How to Interpret Psalm 23 (Part 2)

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.

Why Psalm 23 Is Read at Funerals but Is Really a Psalm of Life

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and I thought I would come into the office today, the study, because there�s nobody here, and it�s quiet, and I don�t even think the cleaners are here.

What�s there to clean? And we are still planning to go to Israel in 2021, that would be February 24th through March 4th. If you want to email me, mikeatnocompromiseradio .com, you can get some of the information regarding that.

Hopefully it�s going to be a cheap trip, and hopefully everything will be taken care of by then regarding all the shutdown, lockdowns, quarantines, everything else. I went out to the living room the other day, and I saw that the kids were looking at different Netflix things.

What�s the rage on Netflix now, do you know? It�s all kinds of virus movies, contagion movies, crazy. Today on the show, I�d like to talk to you about a psalm, a song, and if I were to say to you the occasion in America that we would read 1 Corinthians 13, what would that occasion be?

Well, you�d say, �Well, we read 1 Corinthians 13 at a wedding. It�s the wedding chapter. I guess you could read it at a wedding. I guess you could read anything at a wedding, really, but it�s not really a wedding chapter.

It�s a love chapter in the middle of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians. If I were to say to you, let�s say you�re going to go visit someone in the hospital, and they�re going to show you their new baby, the new baby was born, and you want to read something, the baby hospital psalm, I don�t mean a baby hospital, a real hospital song for a baby that�s born, would be, what, Psalm 139.

If you are trained here at the men�s discipleship that I teach, and you said, �You know what? I need to go encourage someone, and they�re struggling with their assurance, we should read them probably Romans 8.

Therefore, if I were to say to you what psalm, to switch it around, what psalm is read at funerals, you would say Psalm 23. Now here�s my question. Why is that a funeral psalm? Why is that a funeral psalm?

You could read it at a funeral. I�ve read it at a funeral, and I will continue to read it at a funeral, and there�s nothing wrong with that, but is it really a psalm of death? I would like to say today on No Compromise Radio, it�s not necessarily a psalm of death, it�s a psalm of life.

It�s a psalm about God. And in the last show, although I didn�t do it Facebook Live, but the last radio show just finished moments ago, I talked about some hermeneutical helpers, interpretive helpers, so that you could understand Psalm 23 better.

And the first thing I said to understand Psalm 23 better is to find the theological center. And the theological center of Psalm 23 is found in verse 4, �And you are with me. That�s the key to this whole psalm, because the psalm starts off with a shepherd motif, a shepherd metaphor, a similitude of a shepherd, and then it moves to a victorious feast that the host provides for his people, and then we move to dwelling in the house of the Lord.

How do you tie together shepherd, feast, dwelling in the Lord�s house? Well, the only way you tie that all together is with the theological center in verse 4, �And you are with me. That�s a key for this psalm.

Emmanuel, God, is with us. This is how we know He�s a good provider and how He gives His people pleasure and protects them and everything else. Additionally, in the last show, we talked about the second hermeneutical helper.

I asked somebody once what they do for food in a pinch, and they said, �Oh, kind of hamburger helper. Do they still have that? When was the last time you had hamburger helper? There are three people watching this live now.

Can one of you three tell me when the last time you had hamburger helper, tuna helper? What else do they have now? Pasta helper? I mean, I don�t cook that well, but I don�t do the helper stuff. I try not to do that.

I go for good stuff. I�m now drinking Ensure. This is cheap at Costco. Everything else is gone, but you can always get Ensure. So the third hermeneutical helper�no, I didn�t get to the third one. The second one was the placement.

So where is this psalm placed? Psalm 23. Make sure you read what�s before it, Psalm 22, and Psalm 24 after it, and you�ll see this little trilogy. It�s like a messianic shepherding trilogy. Psalm 22, the shepherd dies.

Think of John chapter 10, �I�m the good shepherd. I lay down my life for the sheep. Psalm 24, the king shepherd is exalted and is going to come back. That�s 1 Peter chapter 5, this great chief shepherd who�s going to appear.

And in the middle of it, you have the great shepherd, right? This is Hebrew�s 13 language of the great shepherd, and he provides. And you�ve got the death of the shepherd, you�ve got the reign of the shepherd now as he takes care of his people, and the ultimate coming back of the shepherd.

Psalm 22, Psalm 23, and Psalm 24. And even though you might be some old school purist, Darby, authorial intent only of the human author and wanting discontinuity, you ought to think of Jesus when you read Psalm 23.

It�s basically impossible for you to read. You mean to tell me that the Lord Jesus and his appearing, his life, his law-keeping, his miracles, his messages, his sermons, his forgiving sins, his dying on the cross, his substantial atonement, his literal resurrection, his ascension, his session, his seated at the right hand of the Father.

