Psalm 20-24

• Psalm 20 -24

• One of the things you find yourself doing, in wanting to study the bible better and more creatively, is you seek different environments to read, for example. Pastor Pat was reading in a different chair in his office Thursday, when I went to talk w/ him. I've been recently blessed by my mom, who, as a part of her own devotional times, has shared God's impressions on her heart through the book of psalms. She and I were talking this past week and she shared w/ me how, if you just read through the book, without looking at the numbers or the titles, it's like God's protections and promises for you personally. Give that a try, I've marked a smaller bible w/ marker and marked out the numbers and descriptions in the psalms.


In psalm 20, the king was about to go to war, but before he did he stopped to pray in the sanctuary, where he was joined by the congregation who interceded for him. Having rehearsed the intercessory prayer of the people for their monarch who was praying for victory, the king expressed the assurance he had received from the Lord for an overwhelming victory.
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• Ps. 20 is a psalm before the battle, it works in conjunction w/ 21=after the battle.
• The battle is in between the two psalms, one precedes it w/ the request for the Lord to guide, to bless, and to keep.
• The other one is praise for what the Lord has accomplished.
• Certainly in 20;7=the theme of the psalm is to kneel before we go into battle.
• We as Christians don’t battle like the OT saints did, but as Christians there are enough battles in our lives.
Again, my mom who, lives in KS, God bless her, has to pray above and beyond the norm, in Spring and Summer and she prayer Psalm 67;2=that yyour way may be known on earth,
your zsaving power among all nations, that God would protect them from a storm that produced potential flooding. And then after God did that, she prayed Psalm 68;20=Our God is a God of salvation,
• o and to GOD, the Lord, belong deliverances from death.
• Some are unavoidable; there is warfare, there are principalities & powers.
• Some of them are un-asked for, some of them complicated because of people’s lives, and people’s emotions…
• There’s a right way to respond & it isn’t human resources, from a battle between nations, ethics, govt., down to personal relationships, it isn’t natural resources/horses, chariots that puts us into place for battle.
• What our nation needs to be strong is a bent knee & a broken heart & crying out to the living God, & the might of a nation still depends upon its righteousness, and its sin is a cause of shame to any people.
• And the pre-battle song here is one where the singer commits himself to the Lord & not to natural resources.
• ;1-3 (In intercessory prayer the congregation prayed in unison that God would answer their king’s request for victory and protection)Again this is another psalm of David to the chief musician=55 times, think about how the Lord is the One who sends help & that the request from the Lord begins at the altar, the approach to God w/ sacrifice & worship.
• ; 4-7, horses were the most advanced military equipment of the day. Remember that they had the great lesson of Israel w/ Pharaoh, the horse & rider thrown into the sea, it was the great song of Ex. 15, something the nation made part of their hymn book throughout their history.
• ;8-9 the pre-battle prayer, great idea to seek the Lord when you’re headed into a troubled situation, when you’re struggling, when you feel like you’re under attack, instead of lashing back, to let the Lord be your defense, seek Him.

Questions In what do people often put their trust these days?
What challenges are you facing?
• Psalm 21=the post/after the battle song, again to the chief musician, a psalm of David.
• ;1-2 selah= think about that, "thank-you Lord for answering prayer."
• ;3a=You precede him, you go before him w/ blessings of goodness-4=now certainly in this psalm of the victorious king it looks forward to the great king of David’s line/Christ.
• ;5--8=now it seems the second half of this psalm, the song now is sung in light of God’s faithfulness in past victories.
• ;9-11=you know psalm two, "why do the heathen rage & the people imagine a vain thing, set themselves against the Lord & His anointed"...
• ;12a-13
• Questions: In what ways would you like your response to God’s work in your life to be different in the future?
What steps can you take to remember to credit God with the next success that you
experience?

