Rainey, Ross: Studies In Psalm 23:-05 ~ Enrichment and Joy

As that song was sung to us, I couldn't help but think of the teaching of our Lord in Matthew chapter ten, wherein we read, are not two sparrows sold for a farthing, and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your falling. Dr. Ironside used to say that God attended the funeral of every sparrow, and we're worth far more than many sparrows in his sight. And how good to know that, as he goes on to tell us, our Savior says, but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not, therefore, you're of more value than any sparrow. He goes on to say, whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father who is in heaven. Just a couple of items before we look at Psalm twenty three once again. This evening, I couldn't help but think of how gracious our Lord was, not only in providing the rain, but in his timing of the rain. And I thought of that hymn, I thought for sure that perhaps our brother Ernest Woodhouse would choose showers of blessing. Mercy drops round us are falling, but for the showers we please. So it's been rainy outside, and once again it's rainy inside this week. Also, I'd like you to know that today I was ready for it. At eleven fifteen, a little bit earlier, it, the train, came through, and I was reading a book, and I heard the rumble and then the whistle, and I had my camera ready. So I've got a picture, and if it turns out quite good, I'll send one to the park, and they can do with it what they want. Maybe they want to put it in the folder. There might be some railroad buffs that would come here just to see the train go by each day. I don't know. Remember, though, my initials are RR, Railroad. What could you expect? All right. One other item. We have some extra copies of Capital Comments on the Cult, and they're in the bookstore, book room back there, and you're welcome to peruse the contents of this little booklet, and if you wish to purchase one, fine, it's there for your purchase at a dollar seventy-five. Now, this evening, we'd like to look afresh at Psalm twenty three, so please turn there if you're with us for the first time this week, and I think there are at least a few of the Lord's people that are here for the first time this week. We've been looking at this nightingale song from David's pen, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This hymn of praise that presents to us the Lord Jesus as our great shepherd. He's the good shepherd in Psalm twenty two and the chief shepherd in Psalm twenty four, but here he's the great shepherd who loves and cares for his sheep. And this evening we're at verse five. but we'd like to read the entire psalm again. It's so brief and yet so profound in the simplicity of its expression. What a precious passage. So we'll read it, and then especially look at verse five. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul, he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Over the past evenings, we've been looking at each verse. Verse one telling us of possession and plenty. Verse two telling us of rest and refreshment. Verse three of restoration and righteousness. Verse four of companionship and comfort. And now we have a threefold cord this evening. And as Solomon reminds us, a threefold cord is not easily broken. And I'd like to, in the moments that I have with you, to look at these details in verse five in the light of enrichment, enablement, and enjoyment. These are three things that I see as the major thrust of the details here of verse five. Now, in this verse, David speaks of the Lord as Jehovah Nissi, meaning the Lord my banner, or as some translate it, the Lord my victory. This very designation of our Lord is used in Exodus chapter seventeen, the book of redemption, chapter seventeen, and in verse fourteen, in relation to Israel's enemy, Amalek, the Lord said unto Moses, write this for a memorial in a book and rehearse it in the years of Joshua, for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And then verse fifteen uses this designation, Jehovah Nissi. Moses built an altar. This was expressive of his worship, and he called the name of it Jehovah Nissi. The Lord, my victory, the Lord, my banner. And apart from the Lord, the sinner can only experience and expect defeat, but once on the Lord's side, the victory belongs to his people because of him who is the victor over sin and Satan, the forces of hell and of death itself. I think of those words that we quoted last evening from Romans eight verse thirty seven: The Lord has made us more than conquerors. And then Paul could say in First Corinthians fifteen fifty seven: thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He promises victory to the soul who has believed on him, and we rest on a victory that has been won, and it's there for us to claim. The answer to a defeated life is to come into a personal knowledge and relationship with Jehovah Nissi, the Lord, my victory. Now, as we indicated a few moments ago, there are three main parts to this verse, so let's look at them one by one, the first being enrichment. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Our great shepherd has sent us, you and me who are in Christ, he has sent us to live in a dangerous place in this world. In Matthew ten sixteen, for instance, he said to his disciples, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Perhaps we've not realized this world as dangerous a place as it really is, because we have not followed the shepherd as closely as we should have. The world is a dangerous place. It's enemy territory, as we think of the world system round about us, and we're exhorted. