Book of Psalms - Psa. 23, vv. 3-6

Psalm 23 as a Picture of Sheep, Shepherding, Word, and Spirit

Okay, well, we're going to be in Psalm 23 again. Let's recap the last time we were together on Psalm 23. It was not last week, but I believe the week before. We talked about the Lord is my shepherd, which shows man's responsibility to yield to the shepherd as Lord.

And we also saw that it meets God's sovereignty as the good shepherd. We see a relationship in that David owns his role as the sheep when he calls the Lord, my shepherd. He says, I am a sheep and the Lord is the one who leads me as that sheep.

We saw that when man yields to God, the result is a lack of no good thing.

Right?

We have, it's like a double negative. In other words, you will lack nothing. I will want for nothing, which means you will lack for nothing. That's what I shall not want means. We also talked about the fact that if he is the shepherd, then we are the sheep.

We talked about the different aspects of a sheep, that sheep are relational, they're emotional, they're prone to follow. They're not built for carrying loads. They're valuable. They'll settle for less.

They're defenseless, also productive. So there are all these different characteristics of a sheep. And as we went through those different characteristics, we saw, wow, this is a very good analogy for human beings.

We saw, he maketh me lie down in green pastures, which pictures the leading of the shepherd to the word of God. And the word is our food and also our place of rest. He leads me beside the still waters.

Water cleanses, and these are waters of peace. When we are saved, we are washed by the spirit and we have peace with God. It is the spirit that does the washing. But last week, we also talked about how, not last week, but I guess a couple of weeks ago, we talked about how we are led to the vicinity of the water.

We're led beside the still waters, but we still have to get into the water. I want to make a clarification at this point, that when I was talking about that, I was not relating the peaceful waters necessarily to salvation.

In other words, salvation is something God does to you. If the shepherd is leading you, guess what? You're one of his sheep, you're saved. If he leads you to the still waters, you have an opportunity to live in peace.

And I'm not talking about peace with God because we already have peace with God. But I'm talking about living in peace with man as well and just living a peaceful life. That's usually what happens when you are yielded to the spirit.

And it's only gonna happen if you make the choice to yield to the shepherd and go to the still waters. You gotta be washed of the filth of tumultuous worldly living. And so there's a conditional promise there, right?

Restoration of the Soul Through Repentance, Faith, and Sanctification

All right, now this week, we're going to look at the things that the shepherd does to us. Welcome, good to have you here. We're in Psalm 23, just so you know where we are. We only made it through two verses last time, so hopefully we'll go a little bit faster this time.

From California, wow, cool.

Well, good to have you with us.

Thanks for coming. All right, so we're gonna look at what the shepherd does to the sheep in Psalm 23. He makes us lie down in green pastures. He leads us beside the still waters. This is a picture of the word and the spirit.

The pastures, the green pastures being the word, that's where we feed. It's also where we have our rest. The still waters is a picture of the spirit. And you go, well, but I thought water pictured word in scripture, and it does, but sometimes water will picture the spirit as well.

And it's appropriate that it would picture both because they're one in the same. The word of God is inspired by the spirit, was written by the spirit. And so the shepherd will use these two things, the word and the spirit to transform our lives.

And the first part of this study, we looked at verses one and two, and we talked about what it meant to be made, to lie down in green pastures or to be led by the still waters. Today, we're gonna focus on what it means to have our soul restored.

And also if there's time, then we'll talk about what it means to have the paths of righteousness, to be led down the paths of righteousness for his namesake. Okay, so go to Psalm 23. We're gonna be starting in verse three today.

I'm gonna make my notes a little bigger because they're too small for me to read. I could read them, but I'll be squinting the whole time. That's what I get for making my notes on my phone. All right.

He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake. All right, so here's a question. How does he restore my soul? Ready, go. Any guesses? How does God restore our soul?

Obviously you have restoration in salvation, right? There's a restoration that happens there, but assuming you are a saved person and you are being led by the shepherd, what does restoration look like for your soul at that point if you're already saved?

