Boker Tov! Welcome back to Mishkan Katan. We are currently in an ongoing study of the Psalms. Today, we will be looking at one of the most beloved psalms, indeed, one of the most beloved portions of the entire Bible.
Psalm 23 is whispered at the times in our lives we feel most uncertain and alone - - as we are being wheeled into surgery, as we sit by the side of a loved one who is dying, as we face a big meeting that will greatly impact our career, when our spouse has just told us of infidelity or that a divorce is going to be pursued - - at those times when it is “just you and me, God, against the world.” Psalm 23 gives us a great, big spiritual “hug” from our Heavenly Father. It is one of the most memorized chapters of the Bible, for these reasons.
Similarly, David composed this psalm during one of the most difficult periods of his life, when he was on-the-run from King Saul and Saul’s army. He was a desperate fugitive, who (according to I Samuel 22:5) hid himself in a parched, dry, barren, desolate forest, called KAR-et. Despite how low David felt in his spirit, Father Yahweh never abandoned him. In fact, He sent rain to water the earth in that place, made the grass and leaves grow, providing vegetation for David to eat. At a time when David’s demise seemed certain, God provided for him, causing David to reflect on his teenage years, when he shepherded his family’s extensive sheep herd. He was writing this psalm from personal experience, for sure.
The Mishnah gives a practice of reciting this psalm between the washing of hands before the meal and the recital of blessing over the bread. This past Saturday morning, I watched my friend recite it as part of the Sabbath morning prayers. The psalm contains 57 Hebrew words. 57 is the numerical value, the gematria, of the Hebrew word “nourishes.”
As we study this well-known psalm, which many of you can quote, word-for-word, I want us to do two things. For one, I want us to deeply look at the Hebrew language and the beauty behind the original language and for another, I want us to more deeply understand the life of a Semitic shepherd, the actions he would have taken while tending a flock of sheep. That world is foreign to many of us. Therefore, we miss the deeper meanings in the text. So, yes, we are going to study animal husbandry together, to gain greater insights into God’s chesed, His lovingkindness, His loving care of us! Because, Psalm 23 is like a parable, where we are represented by the sheep, and the Lord is seated in the person of the Shepherd. Let’s begin. This is one psalm we are going to deconstruct, verse-by-verse.
Here is verse 1, in the Hebrew:
מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד יְהוָה רֹעִי לֹא אֶחְסָר׃
Meez-mohr L’David Yahweh roh-EEE loh ekh-SAR
Literal translation: A spiritual song for David: Yahweh is my Shepherd, not I will lack.
Do you see the audacity of comparing the God of the Universe with a shepherd? Being a shepherd was a degrading, lowly and lonely calling. This is why it was the assignment of the youngest of Jesse’s sons, David. No one else wanted to do it! The shepherd would be out in the fields for long periods of time, with just his shepherd’s crook and his knapsack, trudging along, following, leading, tending to the sheep. David, however, was not the first to compare Father Yahweh to a shepherd, a Supreme Provider. In Genesis 48:15, Jacob (Ya’akov) called Father Yahweh “the God who provided for me.” “The God who fed me”.
Here we see the same verb, RA-ah, as we see in verse 1 of Psalm 23, stated in reverse, “I shall not want for anything.” “I shall not lack. “I shall not go hungry.”, etc. This psalm could aptly be subtitled “David’s Hymn of Praise to God’s Divine Care and Diligence”. Perhaps David was reflecting on the fact that when the Hebrew people were in the wilderness “wandering” for over 40 years, Father Yahweh provided for all their needs - - manna for food, water from The Rock, their sandals/clothes never wore out, nor did their tents, etc. Deuteronomy 2:7 testifies to this fact. The Tehillim commentary quotes an old Jewish proverb that says when a household welcomes a guest, a fatted calf is slaughtered on the first day, a sheep on the second, a hen on the third and on the fourth beans are served, and on the fifth - - less than even that! The implication is to pare things down progressively to tip the guest off that “houseguests like fish begin to stink after 3 days”, I guess. At any rate, this did not happen to the Hebrew people in the wilderness. Yahweh their God cared for them splendidly during that entire time.