• Psalms 22-24=are a triad: 22 you’ll see the first verse, we all know Christ cried that from the cross on Golgotha, Eli Eli…my God, my God. Ps 22 is a picture of the suffering shepherd, 23=is the shepherd guiding, 24=is the shepherd in glory. One is Christ came to suffer, another is Christ working in the lives of His people today; the 24th psalm is Christ’s returning in power & glory. There are all kinds of acronyms that people give this triad; grace, guidance, glory, the cross, the crook=the shepherd’s staff, & the crown. They speak of the Lord who was=Christ crucified, who is=working in our lives today, guiding, being w/ us through the valley, & who is to come. They speak of being= justified, sanctified, & glorified. So it’s a very beautiful & interesting triad. This psalm written 1,000 years before the time of Christ. As you read this, you realize that it could fit no-one else. Crucifixion wasn’t part of the life of Israel at this point & time. We’re going to read “they pierced my hands & feet."

• Rev. 19; 10=the second part tells us “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” And here David's acting as a prophet. Jesus mentioned at least one of David's psalms, & said," the prophet said," speaking of David, so David, and here at his prophetic finest, the first twenty-one verses are a cry, a sobbing, and a brokenness before God. Verses; 22=31=represent victory from the other side of the cross. And whatever was happening in David’s personal life, he’s stepping into the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ here. Now there are some remarkable things in David’s life, particularly when he’s driven out of Jerusalem by Absalom, his own son, his own familiar friends. And we think of Christ, leaving Jerusalem & going over into the Mt. of Olives & so much of that spirit moving in the heart of David. Here, setting his broken heart before the Lord, the spirit of God comes on David, & very remarkably ;1-5 speak of being forsaken of God.

• No known incident in the life of David fits the details of this psalm. The expressions describe an execution, not an illness; yet that execution is more appropriate to Jesus’ crucifixion than David’s experience. The Gospel writers also saw connections between some of the words in this psalm (vv. 8, 16, 18) and other events in Christ’s Passion. Also Hebrews 2:12 quotes Psalm 22:22. Thus the church has understood this psalm to be typological of the death of Jesus Christ. This means that David used many poetic expressions to portray his immense sufferings, but these poetic words became literally true of the suffering of Jesus Christ at His enemies’ hands. The interesting feature of this psalm is that it does not include one word of confession of sin, and no imprecation against enemies. It is primarily the account of a righteous man who was being put to death by wicked men.

• ;1=Psalm 51 David speaks of his roaring being internal, not external, until he confessed his sin. I don’t know if you’ve ever felt like that, just like you’re ready to explode.
• ; 2-5=this beginning of the psalm speaking of being forsaken. God says His arm is not short that it cannot save, neither is his ear that he cannot hear but, your sins have separated between you & your God. And Christ on the cross said my God my God why have you forsaken me, because our sins had separated Him from His God. And of course, that word why, there, probably one of the most astonishing words in the entire bible. My God my God Why? Because all through the gospels Jesus says I don’t say anything/do anything unless the Father says it/does it. If you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father. And for the first time in all of time & eternity Christ is cut off & from his lips, as he looks to God he cries why! He had never in eternity been cut off without information, but on the cross at that point in time, he said my God my God why? He’s without information, cut off, asking a question because yours and my sin was on him, the sin of the world. And the greatest part of that mystery is not just that he bore that sin but then when he cries out to his Father, His father answers by firing down his entire holy wrath, upon that sin, upon his son, so that it says that Christ was made the propitiation for our sins.
