A Study of Psalm 23

Why is it significant? Of course, there’s a lot of shepherds. The Bible talks about a lot of different shepherds in scripture, but it’s so significant that this Psalm is the relationship between the Lord and a Christian and a believer, one of his sheep. And Jesus is not an ordinary shepherd. Jesus is not somebody who is just kind of a higher link like the Bible talks about. He really does care for the sheep.

And I want us to turn to John 10, John chapter 10 verse 12 and 13. John chapter 10 verse 12 and 13. So I’m just going to read the passage here, starting in, I’ll just start I guess in verse 7. It says, then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.

I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am calm that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is in higher link and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming and the wolf catcheth them and scattereth the sheep.

The higher link fleeeth because he is in higher link and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.

I’ll just end there. I want to focus on just the fact that, like again, the Bible talks about in higher links. Higher links are inferior. They are obviously paid to do a job, but they don’t care for the sheep. They don’t have the intimate, they didn’t pay for the sheep. They didn’t go to the market and inspect the sheep. They didn’t, they don’t care for it on a day-to-day basis.

They are just there to do a part-time job kind of thing. The Bible says in Jeremiah, just quickly I’ll talk about this, Jeremiah 23. Jeremiah I notice talks a lot about shepherds. Basically God, Jehovah is reprimanding the shepherds, the previous shepherds of Israel. He says, Well be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord. Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people.

Ye have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not visited them. Behold I will visit upon you the evil of your doing, saith the Lord. Of course there are other passages there, but basically also in verse Jeremiah 10-21 it says, For the pastors are become brutish and have not sought the Lord. Therefore they shall not prosper and all their flocks shall be scattered. It says in John chapter 10 verse 8, it says, All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers but the sheep did not hear them.

Jesus is the good shepherd. He cares for the sheep. He knows them and they know his voice. That’s the important part. Of course a hireling will do his job temporarily. He’ll have to fill in, but they don’t really recognize the voice of the shepherd. He can feed them and all that, but he doesn’t walk among the sheep. The sheep don’t hear his voice. They don’t recognize him.

That’s one of the attributes that makes the Lord being your shepherd so much different. If you’re one of God’s sheep, you will actually hear his voice. If you don’t hear his voice, then God says that you’re not one of his. Jesus is a good shepherd. He calls them all by name. Middle Eastern shepherds would actually do this. They would call their sheep one by one individually. Each sheep had an individual name a lot of times.

They would call them out. That’s how intimately they knew their sheep. It wasn’t just a whole flock of sheep. They knew each one. That’s amazing. It says in John 10, he leads them out. He brings them in. He’s the door of the sheepfold, but he will also lead them back out to the pastures. Just one quick note on the door is that the Bible says, no man cometh unto the Father but by me.

Jesus is the door of the sheep. If you don’t come through the door, then you haven’t come to Christ. You have to come through the door. Of course, we have people in church. There’s a lot of people in church, not necessarily here today, but just that a lot of people have religion. They think they’re a sheep, but if you haven’t come through the door, which is Jesus Christ, you are not one of his.

You need to make sure that you come through the door. The Bible says in John 10, it says he lays down his life for the sheep. This is the kind of shepherd that he is. That’s why the Lord being a shepherd is so much different. No other shepherd will lay down his life for the sheep. That’s just one thing that I wanted to highlight. Also being a sheep, we think about this, we don’t like to think of ourselves as sheep because we’re independent, especially as Americans.

We want to be independent. We want to do things for ourselves. We don’t want to have people telling us what to do or that kind of thing. We think we can make it on our own. If we say the Lord is my shepherd, that means we have to assume the role of a sheep. We have to be that sheep, which means that we have to recognize God as our owner, as our manager, as our leader.

We can’t just have our own way on things. We belong to Christ, not only because he created us, but because he bought us. Just with the shepherd, he goes to the market and buys a sheep. We are bought with a price, the Bible says. We have that specific relationship. It’s not just going to the pig pen. We don’t live in a pig pen. We’re sheep. We live amongst the flock.

We have a sheep fold, but we get led out and actually into a lot of freedom. We get to walk around and we get to be led by our shepherd everywhere we go. That’s the picture that’s being presented here. To be one of Christ’s sheep is to belong to a flock, the most exclusive, well-loved, well-taken-care-of group of creatures in the entire world. We’re so much different. We’re not better than other people, but we have exclusive access to the Lord God Almighty.

