Psalm 23

Good afternoon, everyone! Nice to see all of you here. I was wondering what those little drops of stuff are falling out sky, outside there. It's not white, you don't have to shovel it. I'd rather have the rain than the snow. Very nice, good to see all of you here today. I did want to mention there are a couple of other late announcements we got. One is regarding Camp High Sierra, out in California.

We actually have someone who may be driving out from this area to that summer camp, so if any of you would be interested in applying for that, transportation would be provided in that way. Also, there are scholarships available that could cover up to 50% of the cost of that. If you would be interested in that, please contact me for more details, and I can help fill you in. Camp High Sierra is set in the Sierra Nevadas of California. Very beautiful setting and a lot of good activities there. Also, because of the need to cancel Passover services last Sunday night, I did hear back from some of you, but I wanted to check how many of you here do need to take the second Passover.

We need to be arranging for a haul here. Okay, appreciate that. Okay, thanks. I'm just writing this down. Okay, thank you very much. That will be the night of Tuesday evening, May 13th. We'll be back in touch or make announcements as we get a suitable location for that. I appreciate that. Now, to get into today's sermon, I had a third idea for what I plan to speak on today. It's changed quite a bit because after the feedback I heard from the sermon I gave on the first Holy Day about desert and how we learn to know God in the desert, I thought it would continue with some of those themes that I introduced in that particular sermon.

In that sermon I read part of Psalm 23 and noted that it is a psalm that is set in the desert. It's filled with a lot of desert images. That shouldn't be surprising because, as we covered in the sermon there, the desert was the land of milk and of the shepherd. Shepherds grazed their flocks of sheep and goats in the desert. I mentioned in there at some point I wanted to give a sermon on Psalm 23 at some point to elaborate on those themes I talked about last time and to explain the many desert references that are found in that particular psalm.

In light of the feedback I received from that message, I decided I would go ahead and speak on that subject today instead of the other two ideas I was tossing around. The title for today's sermon is Psalm 23, A Picture of God's Love for His Sheep. Let's turn to Psalm 23 and begin reading there.

I'll be projecting all of our scriptures up here on the screen today to save time. What we'll do is read through the psalm first and then go back and discuss what it's talking about. The psalm is quite short. Many of us have probably memorized it years ago. It's a very helpful psalm, very encouraging. To read through it, Psalm 23, 6 verses long, a psalm of David, 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. Yea, 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 Eternal forever. So again, short psalm, but a lot of information packed into that, which we'll go through and explore in the time of the sermon today. So let's go back to verse 1 and the introduction of this psalm. A number of the psalms we're familiar with state up front who the author of it is.

In this case, we see that it is a psalm of David, King David. So what was David's occupation in his younger years before he became king over Israel and Judah? We know from his childhood that he was a shepherd boy. It was quite common for young boys at that time to work as shepherds, because—and we're talking somewhere in the—oh, from probably about age 6, 7, on up to about age 11, 12, 13, somewhere along in there—it was quite common for young boys to serve as shepherds over the family's flocks.

Why was that? Well, because, frankly, they weren't big enough and strong enough to do heavy labor for the family, like plowing the fields, building the fences, working on the house, that sort of thing. They just didn't have the physical strength to do much in terms of productive labor, but they were good. They could handle the job of taking care of sheep and goats in the desert. Let's turn over. Let's notice 1 Samuel 16 in verse 11. To give us the context of this, this is where the prophet Samuel has been told to go to Jesse's household and to anoint one of his sons as the next king over Israel.

And I won't go through all of the story, but you may remember he goes through all the sons of Jesse. No, not that one. No, not him either. No, not him. And it gets to the point in verse 11, Samuel said to Jesse, Are all the young men or all of your sons here? Then Jesse said, There remains yet the youngest, you know, the scrawny little kid, and there he is, keeping the sheep.

And Samuel said to Jesse, Send and bring him, for we will not sit down till he comes here. So we see here that what is what is David doing among all the sons of Jesse? He is keeping the sheep. He is a shepherd over the sheep, and by extension the goats of the family. Most would have had both sheep and goats. Sheep for the wool and for meat and goats to provide milk, and also hides and meat and so on. So that's what the animals were used for. So we see that David was a shepherd. Another question, and this ties in very much with the subject of the sermon today, where was David keeping the sheep?

Where was he a shepherd? And this is key to understanding a lot of the references that we'll see in the sermon today. So let's turn to 1 Samuel 17 in verse 28, and to give us the story, the background of this, this is when the Israelite army is faced off against the Philistine army and Goliath. And King Saul is head over the Israelite army as the king of Israel, and David goes up there, his brothers are serving in the Israelite army, waiting for the battle to begin, and David goes up there to visit with his brothers. And notice what happens in verse 28. This concerns David's oldest brother, Eliab. Now Eliab, David's oldest brother, heard when he spoke to the men, and Eliab's anger was aroused against David, and he said, Why did you come down here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? So notice, with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? This tells us plainly where David was serving as a shepherd in the wilderness.

Or this Hebrew word means an uninhabited area. Desert area is generally what this term refers to.

So we see here where David had been keeping the sheep out in the wilderness, out in the desert.

And this shows again that in the biblical context that shepherding took place in the desert, not in the lush fields of grass, like we talked about in the sermon on the Holy Day there.

It's interesting, too, where does David come from? What is his homeland? Where does his family live?

They live in the town of Bethlehem, about five or six miles south of Jerusalem.

It's interesting, Jerusalem is right on this border between the land of milk and the land of honey that we talked about. It's an area of transition between those two. And those of you who have been to Bethlehem before might identify with this, but you can go literally a mile west of Bethlehem, and you'll get 20-25 inches of rain a year, more than we get here. You can go a mile east of Bethlehem, and you'll get two inches of rain a year. It's that dramatic. You're in a fairly lush area to the west of Bethlehem. To the east of it, you're in an absolute desert. Very dry area, very barren area. So David grew up in that environment. Bethlehem, incidentally, means Be'lechim, the house of bread. It was a grain-growing area for wheat and barley. It was also an area for rearing sheep. A lot of the sheep that were used for the temple sacrifices were raised. We learned this from Josephus around Bethlehem. It's interesting also that the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus Christ, is born in Bethlehem. There's a side note there. Bethlehem is right on this transition zone there. David's family probably had some agricultural land there in Bethlehem, and him being the youngest is sent off into the desert with the sheep and the goats. Again, they wouldn't let the sheep and the goats in the agricultural areas because they'll eat up all the food, all the produce there. There's much less agricultural land, so they wouldn't allow those animals in there. Let's think also that David grew up in this desert environment.

What did David do when he is pursued by his enemies? Where does he go? Where does he flee?

He flees into the desert, even though he's an adult. We're not talking about when he's a child now. When he's an adult and people are pursuing him trying to kill him, where does he go? He flees into the desert. Why into the desert? Because he's comfortable in that environment. He knows how to survive in that area, in that environment. He knows how to find shelter and water and food in that kind of environment. He also knows he can hide out in that environment without his enemies being able to catch him and kill him. He's comfortable with that desert environment because that's what he grew up in as a child taking care of the sheep and the goats there.

