Psalm 23 has always been a bit of a mystery to me. I must just say I didn’t get it. Lying in green pastures and walking in death’s shadow just didn’t belong together, I thought. And yet, I wanted to know this shepherd. I wanted to know how I could trust him and walk with him whether in green pastures or in dark places. Mindy and I were talking about this group and this study about a month ago when I was getting pretty worn out from summer. My days were swept away everyday with playing, reading, cleaning, feeding and by the end of summer, I was exhausted. I know I hadn’t been committing my days to knowing God and it showed. I knew I needed to be restored. So for the last month I have been pondering on this scripture and want to share some of the Lord’s insights to me.
I think why this didn’t make sense is because I wasn’t looking at it in the right way. I now do not think this is happening all at once but more this psalm represents the seasons of life that we go through. One prepares for the next. Look at 1-3, then 4-5, then 6. In 1-3, the Lord has us in a fertile restful place where we build strength for the next season. During the next season, we walk even more closely with the Shepherd and come to know him even more deeply. Then we know and are committed to following him forever. So lets look first at the time of growing.
Verses 1-3
1 The Lord is my shepherd,
The first thing we must do is identify God as our Shepherd. This is no small thing. Whether we know it or not, we all have a shepherd. Tonight I want us to know more of the Good Shepherd and how he cares for us. Sheep are very difficult to care for, they are not intelligent, they get stuck on their backs, the are easily startled and all follow the one who is scared, they just have issues. So unlike us! But the Lord is amazingly patient, amazingly wise and amazingly loving. When we align ourselves under God’s leadership and call him shepherd, we are calling him Lord. We are saying I trust you. I trust you to take me to the place where I will be fed, where my thirst will be quenched, when I can rest, where I can get through tough times.
I shall not want.
Not wanting is hard for me to identify with. I want lots of things, not only to live with Christ, but for people I love to be whole, and ok some unrighteous too- like new jeans for fall. But here, want can also be translated lack. And we lack nothing for Godliness. Scriptures tell us we have everything we need for life and Godliness. Christ sacrifice was sufficient for all our sin. His forgiveness reaches all of our choices and all our attitudes and all our words. We have all the Holy Spirit we need to give us instruction to follow and comfort to sustain us. We have all the love we need from the Father, all the teaching we need to learn of his character and all the encouragement to offer hope for our lives. Christ our shepherd is our Provision.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.
For sheep to lie down they must be taken care of completely- their tummies must be full so they will want to eat instead,and here they are lying down in green pastures, which tells me they have all they need to get full. They must also feel protected from all harm, or they will be looking out for danger. They must be healed, if they have infections, especially itching, they will be looking for relief. Christ longs to take care of us so completely that we will lie down. Like I said, Christ has provided everything we need. So when we are in the fertile places of our lives, we need to soak in his provision and rest. Now like I said earlier this psalm may very well be seasons, so maybe if you are in this place, you have just come out of walking in dark shadows, so here the Shepherd is providing a place of recovery. Or maybe he is allowing you to know his care so you are ready to follow wherever he leads.
He leads me beside still waters.
Now I don’t know about ya’ll, but sometimes by water is not too still. I am usually grabbing a bottle of water to drink in the car while I’m rushing off somewhere. I also have been in several races these last few months and I always giggle a bit when they hand you these neat little cups of water to drink while you are running. It is very difficult to get any actually in your mouth. Most is tossed away. And here Christ is saying, Katharine, slow down, be still and drink my water, be still and receive my care. I think of the woman at the well who was thirsty and troubled and Jesus offers her eternal water. She stayed a while and talked with him, instead of just grabbing her water and running away. We need to return to Christ and let him quench our thirst, let him talk to our hearts.
3 He restores my soul.
The real life shepherding example of this is actually makes me smile because I see myself. Sheep are very top heavy. And when the fall down, commonly they fall all the way over and get stuck. Their little legs are stuck right up in the air and they cannot turn themselves back over. Anybody identify? Anybody feel this way lately? Well I think the answer is in the next verse. Only the shepherd can come and turn us back over.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name sake.
God has not changed. He created us for the same reasons he was creating people from the beginning. Do we know what those reasons are? Are we walking in the ways he intended? Jeremiah 6 says, Stand by the roads and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it and find rest for your souls. The most ancient path, the first path we see is Adam and Eve, he created them to walk in the Garden, take care of the garden, have family and care for them and most importantly walk with God. That is what we were created for. When our souls are not right, we need to return to God’s plans for our lives, Proverbs 3 :5-6 says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. We need to lay our lives before the shepherd, follow him into the green pastures and drink from his still waters and know his plans for our lives.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
The sheep followed when the shepherd leads them away from the green field. They know him by now. He has feed them, protected them and now he needs to lead them to another place. The seasons are changing. He knows the good he has for us, Jeremiah 29:11. He works all things together for our good, Romans 8:28. We can trust the shepherd when the seasons change in our lives. When things looked different and we are in different places, we need to remember that the shepherd stays with the sheep. The shepherd is know by his sheep and he stays with them. He is not asking them to go alone. And the sheep know how to follow their shepherd because they know his voice, Jesus reminds us of this in John 10. They have spent that time with him in the green pasture, they know how to follow.
your rod and staff, the comfort me.
