Twenty-third Psalm*
Psa. 23:1, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
I have said it many times over; but allow me to say it one more time. I love the simple language of the Bible. I love the simple lessons of the Bible.
I have a lot of favorite texts in the Bible. One of my favorites is 2 Cor. 1:12. “For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.” The Bible is a very simple book; it was written to be understood.
I do not mean by that that you will ever figure it all out. There are subjects taught in the Bible that are beyond our ability to comprehend. You could spend a lifetime studying the Bible, and never learn it all. But, with the Lord’s assistance, learning enough to satisfy your present need is within the reach of every heaven-born soul.
David gives us a very simple illustration of the Lord’s relation to his people; he tells us, “ The Lord is my shepherd.” He is like a shepherd. He cares for his children the way a faithful shepherd takes care of his flock.
David knew what it was to be a shepherd. He spent much of his early life taking care of his father’s sheep, and he did everything necessary to provide for their welfare. If one of them was in danger, he would do whatever needed to be done. On one occasion his flock was attacked by a bear. Another time it was a lion.
When the army of Israel was threatened, and terrified, by the Philistine giant Goliath, David offered to go against him, but King Saul turned him down. He was sure David was not up to the task. Saul told him, “Thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth,” 1 Sam. 17:33. “David, you are just a child; that man will tear you apart.”
“And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine, 1 Sam. 17:34-37.
David was ready to fight. He was brave enough in his own right; but he was sure it was God who delivered him from the lion and the bear. And he was sure he would do the same with this Philistine giant.
It takes some kind of courage to go up against a nine feet tall giant, but it takes just as much courage to take on a lion in hand to hand combat. You can get your killing. David says, When the lion, “rose up against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.”
It reminds me of some of those old Tarzan movies I used to watch when I was a boy. Johnny Weismuller, or Buster Crabbe, would wrestle with lions. But the studio was always careful to provide a decrepit old lion whose fighting days were over. It could run and jump; but its days of doing much damage were past. They used to have an old lion named Frazer, who just fit the bill.
But this was not a feeble old lion David killed. It was still in its stalking and killing phase; but David took him on, and killed him, and delivered a lamb from his flock.
David risked his life when he went up against the lion and the bear, but it was different with the Lord. David risked his life; the Lord came to earth for the very purpose of dying. For him there could be no deliverance.
Matt. 16:21, “From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.”
The Lord delivered David, but for the Lord the only deliverance would be deliverance from the grave—after he had suffered and died.
God loved his people so much he gave his Son to die. There is no way you and I can fathom what great love that required —to give his son, his only begotten son, to suffer all he suffered, and to die on behalf of such sinners as you and I are.
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Without getting sidetracked expounding everything involved in that text, let me just notice that the weight of that verse rests on the little word so. That is an expression of degree. God so loved the world, the world of his chosen and redeemed—he loved them to such a degree—that he gave his Son to suffer and die on their behalf. And his Son loved them so much that he was willing to die.
John 15:13, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
I have one son. Now, my little boy is six foot four, and fifty years old. He drives an eighteen wheeler to Wisconsin and back four times a week. But no matter how old he is, or how long he has been out on his own, he will always be my little boy. And when I know he is driving that big rig through the snow and ice between here and Wisconsin, I feel just as uneasy as I did when he first started. I think, sometimes, that I feel more uneasy for him to be driving in those conditions, than I every have about myself.
I have four children, and no matter how old they become, they are still my children, and I feel as concerned for their welfare as I ever did, when they were small and under foot. When they hurt, I hurt. When they are at risk, I feel uneasy.
But, no matter how much you and I may love our own children, it does not compare with the love God has for his Son. Sinful mortals that we are, we are not capable of such love as God has for his Son, and for his family.
God so loved his own that he sent his Son to suffer and die on our behalf. And his Son so loved us that he voluntarily gave his life.
The Bible often refers to the children of God as sheep. In many ways we are like sheep. Phillip Keller spent much of his early life tending sheep, and he wrote a book entitled A Shepherd Looks at the 23rd Psalm. He gave a good description of the nature of sheep. Most of us think of sheep as sweet, lovable creatures. Keller had experience dealing with sheep. He told of how disagreeable, and unruly sheep can be. That describes us much of the time.