That also is why, if you read the Psalms now from this perspective, we're talking about and realize that many, if not most of them, are set in a desert environment. It gives you a whole different flavor as you read through and understand those as we'll go through. Many of the Psalms do have desert themes in them, including this one. So David also, as a shepherd boy, would have spent a lot of time alone in the desert. Alone, at least, in terms of human contact. He wasn't totally alone because he had his sheep there with him. He had his goats there with him, and he also had God there with him in the desert. From his shepherding, he learned a lot about taking care of sheep.

And from his time in the desert, he learned a lot about how God cares for his sheep.

And who are God's sheep? Let's ask that question. Psalm 100 and verse 3 tells us, Know that the Eternal, he is God. It is he who has made us, and not we ourselves.

We are the sheep of his people and the sheep of his pasture.

This tells us very plainly that we, God's people, are considered his sheep in God's sight.

There are many scriptures that talk about this. I'll just quote this one and one other one. 1 Peter 2 and verse 25. Where Peter says, For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. So God's Word does compare his people to sheep.

We are considered God's sheep there. So this Psalm, Psalm 23, is all about our relationship with God.

That we are his sheep and he is our shepherd, watching over us. And this Psalm is about that relationship and the loving care and concern that God has for his sheep. And it is written from the viewpoint, from the perspective of a sheep looking at his shepherd.

Which is interesting to consider that. And when we read this Psalm, Psalm 23, we should view it from through the eyes of David, of somebody who spent years of his life living and working among sheep in all kinds of circumstances. Some good, some bad. And at times even being willing to risk his life for his sheep, as we'll see a bit later on. Because this is what David did. And from these experiences, David in the Psalm draws parallels between the care or the relationship of a shepherd to his sheep and the relationship that we have with God. And draws different lessons from that under inspiration of God. David was a shepherd, but David also had a shepherd who was God. And the theme of this shepherd again is God's love and care for his sheep. Verse 1 lays the foundation on which the rest of this Psalm is constructed. So we've seen that this is a Psalm of David, and what is the basis? What is the positioning statement for this Psalm? The Lord is my shepherd.

And that shepherd is Yahweh, the eternal, the God of the Old Testament, or of the Hebrew scriptures.

The one who, as we know from John 1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word became flesh. And in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, talking about Jesus Christ. So this eternal, the God here that we're talking about here, the Lord is the one who would become born in human flesh as Jesus, the one we know as Jesus Christ. So this is the shepherd that we are talking about here. But who is? Who is Jesus Christ? A very good summary of that we find in Colossians 1 and verses 15 through 20. I'll read from the NIV here. It says here, referring to Jesus Christ, He is the image of the invisible God. What does that mean? Well, it means that God the Father is invisible. As Christ Himself said, no one has ever seen Him or heard His voice at any time.

So Christ is the image of that. Christ was God come in the flesh. People could look at Jesus Christ, they could see what the Father is like through Him. That's what is being said here.

The firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things were created by Him and for Him. What is this saying? Well, these particular phrases here, powers and rulers and authorities. You can compare this to Galatians. I think it's chapter four. I didn't write this down, but Paul uses the exact same terms there to talk about the spirit world. So what he is saying here is that all things were created by the one who became Jesus Christ on heaven and on earth. Not just the physical creation that we see around us, but also the spiritual creation, the spiritual universe. You might say this parallel universe, as I would compare it to, that exists alongside this physical universe that we inhabit. What Paul is saying here is that he created that as well. Not just the physical, but also the spiritual world as well. He is before all things, verse 17, and in Him all things hold together.

And various other translations word this. Basically what it is saying there is that he sustains the universe. He sustains the creation. He keeps the universe going, keeps it in order, as it was designed to be there. Continuing on, verse 18, and he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him. What is that saying? That is saying that God the Father, that all of the fullness of God the Father dwells in Jesus Christ as well. Verse 20, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, again the physical creation, the spiritual creation, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. So we see here that our shepherd, the one who is our shepherd, is the visible image of the invisible God, that he is the firstborn, who is overall creation, that he is the one who created all things in the physical and the spiritual universe. He existed before anything else existed, and by him everything exists that does exist. We see that he is the one who sustains the universe, that he is the head of the church, that he is the firstborn from the dead, the first of all of those who will be raised from the dead to be a part of God's family. He's the one in whom all the fullness of God exists, and he is the one through whom God the Father reconciles all things to himself through his shed blood. So this is the one who is our shepherd, the one who is all of these things, an enormous amount of information packed into these few verses here. So if he is his shepherd, we might ask, how did we become his sheep? We've already seen that we are his sheep, but how did we become his sheep? Notice Christ's words in John 15, verses 16 and 19. You did not choose me, but I chose you. And verse 19, I chose you out of the world. So we were chosen by Jesus Christ to be a part of his flock.

The Father draws us. Christ said, no one can come to me unless the Father draws him, and that is true. But he chose us, and because we are part of his flock, we are the objects of his care, of his concern, of his attention. Think about, again, the one who cares for us then. It's the very being who created the universe and sustains it by his power. And this is the shepherd that we have who cares for us and watches over us. So with a shepherd like that on our side, what can be against us? What can stand against us? Also, in line with this, if we are his sheep chosen by him, do we recognize his right over us? His authority over us? We are his sheep, again, because he's the one who bought us. He paid the ultimate price for us in his shed blood, as signified by the Passover. We belong to him, and he has every right to care for us, and to manage us as his flock as he thinks is best for us. So as his sheep, how do we respond to him as shepherd? How do we respond to his authority and his ownership over us? Are we like sheep?

Sheep are created to follow their shepherd. On the other hand, goats, and you can talk to any shepherd about it, goats are very different animals. Goats, sheep are born to follow. Goats are born to create their own paths, to wander all over the landscape here and there.

They're born to do everything but to follow, essentially. So we'll talk about that a little bit later, some of the differences between sheep and goats. But if the Lord is our shepherd, and if we are his sheep, then that should give us a deep sense of mission, of purpose, and direction in our lives from him being our shepherd. Let's notice a few scriptures in John 10. Again, these are the words of Jesus Christ. Verses 11 and 14 and 15. He says here, I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. And indeed, Jesus Christ did exactly that.

Again, as pictured by Passover. Verse 14, I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep, and am known by my own. So he knows us as his sheep, and we, in turn, know him, because we are his sheep. As the Father knows me, even so I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. We'll get into this further in the gospel studies, but there are a number of times in the gospels where Christ says he is our shepherd. And he compares his role as a shepherd, and we are his flock, his sheep. He is the good shepherd. He's not a hireling who runs away at the first sign of danger. And as a good shepherd, he gave his life for us, for his flock. He laid down his life for each one of us here today. Not just collectively as a body for each, but for each and every one of us, every single one of us. He laid down and gave his life for you as one of his sheep. He chose you. He laid down his life for you, and he loves you, and he cares for you as one of his flock, one of his sheep. You're not just a number to him. You're not just one of a herd of thousands of sheep. No, he knows you personally. He knows the very numbers of our hairs on our head. Let's back up a few verses earlier in the same chapter here, verses 2 through 4 of John 10. But again, these are the words of Jesus Christ.

But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

A good shepherd knows the name of every single sheep in his flock, whether it's a dozen, or a hundred, or two hundred, or five hundred, knows every single sheep and calls him by name.

