Today's title of God, Shub Nephesh (or alternatively spelled Shuv Nefesh by some modern Jews) is closely linked to the story of a woman named Naomi.
Naomi's life hadn't been easy - perhaps partly due to her own choices. She and her family had decided to leave Israel during a time of famine, instead of staying where they were and trusting God to provide for them in Israel. (Ironically, they were from Bethlehem, which means, "house of bread.")
Their choice is perhaps understandable: they wanted wellbeing for their young family, so they left home and moved to where they thought they would have a better life. But they settled among a heathen people and the sons later married foreign wives - things that God had always commanded the Israelites not to do.
Within a decade, Naomi's husband and her two sons had all died in that foreign land, leaving Naomi alone and bereft.
I sometimes think that parents in the 21st Century face a similar temptation to Naomi and her husband. They want material things for their kids (the latest cellphone, the same fashion clothing as their friends, a computer games console in their bedroom, a subscription to Netflix, popularity at school ...) but in prioritising material comforts, there can sometimes be a danger of neglecting or even jeopardising their spiritual wellbeing.
We've all heard the story of how Ruth chose to follow Israel's God and return to Bethlehem with Naomi.... but the older woman's words at the end of Ruth chapter 1 are very telling. "Don't call me Naomi," she says. (Naomi means "pleasant.") "Call me Mara." (Mara means "bitter.")
"I went away full, but I've come back empty," she says. That's a bit ironic from someone who left Israel during a famine, believing the family could fill their stomachs more satisfactorily in a heathen land. But at this point in the story, Naomi is blaming God for her misfortune. She tells people, "The Lord has made my life very bitter... The Almighty has brought misfortune on me." How easy it is to blame God for the consequences of our own unwise choices!
Fast forward a few short chapters (chapters where God turns things around and brings great blessing to Naomi and Ruth in their new home) and that's where we find this description of God: Shub Nephesh - the Renewer or Restorer of Life. As Naomi holds her new grandson, the other women say to her, "Blessed be the Lord.... the Restorer of your life and your Sustainer in your old age... May His name be proclaimed in Israel." (Ruth 4: 14 - 15)
The verb shub שׁוּב means to renew something, to restore it to what it should be. And the noun nephesh נֶפֶשׁ is used nearly 800 times in the Old Testament to refer to life, breath, heart and soul. The God who first breathed life into man in the book of Genesis is the same God who is able to sustain or restore our life for however long we live. As David wrote in Psalm 103, God can, "restore your youth like the eagle's."
I guess the word "he" was ambiguous to some Bible translators, because there are a couple of modern versions that combine verses 14 and 15, making it sound as if it was the grandson who renewed Naomi's life, and that the child's name should become famous in Israel. But the majority of translations say, "Blessed be the Lord... may His name be proclaimed in Israel."
That certainly makes the most sense when you compare Ruth 4: 15 with what the psalmist wrote in Psalm 23: 3. "He restores my soul" uses exactly the same two words. Shub (He restores or renews) and nephesh (our life and breath, our physical strength, or also the emotional, mental and spiritual wellbeing of our soul.) When David wrote that psalm, he was not only thinking of God as our Shepherd (Yahweh Ra'a) but also of Shub Nephesh, the God who restores our soul.
Whenever we feel tired, lacking in strength... whenever, like Naomi, we feel discouraged, battered by life's circumstances... we can trust God to give us new strength and new hope. He is Shub Nephesh, the One who renews our life, the One who restores our soul.