You don't deserve this, blah, blah, blah, you know? And by the Spirit, there's no doubt.

There's no doubt.

And it is because of my soul that is it all, if everything's ended. Restoring my soul is reminding me that the old is passed away.

So restoration when it comes to doubt, right? And replacing doubt with faith. Like the man who came to Jesus and said, I believe, Lord, but help me with my unbelief, right? So that's a great example in how the Lord can restore right thinking, right?

That's a great answer. Okay, any other ways that we experience restoration of our soul? Mm, that's true.

And it seems quickly, not quickly, but simple.

Simple.

Well, that's great. It's along the same kind of vein of thinking like what mom was thinking, right? Hers is a whole, it's like a doubt, but it's because of doubt that can actually lead also to wrong living, right?

And we tend to think of repentance as something that we just do, but we can't do it in and of ourselves. So I love the way you said that. He gives us repentance. It says that in 2 Timothy 3, 16, I think, in meekness, instructing those who oppose themselves that God per adventure would give unto them repentance.

So we see that that's something that comes from God. Like he gives repentance. And so it feels like something that we do, but we can only do it in conjunction with the spirit, right? So like he gives us the ability to ask for forgiveness and to ask him to cleanse us of all unrighteousness, which it says he's faithful and just that he'll do.

So that's another great answer. Yeah, because you have the sin of doubt, because really that's kind of like a sin in of itself, but then you also have all these other sins that we can fall prey to. And yet he restores us, not just in right thinking going from doubt to faith, but also in righteous living, going from doing the wrong things to the right things where we actually physically turn away from the sin.

That was another great answer.

And I like her answer. I find that when Satan tries to bring up all, and it is something that I can't earn it, I can't seek it, I can't do anything to create that repentance where if you think that it's all you and then you start doubting, you're gonna keep asking for forgiveness for all those sins in the past when God has already paid the price.

That's really good. Yeah, because that's one of the best things about recognizing that salvation and all of the works of righteousness, they are gifts from God. They come from God. And while God is sovereign and able to give that to us, we're gonna see even in this chapter, we have a responsibility to walk in those righteous works and to hold onto those righteous works.

So it's the two go perfectly together. There's not like this idea of it's either free will or God is sovereign. It's that man has a will, it's not free. It's always influenced by something, right? Either the world, the flesh of the devil or by God.

So it's influenced, so it can't be free, but we have a responsibility to attune our ears and our thinking and our eyes and our hearts towards the Lord so that we're receiving the right kind of input so that we have the right kind of output.

That's good.

Yeah, Satan will just keep you in defeat then, but recognizing that you are forgiven and it's not because you changed, you're forgiven because Jesus died on the cross. You can't change that. That is unchanging.

That's why you're forgiven. So when you mess up, you have the ability to change because of what he did. That's why it says that we love Christ because he first loved us, right? There's a because to our love, it changes us.

It does something to us, it transforms us, but he just always was. He was always love and what he did can't be changed. I love that. All right, so how about also restoration in sadness, which is what you often feel when you feel defeated or when you feel doubt, you feel sorrowful sometimes when you feel like I've messed up.

How can the Lord love me at this point? I am just terrible. And that's kind of the trap of sin. I talk about this sometimes how Satan has two roles really. He is the deceiver and then he's the slanderer and they go in that order.

First, he'll deceive you to get you to do something wrong. And he'll deceive you by saying the lie of sin, this will fulfill you. This will make you feel better.

No, I've got to turn my notifications off here.

My computer is just dinging like crazy. He'll use the lie of sin, which is this will fulfill you. This will make you feel better. This will get you out of trouble. This will X, Y, Z, right? And that's why we end up doing the sin.

And as soon as we do the sin, he switches his role to slander. Oh, look how terrible you are. How can you call yourself a Christian? You know, this is terrible. Like there's no way. And leading up to that, he may even use the idea of grace to get you to sin, right?