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. But Christ's plan is not to yet take us out of the world, but to leave us in this world to be worshippers and witnesses. We're not to isolate ourselves from the world, but he's given us every resource to be insulated against the world, and this through his protection that he so pre- freely provides. I think of those words in his high priestly prayer, John chapter seventeen, one of the great chapters in all the Bible, a prayer that has to do with our Lord praying for himself, and then he prays for his own and for those that later would believe on him. In other words, for you and me, and of course for his church. And in John chapter seventeen, we read this in verses fifteen through seventeen: I pray not that thou should take them out of the world, but that thou should keep them from the evil. And many translators extend this, and I believe they are correct. I would certainly second that, that thou would keep them from the evil one. I think this is one of the greatest texts in relation to the eternal security of every true child of God. This prayer is being answered moment by moment, as our great high priest ever lives to make intercession for us. And then it goes on and says, they, that is those who have believed on him, are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. The Lord Jesus sanctified himself to the cross. He set himself apart to become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And here he's praying that his own will be set apart through the truth of God's precious word. Thy word is truth. And that's why, beloved, we need to come to this book day by day, because the word of God has a sanctifying effect upon our hearts, and in measure as we are subject to it, obedient to it, then we shall indeed be those that know victory over the world through faith in him, eternal foe of the flesh. We've got these three enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil, and we need to be on our guard as never before, and being in the word of God is one of the sure ways of keeping Satan at bay and not falling snare or prey to the wiles of the evil one. Now, between verses four and five of Psalm twenty three, the question sometimes comes up, has David changed from a description of sheep with a shepherd to a banquet prepared by a host for a friend? Some Bible commentators do not think so. I don't know to whom to give credit. It may have been Philip Keller, but it may have been someone else. That really doesn't matter. But one writer tells of a shepherd who, coming to a new field, inspects it thoroughly, walking up and down, looking for grass that could poison the sheep, as well as for vipers, little serpents. These small brown adders live underground, and they have a way of popping out of their little holes and nipping the noses of the sheep as the sheep graze in pasture, and their bite is poisonous and sometimes fatal. Leaving his sheep outside such a field, I'm told the shepherd will find all the viper holes that he can, and then he takes from his belt a bottle of thick oil, and raking over any long grass with his staff, he pours a circle of oil at the top of every viper's hole. Then, as he leads the sheep into the field, he anoints the heads of each sheep with oil. When the vipers realize that the sheep are grazing above, they try to get out of their hole to do their deadly work, but the oil keeps them from getting out. Their smooth bodies cannot pass over the slippery oil. They're prisoners, really, in their hole. Also, the oil on the sheep's head acts as a repellent, so if a viper gets near the nose of a grazing sheep, the smell drives the viper away. Literally, therefore, the sheep are allowed to graze in plenty mid the presence of their enemy. He has prepared for us a table in this wilderness, in the presence of our enemies, and it's a lavish table. In my earlier years, when I was young, I used to do a fair amount of children's work, and one of the things I like to do is I would have Bible stories on slides, would be to intersperse in those Bible stories some of Pace's cartoons. Maybe you remember the old Pace's cartoons on the Sunday School Times. I had something like two hundred color slides of Pace's cartoons, and I used to use them freely and with good effect at various boys and, yes, girls Bible camps. In Missouri, I was one chap who got to go to girls camp. And really it was, as I look back, most of the time the best camp. The girls were better behaved, I'm sorry to say, than the boys. But we did have good times, and I would use these Paces cartoons, and I still remember one cartoon that the artist had drawn of a lavish table, and of course the chairs all around it, and every provision on that table that you could think of. I think of tables that I've been to as even a boy, and then in my adult life. As a boy eight, I was on an ocean voyage with my grandparents, and I'll still recall with pleasure, I'll never forget that magnificent table of food on the SS Milwaukee German Hamburg American line, German line, just before the war, when I was with them on that trip. I never saw so much food, I don't think, in all my life. A table that was just, well, you name it, they had it. And then I can remember being in Israel, at the Intercontinental Hotel on the ridge of the Mount of Olives, overlooking Old Jerusalem with a full view of the Dome of the Rock. And they had a breakfast table, a buffet one morning that would knock your eye out. It had everything from Dan to Beersheba in the way of goods and goodies, and I tell you, they believe in a big breakfast in Israel, and it was all kosher, and it was a magnificent sight. Many people took a picture of it. I didn't, but many did. And as I think of those experiences and many others like them, I've seen some tables right here at Park of the Palm that just about waylay the preacher, and you have to exercise self-discipline, or otherwise you'd go home to heaven sooner, which isn't all that bad, I'm sure, but still, we don't want to be gluttons or gluttonous. We know what the scripture teaches about that. I have yet to preach a sermon on gluttony. Maybe I should do that as part of a series sometime among God's people today. I think we do eat too much, and we don't know much about fasting, do we, unless we're forced to do it. So, as we think of the Lord's table, for the table of the Lord, it's lavish. He's provided us with wonderful, glorious blessings that are never ending, and that satisfy. And I think of the words of that hymn, now none but Christ can satisfy. None other name for me, there's love and life and lasting joy, Lord Jesus, found in thee. And so all of these other things in the so great salvation that we have. He's given