We are one of his sheep. That’s just a really amazing thought. I want to go to the second part of that verse. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, which means to lack. It doesn’t mean not wanting anything like I don’t desire anything. It doesn’t mean that God will give us everything we want or could wish for, but it just means that we won’t lack anything that the Lord says is good for us.

God provides for our every need. This doesn’t mean God gives us everything we want. Christians across the globe have gone through tremendous suffering and even death for the cause of Christ. The people of God have endured unimaginable pain and hardship that many unbelievers never experience. Even David the Psalmist spent a significant portion of his life on the run from Saul and even his own son, Absalom. He knew that through all his difficulties and the fear of death, God was his reward, comfort, and strength.

All his spiritual needs could be met in Jehovah. This is really important because this Psalm is not talking about, of course, God meets our needs here on earth a lot of times for the physical, practical things we need, but primarily this Psalm is not talking about those. It’s talking about the spiritual needs that we have in relation to God. We have to keep that in mind because we will get disillusioned if we think that God will give us even a lot of the things that we would consider needs on earth.

There’s a lot of Christians who have gone to the death even for things that they wonder where God is at, but God as our shepherd will always provide for what we need.

The second verse is, He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. This is something that is interesting about sheep. There are four requirements that have to be met before sheep can be made to lie down. They don’t just lie down anywhere. They have to be free from fear, so like predators, things that would startle them, free from friction or tension with other sheep, free from irritation from pests, flies, and then also free from hunger.

If they’re lying down, they’re not hungry anymore, so they’ve already been fed. Sheep, free from fear, are timid creatures and will not lie down unless they feel they’re out of danger. Almost anything can startle them, jackrabbits, little dogs, etc. One startled sheep can create a stampede among the flock even if the danger is benign. They’re so timid that even if anything is just a small little, it could be a leaf or branch falling out of a tree, if one gets startled, they can start a stampede.

The idea, the picture is, when David was writing this, is that God makes me lie down in green pastures. He takes care of all of that stuff. There’s nothing that startles me. There’s nothing that has friction. There’s no tension between the sheep. There’s no irritation. There’s no hunger. I’m not hungering. That’s what is meant by, he makes me to lie down in green pastures. The freedom from friction just means competition.

It’s common with sheep that there will be an older, a ewe that will be the boss of any group of sheep. They’ll try to be domineering. They’ll try to take over the flock. When the shepherd comes in, when the shepherd approaches the sheepfold, a lot of that just stops. That’s what is portrayed here too, is that when Jesus comes on the scene, when he comes into our church, when he comes into our lives, there’s a lot of that tension and jealousy and competition can go away because the presence of God soothes all our tension, all our jealousy, that kind of thing.

Free from irritation, the pests and the flies, there’s a lot of things that just bug us on a day-to-day basis. We’re in traffic. We just don’t like that somebody cut us off or whatever. A lot of those things are, from a humorous perspective, there’s so many people who just get really mad about that. It ruins their day. It just completely messes up their day. We don’t have to, if we have the spirit of God in us, we don’t have to be frustrated about all those little things.

Of course, those things happen, but as a believer, as someone who is spirit-filled, we really should not be letting those things get under our skin. We really should be allowing God to work in our lives to where we’re not letting those things irritate us. Also free from hunger. Green pastures, it says green pastures, they take a lot of work to cultivate. It’s not just a shepherd doesn’t just find a green pasture.

There’s some land, what they say virgin soil, that is pretty green, but for sheep, that’s not usually the case. The shepherd or someone else has to go in beforehand and cultivate a green pasture. They have to get rid of all the stones, all the trees, everything, and let the sunshine come in. They have to go in there and create a green pasture. If you notice that all of these things, the freedom from fear, freedom from friction, and irritation, and hunger, all those things, the sheep are relying on the shepherd to do all of that.

There’s nothing that the sheep can do to really fix any of those issues. It’s always the shepherd. The picture here in Psalm 23 is that Christ is the good shepherd and he will take care of all those needs. Also in verse 2, in Psalm 23 verse 2, it says, he leadeth me beside the still waters. I don’t know if you know this, but sheep are 70% water, more than humans are.

I’m trying to remember what humans are. I think it’s like 60%. Humans are 60. Is it 70? Okay, roughly 70%. This maintains that the water maintains normal body metabolism and is a part of every cell. If the sheep lose a significant amount of water, their skin starts to dehydrate and can get badly damaged. Generally speaking, water for the sheep come from three main sources, dew on the grass, deep wells, or springs and streams.

