40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Psalm 23 Live from HWSS 2024 (Episode 388)

Episode Date: November 3, 2023

Chad, Daniel, and Erick discuss Psalm 23 live from Here We Still Stand 2024. Have a listen.  Show Notes: Support 1517 1517 Podcasts The 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 on Youtube What's New from 1517: Free 2023 Advent Resources 2024(May 3-4) NWA Tickets are Now Available! Join the 1517 Academy All Charges Dropped, Vol. 2 More from the hosts: Daniel Emery Price Chad Bird

All right, all right. Well, thanks for being here. Thanks for coming back out to San Diego to do this. If this is your first time here, welcome. I hope you have a blast. We are going to do, so if you're a listener of 40 Minutes, you'll know that there is now a psalm companion to 40 Minutes in the Old Testament.

So we're doing, we're going through books, but we realize that there's a lot of psalms, a lot of Proverbs, and we should start doing those so we didn't spend years in the psalms and Proverbs. And so we've been incorporating those in as like an additional podcast. And so we're gonna record one such episode today, and we are going to go ahead and knock out Psalm 23

because I don't know why, but we decided that's what we were gonna do. So we are gonna talk about Psalm 23 today. Chad, tell us all the things about Psalm 23. Well, I have to add that it's the one reason that we're actually including an extra podcast per week is because I wanna finish this before I retire. Yeah, and Malachi is looking farther and farther away.

So we're getting there a little bit faster this way. So one kind of interesting thing that I just learned recently about Psalm 23. So if you were to ask a typical room of Christians, you know, what is your favorite Psalm or what's the most well-known or beloved Psalm? I suspect 90% of the people would say Psalm 23. Yeah, Psalm 119, obviously.

I pray it every night before I go to bed. In Hebrew. In Hebrew, yeah. I fall asleep at verse six, but the Lord understands. No, so Psalm 23, yeah. But evidently, this was not always the case. In fact, in the broad sweep of history, it's actually a relatively recent most popular psalm.

So there's a scholar named William Holliday who did this essay on Psalm 23 and kind of mapped its popularity. And after the Civil War, kind of after the Civil War to around 1900 is when it ascended in popularity. There were some books written about it. And so this is kind of interesting twist about it.

It became popular because it was sort of misused. It was hyper-individualized. It was hyper-sentimentalized. And it was kind of understood as a psalm that it doesn't matter really whether you're a Jew or a Christian, you can just pray this psalm all together. So because of that, it began to kind of rise and popularize.

And today, of course, you hardly go to a funeral without Psalm 23 being included. So I say all of that because I think it's important to kind of keep in the background because people do read this a lot of times in a very generic sort of way. But when you do that, you miss, of course, its connection to the New Testament

and the Christology that's woven into it. Well, one of the things that they teach you, I don't know what they taught you guys, but what they taught some of us was that there's certain things that you should learn in the King James. Chad's got the Hebrew out right there. So the things that you should learn in the King James,

because when people die, it's like what they know, especially a later generation, earlier generations. And those are the Lord's Prayer and Psalm 23. You get to someone's bedside and start quoting Psalm 23 and the message or the NIV, They're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I know how this psalm goes.

You're messing this up. Yeah, I suddenly become the biggest King James only guy ever when it comes to Psalm 23. It is that way. But it does become very associated with death, right? And obviously you have the line, as I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. And one of the reasons, too, the popularity,

after in the world wars and stuff, it became very popular that way, too, maybe even after the Civil War, like that. And it is a psalm that is great in that setting, but it's not strictly about that. Because death is, I'll bring up C.S. Lewis here, since that's what the conference is about. C.S. Lewis makes this striking claim

that in the midst of wartime, that death is not increased. Which is kind of a weird thing to say. You're like, war does not increase death. In fact, nothing does, because everybody dies. it might make it sooner, but it doesn't increase the amount of death. Every time someone's born, that person will die.

That's how much death is going to be in the world. But what war does is it puts it in your face. Suddenly you have to deal with your own mortality. And something like Psalm 23 is then useful in those situations where you're starting to realize, oh, I can put off thinking about death, but not if everyone around me is dying or if I'm seeing all these images of people dying.