You mean that doesn�t do anything to the way you view the Old Testament? I double-dog dare you not to read Psalm 23 and say with Augustine, �The Lord Jesus is my shepherd. That�s just the way you ought to think now.

Later revelation informs earlier revelation. Does it not? Of course it does. And therefore, if you say to me, �Mike, I don�t want to make it technically a Messianic psalm. It�s going to be a shepherding psalm, and da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

Okay. But not on my show. Just kidding. Don�t touch your face. Don�t touch your face. Is it okay if you take� maybe we should have an informal poll. How many people here are watching, or will watch in the future, have taken Perel, put it all over their face, including up their nose?

It burns, I can tell you that firsthand. By the way, if you�re watching today and you would like to eavesdrop on the live teaching tomorrow, it�s not a real worship service because the saints aren�t here, but you can just go to bbcchurch .org, and I don�t know, 1 ,500 people watched it last time or something.

I�d like to know if they watched the whole thing, and I want to know if, when I made the altar call, if they came up to their computer screen and touched. Richard and Jeremy, a long time no see. I think they were both watching yesterday.

Do you guys have jobs? Probably not now. It�s going to be very interesting with people getting laid off left and right. My son�s company yesterday laid off another 80, I believe. He has not gotten laid off, but I know several people at church who have, and it�s going to be very interesting.

So the second hermeneutical helper, not just the theological center, �For you are with me. And by the way, you could read every line in that psalm and then repeat, �For you are with me. And that would give you the idea, �Your rod and staff, they comfort me, for you are with me.

�Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, for you are with me. That is the theological center. And also, additionally, if you�d like to look at Psalm 23 and interpret it properly, don�t forget about 22 and 24 and how it�s in this triad of shepherding.

Jeremy said, �Yes, I work at night all alone. I�m very thankful for my work and employer. And if you work at night all alone, then you could listen to No Compromise Radio all the time, right? What have I been listening to lately?

I have been listening to John Harris, by the way. John Harris has lots of good things to say and insight concerning the Southern Baptist Convention, PCA, Critical Race Theory. I met John at the Shepherd�s Conference and have asked him to be on No Compromise Radio.

I think he�s going to be on in just a few weeks, but I�ve been listening to his shows every week. I listen to Crisis Center, I listen to Heidelcast, I listen to Abound in Grace, I listen to White Horse Inn, at least the reruns.

I listen to, I don�t know what else is on my podcast, but since I don�t bicycle a lot now, I�m kind of behind, so I need to catch up on my podcast. The good news of NOCO, it�s 24 minutes, and off we go.

The third hermeneutical helper, Richard says he works from home, the third hermeneutical helper is that there are no imperatives in this psalm. The center theologically, �for you are with me�, that is a key for comfort, for joy, for isolation, for loneliness, for prosperity, �for you are with me.

Secondly, it�s about who Jesus is, don�t miss that. And thirdly, there�s nothing in there for you to do. Of course there are laws. Of course we want to make sure we tell people in light of who Jesus is, Hebrews 13, the first 12 chapters, he�s the high priest.

In light of that, love one another. In light of that, be hospitable. In light of that, take care of prisoners. In light of that, be content with what you have. In light of that, don�t have any sexual sin.

In light of that, remember your leaders. In light of that, I mean, the list goes on. We are not afraid of law at No Compromise Radio. Somebody said to me at the Shepherds Conference, or I knew someone at the Shepherds Conference, and I said, �I heard you think I�m an antinomian.

Do you think I am And they said, �Well, yes, at least there�s tendencies that I see in you. And we talked about it for a while, and I said, �I�m not against the law. I love God�s law, but the law doesn�t motivate.

The law tells you on target, off target, but it gives you no motivation. And that�s why I want to talk about who the one is who motivates us for holy living, and his name is Jesus. So I�m going to talk a lot about Jesus.

Of course, should you count it all joy, my brethren, when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance? Yes. Should you ask for wisdom? Same chapter, James 1, verse 5, when you�re in these trials, knowing that the generous God will give you wisdom, and don�t ask with unbelief but with faith.

That�s my quick translation paraphrase. Don�t mess up your trials by not asking for wisdom, so you can know what to do in the trial, so you learn something. Of course we want law, but there�s times for just good news, and here�s a good news psalm.

You ever thought of that? Why do people love Psalm 23 so much? I mean, maybe unbelievers love it because it seems to be comforting this general God, but no. It is comforting because our God, if you�re a Christian, if you�re trusting alone in Christ Jesus, His person, His work, you know what He�s done and what He�s said and what He�s coming back to do, then what you want to do is you want to say to yourself, this is just a good rehearsal of who God is.

