God's Care in a Crisis; Psalm 23

God's Care in a Crisis; Psalm 23 - September 21, 2008

Hurricane Ike Special

The 23^rd Psalm is one of the most frequently recited psalms, one of the most commonly memorised, a favourite of numerous people, but it has reached that level of fame because it truly represents basic key principles related to the character of God and our confidence in God, and how God provides for us.

In this psalm David has taken the time to meditate. He takes this metaphor of God being a shepherd who has been a part of Israel’s history since Genesis 49, one of the first references to God as the shepherd of Israel. There are other references to God as the shepherd of Israel leading them out of Egypt at the Exodus, taking them through the wilderness, and as David has reflected on this broader imagery of God as the shepherd of Israel he has taken that as a personal application. It is not a statement that the Lord is a shepherd but he has taken that broad doctrinal principle and thought about it in terms of his own experience, his own circumstances, his own situation, and he has personalised that as “the Lord is my shepherd.” In the Hebrew he states it more forcefully because the verb isn’t there and it is simply “The Lord my shepherd.” He is stating a doctrinal reality, a truth. Now he is going to develop that as an extended metaphor in the first three verses. He leaves that metaphor in verse 4 and in vv. 4-6 changes the tone a little. He still uses the shepherd metaphor in the background of verse 4 with the rod and staff, but then he shifts that to the presence of heaven and more directly applies that to God in vv. 5, 6.

How David is thinking can easily be transferred to us in any circumstance of adversity so that we can learn to think about God in the same way, following the same pattern of thinking. As we read this it seems that David has spent a lot of time reflecting on the nature of God’s provision and protection for him. In terms of God’s provision for him David is struck by the expansiveness, the richness of God’s provision; God’s grace is truly sufficient. That word “sufficient” does not mean barely enough, it means more than enough; that however God supplies for us, whatever circumstance or situation, God’s grace always supplies more than enough. Part of the issue in grace orientation is learning to really take advantage of all that God has supplied for us; so many of us are just so weak at really exploiting God’s grace in our life.

Introductory observations:

We see that God’s name is mentioned twice—vv. 1 & 6, at the beginning and the end, so it brackets the doctrine with the name of God. It is the sacred Tetragrammaton, YHWH, and it focuses on God’s special relationship to Israel as the covenant God of Israel. As part of that God had a special relationship with David through His covenant with David, which may or may not have been made by the time this was written. One of the interesting things about the 23^rd psalm is that it doesn’t give us any historical context. There is nothing within the psalm that orients us to a particular situation in David’s life. One of the beauties of this psalm is that it has distilled these doctrinal principles and they are easily transferable for us in any kind of adversity or difficulty. As it expresses David’s confidence in God’s provision we can easily re-transfer that over to our circumstances and understand that God’s provision and protection is just as real for us and just as sufficient for us as it was for David.

As this is structured there is a division between verse 3 and verse 4. The first three verses are linked together and the second three verses are linked together. We see that by the way he refers to God. In the first three verses God is referred to more impersonally in terms of a third person pronoun: The Lord is my shepherd, He makes me lie down, He leads me beside the still waters, He restores my soul, He leads me in paths of righteousness; it is all third person. In the second part, beginning in v. 4, he shifts from the more impersonal third person to the more personal second person: You – Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me…You prepare a table before me, you anoint my head with oil. It is a much more intimate relationship to God. What we see here is a principle that we can transfer in terms of our own experience as we think through circumstances. What David is doing is stating the objective principle about God, the doctrinal principle, in the first three verses. Then he is applying them to his own circumstances more directly in the second three verses. So the principle there is that first we have to stop and think in terms of objective reality, objective principles that are laid out in God’s Word. Then we move to applying those principles to our circumstances.

There is a movement within the psalm as the psalmist thinks through who God is, what He has done, His provision and protection for us; and he unpacks the metaphor for us of God being a shepherd. This is laid out in Scripture again and again where the shepherding metaphor is used, and so he thinks about that and reflects. What does a shepherd do? How does the shepherd lead, guide, provide, protect for his flock. How does that apply to God in terms of His character, His essence. So it gives us this pattern of how we can think through the character of God and move from doctrinal absolutes, doctrinal principles, universal truths of Scripture, and then take them and apply them to our own lives. This helps us to face whatever crises or challenges that we face.

Overall what the psalmist is doing is expressing his confidence in God and God’s sufficient provision and protection. This brings up the idea of faith. Even though faith is not mentioned here this embodies the faith-rest drill. It pictures for us how we are to trust God and in the midst of whatever problems we face we can have a relaxed mental attitude.

The background for this is really dealing with suffering. One way we categorise suffering is to talk about deserved and undeserved suffering. Deserved suffering is simply that which is related to our own volition, to the decisions we make. We make bad decisions based on our own sin nature and as a result we often reap the consequences of those bad decisions. It is simple cause and effect. But when we face undeserved suffering we often wonder how God can let this happen. Undeserved suffering is related to two things: living in the devil’s world, and because we live in a fallen world all of the systems of nature are subject to calamity; and secondly, because we are associated with fallen people.

Another way we could possibly categorise suffering is in terms of personal suffering and group suffering. We have personal suffering when something happens that is just related to our own lives, our own circumstances; and then we can have group suffering when we have disasters such as a hurricane, an ice storm, or a disaster of economic consequences.