In many cases, sheep can actually survive for months without drinking water if there is a heavy dew on the grass each morning. Sheep habitually rise before dawn and if they get enough dew from the grass, they can go on much of the day without drinking from another source. That’s a really interesting thought. If there’s a lot of dew on the grass, they get up in the morning anyway, early, and that’s the perfect time that there’s plenty of dew.

The idea there, you could probably already imagine where I’m going with this, but dew is obviously a source of still water. Of course, there’s other examples. You can go to a stream or something like that. The application here for us is a lot of Christians, and even throughout history, if you read biographies, if you like to read biographies of good Christians, a lot of times they give the testimony that their daily Bible reading in the morning was what caused them to grow in Christ.

That still water going to the Lord every single morning early and drinking from that dew, it will last you all day, months sometimes. That’s just an encouragement for us to be reading our Bible and being in prayer. The morning isn’t necessarily the only time you have to do that. Some people read it in the afternoon or the evening. That’s perfectly fine, but just having that daily time with the Lord.

Of course, he leads us beside the still water. He doesn’t take us to the rolling, the rivers, the rapids. He doesn’t lead us into stagnant water where there’s a lot of parasites and things. He leads us by still water. Still, but it’s flowing, but it’s very, very slow. You got that movement, but sheep only want to drink from that kind of a source. Jesus is a fountain of life.

Jesus provides that water for us all the time. In Jeremiah 2.13, it says, For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. The idea is that we oftentimes, as Christians, go right back. We try to build our own ways of finding contentment and of quenching our thirst. Even as believers, we forget where God is leading us, and we try to go cheaper like the shepherd will be leading them on to a stream, but they’re actually halfway in the back of the herd.

They’re actually just stopped at a little pool in a little rut, and they’re drinking from muddy water. How often do we do that? We’re not focused on the shepherd, so we want to say, Oh, this looks good. This will do. But God knows that that stuff has a lot of parasites in it. So the implication is that if we’re not following God, we’re not following his voice and where he’s leading us, then we can make pit stops where God didn’t even tell us to go to, and we can get ourselves into a lot of trouble.

Because with parasites, when I was reading about the sheep, and with that, it quenches their thirst temporarily, but what they don’t realize is that the parasites will have long-term effects on their life. So it doesn’t just show up right away, but the sheep will get sick maybe months later. The next phrase here is, He restores my soul. And this is a really interesting thought. For instance, the Bible says, He restores my soul.

So you think, well, I’m a Christian. I’m a sheep. I’m a believer. I’m saved. Why do I have to restore my soul? But God shows us, and I’ll explain here how this happens, that God often does have to restore our soul back to fellowship with him. And it’s very common with sheep herding, and this is an old English shepherd’s term, is a cast sheep or a cast down sheep.

What will happen is a sheep, a lot of times they’re, which this is surprising, but a lot of times they’re the largest, the fattest, sometimes even the healthiest sheep will be cast. Because what happens is the sheep will lie down and roll on its side to relax.

They’ll find a little kind of a low spot in the ground, and they’ll sit down and they’ll roll over. But then the center of the gravity shifts in their body. So they actually will, I don’t know if it’s just their organs or the water or whatever, but it starts to shift. So they actually roll over more. And so where their legs can’t touch the ground. And so the sheep will frantically start to move their legs and try to get a foothold again.

But that actually makes things worse, and they end up shifting even further until they’re completely on their back. They’re very round on their back. You know, they don’t have a lot of, just they’re very round animals usually. And so they just can’t find that strength to get to turn back over for themselves. What will happen is when they’re on their back, very quickly gases start to build up inside the sheep’s body.

They chew the cud, so they ruminate is what it’s called. And gases start to build up in there when they’re flipped on their back. So the gases will start to build up, and then it’ll actually cut off blood circulation to their legs.

They move their legs to try to get up, but then eventually they can’t even move their legs because they’re cutting off the blood circulation. This also affects their voice. They can’t even bleep for help a lot of times. They are so helpless, like they can’t even do anything for themselves.

The sheep, you know, the shepherd, because the shepherd counts the sheep multiple times a day, this is what a good shepherd does. He’ll notice one is missing and will go back and look for it. When he finds it, he’ll roll the sheep onto its side to relieve the gases inside the rumen. He’ll then pick up the sheep and straddle it on both sides and start to rub its legs so they can regain circulation.

