“Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me” Psalm 23:4. The rod and staff were the symbol of a shepherd; while the staff may have been used by the shepherd in walking, or as something to lean on, the obvious message here is their function in caring for the flock, and by their use the […]
Continuing in verse 4 of Psalm 23 we come to the third of four powerful statements in this verse, “For you are with me”. I see this as another key to the entire Psalm, (similar to “The Lord is my shepherd”) the assurance of His presence! God knew His redeemed people would go through dark, […]
Verse 4 of Psalm 23 opens up saying, “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…” The picture here is of a dangerous path through a deep ravine with high steep mountains on either side, and no seeming way of escape, so you must move forward in spite of the […]
Why does God choose to have this intimate relationship with us, providing for our needs, giving us rest, refreshing, healing, and guiding us in righteous paths? It most certainly is not because we merit or deserve it, for every one of us like David in Psalm 51:5 “was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin…conceived”. […]
“He leads (guides) me in paths of righteousness” Verse 3. This shepherds Psalm has a counterpart in the New Testament where in John 10 we are introduced to Jesus the good shepherd; in verses 3-4 we read “…he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out…and the sheep follow him, for they know […]
“He restores my soul” verse 3; when a sheep would fall sick, break a leg, or face some other calamity, the shepherd would be there to treat, dress the wound, and nurture that sheep back to health. God our “good shepherd” is the greatest restorer ever! From the moment our relationship with Him was broken […]
The Psalmist continues in 23:2 saying “…He leads me beside the still waters”, in some translations it is peaceful water. Still waters, stands in contrast to the torrent of rushing mighty water of which the sheep are fearful, probably because of the swift movement and noise, and from which the sheep we are told […]
“He makes me to lie down in green pastures” Psalm 23:4. This speaks to us of rest; the shepherd had led the flock to tender green pastures where they had eaten to full satisfaction and now lay resting, chewing their cud. Having been born and raised a country boy I do not recall ever looking […]
The role of the shepherd is to tend and care for the flock, therefore being one of His sheep David could say, “I shall not want”, or perhaps a better translation would be, “I shall not lack”, for so is the meaning of the Hebrew word. And justifiably we should add “any beneficial thing”, for […]
(Part one, Relationship) from a Facebook post we want to look at seventeen statements that are made in Psalm 23. The first being “The LORD is my shepherd”, which I see as key to the rest of the Psalm. Who better than David would know how to compare the sheep/shepherd relationship and make the comparison […]