What I think this psalm is trying to communicate is a process in which there is a beginning phase where the strength is depleted, and then there is a process of restoration of strength. Then you come out on the other side with your strength restored, and you are now able to do what you could not do before.

If someone sees you when your strength is depleted and thinks that is all there is to you, they will be wrong, because there is an intervention. The intervention comes from the Shepherd. The sheep is crediting the Shepherd with this transformation in his life, in which, once there was no strength, now there is a restoration of strength, and the before and after are so much like night and day.

You have examples of this in the Bible where Jesus Christ picked Peter. Peter at one time said, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8). Another time, he denied Him three times. But Jesus said, “I have prayed for you… and when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:32). That was before Peter fell into that sin.

Jesus Christ saw beyond the current limitation of Peter and said, “I have prayed for you. I have an assignment for you. This is just a phase. After this phase is over—I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail—after this phase is over I have an assignment for you: go and strengthen your brothers. Help your brothers.”

We see another before-and-after with Elijah. When Jezebel said, “Elijah, I am going to kill you,” we did not see the man who had faced hundreds of the prophets of Baal. We did not see that man. We saw somebody on the run. It was not a pretty picture to look at. This was someone who had stood and confronted hundreds of the prophets of Baal. This was someone who had supervised the killing of hundreds of the prophets of Baal. This is now the man who is on the run.

He met God. God gave him specific assignments. And how did he end? He ended up going to heaven in a chariot of fire. The “before” was someone running and running, his strength gone. After God’s intervention, he went to heaven with a chariot of fire and horses of fire (2 Kings 2:11, NET).

So this Psalm says, “He restores my strength.” There has to be a way to indicate that this is God. You look at Peter, and you look at the before-and-after, you know: this is God. It was clear to the people who examined him, the leaders of Israel in the book of Acts, after the miracle at the Beautiful Gate. They recognized that these men had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13). But they missed a big part of the story because just being with Jesus was not enough to make them bold.

There was the intervention of the Holy Spirit’s work in the life of Peter. There is the resurrection. There is Christ continually showing Himself to Peter and others in His resurrected body.

So, “He restores my strength”—that is what I am focusing on here. He restores my strength. We see a “before”: strength low, your meter running very low. But God comes in and does His work of restoring.

God bless you.