Latest / The Father's Business Podcast / The Good Shepherd: Unpacking the Profound Truths of Psalm 23 (Part 2)

Transcript

The Good Shepherd: Unpacking the Profound Truths of Psalm 23 (Part 2) · The Father's Business Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: The Father's Business was founded by Sylvia Gunter to encourage people to a deeper relationship with God.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: I'm Elizabeth Gunter Powell.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: And I am Kimberly Roddy.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Father's Business Podcast.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: We are so glad that you've joined us.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Welcome everyone to our podcast.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Today we are picking back up a conversation.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: So this is part two from last week, where we are walking through Psalm 23.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: And just to start us off, I'm going to reread Psalm 23, as I did last week, to remind us where we are.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: And if you want to pick up the first half of that, go back to last week's conversation.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: And today we're going to pick up with the second half.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: So Psalm 23 says it's a Psalm of David.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: The Lord is my shepherd.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: I lack nothing he makes.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: It's a Psalm of David me.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: You anoint my head with oil.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: My cup overflows.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Surely, your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Today we're picking up with the second part of verse 3, which begins by saying he guides me along the right paths for His name's sake.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: And we've been talking about how, in each of these phrases of Psalm 23, you can see eight names of God.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: So the covenant name of God that's reflected in this part where it says other versions say he guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: So the compound or covenant name of God here is Jehovah Sid Canu, which means the Lord our righteousness, or the Lord our righteous Savior.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: I think one of the first places it's found in Scripture is in Jeremiah 23, 6, where it says this is the name by which he will be called, the Lord our righteous Savior.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: But then this theme is also picked up in the New Testament, and that's what I love so much about.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: These covenant names is also picked up in the New Testament, and that's what I love so much about these covenant names is they echo between Old and New Testament.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: In 1 Corinthians 1.30, it says it is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: That is our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: And then Romans 5.1 says therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: And so this idea of him guiding us in the path of righteousness for his namesake, I love One.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: It's the finality that you are redeemed.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: That was handled at the cross as a covenant.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Son or daughter of God Most High, it is set, it is finished.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Son or daughter of God Most High, it is set, it is finished.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: You are redeemed and you are living in righteousness, not because of your own striving and your own actions, but because of what Jesus did for you, and so I love that.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: We can one be assured that we are secure in our redemption, but also it's an invitation to stop striving, because we've just had the first part of Psalm 23 is all about being at peace and allowing to rest in Him and bait green pastures and still waters.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: And now here comes the reason why we're able to do that is because all of the things that we've been talking about have been taken care of on the cross and so like the truth that we are accepted in him, the truth that we are truly, completely forgiven, is such a powerful truth to hang on to, and so hard for us to hang on to it, because there is a natural bend towards striving to find our own and seek out our own acceptance.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: Right, because there's such a disconnect between truly believing it and holding on to it.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Over the last several years and I don't really know why exactly, but over the last several years the reality of the Lord being my righteousness has meant so much to me, and I think it's because I have found myself for many years probably my entire life seeking to be right.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: Many years, probably my entire life seeking to be right.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: And I don't mean seeking, I don't just mean seeking to be right in an argument or a conversation or whatever I mean.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: That is true, I'll be honest, but I am seeking to be found right with people.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: I don't want people to view me as bad or wrong or you know, any of those things, and so in that there is a natural striving that you were talking about, and I, when I recognize and truly get the power of the Lord through faith in Him, because of what he did.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: He made me right.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: So it goes back to what we were talking about last week, when we were talking about we were kind of referring back to like this kind of becomes the broken, cistern conversation of how we're trying to seek our own acceptance and seek our own healing and seek to you know all those things, seek to be our own God.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: At the end of the day, I can remember I don't have to be right.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: I am right because of Christ.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: It takes us right back to who he is and who we are in him, which is our message.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: It's our message because we know how much we need to believe it.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Absolutely it impacts us.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and how quickly we forget it go to.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: And maybe this is some of the church culture I grew up in or it's just my own selfish, man-made thinking is there's also this striving that I have to earn His love somehow.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Or if I do good things, if I'm obedient, then God will bless my life more.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Or I don't have the right for God to answer my prayers because I haven't done enough, I haven't strived enough to be holy enough.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: So therefore he's going to answer someone else's prayers but not mine.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: And all of this is twisted thinking and not understanding the full impact of grace in our lives.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Now, grace is going to make us want to be holy.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: I'm going to want to live a life that is pleasing to him, but I'm not doing it from a place of.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: I have to earn my acceptance with God through doing my own righteousness so that he's pleased with me.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: So therefore, he can declare that I'm righteous.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: And the other thing I love about this verse right here is that we're not doing it all for us.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Do I benefit from it?