And Jesus Christ does that as well. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. So Christ knows each one of us as his sheep.

He goes before us to lead us, and we as sheep should be following him.

We should recognize and because we know his voice. When we get into this in the Gospels, there's a lot more detail I don't have time to cover in this sermon, but this is talking about very specific behaviors of sheep and shepherd and characteristics of these animals. Obviously, Christ was very familiar with sheep to describe them so perfectly, as any good shepherd can confirm here. So this is the one who is our good shepherd, our protector, our provider, the one who leads us. Let's continue on here in Psalm 23 and verse 1. We've talked about this being a Psalm of David, and that he is our shepherd. And next he says, I shall not want. Again, this is the perspective of a sheep looking toward his shepherd, and he says, I shall not want. Now, what does this mean, and what does it not mean? Well, it doesn't mean that we will never want things that we don't have. That's part of us. We want things that we don't have. We want more, more goodies, more stuff.

But notice how some other versions translate this. The NIV translates this phrase as, I shall not be in want. The New Living Translation, I have everything I need.

And the Bible in Basic English, I will not be without any good thing.

Now, let's think back to David's life. Some of the things we know about David. Did he have everything that he wanted? Of course not. No, absolutely not. Was his life always easy? No.

Absolutely not. As we've talked about, he spent his childhood out taking care of sheep and goats out in the desert. As we've mentioned before, during that period he killed a lion and a bear.

His life was in danger from taking care of the sheep there. He faced off against Goliath, this nine-foot-tall giant who could have squashed David. David's probably 10, 11, 12 years old, could have squashed him like a bug. Had it not been for God's guidance, God's protection, God's intervention for David there. After this, what happens? King Saul tries to kill David on a number of different occasions. He had to flee for his life a number of different times. He committed some horrible sins and had to pay a heavy price for that. His own son, Absalom, tried to kill David and to steal the throne away from him. A number of David's Psalms you can read through and you can feel the mental anguish, the torment that David is in at deep points in his life. So did David have it easy? Did he always have everything that he wanted? No, of course not.

So this psalm obviously means something different. What it is telling us here, David could say that God cared for him and gave him everything that he needed.

And there's a difference between what we want and what we need. Certainly not everything David wanted, but everything that he needed. And God does the same for us as well. He doesn't give us everything that we want. But he does because, well, the reason he does that is because everything that we want probably isn't what is good for us and what is best for us. So like David, he gives us everything that we need. And as we talked about in the sermon the other day, several days ago on the Holy Day, sometimes what we need are those desert times in our life. But we have to spend time in the desert with God. And we have to learn faith. And we have to learn humility. And we have to learn to know God, not just know about God. As we talked about in that sermon, would David have come to know God as he did, as we see reflected this very deep relationship he had with God that's reflected in so many of his Psalms? Would he have come to know God had he not gone through those trials in his life?

Those desert periods in his life? No, I don't think so. I think he had to go through those experiences to have that relationship that we see reflected in so many of his Psalms. So David had to spend time in the desert to get to know God to the level and the depth that he did. So God gave David what he needed when he needed it. And he does the same thing for us. Let's notice something over in Philippians 4 verses 11 through 13. And this is from the NIV again. And Paul says here, I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. I read through those words and I think, you know, that could just as easily have been written by David. But it's written by the Apostle Paul.

Both David and Paul learn to completely trust God, to have total faith in God, to have faith in Jesus Christ, and in how he managed their lives. And that is a lesson that all of us at some point in our Christian lives are going to have to learn. It's that lesson of total faith, total submission to God the Father and Jesus Christ. In the Passover, one of the verses we read every year is John 16 in verse 33. John 16 verse 33, in Christ these are some of his last words to the apostles before he is arrested and taken away to be tried and condemned and executed. And he says here, these things I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace.

In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.

Jesus is plainly saying here that in this world we will have tribulation. We will have trials.

We will have problems. We will have pressures that build up, that cause us a lot of stress.

At times we may face persecution for what we believe and what we live, following God and knowing and doing what is right. Paul and David face terrible trials. We've talked about the outline the trials that David faced. What about Paul? You know, Paul was shipwrecked, left in a shipwreck there in the Mediterranean Ocean. He was beaten with rods, clubs on several occasions. He was stoned and left for dead outside a city wall and got up and went right back into the city after he recovered from that. He had all kinds of problems that he had to deal with.

They face terrible trials, David and Paul. Shouldn't we be any different?

Not according to what Jesus Christ is here. In the world, you will have tribulation. You will have trials. We are promised times in the desert. Not as a sheep in belly-deep grass with a nice cool gurgling stream running alongside us. Not with all the shade trees that we want, but we're promised green pastures in the desert. As I talked about earlier in the sermon, we'll talk about a little bit more here. This is how we build faith. This is how we put faith to work in our lives. This is how we come to build a relationship with God and to come to truly know Him and not just know about Him.

Let's notice another verse here, Hebrews 13, 5 and 6.

It says here, Let your conduct be without covetousness. Why covetousness? Because we want stuff.

We want things. He who dies with the most toys wins. That's kind of ingrained in us.

But that is very much the opposite of what God has in store for us here. Not that there's anything wrong with those things. If we can afford them, if we don't let them come before, between our relationship with God. But notice what we're told here. Be content with such things as you have. For He Himself, the God of the Old Testament, who became Jesus Christ, has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

So we may boldly say, the Eternal is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?

So again, great lesson of faith here, great summary of our lives in the right kind of relationship with God. Let's continue here back in Psalm 23 and in verse 2 now.

It says here, He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.

Let's talk about this phrase about lying down first. A classic book on sheep and shepherding.

Some of you may have this or have heard about it. It was published back in 1970.

It's titled, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 by Philip Keller. I would recommend the book. It's all about Psalm 23. This is written by a man who spent, I think, eight years shepherding sheep. Had his own flocks of sheep. Spent a lot of time with him, a lot of very good insights on sheep behavior, the nature of sheep, and how they act. We see some of these things playing out here in Psalm 23. If I had defaulted, I would give this caveat. It's written by someone who is shepherding in a much more lush area than in the desert environment that we've been talking about here.

As a result of that, he doesn't understand a lot of the desert references that we'll talk about today during the sermon here. There's a lot of good information, a lot of accurate information that is accurate from his perspective, but not accurate when it comes to understanding the desert setting of Psalm 23. I would include that caveat. But it is a good book if you want to learn more about shepherd and sheep and get more insights in Psalm 23. I have taken some material from this book, but a lot of it is not. One interesting aspect is that he talks about four conditions that sheep need so that they will calmly lie down and rest at night. Four different conditions. And those conditions are, first of all, the sheep need to be free from fear. Sheep are very, what's the word I'm thinking of, very timid animals. They frighten very easily.

They can literally be afraid of their own shadow. They can be walking around and glance over and see their shadow beside them and it will starve them. It will scare them. They think it's some other creature there sneaking up on them. One of the illustrations brought out in this book, he talks about how on his sheep farm or ranch there was a car and a little eight-inch long pick and ease puppy fell out of the car and got up off the ground yipping and yapping and ran across the driveway and ran out into the field where his sheep were grazing, about 200 sheep. And all 200 sheep started stampede running from this eight-inch little puppy. And they were all afraid of it and run. That's an illustration of how timid sheep are and how easily they are upset and unsettled by something they're not familiar with. So he has a number of interesting insights about that.

