At the end of Part One we were looking at the Shepherd’s restoring of our souls, no doubt that we might be ready to be led in paths of righteousness for His own namesake, as we continue our journey.

He Leads Me in Paths of Righteousness

“…For His namesake” is how this phrase ends, and not without justification. Every one of us can identify with the apostle Paul, who cries out with great anguish as Romans 7 ends: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” In total recognition of his own impossibility, he turns to the Lord: “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.” God’s love sets Him up to great risks with the likes of you and me. In John 15:5, He says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” Yet, when you and I pass by a vineyard, we don’t exclaim, “Look at that grapevine and all those beautiful branches!” We say, “Look at that beautiful grapevine and those luscious grapes!” Or, if the sight is not that positive, it’s not with so much adulation. The point is that God stakes His reputation on our behavior. So, He leads us in paths of righteousness for His namesake.

Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death

Fear, apprehension, anxiety for the unknown easily grips any one of us from time to time, but being unshaken in the midst of turmoil and danger is the goal of our growth in faith. Are statements like, “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” or “I will never leave you nor forsake you” lost from our memory bank? All that is said of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, in John 10 is covered in the declaration of 2 Timothy 2:13: “If we believe not, yet he abides faithful: He cannot deny Himself” (KJV). In 1 Corinthians 10:13 Paul indicates that God allows temptation to come at us, but He does not

allow us to be tempted by more than we are able to bear. A quick question is this: “Why allow it at all?” (Yes, I know that James 1:14 rightly says a person is tempted when he is “drawn away by his own lust and enticed.”)But the periodic testing of our faith, if we overcome the test, leads us to a stronger faith, so that we might truly say with the psalmist, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil” confidently and consistently.

Here are some promises that mean a lot to me:

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).

“The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them” (Psalm 34:7).

A picture like this forms in my mind: As we are held close to a whirling circular saw without being touched, our fear and apprehension diminishes, and we, now being more confident in our faith in the faithful One, are not afraid to walk through those “valleys” that we must face. Even the shadows do not scare us, because we know God is faithful and ever-present with us.

Your Rod and Your Staff

In the Bible the rod is a symbol of power and authority and is an instrument of correction and punishment. In the shepherd’s hand a rod was used in counting the sheep and determining their well-being. A staff seems to have been a possession of most everyone. David carried one when he went out to face Goliath. Of course, he was a shepherd, by occupation. For the shepherd the staff was a means of support, defense or protection and served, too, as an identifying guide marker, much as does the guidon for military troops.

For the sheep of His pasture, His rod and staff are symbols of power and authority; of discipline and correction; of protection and defense; of support and leadership; of determination and purpose. Perhaps it could be summed up in this statement in reference to the sufficiency of the Scriptures:

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

Remember, it was said earlier in Psalm 23 that the Shepherd “leads us in paths of righteousness for His namesake.”

The full statement, “Your rod and your staff, they comfort me,” speaks of a comforting presence—the sense of protection round about us by One who is unlimited in His sovereignty and unlimited in His mercy, grace and love for us—that is beyond our comprehension.

A Table Is Prepared Before Me

This table has some unusual onlookers—our enemies! But how could that be? Jesus prayed in that high priestly prayer of John 17, these words: “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are” (John 17:9-11).

What do you suppose is the expiration date on that prayer? (How about…never?)

At the first experience of the Passover provision recorded in Exodus 12, the blood of the lamb was to be put on the doorposts of the homes so the death angel could not enter and destroy their first born. The blood of the Lamb of God whom John the Baptist recognized (John 1:29) is on the doorposts of the hearts and lives of those who believe in Him, and no enemy of our souls can access our lives or violate our territory when we trust in Him. And Jesus further prayed in that prayer of John 17, “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one” (verse 15). And so it is, that we can feast on the riches of His mercy and grace in the midst of an evil and corrupt world.

Possibly the most visible example of this expression is that of Israel in the midst of those on all sides, who have declared their intent to devour the Jewish people, wiping them off the face of the earth (Psalm 83). Yet, as one traveling reporter noted recently, looking out one window of the vehicle, the view was the bare desert of Jordan, while out the other window were green fields and a flourishing economy. Nahum 1:7 comes to mind:

“The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who trust in Him.” One day, the Lord says, all Israel will acclaim that!

He Anoints My Head with Oil

Oil is a physical symbol of the Holy Spirit in the spiritual anointment rituals in which He is called upon to be a vital part of the ministry, service or activity that is being considered. In preparing the disciples not to be upset in His coming absence, Jesus said, “…you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:17b). Paul then writes in Romans 8:9b: “Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” It is a phenomenon that broke all the rules at Pentecost, for nothing like that had ever happened before! No wonder that Paul later wrote, “To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). In the believer, He has taken up residence, a ready anointment.