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, but it's for his namesake.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: The good shepherd is doing all this stuff.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: We're benefiting from it, absolutely, but it's for his namesake.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: The good shepherd is doing all this stuff.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: We're benefiting from it, but at its core, it's for his glory and his name to be known, and so we get to partner with him and lean into his righteousness and allow ourselves to be guided by his righteousness and come in alignment with him so that his name can be shown forth.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: And it's for his namesake.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think if we can stop striving for a few minutes to let him be our shepherd yeah, I mean, that's the phrase.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: He, he leads me in paths of righteousness, or he leads me, he guides me along the right paths, both those languages and different translations, and so you know, the idea there is that he will guide me if I don't, if I stop striving long enough to trust him to be the good shepherd.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Like it's all connected, the whole Psalm is connected, yep, and I think, like David is singing this and declaring this because he also knew I have to have a shepherd, like as a shepherd.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: He knew I had a struggle of this and how he had to look to a good shepherd, a better shepherd, and it does.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: It means, in order to follow the right path, in order to be led, we have to stop striving and leading ourselves.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Right, yeah, and Kimberly, as you say, all of this comes back to trusting the good shepherd.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Isn't that fun that our part is surrender, our part is letting go of control, our part is letting go of striving and learning how to trust, and trust in a shepherd that we don't always get to see.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: I think in some ways it was easier for sheep because, like the shepherd's right there in front of them and yet our shepherd is far more powerful than an earthly shepherd it is harder to trust a shepherd that you can't always see.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: That kind of ties into the next part, which is the verse I like the least out of Psalm 23.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: No one likes this one where it talks about 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.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: They comfort me.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: Who wants to talk about going through the valley?
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Because I sure don't.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no one wants to talk about walking through the darkest valley, the shadow valley, the valley of death, all those things.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: And yet in that, what we're told is that we don't have to fear the evil because he is with us, Like we're not alone in that valley.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: And I think that's the dark valley.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: You don't see the shadows, right, Like in the light.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: You can sometimes see the shadow of the footprints, right, Hearing you all these analogies that we have of the light and the shadows.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: See the shadows, right, Like in the light.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: You can sometimes see the shadow of the footprints right Hearing you all these analogies that we have of the light and the shadows In the dark.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: We don't have that picture, and so I think that's why we're reminded in scripture I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: It's a choice to believe that the Lord is there.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Jehovah Shammah is the name for God, who is there.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: Jehovah Shema is the name for God, who is there.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Ezekiel 48, and the name of the city, from the time on, will be the Lord is there, jehovah Shema?
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: And we see that I mean Hebrews 13,.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: I used to tell kids all the time take your hand, you got five fingers.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Here we go for each word.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Never will I leave you.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: You got five fingers.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: Here we go For each word.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: Right, like that's how it would help little kids remember Hebrews 13, 5.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I will never leave you.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: I am the God who is there, and in Matthew, jesus declared I am with you always, until the end of the age.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: And that really is the heart of this psalm is, regardless of what you are going through, whether it's a glorious day where God has prepared a green pasture and still waters and he's inviting you to rest, or you're walking through a dark valley, he's present and he is there, and I love the shift that happens, that it moves from he leads me on paths of righteousness to he's there with you, like he's not saying okay, kimberly, you see that valley up ahead, it's going to be dark.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Go through that and I'll be waiting for you on the other side.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: No, the shepherd is right there, step-by-step with you, even when, as you say, it's dark and you don't know that you can see him and you're not even sure that he's there.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: But if we're honest, a lot of those valley times are the times when I have sensed God's presence the most.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: I didn't like him, but I did.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: But again, it's that hindsight of looking back and going, wow, god was really there for me in that.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: But there's also a lot of times you're in the dark valley and you're like I don't know what he's up to and I don't get it and I don't understand it.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: And that's where the whole concept of the moon is round that we talk about a lot came from is having to trust that God is fully present and fully there, even when we can't see him.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: So there's comfort in knowing that we have a good shepherd that's with us in the valley.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: And then sometimes that also causes some of that abandonment issue in me, because I'm like you say you're there for me but I don't feel like you're there for me.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: It doesn't look like you're there for me.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: And just having to lean into that trust that he is the God who is there, it's interesting, elizabeth, when you look at this phrase.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: In one translation.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: It says even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: And then there's this next phrase your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: It's an interesting, it's an interesting thought here.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: Right, like your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: There's this idea of the loving authority of God.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: Right, because he comforts me, he cares for me, he sees me, he is over all of this, he hasn't abandoned me into the valley of the shadow of death, so his rod and his staff are there, like when you picture a shepherd with a sheep, that rod and that staff.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: He's carrying that rod and that staff with him at all times.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: So he is the shepherd guiding them and leading them.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: And yet we talked about, I think, last week that that rod and that staff also bring about correction, and so it's interesting to put that correction with comfort.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: What do you think of that?