So the shepherd has to be sure that the sheep are calm, that they are not afraid, so that they are reassured and feel safe before they will settle down or lie down at night.

A second condition is that they need to be free from friction in the flock.

You may have heard of the term pecking order. How many of you know where that term comes from?

Okay, yeah, that doesn't surprise me. Picking order comes from chickens. They pick and they will establish their social strata, which is the head chicken. That chicken is first in the pecking order. They peck at their food, so the head chicken becomes the head pecker. There you've heard of the term henpeck and so on, which again comes from the behavior of chickens. But, yeah, chickens establish a pecking order, which is the top chicken on the social strata of chickendom. Sheep have something similar that is called a butting order. It doesn't come from the anatomy, but from the behavior of sheep. Sheep will butt each other. They will push each other to establish dominance. It's part of the sheep's nature. Similar type thing with goats. We're probably more familiar with how goats will butt each other, but sheep do the same thing, not quite as violently, perhaps. It's rather interesting. You can see this generally the female sheep, the ewes, are separated from the rams, except during the mating season.

And then they are brought together for mating. But what will happen when they are separated, usually an older ew, will butt and push herself to the top of the butting order in the flock of sheep. And all dozen or fifty or a hundred sheep will have their butting order where they fall in the social stratum, who is on top. And it's interesting, this behavior, you can also see it yourself in the wild. Back when I had a life, as I used to call it, I used to love to go up along I-70. In November, you can go up there, and around Georgetown, Idaho Springs, you can see the bighorn sheep in mating season, butting each other, the rams, that are, you know, butting each other's heads like that. And also, if you go up on Mount Evans, in summertime, you can see the mountain goats up there as well. They won't butt heads like that, but the females in particular will push and shove each other to establish dominance. Even the little lambs that are only six, eight weeks old will push and shove each other to establish this kind of dominance. Who's going to be on top in the social order there? So, even wild goats and wild sheep have this same instinct. It's something that God built in, programmed into them. Unfortunately, human beings can have this same tendency as well. They want to establish a budding order. They want to see who's in charge, who's the top hen or the top sheep or whatever there. They want a human being to jockey for power, for prestige, for control, so that they can get ahead, so that they can boss others around. And it can happen in the church, as we have seen in different times in our history there. So we have to be on the lookout for that tendency in ourselves, and not allow that kind of behavior to take root. We have to realize that Christianity is not a matter of power or prestige or position. We see that again in one of the lessons of Passover, because Christ had to set the disciples straight with the lesson of the foot washing, to show them that true Christianity is all about service. It's not about who's in charge, who's going to sit at his right hand or his left hand. It's about service. It's about serving one another. And I'm pleased to say that I just don't see that kind of jockeying for power and position in our congregations here. We have very peaceful congregations. And that's a tribute to all of you, because I do see a lot of humble serving, a lot of giving serving here in our congregations. And that leads to an environment of peace, an environment in which everyone can grow and be a part of the body and utilize the gifts that God has given us to help the body grow. And it's a very wonderful thing to see, and you should be commended about that. A third aspect for sheep to lie down calmly is they need to be free from pests, from insects, from parasites that bug them.

We talk about something that bugs us. Well, it comes from insects, you know, mosquitoes that buzz around our head, hornets, yellow jackets, things like that. That's where the phrase, bugging us, comes from, from these insects that bug us. And that's a real problem for sheep. You might think about the difference between horses and cows. What do they have that sheep don't have? They've got a real nice built-in fly swatter on the rear end. They can brush away the flies, the horse flies, the biting flies, the stinging flies, the mosquitoes, things like that. Sheep don't have that there. So a shepherd has to take care of a sheep. They just don't have the natural defenses against insects and parasites like that. We'll talk about that a little bit later on.

The fourth thing that sheep need is they need to be free from hunger. Free from hunger because sheep are not able to rest if they are still hungry. Hunger makes the sheep restless, makes them irritable. Kind of like us if we've missed a meal. As well, if sheep are hungry, they're going to be restless. They're going to be wandering around looking for a few bites of grass, something to eat there. It's very interesting about all four of these points here. There are two interesting facets to every one of these four points. The first of these is that every one of these has application within the church. To us, as God's sheep, people need to be free from fear. They need to be free from friction, from people who want to butt and shove and elbow their way to the top.

People don't need things that bug them, that irritate them there. And they also need to be spiritually fed so that they're not hungry. And a second interesting fact is that among sheep, the shepherd needs to take care of all of these things for his flock, because the sheep can't do it themselves. The sheep don't control these things. The sheep are helpless against the insects, the parasites. The sheep, well, they can try to go out and find their own pastures, but what's going to happen is they're going to wander off in the desert and starve to death. So the sheep can't do these things for themselves. The shepherd needs to. Now, human beings, however, are somewhat different from sheep in that we can control our feelings, our thoughts, our impulses.

We aren't led by instinct alone, as sheep do, as sheep are. We don't need to fear because we know we have a shepherd who is in charge. We can control ourselves, our impulses, so that we don't push and shove and try to get to the top of things. We can control what things we allow to bug us, or to what extent we allow them to bug us, by our attitudes. We can also partake of the spiritual food that God provides, and appreciate it and use it in our lives. So we do have control. Unlike the sheep driven by instinct, we have control over our attitudes and how we control these things. So we do have our part to play in helping our congregations to be peaceful and productive environments for everyone in the flock. Now continuing back here in Psalm 23 and verse 2, we read here, He makes me to lie down in green pastures. And I talked about this on the Holy Day. I talked about what green pastures means in a desert environment in the Middle East. And I would like to review that now, cover essentially the same material, because it is such a key part to understanding so many lessons that we learn from this psalm. And also I see several people who weren't there and did not hear that sermon, so this will be new to you. And I learned this background, as I explained in the sermon on Tuesday, learned it from an American scholar who has made multiple, multiple trips to Israel, to the Middle East, Jordan, Egypt, Israel, studying the culture of the Bible times there. And years ago, he was in Israel on a college study program about the desert. And he and his classmates, this is a college-level program, are out sleeping, spending all their time out in the desert to learn about the many scriptural references to desert. And they're out there one night, overnight in the desert.

And as he describes the story, he wakes up in the morning, he hears this rustling over on a hillside, and he wakes up and he sees a sight like this. He sees this flock of sheep and goats and a couple of shepherds going up this hillside there. And as he is watching, he would see the sheep move along. You can see they all have their heads down. And what he would see is the sheep would bend down to a rock, and it would look like they're munching away down there. And then they would take a few steps to another rock. They would bend their muzzle down and go to the next rock a few feet away. And they would just do this, going across the hillside, as you see exactly as they're doing right there. And he's looking at the scene, and he thinks to himself the obvious question, what are these sheep eating? Are they rock eating sheep? And he's there pondering this question here because he doesn't see any grass there. And about that time, one of the other students, an Israeli college student who's in the class, wakes up and the American, you know, gets the attention of the Israelis, says, what's going on here? What are those sheep eating? And the Israeli explains that this setting where they were in is about 30 miles from the Mediterranean Sea. And in the afternoon, early evening, these breezes would come from the Mediterranean with moisture in them. And during the heat of the day, the desert is very hot, the sand is hot, the rocks are hot, the dirt is hot, everything is hot. And these breezes with moisture in them would come over in the afternoon and evening, and a few drops of moisture would condense out of that breeze and onto these hot rocks.