But the truth is, and this is sort of my point, is to not put off Psalm 23 until your death because tomorrow might be your death. And that Psalm 23 is very much a psalm for the living. Yeah, there's a lot about life that's in it. Yeah. I mean, death is certainly figured into it, but it's more about, okay,

how are we gonna walk through wherever we're at, whether it's green pastures or besides the waters or the valley of the shadow of death. All right, well, we got a long ways to go. There are six verses. So we're gonna get this done within two hours. Sorry, thinking fellows. Better luck next year.

There's always next year. All right, so we'll get going here with verse one. the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want, which automatically, you know, there's a language issue here because when we think about wanting something today, we think about it's what I want, right? I want ice cream or I want a good life or I want whatever it is. But that's kind of an older use of want. What we're talking about here is I'm not going to lack anything. Yeah. I shall not be for want. I not shall not be for want. Yeah. Yeah. So I think it is important because of what I would kind of preface this with, talking about how people kind of just genericize this psalm to

point out, first of all, this is not just kind of any Lord. The name here is the divine name. So that's the first opening Hebrew word of it. So Yahweh is my shepherd. Also, I think it's pretty fascinating when you think about the divine name and calling him your shepherd. Well, when did you have really a focus on the divine name? It's Exodus 3, right? Burning bush, the Moloch Yahweh appears. What's Moses doing? Shepherding. He's shepherding, yeah. So this heavy focus in Exodus 3

upon Yahweh and the divine name, that is given in this very context where you have Moses, one of the premier shepherds of the Bible, shepherding a sheep. So you have this bringing together of shepherding imagery and then the Lord's name. But here you have an even closer bringing together

because it's not the Lord appointing a shepherd or the Lord giving shepherds, but it's actually the Lord being my shepherd, our shepherd. And then of course you see the fulfillment of that in John 10 when Jesus calls himself the good shepherd, certainly hearkening the people's minds back to this psalm and to many others like it. I mean, this isn't the only time

that the Lord presents himself as a shepherd who is intimately involved in his sheep's life. He does this all throughout the scriptures. Yeah, I think we typically think of, at least I do. Today, when I think of a shepherd, I think of an actual shepherd. You know, he's out there in the flocks. Maybe it's some of the Bedouin in Israel and they're taking their flocks here and there. Of course, all of which was part of the culture of ancient Israel. But the title shepherd or the image of a shepherd was associated especially with kings,

not just in Israel, but all across the ancient Near East. So, I mean, all of us are kind of familiar with the image of King Tut and his coffin. Well, if you look closely at that, one of the images on that is a shepherd's cook because he was, of course, the leader. He was the king. He was the Pharaoh. But that wasn't just an Egyptian thing. It wasn't just an Israel thing. It was spread all over the ancient Near East. So one of the ways I think that can help to just look at the psalm a different perspective is to see it as declaring not just the Lord is my shepherd in a kind of a metaphorical sense, but he's also my shepherd king. So the king is responsible for the welfare of his people, he's shepherding them. And so it's a shepherd psalm, but it kind of

baked into that is that it's a regal psalm. There's also something that I've always found interesting about God describing himself as a shepherd. And that is in the temple and in the sort of system that Israel had given to them, shepherds were seen as unclean. They were seen, I mean, because of course they were, I mean, they were out with sheep all the time. And so this wouldn't naturally be the image that you'd associate with the holy of holies, with God of very God. And yet this again is an allusion to the fact that our God is the kind of God that stoops down into the dirt, into the muck in order to take care of his people. He does this all the time. And yet it would be counterintuitive, I think, to certainly the culture of the time and

the culture of Jesus' day to necessarily think of God like that. We've got 11 minutes. You got to move on to the next verse. I mean, I have thoughts, but... He's our timekeeper. All right. I'll just say one more thing. We've gotten through one third of this verse, Chad. One third. Listen, everybody. Listen. Very first episode of 40 Minutes, we covered three words. So we can cover six verses. We'll get there. I've grown since then. so so i do want to point out one thing and it connects with some of the stuff coming up too so also when you're reading the psalm think of it in uh an exodus context in fact that that phrase in hebrew about lacking nothing or i shall not want that occurs in deuteronomy in a couple

different places in connection with god leading the israelites to the wilderness and they lacked nothing. Same Hebrew phrase that's used here. So this is a, it's an Exodus shaped Psalm that David writes because David led an Exodus shaped life himself. He was driven into exile by Saul. He was in the wilderness. God took cover in there. And then God brought him back from there as well. And of course, David himself was a shepherd. God took him from the sheep folds to shepherd his his people Israel. Now, verse two. I'm reading from the King James, of course. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. Take it away. Well, making you lie down in green pastures is great because you don't want to lie down in them.

