Psalm 23:5-6 – The Perfect Host

Translation and Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church Manhattan KS 12 Apr 2015

Translation

1. A psalm belonging to David.
Yahweh being my shepherd , I will not be lacking.

2 He will cause me to bed down in pastures of sprouting-grass.
He will guide me to water along pooled waters.

3 It is my soul that He will refresh!
He will guide me in tracks of righteousness for the sake of His reputation.

4 Even when I shall walk in a ravine of the shadow of death, I will not be afraid of evil because You are with me.
Your rod and Your staff will comfort me – they will!

5 You will organize a buffet in front of me, opposite my adversaries.
You will fatten me with rich [food]; my cup is satisfyingly-full.

6 It is goodness and lovingkindness that will certainly pursue me all the days of my life,
and I will settle down in Yahweh’s house for extensive days .

INTRODUCTION

· About three hundred years after David and Seven hundred years before Christ was born, the prophet Micah prophesied of Jesus who would come and be like a shepherd, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace... Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance... (Micah 5:2-5a, 7:14 ESV)

· Last week, we read from John 10, where Jesus claimed to be the fulfillment of that passage.

· We also looked at God’s provision for His people - from the manna that God provided for the Hebrews in the dessert after their exodus from Egypt, to Jesus’ promise in the Sermon on the Mount to add to us all that we need of food and clothing if we will seek first His kingdom and righteousness and concluded that God’s attitude toward you is that of generous provision.

· We noted at the same time that God’s provision is not the same as a harmful indulgence of your every whim.

· He is the trustworthy provider, so we can speak this Psalm in the future tense: I shall not want, He will guide me.

· We also saw that God begins with rest. It is His job, as shepherd, to relieve you from every stress that prevents His sheep from being at peace. At the same time it is your job as the sheep to trust Your shepherd and to rest.

· Because the LORD is with us, then we can be free of fear. Our security lies - not in our environment – but in our Shepherd.” He has the authority and power to handle any threat; He has the fatherly love to chasten and guide us. And even when we can’t see Him, we can take comfort when we see His rod and staff at work in our lives.

· The shepherd also leads us forward and guides us. “From His mouth come knowledge and understanding... [so that] you will understand righteousness and justice, Equity and every good path.” (Proverbs 2:1-9 NKJV)

· And He does all this “For his name’s sake.” He saves and He forgives to prove what His name means – Jesus, the savior.

· Now the scene changes from God as a shepherd to God as a host to His guests.

5 You will organize a buffet in front of me opposite my adversaries. You will fatten me with rich [food]; my cup is satisfyingly-full.

· This Hebrew verb “set/prepare” is used to describe

o setting up the showbread on the table in the Lord’s presence in the holy place of the tabernacle (Ex. 40),

o as well as organizing sacrificial pyres,

o organizing oral arguments in court,

o or especially organizing military maneuvers.

o In Psalm 78, Asaph the psalmwriter uses the exact same Hebrew phrase to remember how God “prepared a table” in the wilderness by sending manna for bread, and sending water from the rock.

· The Hebrew word for “table” included not only the table itself, but also the “spread” of food upon the table.

o Even in David’s time, remember what he was doing when he went toe-to-toe against Goliath? He was delivering dinner to his brothers out on the battlefield, preparing a table – a picnic with homemade food – before them in the presence of the Philistine army.

o Shortly thereafter, David was fed many meals at King Saul’s table, even though at times Saul hated David so much he wanted to kill him.

o Later on, when David was in the wilderness again, this time escaping from his son Absalom who had usurped the throne, God once again provided food for David’s whole company through the generosity of old Barzillai the Giliadite (2 Sam. 17-19).

o In the New Testament, we think of the feeding of the 4,000 and of the 5,000 in the presence of Pharisees who were looking for a legal cause to put Jesus to death,

o and then there was the Last Supper in the presence of Judas the betrayer,

o and now there’s the churches’ commemorations of that meal in Holy Communion – even when our enemies of sin and sickness and death feel like they are standing perilously close to us.

· In the Hebrew words, there is a distinction between this table being “liphnay/before me” and “neged/in the presence of/conspicuously-located/in opposition to” the enemies. God’s provision for His people is not for their enemies:

o The manna in the desert wasn’t for the Amalekites.

o Judas didn’t stay for the whole Last Supper.

o And 1 Corinthians tells us that we are not to take the Lord’s Supper if we are not part of the body of Christ, the church,

o but the table is still to be seen by God’s enemies in order to put them to shame and to show His love publicly for us.