That’s just the picture of the good shepherd coming to us. We can’t even call for help. We can’t even, you know, we’re completely helpless. But the good shepherd, because he’s counting the sheep, because he knows the sheep, he’s counting them, and he realizes one’s missing. And I think that’s the picture of when it says he leaves at 90 and 9. You know, to find the lost sheep, you could picture that as a salvation story.

But really, you know, very often that’s just another Christian who just falls. And, you know, a lot of times he gets into trouble because he’s trying to relax or he’s trying to, you know, he just loses his carefulness. He’s just not careful about where he is. And that’s a warning for us. It says in 1 Corinthians 10-12, it says, Wherefore let him that think that they stand, as take he lest he fall.

So even the healthiest, strongest sheep can fall into sin or trouble. But thankfully, the Lord, as the good shepherd, he comes into our aid and helps us get back to our feet.

Next is, He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. In verse 3, Sheep are creatures of habit. If left to themselves, they will follow the same paths time after time until they become ruts. They will overgraze the same patch of ground until it becomes a wasteland. This makes them susceptible to all kinds of parasites and diseases. More than any other livestock, sheep need to be led and cared for meticulously.

The shepherd has to deliberately keep them on the move and provide direction. You know, sheep will just do that. They like to just follow the same exact path. You know, they’ll follow after each other. They’re, you know, of course, a herd mentality. They just keep following. If one goes one way, a lot of times they’ll just follow him. They really do need, they’re not really thinking for themselves, so to speak.

They’re just very dumb. You know, they just, they don’t know what they’re doing. They don’t know where to be led. And that’s really like us. Isaiah 53, 6 says, All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Proverbs 14, 12 says, There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

Without the good shepherd, us as sheep would do the same exact thing. We would follow the same ruts. We would drink from the same dirty pools. Like I said, we’re no better than the world. It’s just that we have a good shepherd who leads us.

But to be led in the paths of righteousness, though, you know, we have to be seeking righteousness. Of course, the Bible says, I think it’s in Matthew 5 or 6, in the Beatitudes, it says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

Jesus said in Mark 8, 34, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. So, you know, we could really, that’s a good picture of a sheep, you know. If we’re going to follow the shepherd, we have to deny ourselves. We have to say no, Lord, or you have to say no to ourselves and say, yes, Lord, you know, what I said, what I thought I had in mind for myself and what’s good for me is not, and your way is best.

And so, you know, we have to deny ourselves. You know, it’s an act of the will. You know, we actually have to be purposeful about that. 1 Timothy 6, 11 says, But thou, man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. It’s a very intentional thing. But we have to be careful about that. It’s a very intentional thing. But we have to be willing to be led by the Lord and he will lead us.

The next verse, verse 4, it says, Ye, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. A lot of people, like I said before, we apply this psalm to a time of funeral, you know, something like that. And that’s appropriate, of course. But, you know, David in this psalm is really acknowledging the reality of walking through life’s difficulties and sufferings in its various forms. This could be physical sickness or pain, loss of a loved one, financial hardship, doubt or uncertainty, depression or emotional trauma, war or persecution.

Just any number of things. The idea of the picture here, and if you kind of have studied this before, or even if you’re following along with me now, you’re kind of going from the low spot, you know, usually the normal grazing grounds are going to be like in a lower, low country, going to come in a place where, you know, further, lower elevation. And then as you’re going, you know, you’re going to be going up and you’re going to be walking up through these valleys, up through these ravines that actually, you know, lead to the mountaintop.

So the picture here is that you’re walking through the valley of the shadow of death, but you’re actually going up. You’re walking through the valley of the shadow of death, but you’re actually going up, up the mountain. And, of course, David knew that he would lead his sheep along these things. But the idea here is not necessarily going through death, it’s going through the shadow of death.

And so going through these valleys, you know, we go through the shadow of death all the time as believers, you know, even on the road, you know, we don’t think about it. But there’s shadow of death all around us because we really don’t know what could be a danger to us. I mean, there’s people, you know, we could get hit by a car, we could have any number of things happen to us.

If you’re on a job site, something could fall on you. We’re always in the shadow of death, you know, in a lot of ways. And so the idea here is not, you know, at the end of our life, although that makes sense, but it’s really just even all through life, you know, God will walk us through that. But we don’t have to fear any evil. Jesus says, Just another example of this.

Revelation 2, 9 says, You know, God knows that we’re going to be going through all these dilemmas. But one thing that we can rest in is that we’re actually rich in Christ. And because we have the shepherd with us, we don’t have to fear.

