How to Interpret Psalm 23 (Part 3)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and I think I�ll just do one more. That�ll be five new shows this week, get some in the can, at least get some of those things done.

I don�t know about you, but I�m trying to just get things done. I�m trying not to touch my face. I don�t want to just sit around. There�s tons of stuff to do, but it�s just kind of a weird vibe, just always being around the house, or being around the house more than normal, so I�ve got a bunch of things to do.

I can�t remember, but I learned some weird, funny dance last night that the girls made me do. I was proud of myself. They�re doing some different cooking things. They�re taking some knife classes online, like cutting knives for cooking and other things like that.

We�re watching some Ligonier videos, since those are all now free. I took a picture last night of the five of us. My son�s still in Los Angeles working, but I have my three girls home. My three daughters, age 27, 21 almost, 18, and then my wife and I are there, and I took a picture of the five of us with like a selfie picture of the five of us watching a Sinclair Ferguson video, and then I sent it to Sinclair.

He emailed me back and said, �If I was there, I would have shut the TV off. He said he�s in Philadelphia recording a bunch of seminary classes for video because of all this, but his bags are packed, so once they say, �No more UK stuff he�s going to quick get home back to Scotland.

We�re talking today about Psalm 23. So the last two shows, I talked about Psalm 23, although only one on Facebook Live. If you want to watch a whole sermon on Psalm 23, that will be tomorrow, March 22nd, 1015 AM, Eastern Standard Time, or I guess you could watch a rerun of it as I preach to basically a few tech people.

We�ll have YouTube Live this time and Facebook Live this time for Psalm 23, and we�ll continue to go along with the government�s request. I think I just read a church in Atlanta area that ignored the request or gathered before the request was given, and there was 41 people who were sick in that church and maybe even one dead.

I�m not sure. I fluctuate between a lot of this is overblown and real people are dying. So at the moment, we�re just going to go ahead and go along with the program and not have a big gathering. In the old days, when I had a show called Narrowgate Ministries, it was a cable access TV show, and I would preach behind a pulpit, and it was recorded in a motorcycle garage where people would fix motorcycles.

So I would have shorts on, like surf shorts, and then a suit from here on up, a tie and all that stuff, because it was hot in there. I had flip-flops on. I preached in flip-flops before, but it was behind, it wasn�t a plexiglass pulpit.

So we�re talking about Psalm 23. Just brief review for those of you who didn�t watch the other shows. If you remember these three things about Psalm 23, it will help you understand it better. Number one, the theological center is for you are with me, and that is a theme that ties everything together from the shepherd motif to the motif of somebody who�s texting me.

It was actually R. Scott Clarke text. So now, what do I have to have? Something here. Now it�s live radio, I better get back to it. Could you see all that? I don�t know if you could see. For you are with me, that�s the key.

Second key is where it�s placed in the canon, and that is Psalm 22, the death of the Messiah. Psalm 24, the return of the Messiah. And then Psalm 23. So you�ve got John 10, Jesus is a good shepherd, Psalm 22.

Hebrews 13, about this chief shepherd, great shepherd, and that�s Hebrews 13 for Psalm 23. And then you�ve got the returning shepherd in 1 Peter chapter 4. And then thirdly, if you�d like to have a hermeneutical helper for Psalm 23, it would be to make sure you understand that there�s nothing in there to be done.

This is just a reflection, a song, a praise about who God is. And so make sure when you look at that Psalm 23, or maybe I could put it this way, I dare you not to look at it, is the Lord Jesus as your shepherd.

The Lord as Abundant Provider in Psalm 23:1-3

And since He�s the shepherd where He left off last time, there�s nothing we lack. We might desire something, but the text really is, we don�t lack anything. Such a great shepherd will take care of everything we need.

He�ll take care of water and food and everything else. And of course, as Christians, I regularly think of this verse in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3, �Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

And therefore, everything we need, we have. And you think about this provision spiritually we have, from being justified in God�s sight to the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, to help us live the holy life, to the sealing ministry of the Spirit, to transgressions forgiven.

Everything we have received, it�s because God is a good shepherd. The Lord Jesus is a good shepherd. And left to ourselves, we would lack everything. We are sheep and we are helpless. We are not self-sufficient like Yahweh.

Think of Yahweh, the name, I am who I am. He is self-sufficient. He is independent. He is from himself. And we are the exact opposite. We lack everything. If I�m my shepherd, there�s a lot of stuff we lack.

