The Lord Is My Shepherd

Alright, so, I was thinking about looking at Psalm 23, but, and just more specifically one verse, but thinking about that, there was, I guess, two things that kind of drew me to that, and one was the phrase in verse 1 that says, I shall not want, a phrase that says I shall not want, and we can look at the context later, and another one is the little word motive, and we know what the word motive means, but anyway, the definition, the underlying driving force behind a person's actions or choices, and as I was thinking about that, I guess it was just, recently it was just convicting to me when I ask myself the question sometimes, why am I serving God, or why am I, why do I worship him, why do I serve him? Is it because of who he is, or is it because of what I want to get out of him? We have a number of, or a lot of stories in the Bible about characters and their motives, some good and some bad, and I was thinking about, in the early church, a lot of the Christians, the believers at that time, were selling their land, and they were bringing the money to the apostles' feet, and they were doing it for a good purpose. They wanted everybody to help each other, to make things work, help the needy, and there was two people during this time, a couple, Ananias and Sapphira, who also made that same choice, but it seems like the motive was different. They made the choice to sell their land, and it seems like there were several reasons.

One reason was they wanted the money. The second reason was they wanted to do a good thing, and another reason was they wanted to maybe leave a good impression, and it seems like the two things that were the most important to them were the money and leaving a good image, and obviously, through that, they were deceitful, but I think the more important thing that God judged them for was their heart, and that was this thing of, to them, the important thing was, well, we'll keep half, which in itself wasn't wrong. At the same time, we want to leave an image of being righteous, or like everybody else.

Psalm 37, verse 4. Let's look at that verse. Psalm 37, 4, Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Now, to the person who believes in a prosperity gospel, if you want to put it that way, or to someone who is serving God for selfish purposes, if that's the motive, and I think I've been there different times, this looks good to the flesh, if you just take it out for what it looks like.

I delight in the Lord, and he will give me what I want. That's what it looks like. In Luke, is it Luke 15? We have the story of a father and two sons, and we call the one the prodigal son, and the one son, I don't think he actually wanted anything, or he didn't have any wants, but he thought he had wants, and so he's thinking about all these things that he wished he had, he wished he could have, and so he asks his father for his inheritance.

Both of the sons were supposed to receive an inheritance, and he asked for his share, and he's going to go and live it up, and so his father gives it to him, and he goes on his journey, and just lives for himself in the flesh, and the picture I get is he pretty much does whatever feels good right now. Whatever I think is going to feel good to me now, that's what he does, and so he spends everything he has doing a lot of wicked things, and one day when he's at the bottom, and he has nothing left, and he's feeding pigs, and he wishes he could eat what they have, so he's at the bottom, he suddenly thinks of something, and he thinks about this. Back when I was at my father's house, my father's servants, I think is the way he puts it, Luke 15, yeah, he says, the servants of my father have bred enough into spare.

Suddenly he thinks back, and he remembers, actually I had no wants where I was before, and my father's servants had no wants, and when he thinks about that, he decides he's going to go back, he's going to go back to his father, and so he arises, and he goes back, and his father receives him. There's one, what does he say, there's one phrase that I wanted to get here, and I think it's verse 17, and when he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of my father's have bred enough into spare, and I perish with hunger. My father's servants have enough, and not only enough, but they have extra, they have more than enough, but he only realizes that when he comes to himself, and realizes the state he's in, and that he actually wanted nothing before, and now he does want, and I think that's a picture of what we have in Psalm 37.4. As I delight in the Lord, my desires change to what God's desires are.

What God's desires for me are, in his will, become my desires, and my will as well, and then in that context, we have what the desires of our heart, because our heart is the same as God's heart, and I guess I kind of bring that together because of, I think that's kind of the context of Psalm 23. I think sometimes I've looked at it a little more, just like, yeah, God is good, he blesses us, he gives us rich blessings, a little more like maybe where Jesus said, God sends rain on the just and on the unjust. There's a sense in which God blesses the sinner and the righteous, but here in Psalm 23, it's specifically, I think the context is, the person, you have the shepherd and the sheep, and it's the sheep who's in the fold, and he's broken, and he's broken, repentant, contrite, and surrendered, and these are the blessings that he has, and he recognizes them.

So let's go to Psalm 23, then, if you want to, and I wanted to read it. I think we all know it fairly well, so maybe instead, if you want, either you can read it or try and say it by memory, and we'll just go through Psalm 23. As 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. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies, Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

All right, so I wanted to look at this, it's actually verse 5 that I wanted to look at specifically, and not so much the other verses, which would be good to look at too, but yeah, that's where my thoughts went. So verses 1 to 4, though, you have the picture of the shepherd, my father, and I as the sheep, and I would like to look at verses 5 and 6 a bit different, and look at the father as a host. So in verse 5, you have, first of all, Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies, and I wasn't going to spend a lot of time there, but just because of the picture of a host, and thinking of God, our Father, spreading this table before us, and when I think of that, in the presence of mine enemies, I think of the rich blessings we have, and even, yeah, our enemies, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, looking on, and I think, anyway, him seeing that, and hating what he sees, and seeking to destroy us.

And with that too, those looking on, sometimes there are people who never give up flesh and what they have to serve God. But yet with that, they look at us and look at the peace, victory over sin, certain things. And when they look on, they really wish they had it.

And some of those pictures come to my mind when I think of the Father preparing a table before us in the presence of our enemies. Then the next phrase, Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Just to draw some things from that part of it, Thou anointest my head with oil, I was thinking of different uses of oil in the Bible that could have meaning for us in this verse.