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, the only thing I can think of is thinking about parenting that there is something in children while they may not like discipline all the time, there is also a comfort.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: As you know, you and I both did a lot of ministry with youth ministry and teenagers and those types of things, and in that stage of life they're not really enjoying limitations, discipline, things that are happening to them, but at the same time, you have the conversation with them in which there is a comfort in knowing that there is someone who is going to set a boundary for me, there is someone who is going to do some correction for me, because if I did not care for you at all, I would never discipline or correct you and just let you do whatever it is you want to do.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: And so, as much as we don't like correction, as much as we don't like a rod of correction in our lives, there is some level of comfort that God's not going to.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: Let me run completely off the road here.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Even if I run from him, he's going to chase after me.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: We were talking about last week that he'll leave the 99 to go after the one after me.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: Like we were talking about last week that he'll leave the 99 to go after the one.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: There is a fathering heart about him that is going to love us enough that he is willing to provide correction when needed, because he knows what is for our best.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: So in some way that is comforting, although when he uses the rod on me I don't really appreciate it.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah Well, but in true essence, the rod was meant to be a defense against danger, right, to protect the sheep.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's the essence of it.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: But that rod was meant to be like that's the authority piece, that's the protection piece.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: And then that crook and the staff.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: That crook is meant to be like a picture of the crook grabbing the sheep as he's just eating the grass off the side of the hill, right, right, I'm going to pull you back, buddy, because you don't really know where you're going here and you need some guidance and you need some support.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: And that is comforting.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: It is comforting to think about the fact that he will protect us against danger in the darkness, because that's what this phrase is connected to, that piece In the valley of the shadow of death.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: He will defend me against danger, he will protect me against danger, but he will also guide me and support me and comfort me with that staff.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: And so those pieces bring me comfort and, like you said, when a parent again we've got to remember it's the good shepherd using that rod and that staff, right, we're not going to talk about the abuse of that, because it has been abused, yes, but when a loving God, when a loving parent sets the boundaries and sets the limit.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: It is for protection, it is to comfort.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: It is to love, that is to comfort.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: It is to love.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: That is the heart.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: The heart of it is I see you running into darkness and I know you're probably going to have to walk through this darkness, but I'm going to walk with you through it and I'm going to guide you and I'm going to support you and I'm going to be with you and I'm going to walk with you through it.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: Like you said, not just wait on the other side, but in all of that we are held within his boundaries and his limits.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: Because if we go back to Genesis this is one of the things we see in the beginning of scripture is that when God said, only eat from this tree, he wasn't trying to harm them, he wasn't trying to bully them.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: He was trying to say to harm them.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: He wasn't trying to bully them.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: He was trying to say this is where there is plenty, this is where there is abundance from this tree.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: These other things will harm you.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: You just can't see it, because he had a bigger picture.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: He still has a bigger picture and we have to remember the truth or we can't live in it.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm thinking also about this whole idea of the valley of the shadow of death.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: You know, there's valleys that God puts us through, there's hard things we go through.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: There's also valleys that I volunteer to walk into and I love that, thinking about that rod and staff that sometimes are there to protect me from danger and other times are to correct me.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: I love that, even when I choose to do something stupid and enter a valley that I have no business being in, he's still there and he's like, hey, he's not gonna wait for me to figure it out and come home.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: It's that idea of the prodigal son, where the father never stopped looking for his son and as soon as his son showed any inkling of wanting to come home, he rushed to meet him and brought him back into the fold.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: When we choose to walk through some of these darker places or these valleys that we were never intended to go to, and we get off of the path of righteousness and go to our own valleys, god doesn't abandon us even there and he's there for you.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: And I remember, specifically as we're talking about kids that we've interacted with and now they're older and we're able to have different kind of conversations with them.