Why do you love Psalm 23?

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry.

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I mean, it's August 2023 when I'm recording this, and the summer of Hebrews is over.

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Well, it's been a good summer.

I got back here to New England, and it's kind of muggy.

Rains a lot here, but a lot of pretty green grass, unlike the wintertime when it looks like, I don't know, nuclear winter here sometimes.

What's going on here at No Compromise Radio? I should be, Lord willing, at the Pactum Conference in October.

I think T.G.

Hart is going to be there, Michael Beck, Pat Avendroth, and that's the Pactum Conference, I think, October 6th and 7th.

If 800 people don't register by next Monday, we're going to have to cancel.

That's an inside joke.

Some theologian just did that.

If 150 people don't register, they have to cancel the conference.

Putting the big back into Eva.

By the way, the video that that guy did, in the background there, it looks like there's two guys cuddling.

You can't make it up.

I don't think they're cuddling in the middle of the video, but it sure looks like it.

Now, I could be wrong.

Maybe it's a man and a woman sitting next to each other, because you can only see this silhouette thing.

By the way, I want to apologize.

I am stuffy.

I mean, what do I do now? I work on sermons, I try to shepherd the flock, and I go to doctors.

I see the dermatologist this coming week, just some weird skin things, and then I see the ENT doctor, because it's probably going on a month like this.

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There it is.

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Well, anyway, my name is Mike Abenroth.

This is No Compromise Radio Ministry.

And yes, I sound like I'm underwater, but I guess I could probably make it worse.

I could probably, you know, distort my voice differently and I can maybe not sound so stuffy.

All right.

Today, I've got a question.

Here's the question.

Why do you love Psalm 23? Why do you love Psalm 23? Well, I guess different people would answer differently, right? I assume if you're a Christian, you love Psalm 23.

And you say, oh, Mike, I love it because Psalm 23 ministered to me when my mother died.

I love Psalm 23 because when I got diagnosed with cancer, I read it and was comforted.

I love Psalm 23 because when I studied it to teach my high school group, it helped me combat my anxiety.

I love Psalm 23 because it's the most famous Psalm, but it's the most wonderful Psalm.

I mean, there could be lots of different answers.

And so, I can ask you the question, why do you love Psalm 23? I mean, really, Psalm 23 is to funerals as 1 Corinthians 13 is to weddings, right? You just think, okay, Psalm 23 is read at funerals.

1 Corinthians 13 is read at weddings.

And my question today is why do you love Psalm 23? And I want you to know that if want to read it at funerals, I mean, I still do, that's fine.

There's nothing wrong with that.

I'm not critiquing or criticizing anyone for reading any scripture at a funeral, but it's not really a Psalm of death.

It's a Psalm of, as one writer said, life, rest, and peace.

It's a Psalm of comfort.

It's a Psalm of joy.

It's a Psalm of praise, probably the best known chapter in all the Bible, don't you think? Maybe the most loved, maybe the most precious.

Could it be the one that's most memorized? Could it be the one that's most recognized even by unbelievers? Charles Spurgeon called Psalm 23, the pearl of Psalms.

That's a pretty big endorsement by Reverend Spurgeon.

19th century preacher and commentator, J.J.

Stewart Perrone said, there is no Psalm in which the absence of all doubt, misgiving, fear, and anxiety is so remarkable.

Could it be, dear Christian, that since we have so much doubt in our life, so much misgiving, so much fear, and so much anxiety, that we run to Psalm 23 to help us think rightly and alleviate those awful sins of anxiety? I think maybe we know the answer.

Alexander McLaren said, the world could spare many a large book better than this sunny, S-U-N-N-Y little Psalm.

It has dried many tears and supplied the mold into which many hearts have poured their peaceful faith.

This is a Psalm for those who are experiencing joy now, and they can still be thankful, or they're going through a trial.

But I still want to ask the question, why is it such a wonderful Psalm? Well, I can say to you, it's about the Lord, Yahweh, and He's my shepherd.

And that you could say, do you know what? One of the reasons why this Psalm is so wonderful is because it's personal.

He's my shepherd.

I shall not want.

He makes me lie down.

He leads me.

He restores my soul.