I could make jokes about toilet paper and other things, but I better not. Voice, but if we belong to the one who is self-sufficient, inexhaustible, and utterly unchanged by time, we will lack nothing.

He is sufficient for all things and will provide for us. Temporal things, eternal things. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. That�s in the Bible, is it not?

The Lord is my shepherd. There�s an old Jewish proverb not found in the Bible, �He who gives us teeth will give us bread. And this flows out of the compassion of who God is as the great shepherd. Now, we move to the rest of the psalm, because there�s this big umbrella in verse 1, and then maybe I could set it up this way for double alliteration.

I don�t usually do alliteration, but today I�m going to do double alliteration. Since Jesus is your shepherd, there are three reasons why you�re going to lack nothing. And he is an abundant provider, verses 2 and 3, an absolute protector, verse 4, and an amazing proprietor, verses 5 to 6.

You know how hard it is to try to find a P word that�s a synonym for host? Victory feast, giver, party, hoster. Come on. It�s more difficult than what it looks like. By the way, alliteration is from the Latin word �litera�, meaning letter of the alphabet, and it, according to Wiki, was first coined in a Latin dialogue by the Italian humorist Giovanni Patano in the 15th century.

So I�d like to know, what did all the people do? Anselm, Athanasius, they didn�t do three points in a poem. They had no alliteration when they preached. How did that all work out? Although there is alliteration in Hebrews chapter 1, so as a device it is used, but maybe we just didn�t have the word alliteration by then.

Verses 2 to 3, I think you can just rest in who Jesus is as a wonderful provider because he�s such a good shepherd that you don�t have to desire anything. And we�ve got the sheep metaphor and the shepherd metaphor, and it says in verses 2 and 3, �He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name�s sake. And you can hear in all that sheep-like language. They need to lie down. They need still waters.

They need cleaning up and restoration. They need to go down the right paths and not down the briar bush area. And they do it in this case for the sake of the name of the shepherd. Oh, those sheep are well off because they have a good shepherd.

They have the best shepherd. Now, what does a shepherd do? You can see this is very pastoral here. Water they need. And you go, �Oh, yeah. Back in those days, there wasn�t water everywhere. You go to Israel today, and there are big bodies of water, of course.

And you think of the Sea of Galilee, and you think of the Jordan River, and you think of little wadis here or there. Of course, you can�t drink out of the Dead Sea, you can�t drink out of the Med Sea, you can�t drink out of the Red Sea, but you can drink out of the Sea of Galilee.

And there�s a bunch of other streams and little�they�re not rivers, but wadis is what they call them. And you go, �Well, he leads me beside still waters. He makes me lay down in green pastures. You�ve got to look for those things.

And a good shepherd would know right where to take you. And so when God is your good shepherd, he knows exactly how to take care of you. Of course, you should be thinking of Romans 8, verse 32, �If the greatest needs the Lord has given you, and that is the death of his son, won�t he take care of all the lesser needs

If he didn�t spare his son, he�s not going to spare you food and water and other things. And of course, back in these days, it was difficult to find water that was good for the sheep. But this particular shepherd, he knows how to do that.

He knows how to make the sheep lie down and get them to the waters appropriately so they�re not scared like sheep would be of running waters. It reminds me of Jesus in Mark 6, �The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught.

And he said to them, �Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest for a while. For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.

Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. And he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began teaching them many things.

That�s the Lord Jesus as the good shepherd. The Lord Jesus is my shepherd. I don�t lack anything. And then he gives me all these wonderful provisions. Now many people know of that book, Shepherd�s Look at Psalm 23 by Philip Keller.

Not Tim Keller, but Philip Keller. And he said, �Sheep do not lie down easily. It is almost impossible for them to be made to lie down unless full requirements are met. Owing to their timidity, they refuse to lie down unless they are free from all fear.

Because of social behavior within a flock, sheep will not lie down unless they are free from friction with others of their kind. If tormented by flies or parasites, sheep will not lay down. Only when free of these pests can they relax.

Lastly, sheep will not lie down as long as they feel in need of finding food. They must be free from hunger. And Keller writes, �Fear, friction, flies, and famine. See, everybody alliterates. Always alliterate.

