He Restores My Soul from Faintheartedness
The Lord also knows how to restore your soul from fatigue and from the exhaustion that comes from the most difficult moments of life. When Alex MacDougall was eighteen years old, he attended the 1969 Billy Graham crusade in Anaheim, California. That evening he went forward and invited Christ to be his Savior. He recalls one of the songs sung that night was the hymn, “Surely Goodness and Mercy,” based on Psalm 23.
“I have never forgotten it, nor has my life ever been the same. Many years later, aged 71, I was teaching and enjoying life when I began to experience some difficulty swallowing.”
MacDougall was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. During his long days of treatment and long nights of recovery, he chose a theme song to encourage and comfort him. He chose the lyrics of Psalm 23, set to music by the British composer Howard Goodall.
One especially difficult night, MacDougall said he felt as though he were walking through “the valley of the shadow of death.” Overwhelmed, he played the song once more: “The Lord is my shepherd / I shall not want / He maketh me to lie down in green pastures / He leadeth me beside the still waters.”
“As I listened, I became undone with emotion. Tears flowed as the overwhelming reality of God’s presence entered the room. I had peace, comfort, and assurance... That was my turning point.”2
His turning point!
Are you in a bad place in life right now? Do you find yourself in a hard spot or a difficult predicament? Is your soul cast down, discouraged, or traumatized? Your friends may come alongside you, your counselor may help you, your pastor may encourage you—or you may find no one to lift you up. But only the Good Shepherd can restore your soul.
Tell Him: “Dear Shepherd, I need an overflowing cup. I need goodness and mercy. Will You please restore my soul?”
Laura Basler shared a testimony with her church. She said, “When my husband, David, and I began our relationship, we chose Psalm 23:6 as our theme verse: Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”
That verse allowed them to begin their marriage on a very positive note. But four years later, they lost their one-day-old baby boy due to major birth malformations. “Our little family was crushed,” Laura recalled. “We had so many hopes for our baby boy. On what should have been his first Christmas, we were broken and hurting. Sadly, a few weeks later, I lost my grandmother to Alzheimer’s. Then, about four months later, my father-in-law passed away suddenly from a heart attack.”
During that time, Psalm 23:6 took on fresh significance, and its truth began to restore their souls. “I didn’t need to be afraid of more losses,” Laura said. “I could trust that God would bring goodness and mercy into my life even in the midst of our tragedies.”
And He has!
“It has been almost eleven years since we lost our loved ones, and I can assure you that His goodness and mercy have been with us continuously. God has blessed us with five healthy children! We are still walking with Jesus and continuing to receive His love and care through our church, our family, and friends... [And] we can look forward to one day living in God’s home for eternity and reuniting with our loved ones that have gone to be with Jesus.”3
When God saves our souls and gives us eternal life, it makes all the difference. But we discover, sometimes to our surprise, that our souls do not remain in a perpetually high, holy, and happy state. We have ups and downs, blessings and woes, good days and bad ones. Our souls can easily become drained and despondent.
We need to learn to go straight to our Good Shepherd. He is the only One who can restore our souls. Entertainment cannot do it. Doctors cannot do it. Not even friends and family can attend to the deepest needs of the cast down soul.
But our Good Shepherd can!
The Secret to Winning the Battle
Dr. Robert McQuilkin wrote a little booklet on the Twenty-Third Psalm. In it he said that the difference between victory and defeat is found in the position of the word but.
We often say, “The Lord is my shepherd, but I can’t pay my bills. The Lord is my shepherd, but I don’t feel well. The Lord is my shepherd, but I’m worried about this problem.” When we put the “but” there, our problems feel larger than our Shepherd.
Instead we should reverse the order: “I’m presently having trouble paying my bills, but the Lord is my Shepherd. I may not feel well, but the Lord is my Shepherd. His goodness follows me all the days of my life.”
“The testimony of victory puts the ‘but’ into the right place,” wrote McQuilkin.4
The sheep of God are remarkably fragile creatures. We wander into foolishness, stumble into failure, suffer painful wounds from others, and become exhausted by grief and fear. Left to ourselves, we quickly become cast down. But we are not left to ourselves. We have a Shepherd who never stops pursuing and carrying His sheep. He always knows exactly how to refresh and restore our souls.
The Secret:
You will have greater opportunities for restoration when you stop making your problems bigger than your Shepherd.
1. Robert J. Morgan, The Lord Is My Shepherd (Howard Books, 2013), 149.
2. Alex MacDougall, “ ‘I Encountered God Through Psalm 23 in the Midst of My Cancer Treatment,’” Premier Christianity, August 30, 2024, https://www.premierchristianity.com/real-life/i-encountered-god-through-psalm-23-in-the-midst-of-my-cancer-treatment/18131.article.
3. Laura Basler, “Finding God’s Goodness in Loss,” BCF Church, accessed June 2, 2026, https://bcfchurch.com/laura.
4. Robert McQuilkin, The Lord Is My Shepherd (Columbia Bible College, 1938), 35.