He leads me in the paths of righteousness.

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.

You prepare a table before me.

Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Certainly, one of the reasons why you love this Psalm, because it's so personal.

Sometimes it might be wrong to mentally put your name in a particular Psalm.

Let's say it's a Messianic Psalm, Psalm 2 or Psalm 110 or something like that.

But here, we see no problem with saying, surely, goodness and mercy shall follow my Gabendroth all the days of his life, and he, my Gabendroth, shall dwell in the house, Lord, forever.

We're not doing any hermeneutical slip-ups there, are we? No, we're not having any interpretive faux pas.

No.

We say to ourselves, this is such a good Psalm.

This is a Psalm because it's personal.

If you love this Psalm because it's about Yahweh, the great shepherd, who's your shepherd, and he knows you as a sheep and you know his voice, I think that's a great reason to love it.

And that's something that's good.

I don't want to say, don't do that.

Is there anything more? Well, one of the reasons why we should love this Psalm, and here's the big point, here's what I'm after.

I want you just to consider this and add this in.

This isn't the only, this isn't the main reason.

This is just a reason, because I want you to think theologically, there are no imperatives in Psalm 23.

That's right.

No commands, nothing to do.

It's all done.

It's all being taken care of by the Lord.

Ever thought of that? You ever say to yourself, why is Psalm 23 so wonderful? Well, there's nothing wrong with the law.

There's nothing wrong with telling us to do things and to trust in the Lord and lean on our own understanding.

There's nothing wrong with any of that.

Try to say those verses when you've got a plugged up nose.

There's nothing wrong with that at all.

I'm just making another observation.

Yes, this is a wonderful Psalm because it talks about a shepherd and we're like sheep without a shepherd.

When we were lost, we have Satan as our father.

And now we have, because the Lord's work, we have a father, we have the son, we're built by the spirit of God.

Yes, that's all true.

But I just want you to just settle in and just think to yourself, what motivates a Christian? This is like what we did last week on the show.

What motivates you to obedience? Well, lots of things.

God tells me something to do.

I should do it.

I want to honor him.

I know it's good for me.

I'm able to do it now because of the spirit of God.

I should be doing out of gratitude.

There are lots of ways we could think through it.

My neighbor needs my good works, right? Glorifies God if I didn't say that.

That's yes and amen.

But isn't it interesting? It doesn't tell me to do anything, even though it elicits me to do things like to rest, like to be thankful, like to be joyful, like to be comforted.

It does not say, since all this is true, be comforted.

Since all this is true, rejoice always.

And again, I say rejoice.

Since all this is true, you can have joy even though you're burying your father.

This is all true.

And this is how you should respond.

Oh, there are Psalms that tell us how to respond and what to do.

Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me.

Okay.

I get it.

I understand.

I'm just trying to get you to say, huh, could it be that it's so wonderful because it's all about who God is.

And I am used to, sadly, sometimes sitting in churches where the sermons are all do, do, do, do, da, da, da.

I just watched a YouTube thing and it was with Marky Ramone of the Ramones.

And he's the last Ramone that's alive.

I think Joey died, then Johnny died, then Dee Dee died, then Mark, uh, Tommy died.

All of them died except one.

Reminds me of a Jim Carroll song, doesn't it? And the headline of the YouTube thing was Marky Ramone says that Sting is a jerk.

Sting of the police.

And so I wanted to hear what Marky Ramone was going to say about Sting.

Just, I don't know why.

I mean, I like the Ramones and there's some police songs that I like.

It never mentioned Sting in that interview.

Like what kind of advertising is this? False advertising.

Yes, the Christian life on an overflow of gratitude, we have fruit and obedience and evidence of our salvation.

Of course, anybody that tells you that you shouldn't obey God as a is not important is an antinomian.

Anyone that says, I mean, do you get my drift? I am simply saying that this is a Psalm just extolling who God is and that's what we need.

And then of course we can obey.

There are other Psalms that say things for obedience.

That's true.

My point again today is, isn't that fascinating? The Psalm 23, your favorite Psalm, it has no imperatives.

Now, maybe there's a section of scripture you love because it's all full of imperatives.

Great.

No problem.