And literally overnight, blades of grass about four or five inches high would spring up from those few drops of moisture from the air there. And this was the explanation. So what happens then is the sheep, excuse me, the shepherd brings his sheep and goats through in the morning, to a hillside where the moist breezes have gone over during the previous afternoon and evening, and the sheep will go along from rock to rock, picking up a mouthful of grass here, and just a few blades of grass at a time. They'll go through and get a mouthful at this rock, take a few steps to the next rock, get a few more blades of grass, and then several more feet away, and this is what they eat, and that is what keeps them alive. And all they get is just one mouthful at a time, and then they move on. So shepherding is taking the sheep from one tuft of grass to the next rock, and its tuft of grass to the next one, and so on. So the American student then asked the Israeli student, what do you call this? And the Israeli student responded in Hebrew, a pair referring to Psalm 23, the Lord leads me into green pastures.

Referring to Psalm 23, the Lord leads me into green pastures. And the Israeli explained that in the Israeli desert context, this is what green pastures means. And as I've mentioned before, this is a desert image. The desert environment is the green pastures for the sheep and the shepherd there. You know, I never envisioned it that way. When I read about green pastures all these years, I envisioned a scene like this, these sheep there with, you know, belly-deep grass, flower shade, cool streams running through it, that sort of thing. And we can think there's a danger that people can get disappointed because we think when we're called by God that everything's going to be fine. We're just, you know, life is a bed of roses after that. We're in our green pastures. We're in this very lush grass, all, you know, cool streams gurgling by, all the shade that we want. Life's going to be great for us from that point on. But is that the way it is? Does that describe your life since God has called you and began working for you? Probably not. Maybe so. And if so, count your blessings. Praise God. Thank Him for that. Maybe there are times when it has been that way. But life has its ups and downs, as we talked about in the sermon on Tuesday. It has its rocky paths. It has its desert heat, the blistering hot sun, beating down on us. And sometimes we just don't know whether we're going to make it or not. But then, look at these sheep. Are they worried?

No, they're not worried because they've got a mouthful of grass.

And beyond that mouthful of grass, they have something else. They have a shepherd.

And they know that that shepherd is going to lead them from one mouthful of grass to the next mouthful to the next mouthful. And they don't need to worry about it because they have a shepherd that cares for them. It's the shepherd's job to take the sheep out to the right hillside where they can find that grass and get one mouthful and another mouthful and another mouthful. And the shepherd knows where to find enough grass to keep the whole flock taken care of. Now, if the sheep get lost, if they choose not to follow the shepherd, if they wander out in search of their own pastures in a desert, what happens?

They're probably going to end up lost, and they're going to die there in the desert.

And this is Psalm 23 in a desert setting. It's describing shepherding. They're in the desert, shepherding practices there. It's not talking about North America with our lush, lush pastures.

And sometimes you can go up in the mountains here in the summertime. June, July, August, you'll see sheep up there in the mountains in this lush, lush green path, green fields up there.

But that's not what it's talking about. It's talking about the Middle East, not North America.

And the picture here is, as long as you have a shepherd, that shepherd is going to take care of you, so long as you are following that shepherd. And once your mouthful of grass is gone, that shepherd is going to lead you to the next mouthful. He's going to take care of you.

But it will only be enough to deal with what's happening in your life right now.

He doesn't give us everything that we want, but he does give us everything we need. And that is the picture of life in the desert. All God has promised us is green pastures. But the green pastures of the desert, of a desert setting, that means just enough to deal with what is going on in our lives right now. Because if we have everything that we need, everything that we want, why do we need God? We don't need God. That's a lesson that ancient Israel and Judah learned the hard way. They moved from the desert, the 40 years of wandering in the desert, into the promised land, the land of honey, agriculturally productive, and what happened? They forgot God. And God eventually had to drive them out into captivity, as He did the nations before them. So we have to learn to have faith in our shepherd and to follow Him. That's why God wants to take us, needs to take us into the deserts of life at times. Not because it's easy there, but because it's not easy there. Because we have to learn faith. That's where we come to know God. Not just know about God. And we have to learn behind the shadow of doubt that unless God is taking care of us, we're going to fail. We're not going to make it. So that is what David is talking about in this whole psalm here. Continuing on here, let's pick it up here in the lighter part of verse 2. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters.

Question for you. Where do you find water in the desert?

Where do you find water in the desert? A number of references to it in the Bible.

And also, what is the significance of still waters? Not just waters, but still waters.

What does that mean? There aren't many sources of water in the desert, but there are a few. Again, we find some of these in Scripture. One of them is wells. You might think back reading the account of Abraham. There were times where his herdsmen, his shepherds, taking care of Abraham's flocks of sheep and goats, his herdsmen would get into conflict with the herdsmen of other groups, other tribes, other towns nearby. They would have conflicts over the wells. And sometimes Abraham would just say, okay, the well is yours. I'll leave this resource and keep peace. I'll go somewhere else, or I'll have my servants dig their own wells. So wells are a very valuable resource.

They're in the desert. That conflict shows the scarcity of this resource there in the desert.

There are also occasional references to springs in the desert. And there aren't many of them, but you can guarantee that every shepherd knew where these springs were. In the desert is a very valuable resource there. Sometimes the springs were large enough to support streams in the desert if the water flow was enough, or if it was in the rainy season, and it's raining up in the mountains miles away, yet the water would filter down during rainy season, and some of these springs would have enough water output to create streams in the desert occasionally. So there are a few of those, but again, those are quite rare. There are also sometimes puddles and streams of water in the desert as a result of flash floods. Every so often here in the Dews we will hear about some hiker or tourist who gets drowned in a flash flood in the desert here in Colorado or in Utah or New Mexico or Arizona. I've been to one particular canyon in Arizona where I believe it was eight European tourists drowned about 12-15 years ago. They got caught in a canyon. It rained about 15 miles away. Weather was perfectly clear where they were. And a flash flood came through this canyon and drowned them. Washed several of the bodies out into Lake Powell, which some of you are familiar with. A number of the bodies they never found just buried under tons of silt and sand, apparently in that canyon.

And one of the problems in the desert is you can be hiking along in a dry wadi. A wadi is a Gulch Canyon, we might call it, an Arroyo Ravine, something like that. And it can be bone dry where you're walking. And it can literally rain 20 miles away, not a cloud in the sky from where you are. But it can rain 20 miles away. And because the desert environment is basically solid rock and sand that doesn't retain the water, the water just runs off the surface, runs down into the canyons. And you can be hiking along, and next thing you know, you're in this totally dry canyon like this, and next thing you know there's a 20-foot wall of water the size of the inside of this room, rushing down a canyon toward you. And it's too steep for you to get out, and what happens? You drown. There, that's why they say if you're going to hike in the desert, always watch the weather forecast and be very careful about that. Some areas they won't even let you into specific areas because of the danger of flash flooding there. So it is a very real danger. This happens here in the United States, and it happens in Israel. You actually see the warning signs about flash flooding in Israel. They're in Hebrew. It doesn't do a lot of tourists much good. But you see that.

