Psalm 23
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 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 in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. (NIV)

Some of the most famous words in the world. Many people, over the last 4 or so millennia have turned to them for comfort. People desirous of comfort in the threat of death; rest in the face of turmoil; sustenance in the face of famine.

I hope, as we’ve been going through this chapter for the last few weeks, though, you have also been struck by the power in these words.

When I was little, my parents used to read to me every night from a Bible story book. I credit those stories and that early reading as being the basis for my grasp of the basics of Scripture as I grew older. As I did grow older, though, I began to dig deeper into those stories. The story of the little boy who knocks out the giant became part of a much larger tapestry about a man after God’s own heart. The story about the man in the lion’s den became a segment in this incredible story about a man who trusts God and saves a nation (or two).

Psalm 23 is one passage we often read to children. As we grow up, it is a comfort to us partly because we associate it with childhood. I hope, though, that you are being reminded in this study that Psalm 23 is more than a children’s story. It’s God’s story. It’s the story of his love for us.
But it’s also about complete submission. David’s the king. Remember Mel Brook’s line, “It’s good to be the king”? Yet, David has come to realize that true comfort, rest, food and eternity are only found in complete submission to the Shepherd.

That’s a tough lesson. Frank Sinatra made a mint telling the world, “I did it my way.” David could write (and his son Solomon did write, in Ecclesiastes), “I did it my way and it didn’t work out. I found that the only way to really do anything, is God’s way.”

When you think about it that way, Psalm 23 can be hard to take. It becomes not just a simple platitude for children, but a life-altering declaration of faith. Which is easier to say, “I love God” or “I submit to God”? The words may be easy, but the carrying-out is difficult, isn’t it?

Christian comedian and singer Paul Aldrich said that if the modern man were to rewrite the Psalm, it would have phrases like this:

Yea though I drive my BMV through the valley of the shadow of Debt, I will fear no breakdown; For it’s under warranty: My Carphone and my Gold Card, they comfort me …
Surely IRAs and CDs shall multiply all of the days of my life: and I will live in a house with a View forever.

I think he’s right. David is focused on the eternal, yet we focus so much on the temporal.

I try to read my Bible every day. Some days, I pick it up and read a chapter or two and set it back down and go about my day. But other days, I pick it up and pray about what I’m going to read and then I dig in. I try to understand the meaning and the context. And on a lot of those days I’m sorely tempted to put it down and walk away.

Because, as the Bible itself says, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:11, NIV)

Not everyone who calls themselves a Christian reads the Bible. Not for themselves, anyway. You may pick up your Bible or the scripture page in the bulletin and read along with me, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I have a sneaking (and disturbing) suspicion that most people who call themselves Christians don’t read their Bible on their own.

Why?

Well, the excuses we generally give are a lack of time or that we’re not really much of a reader. As to that first excuse, most of us read what we want to read. I can always find time to read the book I just checked out from the library. In fact, if there’s something I really want to do, I find the time for it. As to the second excuse, you can get the Bible on tape, on CD, on MP3 or several other audio formats.

I think the real reason we don’t spend as much time in God’s word as we should is because we know—deep down in our gut—that Hebrews 4:11 is telling the truth. I know that if I start really reading my Bible, ingesting it, studying it, letting it sink in, I’m going to have to do one of two things: change or reject.

I’m either going to have to change my way of living and my way of thinking, or I’m going to have to reject it. Now, I know the consequences of rejecting God, so I fool myself and just don’t read the Bible, don’t grow, don’t change. I’m counting on God excepting my willful ignorance as piety!
Even a “simple” passage like our phrase for today is fraught with peril.

“You anoint my head with oil.”

What could diving into that phrase do to me?

For starters, it would help if I knew what it meant. Now, my first mental imagery here is that David is the king, and he became king by having his head anointed. That was what God told the prophet Samuel to do: anoint David’s head.

It’s more than that, though. To a shepherd, oil was a business necessity. Remember how I told you last week that oil was spread around the top of a snake’s hole to keep the snake from coming out and how oil was put on the noses of the sheep to keep the snakes from biting? Well, oil also served other purposes. A shepherd would cover a sheep with perfumed oil in the summers to keep the biting flies off (they’re an annoyance to us but can be deadly to sheep). A shepherd also used oil to medicate the scrapes a sheep would get—from fighting or just from getting too close to thorn bushes. And shepherds would cover the heads of the male sheep with oil during mating season so that, when they butt heads with other male sheep, they would just slide off and not hurt each other.

When David praises God for pouring oil on his head, he’s also admitting that he’s dependant on the Lord—the Great Shepherd—for survival.
There are some messages that are for the lost. This, though, is a message for the saved. It’s not that the lost of this world don’t need to submit to God—they do!—but they aren’t ready for this kind of submission.

What David wrote elsewhere, “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” (Psalm 34:8) is a good message for the lost. But this little phrase, tucked in the middle of a Psalm we read our children, can probably only be fully grasped by the mature. (I hope that’s you.) This is about total submission. But it’s also about the glory of total submission.

The world is looking for a way to get ahead, to get a throne, even. David is extolling the virtues of being a helpless sheep and letting God take care of him. That’s hard for this world to grasp.

It may be pretty hard for us to grasp, too. That’s why, so often, we need to be reminded of some things. Starting with, “The Lord is my Shepherd …”

What do I DO with this?

Submit. Have you ever tried to submit every day to God? So much of the trouble I have in my life is my own doing and I know it wouldn’t happen if I would submit before rather than after.

Comments? Email me at martha917@yahoo.com.