So, obviously, David is referring to Father Yahweh as His Shepherd, but let’s not forget that Yeshua declared emphatically that He was/is one and the same, when He said, “I am the Good Shepherd”, in John 10:11 and 14. There, He said that He - - -
1) gives His life for the sheep
2) knows His sheep and
3) is known by His sheep. By saying those words, He was identifying Himself as the same Shepherd David extolled in Psalm 23. He was claiming to be God, part of the Divine, Mysterious Majesty.
Aren’t we blessed to be in such excellent, flawless hands? The character of the shepherd was vitally important. If the shepherd was kind, brave and selfless, the sheep would thrive. If he was cold, selfish and cowardly, the sheep would suffer and likely even die. More than any class of livestock, sheep require the most meticulous care. They literally CANNOT care for themselves. Left to their own devices, they do some of the most brainless, dangerous stuff possible. It’s no accident that David, through his divinely-appointed experiences and through the inspiration of God’s Spirit chose to use the Shepherd-sheep analogy. You’ll begin to see that more as we study along.
Here is another key point, not to miss. The sheep belong to the shepherd. He purchases them (as Yeshua did, with His own blood), and they submit to His authority. Most people never begin a relationship with God, because they refuse to submit to His authority. Oh, how they are missing out! Every single one of us is “owned”; the question is “by whom”? People owned by the Enemy, the false god of this world, are like sheep owned by an uncaring shepherd, sheep that stand at a boundary fence, injured, diseased, starving, yet staring longingly at the green pastures of the Good Shepherd. Once the Good Shepherd acquires a sheep, he marks it with some sort of distinguishing mark, usually on the ear, to designate it belongs to Him. This mark is permanent. It requires the forfeiture of a former, fickle, foolish, sinful way of life. It’s a sad fact that many who love this psalm do not belong to The Good Shepherd at all. It reminds me of a country song that says, “I only talk to God when I need a favor.” Lo tov, Lo tov. He is not that person’s Shepherd.
There was a slave-and-master parallel to this marking practice, from both the Old and New Testaments. A Hebrew slave who wanted to belong to that household for life had to undergo a “marking” ceremony”, if you will, in order to be called a “bond slave”. His ear would be literally nailed to a doorway of the home, very temporarily, of course. This ear gauge, you might call it, marked him as belonging to that master for life. The apostle Paul referred to himself as one such bondslave or “duolos” in the Greek, in Romans 1:1. You can probably see the parallels in the life of the follower of Yeshua. Our distinguishing mark is the Holy Spirit, received at the outset of the salvation relationship.
Do you feel your life, in the hands of the Good Shepherd, lacks for nothing? How many of us who belong to the Good Shepherd truly feel contented and abide in an attitude of gratitude? The world’s system deliberately creates in our minds a system of covetousness. Nothing is ever “enough”.
One of the books I am consulting for this study is by a former shepherd. He tells the story of a beautiful ewe he once owned. He nicknamed her “Ms. Gad-about" because she was never contented with what he provided for her. She was constantly searching for a way to escape over or under the fence so that she could graze on the other side! He called her a “fence crawler”. Some followers of Yeshua are that way - - never satisfied, always longing for what they don’t have, refusing to see the heaps and heaps of blessings right before their very eyes. It’s a carnal attitude that tends to infect others around them. In the case of the ewe, she taught her lambs her bad habits! Soon, they became the “escape artists” their mama was!
The statement “I shall not want” is a declaration, an expression of resolve on the part of the believer, as much as it is a declaration of the gifts of the Providential Shepherd. May we be laser-focused on our Shepherd, and gratefully receive the gifts from His hands - - not behaving as half-hearted, carnal, quasi-Christians who fence-straddle, wanting the “best of both worlds”.
