“The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want [lack in
anything]. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet
waters. He restores my soul: He guides me in the path of righteousness for His
name’s sake.” (Ps. 23-1-3, NASB)
In this new series, we have been talking about Christian
Integrity and the power given to us to execute Christian integrity by living
the Christian way of life. So far we’ve have talked about the sphere of power
through which Christ was able to carry out His earthly mission. We also learned
that this very same system of power has been bequeathed by Christ to every
believer.
We are in the process of uncovering some of the Divine
Assets available to the believer for the purpose of empowerment, guidance,
inspiration, and confidence necessary to carry out the Divine Plan of God.
What are going to do today is look at a another believer who
historically carried out the plan of God by accessing one of the most powerful
assets provided to the believer; grace orientation, facilitated by the word of
God and cultivated through experience. On the surface, this may sound complicated
and out of reach, but God, through His plan of grace, has made it very simple and
highly accessible to the believer who is willing to seek Him (John 4:8).
Old Testament Believers
It is important to understand that God functions through the
conduit of covenant. What does this mean? Whether God is dealing with an
Individual such as Adam, Abraham, or David or a group, as in the Nation of
Israel or the Church, He deals with all believers through covenant. There are
numerous covenants revealed throughout the Bible. Although God’s covenant with
the Church is different than His covenant with Israel, the essence of His being
is the same, therefore His Character and integrity never changes and all of His
covenants reflect His immutability (Mal. 3:6; Heb. 13:8).
The reason I say this is because the person we are studying
today was an Old Testament believer; a beneficiary of God’s covenant with
Abraham as well as the nation of Israel. David preceded Jesus chronologically,
in fact, Jesus (the humanity of Christ), was a direct descendant of David (a
fulfillment of a personal covenant between God and David).
You may be asking how an Old Testament Jew could possibly be
considered a believer. The answer is that Christ has always existed as God the
Son. He was not only present during the creation, but was an active participant
(Col. 1-15-17) Christ has always been present; however, He has been revealed
differently at different times in history. To Old Testament believers, He was
primarily revealed through the semantic symbols that were present in the ritual
practices established by God. The entire design and makeup of the Temple was a
revelation of Christ. The animal sacrifices for sin and the scapegoat that was
sent out into the wilderness bearing the sins of the nation were all a manner
of semantic symbolism of the Messiah. At times, he manifested Himself
physically through what is called theophanies (a physical manifestation or appearance
of God). In Christianity, all theophanies were executed by the 2nd
person of the Trinity (God the Son).
So, when I refer to David as a believer, the assessment is
accurate.
Psalm 23
David is credited with writing the majority of the book of
Psalms. One of the most popular, if not the most popular of David’s poetic
masterpieces is the 23rd number of Psalms. What we will focus on today is the
first three verses of this book of Psalms.
“The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want [lack in
anything]. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet
waters. He restores my soul: He guides me in the path of righteousness for His
name’s sake.” (Ps. 23-1-3, NASB)
In the 23rd number of Psalms, David uses three analogies
to express the reason for his confidence, which was the faithfulness of God;
the shepherd and the sheep (verses 1-4), the host and the guest (verse 5), and
the military pursuit (verse 6). Today we will be focusing on verses 1-3; the
Shepherd.
Before we move into the meat of the matter, I would like to
provide a brief historical backdrop to bring elucidation to the mindset of
David when he wrote this particular passage.
When David wrote the Psalm 23, he was in the midst of one of
the darkest moments in his life. He had experienced unfaithfulness and betrayal
from the vast majority of those he held dear, but even worse, his son Absalom
had rebelled against him and driven him from his own palace. David no longer
commanded his army or ruled from his throne. He was now hiding in the
wilderness from the fear of death at the hands of His beloved son.
Looking at things from the surface, David had nothing; there
was nothing about him that externally expressed royalty or aristocracy. It
would seem that he had lost it all. His own son, whom he loved dearly, had
rebelled and had driven him over the Brook of Kidron, up the Mount of Olives
and deep into the wilderness of Judah. Yet, it was in this place that David
revealed that it is not your external position that validates your royalty. It
is not the proximity to your perceived throne that authenticates your power. It
is not the acquiescence and support of people that qualifies your designation.
David proves that it is grace orientation to the plan of God for one’s life
that provides the stability and confidence to triumph over every situation.
David did not take on a victim complex and begin whining
about all that had transpired. He did not take on a guilt complex and start
kicking himself for all of the mistakes that he made. What he did was settle into
the truth of whose he was rather than who he was.
What David wrote in these 11 verses is absolutely extraordinary.
