Psalm 23

This psalm of David’s is probably most people’s favourite and the best known psalm. It is used extensively at funerals and weddings and anyone who has had some exposure to church or the Christian life will be familiar with it.

The imagery it uses is comforting and we can easily identify with the ideas that David expresses. David was a shepherd both before and after his anointing as king by Samuel. It was a great training ground for a future king as he learned to depend on God to help him protect and look after his sheep. Here he came to understand what it meant to be a shepherd – king; a concept familiar in the Middle East in that time.  So many of the great men of faith in the Old Testament such as Moses and David spent some time being shepherds in preparation for leading God’s people.

Jesus called himself the Good Shepherd and there are frequent references in the Bible to God’s people being sheep. This is so appropriate – sheep need a shepherd and as God’s people we need the Good Shepherd. Independent living does not work for us any more than it works for sheep. Sheep never live alone, they are always in a flock and as believers we are never called to walk alone but to be part of a fellowship of other believers dependent on the Good Shepherd.

Sheep need guiding and looking after – a shepherd keeps an eye on his sheep and leads them to good pasture and quiet waters which is just what sheep need. Sheep panic when attacks come and a shepherd protects them. Sheep need shearing once a year otherwise their coats become burdensome and hot. There are times when God needs to prune or cut us back from things that have become burdensome to us.

We all know that Middle East shepherds lead their sheep; they don’t herd them in front of them. Sheep follow the voice of their shepherd, no one else, just as we follow Jesus. If we do this he will guide us in right paths and we will not dishonour him with poor lifestyle choices and behaviour.

Shepherds tend to every aspect of their sheep’s needs and well being. Jesus looks after his people and will restore and refresh us when necessary. So often we look to the world to do this but Jesus truly knows our needs and he alone can ‘restore our souls.’

Even in dark times Jesus is right there with us and we need fear no evil. Jesus has overcome the enemy completely and totally. Sometimes when under attack I think we try and defeat Satan again but he is already defeated; what we need is to apply the victory of Jesus in our situations and see the devil’s assaults fail. The shepherd’s rod and staff protected his sheep from all attacks. Jesus victory over sin and death is sufficient to overcome every dark time.

The final verses of this psalm are such a source of inspiration for us. We see a great feast laid out for us with our defeated enemies watching enviously. We are anointed for service. This is a wonderful picture that even when surrounded by enemies God provides and inspires us. His favour and anointing rest upon us. Our cup overflows; there are no half measures in the Kingdom and this is forever. God’s goodness, love, mercy and grace will never leave us and we will spend eternity with him.

What a great psalm!

God is our rear guard

Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing!
Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the articles of the Lord’s house.
But you will not leave in haste or go in flight;
for the Lord will go before you,  the God of Israel will be your rear guard. Isaiah 52: 11 – 12

In these verses Isaiah is speaking to the Israelites encouraging them that they will return from exile one day and when they do so, they will bring back the articles from the temple that were taken by the Babylonians.  All this of course is yet to happen; the Israelites have not even gone into exile and yet God is encouraging them that though they will be carried off for their sin and faithlessness, they will not stay in exile forever; they will return.

The phrase I like though is that when it happens, God will be their rear guard. They need not fear being chased and overtaken and forcefully returned to exile.  God will go both before them and behind them.  This thought goes back to the flight from Egypt when Moses led the Israelites out from captivity.  On that occasion, when they got to the Red Sea, the angel of the Lord and the pillar of fire, which had been leading them, moved from in front of the Israelites to behind them. It brought darkness to the Egyptians all night long and light to the Israelites to cross over the Red Sea. (Exodus 14: 19 – 20).

You can imagine how fearful the Israelites must have been. The Egyptians had been their slave masters for hundreds of years. They had a powerful army and the Israelites would only have been lightly armed; nothing that could deal with chariots and horses. There was also the mental bondage; slavery is not just a physical condition but a bondage in the mind. They would have been terrified that they were trapped and that they would either be returned to slavery or worse still slaughtered on the shores of the Red Sea. Yet God protected them and it says in Exodus 14: 30 – 31 That day the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.

Today God is still our rearguard.  We do not need to fear our past. It will not come and take us back into the bondage of sin, addiction, abuse, guilt or shame. Jesus has set us free and whilst he is going before us into our new destiny, he will also be our rear guard, protecting us from the past.  We can put our trust in him and we will not be disappointed.