· The Hebrew word neged also has the possible connotation that God’s table is intentionally set up to rival the enemy’s supper.

o Proverbs 9 pictures these two feasts set up in opposition to each other: “[Wisdom] has slaughtered her meat, She has mixed her wine, She has also furnished her table... She cries out from the highest places of the city, ‘Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!’ ... [Meanwhile Lady Folly] sits at the door of her house, On a seat by the highest places of the city, To call to those who pass by..., ‘Whoever is simple, let him turn in here... [my] Stolen water is sweet, And bread eaten in secret is pleasant.’ But... her guests are in the depths of hell.” (Proverbs 9:2-4, 14-18, NKJV)

o Don’t be deceived by the mouthwatering delicacies which the enemy of our souls promises to stock his table with; we have a better table, a table with true drink and true meat furnished by our Lord Himself (John 6:55), and that food will be satisfying, unlike the food on the enemy’s counterfeit-feast table.

o As we eat at the Lord’s Table in Communion – and in the future at the heavenly marriage feast of the Lamb, let us sneer at our enemies:

· “Death, where is thy sting? Grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Cor. 15:55)

· Satan, bow before your Lord! Sin, you no longer have control over me! I am safe in the presence of the King of the Universe who has invited me to His table as His guest.

· Big bad wolf, you can huff & puff all day, but you’ll never blow this house down!

· All you bad guys out there, you can’t touch me while I’m dining at Jesus’ table. Whoever touches me touches the apple of His eye (Zech. 2:8, Ps. 17:8)!

· Mess with me and you’ll never forget the whupping you get from my awesome Shepherd and Host, the Lord Jesus. That’s security!

· The second half of verse 5 has been interpreted a number of ways throughout history. I think David wrote it in such a way that you could get more than one meaning from it.

o One historical interpretation is that this is David remembering when he was a young boy and was anointed as the future king of Israel by the prophet Samuel pouring oil over his head (Daath Sofrim), and this is the way that most English Bibles translate it.

o However, I did see a couple of commentaries suggesting that this refers to some kind of sheep dip (Keller, GHW), where the shepherd pours linseed oil and tar on the head of the sheep in order to get rid of nasal flies that can be maddeningly-irritating to sheep.

o However, the Hebrew literally says “you will fatten my head with oil;” the ancient Greek translations agree, using the root from which we get our word “lipid” rather than using the standard word for “anointing” in Greek which is chriw.

· Now, I know a lot of us are on diets here, but in many cultures, it is considered very desirable to be fat; it means you are wealthy and well cared-for.

· The last time I was in Africa, I was seated on the plane next to a really-overweight American. She mentioned that she had been swamped with offers for marriage from African men on her trip. They found that fat very attractive!

· We even see it in the Proverbs: 11:25 “The generous person will get fat...” 13:4b “...the diligent person will get fat,” 28:25b “... whoever places trust in Yahweh will get fat.”

· Most American translations substitute the literal word dishen “fat” with something more desirable in our culture, such as to be “rich” or “prosperous” or in the case of this Psalm, “anointed.”

· The strange thing is that this verb is never used in the Bible in connection with “anointing” anyone or anything – with oil or with anything else, and furthermore, the context of this action in Psalm 5 is a feast.

o Was the feast prepared and then interrupted to pour oil on his head, and then resumed as his dinner glass is filled? A couple of commentators I read (Delitzsch, Stott, Boice) suggested something along these lines, saying that this is a squirt of oil-based perfume on the guest’s cheek. Now, this would fit the picture of a good host; I’ve seen perfuming like this practiced in the Middle East as a thoughtful hospitality measure.

o But I would suggest that this just a picture of a guest being wined and dined by God, not actually being anointed for public office, and that the “oil” is speaking of rich food complimented by the drink in the cup, and the “head” is a synecdoche for the whole person. This would fit with the way the Hebrew word “fat” is used throughout the Bible:

· “Then indeed, He enticed you from the mouth of distress, Instead of it, a broad place with no constraint; And that which was set on your table was full of fatness” (Job 36:16, NASB).

· “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures” (Psalm 36:8, KJV).

· “My soul shall be satisfied[ravah] as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.” (Psalm 63:5, NKJV).