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• Herein is love, not that we loved God but that God loved us & sent his son into the world to be the propitiation for our sins. Propitiation is the place where wrath is satisfied. And God’s holy wrath had to be satisfied against the sin of the world. How could God be just & let us off the hook? The issue in Romans, how could God be both just & the justifier of the ungodly? Well in this mystery, when Christ is crying why, we know he’s cut off. And the only thing that separates us from our God is sin. And at that moment in time, the sin which would have separated you and me from God in eternity was placed upon him. What would have made us cry that same shout, is removed from us, paid for by Christ, carried by Him, and he cries in our place, my god my god, our substitute, why has thou forsaken me? And the wrath of God is fired down upon him. The cup that he asked His father in Gethsemane," is there any other way this can be removed?" The cup of God’s wrath poured out without indignation, Rev. 14 says the smoke of the torment of that cup ascends forever & ever. And somehow in those three hours of darkness, eternity was suffered by Christ. And when he said it is finished, to-tell-us-ty, paid in full, it was done! There was no further suffering after that, not that the bible knows. It is finished.
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• My god my god…Think of King David, whatever was wrenching his heart, whatever he was going through, what God gave him. There’s an interesting term there, Aijeleth Shahar=means the hind of the morning or the deer of the morning it speaks of the early morning when the sun’s breaking, how the deer will move & leap as the deer panteth after the water brook. And David said there was something in this song that sprung to life in his own heart as he wrote it.
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• ;6= kind of stands alone. And we’re hearing reflections of the heart of Christ in all of this… He was mocked there, we know that. But I am a worm. Often translated scarlet or crimson in the OT, though your sins be as scarlet, Isaiah 1; 18, that’s our word here that’s translated worm. And it’s translated scarlet in places because it’s a particular species of worm called toleth in the Hebrew. It was a worm that was crushed to produce a scarlet dye. And the way that scarlet dye was emitted in the natural life of this creature was when it was ready to give birth and lay eggs, it would climb up a tree & attach itself to the tree, & cover itself w/a waxy substance and it would die there & lay the eggs, & because of it’s death the babes would be born & live out of the death of the mother worm, and it would emit this red dye that would sometimes run down the tree. And Christ says I’m the toleth, the scarlet marking on the tree that gives life. Remarkable choice of words and I wonder what David thought as he wrote these things.
• ; 7-13 tell us about somehow the principalities & powers. -;7 we have this in Mark’s gospel. -;9 When did Christ in His incarnation realize His deity? I don’t know. Theologians have been arguing about this for two thousand years. We know at twelve years old he said to Joe & Mary as he remained behind in the temple, and they came & they found him, he said didn’t you know I had to be about my father’s business? We know that he grew in wisdom & stature & in favor w/ God and men. It says here, thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was on my mother’s breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb: Thou art my God from my mother’s belly. The seed of the woman that would crush the serpent’s head.
• ;11-very strange verse---13=The great bulls=we read in Deut. about the sixty cities of the giants in Bashan. We read of Og, king of Bashan, 13 ft tall, not a skinny guy, a 13 foot Arnold Schwarzenegger. An outbreak there of giants of some strange & forbidden thing. Again it seems between fallen angels & women. They were giants on the earth it says in Gen. 6 in those days & also afterwards. The Rephaim, the eman, the Zamzumin. Annakins, tribes of them, the great bulls of Bashan that seems to have sired these fallen angels. The great bulls have surrounded me, what principalities & powers surrounded Christ upon the cross? These huge fallen demonic angelic beings w/ horns like bulls & mouths like lions, what surrounded him on the cross?
• ;14-the crucifixion=-15 He’s dehydrated, when know that He's losing a lot of blood. His tongue cleaving to his jaws it’s interesting he said I thirst, when they gave him to drink, and his tongue was loosened from the moisture, he said to-tell-us-tie=Paid in full, he wanted that to be clear, it would have been the plan of the ages. And it was at that moment before he gave up the ghost, he knew that the price was paid in full, and it tells us his tongue was cleaving to his jaw, and he cried I thirst, and they gave him to drink, and at that point, to-tell-a-sty, paid in full it is finished. What a remarkable scene, David walking through.