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: There's this one person in particular that I talked to, and he talked about how strict his mom was growing up and how he resented it in some ways for me, because I knew, no matter how wild I went and how far or how deep I sank into something, she was going to be there, ready to help pull me back out.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: When I was ready to get out of it, and I was like that is a beautiful picture of parenting, rather than saying you got yourself in this mess so you better just figure a way out of it.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: And so I think that's how God is that loving parent to us.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: That goes yep, that was pretty dumb little sheep.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: You should not have gotten over here and gotten yourself all stuck in all these thorns or these bushes or done something dumb that you shouldn't have done.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: But I'm still going to come after you and I'm going to help you get back out of it.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: So from there we move on to the next verse that talks about how God prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: And I love this picture and I don't like this picture, because what I'd rather God do than prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies is get rid of the enemies.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: Get rid of the enemies.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let's just wipe out the enemy and then you and I can have a meal later.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's not God's idea of victory.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: It's victory in the midst of battle, it's victory in the midst of hard things.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: And I was reading a little bit about what would this have meant to someone reading this back in in a biblical time?
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: Because, honestly, kimberly, when I read this, you prepare a table for me.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: I like see a beautiful table with a white tablecloth and golden candlesticks and luscious food.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: What is my idea of a table of abundance?
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: Well, that's nothing like what it would have looked like in scriptural times, or even to a sheep, what would that look like?
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: And the little I read said that when they would get to these green pastures or these places that looked safe, the shepherd would go through the flatland, the table land, and he would make sure there were no poisonous snakes, that there were no plants there, that a sheep couldn't eat, like.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: He would go through and he would prepare the area before the sheep were allowed to go in there and eat, and then he would stand watch because who else knows that?
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: Hey, sheep are probably going to show up in Greenland or all the predator animals, and so the shepherd would kind of stand there and keep watch, so that they could enjoy the feast without having to look up all the time and see if there's a wolf or a dog or something trying to come get them.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: And so I was like, well, yeah, that makes a whole lot more sense.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: But I like my idea of white tablecloths and candlesticks and just an abundant feast being served to me in the midst of what the enemy's trying to do to me.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: But my number one choice would be let's just get out of the battle and we can eat later.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: So it takes trust to be able to sit and eat in the midst of a battle.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: The covenant name of God that is connected to this section is the name Jehovah Nisi, which means the Lord, my banner, or the Lord, my banner of victory.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: And there have been times throughout my life I was growing up and I remember my mom saying the names of God and I was like I don't up.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: And I remember my mom saying the names of God and I was like I don't understand.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: The Lord is my banner.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: What does that mean?
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: What does that mean?
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: Like a banner?
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: But you've got to put it in the context of, like you were saying it's this imagery of battle, right, it's this imagery of victory.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: And so in Exodus 17, you see Moses built an altar and called it the Lord is my banner.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: And then in the New Testament because we've been saying you've got pictures of this in the Old and the New Testament in the New Testament, 2 Corinthians 2.14, it says but thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ's triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: Again, in the presence of my enemies, preparing a table with that battle imagery, there, the Lord is my banner.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: It's signifying God is the source of protection, it's the source of provision and he's the source of victory.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: So I think of.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: I had a friend recently who said you need to come see my new flag.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: In my yard he is flying that flag and it was a state flag.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: Don't get any other ideas right now.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: It's just a state flag.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: He's proud of his state.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: I'm from South Carolina.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: A lot of people like to put up the flag of the state of South Carolina, but it's representing like this rallying point right.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: Like I want to rally around something.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: And that is what?
