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Let us take a look at the old testament book known to us as the" Book of Psalms", or sometimes as the"Psalms of David". When we take closer look we find that it is in fact divided up into 5 smaller books, or if you prefer "sections", although the Jews themselves see them as seperate books within the main book. Not all the psalms were written by David,"The Sweet Singer of Israel" just as the King James Bible was not written by King James (who was not English but Scottish)but was collected from the works of many scholars under his authority, hence the name, so we should see the "Book of Psalms " in the same light, we should also understand that while he himself wrote some of these psalms, that that is not what is important about these songs and poems, what is important is that they are like the rest of Holy Scripture, The Divinely revealed Word of God to mankind, and that because they are the revealed word of God they have the same authority as any other book in scripture, as a matter of interest, no-one is quite sure when this book was completed, but that it was considered a book of major value by the ancient Jews can be seen by the fact that it was used in the worship in the Temple.

Further the psalms themselves are divided up into different categories, that is to say Psams of Praise, Processional Psalms, Psalms of Complaints by the people, Psalms of Complaint by the Individual, Psalms of Individual Thanksgiving, Royal Psalms and finally Wisdom Psalms The psalm we are going to look at is ofcourse Psalm 23; which is one of the "Psalms of Individual Thanksgiving", these psalms were used when a person had been delivered from a particular problem, and their complaint answered. If you would like to read how they were used read 1 Samuel 1:1--2:10 to see how Hannah's story goes.

It is probably true to say that there is no more loved psalm than Psalm 23, people who are not in the vaguest way Jewish or Christian know this Psalm off by heart! This psalm has an ability to comfort the heart in a way that can only mean that here we have a deep insight into Gods own Heart. Here we hear Our Lord trying to say something to us, so let us go through it verse by verse and see if it has anything to say to us in the here and now of each of our lives, because I am sure that there will be something for all of us here.

It will probably come as no great suprise to you to hear that this is almost without doubt one of the psalms that King David himself wrote, he himself you will remember had as a young boy been a shepherd, he himself understood shepherding as no one reading this does I believe! He knew all the problems and difficulties that a shepherd that lived 3000 years ago faced, he also knew all the qualities that went into making a good shepherd, such things as faithfulness, courage, endurance and so on, David also knew all about sheep, he knew that they were for example dirty, clumsy and indescribably stupid, a sheep can starve to death in a field filled with grass for instance, so when he wrote this song he drew upon all of his experience, and knowing that even the best human shepherd occasionally has problems in finding food for his sheep, in a drought for instance or where there is no grass to be found; he went therefore to the perfect example of a shepherd...God Himself.

God was already a shepherd, a shepherd goes in front of the sheep and they trusting in him follow after, can we see God doing this in the Old Testament?, no problems! when Moses took the Israelites out of the Land of Egypt God went before them, it is written in exodus 13:21-22.

Not only did He do this but He also fed them with manna when they were hungry, in Exodus 16:4-5 it says;

Now here you have an example of how God is a perfect shepherd, long before the psalms were to be written God was shewing His loving kindness towards us, leading us for our own good.

The Israelites never needed for anything, true they complained bitterly as often as they got the chance to, but they never wanted for anything, not food nor clothing nor water to drink, God always supplied their needs, just as a true shepherd would, but as always sheep are stupid and complain and die in the midst of plenty, because they are too blind to see, but David knew that as long as he followed the King of Shepherds he would never lack for anything.

Our shepherd wants only the best sheep, if you are a shepherd what you want are sheep that when you sell them are going to be fat and juicy after you have cooked them , in fact when you sell them they have to be fat to look at, or in other words nice and plump! To obtain such sheep you lead them to places where they will get plenty of peace, because in that place sheep will do what they like doing best, eating, drinking and in general getting wonderfully fat, sheep that on the other hand do not get such peace and time to eat and drink their fill,usually get very thin with a lot of muscle from all of the running around, assuming that they do not die first. They are not very good eating, in english this sort of meat is usually called mutton, it take a lot of cooking to even be eatable let alone tasty, now ofcourse I am not trying to write a cookery book here, there is a spiritual truth here which if you take the time to think about is plain for all to see, the Lord God wants believers (His sheep!) to be in the best of form, He guides us to places where we can receive the food that we need for our spiritual growth, He gives us the waters of life that slake our thirst for knowledge about Him.