Verse 2, “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.”
I am told that sheep can starve, almost in sight of green pasture. They need a shepherd to lead them, sometimes just over the hill to green pastures. That is why they need a shepherd; and that is why churches need pastors. They need a loving, compassionate leader to feed them on the good things of the Lord, and to see after their needs.
More than that, sheep have a tendency to wander off. If one sheep goes astray, there is a good chance the others will follow. How very sad it is when a hireling, who does not care for the sheep, comes among them. If he can lead a few sheep astray, others will likely follow. It is a full time job for faithful pastors to watch out for those wolves who prey on the Lord’s flock.
“He leadeth me beside the still waters.”
When a person is lost in a desert, or set adrift at sea, his greatest need is water. You can live a long time without food; you cannot live long without water. After awhile your tongue starts to swell, and you cannot talk right. Then, as your system dehydrates, your brain dehydrates, and starts to slow down. You hallucinate and see weird things. If a little child of God begins to think and talk in strange ways, and reach strange conclusions, it may be because he has not been drinking from that fountain of pure water, the Lord has provided for our need.
The Lord provides that living water that satisfies the thirsty soul. He told the woman at the well,
“Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life,” John 4:14.
Notice that he leads his sheep beside the still waters. They tell me sheep will not drink from moving water. The shepherd has to find a place where the water is still.
One of the great problems in our churches is that we keep the waters stirred up, and the sheep will not drink. If we are disagreeable and contentious with each other, the sheep will suffer from thirst in sight of the very water they need. They hear the gospel, but they see the conflict, and it cancels out all they hear.
People are far more sensitive at church than we are in any other setting. On the job you can make some smart aleck remark, and chances are your buddy will be just as smart-in-the-mouth as you are, and the two of you will go on and think nothing about it. But if you make that same comment to somebody at church, it is likely he will remember it for years to come. It will affect him, and it will affect others who hear it or hear about it. How very careful we ought to be with each other.
Verse 3, “He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”
If you have an appetite for righteousness you are a blessed character. It is evidence you are born again; but it is more than that. It is evidence you are a born again character, who enjoys communion with his maker. If you kill your appetite eating junk food, you are not going to have much appetite for nutritious food.
Matt. 5:6, Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.
If you allow yourself to get out of communion with your Lord, your soul is going to need restoring. You will start to place your interest in things that do not benefit you in any spiritual way.
There are all kinds of things that are necessary and proper, and have to be taken care of. But even those things need to be kept in proper focus. When you allow yourself to drift from close communion with the Lord, those proper and necessary things will begin to so dominate your life, that you think about little else.
It is a miserable person who is so focused on his day to day problems, that he fails to look to where his real strength lies. He relies on his own determination, and his own ingenuity, and that is never enough. He thinks about goals, and possessions, and accomplishments, and he forgets that those things have never been the source of true happiness.
The market is flooded with books on success and self-image. He reads those books, and they might make a difference in his life; but more often than not, they only teach him how to be unhappy on a more elevated plain, and on a faster track. In the end he is more miserable than ever.
Our good shepherd restores our soul. He teaches us to “set our affections on things above” at the same time our feet are firmly planted on the ground. He teaches us that we do not have to sacrifice the spiritual in order to gain the material things of this life.
“He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”
Jeremiah tells us, “It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps,” Jer. 10:23.
You need the Lord to lead you; you need him to direct your steps, if you are going to serve him properly. There is an old slogan that says, “Let your conscience be your guide,” but that is not nearly good enough. Jeremiah says again, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it,” Jer. 17:9. Your conscience will let you down. It will be very quiet, until you have done the questionable deed. Then, when it is too late, it will rise up and accuse you. We need his Spirit in our heart, and his Word in our hand.
There was once a time when social pressure would serve to restrict people from going very far astray. But in today’s world, gross immorality is so rampant, that it is more likely to encourage misconduct. The most popular music, television programming, and all we see around us, conditions us to accept conduct that would have been scandalous just a few years ago.