And God promises to lead us through the valley. Doesn’t say just to or, you know, we’re stopping here in the valley. No, we’re going through the valley, you know, to the mountaintop. This valley experience tries our patience and faith, but we are not meant to stay here forever. The good shepherd is leading us to higher ground. David was very familiar with the dangers that his flocks faced all those years when he would lead his father’s flocks up these valleys.

There were sharp rocks, deep gullies, poisonous plants, venomous snakes, lions and bears, as well as rustlers. We don’t have to fear because our shepherd is no ordinary shepherd. Our shepherd is the Lord, the God of all creation, who knows these valleys because he made them. He also has all power to keep any predator from attacking and killing his sheep. In just the picture is, you know, David as a shepherd, I mean, he faced off the lion, the bear, you know, he protected sheep.

He knew very well these valleys would cause, you know, a lot of danger for the sheep. But because Christ is our good shepherd, we don’t have to fear with that. Next phrase in that passage, it says, For thou art with me, and in conjunction, it says, I rod and I staff, they comfort me. So we kind of need to read that altogether. But the rod represents the good shepherd’s authority and power and is virtually an extension of his arm.

Shepherd would use the rod to corral and inspect the sheep as well as to throw it. So just to stop here on basically an extension of their arm, you know, they would, they would, you know, tap the sheep. Hey, hey, don’t go here. Don’t go here. You know, whatever. They would when they’re when a lot of times the shepherd would actually inspect his sheep just to for ticks, for, you know, parasites, for scab, whatever, and they would pass under the rod, so to speak.

So they would take the rod and they just kind of comb over it, kind of look at their, look at their sheep, you know, and the picture here is that God, the Holy Spirit will and the rod being a picture of the Word of God, it combs through us.

It inspects us and that’s the idea that God, that God’s rod is inspecting our lives. It’s making sure we’re not sick. It’s making sure that we’re, you know, good to go. But it’s also an extension of his arm in the sense of his power, his authority in our lives. You know, he taps them and says, hey, you know, going too far over here. He also would throw the rod.

So like the shepherds are really good with, with, you know, they’re very, they’re known for this, that they’ll take the rod and throw it like a javelin, you know, so if a sheep is like way off in the distance, you know, they can throw it a good ways and they can chuck it across the, you know, across the whole herd and hit a sheep who’s, you know, about to eat a poisonous plant or about to step off into a gully or whatever else and just to move it back into the flock.

So that’s what the word of God does for us. It just corrals us back in. But the staff is a picture of all that is gentle and long-suffering about the good shepherd. The staff with its iconic hook end was used by herd men to lift little lambs and smaller sheep to safety from dangerous situations such as cliffs or ravines or to get them unstuck from a bramble bush. The staff was also used to hook around the chest of the animal or gently alongside their body while walking in order to point them in the right direction. It is essentially the equivalent of holding hands with the sheep. The Holy Spirit is represented by the staff and it is his comforting nature that lets us know that God is there and he is watching over us constantly.

So that hook on the staff, that would actually, they would hook it around the chest of the sheep, especially if they’re small enough, you know, and then it’s basically like holding hands. So that was kind of like the equivalent and it would comfort the sheep, you know, they would, they would, you know, they would really appreciate that when they’re, when they’re, you know, walking along. If say, if for some reason that one was a little bit more fearful than others or whatever, but that’s just a picture of the Holy Spirit and how, you know, God comforts us in everything we’re going through. And so, you know, we have the rod and the staff, the word of God is comforts us because we can rely on his promises, but then the staff represents the Holy Spirit and how we have that constant, you know, touch every day. Next verse, it says, thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.

So the idea here is that’s like the next level. So you walk through the valley and then you prepare a table. God prepares a table before you in the presence of your enemies. You’re up on the mountaintop. So the table here in a lot of translations, it’s actually Mesa, which is like, Andrew, you mentioned the other last week, you know, Mesa is basically just a high point and it’s all flat, you know, and that’s what God does for us. The good shepherd does, he leads them up to the mountaintop for summer grazing. So you’ll go all the way up to the mountaintop, but before you even get there, God, the shepherd has to go up there and prepare a table. He has to go up there and remove all the, like any, you know, either rocks or like poisonous plants, things that would be a harm to the sheep. And of course, get rid of all the predators, anything that’s wolves, lions, whatever. And also make sure that there’s, you know, water up there, making sure there’s a spring or something like that. But that takes a lot of preparation. God goes up there beforehand and does that for us and prepares a table for us. And what’s interesting is that it says in the presence of our enemies, you know, it’s not just, you know, sitting at your dining room table, you know, and when there’s nobody around you, you know, no enemies around you, you’re in the very presence of enemies. So we can take comfort that even if, you know, we’re in a really tough situation and there’s a lot of, you know, say the Satan is attacking or, you know, other people, we have, you know, people who go to the abortion mill and there’s a lot of people who, you know, like Kowani, you know, who would want to thwart what you’re doing. They even attack some of the people there at the abortion clinic. And, you know, that’s, we can be, we can take comfort, you know, that we’re, God’s preparing a table for us even in the presence, right in the middle of all of our enemies. We can rest in God’s provision. Next line is, thou anointest my head with oil.