This is the key to understanding the significance of this. I do like that he makes me lie down. He will like wrestle me down into abiding with him and resting. So you can lie down in green pastures or you can be made to lie down in green pastures or whatever it is that you wanna do. But you're going to go down into these green pastures.

The thing about rest and like having a shepherd that would make you lie down, Jesus, the good shepherd, and when he says, I am the good shepherd, we'll talk about abiding with him. And you're like, yes. Now, how do I go about doing this? Give me a list.

This is very important. Five steps to good abiding. I need to abide with God. And I started a sermon series one time on abide and they turned it into an acronym and it was something like always be intentionally doing everything, which is like the opposite of abiding.

no big whoop just do all the things here's how you here's how you here's how you would abide with god you would always intentionally be doing everything and uh everybody's just walking out of that church wanting to just run as fast as you're like just abiding it's abiding it's difficult stuff and uh and the the truth is that abiding is is is god trying to make you stay put to stay near him to to rest in him and so this part is is really comforting that you have a shepherd that is going to take care of your needs so you're not going to want uh and he's also going to bring you to places to rest uh because you're going to get into uh walking in the valley of the shadow of death and this is all stuff that you have to do as well but he is a shepherd who means for you

to rest yeah i i can't help but just make a note of the fact that it mentions water and you know anytime that water is mentioned something comes to my mind well chad blew it chad blew it and stopped short because he said like he leadeth me besides still waters and then he didn't put result he restores my soul that's the third verse and i feel like i well i don't know i don't know who decided where the verses are but i just feel like i just feel like soul restoring still water is like, I feel like the still water and the soul restoring is like a combination thing here, especially, you know, if you've got a real wet hermeneutic, you know, which I do. Yeah, you ring our hermeneutic. It's just soaking wet. And so, yes, I do like the idea

of having a shepherd that would say, I got some soul restoring water to lead you to as well. Yeah. So the verb restore is shuv in Hebrew, which is the verb for repent. Some soul repenting waters. Yeah. So he repents us in those waters. Yeah. When you shuv, you turn, you turn back, you turn around. It's the idea you're going the wrong direction. So you shuv, you come back. But most of the time when this is used in reference to what God does to us, he's repenting us. He's bringing us back. He's returning us. He's restoring us so here you kind of have that joined together with the quiet waters still waters so we're like typical stupid sheep you know we're walking off into danger we're walking away from

a shepherd we're lost and so the shepherd comes along and he brings us back throws us over his shoulders restores our soul brings us right back to where we need to be by these waters of rest these still waters yeah which i mean in the big context of scripture is thoroughly baptismal he brings us right back to the healing saving restful waters where we're restored kind of like repenting you right back to your baptism here exactly yes yeah i just want to say that eric and eric can know this that i have hebrew i have this this hebrew verb uh for restore shoot i just want you to know that i have hebrew stuff i just want you guys to know that there's i can vouch for it he's not lying there's hebrew like words and pronunciations and stuff in here uh just so you

I mean, Chad said it, but I was gonna say it and try to be like the Hebrew guy for once. I don't have Hebrew up here, but I have a really nice cartoon of a shepherd leading a sheep, and that's helpful for me. Dan's sanctification, just. I was really looking forward to it.

I thought I was gonna jump in there and do Hebrew stuff, but nope. But one other thing before we move on, it's just important to note something that we always try to note, who is doing the verbs. Yeah. every bit of it is god from start to finish yeah this is a very monergistic

psalm as far as i you're being you're not doing a lot love but the shepherd is doing everything for you yeah i mean so the only thing i've done so far is i haven't whacked yeah yeah pat myself on the back for not lacking you've even had to been you've even been made to lie down he's like shoving the sheep down that's where you need to be i know you want to be over there in the toxic waste dump. I know you want to be over there always intentionally doing everything. I don't want you to abide in over there,

but no, we're going to make you lie down right here. We're going to restore your soul. You know, when I read that part about lying down in green pastures, my mind went to Mark's version of Feeding of the 5,000, where he makes them to recline on the green grass. Where there isn't any green grass?

