He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Ver. 3. He restoreth my soul] He reduceth me, when like a lost sheep I have gone astray, Psalms 119:176. A sheep, saith Aristotle, is a foolish and sluggish creature, Et omnium quadrupedum stupidissimum, most apt of anything to wander, though it feel no want, and unablest to return. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib. Swine in a storm run home, and at night will make for the trough; but a sheep can make no shift to save itself from tempests or inundation; there it stands and will perish, if not driven away by the shepherd. Lo, such a silly shiftless thing is man left to himself. But blessed be God for Christ, that best of shepherds, who restoreth the lost soul, and maketh it to return into the right way, giving it rest, and causing it to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness, Luke 1:74 .
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness] Or, in plain, smooth, easy paths, or sheep tracks, wherein I may walk unweariably, unblameably, without cessation or cespitation. The ways of sin are craggy, crooked, full of error and terror, leading to those precipices that tend to destruction. From such stand off, saith Christ to his sheep, who are all rational, and will be ruled by him, John 10:1,17
For his name's sake] i.e. Of his free grace, and for his mere mercy's sake. Otherwise he would never do us any of these good offices, but let us alone to perish in our own corruptions.