On to verse two. Here it is in the Hebrew:
בִּנְאוֹת דֶּשֶׁא יַרְבִּיצֵנִי עַל־מֵי מְנֻחוֹת יְנַהֲלֵנִי׃
Beeen-OAT DEH-sheh yar-bee-TSAY-nee ahl-MAY M’noo-KOHT Y’nah hah LAY nee
Literal Translation: In tender young green grass he will cause me to lie down.
Upon waters of rest/peace He will lead/guide me.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
The Hebrew word for “green”, here, DEH-sheh, means a springtime green, like the green grass of springtime. Do you love the smell of freshly-cut, green grass? I do, but I never lie down in it. I am allergic to grass. That irrelevant factoid aside.... Sheep NEED to lie down in green grass, but they must be MADE to lie down in it, and it is only the Shepherd who can cause this to happen. Let me explain. Again, I’m sharing the experience of Phillip Keller here, a former shepherd, who wrote the lovely book called “A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23”.
Many of the great sheep countries of the world, including Israel, are semi-arid in climate. Green pastures do not occur there naturally. It takes tremendous effort on the part of the shepherd to provide green pastures in dry, brown, sunburned wastelands. Rough, rocky land had to be cleared; roots and stumps had to be torn up and removed. Then, the ground had to be tilled, seeded, irrigated and cared for. Green grass was very important, because this type of feed and foliage is essential to success in giving ewes a heavy milk flow for their lambs. And, when such rich food is plentiful, the sheep have more time to rest, because they spend less time having to forage for food. You have probably heard the phrase, “ a land flowing with milk and honey”. Did you ever wonder where that phrase originated? I never realized this was scientific terminology. “Milk flow” refers to the flow of the mother’s milk of the livestock, and “honey flow” refers to the bees that visit to pollinate the foliage, producing vibrant plants and delicious honey. These are metaphors for rich, green, luxurious pastures.
Sheep are by nature very anxious and fearful creatures. In fact, if one sheep gets “spooked” many others in the flock will react similarly, without bothering to investigate the source of the panicking. Have you ever heard the slang term “sheeple”? It’s a combo of “sheep” and “people”, referring to folks who don’t think for themselves, instead following the crowd like a spooked flock of sheep.
Sheep behave this way because they cannot provide their own self-defense. They are largely, on their own, helpless and feeble. So, their main defense mechanism is to run! Unfortunately, when they get frightened in such a way, from a dog or a cougar or whatever, there can be significant injury or loss of life from the mad dashing, the stampeding. Ewes can drop their lambs prematurely for example, out of fear or injury.
In addition to dangers from outside the sheep fold, there also can be dangers within. In our world we know that there is a hierarchy of social order. We go to work and we have a boss (or bosses). There is a God-ordained social order within the home, with the husband being the leader and the wife being the “2nd in command”, so to speak and the children giving obedient deference and respect to both. I could go on, but you get my drift with these two examples. This type of social order is present in every animal society. Otherwise, chaos would reign everywhere. With sheep, there is something called the “butting order” among the ewes, the females. One older, bossy ewe will head-butt the others to carve out her favorite grazing spot or place to bed down. Her behavior is imitated down the line by the other, younger, more timid ewes. They use the same tactics of head-butting those around them. This causes extreme friction and conflict. Interestingly enough, in the presence of the shepherd, the sheep do not act this way.
Keller reminisces in his book by saying that nothing quieted his sheep herd more than when they realized he was “in the field.” When the sheep knew the shepherd was close by, they could relax and rest. They could “lie down” in confidence and peace. The Hebrew word for peaceful, as in peaceful waters, in verse two, has Shabbat connotations, as in the 7th day “day of rest” and also marital connotations, as in “enter the rest of my husband”. This fits perfectly with the Bride/Bridegroom metaphor the LORD uses often in Scripture to picture the relationship between Yeshua and His Bride, His followers/disciples.