Yeah, well, there isn't any green grass. Yeah. Yeah. So you see things like that all over the New Testament where, you know, as is typical of the New Testament, all they're doing is- Ripping off the old. Ripping off the old Testament.

Blah, blah, blah. Yes, I know. Yeah. You know, they're, Mark, Matthew riding along and they're like looking over the Old Testament shoulder. Yeah. I will confess this is true, especially since we're going through Revelation now

and about 98% of that book is directly quoted from the Old Testament. Yes, yes. If it was like footnoted, there'd be like a million footnotes at the end of John, all referencing the Old Testament. Not to detract from the importance of the New Testament whatsoever.

Are we safe to move on? Yeah, yeah, I think so. Yeah, we can do it. So we've already jumped into verse three. He restoreth my soul and he leadeth me in the wagon tracks. That's one translation of this, paths of righteousness. These literally, these are like wagon tracks, like Oregon Trail, you've seen pictures,

there are still like ruts from the Oregon Trail, which is crazy. We have the wagon ruts, the paths of righteousness for my sake. No, excuse me, that was the wrong translation. For his name's sake, yeah. So take it away. No, I was just gonna say,

the order here is perfect. Yes, it's all monergistic. And why does he do it? He does it because this is what brings God glory, to take sinners and turn them into sheep that walk with him. That's what brings God glory. Yeah.

Yeah, his glory is, Irenaeus says his glory is a living man. Yeah. I love that image because the glory of God is in doing stuff for us. Yeah. So God is glorified when he gives. I mean, and that of course culminates in the crucifixion.

That's the revelation of the glory of God in the greatest and the highest and the most perfect gift we've ever received. That's the glory of God, God dying for you, giving himself totally for you. And so when he does something for his glory, for his name's sake, then it's not like some kind of divinely selfish action.

It's a divine giving action on our behalf. Yeah. Well, for him to lead you in a path of righteousness for his name's sake is, moses does this with god uh maybe this is where david learned it but where god is a god who makes promises which he has made uh and you know in an event of moses when moses is out getting some you know he's getting some ten commandments and stuff and he comes back and like they immediately have an idol and they're worshiping it and he doesn't like that god doesn't like that either

and God's like, all right, I think I've had enough. I think we, what do you say? We just wipe these people out and then me and you guy, like we're gonna do this together. We'll make a new people. And Moses says, you got like a namesake issue with this plan, God.

And that namesake issue that you have is that the other nations will call you a liar, right? Because you've made promises. You cannot destroy these people no matter what they do. because you've made certain promises to them. And so of course God doesn't. And this is extremely comforting that God would lead you in a path of righteousness

for his namesake because it really takes the pressure off of you. And also that he's going to lead you there. I had, some of you have heard this story because it's a great, it's a fantastic illustration, but if you haven't, you'll love it. The one time I was in an airport and there was two moving sidewalks

and one was going kind of fast and the other one was going less fast. and me being the guy that I am, I'm like, that fast one is definitely the one for me. And so I was running up to that thing and I had like a shoulder bag on. So I was a little like off balance anyway. And I hit that moving sidewalk and immediately,

it was just going faster than I really was thinking it was. And immediately just face planted like on the thing. So I was like teetering and bam, like my face is like on it and I'm going. And you were, he was, he was a buyer. You were experiencing sanctification. Yeah, and so what happens in this moment is you're like, oh, that's terrible,

but I'm still dusting all those suckers that didn't take the thing at all. Yeah. A bunch of losers as I pass them on my face, getting exactly where I need to go. I'm being led in a path here. I've not done a lot of the, in fact, I've only face planted,

but somehow I still end up where I need to go. this is how I view this being led in this path of righteousness. I'm doing nothing, but there's been a promise made to me. I am going to get where I'm supposed to go. And God's gonna be the one that does the work. Yeah.

I've not heard that story. I can't believe I've heard that story. You haven't? No, no. It's a good one. I feel cheated. This is the 48th time I've heard it. All these years.

It's good. It's a good story. Yeah. You have to capitalize on embarrassing moments and then the illustration. This is the secret. You gotta lean into them, yep. Anything else in verse three?