And so when you read Psalm 23, look, try to find something to do. Try to find something to respond with, except, of course, when you learn from Revelation about God, there is a response, and that is thankfulness and trust and confidence.

But there�s not technically law to tell you this is what you should do, and I like that. Since we�re children of God, we want to obey, but we don�t have to obey in order to become children of God. He has predestined us to adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will.

That�s Ephesians chapter 1. And as Meg just said, Lloyd-Jones is told he was an antinomian as well. And lots of people are called antinomian. And sometimes it�s almost depending on what sections of Scripture you�re preaching through.

But anyone that knows me would know that I�m not antinomian. I am anti-antinomian, but I�m more anti-neonomian than I am anti-antinomian. Does that make sense? With those hermeneutical helpers in mind, Psalm 23, verse 1, a psalm of David, �The Lord, Yahweh, is my shepherd.

I lack nothing. Now, what�s David doing? David a shepherd. He understands what shepherds did and what they were and who they were on the social ladder. He understood all about that, right? David was a shepherd boy.

I remember songs that I would sing as a kid to David about a shepherd boy. And he says, �Do you know what? The Lord is my shepherd. Now, he uses the word Yahweh there. And what comes to your mind when you hear the word Yahweh?

Well, lots of things come to my mind. If I�m not careful, I�ll just get mad that English translations say Lord because they�re afraid of offending Jewish people or something like that. But if you really think of Lord and you think of Yahweh, and this is the God who reveals himself as self-sufficient, as independent, as from himself, aseity.

This is the God that Moses wants to go investigate, the so-called burning bush, the bush that was seemingly burning but it wasn�t burning at all. This God, I am who I am God, is a kind God, a loving God, a protecting God, a caring God, a patient God.

This is the God of the eternal covenant-keeping nature. That�s amazing to me. When I think about the Lord as my shepherd, Yahweh as my shepherd, the inexhaustible one is my shepherd, the one who receives no wisdom from anyone.

I was trying to memorize this morning Proverbs 21, a particular verse, and I said, I think there is no wisdom and no understanding and no counsel against him. The horse is prepared for battle, but victory belongs to Yahweh.

This is the God who in himself is all-wise, all-powerful, all-knowing. He answers to no one else. He is from himself, independent, self-sufficient, triune, and he�s my shepherd, David says. He�s my shepherd.

This is amazing that this God could be my shepherd, this transcendent God could be my personal shepherd. Some people say there are we Psalms, and this is an I Psalm. I didn�t count. I probably should.

17 first person, my shepherd. This makes me think, okay, now let�s think big picture again. The Lord Jesus Christ is my shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep, John 10. The chief shepherd, he�s going to appear, and also now in the middle, Hebrews chapter 13, we have the great shepherd.

Out of all the people providing and caring and looking forward and looking after, rather, it�s the Lord Jesus. He�s my shepherd. I�ve been crucified with Christ. It�s no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, present tense, I live by faith, who loved me and gave himself for me. He�s my shepherd. That�s good to know. He�s my shepherd. Revelation chapter 1, John to the seven churches that are in Asia, �Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings on earth.

I mean, we�re talking ruler language. �To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood. That�s good news. I have good news for you. Don�t forget that. Jesus, dear Christian, is your Savior.

Jesus is your friend. This is a covenant name of God. He is eternal. He is self-existent. He covenant keeps, not just for Israel, but for all those who trust in the Lord Jesus. That�s what I�m glad for.

God is kind shepherd. Now here�s what Calvin said. Now, you might think of austere Calvin and cold Calvin and stern Calvin and all the Servetus stuff and all that. Calvin, �Although God by his benefits gently allures us to himself, as it were by a taste of his fatherly sweetness, yet there is nothing into which we more easily fall than into a forgetfulness of him when we are in the enjoyment of peace and comfort.

Under the similitude of shepherd, he commends the care which God in his providence had exercised toward him. His language implies that God had no less care of him than a shepherd has of a sheep who are committed to his charge.

He does not disdain to stoop so low for our sake, must bear a singular strong affection toward us. It is therefore wonderful that when he invites us to himself with such gentleness and familiarity, we are not drawn or allured to him that we may rest in safety and peace under his guardianship.

I think that�s good news. The Lord is my shepherd, this great I am, the creator, the eternal one. Jesus is my shepherd. I think David, underneath all this, he�s making a statement, he�s making a confession.

I trust this God, I know this God because I�m known, I�m committed to him because he first committed himself to me, and I�m part of his flock, I�m part of his beloved, you�re part of his church, right?