My Cup Runs Over

A cup is a container, usually for something to drink, like tea or coffee. In the scriptures it is identified in various ways with its contents, as: the cup of His fury; the cup of trembling; the cup of salvation; the cup of consolation; the cup of drunkenness; the cup of the Lord’s right hand. In this Psalm 23 reference, the cup indicates a container of blessings, whose abundance causes the cup to overflow. It brings to mind Proverbs 10:22, “The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.” Consider, too, the implications in Psalm 116:12-13: “What shall I render to the LORD Forall His benefits toward me? I will take up the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD.” The Psalmist says he will drink his fill of the benefits of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, as an acceptable response for all the Lord’s benefits he already has been receiving. Let’s check out again what is in that cup of salvation that is overflowing its rim!

Surely Goodness and Mercy Shall Follow Me

At the beginning of that Psalm 103 are listed several benefits that the Lord insists we are not to forget. All of them could be fitted under this heading, but two are particularly applicable: “He redeems our lives from destruction” and “He crowns us with loving kindness and tender mercies.” Earlier, the psalmist wrote, “He leads us in paths of righteousness” and now, following behind us are these qualities of His loving care. In front and behind us is His protective presence, for like unwary sheep, we can easily wander off track.

I Will Dwell in the House of the Lord Forever

Having come this far in our meditation, it is remarkable that we have not seen any indication that the Lord requires any heavy list of things we must do to merit His salvation. The confident statement of the writer of the psalm is one that proclaims, “It is settled.” Hebrews 10:12 says, speaking of Jesus, “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God….” One sacrifice, once for all—that’s it! He is the Great Shepherd of the sheep:

“Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom beglory forever and ever. Amen” (Hebrews 13:20-21).

Simply put, John writes, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). There is assurance of salvation.

Finally, the only way to properly conclude this meditation on the greatness and grandeur of this Great Shepherd is to record that exaltation and praise in David’s prayer in 1 Chronicles 29:11-13:

“Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty; for all

that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and You are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You reign over all. In Your hand is power and might; in Your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. Now therefore, our God, we thank You and praise Your glorious name.”

Recently a friend forwarded to me a scientific video that began its presentation from a tiny leaf on a tree in Southeast Asia, zooming outward to the universe showing the magnitude of the sun, the planets in relation to tiny planet Earth, the myriads of star formations and huge galaxies. Then it swooped back to the tiny leaf and took a microscopic journey in the other direction, penetrating into that inner universe that is the world of the nuclear physicist.

It probed the depths of the strange realities of the atom, then on into its foundational properties, the quarks. The breadth and depth of the universe, outward and inward, is breathtaking. Those physicists are not satisfied with stopping at the quark level, but are pondering and searching out what is the makeup of the quark. Reportedly, its properties have the appearance of sound waves—not all that astounding, once you realize how the universe came into being in the first place! “And God said….”

I was meditating on Psalm 23, which I had learned in Vacation Bible School as a youngster long before I came to know Christ, now 58 years ago, and my thoughts seemed to expand in the depths of those words, much like that video did of the universe, so tiny, then massive.  The more I thought of my relationship to the Shepherd and who He is, the greater the picture became.

“The Lord is…” begins the psalm, with staggering possibilities upon a closer look:

·         His very existence is such a comforting realization to one who knows that this God “so loved that He gave His only Son that we might have everlasting life.”

·         For anyone willing to acknowledge what his conscience is telling him, the visible creation testifies that He is (Romans 1:19-20).  The faith that pleases God is one that, first of all, believes that

·         He is (Hebrews 11:6).

·         The second part of that pleasing faith brings to mind the voice from the burning bush in Exodus 3 where Moses is told to tell his fellow-Hebrews the “I AM has sent me.” He IS all we need, our source and provider (Romans 8:32).

The truth that He is my Shepherd, and He is my Shepherd, in the descriptive sense, brings to mind these thoughts:

·         He knows the number of hairs on my head and not a one of them falls off without His knowing it. (Luke 12:7).

·         He is always uplifting and encouraging, not putting down and criticizing—“He does not quench the smoking flax nor crush the bruised reed” (Matthew 12:20).

·         He has a personal, individual interest in each one of His sheep and should one become entangled and separated from the flock, He finds it and brings it back (Luke 15:4-6).

There is a real life story from years past here in my town in the far west that contrasts this last reference.  Three business friends decided that raising sheep could be a profitable venture.  Three potential lines of income—wool, mutton and lamb chops, and flock replacement—so how could you beat that?

So they bought a band of sheep, perhaps 200 or 300, at the livestock commission sale and looked for a sheepherder to take over management of the program.  They found a man who claimed he was qualified to do the job and they hired him for the task. It was the time of the year that sheep are moved to the higher mountain ranges for summer grazing, so the shepherd took the flock of sheep and headed for the hills, about seventy or so miles away.

As the troop progressed toward the mountains, the shepherd did not notice that little bunches of sheep would stray off from the main flock and get left behind. No mention of a sheep dog was made in the arrangement, or perhaps this catastrophe may have been avoided, for by the time he got to the summer grazing area, he had no sheep left!

Upon that discovery, the would-be shepherd returned to town and the investors with the declaration, “If you want me to herd sheep for you, you have to get me some sheep!”

My Shepherd is not that kind of shepherd.