How vulnerable we all are, regardless of how long we have been traveling this way. We need the Lord to direct our steps; we need a faithful pastor to reinforce all the Lord teaches us; and we need the environment of a healthy church for moral support.
Verse 4, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”
One reason we can be sure he will deliver us—even when we are in the greatest danger—is that he has delivered us so many times in the past.
2 Cor. 1:10, “Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.”
I can recall times in my own life when I was so terrified of what appeared to be impending doom, that I lay awake for hours every night before I could finally fall asleep. I would sleep for awhile, and then, long before time to get up, I would wake up still terrified at the prospect. The situation seemed so dire I could think about little else. It seemed that it would go on forever, before the Lord sent deliverance. I look back in retrospect, and realize that, as terrified as I was at the time, I did not realize the true extent of the danger.
But, in his own good time, God has always granted deliverance—sometimes in miraculous ways. God is able to take care of us in ways we could never have imagined. He is able to control conditions and circumstances to bring about the conclusion he intends.
There is a doctrine that says God is the effective moving cause of all that happens in the world. That is false doctrine; it dishonors God, and ignores his abhorrence of all that is evil. But, while we have no use for that doctrine, we should never forget that God is still in charge. He is not the cause of the wickedness of the adversary; but you can be sure God is more powerful than the adversary has ever been. He can never go farther than God suffers him to go.
More than that, without in any way causing man’s wickedness, he can take the adversary’s worst assaults, turn them against him, and bring good out of it. He did that at Calvary, and he can do it in your life and mine. Sometimes those who try to do us the most harm wind up doing us the most good. God takes his worst attacks, and uses them to make us stronger. He enables us to weather the storm, and we become more and more convinced that God is able to deliver us, no matter what the enemy throws against us.
Our danger then becomes that we will begin to be overconfident, and get the idea we cannot fall. Then we are truly in danger; we forget where deliverance came from, and we are in danger of trusting in our own ability.
1 Cor. 10:12. “Wherefore let him that thinketh that he standeth take heed lest he fall.”
My worst failures have almost always come immediately on the heels of what seemed to be my greatest achievements. I had learned what I needed to know. I realized my own inability. I confessed my weakness. I pleaded with the Lord to help me. I hoped and believed that he would deliver me. He came to my aid—and then I forgot all I had learned. My next experience was abject failure.
“Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”
God is never slack in his assistance to those he loves. He provides the double benefit of the rod of his inspired word, and the staff of his Holy Spirit.
Heb. 6:17,18, “Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.”
It impossible for God to lie—with or without an oath—but to underscore the safety of depending on him he confirms his promise with an oath. Those who lay claim to his promise have strong consolation. That consolation is as strong as God’s unbreakable promise. If God said it, you can be sure he will do all he has promised to do.
Verse 5, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.”
This verse ties in perfectly with the one preceding. God does not just feed us; he feeds us in the very sight of our enemies. How exasperating it must be to the adversary when he sees the Lord blessing his victim, in spite of all his efforts to the contrary.
Job is a case in point. We are told that he “was the greatest of all the men of the east,” Job 1:3.
Job was a successful rancher; he had “seven thousand sheep, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses.” He must have worked more farmland than most of the farms of our day. He worked all that land without tractors, and combines and hay bailors. He could not personally take care of that much land, and that much livestock, by himself; so he had to be one of the largest employers in the region.
They did not have freight trains, and eighteen wheelers in that day; so with three thousand camels, he must have controlled the freight business for hundreds of miles around. He was truly “the greatest of all the men of the east.”
Then God allowed the adversary to take it all away. But in it all, Job could say,
“Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither, the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord,” Job 1:21.
Again he says,
“What, shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips,” Job 2:10.
How exasperating that must have been to his tormenter.
How often it happens that somebody takes out after another person. He intends to take him down; but the more he attacks him, the more the Lord blesses him. The hotter he builds the fire, the more his victim seems to prosper, even in the fire.