us a table filled with every resource, a cornucopia of plenty to meet us in every need and then some along our pilgrim pathway. And it's up to us in a practical way, by faith, to lay hold of these things because he's prepared that table for us in the midst of our enemies. We have his word, we have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, Christian fellowship, our wonderful relationship to him as sons and daughters, and so much more. How sad if through fear, unbelief, or some other obstacle, we fail to follow our shepherd as we should, and fail to enter into the bounty of his lavish table, filled with the soul-nourishing riches of his love, faith, mercy, peace, and so much more. Many of God's people cut themselves short through a failure to appropriate by faith the blessings that we have in connection with that lavish table of the Lord that he's prepared for us and given to us. So much then for enrichment. There is enablement. Look at the further details of this verse. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil. Oil in the Bible symbolizes the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, the Spirit came upon men in order that they might be fitted to perform the task or tasks that God had for them. David himself is an example of one who prayed that the Lord would not take his spirit from him. I refer to Psalm fifty one verse eleven. In the Gospels, and on then on up through Acts ten forty three, the ministry of the Holy Spirit is seen in transition. And we see how that on the day of Pentecost, to the Jews, and then as to what happened in the house of Cornelius in Acts chapter ten, the Holy Spirit came to indwell every true child of God. And in this present church age, he permanently indwells every believer. I think of those words that we have in First Corinthians chapter six. If you really sit down and think about the words that are there in First Corinthians six, they are wonderful. They are astounding, as we think of what our Savior has done for us in sending his comforter, the Holy Spirit. Paul says, what? Know ye not that your body, not speaking here of the body of Christ, but of our individual body. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, which ye have of God, and you are not your own, for you're bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirits, which are God. And as the believer today is yielded to the Holy Spirit who indwells us, he's given divine enablement for the ministry committed to him in accord with the spiritual gift or gifts that he has given. The head controls the body and its actions. And how significant then that the psalmist wrote, thou anointest my head with oil. It is the Spirit who guides and guards the head, controlling the actions, the walk and talk of the believer. He wants to fill us, and to be filled with the Holy Spirit is that other side of the coin of truth of the lordship of Jesus Christ. Personally, I think of the lordship of Christ and the filling of the Holy Spirit as two sides of the same coin of truth. And you and I have the responsibility of being subject, obedient to our Lord, enthroning him in our lives, and thus allowing the Spirit of God to fill us. To be filled with the Spirit means to be controlled by the Spirit. Someone writing of the shepherd life has said, the head being anointed speaks of the anointing that influences the entire being. A Christian who for years had been a shepherd wrote on this psalm. He describes the shepherd standing on one of the entrance, at one of the entrances to the sheepfold as the shepherd, or as the sheep return for the night. There's just the one entrance. He quickly but carefully, as the sheep enter in through that entrance, examines each sheep. And I can just envision this, I'm sure you can too, for briars in the ears, snags in the cheeks, scratches, body bruises, or inflammation around the eyes caused by dust. And whenever such a condition is found, his rod placed across the sheep's back causes it to step aside and wait until the rest of the flock has entered the fold. The shepherd then dips his hand, we're told, into a bowl and tenderly, lovingly, and liberally anoints the injury with oil. After caressing and speaking to it kindly in its uplifted face, he directs the sheep into the fold for rest. That's a beautiful picture. And there is, of course, just the one entrance into the sheep fold, and the shepherd is the door. The Lord Jesus said, I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. Then the third thing that we have here is enjoyment. The latter part of verse five says, my cup runneth over. My, again, speaks of personal possession. Runneth over speaks of abundant fullness of blessing found in our great shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. I like what a Christian saved from the depths of sin had to say about this statement in Psalm twenty three. He said, the psalmist could say, my cup runneth over, but I think the Lord makes both my cup and saucer to run over. And he does, doesn't he? He not only meets us in our needs, but I find that he always supplies the need and then some. That's the way of our Savior God, of our great shepherd. I also, in reading about Psalm twenty three, learned that in the Middle East, beside a well, there would often be large stone cups. A faithful shepherd would laboriously water his flock, keeping the stone cup filled to the brim and overflowing so that the sheep could drink with ease and be satisfied. Through his many sorrows and trials, David had proved the faithfulness of the Lord, and that God's provision was poured for him from an overflowing cup. I'm sure as we look back in our own life and experience, we can testify, yes, we've been through trials and difficulties, some have had peculiar circumstances and problems. But I'm sure that each one here in Christ, who thus knows the good and great and chief shepherd, can testify of the cup of joy that he has provided for each one of us in the overflowing blessing, the never-failing fountain that the Lord is himself, as he has poured it out in so many, many different ways on our behalf. And I'm reminded, especially as I come together on the Lord's Day to break bread with