Now as we begin today, it's my intention to finish our book report, so to speak, on Psalm 23.
Now many of you probably read the book, but if you haven't, it's well worth your time, and the book is entitled A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, and it was written by W. Philip Keller.
And if it was written when my book was copyright or printed, it was written around 1970.
Now, the more I looked into this book in Psalm 23. The more it became apparent in this short psalm of 6 verses, we what we actually see is an encapsulated history of our journey to the kingdom of God and how truly remarkable we have been provided for by our shepherd Jesus Christ.
If our faith is truly in Him and His guidance toward the kingdom, we should indeed never want for anything.
Now let's go ahead and read Psalm 23, and for today we will be taking verse 5 and 6.
Psalm 23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over.
Now as our trek began a while ago, we traveled from all the familiarities of the home place, leaving them behind through the valleys of the shadow of death high into the mountains in search of the alpine meadows in search of the mesa or the table that has been prepared for us. By our shepherd.
Now if we can begin to compare verse 5 with a table that is being prepared for those chosen by God, perhaps we get a slight glimpse of the marriage supper.
I've never considered Psalm 23 to be prophetic, but maybe certain aspects of it could be, for our shepherd calls his sheep and leads them through the trials of life to the place He has prepared for them.
Now Jesus tells his disciples in John 14 and verse 2 and 3, let's go ahead and just read that one. For our second scripture John 14:2-3.
John 14:2-3 In My Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself. That where I am, there you may be also.
I go to prepare a place for you now.
A good shepherd would always go and prepare the place where he would later bring his sheep to pasture.
He would have to make sure that there was the right grasses. And be be sure also of getting rid of any noxious plants that could be there that would make the sheep sick or even kill them.
Now this preparation of a table indicates. That He could indeed be planning a meal.
And since it's one being prepared by God, you can believe it would be like no other meal that we have ever had.
I can't recall if I've ever had a seven course meal, but rest assured this table will far surpass any that we might have had before.
I Corinthians 2:9 comes to mind where it says it hasn't even entered into the heart of man. what God has prepared for those that love Him.
If you think you know what God has prepared, I'm sorry to tell you, you are wrong.
Now the next part of the verse is really one of intrigue, at least for me.
Now where is this table to be prepared?
Well, I do not know where, but one thing for sure, he adds, it is to be in the presence of our enemies.
Can we go back to the first verse and perhaps consider that the sheep, as he said,
Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,
was confidently announcing the Lord is my shepherd.
Perhaps to those who were envious of him. Or even saw him as an enemy.
Now applying what we see today with the nations of the Middle East and who knows how many more would love to annihilate the modern nations of Israel, especially ours.
How bad will this immigration get into modern Israel?
Europe is really reeling right now, at least in the United Kingdom.
These people are being led by Satan and would like nothing better than to rid the world of the infidel, the great Satan, as they refer to us. Many times over.
Now what about on a more personal level?
How many enemies have we had, we made perhaps just by being in the church?
And holding on to the truth, truth in our day is not popular even in many churches, and those who try to hold on to the truth may find that they have more enemies than friends.
Now what, what does God have in mind here in the presence of my enemies?
Now I do not know if I've ever told this story before.
But where my dad used to work there was a man who worked there, and he continuously gave my dad a hard time about the church and about what he believed.
Now this man became very belligerent in his treatment of my father in berating the church and cutting him down every chance he got, and of course my dad never retaliated, and he took it all in stride.
Now back then Um, my dad would use his break times to read the Plain Truth magazine, and after I wrote this, I thought, how many people in here have actually seen a plain truth?
We're, we are getting old.
But he stored this plain truth in his toolbox, and being a mechanic, he had one of those big red ones. Um, and he would keep it in one of his top drawers.
One day he came in to grab the plain truth. And this man had put a Playboy magazine in there.
Again, my dad took it all in stride and did not retaliate, but do you know what happened to this man?
Two weeks later, he lost his 14-year-old son, who was killed on a motorcycle.
This man never spoke to my father again, and he worked there side by side for a lot longer.
Does God watch how people treat his sheep?
Does he watch how we treat each other?
Do we believe what we do to each other? We do to our shepherd, Jesus Christ.
Speaking of Matthew 25 and 40.
Now this brings me to another story.
I do not normally back stories up together, but in line with verse 5.
In the book of Isaiah, this is quite possibly a future prophecy regarding verse 5, and we find it in Isaiah 60.
You can go ahead and turn there.
Years ago I had a longtime church member tell me that they no longer believed that the church was a part of Israel.
They went actually went back to thinking that they were Gentiles again, I guess. Like most of the Protestant world be believes today, and I ask them why would you believe a thing like that?
Haven't you read Isaiah 60?
Now, we will read it. Uh, let's see here. Isaiah 60 1 through 5. And then 14, beginning in Isaiah 60 and 1,
Isaiah 60:1-5 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people. But the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around and see. They all gather together. They come to you. Your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall swell with joy because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you. The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you.
Isaiah 60:14 Also the sons of those who afflicted you shall come bowing to you, and all those who despised you shall fall prostrate at the soles of your feet, and they shall call you the city of the Lord Zion. The holy one of Israel.
Verse 14 says they shall fall prostrate at your feet.
The Message Bible is a little more explicit in saying they will lick your boots.
Is God going to honor those who love and obey Him?
He says he will in the presence of our enemies.
Now the next part of the verse reads, you anoint my head with oil.