There’s another fear sheep must contend with, a reality that disturbs their contentment, and that is the torment by insects and parasites. Some of these are ticks, bot flies, warble flies and nasal flies. It is a very important role of the shepherd to keep a close watch on his flock, in order to take immediate action if one of them begins to exhibit signs of infection. Moreover, he must be diligently proactive, to treat them with insecticides such as “dips” to clear their bodies of such pests. It is literally impossible for a sheep tormented by such pests to rest.
When things look calamitous in our lives, we tend to forget our Shepherd is with us. He is “in the field” with us, and He has things under control. His Spirit within us bears witness and reassures us that not only is He aware of our dilemmas, trials, tribulations and even just old, ornery bad moods. But, that beyond that awareness, He cares and is deeply involved in our circumstances. What peace that brings!
Only the humble, contented heart can truly lie down and rest. When I first typed that word, rest, I typed reset. And, I thought, “That’s a feature of resting, resetting, wiping the slate clean, tomorrow’s another day.
Still, peaceful waters - - - Sheep need water, but they need clean pure water. If this is not provided by the shepherd, they will drink any water they can find, which can lead to them ingesting liver flukes and other “nasty” organisms which will make them sick.
I did not know this, but sheep can subsist on the morning dew on top of the grass for several months, particularly if the weather is not super-hot. What a picture of “still water”, those droplets of dew, suspended on the blades of grass! This water source is only available either just before dawn or just after, because the rising sun will cause it to evaporate and disappear. This means the diligent, caring shepherd can’t be a slug-a-bed, a late riser. He must be up early with his sheep, seeing that they get the morning dew they need. “He watching over Israel, slumbers not nor sleeps.” These are beautiful lyrics and the title to a song from the majestic oratorio “Elijah”, by Felix Mendelssohn. The song is based off of these verses from Psalm 121, which we will study later.
3 He will not let your foot slip-- he who watches over you will not slumber; 4 indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The LORD watches over you-- the LORD is your shade at your right hand; 6 the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The LORD will keep you from all harm-- he will watch over your life; 8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
Do you see the parallels here of drinking from the morning dew of the Word of God in the morning, shortly after rising? Our souls become refreshed and satisfied. He is the only Water of Life who truly satisfies. Nothing else comes close. The Midrash Shocher Tov reveals how studying God’s Word restores our soul. As it says in Psalm 19:8, which we studied last week, “The Law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul.”
My home is beside a flowing creek. I love to wake up in the morning, look out the window and be reminded of the eternality of God our Father, who makes the water flow on and on, seemingly until forever. But, did you know that sheep, being the fearful, anxious creatures they are, have a deep distrust of swiftly flowing water? And, accordingly, they will not drink from it. They will die of thirst before they drink from it. Again, the shepherd leads his sheep beside the still, peaceful waters.
Verse 3 in the Hebrew:
נַפְשִׁי יְשׁוֹבֵב יַנְחֵנִי בְמַעְגְּלֵי־צֶדֶק לְמַעַן שְׁמוֹ׃
NAHF-shee Y’sho-VAVE yahn-KAY-nee B’mah-g’LAY TSEH-dek L’MAH-ahn Sh’MO
And, the literal English translation:
He will restore my backsliding soul. He will guide/lead me in righteous paths/tracks for the sake of His name/reputation.
Have you ever read the “restore my soul” phrase and thought, “Oh, He will make me feel better”? “I will feel so refreshed!” That is not what it means. The Hebrew verb “yeh-sho-VAVE" is from the 3-letter root/sherish “shaVAV” which means to turn around in repentance and walk in the opposite direction. This form of the verb is in a Hebrew binyan which intensely expresses this thought/meaning.