his people, I'm reminded of another cup. He makes my cup, yes, and saucer to run over. But I think of that cup that he drank for me that makes possible that overflowing cup that I have experienced and enter into and, in essence, enjoy each day through his lavish provision. One of my favorite hymns is Anne Ross Cousins' hymn. O Christ, what burdens bowed thy head? Our load was laid on thee. Thou stoodest in the sinner's stead to bear all ill for me. A victim led, thy blood was shed, less but the love for me. And then there's that second stanza. Death and the curse were in our cup. Oh, Christ was full for thee, but thou hast drained the last dark drop. It is empty now for me. That bitter cup, love drank it up, less but the love for me. Edniram Judson went as a missionary to Burma. I'm sure that many of you have read about him in missionary stories that you have read. I've appreciated reading about this man, and as I have read about him and about others, I have been made to feel so often that I have just played at Christianity. When I think of what these godly men and women of the past, and some in the present, have gone through and are going through. Ednairam Judson's heart was so full of burning compassion to preach the gospel before he had learned the language that one day, I'm told, he walked up to a Burmese man and simply embraced him. The man went home and reported that he had seen the face of an angel. Now, I've seen a sketch of Adnyiram Judson's face, and I must say, with all due respect to this dear godly man, he wasn't the most handsome man I have ever looked upon. But you see, through the vessel, that man whom he embraced saw Jesus Christ and sensed the compassion of another indwelling by faith at Niram Judson. The living Christ, I'm told, was so radiant in Judson's face that the men who knew him often referred to him as Mr. Glory Face. Here was a man who, in the midst of much suffering and sorrow and testing, experienced and exhibited Christ's overflowing fullness, fullness of joy in the midst of trial, without saying a word. And this same joy and enjoyment, plus the enrichment and enablement that this verse speaks to us of here in Psalm twenty three, can be ours without measure if we will but believe on the great shepherd, who as the Good Shepherd died for us, and then follow after him, and let him continually provide for us in our needs. I was speaking with our brother Ernest Woodhouse some few weeks ago, to be exact, February ninth, on the occasion of the twenty fifth anniversary of Valley Bible Chapel in New Jersey. And I so much appreciated being included in the invitation to be one of those to minister God's word on that occasion. There was Brother Ernest Woodhouse and our brother Dr. Gerald Stover, who has been here to the Park of the Palms, and then yours truly. And the Lord gave us a memorable time together, and I spoke briefly on the Sunday afternoon from Paul's joy letter, Philippians. And it was Paul who, in the midst of prison, facing martyrdom and the persecution of his enemies without, wrote about joy. He was no armchair specialist. Sixteen times in that brief letter, he speaks of the theme of joy and rejoicing. And as you get toward the end, I think of verse four, wherein he says of chapter four, rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice. Someone has made an acrostic of the word joy. I know it's trite, but it's true. J-O-Y, Jesus first, others second, yourself last. That's a good formula in relation to the joy of the Lord and how to truly enjoy him. And then I quoted something that day that comes to mind from the pen of Principal Rainey, no relation of mine. He was a schoolmaster in Great Britain. In fact, his name is not spelled exactly as my last name is spelled. But Principal Rainey said this: Joy is the flag which flies from the castle of the heart when the king is in residence there. We might say joy is the flag which flies from the castle of the heart when the great shepherd is in residence there. I wonder, do you have that joy this evening from the Lord? One of the segments of the fruit of the Spirit is joy. Love, fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. May the Lord in these days enable us, yes, even in the midst of difficulties, limited strength, that is physically, problems that come to us, sorrow that comes to us. May we know what it is to rise above circumstances, and even in the midst of those circumstances, above them in Christ, to know him who makes our cups and saucers to run over. Father, we're so thankful for the Lord Jesus Christ, our good and great and chief shepherd. We thank thee for these details that we've been looking at concerning his enrichment, even in the midst of enemy territory, and his enablement, particularly as we think of the Spirit of God who indwells us, whose ministry it is, among other things, to guide us into all truth, to give us that power that we need for the journey day by day, to show us things to come, and then to unveil to us through the Word of God more and more of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we thank thee, our Father, for the joy that is ours in and through the Lord Jesus. Help us to enter into that joy more fully. If we are burdened this evening, burdened down with trials, problems, difficulties that have come into our experience, may we remember his words. Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name, ask that your joy may be full. We thank you that we can come into thy presence with all our cares, with all our burdens, with those things that have discouraged us, perhaps even depressed us, may have even brought us to the point of despair, but coming into thy presence, thou hast promised that as we ask, as we spread these things before thee, thou wilt in turn enable us to know and experience thy fullness of joy. We think of each heart here this evening. There are needs in each life. And O our Father, we pray that thy Son, our Savior, in his shepherd work and ministry, will meet those cares and needs in accordance with the riches of his glory that proceed to us from the throne above. Give us faith to appropriate these things, as we now seek thy blessing upon us as we pause.