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: A flag versus a banner.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: They're similar.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: And so, again, what we see here is it's representing God as the ultimate leader, a rallying point for his people during these times of battle, during these times of conflict and adversity.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: So we see this the Lord is my banner.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: I can trust that his presence, his power, his provision will be over me, like you said.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: It's that trust right in front of us.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: And it's that declaration of this.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: One is mine.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and in a lot of ways, that is what God is saying to the enemies that are coming around us.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: We talk about that, where we talk about declaring I'm a covenant son or daughter of God, most high, I'm on kingdom business and God is entirely responsible for me.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: That is that, you know, raise the flag in your yard or raise a banner over you and God is just saying, guys, this one is mine and I am here for her and I am going to protect her.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to remove her, which is what she wants.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be with her and I'm going to protect her in the midst of the battles that she's going to face, because Jesus I mean, it's the verse we've quoted so many times but Jesus didn't say you're not going to face trouble.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: He said you are going to have trouble, but take heart, because I've overcome the world and he's going to be with us.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: So it's a matter of learning to stand and see God fight those battles for you in the midst of your enemies.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: So in those places where you feel weak or you feel under attack, remember that he is your banner, that he celebrates you, that he is over you, that he has declared you his child.
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: And it moves us into that next phrase of not only does he prepare a table for us in the presence of our enemies, but he anoints my head with oil and my cup overflows.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: So, Elizabeth, what is the imagery here?
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Speaking to?
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: I think that is a picture of kind of that whole sanctification process that he does.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: You know, sometimes anointing oils have been used throughout Christian culture for that reason, and it is, I think, a reflection of the other covenant, the last covenant, name of God that we see in Psalm 23, which is Jehovah and Kadesh, which is the Lord, my sanctification, and it's a reflection of what we see in Leviticus 20, verse 8.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: This is God speaking where he says keep my statutes and do them.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: I am the Lord who sanctifies you.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: So again, going back to that thing that we talked about a little earlier, where it's not up to us to redeem ourselves, it's not up to us to sanctify ourselves, as we partner with God, we will become more like Him, which is that process of sanctification.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: And hopefully, as you walk longer and longer with God, things that used to be a struggle and a temptation for you become less so.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: Or the amount of time it takes you to realize wait, I'm off doing something I shouldn't do.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Till you return to a place of that full alignment with Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that time gets shorter.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: None of us are going to be perfect this side of heaven, but the idea of the anointing my head with oil, I believe, is a beautiful picture of.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: It's not up to me to sanctify myself.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Even that is a gift of God.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: He is the one who anoints me and therefore I am sanctified because of him.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: So in the scripture it says you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: Elizabeth, you were just alluding to the anointing of oil and how we often see in scripture the anointing of oil.
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: How does this pertain, how do both of these phrases, how are they connected and how do they pertain to Jesus being the good shepherd and we being his sheep?
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: So again, I do not live on a farm and have actually probably never really been around a sheep, but I've done a lot of reading about sheep this week.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: One of the things I discovered is a shepherd would use oil.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: I knew that the oil they carried oil with them to use almost as an antibiotic.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: So if there was a place that had gotten wounded or a scratch or infected, they would use that to bring about healing or, I think, in our visualization, sanctification of an area of place in life that need to be healed.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: But also they anoint the heads of the sheep and then allow it to run down the back of the sheep because there are certain types of parasites that will latch onto the sheep and then bury their eggs inside the sheep and then your sheep is sick.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he'll have a disease at that point Right.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: And so, before you even know it, if you're not watching those little, you know, parasites have attached to your sheep, and now he's diseased and may die, and so the shepherd was having to continually anoint the head of the sheep to keep the parasites away.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Continually anoint the head of the sheep to keep the parasites away.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: And so the idea of my cup overflows from what I was reading is that you have a shepherd who never runs out of oil.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: There's no level of sin that you can do that.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: His forgiveness is not more so for so these sheep that are cared for by this good shepherd are never going to be in a place where the shepherd has to look at them and go.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: I am so sorry, I didn't have enough oil, and so now you're going to have parasites and you get diseased.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: So Jesus, as our ultimate sacrifice, was that overflowing cup that he was able to sanctify all of us for everything we're ever going to do in our lifetime because of his grace, and he's never going to run out of that oil, that's the powerful connection between Jehovah and Kadesh, the Lord, my sanctification.