These words reveal David’s state of mind. David understood that disasters would
come. He understood that people would not always be loyal and even in return
for his love, many would become his accusers (Ps. 109:4), but none of these
moments of adversity have the power to change or dissipate the blessings of the
believer, in fact, if adversity does anything it serves to intensify the
blessings of God as they are poured out on the believer (2 Chron. 16:9).
David’s first line introduces the analogy of the shepherd
and the sheep. Sheep are one of the most helpless animals in the world. They cannot cleanse, guide, nor protect
themselves from harm. Sheep are easily frightened and therefore need a shepherd
to lead, guide, feed, water, and protect them. The shepherd is responsible for
leading his flock around pitfalls and dangers to the plains of safe grazing, as
well as quiet and clean waters.
You may not want to believe it, but the sheep analogy is a
very good analogy for the believer. David used it and even Jesus used it. In
and of ourselves, we are helpless. It is only when we learn to lean on the
provision of God do we truly begin to live in power. David understood that the
Savior (Messiah, Christ) was the Good
Shepherd that is the provider and
facilitator of eternal life (John 10:11). To those who press forward and
advance in the spiritual, He is the Great Shepherd who provides all of the
needs of His sheep through His Divine Plan (Heb. 13:20-21). For the believers
that progress all the way to spiritual maturity, He is the Chief Shepherd who
will provide rewards in eternity (1 Pet. 5:4).
“The Lord is my shepherd…” is actually understood as “the
One who keeps on shepherding me perpetually through my life as a believer. It
gives the connotation of never being left alone. Shepherds don’t take breaks.
They don’t have days off. “I shall not
want...” is an expression of the fact that the shepherd insures that there will
never be any lack.
David’s assertion is expressive of the fact that God is
capable of making all grace abound towards you (2 Cor. 9:8).
In verse 2, David unwraps the revelation of God’s ability to
provide peace for the believer that has the capacity to merge the promises of
God with faith in Him to perform them. What happens when the believer is able
to take the promises of God and mix them with faith is the development of a
calmness and peace that is not shaken by the circumstance that has encapsulated
them.
One of the strategic tools of Satan is distraction. The
enemy would love for you to become engrossed and overwhelmed in your circumstances
to the point in which you become discouraged and you stop living in your
calling and you begin wallowing in your misery. So, when David says, “He makes
me lie down [peace and rest] in green pastures”, he is reflecting on his past
experiences as a shepherd and his knowledge that sheep will not lie down to
rest if they are afraid or hungry, so the fact that David is able to lie down
means that God has provided provision, protection and peace.
“He leads me beside the quiet [still and undisturbed waters]”
reflects the fact that sheep will not drink if the waters are turbulent or
disturbed in any way. God leads you to that place where you can be replenished and
refreshed.
Because sheep are nearsighted, they are never driven to
water or grazing areas, they are led. Sheep always follow the shepherd. The
only time that sheep will not follow the shepherd is when they are sick, at
which time they will follow anyone. Christians are much in the same way, when
believers are spiritually sick they open themselves up to the pernicious
infiltration of false doctrine into their souls as well as pseudo-validation of
spiritual position, such as empiricism, pragmatism, emotionalism, humanism, and
rationalism.
This is why it important to remain in constant contact with
the Shepherd so that you are not led away or preyed upon by the enemy.
“He restores my soul; He leads [guides] me in the path of righteousness
for His name sake [as a defender of His reputation]. To be restored in the soul
is to be renewed or brought back to the original fullness. To be led into the
path of righteousness by God through biblical doctrine and the prompting of the
Holy Spirit is one of the ways that God protects his reputation. He will never
mislead you. You may not understand where He is taking you, but like the sheep,
you must trust Him, understanding that on your own, you are helpless.
It is difficult for humans, especially men (and some women),
to acknowledge that they are helpless. It is only in the moment of total
surrender and the apprehension of the fact that we are helpless that we
actually find the strength to be more than conquerors through Christ (Rom.
8:37). In 2 Corinthians 12:7-9, the
Apostle Paul reveals this incessant truth:
7 And to
keep me from being puffed up and too much elated by
the exceeding greatness (preeminence) of these revelations, there was given me
a thorn (a splinter) in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to rack and buffet and harass
me, to keep me from being excessively exalted.
8 Three
times I called upon the Lord and besought [Him]
about this and begged that it
might depart from me;
 |
| Dr. Rick Wallace |
9 But He
said to me, My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you
[sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully];
for My strength and power are made
perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly
glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power
of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me!
(Amplified Bible)
It is in our weaknesses and the acknowledgement of those
weaknesses that God reveals Himself most prominently. Apprehension of these
truths should provide a sense of solace and confidence that there is no
situation, no matter how daunting it may seem, that is beyond God’s control. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace
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