Provision from God

Opening

Sadly, we live in a world that lauds self-sufficiency, sometimes causing detrimental effects to our faith. In the United States, the idea of dependence on someone else or taking time for rest and physical restoration can seem foreign to people pursuing the American dream. Our modern society glorifies busyness as the means to success and wealth. It elevates productivity above rest. Some so- called “self-made millionaires” insist that they—and everyone who aspires to be like them—must work twelve, fifteen, eighteen hours a day!

While long hours might be a wise choice for the short term in launching a new business or out of necessity in times of financial struggle, it’s hardly a sustainable and healthy long-term goal.

Today, instead of aspiring to luxury vacations of materials, we aspire to busyness. While this might signal on social media or in certain social circles that we have arrived, the busyness takes its toll. Ask anyone trying to balance work, family, health, and a social life how they’re doing, and they will often say, “I’m tired.” Workers are burning out. “Being addicted to chronic busyness might feel good because of the adrenaline rush you get from the stress of all the activities, but it can be harmful to your health. The clinical staff at the Mayo Clinic warns, ‘The long-term activation of the stress-response system—and the subsequent overexposure to cortisol and other stress hormones—can disrupt almost all your body’s processes.’ Those stress hormones can increase your risk of health problems such as anxiety, depression, headaches, heart disease, sleep problems and even memory and concentration impairment. As a society, we need to stop glorifying being busy. We need to stop competing against each other for who is the busiest. Chronic busyness should not be a badge of honor or status symbol. It is a warning sign that things need to change”

Opening the Door

Psalm23 makes the believer take an important look at their life. God is calling each of us to slow down, rest, and be restored in him. Instead of pursuing paths of achievement or wealth, can we allow God to lead us in paths of righteousness (v. 3) for the sake of the Lord? This doesn’t mean that we will never grow weary or that our work, family, or personal responsibilities are unrighteous. God can and does work in and through our everyday lives. However, the focus and pace of our lives need to be influenced by the leadership of the God who sustains us, gives us rest, and restores our souls. Our pursuits need to fall in the appropriate line of priority after our pursuit of God. It only makes sense that the shepherd knows his sheep and what they need. He is able to provide for those needs, when we allow him.

GOD’S PROVISION IN THE WILDERNESS (5a)

A. “You prepare a table” - feast, meal

1-You prepare - God producing something in a miraculous way, He “Will make a way”

-prepare - lit means to build or construct

2-“Table” - refers to that which is necessary to sustain life

B. Examples

-Moses producing water from the rock, the ravens bringing food and water to Elijah, Jesus feeding the 5,000

-These were all supernatural acts of God without which the people would have perished

C. God is promising in His word that He will supernaturally provide what we need to survive in the wilderness

D. “In the presence of my enemies” - The idea is that of a city which is blockaded by an army where there is no means of get supplies in

-God will make a way where there is no way, God will provide what you need even when the enemy has you surrounded

-God does all this right before the eyes of the enemy, to his great surprise and amazement

E. Examples - Israel at the Red Sea, Elisha surrounded by the Syrians, the judges (deliverers) of Israel

Fear in slowing down

(Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary) Psalm 23. God brings comfort to the terrified psalmist, who, like the speaker in chapter 22, is on the edge of death (23:4). The speaker in chapter 22 anguishes over the horrific acts inflicted on him and over God’s apparent desertion in the time of his greatest need. In stark contrast, in chapter 23, the psalmist joyfully and fully drinks in God’s comfort (23:2–3).

Whereas in Psalm 22, the speaker maintains confidence in the Lord despite not being delivered from death by him, in Psalm 23 the author expresses full confidence in the Lord because God provides for his needs in times of weakness (23:1–3), guides and protects him in near-death experiences (23:4), and honors him abundantly in the midst of immediate danger (23:5).

David concludes by announcing that God aggressively pursues (not simply follows) him in this life and ensures that he will dwell with him in the next (23:6).

God is providing to David and to us.

Psalm23 makes the believer take an important look at their life. God is calling each of us to slow down, rest, and be restored in him. Instead of pursuing paths of achievement or wealth, can we allow God to lead us in paths of righteousness (v. 3) for the sake of the Lord? This doesn’t mean that we will never grow weary or that our work, family, or personal responsibilities are unrighteous. God can and does work in and through our everyday lives. However, the focus and pace of our lives need to be influenced by the leadership of the God who sustains us, gives us rest, and restores our souls. Our pursuits need to fall in the appropriate line of priority after our pursuit of God. It only makes sense that the shepherd knows his sheep and what they need. He is able to provide for those needs, when we allow him.