Jesus, the ultimate provider, the ultimate sustainer, the ultimate one who says, �I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will what? Once in a while go hungry. No, he�ll never go hungry. He who believes in me will once in a while be thirsty.

No, will never thirst. What did Jesus say before he was crucified? To his disciples, he said, �My peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Meg just said, �I read the book by Keller. Very insightful. We are dumb sheep. I didn�t say dumb. I say stupid, but I don�t say dumb. Dumb is one of those words you�re not allowed to say. The picture here of physical sustaining should also be translated to the greater, and that is spiritual sustaining.

What does this conjure up? �Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my load is light. You know what? I�m not going to just give you these verdant, green, lush, plush pastures where you can just satisfy yourself. Spiritually, I�m going to take care of you in, as Paul would say in Ephesians chapter 3, verse 20, �in exceedingly, abundantly beyond what we could ask or think ways.

How does that work with my hand? �In exceedingly, abundantly beyond what we could ask or think ways. He gives you rest, restoration. I mean, I don�t know about you, but when I think of this great shepherd, verse 3, �He restores my soul.

Does your soul ever need restoration? You ever sin? Misery that sin brings, tragedy that sin brings, lack of fellowship that sin brings with other people and with the Lord himself. He restores my soul.

Some have even kind of got the idea here, �He brings me to repentance. He restores me to physical health. He then would restore me to spiritual health. Would he not? A good shepherd would do that. Would a good shepherd say, �You know what?

I�m only concerned that they eat. I�m only concerned that they�ve got the right cans of soup stockpiled, but I�m not concerned about the spiritual nourishment that they get. This shepherd, this great shepherd, the Lord Jesus shepherd, he makes sure he is concerned for the health of his sheep, physical health, spiritual health.

He restores my soul. As one man said, �Sin horribly degrades, defiles, and deforms us. Christ lifts us out of the muck, cleanses us from the filth, and begins restoring us to his own likeness and I might add, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

He restores my soul. He gives me conversion. He gives me then repentance as a Christian. He takes care of everything and refreshes me, and what does he also do? He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name�s sake.

There's a right way to go, and you're going to cut through a field, and there's going to be a path that's already made. It's going to be most likely, when you see a path that's well-worn, it's well-worn for a reason.

It's the right path. It's the easy path. It's the path that's not well-worn over here. It's not the old path. It's the new path where people are trying to cut through, but there might be dangerous things over there, and fast-flowing water, or bramble bushes, or what's a bramble bush, by the way?

It sounds like it's sticky. Sticker bush, nettles. Do nettles pierce the wool of a sheep? I have no idea. Did Tim Keller say that, or did Philip Keller? Hey, sheep, I'll make sure I put you on the right path.

I'll set you on the right course. I care for you. I love you. I'm going to take care of you. The right path. I'm not going to make you go off the deep end, lemmings off the cliff. Oh, go this way. When Jesus said, I am the way, He is the way itself to the Father, but also He's going to put you on the right way.

He guides me in paths of righteousness, in the right way to go, doing the right thing, obeying in light of who the Lord is, and we do it for what reason? For His namesake. Luther talked about the phrase, path of righteousness, and he said it's not just a straight way, but it's the righteous way, and we are sinful, and we go off on our own way, and then He brings us back to the right way.

Sometimes after discipline, of course, but we all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has laid the iniquity of us all on Him, and therefore, if He takes care of the largest problem, that is our salvation, He'll put us in a right path, and so the Lord is my shepherd.

I don't lack anything, because He takes care of everything temporally, and physically, and therefore, then spiritually. He's a good shepherd. He is an abundant provider, and what the Lord gives? He gives pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing, to use the language of Luke 6.

Whenever I was a kid, I'd open up like Frosted Flakes box, and Cinnamon O's, did anybody remember those? Cinnamon O's? Was that a cereal? Now, I know you had Frosted Flakes. I know you had Captain Crunch.

By the way, if you ever go to Yogurtland, the only thing I put on the yogurt in Yogurtland when I'm in California is Captain Crunch, because it's got a good taste, brings back memories to me, and also, it's light.

If you put on big curds of toffee, or something like that, oh, the price is gonna go way up, so my kids always laugh. I have my little Yogurtland app, and put it out there, and I get the, I don't know, some plain, like old people.