Now for those of you who may who may have lived in a farm setting or on. A few farm animals. Know that when the warm spring and summer months arrive, so do the flies.
It seems like every time we went to my grandmother's house, there was flies everywhere.
Of course she had several, um, animals, and my grandfather also kept a few hogs just for good measure.
Now after the long journey through the valley of the shadow of death, you finally reached the lush green pastures of the table that has been laid, and now you have to put up with these pesky flies.
Now for sheep, this is even more dangerous.
There are close to a dozen flies. That will attack the sheep and attempt to suck the blood or we might say their life.
And if we add the nasal fly, we might be able to apply this one as well to the Holy Spirit.
Now this nasal fly will attempt to work its way into the nasal cavity where it will lay its eggs and then hatch.
They will begin feeding on the soft tissues inside working their way into the brain.
Needless to say, when they reach this area of the brain, it's almost always fatal, literally driving the sheep mad, causing them to run off a cliff or bash their head against a tree. To their death to get away from the effects of these flies.
Now how many of our brethren have gotten one idea in their head, and they were unable to shake it and eventually it drove them away from the flock and maybe even to spiritual death.
Now when fly time arrives, this is where only the strictest attention from the shepherd in watching over the sheep can detect these parasites.
And he then takes appropriate action to guard against them.
And how does he do that?
Well, that's the next part of the verse.
He anoints our head with oil.
Now there are many references in the Bible to oil.
And one is that of healing, and yet another one is that that shows God's favor in anointing the head.
The oil will prevent the flies from getting in there and wreaking havoc.
Other references are associated with joy, prosperity, and the goodness of God.
O symbolize the goodness of the land as well.
But the greatest of the symbols of being anointed in the receiving of His spirit.
And the healing of our minds to understand His truth. Which will protect us from the flies buzzing around our heads.
The flies may land, but on their head, but with the oil of God protecting us, they will not be able to get a hold and lay their destruction.
Now this brings us to a natural progression in the psalm where our cup will overflow.
So the next symbol we will consider is the cup.
I did not realize there was so much about cup until I looked into this and that this is very brief and probably doesn't even come close to doing it justice.
Of course when we hear the word cup we automatically think of something to drink.
There is the cup of God's wrath that is to come upon mankind, for they will be forced to drink of their sins, the cup that they so greatly desired in seeking their own way and rejecting gods.
Isaiah 51:17 says they drained it out, bottoms up and even wanted to drink more.
Now the dictionary of biblical imagery has a very good take on this cup, especially, and I would like to paraphrase some of that.
What it describes as the cup of wrath. Quoting The image of the cup of wrath carries special horror unlike war, natural disasters, or disease, because drinking is something a person does deliberately.
Drunkenness implies a humiliating progression.
People begin confident of their power to handle their wine or drink, but it eventually masters them.
In several passages we feature the cup of God's wrath. We see. That sinners start out arrogant and lose any vestige of human dignity as they drink the cup that God's hands them down to its very dregs.
They stagger, fall unconscious in the streets.
They are exposed, disgraced, and they go mad.
Remember the nasal fly.
Yet clearly their own choices, not God's capricious anger, have precipitated their destruction. End of quote.
We will indeed brethren reap what we sow or perhaps what we drink.
Can we also consider that the cup of God's wrath for sin, that cup is the cup that Jesus Christ had to drink.
Jesus even asked his Father if there was any other way to do this, crying out, Let this cup pass from me.
And in reality, the Father said no. You must drink of it.
There is no other way.
Why, brethren?
So our cups could be filled.
Does our shepherd love us?
We forced Jesus Christ to have to drink our cup. Of sour wine, our cup full of our sins, bringing God's wrath on our shepherd, and He endured it and drank of that cup so we could indeed eat at His table and drink from His cup for all eternity.
Our cups should always be overflowing in gratitude for what our shepherd has done and continues to do for his beloved sheep.
If our cup runs over with what He has provided, there will not be any room for sin, and we can avoid the cup of God's wrath that's going to come on mankind.
So finishing up verse 5, is our cup overflowing?
Now, as we reach the last verse, Psalm 23 and verse 6, we will go ahead and read it as well.
Psalm 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
If our cups are overflowing, should not good things follow us?
I heard someone describe this one time that goodness and mercy were actually two angels that were following people around.
Now there is no way to prove such a thing.
But thinking of the effect of our cups overflowing, I would lean toward what we leave in our wake.
What follows us.
This brings us back to the example of the flock of sheep.
On the one hand, if left unmanaged, sheep will destroy everything in their path.
They will eat everything in their path down to the bare ground and even pull the plants up by the roots, creating a situation where the soil will erode and the land will become useless.
On the other hand, They can restore a land to productivity if managed properly.
Their manure is considered to be the best in all of livestock in healing land.
This is probably not the best analogy, but if sheep are fed properly, partaking of the right things, what they produce heals the land.
And since they drop it back there, it follows them.
We might ask, what do I leave behind.
Do we destroy the lush green pastures provided for us, leaving a barren desert in our wake?
Perhaps we should carefully consider what we leave.
Is it goodness and mercy or destruction and desolation?
And we've reached the last part of verse 6, and perhaps the sheep here is proclaiming,
Psalm 23:6 I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
So as we begin to close, I'd like to go ahead and read Psalm 23 once again.
Beginning in Psalm 23:1,
Psalm 23 The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Our shepherd is so good to us.
Why would we go anywhere else?
RHG/aws+/