Now, if you look at Psalm 23, there's a center.

So, if you do chiasms and kind of like an X, what's at the center of this literary unit? The center of this literary unit is a truth that's important.

It's not something to do.

It's something to be believed.

For you are with me.

Found right there in the middle of verse four.

Do you know that's the theological center of Psalm 23? Did you know that? The theological center.

Everything in this Psalm revolves around, for you are with me.

And it would not be unfair to say, here's how you could read the Psalm knowing that that's the emphasis and that's the center.

The Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want for you are with me.

He makes me lie down in green pastures for you are with me.

He leads me beside still waters for you are with me.

He restores my soul for you are with me.

He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake for you are with me.

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 for you are with me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies for you are with me.

You anoint my head with oil.

My cup overflows for you are with me.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life for you are with me.

And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever for you are with me.

Isn't that good? The center is for you are with me.

We've got the presence of God and his comforting presence.

The shepherd theme, the first four verses, verse five, the host over a victory feast, and then verse six, dwelling in the house forever.

You've got shepherding, celebrating, living in God's house, all because you're with me.

That is amazing.

That reminds me of Hebrews 13 verses five and six.

Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have.

For he has said, I will never leave you nor what? Forsake you.

Now, doesn't that make you want to obey by not being anxious, by being joyful? Of course.

Hebrews 13, for he himself has said in the Greek, I've read that there are five negatives in that quotation.

Now you could just say one negative, but in the Greek five negatives, so you should be encouraged.

So you should be resolute.

So you could be trusting and resting.

I will never, I'm never, no way.

Verse six goes on to say, so we can confidently say the Lord is my helper.

I will not fear.

What can man do to me? That's Hebrews 13 verses five and six.

For you are with me.

That's the point.

Why do you love Psalm 23? Well, because it's about the shepherd.

It's about the feast and the banquet.

It's about dwelling with the Lord and he's going to be with us forever.

He's with us now.

Lastly, for the show today, we could say more, but lastly, for the show today, I think you love Psalm 23 because where it is in the Canon, where it is in the Bible, why isn't it after Psalm 150? Why isn't it Psalm 1? What's the placement of this Psalm? And the Psalm is placed right in the middle of 22 and 24, duh.

But 22, 23, and 24 are a nice little trilogy and they're all about Jesus, Christ, our shepherd.

It's interesting.

Christ, our shepherd.

Did you know that Psalm 22, Psalm 23, and Psalm 24 give different snapshots of the Messiah.

Psalm 22 talks about Jesus as the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep, John 10.

That's what happened in the past.

Psalm 23 talks about the great shepherd, Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, the Lord Jesus, who will equip you with everything good for doing his will and may he work in us what is pleasing to him.

That's Hebrews 13.

That's what he's doing now.

He's taking care of his people, right? He paid for our sins in the past.

He's taking care of the people now.

So we've got Psalm 22, the good shepherd, John 10, Psalm 23, the great shepherd, Hebrews 13, and would it surprise you that Psalm 24 is about the chief shepherd, 1 Peter 5, verse 4, and when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

That's the future when the King of kings and the King of glory and the King of ages returns.

One of the reasons you love Psalm 23 is because it's in the trilogy of Psalm 22, good shepherd, Psalm 23, great shepherd, Psalm 24, chief shepherd, all talking about the Lord Jesus.

And of course, when you read Psalm 22, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Of course, you're immediately thinking about what Jesus said on the cross.

And when you read Psalm 23, you're immediately thinking about the Lord is my shepherd.

And you go back to John 10 for certain in Hebrews 13, and the chief shepherd is going to appear.

This great Psalm in verse 24, the exaltation of this great King.

So, I think you love Psalm 23 for lots of reasons.

It's placement, it's theme, there's no imperatives in there.

Isn't it fun to think about Psalm 23, not just at weddings? Let me flip over here to Psalm 24, because that also is important for you to just get the idea of the exaltation.

The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.

The world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.

He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Skipping to verse seven, lift up your head O gates and be lifted up O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle.

Lift up your heads O gates and lift them up O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts.

He is the King of glory.

Who is the King of glory? The Lord Jesus.

Absolutely.

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