The Lord Goes Before You and the Lord is With You.

Finding Comfort in Your Shepherd:

Hope From Psalm 23:5

These last few weeks, Pastor Tim has been talking about suffering and how we should respond when found worthy of suffering for Christ. There's a lot of hope in Hebrews and 1 Peter about persecution for our faith, but that isn't the only kind of suffering we endure in life. Some of us are suffering from physical ailments, harsh work environments, family drama, and so much more. Whenever the topic of suffering and hurt comes up, my mind and heart are drawn back to some simple truths David laid out for us in Psalm 23.

"You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows."

I think about this verse often. Verses 1-4 set up this psalm as one that looks at the relationship between a shepherd and a lamb. In that context, a "table" has a very different meaning than what we're normally inclined to think about. In his book, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, W. Phillip Keller talks about how the highlands that sheep are brought up to in the summer are often called tablelands or mesas, which is Spanish for "table."

So, the sheep are brought up to the cool mountain heights in summer to a tableland that the shepherd has prepared before them. This naturally begs us to wonder how a shepherd prepares the table for the sheep, and he does so in several ways. First, he'll travel there in winter before all the snow has melted and survey the lands. Then, again, several weeks before the journey, he'll travel, taking salt and minerals to disperse over the designated bedding grounds. He'll look for poisonous weeds and uproot them or make plans to keep his flock well clear of them. The shepherd will also go to the watering holes and clean out debris and branches, making a gentle and easy approach possible for his flock, and he may need to rebuild earthen dams to keep the water flowing slowly for his beloved flock.

The whole time he was on this journey, the shepherd would keep a wary eye out for predators. Are there paw prints and scat that indicate a wolf, coyote, cougar, or bear? Can he kill them off or find a safe harbor for his sheep on this journey?

The shepherd does all this prep work to make his summer easier and better for his sheep. No amount of prep will rid all the dangers, though. The shepherd will spend the summer on the tableland with his sheep to give another layer of safety. And here is where that second half of the verse comes into play: the shepherd anoints the sheep with oil and fills their cup to protect them.

The shepherd anoints his sheep to protect them from several dangers: flies whose larvae will hatch in their nose and cause them such great annoyance they'll bash their heads against anything hard to try and stop it, causing severe injury, blindness, and sometimes even death. Oil kills those larvae before they can do anything. Oil also protects the sheep from each other. During the rutting season, they'll charge each other and bash their heads against each other. Oil helps them glance off each other, saving them from the worst of the damage.

W. Phillip Keller says that the part of the verse that reads "my cup overflows" is about how the shepherd keeps on him a flask of alcohol to get through the cold and rainy storms. When his ewes and lambs were overcome with wetness and coldness, they would lie down, their muscles would cramp up, and they would await death. But Keller would run around to his sheep and put a little bit of brandy water in their mouths, and in moments they'd have warmth and energy again and be able to run to shelter.

Viewing this together, we see that our Good Shepherd has prepared the tables in our lives by going before us to remove hazards and traps and make things easier. How much worse life would be without our Good God sovereignly guiding our lives to more peaceful waters and places more conducive to peace! That's not to say that life will be peaceful. Far from it. Our enemy, the devil, still prowls around, seeking to devour us. But God has gone before us to make things more bearable for us, and in the worst storms of our lives, God is there comforting us, holding us, and warming us up with his love and compassion.

Our Good Shepherd goes before us and stays with us through all the darkest and most painful moments of our lives. He is a God who has the foresight to look ahead and prepare for what is to come and has such deep and abiding concern for the comfort of his flock that he runs to each of us to anoint us with oil and fill our lips with rejuvenation when we need it most.

I hope the next time you find yourself overcome with heartache, suffering, and the weights this world overwhelms us with, you'll think back to the comfort there is in our Good Shepherd, and you'll remember that he's there with you, cradling you, and with a heart full of compassion, welcoming you to his table to drink from his abundant cup.

Till He returns,

James Fields Biblical Counselor