God will forgive it anyway, you know, which is true. But what does he use? He is 95 truth and 5 lie to get you to do something. It'll be fine. You're forgiven anyway, go on ahead and do it. And as soon as you do it, oh my goodness, how could you do something like that?

That's how Satan works. So we need restoration with that, right? He restores my soul. When it's sick with sadness, he heals it. That's why David in a later Psalm, Psalm 42 says, "'Why art thou cast down, O my soul?

And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God.". Or it says, "'Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God.'". So notice how God is the health of our soul's countenance.

He's the health of like the feelings that our soul experiences. If we want healthy feelings, we've got to be connected to God for those healthy feelings. And yet at the same time, while God is the source of all that, we have a responsibility, which David adequately portrays in that next Psalm, in Psalm 42.

He says, "'Hope thou in God.'". Right, so now we have a responsibility to put our hope and our trust in him. God's sovereignty working together with man's responsibility to exalt or make happy the saddened soul.

When our soul is sick with sin, God sanctifies it. That's the one that Ashton brought up, 1 Thessalonians 5. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That's 1 Thessalonians in chapter five. I missed putting down my reference there, but it is in chapter five. It sounds like the sovereignty of God right there,.

Doesn't it?

That God sanctifies you and God preserves you blameless until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And guess what? That's what it is. It's the sovereignty of God. But guess what it says just before that in the preceding verses in 1 Thessalonians 5, it says, rejoice evermore.

That's a command. Pray without ceasing, another command. In everything give thanks for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Holy Spirit. Despise not prophesying. Prove all things.

Hold fast to that which is good and abstain from that which is evil. If you go even further back, it gives you more commands on how to interact with other people. So there's lots of responsibility of man, but then it's followed up with the sovereignty of God.

Like he preserves us blameless. He sanctifies us, but we have a responsibility to walk in his word and do the things that he tells us to do. It's like we're co-laboring with God in the sanctification process.

It's really interesting the way that works. That's the responsibility of man. So these are all, all these commands are activities that are antithetical to sin. They're the complete opposite of sin. And if you are actively doing the things laid out in 1 Thessalonians 5, it will be much harder for your soul to become sick with sin.

Then, did you have something else you wanna say?

Yeah, I'm sitting here thinking in that.

And that's interesting.

I mean, God designed this.

Yeah.

And I think the spirit is the same way in that when we walk in the spirit, there is a healing that goes on continuously.

Ain't it funny how science always backs up scripture? Because scripture came first. Yeah, so, I mean, I've known that since I was a kid. I watched my dad go into the bathroom every morning, getting ready to go to work.

And I'd hear him go into the bathroom and he'd throw up in every single morning because he was so stressed. This is Pop. So Tradeway, you've probably gotten to speak with Pop. Every single morning, he'd throw up.

And guess what he'd do when he'd come out of the bathroom? He'd say this every time. I feel happy. I feel healthy. I feel terrific. I feel happy. I feel healthy. I feel terrific. And he'd walk off to work every day.

He did that for decades. And I mean, Pop hardly ever gets sick, which is weird. It was literally just stress, but he didn't hardly ever get sick. And he used to teach me about the power of positive thinking, right?

Well, when you have recognized that you only have the power to think positively because God gives you that power, you recognize that that healing power of positive thinking is a gift from God.

It's something that he does, right?

You actually have a responsibility to do it and it will help you do it, but it's not just you doing it. It's God giving you the ability to do it. Oh, that's great. So then you have the sovereignty of God there in 1 Thessalonians 5.

Then you have all those lists of things that you're supposed to do. It's the responsibility of man. And then here's what it says after that sovereignty of God piece, where it says the very God of peace sanctify you wholly.

And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The next verse says, faithful is he who calleth you who also will do it. So God is faithful, but he's calling you.

You see how they're both together? Like he's faithful, sovereignty of God. He's gonna do it, but he's calling you to do something too. He will preserve, but you have to serve.

Why?

Because faith without works is dead. This is not to say that your works of service save you. I'll reiterate that. God saves you and he works both in you and through you for his good pleasure. Your job is to self-examine and ask yourself, is he doing that?