This is the dominant theme of the whole psalm. The Lord is my shepherd, Psalm 28, �Be their shepherd and carry them forever. Psalm 80, �Give ear, O shepherd of Israel. Psalm 95, �For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.

Psalm 100, �Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us and we are his. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. And then Revelation 7, �For the lamb is in the midst of the throne, will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Lord and shepherd, have you ever thought about those two words? Do they go together? Lord and shepherd, covenant-keeping God, Yahweh, shepherd, it�s like somehow in my mind they don�t want to mix. Now, you could tell me in Ugaritic texts and in Hammurabi codes and in Near Eastern manuscripts, the king served as a shepherd for the people to take care of them.

Okay, I get that. See, I�m trying to impress you with my knowledge. Do they have colleges anymore? Are seminaries gone? You mean seminaries might have to close and we might have to train people in the local church?

That�s amazing. Now, I�m not against seminaries at all, but I am pro-training people, to some degree, in the local church. Right? How do I get myself into these problems? Although, I�ve not received a check from a seminary, any seminary, for quite some time.

That�s okay. I was glad for the ones I got, reported them on my taxes even. Lord Yahweh, shepherd, do they kind of go together? One man said, �How astonishing it is to find the words �Lord� and �shepherd� in such proximity.

David is asserting that the sovereign ruler of the universe has taken up the menial task of shepherding him. The Lord Jesus takes up the menial task of shepherding me and you, dear Christian. That�s amazing.

That�s wonderful. He�s my shepherd. Yeah, yeah, he�s stooping low. I know that, but he�s my shepherd. He�s willing to do that because he cares for me. I don�t think I�ve ever cried on no-compromise radio, but I could cry.

I could cry thinking about that. The Lord is my shepherd. That is just a truth that is important. And see, what we know is very important. We don�t need to say to ourselves all the time, �I�ve got my to-do list.

That�s why Psalm 23 comforts. That�s why Psalm 23 is wonderful, because we read David�s words and we are automatically off thinking about our Lord Jesus and how he�s our good shepherd and he cares for us, the sheep.

Lord Jesus is my shepherd. That�s as natural as breathing, as one writer said. Okay, Mike Ebenroth, no-compromise radio. I told my son, when you cry, you don�t wipe your eyes, so I just have to blink a lot.

I think I maybe cried from the pulpit less than 10 times in the last, I guess, starting next week, it was in my 23rd year here at the church. I completed, yeah, I�ve been here 23, going in 24. But I do know some people, I think they cry about every sermon.

I would not recommend that. I think it�s okay if you cry once in a while for sermons, but not all the sermons. Jesus is, Christian, your great shepherd, that�s Hebrews 13. He�s your good shepherd, that�s John 10, and he�s your chief shepherd, 1 Peter 5.

And since this Lord Jesus is your shepherd, there�s nothing you need. You think he�s going to be a bad shepherd? You think he�s going to be an insufficient shepherd? No way. No wonder the writer says, or sings, I shall lack nothing.

I shall not want. That really means I don�t need anything. He takes care of everything. See, the focus is on the shepherd, and when you have a great shepherd, everything is taken care of. Now, what do sheep achieve, obtain, get on their own?

Left to themselves, they lack everything. If the Lord isn�t my shepherd, I lack everything. I�m needy, right? You just watch society now and see how needy society is when some of the infrastructure starts getting delayed, canceled, slowed down.

We�re like sheep. We�ve gone astray. That�s Isaiah 53, of course, and we�re helpless, and we need help, and so you need to have a good shepherd, especially if you�ve got sheep like us. Got the heavenly shepherd.

Is there anything the heavenly shepherd forgot to give as he equipped the Lord Jesus to come be our shepherd? Is there anything that the Holy Spirit doesn�t let the Lord Jesus do and doesn�t equip him even when he was on earth, are now applying the benefits of the Lord Jesus by giving illumination and by giving regeneration, by giving sealing?

No, no, of course not. You say, �Well, I want things. Well, I know, but that�s not what the text is talking about. I want things, too. I want the audience to be smarter. NIV did a good job here. Credit to where credit is due.

�I shall not be and want. That�s the clarifying phrase, according to the NIV application commentary. Why do you think the NIV application commentary has to use NIV? Zadravit? Hey, my name is Mike Avendroth, talking about Psalm 23.

If you want to learn more about this, you can listen on the radio show. I might do one more live Facebook before I go home today, although it�s pretty nice out. Maybe I want to take a little limp. My PT people say, �Can you limp

I can�t.

Thanks for watching today. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Avendroth 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.