What does Grandpa get, plain, Neapolitan? When's the last time you had Neapolitan ice cream? What was the flavor that was always left? And you went, and you got the little cardboard box, not the box, but the paper box, it was rectangular, and you open it up, and you were wanting the good stuff, i .e., vanilla or chocolate, and what was the only thing left?

Strawberry. How sad. Jesus is a great shepherd. Jesus is a good shepherd. Jesus is the chief shepherd, and that's what the Bible teaches in all of the Bible. And then, he said, in Psalm 23, verse 4, that's not all, that he is not just a provider, but he's a protector.

The Lord as Protector in Psalm 23:4

Now, if you're gonna be a good shepherd, what are you gonna have to do? You're gonna have food, water, go down the right path, but you're gonna have to protect. And therefore, this is a good psalm of protection, that Jesus, since he's a good shepherd, he's gonna know how to protect.

If David knew how to protect, and many times, he was less than a good shepherd, in the sense of a good person, right, a sinful human was David. And it says here, even though David, and by the way, David would know all this language intimately, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

So there's a shift here, a big shift. Paths of righteousness, verdant pastures, still waters, the valley of the shadow of death. We go from abundance to fear, it's amazing. The valley of the shadow of death.

Now, this is a word that you ought to study on your own. And I've got tons of stuff in from these commentaries. The deepest darkness, Robert Davidson said, describes life-threatening situations in precarious terrain where the flock would be exposed to attack.

Is that like in a mall today? By the way, the Lord is with us in times of prosperity, verdant pastures, I don't know why I'm saying verdant so much, but it's just a nice word, it's got a good ring to it, makes you sound like you know what you're doing, to dangerous times.

And by the way, for those of you who fall prey to listen to not only No Compromise Radio, but also people on TV saying your life is going to be golden all the time, mountaintop experiences all the time, there are these kind of valleys.

We go from mountaintop, well, they weren't really on the mountain when they were by the still water, but a mountaintop-like experience to this shadow of death, that's two Hebrew words jammed together, shadow and death.

It's true. And they almost form this superlative, right? The fear of fears, the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, the shadowiest of all shadows, the darkest of all dark places, the scariest of all scariest places, the deepest shadows.

Ever watch Dark Shadows? That was such a dumb show when I was a kid, watching Dark Shadows, that kind of soap opera with the vampires. I loved Bela Lugosi and Count Dracula and all that stuff, but Barnabas Collins didn't really show his fangs enough.

I was a kid. I wanted to see fangs. I didn't want to see some kind of courting and this, that, and the other, and some kind of love triangles or who knows what it was. I don't remember anything except the lack of biting.

Give me more biting. Shadow and death are put together. The shadowiest of shadows. Dark. I'm going to have to send these flock over here. Pray that they don't become prey. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil for you are with me.

He's not going to run. You know what? A hireling runs away. Jesus isn't the hireling. He talked about that a lot in the New Testament, did he not? He's going to protect his sheep in moments of danger.

I mean, and he's proven that. How much does God love us? By sending his son, the father shows his love. The son shows it by dying for us. The spirit shows us by applying that great death to us. In this pastoral picture, you've got animals lurking everywhere and storms that could come in a moment's notice.

And this God, this great shepherd is going to take care of you. Not when things are just good, but things are bad. The problem is fear. Fear is a bad motivator, right? And how do you get money from people?

You make them afraid. How do you get people to do things? You make them afraid. Here, should I be afraid? He is the one that makes me not afraid, even in the valley of the shadow of death. The psalmist isn't afraid because he knows his shepherd isn't afraid.

The shepherd isn't afraid. Because the shepherd isn't even afraid of necessarily evil or the evil one. Satan himself is a defanged foe. And Jesus took care of that, not only in the temptation section of scripture in Matthew chapter 4, Luke 4, but also at Calvary.

And this, by the way, is those deep, dark shadows. It doesn't say in the valley, but through. Because the shepherd is going to make sure you get all the way out. Well, time is fleeting. It's the shadow of shadows.

It's the dark of dark. But we know that God's rod and staff comfort us, because he knows he can use that to protect us and also to guide us. Why? For he is with us. My name is Mike Ebendroth. This is No Compromise Radio.

I thought I'd come into the studio today and do my prayer walks seven times around to get the coronavirus to disappear from the place tomorrow, so when the three of us show up, it won't be here. A 10 -15 live stream.

God bless you. Mike at NoCompromiseRadio .com.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.