Is he working through me? Is he working in me? If you don't know the answer to that, or if you think the answer is no, maybe you've not yet yielded to the father's calling. But guess what? If you find yourself doing this self-examination and you're asking yourself these questions, there's a chance the answer is actually yes, because you can't come to Jesus unless the father draws you, which means he's already working in you.

So just having those thoughts means there's a good chance you're one of his. So he's already doing the work. You just have to learn how to yield to that work. Is it hard to do? Sometimes, yes. But God also strengthens or fortifies the weakened soul.

That's another type of restoration. In my weakness, he is strong. So now the question is this, how? How does God restore our soul and make us happy when we're sad, clean when we're dirty, and strong when we're weak?

What mechanisms does he use and how does he use them? Right, the word and the spirit. If you'll remember from the first part of the psalm, we talked about the Lord is my shepherd, which makes me a sheep.

He makes me lie down in green pastures, which is where I feed, it's food. It's also my rest. That's a picture of the word of God. All I have to do is rest and eat. That's my part. All right, he leads me to it and now I've got to do something with it.

He also leads me beside the still waters, which is to say he leads me where peace is within my grasp. It's right there. He doesn't put me in the still water. Notice he leads me beside the still water and now peace is right there.

It pictures the spirit. All I have to do is just choose to hold onto his hand and partake of the peaceful waters. I have to drink of the clean, refreshing water and not do what sheep do. Remember we talked about this last time.

Sheep will settle for a muddy puddle. In fact, they'll see clean water and if the muddy puddle is even a little bit closer, they'll go right to the muddy puddle. They'll be eating a trough of food and if they see someone walking by with a pail, they'll think maybe that has food and they'll leave their abundance to go chase after the pail, which could be empty.

It's weird how sheep work, but that's a picture of us. David brought this up last time. What a wonderful picture of a false teacher, right? If you have good, sound doctrine where you're learning and someone who looks cool walking by with a pail and you go, well, maybe that's the word of God too and you run off and chase after that and you could be led away from the food, right?

It may not even have food in the pail. So you have to always be watching and testing and doing as the Brains do, right? Make sure that whatever is being said is tested against the scripture. All right, guess what?

If I will rest in his word and I will hold onto his hand, I will experience restoration, which looks like exaltation, sanctification and fortification. In other words, I'll be happy, clean and strong.

But if I play the part of yielding to his work, how does he get me to do that? If he uses the word and he uses the spirit, it's all there, right? He can lead me to it. And I still have a responsibility to eat.

I have a responsibility to partake of the still waters. But what does he do to motivate me to do it? What do you think? Because sometimes it's right there and don't we not do it? Sometimes it's there and we go muddy puddle.

I'll take the muddy puddle. What is it? Trials and tribulations. Trials and tribulations. Those we tend to think are forms of judgment and they can be, except that judgment has already been passed. It's not punishment.

I had a friend who said this to me one time. How can God punish you if he already punished his son? And I really wrestled with that for a while because it seems like growing up, punishment was for correction.

And so I presented that to him. I said, well, I mean, my parents punished me growing up. That was to correct me. And he goes, yeah, but that wasn't punishment. That was correction. And I go, oh, I see.

I see the difference.

Punishment is,.

It's just like, I think of someone on death row, right? That's not really for correction.

That's judgment. That's punishment.

It's over. And that does happen. And that should happen because God is just. He punishes those who will never come to a saving knowledge of him. He has to, otherwise he's a liar. But the ones that did come to a saving knowledge of him, he corrects, he chastises.

And that is always what the purpose of changing the way we think, changing the way we feel, changing the way we act. And so he uses correction, which is different if you think about it than punishment.

It's just, we tend to conflate the two. How does he get us to eat the food and drink the water? He leads us down the paths of righteousness. That's the next part of the verse in Psalm 23. So we're back in Psalm 23 now.

