Psalm 23; Conclusion part 2. After doubt comes confidence, then blessings and grace will follow. Psa 23:6

Ps 23:1-5

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside quiet waters.

3 He restores my soul;

He guides me in the paths of righteousness

For His name's sake.

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I fear no evil; for Thou art with me;

Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.

 

   

Ps 23:5

Thou dost prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

Thou hast anointed my head with oil;

My cup overflows.

 

The head anointed with oil is again analogous to the power of the HS to produce the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

 

Just like we have seen in so many ways with the sheep throughout this Psalm, the Shepherd is always poised and ready to take care of every defect, every ill, and is also ready to pull close the healthy sheep who isn’t shy around Him.

 

In the end David is simply thankful and by reflection of all that he’s gone through, confident that the Shepherd has done whatever it took to make David strong.

 

That is why this psalm is an overview of the spiritual life. It applies to every dispensation because it doesn’t deal with the details, but rather it deals with the character of God and the weakness of the believer.

 

This is true in every dispensation. God has character and virtue and we are weak.

 

The cup speaks of capacity for blessings.

 

When we have capacity for blessings we will know it because the manifestation of capacity is to not forget the giver but to rather be more absorbed with the giver.

 

If you find yourself more absorbed with the gift than the Giver then you can be assured that you lack capacity and God just used that blessing to show you so.

 

If the cup runs over it means that God sees capacity and just like He does in His nature, He gives more than you thought possible.

 

 

 

 

Ps 23:6

Surely goodness [prosperity] and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life [in the good times and the bad],

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

 

David starts off with his confidence, then gives some of the details of the big picture, and then concludes with the greatest reason for his confidence.

 

“Surely” means without a doubt.

 

Doubt is a killer of the spiritual life. It is a quencher of the HS, but God has a plan for that.

 

And His plan for that is in the middle of the psalm - His leading, His constant work that is unmistakable, His restoring of your soul, His guidance in the wheel tracks of +R, His safe guidance through tests and trials, His divine discipline, His healing after recovery from discipline, His gentle staff that pulls you near when He makes the lame leg straight again, His gift of the HS, and His blessings that seem to run over all over the place and they do.

 

Once you go through all that, doubt melts away. And when it does you realize that it wasn’t even you who chased away your doubt, but it was always Him, the Shepherd, always working, day and night in compassion, care, and ownership of you, His sheep.

 

And then you will be convinced.

 

Paul went to hell and back in Rom 7.

 

   

ROM 7:14-25

For we know that the Law is spiritual; but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 15 For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not wish to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which indwells me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. 22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

 

Like David, but in more detail, Paul relates failure. David said, He restores my soul. Paul has just said the same in verse 25.

 

And then Paul goes through some details in Rom 8, I will not go through them here for the sake of time but you can read.

But at the end of Rom 8 Paul leaves the details to show us the big picture, just like David did, and Paul, though not a shepherd like David, but a shepherd in his own right of churches and of men, concluded:

 

ROM 8:31-39

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 33 Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; 34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Just as it is written,

"For Thy sake we are being put to death all day long;

We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered."

37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

 

It’s the same. You think about how God is your Savior from all things. You give some details about how He’s delivered you because of what He’s done, not only from eternal fire, but from yourself, and then you conclude with how you are convinced of His character as it is directed at you.

 

This system of thinking is true in every dispensation. That’s why Psa 23 can apply to us.

 

But when it comes to your own personal spiritual life, the details cannot be overlooked. Too many believers try to air lift themselves onto the high plains of the mountain meadows in the hope that they can skip the valleys of the shadow of death, and skip the huge failures and the restoring of soul, and want to skip all the parts that are in Paul’s Rom 7.

 

I used to teach the desire for restoration from scripture, now I teach the restoration from scripture and experience. I’m not talking about sin, I’m talking about real desire that you thought was supposed to be right there for you; from God, and it aint.

 

From start to finish the plan of God must be completed by you as a believer priest as God has ordained it for you as His child. And there aint no shortcuts.

 

So therefore it has become clear in this study that you are a sheep, quite helpless and in danger of death without the Shepherd.

 

A clear recognition of that in all humility will make you see prosperity and adversity in the same light - they are both under the control of your Shepherd.

 

Ps 23:6

Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

 

Why will blessing and grace follow you? It is simply because the Lord loves you. And His love does not depend on your condition. Will anything separate us from the love of God?

 

You may be the worst believer in the world right now, but God loves you just as much as His Son.

 

When you come to know who your Shepherd is, you should have absolute confidence that you are in a privileged position.

 

No matter what comes upon the sheep they can be confident that goodness and mercy are in the picture [all the days of my life], and so the Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want or fear.

 

Religion does not paint this picture of Christ. Religion paints the Shepherd as one who plays favorites, who is disappointed with a cast sheep and won’t go after it, who tells you to heal your own parasites, who stands aloof from the sheep and is not accessible.

 

That is the mind of satan and not the mind of Christ.

 

The adversities in our lives are the times in which we will really see the Shepherd come to our rescue and deliver us from the very pits that we’ve dug for ourselves, even when He does so it may even be through the love of divine discipline, but so be it. Do you trust Him?

 

We all possess a tendency to doubt when the chips are down and that leads to our other tendency of trying to accomplish it on our own. But the Lord will never leave you alone. If you look back over your life in objectivity you will see that clearly.

 

Remember:

 

Matt 18:12-14

"What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? 13 "And if it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. 14 "Thus it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.

 

Ps 23:6

Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

 

To dwell in the house of the Lord forever is to be in His presence.

 

You cannot enter His presence in any other way than through the door. Remember in John 10 that the thief tries to sneak in another way, but that is only to kill and to take.

 

Relate Mr. Keller’s story…

 

This is satan’s way, and he is the cruelest of managers.

 

But to be in the presence of the Lord forever is to know your eternal security and also know your privilege of being in fellowship with Him in time.

 

We all need to get our eyes off the things of this earth and keep seeking the things above where Christ is.

 

The sheep needs to keep his eye on the Lord at all times. And when we don’t and we stray, the promise is that He will leave the 99 and come for us.

 

All of us who know the Shepherd should say in unison, “Blessed be the God of all comfort.”