· “Listen carefully to me and eat the good, and let your soul indulge itself in the fat” (Isaiah 55:2b, NAW).

· “And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the LORD.” (Jeremiah 31:14, KJV).

· In other words, the salad dressing is not going to be diet – skimpy on the olive oil, and you will not have to eat your bread without butter, and the steak will not be the cheap tough cut; it will be the good marbled cut, and there will be no limit to the beverages.

· It is a picture of an all-out, best-of-the-best feast because the Host is the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills; He’s the inventor of the grape vine and the designer of the human stomach. He knows exactly what will be delightful and satisfying for you. Is that your God? You’d better believe it!

o Now, whatever position you take on the interpretation of this passage, one thing I would caution against is taking this verse merely literally. God’s care for you includes physical provision but is not limited to the physical,

· “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17, NKJV).

· One of the oldest Christian commentaries on this Psalm comes from Augustine, who applied this metaphor of a feast to our spiritual needs saying that, “‘You have fattened my head with oil’ means, ‘You have gladdened my mind with spiritual joy.’ And ‘your inebriating cup...’ means forgetfulness of former vain things...”

6 It is goodness and lovingkindness that will certainly pursue me all the days of my life, and I will settle down in Yahweh’s house for extensive days.

· This Hebrew particle “ak”

o can be an emphatic, meaning “Doubtless” as the Geneva Bible translated it, or “Surely” as the modern English versions did,

o or it can have a restrictive meaning, as Franz Delitzsch maintained, like our English word “only” – “Goodness and mercy are the “only” things that are going to be my lifelong companions. Misery may be my company for a season, but these good things will last forever.

· The word order in the Hebrew emphasizes that it is “goodness and mercy” which will follow, rather than, I suppose, their opposites: evil and condemnation. This raises the question of the flip side of this Psalm:

o What of those for whom the Lord is not “shepherd”?

o What of those who would rather wander on their own, who will never submit to the guidance of a God who is greater than them, unwilling to feel His disciplinary rod?

o What of those who would really rather not live in God’s house?

o So many people are deceived these days into thinking that pursuing the things of this world is the way to wealth, ease, happiness, and security, but instead the result is want, restlessness, weariness, disorientation, evil, fear, vulnerableness, discomfort, hunger, dissatisfaction, and in the end, a fair condemnation to hell from the God they had avoided all their life.

o On the other hand, for the one who readily submits to this God and trusts Him, Psalm 23 promises freedom from neediness, rest, appropriate provision, refreshment, righteousness, fearlessness, companionship, guidance, safety, and at the end, instead of condemnation in judgment, there will be mercy extended to us – not because we’re particularly good sheep or good guests but just because He loved us enough to appease His own wrath against our sins by dying on the cross and rising for us!

· In this Psalm, God is pictured as both leading us out in front (in verses 2-3) and also following up behind us in v.6, for the only source of goodness and lovingkindness is God Himself. (Psalm 16:12 “apart from you I have no good thing” ~NIV).

· Note that this goodness and lovingkindness are actively following after him; The Hebrew word radaph is usually translated with a more intense word like “pursue” or “chase after,” so when you think of goodness and mercy following you, don’t think of it like a wake in a boat where you have blazed a fine path because you are such a good person that good deeds kind-of trail behind you. That’s not what it’s saying. It’s saying that goodness and lovingkindness are in a speedboat behind your rowboat, and they are going to catch up with you and give you what they’ve got! And it’s not a beating, it’s a lavish barbeque picnic retreat beside restful waters and a key to your very own room in God’s house! “What wondrous love is this, Oh my soul? What wondrous love is this!”

· The phrase “the house of the LORD”

o is definitely used throughout the Old Testament to denote the earthly tabernacle and the temple (Jesus called it “my Father’s house in Luke 2:49), and David certainly loved temple worship and wrote lots of songs for it.

o But there is also a sense in which the temple stands as typology for God’s heavenly dwelling, as the book of Hebrews explains (8:5).

o So which one could David actually live in? Well, only priests who were on-duty could live at the tabernacle; David would never be able to live in the earthly tabernacle. I believe David is speaking of heaven.

o The New Testament, however, speaks of a sense in which we can experience living in the house of the Lord in the here-and-now.

§ Peter’s first epistle talks about the church being a “spiritual house” in which we are “living stones” and Jesus is the “cornerstone.”