We're halfway through, we're at 22 minutes. I think we can do it. We're doing good. Killing this. Yeah, yeah, we can do it. Woo! All right, fourth verse. Yea, though I, I should've been reading this in Hebrew,

I apologize. But I'll start in English, I'll finish in English. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. So I gotta point this out because every time I talk about Psalm 23,

I point this out. So how many Hebrew words are in Psalm 23? 55. First, 26 words. Second, 26 words. I'm not good with math, so how many am I missing? 26, 26? Three.

Three, yeah, that's right. So three words in the very middle of the Psalm. In Hebrew, it's three words. In English, it's more. For thou art with me. It's the very center of the Psalm. So typically we think about a story or a poem or anything like that,

kind of leading to the climax at the end, right? But in Hebrew, it's in the middle. So this is smack dab in the middle of the psalm. And I think it really encapsulates kind of all these themes brought together for you're with me. And that's why when I'm in the valley of the shadow of death, or you could translate that Hebrew

also as the valley of deep darkness. When I'm there, I'm not gonna be afraid. Why? Ki atah imadi in Hebrew, because you are with me. And there's another interesting shift that takes place. So, so far we've been talking about the Lord is my shepherd. He makes me lie down. He restores my soul.

He does all this. We're talking about him in the third person, right? This is the first time we have a shift to talk about him in the first person. We're talking directly to him. For you, second person, you are with me. So we've been talking about who he is and what he does, and now it is like we're looking God face to face

and we're saying, in the midst of this valley of the shadow of death, of deep darkness, I'm not afraid, not because he's with me, but because you're with me. I'm reminded of our struggle whenever we face suffering or the problem of evil in our life, especially when it's very personal. our natural inclination is to go to God looking for an explanation. We want to understand why

we are going through the particular kind of suffering we are. We want a reason. And what we see over and over and over again in scripture is God not giving that explanation to the person at the time, but instead reminding them over and over again, he is with them always. And I think the thing we're supposed to learn, we're supposed to know and be brought to all the time again and again and again, is that's what really matters. No matter how low it gets, no matter how dark it gets, you're not alone. You have the good shepherd with you always, even to the very end of the age jesus the good shepherd promises his church well there's there's plenty of if you're walking through the the valley of the shadow of death alone there's plenty of fear

there if i'm walking through it with eric there's plenty of fear fear i don't know what he's gonna do uh nothing but i mean the whole point here is that you're you're walking by the way walking through the valley of the shadow of death is not simply like your final hours uh this is what you're doing right now there's again death is everywhere you you do walk through the valley of the shadow of death but you walk through it with one who has conquered death like your your shepherd has become a lamb and in doing so has conquered death so yeah you don't have to fear any of this you still walk through it but you walk through it with somebody who knows the way someone who's trod that path before,

someone who's defeated everything that would try to get its hands on you to claim you, to own you, you walk through it with that person, which is the only person that you could possibly walk through it with where there would be no reason to fear. You have plenty of reason to fear

if you're walking through it with anyone else. Yeah, when your companion is the resurrection and the life, then the valley of the shadow of death holds no fear. It's literally then just, I mean, he has made death a shadow of itself. I love the verb too. We don't run. We just, I mean, if I'm going through a scary place

and if I can get through there running, that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna take off. I'm gonna get through that as fast as possible. But because you're not afraid because the one who walks beside you is the Lamb of God, the resurrection, the life, the one who's made death a shadow,

well, then we're just gonna walk along because there's nothing to be afraid of. When God is on your side, who can be against you? right? So yeah, I mean, that's no matter whether it's the threat of death that you're facing or grief or sickness or whatever it is, when you know that the creator of heaven and earth who became one of us, who suffered and died and came out of the grave alive is your not occasional companion, but constant companion, then yeah, there's fearful things around you, but you need not fear because when God is on your side, when Christ is with you, when he's made you part of

his own body, then he's got it. Yeah. Yeah. What do we make of this rod and staff business, Chad? So I'll get a different translation. Yeah. Your club and your staff, they comfort me. So the rod is a weapon. You know, David talks about the threats that were leveled, you know, that came against a sheep. And so he'd go out, he'd attack the lion or the bear. And probably part of the way he did that was with this rod, which is, it's a weapon. It's a weapon for fending off those who would endanger the sheep. So I think of it as a club. It's a weapon designed to kill anything that might threaten the sheep. Whereas the staff is more of, I think, a shepherd's crook by which you guide and lead the flock. Yeah. I mean, so the rod is not for you. It's a comfort to you,

but it's not used on you. Yeah, we need more pictures of Jesus like carrying a club, bashing in the devil's brains. You do have those pictures. It's called the cross and you have this club of the cross where he defeats everything

that would attack you. I mean, the cross is the club. It is the rod of the shepherd, a good shepherd, and with it defeats everything that would harass you and destroy you. And then of course, I would say, if you're gonna use that kind of symbolism,

