Psalm 23 (Part 3)

Why will God leads us into the paths (dimensions) of his righteousness? Because of "Hashem (His name)". Not because of our doing, but simply because He has become our shepherd. The interesting thing is, after a while the sheep can walk in the path that the shepherd has led them through without help because they now have the Shepherd's mind. The sheep becomes mature in discerning what's good and what's evil, what's godly and what's not.

To Abraham, the Lord said "I know Abraham, he will command his household to do all that I've commanded him". We should remember that Abraham didn't start that way. Abraham had to learn obedient. Jesus learned obedient by the things he suffered, the ultimate word he uttered was "Not my will but Your will". One "will" must prevail and it’s going to be the Shepherd's will or else, he isn't the shepherd to begin with.

Learning obedience brings us to verse 4: "Yea, though I walk through the Gey Tzalmavet, I will fear no rah; for You art with me; Your shevet and Your staff they comfort me."..

Let me explain this word "Gey Tzalmavet". Often when we read this word in the King James Version and it means shadow of death. Other translations also have it like that, but what about if we flip the word "Tzalmavet" into reasonable vowel, it will turn to "tzalmut" meaning "Self-image" or "Identity" from the root word "Tzelem" which means God's image.

Let's step backward a bit here for understanding. Shadow of death is not "Death" literary, like many of us believe it to be. It has nothing first and foremost to do with "Death" but it has to do with "Your/our identity". If I were to re-read that verse 4, it would be "though I walk through things that want to proof my identity wrong, I will not be afraid because my identity is secured in my shepherd".

Daily we are bombarded with stuffs that wants to choke our identity in Christ, some even ask us to prove our identity. For example, Satan asked Jesus to prove his identity by turning stone into bread. The emphasis isn't on the bread but on His identity as the Son of God. Many a times, situations and circumstances want us to prove our identity, we can either choose to say "lo ira ra"(I'm not afraid) or we can start by proving ourselves to the situation, the end result of that is Fear.

Sheep has no strength to defend themselves, sheep solely depend on the shepherd to defend them. Time and time again we may try to defend ourselves, we may try prove that we are right while every other person is wrong. The end result of that will be, if we are actually sheep, fear and shame. When we make Christ our Lord, what we are saying as sheep is:

"I don't have my right again, I don't need to prove anything to anyone, I don't have any strength because I have given up, I'm not going to avenge myself of things done to me and so on... I'm just going to be sheep."

David could have dealt with Saul, but he couldn't because he's no longer the master/captain of his ship. At other time someone was cursing him and he replied "allow him, maybe the Lord has asked him to curse me...(See 2 Samuel 16:5)" David of old (remember Abigail and Nabal?) would have avenged himself but God has de-roped him.
He couldn't defend himself again, rather "Hashem" was now His shepherd. Despite his mistakes, the Lord became his shepherd.

Lastly, the rod is for correction while the staff is for comfort and encouragement. "And David encourage himself in the Lord". At other place, "God brought correction to David through Nathan the prophet". There's always a rod for correction for every sheep and staff for comforting the heart of the sheep. Both work together to produce the desired result that the shepherd is looking for in the sheep...

In conclusion, I don't want to re-explain verse 5 and 6.

I just want to mention the latter part of the last verse of that Psalms that reads "I shall dwell in the house of the Lord".

In this dispensation of Grace. We are not to dwell forever in a house built with bricks and blocks as house of the Lord. "We are the House of the Lord". We are the lively stones that's building up a house for the Lord and we've also be made priests and kings to our God. For we are a kingdom of priests not of the Leviticus order, rather of the endless life that's founded in Christ Jesus.

We must daily remind ourselves because it is possible to associate the brick and blocks with God's house. It's very easy to turn a place or a thing to "house of God". God dwell not in in the building built by men, he dwells alone in the house he builds by Himself. "Whose house are we" says Paul. I remember when the Lord started opening my eyes to that truth, he led me to be reciting the last verse as "I am the house of the Lord forever"

Grace and Peace.

Read Part 1 Here and Part 2 Here

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Psalm 23 (Part 2)

What does green pasture means..?

Green pasture is a place of feeding, learning and unlearning. It is a place of learning what to eat and what not to eat.

Often time, Green refers to Life in scriptural context and interpretations. In the day of Noah the bird that was sent out from the Ark came back with olive leaf (green-leave) meaning there is life once again. So, pasture can mean many thing but here it means life. We are to feed on Christ because he is the green pasture...

The word "mei menuchot" could also mean REST. Though it is rendered as "still waters" or "restful water" or "comforting water". Let us pieces this word.

In Ephesians it is said that "Christ will wash his bride by washing of the water by word"; in the book of John we have "out of his belly shall flow the living (restful) water". In John 4 "Christ is the living (restful) water".
The emphasis on "restful water" is in regards to the restoration of our soul. "You shall find rest for your soul" comes to play here.

