Psalm 23 - Drinking from a Fire Hose? (A short Bible Reflection)

The trouble with drinking out of a firehose is that most of the water makes mud. Of course, we use that phrase to compliment a teacher or book that is rich in content and sometimes we need that kind of learning experience.  If you’re anything like me, though, you do better with a teacher who understands your learning capacity and leads you accordingly.  We’ll reflect on that as well as what it means to have God’s correction be a source of comfort to us.

Transcript

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The trouble with drinking from a fire hose is that most of the water just makes mud. You know, we use that phrase to compliment a teacher or a book or maybe even a seminar that is rich in content. And sometimes we do benefit from that kind of a learning experience. If you're anything like me, though, you prefer when a teacher understands your learning capacity and leads you accordingly. We'll come back to that thought in a moment. Welcome to Meet Me in the Word. I am so glad that you've joined us today. We're in Psalm 23, one of the most well-known passages throughout all of Scripture, and one that's brought comfort to so many people. So go ahead and open up your copy of God's Word to Psalm 23, and we'll soak this one up together. We're going to pray and then we'll read it. Jesus, thank you for all that you have done and all that you are continuing to do in our lives. God, thank you that you are the good shepherd and that we can trust you. We're here to meet with you. Would you please meet with us? All right, I'm going to read from a newer translation called the ESV today. Many of you are probably familiar with it, but I'm reading from it in particular because I think the language it uses will feel warm and familiar, like a comfy blanket, and uh and I hope that that's the experience for you. By the way, if this is new to you, it may not feel that way, but my prayer is that it will still bring about comfort for you. So Psalm twenty three, let's read that together here. A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 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, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Let's go ahead and pause and listen to the Lord. All right, was there a line or two that spoke to you as we kind of read that together? If that was true for you, I would encourage you to go ahead and underlap uh underlat underline that in your Bible or highlight it if you're using an app, whatever works for you, or maybe even just go ahead and write it out so that you can kind of carry it with you for a period of time, however long the Lord asks you to do so. Sometimes it's just helpful for us to just grab scripture and meditate on it in that kind of a way. I'm going to use what something that I would call reflective responses to help us appreciate this particular psalm rather than doing like a separate observation and reflection uh kind of moment here along the way. So it'll be combined. And what I'm choosing to do is to just kind of give you verse by verse my my understanding of it, hopefully in less of a teaching way and more in just that reflecting. But uh my prayer is that you'll you'll catch things that are helpful to you. It was helpful to me as I prepared for our time here together. So we'll begin with verse one. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. And I've phrased it, uh, in fact, all of them begin with the word because, right? So because. Because the Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need. Isn't that a cool thought to just understand that God is sufficient? We sometimes forget that and try to do things on our own, but he really does supply everything that we need. Because the Lord is my shepherd, because he's the one looking out for me, I have everything I need. Verse 2, because he is kind, he provides good places to eat and rest, right? He makes me lie down in green pastures, is that phrase there. And he provides a place where the water is calm, so I can drink it in. He leads me beside still waters. In other words, we're coming back to that opening thought that he doesn't compel me to drink from places where the water is rushing by and and from that fire hose, which is kind of our metaphor here, with water that moves so fast that it just kind of soaks me and it soaks the ground around me. And honestly, it hurts a little bit to bring my face or my mouth up to that stream of gushing uh water that's rushing by. It has so much force. The Lord isn't like that. He leads us in a way that's gentler and brings us to water that truly refreshes us and hydrates us, it does all of those good things. Because he is kind, he provides a good place to eat and rest, and a good place for us uh to drink all of that stuff in. Verse three, because he cares for my whole person, or my soul, is another way of understanding that. He heals me and nurtures me toward right living. He calls us into that righteousness and and he brings about a a renewal, a restoration that happens within us. He cares for every last little part of you, even the parts that you think, ah, that part doesn't really matter. Actually, God does care for you in all that you are. Because he is strong and knows all of the things that are going on, I can live in peace when life gets hard. And sometimes I go through dark times, threatening times, and certainly grief. There is that sense there that, you know, there's that phrase, even though I go through the valley of the shadow of death, uh, the NIV renders it a little bit differently. And I think it's it's just helpful to know that there's another option out there. But even though when I when I go through darkness, even when I go through a season that is ominous in my life, whether that's coming from outside or sometimes like just a personal struggle that we're going through, even when we're going through the darkest moment, even when we're going through grief, and when we're going through all of those things, we can have a certain sense of peace that will come through it. Just because God is good. And in his goodness, he is also strong enough to handle the darkness, the oppression, the things that get sent our way. He's he's big enough to take care of all of that. And by the way, he knows all of the things that are going on, even the things about ourselves that we don't even fully understand. He is that level of a good shepherd. And then it goes on there and it and it and it just helps us to appreciate that that that we can understand the feeling of his guidance and his corrections, right? His uh his rod and his staff, and and and we can conclude that that we're grateful for both of those because he knows us better than than we understand ourselves. It makes me think actually about Hebrews chapter 12, verses 7 through 11, which I'll I'll read for you now, because I feel like this part of Psalm 23 is maybe the one that we we struggle with the most. And I could be wrong, sorry about it if I am, but it it it can be a hard thing for us when we go through these difficult times and we wonder, what's God's plan in all of this? What is he doing in my life? But listen to Hebrews 12 verses 7 through 11. It says, Endure hardship as discipline. God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined, and everyone undergoes discipline, then you're not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live? They, being our human fathers, they disciplined us for a little while as they thought best. But God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in His holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. If you've been in a good, healthy, stable, loving home, this probably resonated for you. And some of you, you listen to that and you're like, yeah, that doesn't connect for me at all. And one of the things I want to make sure that we all understand is that our Heavenly Father gets it right all of the time. And so we come to Him and we recognize that that His rod, which is a symbol here in our case, of His discipline in our lives, of His correction, that it really does lead us to more Christlikeness, and it's done out of love. It's a protective implement to help us stay on the right path. I hope that encourages you, regardless of what your home life has been or uh or is, maybe even currently, if you're still kind of growing up. By the way, welcome here, people of all ages. Verse five. Because he is the ultimate host, my protector, and exceedingly generous, I sit at his table of honor. How amazing is it that the good shepherd would anoint me? Isn't that a cool thought? He's prepared a table for me in the presence of my enemies, right? He's anointed my head with oil, my cup overflows. That language is strong here, right? Verse six. Because of the Lord's goodness and his mercy, I get to live in his house, and it's really good here. I hope that's been an encouragement to you as you've considered Psalm 23. We've read it in a more traditional kind of a way, and then I've offered you just a different way to reflect over this particular text. And I'd like to leave you with just one last little to-do for you to carry on with your day, which is to read John chapter 10, verses 1 through 18. It's the passage where Jesus refers to himself as the good shepherd. And I've always found that these two uh passages pair so well together because we understand that it's the Lord, and but included in that is Jesus Himself, and we begin to see Him as that good shepherd in our lives. Let me pray for us. Jesus, thank you for all that you have done and all that you are doing in our lives. God, we adore you and we thank you that you lead us so kindly and yet so firmly. Help us to notice you throughout our day. We ask this in your name. Amen.