And then you have then the shepherd's crook of the gospel, of the word of God, of the church, this kind of thing. So this is how it works. And he guides you with these things. Yeah, but that rod's not for you. That rod is... That's for the wolves that are coming after you. It's for you in the sense of it's the cross

and the cross is for you, but you don't end up there. Yeah, that's why it's a comfort. It's not something we need fear, but rather... Now I got your club figured out, though. You're welcome. Yeah, thanks. Appreciate that. You're wondering, if I could just get more pictures of Jesus with a club, I'm telling you,

there's lots of them. I mean, I'm not, I'm never going to attribute that to it. I will steal the material. It's a big club. Ready? Verse five? Yep. Let's do it. All right. Verse five. Now we've kind of shifted here. So thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies, thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. We have this exact imagery, by the way, in Psalm 78, but it's in a negative sort of way. So this is Psalm 78 is one of the many kind of Exodus kind of Psalms. This is Psalm 78, verse 19,

where the people are complaining. So I'll start at verse 18. In their heart, they put God to the test by asking food according to their desire. Then they spoke against God. They said, can God prepare a table in the wilderness? As a matter of fact. Yes.

I'm glad you asked, Israel. As a matter of fact, he can, and he did, and he still does. But yeah, preparing a table before me is just the image of this, it's kind of a luxurious banquet that he's providing for us, not just kind of in general, but also in the presence of our enemies. Y'all go ahead, but I might pick on C.S. Lewis here for a second while you're... I used to always find this part of the verse very strange, because everything sounds very nice.

God's leading us as the shepherd, but then suddenly the imagery changes to him being our table host, which is a little odd, doesn't seem to quite make sense. And then on top of that, he does it in the presence of our enemies, and that's meant to be in some way a comfort. And then it, of course, dawned on me like,

well, yes, this isn't something where he's testing us necessarily in the presence of our enemies as much as he's saying to us, reminding us, that they are defeated foes, that they have no dominion over us. And that made more sense. I get a table prepared for me in the presence of all my enemies every Sunday.

Not like the people that go to my church are all my enemies. I was just like, wait. It's not that. I'm really glad you clarified that there. It's not that. You have members here, by the way. It's not that.

But this is what happens where God does prepare you a table of himself in the presence of... In the midst of a world. In the midst of sin, death, the devil, of suffering, all the things that are enemies, you have this outpost where he says, here's a table for you.

I don't have to wait to get to heaven where these enemies are no longer threatening me, but he does it right here in time and space over and over and over again. So can I pick on Lewis a little bit? Yeah, please do. This is a conference where we're celebrating Lewis, but this is funny because, you know,

sometimes we all live contradictory lives, right? We might say one thing and do something else. So in his Reflections on the Psalms, if you've read that book, how many of you read it? Handful of you, yeah. So he is critical of some of the Psalms, right? Some of the Psalms he doesn't like. And he does not like this verse from Psalm 23.

He thinks it's petty. This idea, he's got this quote here where he says, the poet's enjoyment of his present prosperity would not be complete unless those horrid Joneses who used to look down their noses at him were watching it all and hating it. Adventures and missing the point. Yeah, but get this.

You go to the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and there's a scene in there where Father Christmas has shown up, and he's prepared this feast, this meal, for the squirrel and his family and some satyrs and whatnot, and they're enjoying this feast when the White Witch rolls up, And she's all, she's angry because of this.

What are they doing? Well, he's prepared a table for them in the presence of their enemies. So I just love it, you know, how Lewis will write about the very same thing happening in Psalm 23, but somewhere else he thinks it's kind of petty. It's not petty, it's beautiful.