And when these flash floods come through, they do leave these pools of water. For a while, for several days, maybe up to several weeks in the bottom of these waddings, where this huge amount of water has rushed through. And how does this pertain to sheep? Well, it creates a danger for sheep because sheep out in the desert can smell this water, so they will wander down into these waddies to get some of this nice refreshing water that's down there in the bottom. And they won't realize that it's flood season. And they won't be aware of the danger that it can rain miles away, and suddenly a flash flood can come and wash the sheep away and drown them. And they'll die there in that watery waddy because suddenly this huge wall of water can come rushing through like that.

And this gives rise to the Hebrew expression that we see here about quiet waters or peaceful waters or still waters, depending on the translation that you look at. The issue is not still in the sense of whether the water is moving or not, but what it means is quiet waters or still waters means water that you can drink safely because it's not at the bottom of a waddy, and it's not going to kill you because the location of that water is dangerous.

If a shepherd is there with his sheep, he's aware of the danger. He can smell the rain. He can look off and see in the distance if there are clouds around. So if there's a shepherd there, the shepherd knows whether the water source is safe or not. A sheep doesn't know that. A sheep would see some water like this and just go and hang out around there for several days because he's got nice, fresh water there. And in the end, it can cost the sheep its life. He doesn't know that a flash flood can come along there and wash him away. So when David writes here that the shepherd leads me beside the still waters, the Hebrew literally means here quiet waters or waters of quietness, meaning that when the shepherd tells me that I ought to drink, that I can do that safely. It's safe. It won't kill me if I'm drinking waters from the wrong place. And this has many applications to life in general.

There are a lot of things out there that look good, that look so appealing to us.

And yet at the end, it's dangerous and it can kill us. A lot of things look to us like these pools of water at the bottom of a wadi. And we'll go to drink of that source, not realizing that it's dangerous, that it's spiritually dangerous, emotionally dangerous, mentally dangerous. We'd better be paying attention to the shepherd who tells us that, yes, this may look good, but it can take your life. And we'd better be paying attention when the shepherd says, here, this is what is really good for you. This is safe for you. This is the right path to walk in because it won't hurt you. It won't endanger your life and the process. And this is a powerful image because it shows that we, like sheep, don't know what is always right, and best, and safe for us. We don't recognize the things that are dangerous for us without a shepherd telling us which water is right and good, and which water may kill us, because we don't recognize the danger. So again, it's a desert picture here about the still waters, just as the green pastures is a desert picture. Let's continue on here in Psalm 23. The next phrase is, he restores my soul. He restores my soul. And what is that talking about? We may be thinking, well, if Christ is my shepherd, why would my soul, my life, need to be restored? What does it need to be restored from? What's this talking about here? The idea here is that a sheep has wandered off in the desert and gotten itself in deep trouble. Life risking trouble, in other words, and has to be rescued by the shepherd. In the wilderness, we're starting to see there are a lot of dangers.

Some that sheep would recognize, some that they wouldn't. Sheep aren't the rocket scientists of the animal world. They're fairly dumb. They don't remember a lot of lessons there. So a shepherd always has to be alert to the various dangers that a sheep will face. Let's notice one of the dangers that I think is being referred to here, Psalm 42 and verse 11. Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, the health of my countenance and my God. This is one of the hymns that we sing about in our hymnal here. But I'd like to draw our attention to this phrase here, cast down, because this is a particular shepherding term for a sheep that gets into a particular type of trouble. Sheep, again, aren't the smartest creatures. They're not the most sturdy, the most agile, the most coordinated of animals. Sometimes a sheep will lay down. They'll find maybe a fairly cool patch in the shade, a little depression that's a little cooler than the other dirt or sand around it. And they'll lay down. And because sheep do have this thick wool over them, they kind of shape like a big ball.

You know, kind of imagine yourself surrounded by pillows or something. And they will lay down and maybe roll on their side, and their center of gravity shifts, and they will roll over on their back, kind of like a turtle. And they're stuck there with their legs up in the air, and they don't have the agility and the musculature to shift around their weight and to get some traction with their hooves and get back upright. They're laying there like a turtle on its back with their legs up in the air. And what happens to a sheep in that situation? This is what is referred to as a sheep being cast down. They're down, they've fallen, and they can't get up.

They literally cannot get up. A sheep is in great peril in a case like this, because think of a sheep out in the desert. Next time a hyena or a jackal or a leopard or something comes along, the sheep is literally dead meat, totally defenseless, like this. Also, in a desert environment, the sheep are caught like that. They have difficulty breathing for various physiological reasons, don't have time to get into. So they'll start to panic. They'll wrestle around, they'll flail around trying to get their footing, and they'll exhaust themselves and get overheated. And within a few hours the sheep can die, unless the shepherd comes to rescue the sheep in a case like that. That's why it's important for a shepherd to know where his sheep are, and to keep count of his sheep at all times so that none are missing. Maybe the shepherd is out in the desert and realizes he's got a sheep missing, and he looks up and sees a few buzzards circling around, getting ready to do what buzzards do, which is take care of a sheep like this.

So the shepherd has to go out when a sheep is missing and find it, otherwise that sheep is going to die there in the wilderness. And we actually find this referred to in one of Christ's parables of the lost sheep. In Luke 15, verses 4-6, Christ says, What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, doesn't leave the ninety-nine where again in the wilderness in the desert, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it. And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found by sheep which was lost. I notice here what the shepherd does when he finds his sheep. What does it say he does? He picks up the sheep and puts it on his shoulders. Why does he do that? Because the sheep is totally exhausted from flailing around out there, panicked, being lost, overheated, having difficulty breathing there in the desert.

So what the shepherd has to do when he goes out and finds his sheep in the desert, he has to take it first of all, roll it back on its upright so it can breathe again, normally, because all the internal organs, all that, helps the sheep calm down. He'll say reassuring words to the sheep to calm it down. Then he'll gently coax it back up onto its legs there. He'll stand over it and straddle it a lot of times and help it upright so the sheep is no longer panicked and can start to breathe normally again. However, because the animal is exhausted and panicked from all that exertion, he will then pick up the sheep, put it over his shoulders, and return it and restore it to the flock. Again, it's very much a desert picture. And Christ even refers to here the sheep that is lost in the wilderness there. So Jesus is here describing, I believe, a sheep that has been cast down and has to be rescued and restored to the flock. And, of course, on the human level that can happen to us, too. Is God's sheep? That we can find ourselves in circumstances where we've done something dumb or gotten ourselves into a bad situation where we are essentially trapped. And we're going to die, we're going to perish, if the shepherd doesn't come and rescue us and restore us here. So the shepherd has to come along and rescue us lest we perish. This is what is being described here. Continuing back here in Psalm 23, in verse 3, after he restores my soul, it says, he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Now, what are these paths of righteousness? Let's notice first, as it says here, the shepherd leads me as a sheep. In the desert, this is very important, and sheep are programmed to follow. To follow a shepherd, it's very much in the nature of sheep to follow, unlike the goats that are going off over the landscape there. The sheep, it's wired, programmed into them by instinct to follow the shepherd. Now, in the desert, this is very important here because in the desert, there are, as we've talked about, wadis and gulches that crisscross the desert. If you've spent time out in the desert of Utah or California or Colorado, you've seen this type of landscape. Some of these canyons can be hundreds of feet deep, literally there. So a shepherd has to be very careful where he leads his sheep so that they don't stray off and follow off. You can actually see, hopefully you can make it out, you can actually see some paths. Notice these little faint white lines along there that are animal paths. These are probably for desert ibex or wild goats or something, but you can imagine bringing a flock of sheep along there in that drop-off there. It can be very dangerous for the sheep. So the shepherd walks out in front and the sheep will follow him.