I worked on this teaching for several days, but earlier this week, in real time, as I was preparing this section, I had had a day where I felt I had just not used my time well. I had made some poor decisions in regards to one of my bad habits, and it left me not feeling too well. I had not gotten enough sleep the night before, etc. It was just a “blah” sort of day. I felt defeated and frustrated by my own inability to triumph, to get out of my doldrums. As a result, I did not get a lot done on my study.
Before studying this verse, verse 3, I had always interpreted the first part of the verse to mean the “happy, refreshed” meaning. But, its actual meaning is that He, the Good Shepherd, will come find us in the depths of miry, mucky clay of sin and will lift us out of that, clean us off, and restore us to fellowship with Him through our sincere sorrow and repentance. And, He will then set us back on the right path, the righteous path.
A key question is: will we allow ourselves to be led? When he bids us lie down in green pastures, will we trust Him and “be still”? When He leads us to still waters or greener pastures, will we follow? More about that a little later.
Have you ever heard the term “cast sheep”? It’s an old English term for a sheep who has “fallen and I can’t get up”! Yes indeed, they truly can’t. Picture them on their back, legs flailing, bleating, unsuccessfully struggling. Eventually, the sheep just gives up and lies there, scared, frustrated. This is another reason the shepherd must carefully watch over his flock, count them regularly, because if one wanders around a bend where he cannot easily see it, and gets cast, and if he, the shepherd, does not arrive to rescue that sheep in a fairly short period of time, the sheep will die from the gasses that build up unnaturally in its abdomen. The cast condition also makes the sheep even more vulnerable to predators, of course.
This is the backdrop for the New Testament story of the “ninety and nine” sheep, Matthew 18:12-14, where the Good Shepherd counts His sheep, knows He has 100 of them, but can only find 99. So, He goes in search of the one, to rescue it. He’s thinking, “This can’t be good. That rascal is out there somewhere and it needs me.”
This phenomenon is not limited to only the weak sheep. Even the most prosperous ones, the most successful spiritually, the “fattest” (that’s a compliment) ones, can become cast. In fact, the fatter the sheep, the easier it is for them to become cast. Also, the more wool a sheep has the easier it can become cast. Wool is symbolic in the Scriptures of the old self-life, worldliness, another type of fatness, (not a compliment). And, then, some sheep are just physically more fat than others, flabby, weak, and it is these who get cast the easiest as well.
Sheep don’t have the best balance in the first place. Those little, tiny hooves, those skinny legs... But, becoming cast often occurs when a sheep is contented and lying comfortably. All it takes is for the sheep to shift its gravity a little too far and voila, first thing you know, it is cast.
If we think the Good Shepherd is disgusted with His sheep when they get cast, the truth is that He is eager to restore. He lovingly longs to restore, when the sheep is helplessly cast. He also changes circumstances to help His sheep become more healthy in the long run, so as to avoid their being cast so often in the first place. This is His holy “spiritual discipline” of us.
Sheep are not very smart, nor do they have the capability to take good care of their environment. They are extreme “creatures of habit”. If left to their own devices, they will follow the same trails until those trails become huge ruts. They will graze the same areas until those areas are complete wastelands. They have been known to gnaw the grass so severely that they damage the roots. These well-worn areas become infested with pests, which can quickly afflict the whole herd. The wise shepherd leads his flock from one green pasture to another on a regular basis, keeping the sheep on the move, so that they will not engage in these destructive behaviors. AND, the sheep delight in being led into new “paths”. When they are turned out into a new pasture, they will often kick up their heels in delight. The Good Shepherd does not lead His sheep faster than they are able to go, so that they become exhausted, nor will He take them on perilous, difficult routes to the water or to greener pastures.
Isaiah 53:6 begins “All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way...”
I'm sure you can see the parallels between the behavior of the sheep and the behaviors of people. How often do we “turn to our own way”? I can only speak for myself: OFTEN. As Keller says, “And this we do deliberately, repeatedly even to our own disadvantage. There is something almost terrifying about the destructive self-determination of a human being. It is inexorably interlocked with personal pride and self-assertion. We insist we know what is best for us even though the disastrous results may be self-evident.”