This is heavy teaching that David is giving us from 3000 years ago, can you believe that he sat down one day three millenia ago and these beautiful words just poured out of his mouth, they came not only from the depths of his soul but from the depths of Our Lords wonderful heart. "HE RESTORETH MY SOUL"in the english martyr William Tyndales first translation of the bible he translated this verse in this way, "HE SHALL CONVERT MY SOUL", I know which of these two translations moves my heart the most, that a thousand years before Jesus was to stagger bruised and bleeding through the streets of Jerusalem, bowed down under the fearful weight of the cross on His way to execution for my sake, that David could write of salvation so clearly, and that it was being done for the righteousness of God. You know that God had to prove to us that He really was and is what He claims to be, like stupid stupid sheep we cannot accept that a God great enough to give us a world as beautiful as this one really wants the best for us, no we think that all the problems in the world are His fault not our own, like Adam we blame Him...remember what Adam said? "The woman YOU gave me lead me astray!" really smart thinking Adam! I do'nt know about you but if i had been Adam the last thing I would have said to the creator of the universe is..."HEY PAL ALL THIS IS YOUR FAULT YOURS AND THAT WOMAN YOU DUMPED ON ME...!" really smart Adam!!,no wonder Ireneaus described Adam as a Moron!! but we his descendants are just as stupid as him!And if you do not think that you are stupid then why are you here?...because only the stupid can be sinners, through all of history there has only been one truly wise man, Our Lord Jesus.

This is probably the most comforting verse in the Psalm, as I walk through life there will come times when there will seem to be no comfort, when life seems meaningless, futile. When depression settles like a huge heavey impenetrable black cloud, you will find a word here which makes for joy, that word is SHADOW!, little children become frightened in the night because of shadows, and they start to weep because of an imagined danger, and they call for their mother or father who come to them and turn on the light driving all the shadows away, the parents comfort their children and shew them that there is nothing to fear.........it was just a shadow. God is not just a perfect shepherd, He is the perfect parent, he does His best to see that we grow up to be spiritual adults no longer to be frightened of shadows without substance, and for us death is a shadowy doorway into a glory that we cannot even begin to imagine.

The next part of the verse can be understood in two different ways, as I believe David intended it to be, as a shepherd David used a rod and staff in his work, the staff with a hook on it to catch silly sheep that insisted upon running away from him into the jaws of hungry wolves, and the rod to hit the wolves with and to protect his sheep! David is taking comfort in the fact that god will come looking for him should he stray from gods flock, remember Jesus's story about the good shepherd?, and also that He would protect His own sheep.

David was also a King, and quite a powerful one as well and so there was another picture in his mind whilst he sang his song, the picture that most of us have seen that of the Egyptian Pharoe's holding a Rod and a Staff, the shepherds staff was the symbol of of the Pharoes leadership, but the Rod was a symbol of authority and punishment, it is a strange thing but sometimes to be punished can be a comfort....if it is God doing the punishing, in Hebrews 12:6-7, it is written

Now that is comforting, you step out of line god our Father smacks you on the wrist and say's "do not do that again", this shews that God has a personal interest in you as an individual, you do not have to worry about if you belong to Him because He has just proved it. He has once again proven His personal interest in you! I like that even if I'm none to happy about getting a smack on the wrist! Hebrews 10:31 states emphatically....

"IT IS A FEARFUL THING TO FALL INTO THE HANDS OF THE LIVING GOD." That is statement well worth remembering!!

Usually one does not sit down to have a party in the midst of one's enemies, not unless you happen to be a masochist with strong suicidal tendencies, on the other hand if your enemies are totally powerless against you, well! no problem you can do as you will, I have always had problems with the next bit because if someone upends a bucket of oil over my head, then I'm going to have a thing or three to say about it!; on the other hand in Davids day this was a sign of well being of prosperity, we are not here talking about a bucket of diesle oil we are talking about sweet smelling herbs and spices that were mixed into a wax like oil and placed in the hair, this over a period of hours melted from body heat and released it's sweet scents into the air , (it is also symbolic of Kingship) these perfumed oils were very expensive. the cup of wine that he had which represents satisfaction amongst other things was running over, there was nothing in this place that could not be had just for the asking, David was in total safety protected by Our Lord God.

If you live a life of righteousness then goodness and mercy will follow through all your life, and you will dwell in the House of The Lord in His Paradise for ever, just think on this when times are hard, take up your bible and read this and take comfort in what God is saying to you. When you get to heaven you are not going to need a bible, this is a record of sin and pain and bloody suffering, the evil record of a humanity trying to break Gods heart, and a record of a loving untiring God reaching out to us down through the dark and bloody centuries. When we are there near Him we will not need this book to sing His praises or His goodness, this is a limited book, even though it is the most perfect book ever written. when we are there in paradise our mouths will find words so sweet so wonderful that the most wonderful words in this book will seem as Saint Paul wrote, like dimly seeing through a bronze mirror, and with that thought I say AMEN!

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