We refer to Shadrach, Meshack, and Abed-nego, as the three Hebrew children. We read about them in Daniel, chapter three. The king had erected an obscene, vulgar image in the plain of Dura, and commanded that at the sound of all kinds of music the assembly should
“fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up, and whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace,” vss. 5,6.
Shadrach, Meshack, and Abed-nego were Jews; they were strangers in a strange land. But God had blessed them in that land. They occupied high places in the government, and some of the locals were jealous. They refused to worship the pagan image. Their enemies seized on the opportunity, and accused them to the king. They had refused to obey the king’s command, and they had to pay the penalty. They would have to go into the fire.
These were valuable men to the king. He depended on them, and he would have overlooked their offense, if he could. But he could not. If he had set aside his own decree, it would have weakened him in the eyes of the people. These same conspirators would have used it against him, and he knew it. He had no choice; Shadrack, Meshack and Abed-nego had to go into the furnace.
“The furnace was heated one seven times more than it was wont to be heated,” vs. 19.
“He commanded the most mighty men that were in his army” to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, and cast them into the burning fiery furnace,” vs. 20.
Perhaps those mighty men enjoyed their task of throwing these aliens, these strangers, into the fire. If they did, their glee was short-lived. “The flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego.” The fire was so hot, it incinerated them. The Lord placed the direst of woes of anyone who would offend one of his little ones.
Matt. 18:6, “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”
These mighty men were not “drowned in the depth of the sea.” They were incinerated in the fire; but the bottom line is the same. They wound up dead. How often have we seen it happen. Somebody takes out after another person; he intends to destroy him, by any means, fair or foul—and he winds up destroying himself instead.
Sometimes it happens that he winds up literally dead. In spite of what some people believe about an appointed time to go, you can shorten your life by the way you live. More often than not, he finds himself among the living dead. He is still among the living, but has lost everything that makes life worth living.
“Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over.”
To get back to our three heroes, they not only survived, but while they were in the furnace, they enjoyed a closeness with their Lord they had never had before, and would, likely, never have again.
“And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God,” vss 23-25.
These men were “cast . . . . bound into the midst of the fire.” But when the king looked in, they were loose, and walking around. You cannot bind those God has set free.
“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed,” John 8:36.
Paul and Silas were never more free than when they were in the “inner prison,” with “their feet fast in the stocks,” Acts 16:24. Their feet were bound, but theirs spirits had never been more free. At midnight they “prayed and sang praises unto God,” vs. 25. The jailer was converted; he “was baptized, he and all his, straightway,” vs 33. I have no doubt that God delivered Paul and Silas over to that jailor in order that the jailor might hear the gospel and be converted. That is another of those times when God took the worst efforts of the adversary and turned them to his own purpose. The little church at Phillipi needed the jailor and his family, and God knew just how to bring it about.
When Paul and Silas left Philippi, they left behind a thriving little church with this newfound convert and his family among their membership. There are those who are firmly convinced this jailor was the man of Macedonia that appeared to Paul in a vision saying, “come over into Macedonia and help us” (vs. 9). I don’t know any way to prove that, but it appears very likely to me. It is clear that somebody appeared to Paul in that vision. This is the only man mentioned among those who were helped, and he was a man of Macedonia.
Paul later wrote one of his most touching letters to that little church. God can take the most trying circumstances and turn them to our advantage. In the very sight of our enemies, he anoints us with the oil of his Spirit.
Verse 6, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.”
God delivered David when he went up against Goliath. He delivered him when he went up against the lion and the bear. And he got the idea that God would continue to deliver him. There is nothing that convinces us God will deliver us more than the fact he has delivered us so many times in the past. When we view our problems in that light, every trial becomes a blessing. The more we are tried, the more convinced we become that God is taking care of us, and the more difficult and painful those trials become, the deeper becomes that conviction that God is with us every step of the way.
Those who have never traveled that path are bound to think such reasoning is a perverse way of looking at things; but that is because they have tasted the sweetness of being delivered. Those who have never been in the furnace with the Lord can never imagine what a soul cheering experience that can be.