David was not a perfect person, nor wash is life one of ease and comfort. Even after being anointed as God’s chosen king, he faced incredible hardship, and his path to kingship was fraught with tension and struggle. David was banished from Saul’s court (1 Samuel 18:13).

1 Samuel 18:12-13 (NRSV) 12 Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with him but had departed from Saul. 13 So Saul removed him from his presence, and made him a commander of a thousand; and David marched out and came in, leading the army.

He was given a wife “as a snare,” but instead his wife loved him (1 Samuel 18:21–28).

1 Samuel 18:21 (NRSV) 21 Saul thought, “Let me give her to him that she may be a snare for him and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” Therefore Saul said to David a second time, “You shall now be my son-in-law.”

David was on the run because Saul wanted to kill him (1 Samuel 19; 21; 23).

1 Samuel 19:18-23 (NRSV) 18 Now David fled and escaped; he came to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. He and Samuel went and settled at Naioth. 19 Saul was told, “David is at Naioth in Ramah.” 20 Then Saul sent messengers to take David. When they saw the company of the prophets in a frenzy, with Samuel standing in charge of them, the spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, and they also fell into a prophetic frenzy. 21 When Saul was told, he sent other messengers, and they also fell into a frenzy. Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also fell into a frenzy. 22 Then he himself went to Ramah. He came to the great well that is in Secu; he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?” And someone said, “They are at Naioth in Ramah.” 23 He went there, toward Naioth in Ramah; and the spirit of God came upon him. As he was going, he fell into a prophetic frenzy, until he came to Naioth in Ramah.

He had to live off the land (1 Samuel 25).

(NRSV) 25: 1b Then David got up and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

All of this happened before he even became king! David was likely well acquainted with weariness, but he was also well acquainted with the Shepherd. It seems that “the tender care of the shepherd described in the previous verse had its effect. David’s soul was restored by the figurative green pastures and still waters the shepherd brought to him”

David went through all this before becoming King yet God never was away from David. David was with GOD and GOD was with David

Calling to Accept God’s Provisions

Charles Spurgeon commented on this passage, saying that“ when the soul grows sorrowful he revives it; when it is sinful he sanctifies it; when it is weak he strengthens it. ‘He’ does it. His ministers could not do it if he did not. His Word would not avail by itself. ‘He restoreth my soul.’ Are any of us low in grace? Do we feel that our spirituality is at its lowest ebb? He who turns the ebb into the flood can soon restore our soul. Pray to him, then, for the blessing—‘Restore thou me, thou Shepherd of my soul!’”

For many of us, the idea that we have to return to God again and again flies directly in the face of our pride and self-sufficiency. We imagine a God who is tired of hearing from us, tired of picking us up and dusting us off and sending us back out, tired of forgiving us, tired of dealing with us. But that isn’t the nature of God. We can return again and again, welcomed by his immeasurable grace, for the sustenance we need to walk in the paths of righteousness that he leads us toward.

Verse 5. "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies." The good man has his enemies. He would not be like his Lord if he had not. If we were without enemies we might fear that we were not the friends of God, for the friendship of the world is enmity to God. Yet see the quietude of the godly man in spite of, and in the sight of, his enemies. How refreshing is his calm bravery! "Thou preparest a table before me." When a soldier is in the presence of his enemies, if he eats at all he snatches a hasty meal, and away he hastens to the fight. But observe: "Thou preparest a table," just as a servant does when she unfolds the damask cloth and displays the ornaments of the feast on an ordinary peaceful occasion. Nothing is hurried, there is no confusion, no disturbance, the enemy is at the door, and yet God prepares a table, and the Christian sits down and eats as if everything were in perfect peace. Oh! the peace which Jehovah gives to his people, even in the midst of the most trying circumstances!

Let earth be all in arms abroad, >They dwell in perfect peace.

"Thou anointest my head with oil." May we live in the daily enjoyment of this blessing, receiving a fresh anointing for every day's duties. Every Christian is a priest, but he cannot execute the priestly office without unction, and hence we must go day by day to God the Holy Ghost, that we may have our heads anointed with oil. A priest without oil misses the chief qualification for his office, and the Christian priest lacks his chief fitness for service when he is devoid of new grace from on high. "My cup runneth over." He had not only enough, a cup full, but more than enough, a cup which overflowed. A poor man may say this as well as those in higher circumstances. "What, all this, and Jesus Christ too?" said a poor cottager as she broke a piece of bread and filled a glass with cold water. Whereas a man may be ever so wealthy, but if he be discontented his cup cannot run over; it is cracked and leaks. Content is the philosopher's stone which turns all it touches into gold; happy is he who has found it. Content is more than a kingdom, it is another word for happiness.