§ In that sense, we can live in the Lord’s house all the days of our life if we trust Jesus for our salvation and live under His leadership and relate in community with the church.

§ Gerald Wilson described it this way in his commentary (p.445), “If such dwelling means to be in God’s presence and see his gracious beauty, then we need to find ways to acknowledge that presence in the small, seemingly insignificant happenings of everyday life. Most often it is a choice we make to acknowledge that God is present and active around and in us. To stop and admit that the chatter of a small child’s voice in the bushes outside our window is a testimony to the goodness of God; to acknowledge that the compassion that pours out of us for a person in pain is a link to the compassion of God himself; to allow ourselves to be angry at the violence and injustice that fills our world – these are ways of entering God’s presence and dwelling with him. When a sunset reminds us of the creative and sustaining power of God; when the hassles of the long commute remind us how far the brokenness of our world is from God’s intention; when we open our innermost secrets to the judging, healing, forgiving eyes of our maker – then we know God is among us and we are with him [even now].”

§ It reminds me of the Old Testament equivalent in Deuteronomy 30:20 “...love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers...” (NKJV).

o But there is coming a day when dwelling with the LORD will be more literal. Jesus said, “In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2-3, NASB).

· Now, the length of time that this rooming and boarding with the Lord will occur is

o literally in Hebrew “for length of days,”

o or perhaps it refers to days which are indefinitely lengthened like, “with the LORD a day is as a thousand years” (Psalm 90:4, 2 Peter 3:8) – not that long stretches of time will get boring, but rather that the good times will not be so fleeting; we’ll be able to enjoy them longer!

o Anyway if we’re talking about eternal life, then it is forever.

Conclusion

· As a sheep it’s our job to rest and trust and follow. So often we get the foolish notion that there’s something better out there and we start to wander, but Jesus emphatically declared that He is THE good shepherd; there is no better one out there.

· As a guest, it’s our job to stay and eat, and yet how often we irrationally don’t want to. We get to feeling like the enemy’s table – Madame Folly’s table has better food and that Jesus can’t possibly satisfy us, that His flesh and blood aren’t real enough for us. But God’s own word tells us that His goodness and mercy are for sure, they are certain.

· Will you dwell in the house of the Lord forever? Will you stay and eat His food? Will you engage in community with His household, the church – the living stones that He has laid next to you? Will you talk with Him even now and respond even now to His correction and guidance and comfort? Will you trust the perfect host to satisfy you?

^{^[1]} Two notes on translation: 1) Neither the Cairo Geneza nor the Dead Sea Scrolls contain a copy of Psalm 23, so they are not available for cross reference. 2) Because Psalm 23 is so familiar and because there is so little variation in the standard English translations of this Psalm, I thought it best to depart from the standard translations wherever possible in order to interrupt what is familiar in our memories and therefore encourage more thoughtful meditation on what this Psalm says. That’s not usually my translation philosophy, but I thought it would be a helpful strategy in this passage.

