Preamble
Psalm 23 is a psalm by King David.
I have expounded on Ps 23:1 – The Lord is my shepherd,I shall NOT be in want. In it we talked
about if we truly are holding the Lord as our shepherd, we must mean what we
declare; we must want to be led by the Shepherd, and NOT go about on our own,
as if we got everything that we need to manoeuver through life, outright.
Then, for verses 2-3, in the article, Ps 23:2-3 - Theleading of the LORD, my Shepherd, we looked at the expansion of verse 1, that
we shall NOT be in want; NOT in want of our sustenance (what we will eat, drink
and wear or shelter), NOT in want of restoration of our soul, and NOT in want
of the righteousness Guide (for the NT believers, He is the indwelling Spirit
of Christ).
The trouble times
In the rest of this psalm, vv4-6, David talked about
(in addition to the LORD’s seeing to our sustenance, soul restoration, and
growth in righteousness) how, if we are led by the LORD, we will NOT need to
fear, even when we pass through trouble times.
The psalm culminated into the climax of our blessedness in the earthly
phase of Kingdom of God and the heavenly phase.
Psalm 91, too!
This time round when I read this part of the Ps 23, my
thought straightaway turns to Ps 91:14-16.
This, I believe, is the prompting of the Spirit. What is in Ps 91:14-16?
Ps 91:14-16 - 14
"Because he {the psalmist} loves
me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him; I will protect him,
for he acknowledges my name. 15 He will
call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. 16 With long life will I satisfy him
and show him my salvation."
Many would NOT dispute Ps 23 and Ps 91 are among the
favorite psalms of believers. Ps 91 is also
known as the Protection Psalm, and many “fall in love with it”, reading its 1st
verse, but sadly, for some, it is without practical understanding of what it
said! – “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most
High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” (Ps 91:1)
How does one dwell in the shelter of the Most
High? Where is the shelter of the Most
High? Is it a place? How does one get there? The verse gives you no comfort and meaning if
you know NOT how to be dwelling in the shelter of the Most High! I am NOT in here to expound on Ps 91; you can
get a good exposition of mine, if you read this: Ps 91 – Secret of our well-being
I will give you the essence of how one gets to dwell in
the shelter of the Most High; and it is this: As given in the opening of the
text of vv14-16 of Ps 91, love the LORD.
The common thread –
love, obey, follow, be led
How can we correlate Ps 91:14-16 text to Ps 23:4-6,
when the Ps 91 text demanded we love the LORD, and we do NOT see that,
directly, in the Ps 23 text? In fact,
many people expounded Ps 23 stressing there was no condition whatsoever
required, it was all “He (the LORD) makes…; He leads ….; He restores…; He
guides ….”; purportedly nothing for us, sheep, to do.
This is what we need to appreciate: One leads, another is to follow. The one who leads is no leader to you, if you
follow him NOT! If the LORD is your
shepherd, you have to follow Him; if you follow Him NOT, how can He be
shepherding you.
How does one follow another? You obey; when he says, “Go to the left”, you
are to obey and go to the left; when he says, “Go to the right”, you are to
obey, too, and go to the right! For the
LORD, our Shepherd, to lead us, we have to follow, and to follow, we have to
obey his commands.
Bro. Anthony, but it still does NOT say, “Love the
LORD”! No, no, it does! How?
The chief way God defines love for Him, is this way: He who loves Me, obeys my commands (John
14:15), and He who obeys my commands are the one who loves Me (John
14:21a). In other words, implicit in Ps
23, is that we are to love the LORD, for we need to obey (His commands) in
order to follow, and we are to follow, so that we are being led by Him, our
Shepherd.
How come, still has
valley of shadow of death or trouble?
Below, I put the 2 texts “side by side”, so that we can
more clearly see the parallels, and the same theme of the goodness of the LORD
that can be available to us, if only we love Him, and obey Him in that love,
and so, follow Him, wholeheartedly, and unreservedly.
Ps 23:4-6 - 4 Even 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.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and love will follow me all
the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
Ps 91:14-16 - 14
"Because he {the psalmist} loves
me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him; I will protect him,
for he acknowledges my name. 15 He will
call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. 16 With long life will I satisfy him
and show him my salvation."
When we look at both the texts, it clearly tells us
that in our lives, there is no promise by God that, in the entirety of it (our
mortal life), there will be no trouble.