We can as well interpret water to means "God's word" as we have it in Ephesians. Or we can take it as "Christ" Himself (For Christ is the Word of God according to book of revelation). Washing is pruning, we are the branches, and the husbandman keeps pruning or washing us by/with His word in other to grant rest to our soul.

Soul and Spirit aren't the same.

Soul is the seat of sensation, where feelings, emotions, will, desires and reasoning dominate. Because the soul is in connection with material world, hence it is written "we are not move by sight but by faith"

Faith is not of the soul but of the spirit. The purpose of Restful water is not for our Spirit rather is for our Soul; feeling that's not stable on God, emotion that's running wild like lion, desire that's soaring like eagles, self-will that's like an Ox. All these are what makes us to get into troubles many time. But, Christ becoming our shepherd, making us to feed on Him and leading us onto Himself as water of life leads to the restoration of our Soul. Our part to play is in allowing Him to be Lord not just the Saviour.

Verse 3."He restores my nefesh; He guides me in the paths of tzedek l'ma'an Shmo. (“He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake." NKJV).

1 Peter 2:25 says "We were as sheep going astray but are now returned to shepherd and bishop of our souls".

Note:" The shepherding work takes place in the soul not in the spirit.

Until we make Jesus our Shepherd not in words but by living that life, we are going to lack and our souls will not find rest. The path of righteousness will not be cleared to us."

To restore and to create are two different things. The former speaks of "putting things back to where they belonged" while the latter speaks of "to make a new thing". God’s aim is to restore man to the place where his soul would be in subjection to his spirit.

Hebrews 4 says "the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing asunder (dividing or separating) soul and spirit...” The restoration is of the Souls. The spirit is already in this state at "Salvation", but the soul needs to journey in submission to the spirit- ultimately, to the Father of the spirit, God. The road to this is always repentance.

"Tzedek l'ma'an Shmo" means the same thing as "paths of righteousness For His name’s sake or for the sake of His name". The good thing here is that as a man or woman begins to experience Christ as Lord, he/she begins to learn righteousness (What is right and Just). He or she begins to turn away from his/her own way to God’s way. The quieter one's soul becomes, the more it will allow the spirit to soar.

Hence, "He (Christ) must increase but, I must decrease". The decreasing is of the soul while the increasing is of the spirit. And until a man get into verses 1-3 of this Psalm 23, the fear of shadow of death becomes a fearful thing.

Like Paul says, "I know whom I have believed". In our journey with God, we must come to a place where we can boldly declare "I know whom" not "I know what" I have believed. The former is of experience while the latter is of books/mental understanding.

Read Part 1 Here

.......to be continue...

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Psalm 23 (Part 1)

We all love to recite "surely goodness and mercy shall follow me...” 

It is a good thing to recite or lay claim on. But, where we suppose to lay emphasis on is not verses 4-6, those one are the resultant effects of verses 1-3.

Our study begins in Verse 1...”Hashem is my Ro'eh (Shepherd); I shall not lack".

I'm using a Hebrews version of that chapter and I'm going to explain the deeper meaning that such words carry.

Context!!!

David wrote Psalm 23 in unknown time. Some believe it was written while he was a shepherd boy attending to his father's sheep, while others believe the Psalm 23 was written during his time of fleeing away from Saul and the troubles of life. But the important thing here is; David was a shepherd boy before he became the king of Israel. His experience as a shepherd helped in writing this great Psalm 23.

The word "Hashem" means "the name" not "Lord" as we have it in English language. It is the custom of the Jews not to call out the original name of God, instead they use a "casual name" in place of God's name. God as we have it today does not mean God as a name. It’s a choice word used in replacement of His name. The "thou shall not call the name of the "Hashem" in vain" applies to all the manuscripts. There's a lot to dig in on this
.
The High Priests were the one worthy to call that "the name" once in every year during the atonement in the Holies of holy.

Let me take this a bit further, the name Yehoshua or Yeshua means "Hashem saves".

We see now how that becomes confusing to us because if Hashem literary means "the name" and Yeshua means "Hashem saves", then what we have is "the name saves". So, in translation the actual name of God is hidden, because the Lord doesn't refers to a name it just talk about the "office".
I'm an accountant, isn't a name but the office I possess or work in.
Having explain that. Let's go into the second thing we see in verse 1. "Shepherd"

When David was talking about shepherd. It is very important to understand what David was saying here. A shepherd is the one that "Lord-it-over-the-sheep". The shepherd have full control of the sheep, he decides what is what for the sheep, he rebukes, corrects, showers love, heals and sometimes leave the sheep to wander in the field for a purpose.