He leads us down the paths of righteousness, but look what it says, for his name's sake. So he gets me to yield by leading me in the paths of righteousness. Let's break that down. He, who is he? The Lord, right?

Leadeth, what does that mean? It means he's going first, right? Like when you lead, you're in front. You're walking where I'm gonna walk. We've talked about in previous Psalms, the hind's feet, which is a deer, right?

And the deer has a special kind of run where it's front feet hit, and then the back feet hit identically where the front feet hit. So there's only one set of tracks for this deer. And David refers to the hind's feet.

And he says, make me as the hind's feet, right? So I should step exactly where you step. That's what Jesus does. He leads, he took the path of righteousness before we did, right? He walked a perfect holy life.

First, he came from heaven to earth. That's a spiritual sacrifice. Then he lived perfectly on earth for 33 years. That's a mental sacrifice. And then it all culminated on the cross as a physical sacrifice.

So he was perfectly righteous in mind, body, spirit for us. And he sacrificed all of it for you and me. And so he's leading us down that path by walking that path first. The path is an interesting word.

When it says, leadeth me in the paths, the word path means track. Now, what did you picture when you pictured path? A road, right? You usually picture a road. Now, what would you say is the difference between a road and a track?

The track is the only place you can make progress. On a road, you can go off the road and not have any direction, right? It doesn't confine you, but the track holds you in place. So I think it's really interesting that the word for path actually means track because righteousness is something that holds you in place.

There's confines there, there's constraints, which by the way, will really help with doubt. It will really help with a lack of confidence because confidence always is found within constraints. That's why I can drive down the road at 75 miles per hour and someone else can go 75 miles per hour inches away and you don't worry about it because there's that boundary, right?

The confine of the center stripe. Or could you get outside of the boundaries?

Sure.

Could a train derail? Absolutely. What happens every time? Disaster, you see? And so a track is a way better word. So when you do a word study on the path and you find out track, I was like, what in the world?

A track, that blew my mind. I was like, I've never pictured a track. I've always pictured like a little pebble path, you know? It's really cool to me. It's a very tight constraint. I also love that it says that it's for his namesake.

The reason why I love this, and I've taught this part, it's some of our tradeway stuff, is that you can see a significant shift in the way that David talks in the first part of the Psalm to the next part.

So listen to how he talks. "'The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. "'He maketh me lie down in green pastures. "'He leadeth me beside the still waters. "'He restoreth my soul "'and leadeth me in the paths of righteousness "'for his namesake.'".

So after you get past that, you get into, yea, though I walked through the valley in the shadow of death. But how is he talking about God up until this point? Wonderful things, right? Always in the third person.

It's always talking with he, he, he, which is great. There's nothing wrong with that. But when he gets into the valley, that changes. Yea, though I walked through the valley in the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me.

So all of a sudden, he's talking directly with God. And that is huge. One, because if this is for God's namesake, what does that mean? Why would he lead us down the paths of righteousness for his namesake?

So we don't bring reproach on God's name. True, I have always thought of it as that, right? Like that makes sense because like his name is above all names. And if I'm going to take on the name of Christian, which means little Christ, I should walk a righteous holy life so that I don't bring reproach.

Right, Christ-like. But what if it's also for the benefit of his namesake, which would actually be me? I'm his namesake, right? I have taken on the name of Christ. His son, of course, is the only begotten son.

He is the name above all names. But I take on the same name when I become a Christian. And I am his namesake. So the righteousness, which puts me on a track, which confines me, which makes it kind of hard to live sometimes because I have to walk the straight and narrow and I mess up and I feel bad about it.

And then I have to get right with God. I have to get back on track. It's actually for my benefit. It's for my good.

Why?

Because the restoration of my soul depends on that. It depends on me walking in the paths of righteousness. Not a restoration from the point of salvation, but a restoration from the point of sanctification.

And so then it says, "'Yea, though I walk through the valley "'of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.'".

A valley.