• ;16-long before crucifixion was practiced. -18right out of the gospels, right out of the scene, the gambling at Golgotha, taking Christ’s robe that was woven without a seem & casting lots for his vesture, the outer garment instead of cutting or tearing it apart. 1,000 years before it took place. Zechariah tells us that when Christ returns=12;10="and there the Lord says and they will look upon me whom they have pierced", it’s spoken in the first person.
• ;19-20=difficult text here=his beloved is the idea/crying to the Lord-21=we don’t know about the unicorns=maybe the horns of the heavenly altar where Christ was slain before the foundation of the world=Rev. 13;8
• ;22a=changes to this song of triumph=remember Jesus said go tell my brethren that I go to my God/their father/my father
• ;22-26a=Jesus said they’ll inherit the earth-27a=now remember this is global-27=we’re looking into the millennium here, what a great picture this is, all the victory born out of the cross.
• ;28-29=so every knee shall bow every tongue confess
• ;30a=it says he shall see his seed, it shall prosper in Isa. 53=he’ll see the offspring of his own sacrifice
• ;30=we are the people that shall be born that he has heard that he has done this.

Question: Why do you think people often feel distant from God?

• 23=It’s interesting as we study through the OT, the 23rd psalm is so well known, we have to be careful that familiarity doesn’t bring contempt. It’s filled w/ so much magnificent truth & depth that I’m convinced that older people in the church become attracted to it as the years go by. And I think Dave wrote this as an older man, looking back across many years. People realize this is incredible so they teach it in Sunday school but, you don’t really learn it.
• It’s like the bride & groom at a wedding saying,” for richer & for poorer, in sickness & in health”. And you know that they’re completely unconscious about what they’re saying, they just want to get out of there. Because over the years the covenant defines itself and a love that endures those things is extremely valuable. The world thinks love keeps marriage alive. Marriage keeps love alive, it goes through it’s seasons. In much the same way, so many of these things are dear to us as the years go by.
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• 23;1=David growing up in the fields of Bethlehem, writing so many of the songs. At an early age beginning to bear the responsibility of caring for a flock. All of that=God’s seminary, preparing him to be king. Moses raised in all the wisdom & education of Egypt. The commander in chief of Pharaoh’s armed forces. A great man in speech it tells us in Acts 7, thought he had everything in the natural going for him, God had to take him to the backside of the desert for forty years and let him watch a flock of sheep to learn how to govern his people and care for them. And David had to learn early what it meant to observe constantly the relationship between the shepherd & the sheep. Of all domestic animals, sheep are the most dependant upon the one who cares for them. And that’s a nice way of saying they’re the dumbest. You never went to the circus & saw a sheep show, no fiery hoops, can’t even throw a Frisbee to a sheep. We’re sheep; we’re dumber than pigs & fleas, at the bottom of the IQ realm. But is the one who’s the most dependant on the shepherd the greatest measure of intelligence? Yes.
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• The Lord is my shepherd, is simply=Jehovah-Rohi =two words, the Lord/my shepherd. It’s one of the compound names of God in the bible. You have in Genesis 22 w/ Abraham, Jehovah-Jirah=the Lord is my provider= that’s here, he makes me to lie down in green pastures. You have the Lord Jehovah -Rapha is my healer=Ex. 17 the Lord that heals thee=he restores my soul. The Lord our peace=Jehovah-Shalom=Judges 6=He leads me by still waters. Here it begins w/ the Lord is my shepherd. You have the Lord my righteousness-Jehovah-Tsidkenu=Jeremiah 23;6. You have here He leadeth me in the worn paths of righteousness. You have Jehovah-Shamah=that God is ever present=Ezekiel 48;35. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me, the ever present God. You have Jehovah-Nissi=the Lord is my banner,(Ex. 17;8-16)=the Heb word for banner is staff/Moses' staff was the symbol that Joshua's army could look @ that symbolized God's saving power. Here He’s setting a table for them, His banner over me is love. And all that God is revealed in His compound names, line upon line and idea, truth upon truth is found here in these six verses in this remarkable song. And as awesome as what Christ has accomplished on the cross, there’s beauty as we read about Christ’s coming & all of us as Christians, we’re very much, particularly in these days, anticipating the coming of the Lord, & when the trumpet blows and when this corruption puts on incorruption, this mortal puts on immortality, we’re caught up to meet the Lord in the air, we’ll be reunited w/ friends & relatives & we’re very cognoscente of what He’s done for us, we’re saved, washed in the blood, we’re very anticipatory of his coming.