Every shepherd has to be very careful where he leads his sheep so that they don't fall off here. The shepherd can't just walk anywhere he wants because he knows the sheep are going to follow him. So if he starts climbing up a slope that is too steep going up or going down, he has to be careful because the sheep are just going to follow him. If it gets too steep, they'll lose their footing and roll down the hillside there, break a leg, bruise, injure themselves, that sort of thing. So the shepherd has to choose a safe path that he knows the sheep can follow safely. A problem with us as human beings as sheep is sometimes we don't want to be led.

We want to choose our own way. We think we have a better way of doing it. And again, that's the reason why Christ talks about the sheep and the goats separating them at the time of the end. They are the time of judgment because goats always want to choose their own path as opposed to following the path of the shepherd. Goats will again go here, there, anywhere, everywhere across the landscape, and anywhere but following the shepherd. And eventually we see from Scripture they pay the price for those choices and refusing to follow the shepherd.

So this is what is being talked here about the shepherd leading the sheep. Next in Psalm 23 and verse 4 says, yeah, I might, yeah, I skipped over part of it there, paths of righteousness. It's not talking about sheep being righteous, but basically just a right path, a safe path, as opposed to a very curvy, circuitous path. The sheep, the shepherd, well, generally in the desert, if it's safe, choose a straight-line path because it doesn't exhaust the sheep wandering all over the landscape. So it's a right path is would be a better way of translating this here. Continuing on, verse 4, yea, 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.

This also is very much a desert setting here. Now, it's interesting the word says here the valley of the shadow of death. The word death really isn't there in the Hebrew, that's some of these interpretation of that. And what a, it could probably be more accurately translated, not valley, we think this nice pleasant valley is where used to here in the United States. You might think of a ravine or a deep canyon like we've talked about earlier.

Again, these deep gulches and wadis that crisscross the desert there.

And what happens is as the sun starts to go down in the afternoon, what happens in the wadis?

Well, they get filled with deep shadows. They're deep dark shadows, and that's what this is talking about here. The shadows get longer, the wadis get darker. And particularly if you're walking along in this type of environment, you can see a trail here as well. And it's starting to get dark. The sheep aren't necessarily going to see their footing as well. You as a shepherd aren't necessarily going to see your footing as well. And it's easy for the animals to wander off and fall off into one of these canyons or wadis. And maybe they're so steep that again an animal breaks its leg or something and dies down there. Or it falls down into a canyon and can't find its way back out. And they get eaten by the predators there in the desert. So there are a lot of things for the sheep to fear. There is darkness comes. Also, what happens when it gets dark? Well, that's when the desert predators come out. The jackals, the hyenas, the leopards, the snakes, the scorpions, things like that. So nighttime is a dangerous place to be out in the desert there. Notice, as we read earlier as well, that before verse 3, the shepherd leads me in the pass of righteousness. But notice what is happening now. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. First, the shepherd is out front leading the flock. But now the shepherd is with the sheep. And this happens in the desert in the afternoons. As it starts getting dark, the shepherd, instead of being out in front of the sheep with him following, will drop back and be surrounded by the sheep. The sheep are now with the shepherd. So close he can reach out and touch them. He's kind of in the center of this flock of sheep right there. And he needs to do that to reassure the sheep, to make sure they're on a safe path, to make sure there are no predators around that are going to pick off a sheep that's out there by itself. Something like that. He has to be right there to keep them safe. And that's why the sheep, as it says here, fear no evil because their shepherd is with them. The shepherd is right there protecting them, guiding them in the right pants.

Next, it says here, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. We might think a rod and a staff are the same thing, but they're two very different tools for very different purposes that a shepherd uses. The rod, and here's a photo taken about a hundred years ago there in the Holy Land. And notice this shepherd has this about two foot long club there. Notice the big knot on the end of it. That is a shepherd's rod. That is the rod that is being talked about here. It is used to protect the sheep, not to discipline them, not to beat them, certainly. You might remember I mentioned earlier about David killing a lion and a bear. That story is told, this again is where he's getting ready to confront Goliath, and he's having this conversation with King Saul in 1 Samuel 17, 34 through 36. But David said to Saul, your servant used to keep his father's sheep. And when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth. And when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. Your servant is killed, both lion and bear. And this uncircumcised Philistine, referring to Goliath, will be like one of them, seeing as how, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God. What I wanted to draw your attention here is, how did David kill the lion and the bear? He struck it. He struck and killed it. What did he strike it with? His bare fist? With his sling? You know, a soft piece of leather? No. He struck it with this rod, the shepherd's tool that he uses to protect his flock. And he managed to beat a bear and a lion to death with this club. Probably by grabbing them by his beard, as it says here, probably the lion's hairy part under his chin and probably clubbed them over the head until he killed them.

A lion and a bear. And again, David's 10 to 12 years old at this point.

Pretty gutsy guy. See how he had so much faith in God. A giant, nine-foot giant? Heck, I killed a lion and a bear. Giants, no problem. A man of great faith here, but this is the rod. The Bible has a number of different references to a rod being somebody who's used for punishment.

There you might think of Isaiah, where God, through Isaiah, prophesies that he will use Assyria as a rod to punish Israel for their rebellion against him. A rod is a deadly weapon in the hand of somebody who knows how to use it, as we see here from Scripture. The rod has another use as well, a much more benign use. We find this referred to in Ezekiel 20, verses 37 through 38.

And God says here, I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. It's used for inspecting and separating here. I will purge the rebels from among you and those who transgress against me. I will bring them out of the country where they dwell, but they will not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Eternal.

And what this is referring to here, of making an animal a sheep pass under the rod, is the shepherd would use his rod to inspect the sheep. He would take that rod, this two foot long club, and would rub against the grain of the wool of a sheep, which would lift up the wool, and allow the shepherd to see the quality of the wool of the animal, and also to see down to the animal's skin. To see if it has any parasites, any ticks, any injuries, any scabs, any skin infections, things like that. By rubbing this rod against the grain of the wool, he could lift it back and inspect the animal. So this is what is being referred to here. And as a consequence of this, also if the animal is clean and healthy, good quality wool, no injuries, no ticks, no parasites, the animal passes inspection. However, if the animal does have infections or wounds or injuries, or the quality of the wool is not good, it can be separated out, cold out, from the rest of the herd. So this is the process that is referred to as passing under the rod of the shepherd there. So it is again used to inspect and to separate or to segregate the good animals from the bad. As we see referred to metaphorically here. So let's talk about the second tool. That's the rod. The second tool that the shepherd uses is the staff. It's the traditional shepherd's crook that you've seen in pictures for years and years. A rod that has a crook in the end of it. Maybe four or five up to six, seven, eight feet long there. And this is generally a straight pole, except for this curved part at the end. And it was used primarily in three different ways.