^{^[2]} The scene changes now from God as a shepherd to God as a host to His guests. This Hebrew verb is used to describe setting up the showbread on the table in the Lord’s presence in the holy place of the tabernacle (Ex. 40), as well as organizing sacrificial pyres, organizing oral arguments in court, or especially organizing military maneuvers. In Psalm 78, Asaph the psalmwriter uses the exact same Hebrew phrase to remember how God “prepared a table” in the wilderness by sending manna for bread, and sending water from the rock. The Hebrew word for “table” included not only the table itself, but also the “spread” of food upon the table. Even in David’s time, remember what he was doing when he went toe-to-toe against Goliath? He was delivering dinner to his brothers out on the battlefield, preparing a table – a picnic with homemade food – before them in the presence of the Philistine army. Shortly thereafter, David was fed many meals at King Saul’s table, even though at times Saul hated David so much he wanted to kill him. Later on, when David was in the wilderness again, this time escaping from his son Absalom who had usurped the throne, God once again provided food for David’s whole company through the generosity of old Barzillai the Giliadite (2 Sam. 17-19). In the New Testament, we think of the feeding of the 4,000 and of the 5,000 in the presence of Pharisees who were looking for a legal cause to put Jesus to death, and then there was the Last Supper in the presence of Judas the betrayer, and now the churches’ commemorations of that meal in Holy Communion – even when our enemies of sin and sickness and death feel like they are standing perilously close to us. In the Hebrew words, there is a distinction between this table being “liphnay/before me” and “neged/in the presence of/conspicuously-located/in opposition to” the enemies. God’s provision for His people is not for their enemies (The manna in the desert wasn’t for the Amalekites. Judas didn’t stay for the whole Last Supper. And 1 Corinthians tells us that we are not to take the Lord’s Supper if we are not part of the body of Christ, the church), but the table is still to be seen by God’s enemies in order to put them to shame and to show His love publicly for us. The Hebrew word neged also has the possible connotation that this is God’s table intentionally set up to rival the enemy’s supper. Proverbs 9 pictures these two feasts set up in opposition to each other: “[Wisdom] has slaughtered her meat, She has mixed her wine, She has also furnished her table... She cries out from the highest places of the city, ‘Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!’ ... [Meanwhile Lady Folly] sits at the door of her house, On a seat by the highest places of the city, To call to those who pass by..., ‘Whoever is simple, let him turn in here... [my] Stolen water is sweet, And bread eaten in secret is pleasant.’ But... her guests are in the depths of hell.” (Proverbs 9:2-4, 14-18, NKJV) Don’t be deceived by the mouthwatering delicacies which the enemy of our souls promises to stock his table with; we have a better table, a table with true drink and true meat furnished by our Lord Himself (John 6:55), and that food will be satisfying, unlike the food on the enemy’s counterfeit-feast table. As we eat at the Lord’s Table in Communion – and in the future at the heavenly marriage feast of the Lamb, let us sneer at our enemies See Psalms 6:7; 7:4-6; 8:2; and 10:5; on “adversaries”: “Death, where is thy sting? Grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Cor. 15:55) Satan, bow before your Lord! Sin, you no longer have control over me! I am safe in the presence of the King of the Universe who has invited me to His table as His guest. Big bad wolf? You can huff and puff all day, but you’ll never blow this house down! All you bad guys out there, you can’t touch me while I’m dining at Jesus’ table. Whoever touches me touches the apple of His eye (Zech. 2:8, Ps. 17:8)! Mess with me and you’ll never forget the whupping you get from my awesome Shepherd and Host, the Lord Jesus. That’s security!

^{^[3]} The second half of verse 5 has been interpreted a number of ways throughout history. I think David wrote it in such a way that you could get more than one meaning from it. One historical interpretation is that this is David remembering when he was a young boy and was anointed as the future king of Israel by the prophet Samuel pouring oil over his head (Daath Sofrim), and this is the way that most English Bibles translate it. However, I did see a couple of commentaries suggesting that this refers to some kind of sheep dip (Keller, GHW), where the shepherd pours linseed oil and tar on the head of the sheep in order to get rid of nasal flies that can be maddeningly-irritating to sheep. However, the Hebrew literally says “you will fatten my head with oil;” the ancient Greek translations agree, using the root from which we get our word “lipid” rather than using the standard word for “anointing” in Greek which is chriw. Now, I know a lot of us are on diets here, but in many cultures, it is considered very desirable to be fat; it means you are wealthy and well cared-for. The last time I was in Africa, I was seated on the plane next to a really-overweight American. She mentioned that she had been swamped with offers for marriage from African men on her trip. They found that fat very attractive! We even see it in the Proverbs: 11:25 “The generous person will get fat...” 13:4b “...the diligent person will get fat,” 28:25b “... whoever places trust in Yahweh will get fat.” Most American translations substitute the literal word dishen “fat” with something more desirable in our culture, such as to be “rich” or “prosperous” or in the case of this Psalm, “anointed.” The strange thing is that this verb is never used in the Bible in connection with “anointing” anyone or anything – with oil or with anything else, and furthermore, the context of this action in Psalm 5 is a feast. Was the feast prepared and then interrupted to pour oil on his head, and then resumed as his dinner glass is filled? A couple of commentators I read (Delitzsch, Stott, Boice) suggested something along these lines, saying that this is a squirt of oil-based perfume on the guest’s face. Now, this would fit the picture of a good host; I’ve seen perfuming like this practiced in the Middle East as a thoughtful hospitality measure. But I would suggest that this just a picture of a guest being wined and dined by God, not being anointed, and that the “oil” is speaking of rich food complimented by the drink in the cup, and the “head” is a synecdoche for the whole person. This would fit with the way the Hebrew word “fat” is used throughout the Bible: “Then indeed, He enticed you from the mouth of distress, Instead of it, a broad place with no constraint; And that which was set on your table was full of fatness” (Job 36:16, NASB). “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures” (Psalm 36:8, KJV). “My soul shall be satisfied[ravah] as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.” (Psalm 63:5, NKJV). “Listen carefully to me and eat the good, and let your soul indulge itself in the fat” (Isaiah 55:2b, NAW). “And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the LORD.” (Jeremiah 31:14, KJV). In other words, the salad dressing is not going to be diet - skimpy on the olive oil, and you will not have to eat the bread without butter, and the steak will not be the cheap tough cut; it will be the good marbled cut, and there will be no limit to the beverages. The only other place in the Bible where the Hebrew noun revayah - translated “runs over/overflows” - occurs is in Psalm 66:12, “You made men ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water, Yet You brought us out into a place of abundance” –NASB. It indicates saturation with water. It is a picture of an all-out, best-of-the-best feast because the Host is the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills; He’s the inventor of the grape vine and the designer of the human stomach. He knows exactly what will be delightful and satisfying for you. Is that your God? You’d better believe it! Now, whatever position you take on the interpretation of this passage, one thing I would caution against is taking this verse merely literally. God’s care for you includes physical provision but is not limited to the physical, “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17, NKJV). One of the oldest Christian commentaries on this Psalm comes from Augustine, who applied this metaphor of a feast to our spiritual needs saying that, “‘You have fattened my head with oil’ means, ‘You have gladdened my mind with spiritual joy.’ And ‘your inebriating cup...’ means forgetfulness of former vain things...”

