love for crafting. He wants people to see the beauty, not just in the final product, but also in the process. He wants to show others what they can be if they would only trust Him. But most importantly, He loves the things that He restores and He's proud of what they've become.That's the attention God puts on the eternal souls of the sheep that follow Him. As I look back, there isn't a word like "restore" in verse 2. The work of feeding and watering appears simple and mundane. The shepherd simply walks toward the green pastures and the quiet waters while calling His sheep. But once the sheep arrive where He wants them, that's when He goes to work restoring their souls.

The verse doesn't end there however; there's a semicolon! Remember, the semicolon tells us that the two phrases are linked in such a way that they need to be read together to make the most sense. The reason this semicolon is important is because it tells us how and why God restores the soul. The restoring of the soul is directly linked to following the Shepherd in the paths of righteousness. This is the "how" of the restoring process. God restores us by making us righteous. He strips away all the stuff we've  done to ourselves, and make us into what He always intended for us to be.Walking the "paths of righteousness" is much more literal than figurative. Walk the way of the righteous. Walk the right path. Walk the path the right way. Go where He wants you to go. Become what He wants you to become. The spiritual life God leads us on is not a "one time decision and then your done" kind of thing. The Christian life is a journey that has its ending only inside the gates of heaven. On this side of eternity, we are constantly striving and working, constantly growing and changing, we are in the middle of "becoming". And along the way, you will have hardships. Pain and suffering doesn't just go away because we follow God. Some of our pain and suffering will even be our own fault. We will fail sometimes as we try to walk the path, but God is there to guide us back when we do. When something else catches our eye and entices us off the path, God is there to call us back. When we step off onto another path that looks easier, God follows us, waiting. He stands ready to help us continue the journey toward being made righteous if we just turn back to Him.

Why doesn't God just fix us? Why is there so much work involved? I've asked myself these questions many times, and received many a theological answer. But it was my wife and children that finally helped me to understand. When God first fashioned man and woman, He gave us free will; He gave us the ability to choose. On the surface, and in light of all we've talked about already, that may seem absurd. Why give humans free will if we are just going to make mistakes and ultimately reject the One who made us? Why not just take free will away? Why not just make us perfect? That way there would be no heartache for God, Jesus wouldn't have had to endure the pain and suffering of the cross, and we would not be stuck in a sin ridden world. Because without free will, there would be no love. Without love, the relationship would be hollow and unsatisfying. By giving us free will, God does run the risk of rejection, but its balanced with the opportunity for us to turn and choose Him out of love. The most wonderful thing about my relationship with my family is they choose to love me. The reason God has us follow a path to righteousness is similar. If He instantly makes us perfect He has to either take away our free will, which means instantly taking away love, or He has to make us no longer human, which means we would choose to follow Him and then be transported immediately to heaven. We understand why God wants to keep free will, but why not just take us to heaven? Wouldn't that be the ideal solution? Possibly, but only for you.

To answer the question about heaven fully, we must examine the last phrase of verse 3, "For His name's sake." Why does God want to restores our soul? For His name's sake. Why does He guide us on the paths of righteousness? For His name's sake. Why doesn't He immediately take us to heaven when we become a Christian? For His name's sake. God is doing all this in my life and in yours to bring Himself glory. He wants your whole life to point to Him like a giant, flashing neon sign that no one can ignore. Now pause, take a breath, and let me explain the "why' behind the "why". Why did you first become curious about God and His Son Jesus? For just about all of us, it was because of someone else. Someone made an impression on your life. Someone took you to church as a child. Someone invited you to a pizza party with the youth group. Someone went out of their way to help you, to be nice to you, or to love you when it didn't make any sense to. Someone had something in their life that you didn't and it was special enough that you wanted to know more about it. Someone drew you to Jesus, and the only way they could accomplish that was if God was glorified in their life. They followed the Shepherd. They walked daily down the path of righteousness. Slowly, day by day, moment by moment, decision by decision, they were changed to where they looked more like the Shepherd and less like the rest of the world. They shared His love for you with you. That is the reason we walk the path. That is the reason we struggle and stumble but never quit. We love Him, we trust Him, and we want to be like Him. We are so overjoyed with Him that we want others to know Him and is love. God uses us to draw more people to Himself.

The psalm continues, but it is simply expounding on what has already been written. Verse 4 says we have nothing to fear, because the Lord  is greater than whatever we face, even death. In verse 5, we find joy and blessings in God even when our enemies surround us. Finally, we see in verse 6 that the path of righteousness ultimately leads to the very house of God where His children will get to stay forever. 

Who knew that a semicolon could do so much?

Before you go, the Skit Guys have video of a script they wrote that shows all of this in a unique and personal way. Watch it and see God's love for you through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus and through the process of restoration.