Ps 23:4 said, “Even though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, ….”; and Ps 91:15, “…. I will be with him (the psalmist) in trouble,…” In fact, Jesus said (in John 16:33), “In this world, you will have troubles …..”
If you did read the article (on the verses earlier),
“Ps 23:2-3 – The leading of the LORD, my Shepherd”, you will remember that it
said there, in the verses (2-3), the LORD makes, leads, restores, and
guides. How come there is this, now, in
verse 4, “I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death”; how are we to make of it?
I repeat what I was trying to say, of the
shepherd-sheep metaphor: it was portraying for us a journey; that the Christian
life is a journey; nothing of the sort that we have arrived or reached one
place or position and that is it; the plurals of the pasture and water were
used in verses 2-3; and I stated in my article on that part of the psalm, that
the restoration of the soul, it too, was NOT just a one-time salvation
restoration alone, but a restoration that needed to maintained; even for the
path of righteousness in verse 4, plurals (paths) were used. All of these were because the whole affair was
a journey – moving from one green pasture to another, one quiet water to
another, on-going restoration, and moving in paths of righteousness, hopefully,
in growth, from glory to glory. If we
follow wholeheartedly and unreservedly, it will result in our growth, and we
will move from glory to glory.
But why is there still valley of the shadow of death? Does the LORD go away, and leave us to travel
by ourselves, and we get into the valley of the shadow of death?
Between one green pasture and another, and between one
quiet water and another, there are the valleys of the shadow of death; to go
from one pasture ground to another, or from one water to another, we may pass
through such a valley of the shadow of death.
You and I pass through it, but if we follow the LORD, the LORD is right
there with us, in that passage – that is what verse 4 was saying. The LORD is able to maneuver us through the
valley of the shadow of death. David,
the psalmist, said he would NOT fear, for the LORD was with him. In Ps 91:15, God said He would be with the
psalmist in trouble. The bad valleys or
troubles are there in the fallen world, the world we are still in, are NOT without
such, and the LORD does cross through them, bringing us through, to the next
green pasture and next quiet water.
Fear NOT, when you
are led by the LORD
When the LORD is with us, we need NOT fear any evil;
that was what the verse 4 of Ps 23 said; David said the LORD’s staff would
bring us comfort, for that was the symbol of power and authority of God. Not only that, recently, I believe the Holy
Spirit has revealed to me, the staff is also a symbol of signs and wonders and
miracles. Miracles by the Lord can bring us pass the valley of death or trouble.
What does v5 mean; God prepared a table before David in
the presence of his enemy? This is
equivalent to Ps 91:15’s God honoring the psalmist. God NOT only would be with us, in trouble,
when it is we followed Him into it, He would deliver us, and honor us, even
before our enemies.
Climax of blessedness
When we follow the LORD’s leading, we would have His
favor as that for High Priest; more than satisfied. In OT time, it was the High Priest who had
the privilege of entering into and lingering in the presence of God. In NT,
with veil torn, we are high priests who can enter into the presence of
God. How satisfying is, “in the presence
of God”? In what way is our cup
overflowing? Here are some verses
telling us what it is like; have you experienced any of them(?):
The presence of God, there is fullness of joy (Ps
16:11);
In the shelter of God’s presence, we are hidden from
the intrigues {plots and snares} of men (Ps 31:20);
In Ps 91:16, God said He would satisfy the psalmist,
one who love Him, with long life {long, eternal}, and show him His
salvation. In Ps 23:6 the same reads as
the psalmist’s exclamation of “surely goodness and love would follow him all
the days of his life as he dwells with God in His house {Heaven}, forever”.
Recap
The entire psalm 23 spoke about a journey, from us
acknowledging the LORD as our Shepherd, to following Him, to how the LORD would
shepherd us, providing us with the sustenance we need, the soul restoration we
need, and guiding us in the paths of righteousness, maneuvering us through
“rough” patches in earthly life, to finally having us reach the final green
pasture and quiet water, Heaven, where we would be with eternal life,
experiencing forever, the goodness and love of God for us. What it requires, is that we love the LORD,
we obey Him, and so, follow Him as He leads us, by His Spirit. There may NOT be trouble-free earthly life,
but we fear NOT, the trouble-spots, when we walk with Him through them. Don’t tread through them on your own, but do
so, as the Lord brings you through them.
Life is indeed beautiful because He lives.
Anthony Chia, high.expressions
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