A valley is a low point between two mountains. That is the definition of a valley, is low point between two mountains or two hills. And that means that while the psalmist started off from a great place of like contentment, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

See, very content. There's nothing that I lack. And then he talks about all these wonderful things, green pastures, still waters, restoring my soul. And yet God leads him away from that.

Why?

He's leading in the paths of righteousness. He's gonna take him to the valley.

That's no fun.

For the purpose of growth. So you'll remember from a couple of weeks ago when we talked about sheep, they're considered the animals with the golden hooves. They literally make everything around them better.

The grass gets greener, the soil gets richer. So they literally call them the animals with the golden hooves. However, it only works if they are constantly moving. If they are constantly, what is the word?

Rotating, that's the word I was looking for, thanks man. They have to rotate the fields that they're in. A shepherd has to take them from field to field to field to field to field and let them go to each field.

Otherwise, if they stay in one place, they obliterate the field and they will stay and just, it'll get worse and worse and worse and become one of the ugliest fields of all time. Isn't that interesting?

It's kind of like the idea of the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is south of the Sea of Galilee. And so you've got the Sea of Galilee and it's like a giant lake, really. It has rivers that come into it and rivers that leave from it.

It's the definition of a lake and it is teeming with life. So much life in it. And then all those rivers of water flow into the Dead Sea and nothing flows out. And with nothing flowing out, no life can exist.

We've been getting tons of rain over here. I don't know if y 'all have been getting lots of rain in California. No, more rain than I have ever seen in Texas. I mean, every week we're getting lots of it.

And right now in my backyard, which I have meticulously kept cut and tried to keep nice and pretty, I couldn't cut for the longest time. And in some areas, the grass just got so tall. But there's this one area where the water wasn't flowing out right.

And we have very good sandy soil where it just kind of drains down and it's gone. We've gotten so much that in that sandy soil, it's just a lake in a giant part of our backyard. And all of the grass is dead, all of it, because the water just sits there.

And so there's no life because the water didn't flow. Everywhere else where the water flowed through and out, beautiful, got way better. Picture is God's word, think about that. We can go and feed and feed and feed and feed and feed.

And if we never apply, if we never use it, if we never take God's word and turn it into an output, if it's always just an input, it's gonna have very little effect on our life because we have to use it.

Be doers of the word, not just hearers, right? That's why the scripture tells us that. And when God's people do that, we are like the sheep that are stuck in a field and the field gets obliterated. Like we've got to move from field to field to field.

And I don't necessarily mean we've all got to physically go to different places, but we've got to look at our lives and go, all right, is God's word being applied in this area? Yes, this is feeling good.

I'm getting some momentum here, it's working. And then we get so focused on this is great, God led me to this place, I don't wanna leave. I'm gonna stay where I am. And it becomes like the manna for the Israelites who were only supposed to take enough for today, not enough for tomorrow because you gotta keep collecting, right?

And so you've got to activate God's word in this area of life and then go, well, where else can I activate it? Where else are you leading me, God? In my life, where else do you want to take me to a new green pasture?

Which means I have to leave the green pasture that I really like. I've been feeding here, I've been resting here, it feels great, I love this. I don't wanna leave, but he's gonna have me leave. And when he has me leave, he's gonna take me into the valley, away from the great place of contentment is what Myron calls Mount Just Enough, right?

Just enough for me. I'm gonna go from Mount Just Enough, just enough for me into the valley of not enough. And I'm gonna get into the valley of not enough and that's gonna refocus me instead of just saying, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, he leadeth me beside the still waters, he maketh me lie down in green pastures.

I'm gonna get focused on God and my relationship's gonna grow through that valley that I have to, where I have to go.

So, sure.

But I find myself that that shadow is of death, it's not my shadow. The shadow of death, I may have to walk through there.

It's death's shadow, right?

I have life.

You do.

The Valley of the Shadow of Death, the Rod and Staff, and the Enemy's Table

So, when you get into the valley and things are getting crazy in your life and you're feeling like there's a serious lack in your life, recognize that the Lord fed you in the pasture and he lets you drink the still waters for a reason, to give you strength for the journey.