And I guess apparently in Bible times often anointing somebody's head with oil was a sign of so you invite, maybe you had a feast or something and you invited guests. And especially if it was a big event, the host would anoint the heads of guests with oil. And when you think back to the story of the woman who came and anointed Jesus' feet, Jesus had been invited by a Pharisee.

It was in this feast with Pharisees and Jewish leaders. And whoever had invited him, Jesus speaks to him and says, This woman has anointed my feet and you didn't even anoint my head. And now had the host anointed the other's heads? I don't know, it doesn't say that.

Maybe he had, maybe he hadn't. But Jesus points that out, that you didn't anoint my head. Anyway, apparently that was a custom.

And as I was thinking about that, I was thinking about the prodigal son and his words were, or what he thought was, I'm not worthy. I'll go back and I'll tell my father that I'll just be a servant. But the father takes him in like an honored guest and says, I'll receive you as a son.

And with that, I mean it doesn't say he anoints his head, but they prepare a feast. And the same way our father receives us as sons and daughters. And yeah, could you say as an honored guest, receives us as one of his children.

The next one that I thought about was, oil was often used for medical or for healing purposes. In the Good Samaritan, he sees this person who had been beat up, left for dead. It says he pours in oil and wine to heal his wound.

In Revelation 3.18 to the church at Laodicea, God's message was, with a number of other things, he says, anoint thine eyes with eyesalve. In other words, your spiritual vision is gone and he wants it to be healed. Anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see.

In Mark 6, when Jesus sent out the disciples to Itu to cast out demons and heal the sick, then they anointed the sick with oil. And obviously there wasn't healing in the oil, but God used that tool or whatever in healing. And then of course we have James 5.14, command to anoint with oil.

And that's not, there's not healing in the oil there either. But thinking about this in the context of Psalm 23 again, thou anointest my head with oil. Thinking of first, one of the things the Father does is he receives us as his sons, as an honored guest, sons and daughters, I should say.

And then also with that, he heals us, cleanses us and washes us, heals us from the disease of sin. And then with that, he also, yeah, heals our pain. He's the healer.

The third thing, third use of oil was, it was also used as an act of consecration. And there probably was other uses too, but these were the three that I came up with. It was used as a sign of consecration.

So in Exodus 29, 1-9, you have Aaron and his sons. Being consecrated for the priesthood. And this is the thing that thou shalt do unto them, to hallow them, to minister unto me in the priest's office.

Take one young bullock and two rams without blemish and unleavened bread, and cakes unleavened, tempered with oil, and wafers unleavened, anointed with oil. Of wheat and flour shalt thou make them. And thou shalt put them into one basket and bring them in the basket with the bullock and the two rams.

And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and thou shalt wash them with water. And thou shalt take the garments and put upon Aaron the coat and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod and the breastplate, and gird him with the curious girdle of the ephod. And thou shalt put the mitre upon his head and put the holy crown upon the mitre.

Then shalt thou take the anointing oil and pour it upon his head and anoint him. And thou shalt bring his sons and put coats upon them. And it goes on and on from there.

But Aaron and his oil being used for Aaron and his sons to anoint them to the priesthood. This thing of consecration. I was thinking about that in the context of Psalm 23 as well.

Thou anointest my head with oil. The Father adopts us as his sons. He heals us.

He cleanses us. And with that, he sets us apart for himself. For ye are not your own, but you are bought with a price.

We have that in 1 Corinthians 6. You are not your own, for you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God. Then back to Psalm 23, verse 5. Here in the King James Version, it says, it kind of puts thou anointest my head with oil and my cup runneth over as two separate phrases.

It seems almost separate. But in the, I'm trying to remember, the new Jewish Bible is it called? Anyway, it puts those phrases together as one thought more so. I thought I had it in my notes somewhere.

I'm not seeing it right now. Anyway, it kind of puts these two phrases together as one thought. It has a thought of the shepherd anointing the sheep's head with oil and it being so abundant that it runs over.

With that I was thinking, as I think about these blessings, what am I doing with that? What am I doing with what God has given me in the context of this chapter? One of the references that often stands out to me is 2 Corinthians 1.4. And I think it kind of put what Paul said here in one of his stories or one of his circumstances he was in together. But anyway, 2 Corinthians 1.4 says this, Who comforteth us all in our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. And for some reason when I think of that verse, the picture that comes to my mind is Paul when he's on his way to Rome.

And he's, well obviously we remember their ship, their boat journey and the storm and all of that. And he had a message, I think from God, before that there was going to be trouble. Their journey wouldn't happen without difficulty, like the ship would break.

And so he tells the ship people that and they thought, no, they know what they're doing. And so they go on this journey and when they're at the end and the shipmen think that there's no hope, an angel comes to Paul at night and says this, Be of good cheer. And then he gives them the promise that their lives will be saved.

The ship will be destroyed but their lives will be saved. And I think of that, Paul, the angel coming to Paul, encouraging him and he goes and he passes that on to those around him. My cup runneth over.

And thinking about the prodigal son, my father has enough and to spare, he has extra. And so as the father blesses me and I have enough and to spare, then whether I'm in the valley of the shadow of death or in the green pastures, we find ourselves in very different circumstances sometimes. Whatever it is, the comfort that God gives to us, the blessings he gives to us, we can take that then and pass it on to others even if our circumstances are difficult.

So those were some of the thoughts that blessed me. I trust it can be a blessing and yeah, I believe God can bless that. Dismissed for Sunday school then.