Sometimes when preparing a teaching I take a break and read a bit of Facebook or something, and at this point in my preparation, I read a post by a broken-hearted mom of two young daughters. She recently went through an ugly divorce, was awarded majority custody, but her ex-husband is going to take her back to court to sue for full-custody because she is unable to financially support herself and the girls. Broken home, broken dreams, broken hearts. The world is increasingly full of examples of how pursuing the world’s paths will produce a sick society that struggles to survive spiritually and in other ways, struggling to subsist in devastated pastures.
I’ve been speaking of “ruts” in the negative, and yes, it is usually a negative term. “I’m in a rut” is usually not a postive statement. John J. Parsons, of Hebrew for Christians, posted on his Facebook page recently about the Orechot Adonai, or the Lord’s paths of righteousness mentioned here in Psalm 23, verse 3. He likened God’s paths to ruts or the grooves created by the wheels of a wagon that passes over the same trail repeatedly. I remember certain dirt roads in my childhood community, which I had the privilege to visit this past Sunday (again, in real time) for Mother’s Day. In those dirt roads, you could see where the tires of the vehicles had passed over the same ground over and over. These are the types of ruts we want in our lives, those paths the Divine Mysterious Majesty we call Elohim creates and puts in place for us. The mo’edim, the year’s “appointed times” are an example of “good ruts” which He provides to lead us in His ways.
In the real time I am sharing this teaching for the first time, the Torah reading is Parashat Emor, which details all 8 of the mo’edim, those “good ruts” we practice each year, beginning with the first one, the Shabbat, which we embrace for the restoration of our souls every week. The last part of verse 3 tells us that Father Yahweh leads His children thusly, “for the sake of His name”. What does this mean?
If you are a parent or have ever been a parent of a child of the age where the child has some independence, you have at one point or other been embarrassed by your child’s behavior. The first instance that leapt to my own mind was at the baby dedication of our younger son. My husband was holding him in his arms, while I held on to the hand of our 3 year-old for all I was worth, because he was wiggling and writhing like a possessed person. Eventually, a relative in one of the front rows came up to get him, but this was not before he had somehow taken off his shoe and thrown it into the crowd! As I recall it did not hit anyone. The church sent me flowers the next day. I kid you not!
Or, perhaps in correcting a child in the family you have chided, “You are going to embarrass our family! You will bring dishonor on our family’s name!” We can find several references like this one in other places in both the old and new testaments, that is, the Tanakh and the Brit Chadasha. The Bible teaches us that one of the chief reasons the LORD has not abandoned His chosen people is because if He did, this would bring dishonor on His great name. We see this in 1 Samuel 12:22, where it says “for the sake of His great name, the LORD will not forsake His people”. Here, in verse 3, the Shepherd takes the restorative and directive actions He takes, not only for the benefit of the sheep, but also so that His name will not be dishonored or profaned among the nations. We see a similar phrase involving the name of Jesus, in the Brit Chadasha, particularly in the Gospels. There it prophesies the suffering that Yeshua’s followers will endure for the sake of His name. So, a slightly different turn there. And, so many of the early believers did give their very lives, were martyred, for the sake of His great name.
We will soon be at Psalm 25, in our Psalms journey. Let me close this morning by quoting verse 10.
In Hebrew first - -
כָּל־אָרְחוֹת יְהוָה חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת לְנֹצְרֵי בְרִיתוֹ וְעֵדֹתָיו
Kohl ar-KOHT Yahweh CHEH-sed v’EMet l’no-tsRAY b’ree-TOE v’ay-doh-TAV
The paths of the LORD are mercy/compassion/chesed and truth to those keeping His covenant and His testimonies.
Amen. Chesed and truth.
We’ll finish the last three verses of this wonderful psalm, Psalm 23, in next week’s broadcast.
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