Psalm 23

A Different Look

This is one of the most well-known and appreciated passages of scripture in God's word. One of the ancient scholars compared Psalm 119 to the tree of life that is said to grow in the New Earth. Another said that if this is so, then Psalm 23 must be one of the flowers which grows on it.

This psalm is used often at funerals because of its reference to the 'valley of the shadow of death' and has given many comfort in knowing that the Lord walks with His people through the terrifying transition from this life to the one beyond.

But I have been given reason to think that maybe this is not the primary sense of the psalm and I would like to share with you some ideas that have come to me in regard to it.

1 The LORD is my shepherd;

These words, of course, reflect the lovingkindness of the Lord for His people. But David takes this to a personal level, 'He is my Shepherd.'

In John 10 we find six marks of Christ's sheep:

1. They know their shepherd;

John 10:14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. (KJV)

2. They know His voice;

John 10:16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. (KJV)

3. They hear him calling them each by name;

John 10:3 To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. (KJV)

4. They love Him;

John 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. (KJV)

5. They trust Him;

John 10:26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. (KJV)

6. They follow Him.

John 10:4 And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. (KJV)

The only one who can say that the Lord is his shepherd is one who is himself a sheep, one who knows and follows the voice and direction of Jesus Christ. This is the one who is acquainted with His words, who carefully considers and meditates on them, who seeks to obey Him in all things. Such a one is His sheep and such a one can call Him 'My Shepherd.'

He is not the shepherd of all men for He has designated some as goats, and He is never represented as a goatsherd.

I shall not want.

He is the One Who cares for me, plans for me, watches over me and takes care of all my true needs. 'I shall not want' or lack any real need. But what are our needs?

1. To be saved from our sins,

2. To know the blessings of true love and fellowship, and

3. To be secured from everlasting torment when we die.

This is no blanket guarantee that we will have every perceived need or want met in this life for many saints have not. But no sheep of the Great Shepherd shall be without spiritual provision in this life and in the life to come that is a true need. The Shepherd is the One Who knows the difference between our needs and our wants.

One of the old writers said this:

"You must distinguish between absence and indigence. Absence is when something is not present; indigence or want, is when a needful good is not present. If a man were to walk, and had not a staff, here were something absent. If a man were to walk, and had but one leg, here were something whereof he were indigent. It is confessed that there are many good things which are absent from a good person, but no good thing which he lacks or is indigent of. If the good be absent and I need it not, this is no want; he that walks without his cloak, walks well enough, for he needs it not. As long as I can walk carefully and cheerfully in my general or particular calling, though I have not such a load of accessories as other men have, yet I want nothing, for my little is enough and serves the turn...Our corruptions are still craving, and they are always inordinate, they can find more wants that God needs to supply...God will see that His people shall not want; but withal, he will never engage himself to the satisfying of their corruptions, though he doth (engage Himself) to the supply of their conditions. Your ignorance, your discontents, you pride, your unthankful hearts, may make you to believe that you dwell in a barren land, far from mercies; whereas if God did open our eyes as he did Hagar's you might see fountains and streams, mercies and blessings sufficient; though not may, yet enough, though not so rich, yet proper, and every way convenient for you good and comfort..." Obadiah Sedgwick.

2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

And how does He shepherd us? He gives us the food and the water that we need when we need it. But beyond the ordinary provisions of life, we have access to spiritual food and spiritual water and that in such form as we are able to consume it. The shepherd does not provide dry grass when green is available nor running water (which sheep cannot drink). He does not provide meat for sheep for they cannot use it. He gives us such as we need and in the form that we can use.

The language of heaven, of God, is such a language that men cannot hear it and know it's meaning. Nor can they speak it so as to converse with God. But God Himself descended as the Word and was made flesh and dwelt among men. He brought the glorious truths of heaven to earth, couched them in human language and gave them to men in such a form as they could use and consume, that is, those who are His sheep.

What a blessed thought that we have the words of God in our language, phrased in concepts that we can grasp and given to us as a free gift!! And what a further blessing that God has opened our hearts and minds, enabling us to grasp with the eye of faith those blessed realities and appropriate them as our own. Was ever any creature so cared for, so fed, so watered as the sheep of God?

3 He restoreth my soul:

And how did we come to be sheep of the Great Shepherd? Shepherds acquire sheep by purchase and by birth and on both accounts He has acquired us to Himself. When we were in the slavemarket of sin, He bought us with His own blood.

1 Cor 7:23 Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men. (KJV)

Was ever such a price paid for any thing as was paid for the purchase of God's sheep? Was ever a treasury so emptied as the treasury of heaven when the Precious Lamb of God stepped forward to be the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world?

Oh, to be the sheep of God is no small and ordinary thing, it is to be bought with a price so find and so rare that no one but God Himself could have paid it.