• Psalm 23talks about the day to day grind w/ the Lord & certainly that’s where He’s with us now, He’s the one in the ever present, I am that I am/the becoming one and all of those names are revealed in the psalm because He is always becoming what we need, not what we want, what we need. And that’s what He is/Jehovah-Rohi=the Lord is my shepherd=I shall not want is I shall lack no good thing. We may want, as Christians you know that, you may want a Ferrari, you may want this or that, it doesn’t say hey you get saved, get whatever you want. I shall lack nothing of need; there will be no need that is ignored in my life because of my shepherd. And David in one sense is realizing that’s the diploma you want to have, that’s the credential, that’s the graduate certificate, it’s worth more than anything you can get from a PHD/seminary/university, it’s worth more than any education, or your uncle’s will, it’s worth more than any other means of sustenance or provision that this world could ever offer, if someone could genuinely say the Lord is my shepherd, and David understands that, we have to flow w/ David here, cause he knows tremendous care given by a shepherd to sheep. The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.
• ;2a causes is me is the idea to lie down in pastures of new growth. Something very important when they were settling the West here in America, there was always battles between sheep herders & cattle raisers because if you let sheep alone, they eat the grass, then they eat to the roots, then when the roots are chewed off they start to paw and they eat until there’s nothing left and if you just leave them there they’ll drop dead of starvation because there won’t be anything but dirt. If you leave them in one place, it will be completely barren and they ruin the grazing plains where the cattle would graze so there was always tension because the ancient herdsmen knew that you move them from grazing place to grazing place and you move them. It keeps the sheep healthy, they don’t get parasites, they’re not eating dirt, and it lets the grazing land come back & grow again. He maketh me to lied down in green pastures is he leads me to pastures of new growth. And it speaks of the care of the shepherd moving us and how we need that in our lives, fresh feeding/sustenance.
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• ;2b=He leadeth me beside the waters(literally) of resting places, and the idea is still waters communicates what's necessary because the shepherd had three ways he would sustain his sheep in regards to water. One was, if you're raising sheep somewhere like Ireland, somewhere that tends to be cloudy/rainy/somewhere that has a lot of moisture, they begin to feed in the morning, right before the sun comes up & they'll get their fill. And there's enough dew on the grass that they can actully live several months without drinking. And then they'll lay somewhere in the shade & ruminate & chew their cud all day & digest. And of course what a picture it is of the necessity for us to rise early & find the Lord/find the refreshment that we need/the still waters/the droplets, the things that God will give to us when it's quiet, when we seek His face. Calvary Chapel Philly, on tour in Bethlehem, go across from Bethlehem into the shepherd's field, where they can see the city of Bethlehem, & there's a well there, dug by hand that pre-dates Christ. It's over 2,000 years old, & you look at it & think it's remarkable how they dug this by hand, w/ hammer & chisel, & there's a rope & a bucket there, & there's a manger next to it, & that shepherd will draw that water, it's deep, & pour it out & as they hear that water poured out they'll come & drink, and that's still in that sense too. And it's deep & sometimes in our lives, we don't enjoy it as much in the deep places, God will draw refreshing & water.