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: And that's what I was thinking about, elizabeth, when I just heard the phrase.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: When I read the phrase, my cup overflows.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: I think about that idea of abundance.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: I think of John 10, that the thief came to kill and distill and destroy and do all these things, but Jesus came so we can have abundant life.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: Right, so a cup overflowing is a picture of abundant life, which is what sanctification is, is it's the reality that when, again, when we are in Christ, he has done the work, he has given us everything we need.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: 2 Peter 1.3 says that by His divine power, that power of sanctification, that power of Him giving His life on the cross, he has given us everything we need for a godly life.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: Giving his life on the cross, he has given us everything we need for a godly life, and so it is an overflow.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: We don't just get a little bit here, we get to sit.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: We get to sit in a place of abiding with him and being with him and living in his abundance that he has blessed us with and given us, and we have the choice to allow him to anoint our heads with oil and allow our cup to overflow to where our hearts are filled, again and again, and again and again.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: And we do not run empty.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: And so, kimberly, once again, like it's been over and over and over, the theme of Psalm 23 has been it's not just enough, it's more than enough, like everything about who God is for you, and the relationship you can have with Him is a relationship of abundance, and so I love that.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: That's how, then, this ends with surely, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: And it's like because everything we've been talking about in last week's podcast and what we've talked about today, because of that goodness and mercy will follow me all those days, and I, I love I learned several years ago, some translations it's not follow me.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: That, like, the real original meaning of that word is will chase after me.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: So it's not just they'll tag along and be back there in the background somewhere, it's goodness and mercy are going to chase after me all the days of my life.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: And how my life would be different if I truly woke up every morning and believed that, versus thinking that I'm living in scarcity or lack, instead of I live in such overflow abundance of God, and that his goodness and his mercy are going to chase after me and my place is secure in his house forever.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's a powerful promise, a powerful promise that causes me to I think would cause a lot of us to get to the end of this and go.
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: I just want to be grateful and thankful, and that's where we are led into worship, right To remembering who God is, what he's done for us to help us be who we can be.
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: And now let me praise him and worship him and thank him and remember all that he's done and the promises he gives me because of what he has done and that he won't give up on me.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's got me, we're secure, yeah.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: Forever.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think that that is the truth that maybe some of us need to hear today is it never ends in the valley.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: He keeps with you and it will end with you dwelling in the house of the Lord forever, and it will end with you dwelling in the house of the Lord forever.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: So, for those that may find themselves in a valley today, this is not the end.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: It's not fun, or you're at the table in the presence of your enemies, or wherever you find yourself in this psalm today, it's not over to your dwelling in the house of the Lord forever, because that is the ultimate destination of where we all will be.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: So I think, wherever we find ourselves today, whether you're in a green pasture or you're in a dark valley, your shepherd is with you.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: He sees you, he knows what you need, he cares for you and he will lead you, and I think that's what we need to hang on to is that he is not just a theory.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: The Lord is my shepherd.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: It is a day-to-day invitation to breathe in and breathe out the truth of how gentle and constant the care is of the shepherd for you.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Kimberly, let's just close our time with a blessing celebrating all of who God is and the truth of Psalm 23.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: May you walk in the confidence that the Lord is your shepherd, your Jehovah Roy, who knows your name and leads you with loving care.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: May Jehovah Jireh provide for every need and lead you beside still waters, even in the chaos of your daily life.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: May Jehovah Rapha restore the broken places in your soul, bringing healing where there has been pain and renewal where there has been weariness.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: May Jehovah Sid Canu guide you in the paths of righteousness, reminding you that you are fully forgiven and completely accepted.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: When you walk through valleys, may Jehovah Shema be your constant companion, whispering, I am with you, casting out all fear with his perfect presence.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: May his rod and his staff comfort you, reminding you that his correction is love and his boundaries are safety.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: May Jehovah Nissi prepare a table of victory before you even in the presence of your enemies, and full because you dwell with the Good Shepherd.
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: And may the goodness and steadfast love of God chase you down all the days of your life until you finally dwell forever in the house of the Lord.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: In the name of Jesus, your shepherd, your peace, your provider, your healer, your righteousness, your banner and your ever-present God, we bless you, Amen.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: I want to thank you for listening to the Father's Business Podcast.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: I want to thank you for listening to the Father's Business Podcast.