‘He restores my soul (inner life). He guides me in the right paths (the paths of righteousness) for his name's sake.'
Having been led to the pastures of luscious grass, and the rest-giving waters, the sheep are fully restored. In the same way can we be sure that He will continually ‘restore our inner lives'. Whatever the trials that beset us He will bring us through to perfect peace with our strength restored. We will be restored to full equilibrium. And this restoration will then be maintained because He will guide us in the paths of righteousness (compare Proverbs 8:20). He will not only lead us in the right way so that we do not get lost, but He will lead us in the way of rightness. There can be no peace without this. These are the paths where our feet do not slip (Psalms 17:5). They are the way of wisdom, the paths of uprightness, where our ways will not be hindered, and where we can run without stumbling (Proverbs 4:11). It is important to recognise this requirement for His sheep, if they would be at rest. They cannot just go their own way, they must follow the Shepherd in His ways. For in the way of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death (Proverbs 12:28).
And He guides us in these ways, ‘for His Name's sake'. Note the idea of sovereignty. He guides them inexorably in these ways because He is concerned for His reputation and His purposes and wants them to be maintained by His people in order that He might be glorified. (Compare Isaiah 63:14). And He does it because of the kind of Being that He is. He does it in order to reveal that He is such that He can do no other. By it He is revealing precisely Who and What He is, the Righteous One Who upholds righteousness in all who seek righteousness.