The very bliss of heaven will be in enjoying the presence of the Lord himself. It is impossible for us to fully realize what it will be like to be in his presence for all eternity. We look back with fond recollection to those times when we have felt to be close to him, but, regardless of how blessed we have been on many occasions in our life, there is nothing to compare with those times when we have been in the furnace with the Lord.
It is often when we have come to the very end of ourselves— when we have despaired of life itself—that we discover we had never been more safe than we were at that moment.
Notice that David is assured not only that goodness will follow him, but mercy as well. Mercy indicates that we deserve much worse, and certainly that is the case with every one of us.
The best known song in the English language is John Newton’s Amazing Grace. “Amazing grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.” There are some very religious people who reject those words. It is sometimes said, “I don’t like those words; I don’t consider myself to be a wretch.”
Anybody who can make that statement has never seen himself to be a sinner; he has never seen himself as he really is. And if he has never seen himself as he really is, it is very possible he has never seen the Lord as he is. He has never seen himself in God’s light.
In Luke, chapter five, the disciples had “toiled all the night and had taken nothing.” At the Lord’s command they let down the net one more time, and this time, “they enclosed a great multitude of fishes, and their net brake,” and “when Simon saw it, he fell down at Jesus knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
At that moment Peter saw himself in God’s light. He got a view of who the Lord was, and what he was. Sinner that he knew himself to be, he felt unworthy to be in the Lord’s presence.
There is a reason so many people, even very religious people, are terrified at the thought of standing before God in judgment. If we stand before God to be judged, based on our own track record, we are every one lost world without end. If God were to deal with us this moment, based on our own record, we would be immediately blasted into the lower regions.
But David does not expect retribution; he expects mercy. God is the God of mercy and grace. He is the God of love and forgiveness, and he will deal in mercy and kindness with his own. David consoles himself in that fact.
“And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
The Bible does not tell us a lot about heaven, but it tells us all we really need to know. There are less than a dozen words in this expression, but what a wealth of information it contains. David describes heaven as God’s house. If it is God’s house, we can expect he will be there. David expects to be there with the Lord. He expects, not just to visit, but to dwell there, and he expects to be there forever.
What more could we ask for—to be in the Lord’s house, dwelling with him, and to be there forever. To insist that we really need more information than that, is to imply that it is not enough just to know we will be in his presence.
I have no doubt that heaven will be more splendid than our minds can comprehend, but who would not be willing to spend eternity living in a cave—if the Lord was in that cave with us.
For all the physical beauty that must have been displayed in the Garden of Eden, the real beauty of Eden was that Adam enjoyed the Lord “walking in the Garden in the cool of the day” Gen. 3:8.
The Tabernacle of Witness in the wilderness had gold plated walls, and a foundation of solid bars of silver. It had gold-laced embroidered curtains that must have been dazzling to the eye. A cloud rested on the Tabernacle during the day, and a pillar of fire stood over it at night. What a spectacle that must have been. There had never been, and will never be, another building with that distinction. But none of that compared with the fact that God promised, “And there will I meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony” Exo. 25:22. The glory of the Tabernacle was that it was there God met with Israel.
The beauty of the New Testament Church is God’s promise that, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” Matt. 18:20.
All of those were figures of heaven, previews of heaven, but how the reality must exceed the figure. I have an idea that heaven will exceed those previews in somewhat the same way the presence of your dearest loved one exceeds a photograph of that person. The picture looks like the person, but it is not the same thing.
David had his feet firmly planted in this world, but his heart was in another world. How it must have thrilled the heart of that poor sinner to think, “and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” The spiritual-minded, heaven-born soul cannot for long contemplate heaven without getting more than a little anxious to experience the reality of it all.
Two days ago, I went to see the doctor who operated on me for throat cancer. He told me about a 92 year old patient he operated on. During the pre-surgery interview he told her there was some possibility she might not survive the surgery. Her reply was, “Wouldn’t that be wonderful.” My thought ran to Isaiah’s promise,
“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee” Isa. 26:3.
THE END