Another account that fits with the likeness of a caring shepherd is that of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32.  When the young man came to his senses, he repented and returned to his father. His reception shows the kind of character the shepherd of the lost sheep had:

“But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him” (Luke 15:20).

The account tells how the father saw the boy coming from a long way off, then ran to meet him.  It gives the idea that he did not see him incidentally, but was always looking with longing anticipation for his return. The words of that hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” come to mind, describing the tendency of many of us to stray away: “Prone to evil, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love,” and I definitely want the kind of shepherd who is looking for me with great concern.

A very meaningful and currently profound comparison of the kinds of shepherds we are faced with is described in the Good Shepherd chapter 10 of John’s gospel, John 10:10: “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I (Jesus) have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (May the alert take note.)

I Shall Not Want

There are many verses of scripture that promise “I shall not want,” and perhaps this one is at the pinnacle, Romans 8:32: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” What more could He give? Anything else would be far less in value and in expense, yet He promises to meet all our needs (Philippians 4:19).

There is another angle with which to view this promise regarding our wants. He can also take away our wants, replacing them with His blessings and presence. When I received Christ, I was a smoker and had tried to quit numerous times. During the week after believing in Him I came to a point of deep conviction that I must stop smoking as a matter of testimony. By the end of the week I smoked my last cigarette, forever! I sensed that the emptiness I was filling with smoking was now being filled with Jesus Christ. He can replace those wants with something much better, no matter what they are, if they are between us and Him.

Lying Down in Green Pastures

That sub-heading in the verse actually begins with “He makes me to lie down…,”and it adds an entirely new dimension to the idea of taking a rest. It gives us the distinct impression that God really intends that we get some rest at times. He did include that in those Ten Commandments that we tend to forget so often in our “busy-ness.”

A worthy mentor and disciple of men once told me, “You’ll get your rest, either now with discipline, or in the hospital, or in the grave!” I recall the story of David Brainerd (1718-1747), a missionary to the American Indians, who died of tuberculosis at age 29. It is said that he lamented that “God has given me a horse to ride, and I have ridden it to its death.” He often penned in his diary that he wanted to “burn out for God,” and that is what he did, sooner, no doubt, than he wanted to, had he been in good health.

However, in those matters we must let God be the judge. An interesting example in the Old Testament in regard to sickness is noted in 2 Chronicles 16:13: “And in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his malady was severe; yet in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but the physicians.” The context tells us that he died two years later. Are we to glean from this, then, that seeking the Lord first is God’s way for us to handle sickness?

Leading Me Beside Still Waters

Tongue twisters are a lot of fun, trying to say them real fast. One that is fun and fits in with this thought goes like this:

What annoys a noisy oyster?

A noisey noise annoys a noisey oyster!

There’s nothing quite like a beautiful waterfall, and up close, the crashing of the falling water displaying its power in explosive tones. Likewise is a newscast where two or more individuals are talking expressively at once, talking over each other and creating total calamity. It is a disgusting, ongoing pattern in the industry.

But for quiet serenity, a slow-moving stream on a warm, sunny day seems to invite meditation and a soothing of the spirit.  The hustle-bustle of mid-town traffic is not a likely place for consideration of the ways of God, although I do recall a speaker once who challenged us on memorizing and reviewing Scripture by telling of reviewing his memorized chapters of scripture aloud while walking to lunch in downtown Chicago! It was a practiced habit, no doubt. He noted that he regularly reviewed twenty-four chapters a day and continued to memorize new chapters! (And he was board chairman of a major corporation!)

Could it be that the Shepherd, with the Word stirring his soul, was leading that man beside still waters in the midst of calamity.  When we seek the Lord in prayer, our anxieties fade away in the over- coming presence of the peace of God that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:6-7).

He Restores My Soul

One can hardly watch a newscast or a favorite television program without being bombarded with hyperbole about a product that will restore a piece of furniture, or an auto paint job, or even our skin to make it look like new. The assumption is that damage has been done and one should want to bring about restoration. The psalmist leaves the nature and extent of damage to our souls as an individual matter; he merely reminds us that the Shepherd is the One who does restore, refresh and renew our souls.

The experience of the new birth is a regeneration of the soul, according to Titus 3:5, but the sense of this renewal seems to be that of a refreshment of spirit, and uplift in energy and inspiration. The promises of Isaiah 40:29-31 are well-remembered and often quoted for their encouragement:

“He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Continued in Part 2)

He Leads Me in Paths of Righteousness

“…For His namesake” is how this phrase ends, and not without justification! Every one of us can

identify with the Apostle Paul, who cries out with great anguish s Romans 7 ends:  “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”  In total recognition of his own impossibility, he turns to the Lord: “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”

God’s love sets Him up to great risks with the likes of you and me. In John 15:5, He says:

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” Yet, when you and I pass by a vineyard, we don’t exclaim, “Look at that grapevine and all those beautiful branches!” We say, “Look at that beautiful grapevine and those luscious grapes!” Or, if the sight is not that positive, it’s not with so much adulation. The point is that God stakes His reputation on our behavior. So, He leads us in paths of righteousness for His namesake.  (Continued in Part Two.)