Psalm 23

Psalm 23 is an amazing passage to go to when you're needing encouragement, when you're feeling beaten, when all you feel is that feeling of defeat. That's a feeling every one will feel at some point. That's a feeling that even Christians will feel. It's like thanos: inevitable. But Christians, unlike the rest, are not stuck in that feeling of defeat, that feeling of being beaten down. We, as Christians do not, cannot, stay in that feeling. Christ has given us too much proof to get out of it. Psalm 23 is just one of those passages. A passage of encouragement.

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

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

3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

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

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. Psalm 23

Let's start with verse four: "4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." Verse 4 is a very clear verse but it doesn't seem entirely applicable to us these days in the United States of America because we have a fairly easy life as far as persecution goes. We are not normally hunted down or even discriminated against, for the most part we are simply left alone.

I'll only mention this briefly in passing, but I believe the reason we are mostly left alone is because we are no longer a threat, Christianity in America has gone soft. We no longer stand up against the evils of the world, we no longer call out the sinners and then fight against them. Christianity has become a Sunday morning breakfast club. We meet and we talk about Jesus, we say we should do things in "love." But then we let the world dictate what love is. But the world can't even tell you what a woman is!

Back the verse four: even though we aren't really persecuted in our present time and in our present place, this verse is still a very important verse to understand and apply to life. We still live in a world full of sin and death, in a world with darkness. And so we can still be walking in a valley of the shadow of death, in fact, walk down any main street in any big city and tell me it's not full of shadows and death. I saw a short showing what some cities have walking down their streets and its just considered normal and what they were showing were females walking around dressed as whores, not even discreet whores, but females looking like they desperately wanted sex, females that look like they don't even want paid they just want sex with anyone and everyone. So there is still very much a valley of the shadow of death and God is still the only way we can get through it while fearing no evil.

But it's easy for me to sit here safely and say we can fear no evil. When it becomes difficult is when we step out into the world and we actually have to walk through that valley of the shadow of death. But God will be there to help, to lead. Listen to the last part of that verse: "for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." God is there with his rod and his staff. The fact that both the rod and the staff are mentioned here is actually important because they are two different tools with two different jobs. The rod was a short and heavy club that was used for protection. So when God is with you with his rod he is there with his weapon to protect you. And his staff is a long stick, picture one of the staffs from a coloring page with the candycane curve on the top end. It was used for guidance and leading. The reason that Him having both of those is so important is because He is not there to simply protect you while you wander aimlessly, He is there to lead you through the valley of the shadow of death (the staff) and to get you through safely (the rod).

Okay, I still have five more verse to get through, so I will leave verse four at that and move on to verses five and six. "5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." In verses five and six we see that God not only leads us through, He does so while also showing us immense good was and mercy. Verse five, we see that He prepares a table for us and He does so.in the presence of our enemies, He doesn't hide it. He shows His goodness by blessing us even when we seem to be in our darkest hour. And the very end of verse five even says that our cup overflows, He gives us such a abundance that we have to much for ourselves. So what do we do with that abundance? We share! We give to others, we don't get a bigger cup and hoarde it, we share it, we try and be a blessing to other. Why? Because God has been so good to us and we should want everyone to show that love to others, we should want to show it and give God the glory! "God has been so good to me, I have to much! Here take some!" This should not be done in pride or in a public manner, this should be done in private and in such a way that the only one who knows is the one who has to know (Matthew 6:1-4), otherwise we will get our reward here on Earth: praise from our fellow men.

The second half of verse five mentions Him anointing our head with oil, in our modern age that can be confusing. Being anointed with oil was a Middle Eastern tradition that symbolized being an honored guest, it was to show hospitality. Oil was also refreshing to dry skin after a long journey and so it also symbolizes God refreshing you spiritually after a long journey. You might wonder if God is helping you through the valley then how would it be hard? Psalms 23 is saying that God will help and protect you, but it doesn't say it will be effortless or easy, often times the trials are something God uses to sanctify you, so don't expect it to be an easy journey.

Heading into verse six we see the conclusion of these three verses and even the entire passage: there is no way to argue that God is not good and merciful. He protects and leads us through the valley of the shadow of death and He then treats us as honored guests after He does all the heavy lifting in the journey! You cannot argue that God is not good and merciful.

I skipped verses one through three, so let's go back and finish those three as well.

Verse one sums up all of Psalm 23, "1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." All of Psalm 23 is proving this statement.

Verses two and threw expound on what this means (as do verses four, five, and six).

Verse two and three tells us that God will provide us rest spiritually and physically. He will restore our strength by leading us to what we need, it doesn't show us that it we need to show no faith and no effort, it shows us that He will lead us, that He will show us the way. And it shows us that He will show us how to be rightous, we simply need to follow in His footsteps. He is our example. The very end of verse three show us that God wants us to act righteously because it says "for his name's sake." This shows us that the way Christians act reflects directly onto His name. That does not mean that His righteousness is affected by our righteousness, but that the way the world perceived Him is based on the way we act. And no, that doesn't mean He couldn't just make everyone respect and love Him, but He obviously has not done that. If you want to know why you'll have to ask Him.

Psalms 23 is an encouraging passage, but one thing to remember is that it is not for everyone but for those who follow Him with their whole heart.