When we were dead in trespasses and sins, He birthed us into His kingdom by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Romans 6 tells us that we got our life when we were raised from the dead in Him. We ourselves were the offscouring of the world, loathsome and in every way putrid to the eyes of the Holy God. But in love the Son of God embraced us into His own bosom, taking to Himself the guilt of our sins and died with us in Him before the judgment bar of God. But neither we nor Him were left in the grave, but on the third day He rose and we rose in Him to newness of life.

We have seen many things restored in our lives. We have seen old furniture get a new look at the hands of an artist. We have seen old cars restored beyond the wildest dreams of their original builders. We have seen old buildings made better than new with the talent of a great builder.

But never was anything ever been restored like the souls of God's people. First of all, no creature of God surpasses the man He created in the garden of Eden. And no creature has ever fallen so far as did man in that original sin. But nothing has ever come from such a decrepit state to that state of glory which God has given to His people.

Eph 2:4-6

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: (KJV)

Truly He has restored our soul.

he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

He leads us, by His word and by His Spirit. We would not know how or where to go in this world but for His direction. Some of it is conscious to us in that He shows to our minds the right way and enables us to go in it. Some of it is invisible to us in that He goes before us and prepares the way. But His hand guides every turn of our lives. He leaves nothing to chance nor does He leave us to our own devices.

He leads us in a certain direction, toward perfect righteousness in which we have forsaken all of our sins and taken up the obedience of every command of His word. His direction is constant and predictable. We can always know that any impulse we have toward what is wrong is not from Him, for He does not tempt His people with evil.

And He does this for His own reasons, that He might get honor and glory from our lives, that men and angels might praise Him for His goodness and His grace in and through us.

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.

This is the verse which causes this psalm to be identified with death and, indeed, these words have been great comfort to the saints of God who have walked the path of death. However, given the setting of it, I wonder if the first idea in the mind of David was the thought of his physical death.

I do not believe that this verse can be separated from the one which goes before. It seems to me that when David contemplated walking in righteousness, there were other thoughts concerning death which came before his mind.

The apostle Paul, for example, made much of the comparison between walking in righteousness and dying. After building the case that we died and rose again with Christ he says further:

Rom 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (KJV)

It was his own testimony that walking in righteousness was a matter of personal death.

Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (KJV)

Perhaps David is reflecting on the valley of the shadow of death that he who walks in righteousness must go through. He must deny himself, consider his old man dead, draw upon the life of God that has been given to his restored soul.

It is the valley of death to self, to sin, and to the world. It is that awful struggle of ongoing repentance as God leads in righteousness. It is the valley of self-denial and great personal struggle. In all of that God is present both as a protections against the attacks of the wicked one (rod) and as a recovery for those times when our foot slips and we find ourselves overwhelmed by temptation (staff). The Christian can be comforted to forge ahead toward righteousness knowing that God 'has his back,' and knowing that failure is not fatal but that he can be recovered from any fall

Not only that but David also realized that walking in righteousness placed in life in danger. The valley of the shadow of death is also that valley of danger which the saint must walk if he would walk in righteousness. But there is another danger and that is the enmity of carnal men whose hatred knows no bounds when confronted with the righteous. They, too, set upon the saint to cast him down and destroy his life as he labors to walk with God.

It was Stephen who asked this question.

Acts 7:52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: (KJV)

There is an abiding animosity in the human race toward those who are serious about righteousness. It was not, I believe, so much the claims of Jesus to be Messiah that angered the ruling class of the Jews as it was His condemnation of their wickedness. It was His insistence upon repentance and His affirmation that they must walk in the righteousness of the heart that caused the religious among them to hate him so. And it has been the same throughout human history.

David had experienced even the disgust of his own first wife at his devotion to the Lord. It was his forgiving and righteous treatment of Absalom that had given him the opportunity to supplant David as king. And the next verse reflects the fact that David indeed was aware of his enemies.

5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

When enemies attack, God sets a table for the saint, spiritual provision to take him through and beyond the schemes of the enemy. He pours out His Holy Spirit upon the attacked saint ('anointest my head with oil') and fills the cup of his provision of grace that he might be able to stand 'and having done all, to stand.' And God is not stingy with that provision but when the saint is attacked for holiness sake, God gives him grace abounding, sufficient and beyond for the difficulty.

I have read that in the eastern culture a visitor was always offered a glass of wine and the host was always careful to fill the cup until it overflowed. The gesture was to mean that so long as the visitor was a guest in the home there would be provision enough and to spare for his needs.

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. (KJV)

He is confident that this is not a temporary provision but that God will faithfully keep him all the days of his life and, when his life is over, keep him in His Own house for ever and ever.