This is a really interesting thing about sheep is that in the middle, well, they still do it today, but because there’s so many flies, sheep can really get, like I said before, they get really irritated by flies, but not only that, it’s really dangerous. There’s a type of fly called a, I think it’s, I guess it’s just called a nasal fly, but what it does is the flies will go in to the sheep’s nose in their nasal cavity and will lay eggs in the mucus up there.

And not to gross anybody out here, but they’ll lay eggs and then the larva will climb up inside the sheep’s head and, you know, the sheep will get so irritated that it will actually beat its head against the rock, you know, it will try to find relief somehow from those pests. But the idea here that David is, David knew this very well, and so when he said, thou anointest my head with oil, it’s a picture of the Holy Spirit, but it’s also, what it does is a shepherd, and they still do it to this day, they take some sort of oil mixture, you know, and they actually rub it on the nose and on the whole head of the sheep, sometimes their whole body, and it’ll keep those flies out of their nose, out of their face and everything. And, you know, without that, they would literally, they would die. They would either die or be hurt because they’re trying to bash their head against something, or they would just get so irritated that they would try to just jump up and down. The more they move around, obviously, the less they put on weight, you know, so they actually lose weight and that kind of thing if they’re constantly being irritated. So, you know, that’s a picture of Christ, of God, the Good Shepherd, anointing our head with oil and taking the Holy Spirit, again, just kind of like with the, you know, how he just, the staff, you know, how he just kind of comforts us, you know, and all of our irritation, all those little frustrations that bother us day to day, that oil just smooths everything out, you know, and makes all those go away. So, if we submit ourselves to that, if we submit ourselves to taking that oil and taking the Holy Spirit and filling ourselves, we’re going to be a lot less irritation. The Christian life is going to be one of a lot more calm, you know, not in the sense of outward things, but in our own spirit, we’re going to be calm because God is anointing our head with oil.

My cup runneth over, just the idea that God is just everything we need. God is meeting all those needs and is running over and is able to give to other people. When someone’s cup is running over, you know, you have more to give to other people. And so the picture here is just that God is fulfilling all of our needs to the point where we actually feel like we have a lot more to give to others. And that’s what being filled with the Spirit means and just its overflow.

That’s just, you know, that’s what that picture is representing. It says, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. That’s, of course, the picture of the hand of God on us every day and protecting us. But, you know, you can kind of translate or interpret it this way. You know, this is very common with sheep. So, you know, as sheep cross through the grazing land, they actually will, they can actually restore, the sheep themselves can restore the land. So if it’s really bad soil, you know, say like there’s a lot of weeds, or sheep will eat weeds as long as they’re not poisonous. And they can actually restore the ground and they can leave behind a really fertile land. That’s how sheep do. And so, the idea here, it could be interpreted this way that, yes, God’s hand is on us. But even as we, as sheep, as we’re going through our life, we can leave behind good pastures for others behind us.

Because God is leading us and allowing us to stay on a certain plane for so long, when we leave, we’re going to leave goodness and mercy behind us for others. And then, of course, the last idea here is, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Obviously, that can be a picture of heaven. But it basically means, you know, dwelling in the house of the Lord, like almost like the house of David or the house of Israel. It means not the physical house, you know, like us coming to church, but it means the house as in the family of God. And so, I will dwell in the family of the Lord forever. You could read it. And, you know, it’s just an amazing thought that, you know, God, we are, again, we are the sheep of his pasture. We have exclusive access to God and we are part of the family of God. And so, we can really, you know, be thankful that we are part of God’s sheep. You know, we just have such an amazing experience as one of Christ’s sheep. Hopefully, that was a blessing to you. I really wanted to, there’s more I could say on that, but I think that’ll be suffice for today.

Let’s close in a word of prayer.