A shepherd isn't a shepherd if one of those is lacking, and you cannot be a sheep to someone who cannot lord-it-over-you. We saw that in the life of David. He didn't just know the God of Israel, he allowed the "office of Him being the Lord" to made manifest in his life.

Making Jesus the Saviour is pretty easy, the hardest part is making Him Lord or allowing Him to function in our lives as "the Lord" and until He is that, we will lack (the king James version rendered that as "want" but "lack" is more appropriate, we'll get to that in few minutes).

It is not that He is not Lord. Christ is indeed Lord, controlling the affairs of this world and beyond, but we can choose Him to be that in our lives or we can ask him to excuse himself from that office.

So, Psalm 23:1 can be rendered as "My shepherd is the one who lord-it-over me and by this, he makes sure I don't lack as a sheep".

The implication of this is: Whatever controls, rules or governs our lives is automatically our shepherd. If entertainment, sex, food, money or anything takes that place of ruling or controlling our lives, it does not matter if we say we are Christians, Christ is not our shepherd.
We need to get into this verse 1 and be sure that Christ is indeed our shepherd else the opposite of the remaining verses will be our portion.

In verse 2 we have "He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the "mei menuchot".

With the understanding of verse 1. I think it should be cleared to us that, a good shepherd will lead his sheep into a greener pasture. The sheep obligation is not to seek the green pasture, their job is to allow the shepherd to be the LORD. It is the job of a good shepherd to go before his sheep like Jesus said “the shepherd leads the sheep out"(see John 10:3). He goes before them not behind them.

So, the sheep are secure not in themselves but in the Shepherd because he is their "LORD". Using the example of David and his men of war when their wives, children, and their cities were plundered. David as a man of war didn't say "go to, let's pursue them" rather, he inquired from his Shepherd "should I go, would we overtake them, would we recover all?”
In the book of Jeremiah, it is said "in that day I will give the children of Israel a shepherd, David my servant". David in allowing God to shepherd him, he became also a shepherd like his Father. Sons are to become like their Father.

What does green pasture mean..?

to be continue..

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Random Posts... 1 ( Stages of Life)

There are three stages in life: Morning, Afternoon and Night.
There are three stages of a Man journeying into God: Natural, Carnal and Spiritual.

We were all born in the Morning (Natural). God's call to us is to come up. In obeying that call, we enter into Afternoon(the carnal or immature stage).
While it is good to come to that stage, it is not enough for you to remain there and boast about your "Carnality"-Immaturity (Afternoon) claiming all that Christ has done for you.

God still call you to become spiritually mature. But, the unfortunate thing is, many will remain in this field of carnality, because they don't trust the Night.

They enjoy the "Afternoon", they have something to show forth, they have things to pursue, names to make, pleasures to dazzle in, knowledge to die in.....

You see. It takes courage, diligent, unlearning and perseverance to embrace the night. 

The promise of God is that "at the time of the night there shall be light". 

He didn't promise light in the afternoon.. 

Candle Light has no meaning in the morning nor in the afternoon. It is in the night that we know what you are made up of. 

Stars are for the night, not morning or afternoon.

The calling of God to all carnal believers is to come away into the Night and Embrace the Cross.
You may call yourself any name or title.

You may be the owner of the new fastest growing business enterprise called/termed "church" in the town.

You may be the chair's warmer or co-labourer in that enterprise. 

Or you may just be someone that claim all God's promise but has not felt the weight of the Cross of Christ.
Your own may be "I don't do denominations, I do house churches, I meet with brethren"... What is even the difference? Is it because you meet in a house? Or because you don't have pulpit and there is no pastor? Or because you share meal after house-fellowship and yet, there is no changes in your walk with Christ?

My friend, what's the difference?
Someone should tell me....
Anybody can meet anywhere, so far it doesn't affect their lives, so far Christ isn't having the preeminence in their lives, so far its still business as usual.

What difference does it make? We may as well termed such place a secret-court or better still, Babylon.

God's call to every little Diotrephes is to get down from their high horse, remove their fake crown and fall at the feet of the Cross of Christ.

Carnality is a lifestyles that God calls everyone of us to leave and embrace the cross..

Here comes the night when the Sons of God shall shine brightly. It is only reserved for Sons/Daughters of God not "Children/Carnal".

"...to be carnally minded is Death..."

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JUST ONE THING

Just One Thing Part 1

As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: (Col 2:6 KJV)

Some days ago till this time I've been having some conversations, meditations, understanding and I've also been praying as regards some issues. Well, I’m going to talk about one of them like I did in my previous post about “Professor or Possessor?”

A brother once advised us by saying “as you have received Christ so also walk in him”. This word, I've read it severally but I didn't really have understanding as to what he was saying. But, of late the Lord in His gracious mercy has been showing me some light and I wouldn't say this is the final light, for I know the Lord still have a lot to pass across as regard this.

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