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• And there are times when the shepherd finds either running water or a stream when it's placid or it pools or if he can't find it, he'll put rocks out there and dam it up & get it to be, to pool, because you can't let sheep out into running water. The fleece is heavy, if it get's soaked w/ water, they'll wash downstream & they'll drown. And the problem w/ sheep is there's always a dominant ewe, & if she goes out, if she goes out into the water, and starts to drown, all the other sheep will just follow her. They see her w/ bubbles rising up, legs flailing, and think, "that's what we're supposed to do too." So, the necessity of leading by still water. That's our shepherd. He draws from deep places, he meets us early, he doesn't drive us out into a torrent where we're unable to get our footing. His concern is refreshment/renewal.
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• ;3=He's not just caring for your physical needs, He's caring for the deep things within our hearts. He resores=to bring back. He restoreth my soul, again we hear Paul speaking of these things, renewed day-by-day in the inner man. The necessity of that inner refreshing, that inner thirst being satisfied. He restoreth my soul. David in Ps. 42;11 would say, why art thou cast down, oh my soul. Speaking of the sheep when they get turned on their backs, sometimes when they're pregnant they lay on their side, they're so fat it rolls them right on their back. Or again sometimes because of their fleece, and that's called," cast down". A shepherd will look at his flock, if he normally has 15 sheep, & he only has 13 out there, he knows there may be two cast down, that's the first thing he thinks before wolves or anything else. Then he'll start to run because if he finds it within a few hours, normally they're fine. But on a hot day they can die within a few hours, it affects their circulation, their breathing, but they end up on their back/cast down. They're running, sweating, & yelling & they can't get any footing on anything. And the shephard has to come & turn them over & massage their legs & get their blood flowing again so, he can let them lose & they can run.
• "Why art thou cast down oh my soul?" David said that. In my soul, there are those times where I get into a position where I can't seem to get out of it, I'm cast out, I can't get my footing, I can't get back on my feet, I can't get going again, I don't know what I'm what's wrong, I'm crying out but the shepherd, my shepherd. Then He comes & restores my soul when it's cast down. He sets me aright again. And then He leads me in paths of righteousness. In ;3 leadeth is a different word than it is in ;2 leadeth=(5095 נָהַל [nahal /naw•hal/;3 leadeth=(5148 נָחָה [nachah /naw•khaw/]
• In ;2 the shepherd goes before the flock and leads, as a shepherd would often do that. In ;3 it's a different word and it means=He guides, sometimes the shepherd would actually hit the side of the sheep w/ the staff & move them along & guide them. He guideth me in the worn/like something that's worn out=something that's proven, He guides me in the worn paths of righteousness is what the language says. He guideth me in those old, proven pathways. Because moving the sheep to higher ground often meant leading them through a gourge or a ravene and there were shadows to get them up to the higher ground for summer grazing, where it was refreshing, where they would flourish.
• So He guides me on those old, proven pathways. And again, I don't know about you but, I think of my own experience in Christ, getting saved in 1994. Not really being plugged into a bible teaching church, plugged into a charismatic church, plugged into other things, loving Jesus, around lots of people who loved Jesus, but because of no grounding, then going from one thing to another, people being "slain in the spirit" over here & this happening over there, that's all old stuff that comes around. Watchman Nee in 1925 wrote about the holy laughter spreading through China. We think it's a brand new thing, it's just old nonsense. We kind of start to chase experience & say," this is really spiritual/that's really spiritual" when we kind of get burnt out our soul get's cast down. But because He's faithful, He guides us back into those well worn pathways of righteousness & brings us back to the cross of Jesus Christ. He let's us stand there again & look at our Savior bleeding & dying for us. It makes us realize the power of the cross & of His love, & of forgiveness and those mercies again are new every morning. Jesus is the most proven pathway/deep/solid/the rock of ages. He brings us back to those proven pathways.
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• ;4=Not though I run. And when I get into a difficult place, I'd rather run through. Yea though I walk. These are life-long experiences, look, we use this often at funerals. But David didn't die there in ;4, because he still had to write verses five & six. It's not speaking of death. It can be translated the valley of the shadow of death, it can be translated the valley of deepest darkness, the words are translated that way sometimes in the OT because David still has physical death ahead of him.