We have to learn the doctrine. We can’t apply what we don’t know, and we can’t truly learn something unless we have dedicated our thinking, our volition, and have made a commitment in our own soul that this is our priority. The problem with so many people is they take doctrine as just another detail of life as opposed to recognising that it is life. Doctrine is our very lifeline to every situation in life, and this is what builds strength in the soul. But we live in a world today where very few people have any measure of strength in their soul. What we learn from psalms such as this is that the only solution for our problems is the divine solution, and we have to fortify our souls with God’s Word. That is the starting point—to strengthen and fortify our souls. The New Testament uses the word “edification,” and that is what the word means; it strengthens and fortifies our souls so that whatever we go through, whatever we encounter in life, we have the mental stamina and fortitude to face the crisis without sitting on the panic button, without losing perspective, without having self-pity. We can just focus on the Word of God and begin to be proactive instead of being reactive.

When we get into this psalm there are six affirmations of confidence that are made at the very beginning.

First of all he talks about “Yahweh, my shepherd.”
He has no lack. It is the idea that I need nothing. God has provided everything.
God makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads my beside the still waters.
He restores my soul.
He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Psalm 23:1 ^NASB “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.” He begins with current realities and he ends up with dwelling in the house of the Lord forever. This is the orientation of God shepherding us from our temporal life on earth all the way into our eventual destination in heaven. The first idea of being a shepherd is that the shepherd is a leader, and God is the one who is leading. That is the element of shepherding that David is unpacking here—leads, guides, restores are leadership verbs. He is our sovereign, which means that if we are a child of God, a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, then God is the one who is in control of our life and He is directing us somewhere. So we can look at whatever circumstances come into our lives as circumstances that are not out of God’s control but in His control, and that whatever that circumstance may be there is something in the circumstance that God has for us to learn so that we can grow in terms of our own spiritual life.

As we look at these verbs they are also verbs that are frequently associated with God’s role toward Israel as God brought Israel out of Egypt and at the exodus He guided and directed them through the wilderness. So David has probably been reflecting upon that and applying it to his own life.

Psalm 23:2 ^NASB “He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.” Another thing we can observe as we look at these phrases as a whole, not just in terms of the individual words: “He makes me lie down in green pastures.” Lying down is a concept of resting, but it is where you rest—in green pastures; leading me beside still waters. Pastures provide sustenance; water provides sustenance, and the focal point here is on God’s Word. God’s Word is often compared to food. Jeremiah said: “I beheld your words and I did eat them.” Peter says in 1 Peter 2:2 that we are to desire the sincere milk of the Word that we may grow thereby. He concludes the epistle by saying we are to grow by grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So God provides the resources for growth.

Psalm 23:3 ^NASB “He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.” The third thing that he says here is that He restores his soul. The Hebrew word there is shub, the simple word for turning, returning, changing. It is the idea that God is going restore our soul when it has been harmed, hurt, distorted and warped by sin. Through His Word He is going to strengthen and restore it. Re-establishing is very much the idea here; He is the one who is going to enable us to recover from the damages of sin. Then He guides in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. The Hebrew word refers in many contexts to an encampment. But then it came to refer to certain kinds of trail. In Israel horizontal lines can be seen along the hillsides, and those lines are paths that the goats and the sheep take as they walk in circles around the hill looking for food. That is where this verb comes from. There is a path that has been created there by their constant walking in that circle. So David is saying that there is a clearly set out path there that has already been laid. It is like walking in the steps of the Holy Spirit that we have in Galatians chapter five. To follow the leadership of the Spirit the Spirit has to lay down the course before us. That course is laid down in the Word of God.

So David is saying in the first three verses of the 23^rd psalm that God is our leader, our director; as a shepherd He has supplied everything for us, nothing is left out. He has supplied us with the resources that we need for life: 2 Peter 1:3 ^NASB “seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.”

The conclusion: Psalm 23:4 ^NASB “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” The form in the Hebrew is stating an extreme situation—“even though” I am in the most extreme of circumstances. Even though I am in the most dangerous of circumstances that threaten my life I have complete confidence in God, I have no reason to fear, to be anxious or to worry. Notice the shift now: You—You are with me. The rod was the shepherd’s staff. The word also referred to a weapon, the shaft of a spear; it was something the shepherd would use for defence. It was this that David used when he attacked the lion and the bear. The second word, “staff,” was often a word which we might use as “cane,” something that would provide for a sick person, an elderly person, to lean on. It would sustain them, give them support. So the idea of both of these is protection from the rod and sustenance from the staff, so the picture here is that God sustains us in any and every circumstance. It is not just a meagre sustenance but a bountiful sustenance in terms of His grace provision.

Psalm 23:5 ^NASB “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.” Think about David being assaulted by the rebellious armies of Absolom. What he says is that God’s provision is so great that what I am thinking about is a banquet laid out in front of me, and I can sit and feast at the banquet of God’s grace in the midst of being attacked by my enemies. We can transfer that over to whatever circumstances or crises or calamities what might be in our lives. As we are in the midst of these crises God has given us a banquet of doctrinal realities to sustain us and to provide for us so that we can relax in the midst of the difficulties and enjoy God’s provision and His supply. It is abundant. The next two images deal with His blessing. Anointing the head, the cup running over: He gives more than enough. His sufficiency is not just barely enough, it is more than enough.

Conclusion: Psalm 23:6 ^NASB “Surely goodness and lovingkindness [God’s loyal love] will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” He has confidence in God.

This is the way we as believers can think through doctrinal principles in terms of the faith-rest drill and expressing our rest and confidence in Him. This teaches us that the way to have mental strength and stability in the midst of any crisis is to have already fortified our souls with the learning of doctrine and with its on-going practice, because God’s grace is always sufficient. We have already been blessed with every spiritual blessing and there is nothing that is lacking. God is our shepherd.