It was used to lift newborn lambs and guide them to their mother.

Like a lot of animals, you probably read this if you're out in the woods hiking and you come across what appears to be an abandoned baby animal. Maybe a small deer or something or birds, rabbits. You're told not to pick them up and handle them and take them home.

Because the mother hasn't abandoned the animal, she's just gone off feeding somewhere and is keeping an eye out. But if you get your scent, your human scent on that baby deer or rabbit or bird or something like that, the animal's mother will abandon it.

Because it's lost its scent, it now smells like a person and they don't have anything to do with it. The same is true of sheep as well. So when a newborn is born, what the shepherd will do is use that crook to reach out and help the lamb to its feet and gently guide it with this crook, this staff, to its mother so the lamb can start nursing from its mother and bond with its mother there without the human scent. Another way that it's used is for the sheep, as I mentioned before, are very timid, easily scared. Some sheep are by nature more timid so the shepherd can reach out with that crook and gently grab a sheep around the neck or around one of its legs and pull it to him so he can inspect it, see if it's injured, take care of it, that sort of thing there. So it's used to draw the sheep to the shepherd where the sheep otherwise would not be willing to do that.

And it's also used the third way here to guide the sheep. If the shepherd is out there with the sheep and the sheep starts going off in the wrong direction or maybe approaching a poisonous plant or something like that, the shepherd can reach out with his crook and nudge the sheep in the side or poke it in its ribs or something like that to steer it back on the right path. So the important thing to remember about both the rod and the staff is that all of these connote tender care and protection of the sheep and thus they are a comfort to the sheep. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. The sheep isn't afraid of the rod, it isn't afraid of the staff, it knows the shepherds are using those tools for the benefit and the comfort of the sheep. And next, and we're getting close to wrapping up here, verses 5 and 6. I'll cover this fairly quickly here, but it concludes here, verses 5 and 6. You prepare a table before me and 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 Eternal forever. There are two different views as to what this is referring to. Both of them are desert images again. One is that this, one views that this is continuing to describe the sheep's view of the shepherd. And so the table that is prepared before the sheep is referring to the green pastures that we've talked about. The pasture land, the food that the shepherd leads the animal to. And table is figurative of the shepherd providing a place for the sheep to eat. And then in the presence of my enemies would refer to the shepherd, as we see here, standing up and keeping watch over the flock, keeping an eye out for predators, for hyenas, wolves, jackals, snakes, anything like that that might threaten the enemies, in other words, of the sheep. If this is still referring to sheep, it says, you anoint my head with oil. That is one way to deal with the parasites and insects. It would bug sheep. They would put olive oil with a mixture of minerals and spices in it that would either kill or prevent the flies from gathering around the eyes and the mouth and muzzle of the sheep.

Would keep them from nesting and laying their eggs there and threatening the life and the health and the sanity of the sheep there. So that is what this might refer to, as well as anointing a sheep with oil for wounds, for injuries, for infections, diseases, that sort of thing. And also the cup running over, my cup runs over, would refer to the shepherd giving a fatigued sheep water to drink, maybe cupping water in his hands and holding it up for the sheep to drink, or perhaps a leather bag or something to give water to the sheep to quench its thirst. And then verse 6 refers to the sheep living contentedly in the presence of the shepherd, knowing that it's being taken care of by a shepherd who loves the sheep and cares for it. Now to me, the wording of these last two verses refers to a different desert image, and I'll explain why as I go along. I think it's more likely describing another picture from the desert, and that is the hospitality of a Bedouin tent.

Bedouin, again, is Arabic for desert. Bedouin is somebody who lives in the desert. It's people who wander in the desert. And by the time David has written this psalm about a thousand BC, the Bedouin lifestyle has been in existence for at least a thousand years. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah were Bedouin. Their lifestyle is living in tents, traveling around with their herds of flocks and goats and camels. There they are, Bedouin. If you want to see how Abraham lived, you can go to Israel or Jordan and see the Bedouin living out in the desert with life unchanged.

Since 4,000 years ago. So, part of this culture, some important aspects that tie in with this, one of them is they prized hospitality. Again, you might think back to Abraham and Sarah when God is going to destroy Sodom and what happens? These three strangers, three divine messengers, show up at the tent of Abraham and Sarah, and what do they do? They immediately fix them a big meal. It is part of the hospitality of the Bedouin culture that exists to this day. It goes back 4,000 years again. Another aspect of that culture is that if you were the guest in someone's tent, the host was obligated to protect you from any enemies around, even at the cost of the host's life. The host would literally give up his life to protect someone who was in his tent as a guest.

Of course, we understand that David is pursued by his enemies, a significant portion of his life.

Here is why I think this is a more accurate view of what is being described here.

Actually, let me back up here. Again, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

This Hebrew word can mean a literal table, but it actually comes from a root that means to spread out something. That's why I think it's referring to the type of scene we see here, where it can refer to something being spread out on a mat, or a blanket, or fabric, or leather, or something like this, as we see the traditional meal in a Bedouin tent. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. David is talking about being in this tent where the host is obligated to protect him. Now, in whose tent is this describing? Well, it's talking about God. He's in God's tent here. And again, God is going to provide total protection. He's going to not only give David a very sumptuous, delicious, generous meal, but he's going to protect him from all of his enemies. It's also common in a setting like this in the desert, when a guest comes into the tent to anoint him with oil, perfumed oil in particular, because after all, they live in the desert. It's a hot environment. You get sweaty. You get smelly. So, the perfumed oil would be refreshing. It would make you smell nice, smell good. There again, so I think this is what is being referred to by anointing my head with oil. And my cup runs over, is referring to the host giving the guest all of the water, wine, tea, to Slakie's thirst, giving it to him very generously, as a show of hospitality and generosity. And then verse 6 says, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Eternal forever. And I think this is continuing with this theme, that in God's presence, the writer of this psalm is safe from all enemies. He's being protected by the host. He is secure in every way.

And all he is experiencing is God's goodness, God's mercy, that we see here. And also, another point is, this is the house. I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. House, this Hebrew word I've mentioned it before, is bet. It's spelled like bet, B-E-T, pronounced bet. It means, it has a broad range of meanings. It can mean house, household, home, can mean temple, can mean property, can mean a tent, can mean, I would say it's kind of generically, a place that what David is saying here, I will dwell in the place of the Lord, whatever place that might be, or be in God's presence, is the point that he's making, that he is going to dwell in the presence of God, as it says here, forever.

And to live with God forever means that David knows that he is going to live forever, that he is going to be resurrected, that he is going to receive God's gift of eternal life, and he will live forever with his loving shepherd. So this psalm starts off with, the Lord is my shepherd.

And it ends in complete confidence that he will live with his loving shepherd forever in eternity of blessing and goodness and mercy. And that is God's promise from the ultimate shepherd who loves his sheep and wants to live forever with us in his kingdom.