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• He prepares a table before me...Surely goodness & mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and then when death comes, I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. So this is part of the Christian experience; it was part of Abraham's experience, Jacob, and Joseph & David, Ruth, Elijah, and Paul, those difficult circumstances in life where we feel like we're in some shadowland, where we can't see sometimes our footing or things seem difficult & we're under a shadow, we feel like we're not in God's light, & it's a place of darkness & sometimes it is the shadow of death. And it's not for me to define that in your life because it comes in so many different ways. But it is always the pathway to higher ground. And the reason being is because it is only the shadow of death. Nobody's ever bitten by the shadow of a dog, no-one was ever run over by the shadow of a train, no-one was ever killed by the shadown of a sword. And this is the shadow of death. Because in Ps. 22 it said," my God my God, why have You forsaken me?" And there needs to be light shining for there to be a shadow. You can't have a shadow without light. And we have the light. Christ is the substance that casts the light we're told that. And we walk in the shadow of death, not in death.
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• The unbeliever walks into the valley of death, we walk in the valley of the shadow of death. And David does something very interesting when he gets to ;4, before that, again we call this the shepherd's psalm, it's really the sheep psalm, it's sung from the point of view of the sheep. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. And then he brags about his shepherd. Let me tell you what He's like; he...He restores, leads, guides...But once David enters into the dark valley, then he's no longer speaking in the third person. All of the sudden he says yea though I walk...I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. The conversation changes. And he's talking directly to the Lord now. And he says thou art w/ me, and he knows the Lord is w/ him, because already in our place He's cried out my God my God, why have You forsaken me, so that you and I never have to say, My God My God, why have you forsaken me. And we can know even in the valley of deepest darkness, when He can't be seen & his voice can't be heard, & we can't seem to get our footing and we're not sure what's going on, even in that place, He is w/ us. That's what the psalm is telling us. Christ is the shepherd that goes into this dark ravene w/ his flock. He's not standing along the side of the mountain saying, you're okay, you're doing okay, he's right down w/ us in the midst of that valley, in the midst of that pathway.
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• ;4 the reason being, for thou art w/ me, that's always the reason throughout the bible for fear not/for I am w/ thee, you'll find it over and over. This is the place in the valley where it needs to be reality and it's because He is faithful, it will be, His grace will be there.
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• ;4=Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. It's speaking of authority, the rod was a weapon, it would drive off predators & enemies. The staff was the tool of the shepherd to guide/to care for. Lord you're w/ me, even in the valley of the deepest darkness/Your authority/Your power/ and Your guidance are supreme over all circumstances.
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• ;5 This is not a boxed canyon where we'll get trapped in and die, we're going through the darkness. And yet Lord there are things in my life, there's a table set before me, even in the presence of mine enemies. You know Satan hates that. When God sets a table right in front of his nose 7 he can't do anything about it. It says the evil one comes and he touches us not. He has no right to us because we're sealed w/ the Spirit of promise. Without God's permission he can't do anything.
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• ;6a=some say those are the sheepdogs of the OT/goodness & mercy that work w/ the shepherd. One old Scottish commentator translates that word, surely goodness & mercy shall hunt me all the days of my life. While worldly men are out hunting, goodness & mercy, the one who has the Lord as his shepherd, finds that goodness & mercy shall hunt me all of the days of my life. And of course, remarkably, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. What a day that will be! We'll sing the last verse there and how much fun that will be.
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Question: How far does the guidance and protection of God extend for his people? (23:4-5)
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• Psalm 24=brings us to the end of this triad. Some feel it's relative to 2 Sam 6 where David's bringing the ark of the covenant up into Jerusalem. that maybe so.
• ;1-2=Nobody has to worry, the earth is the Lord's. It doesn't belong to this political power or that political power/this group or that group, the earth is the Lord's.