Shepherds do no have a lot of complicated equipment that they use when they care for their sheep. They have a rod and staff. The rod they us to protect, and the staff they us to help the sheep along. Shepherds at this time carved their own rods and staff so they were specific to each shepherd. The sheep knew their shepherds tools. They knew how they had used them to specifically care for them. We need to reply upon the testimonies of the past to guide us today. There are so many times when God tells us to remember- remember his teaching, remember his promises, remember his faithfulness. Look to these testimonies and remember God. The scriptures are one place we must go for these things. If God has taken care of his people since creation, he will not stop with you. Think of Moses, speaking of staffs, did God turn his staff into a snake to reveal his power before Pharaoh? And didn’t God us it to separate the sea so they could walk across? Can you imagine how Moses carried that after those events? Don’t you imagine he would look to it and remember God’s power and faithfulness. We need read the Word and be encouraged of his care.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
Now this is very interesting. Shepherds would spend great time taking care of the fields where their sheep were grazing and feeding. They would be sure all poisonous weeds were out of their way, they would clean up water sources to make sure the water was clear. They would make sure their table, or pasture, was neat. They would watch for dangerous animals, they would shake bushes to scare away snakes. We need to accept this from the Good Shepherd as well. When he tells us the dangers of plants in our life, we need to listen, not everything we are eating- taking in, that is, whether it be TV, magazines, internet- is good for us. There are things we take in that poison us. Take God’s instruction to not eat these things, let him clear them for you And by all means call evil evil. A friend who works at a veterinary clinic told me about a lady who had come in with her pet snake. She said he wasn’t acting right. He had stopped eating and when he slept at night instead of curling up on her pillow, he was laying straight out beside her. The vet told her that he was sizing her up to eat her. When a snake is longer than their prey, they know they can swallow it. Take head from the Lord, listen to his warnings. Do not let so called “pets” consume you. He has prepared a table for you. He has given you a church with solid teaching. He has given you an education to be able to read his word. He has given you so many books to help you grown wise in his teachings. Feast at his table in the presence of your enemy- with the temptations of this world, rely on his truth for your feast.
you anoint my head with oil;
I mentioned earlier about those little bugs that get into the sheep’s noses, so what happens is these little bugs get in their noses and lie their eyes in the mucous of their noses, the larve then when hatched crawl up into their heads and irriatate them, the itching will literally cause them to bang their head against trees to get relief and sometimes they bang their heads to their own death. That is horrible. So the way the shepherd heals them is by treating it with oil. Oil can prevent or treat so many of the sheep’s health issues. So they can either dip them in oil or put oil on their heads with their hands. James 5:17 tells us to anoint the sick one with oil in the name of the Lord. I think also this oil is a picture of the Holy Spirit and how he comes to sooth us, calm us and heal us.
my cup overflows;
Now this cup can be several things, tonight I’d like to propose one that may not be quite as popular. when Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane just before he was arrested, he prayed that the cup pass from him, but not was he wills but as the Father wills. Now we know that he did in fact take the cup of suffering. He was hung on a cross for our sins, he was separated from his Father and took the weight of our punishment. Now as he sits at the right hand of God, he knows our suffering. Hebrews 4 Tells us we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens and it is Jesus, the Son of God, and he is able to sympathize with our weakness, because he has been tempted as we are, yet he was without sin. Jesus came to earth and lived life! He suffered, he wept, he was tempted and now he walks through all of these things with us. He is walking through these times with us. We are not alone. Let Christ lead you.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Now we know Jesus. We have spent time with him in the pastures, where we have fed on his truth in lush green pastures, we know his character that he loves us, provides for us, protects us, heals us. Then we have walked with him, followed him through tough places, through the dark valley that has a shadow that brought fear, yet we walked through, we didn’t stay there, and we know he was taking us to a higher place. And he was with us! He didn’t abandon us. We live in Victory with Christ. So now I think we will see like the disciples saw as described in John 6. In this chapter alone, we are told of Jesus feeding the 5,000 (providing for them, like the shepherd took care of his sheep in the green pasture). Then we saw him walk on water with Peter, he told Peter to follow him in a new place, and then he teaches them some hard teaching about him being the bread of life how we as his followers eat his flesh and drink his blood, we learn about his sacrifice and his suffering. Some left. They were done. And he turned to his disciples and said, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
So I suggest this is what we go through as a believer. With God as our Good Shepherd, he takes us along our paths, through seasons in life where we come to know him, we learn of his character and his worthiness to follow. So we come to know we can stand with Him, trust him and and live peacefully with him. So if you feel like you are in a fertile field with God, give thanks and grow healthy. If you feel like you are walking through a really dark valley, look up to your shepherd follow him through to the table top. And most importantly, abide with Christ. Look to the shepherd for your care- he will feed you, give you drink, care for you, turn you over when you are on your back and heal you. And that is why we are here, we need to learn from this shepherd, learn who he is, learn how to follow him.
Let me read to you from Revelation 7, this is our hope...
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, ‘who are these, clothed in white robes and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir you know,” And he said to me, ‘these are the ones coming of of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ‘Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with is presence. they shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’
Lastly I know many of you were at Glory Revealed last weekend and they have a song of Psalm 23 that Trevor Morgan wrote. I want to play that now so we can just take a minute to think on the Lord and his promises, pray to him in response to what he has spoken over your heart. And I also ask you to join us, in this study over six weeks, to learn from him from his Word.
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