I mean, I love the idea. It's not God like rubbing it in their noses. He's saying, listen, you're safe. Your enemies can be all around you with their teeth bared and their weapons ready. and you need fear nothing. Here's a table for you. Dine and enjoy.

And I'm gonna make your head fat with oil, which is literally what's going on here in the Hebrew. This isn't the Hebrew verb for anoint, like the anointing when the Messiah, but it's like the idea of fattening your head with oil. It's just luxuriant banquet. He's holding nothing back. God's not saying, I'm gonna give you a little bit.

He's saying, I'm gonna give you everything. Everything you want, everything you need. just just a note that uh now we have the sacrament of communion at least alluded to here so we've had baptism near the beginning and now you have a table given to the people of god in which he feeds us and so this is what this is what the lord is doing still today he's using his means of grace the word of god to bring sinners to himself to wash them in the waters of baptism and then to nourish their faith at the table each time that you come a lot of the the hymns that are based upon something we'll make that explicit yeah they'll use the image of the of the lord's table

being described here and beckoning us to come and to and to dine to receive the lord's gifts all right last verse let's do it oh we've got four minutes yeah you know sometimes i just we just impress ourselves this is okay they're laughing because they're not the pain but we got ours we got each other we only do the podcast really for ourselves so everyone else just benefits surely goodness and mercy i would translate mercy as loving kindness this is yeah yeah yeah buddy goodness and mercy goodness and steadfast love loving kindness however you want to translate that goodness and mercy shall this is my soapbox this is our soapbox horrible horrible horrible horrible almost every

i'm not one to rag on english translations they do it they all do it but they almost universally fail us here yeah it's not goodness and mercy shall follow us they shall like a puppy dog Yeah, they shall chase you down. Hunt you. They hunt you down. You are the prey of the goodness and mercy of God. Yes, absolutely. We'll have you.

So this is actually a shocking use of this because most of the time, radaft, which is the verb used here, is a negative. So you do not wanna be radaft because that means a guy with a spear or a sword or a bow is after you. And he is hot on your heels to kill you. So most of the time, this verb is not positive.

It's the only place in the Bible where these two nouns are used as the subject of this verb. And that's why some people will talk about the goodness and mercy of God being God's, what, like- Hounds of heaven? Yeah, yeah, the hounds of heaven.

These are the sheepdogs. That's what's weird looking. God's sheepdogs. And their purpose is to chase you down, to drive you right where God wants you to be. with him well what's what's amazing about this is so david knows this david's writing this you will see man watch me just go hebrew on this chat go go dan do it so saul you have this you have this described so saul when he's chasing david what is he doing he's

right up him right like he's pursuing him this is the same word that for the pursuit of david by Saul and David comes along and says, yeah, that's a bummer. But you know what's like also chasing me down? The goodness and loving kindness of God. And that is actually following me, chasing me, pursuing me, hunting me all the days of my life. Not like the good days or some days or most days, all days. And David has a lot of days. Not based on experience or circumstances. Well, David has a lot of different kinds of days. You can go listen to 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. We covered the life of David. It's a lot of different days.

And in the midst of all of those different kinds of days, David says, he makes no distinction between any types of days, all the days of his life. And they're gonna do that in order that he shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And not so that he might, not maybe, not potentially, but that he will. He shall, he shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever

because God is never going to stop pursuing him with his goodness and loving kindness. Psalm 23 really is just another way of saying he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion on the day of Christ Jesus. And that's the perfect image to end the psalm because the whole psalm has been about, okay, God's with me.

God's providing for me. No matter if he's leading me here in a good place where my life is pretty happy, or whether he's leading me into a place where I'm in a very deep and dark valley and I don't know if the next turn is gonna bring me something better or something worse. It doesn't really matter where I'm at

because I need not fear because he's with me and his goodness and mercy are right behind me. And at the end of wherever I'm at, I know the exit's gonna be the house of the Lord. That's the only place he's taking me. And therefore, whatever happens along the way, we know the destination and we know the one

who's going to get us to the destination and we know that the one with us and pursuing us is the destination so the goal

is not to go to a place the goal is to go to Christ he is the one that he himself

is leading us leading us toward amen and that's it guys thank you for coming to 40 minutes in the Old Testament

live podcast that's a wrap appreciate it thinking fellows to be up next.