• ;3-a=the answer is in ;4=the one who has outward purity=clean hands & inward purity=a pure heart. We are in the processes of psalm 23=being led & being led in the paths of righteousness. This is glory: justified in Ps. 22, sanctified in Ps. 23, & glorified in Ps. 24. He who has clean hands and a pure heart, that's because Christ has provided that righteousness for us.
• ;4b-5=now evidently, as we go through this psalm, it was sung by two teams or two choirs of priests. And you can hear the way it answers back & forth. First choir=;1-2, Second choir=;3, First choir=;4-5b=notice the God of his salvation. -;6, Second choir=;7, First choir=;8-;9, Second choir=;10=and we see Him here glorified in power.
• Now ;7=in church tradition is a psalm of ascension, it was sung or read on Ascension Sunday. The church in tradition has recognized this as Christ risen & glorified, and so they sing this psalm. ;7a=the question is were they singing this as they were bringing the Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem? And many of these psalms being prophetic, have more than one fulfillment. We know that the East Gate, one day will be not only for the Prince but it seems that He shall enter Himself/Christ when He rules the world from Jerusalem. The East gate. In the Millenium. There's another possible fulfillment of this psalm that's also very remarkable. We know that when Christ returns/Isaiah 63;1=Who is this who comes from lEdom,
• in crimsoned garments from Bozrah, you know w/ his garments dipped in blood. And it tells us that in Ps. 119 that Christ comes as lightning shines from the East to the West, that He comes in that direction towards Jerusalem, and the bible tells us in Zechariah 14:4 eOn that day his feet shall stand fon gthe Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. It will open up a ravine there that Jerusalem then will be elevated. It will be broken into three parts. It tells us in Revelation; part of it will rise up, where the Millenial temple will be, & it tells u that water will begin to run forth there, & part of it will run to the Mediteranean, part of it will run to the Dead Sea. And Christ Himself, when He touches down on the Mount of Olives, will ride down where He had made His triumphal entry, they only thought that was a triumphal entry, this will be the real one, and we read in Rev. 14 about the blood running to the horses bridle, it says without the city, not up in the Valley of Armageddon, if we think it has to happen up there, it'd be an impossibility. But here this valley had run(Kidron)often, w/ the blood of sacrifices. And it tells us in Rev 16, when the viles are poured out, that great hail, about one hundred pounds in weight, will fall, and the sentence for those who blasphemed in the OT was stoning on this great army amassed in the Valley of Armageddon, it says they'll be gathered together all the way from Dan, all the way down to Beersheba in the Southern part, over two hundred miles of human beings gathered. And then crushed by this hail. And then, this washing down/this blood of all nations, running in the valley to the horses bridle. I think to His horses' bridle as He crosses a river of the blood of all nations, the prince of peace come, proving that man can't govern himself.
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• Now it tells us then that the city of Jerusalem will be elevated. The East Gate in Jerusalem is blocke up. It's a Turkish gate there, it's not the ancient gate but, when they placed a Muslim cemetary there to desecrate it because it's holy to the Jews, there were workmen there that fell through the ground & what they discovered is under the present East gate, and Biblical Archaeological Review has done articles on it, there is an entire East Gate from the time of Christ in-tact. And it's the East Gate that Christ entered & left when He went out to the Mount of Olives. It's standing there, in tact, underneath the present East Gate. So the other possibility is when He returns, in the same East Gate that He had gone through, as the world begins to rumble & the sun refuses to shine, and the only glory seen in the heavens is JC the Son of Man come on His white horse w/ His vesture dipped in blood, w/ the armies of heaven behind Him & He touches down & splits the Mount of Olives & crosses over this river of blood, running to the horses' bridle, then as the city then begins to be raised up, we have then," lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, and the King of glory may come in. read ;8-10 What a day there is awaiting all of us as Christ comes.

Questions: What does it mean to have clean hands and a pure heart? What changes do you need to make in your schedule or activities to make worship a top priority?