^{^[4]} Aquilla: endesmountwn “entangling?”

^{^[5]} Aquilla, Theodotion, Eusebius, S'? – mou “my” (Symmachus omits)

^{^[6]} Symmachus, Eusebius: plhn agaqon “full of goodness”

^{^[7]} Delitzsch made the case that this verb came from shuv “return” rather than yashav “sit.” It seems plausible, but no other translator or commentator seemed to agree with him, although Gerald Wilson made much of the theme of the verse being about the return of God’s people from exile and getting to worship God in the temple. That seemed to me to be reading too much of the next psalm into this one.

^{^[8]} This Hebrew particle “ak” can be an emphatic, meaning “Doubtless” as the Geneva Bible translated it, or “Surely” as the modern English versions did, or it can have a restrictive meaning, as Franz Delitzsch maintained, like our English word “only” – “Goodness and mercy are the “only” things that are going to be my lifelong companions. Misery may be my company for a season, but these good things will last forever. The word order in the Hebrew emphasizes that it is “goodness and mercy” which will follow, rather than, I suppose, their opposites: evil and condemnation. This raises the question of the flip side of this Psalm. What of those for whom the Lord is not “shepherd”? What of those who would rather wander on their own, who will never submit to the guidance of a God who is greater than them, unwilling to feel His disciplinary rod? What of those who would really rather not live in God’s house? So many people are deceived these days into thinking that pursuing the things of this world is the way to wealth, ease, happiness, and security, but instead the result is want, restlessness, weariness, disorientation, evil, fear, vulnerableness, discomfort, hunger, dissatisfaction, and in the end, a fair condemnation to hell from the God they had avoided all their life. On the other hand, for the one who readily submits to this God and trusts Him, Psalm 23 promises freedom from neediness, rest, appropriate provision, refreshment, righteousness, fearlessness, companionship, guidance, safety, and at the end, instead of condemnation in judgment, there will be mercy extended to us – not because we’re particularly good sheep or good guests but just because He loved us enough to appease His own wrath against our sins by dying on the cross and rising for us! In this Psalm, God is pictured as both leading us out in front (in verses 2-3) and following up behind us as well in v.6, for the only source of goodness and lovingkindness is God Himself. Psalm 16:12 “apart from you I have no good thing” (NIV). Note that this goodness and lovingkindness are actively following after him; The Hebrew word radaph is usually translated with a more intense word like “pursue” or “chase after,” so when you think of goodness and mercy following you, don’t think of it like a wake in a boat where you have blazed a fine path because you are such a good person that good deeds kind-of trail behind you. That’s not what it’s saying. It’s saying that goodness and lovingkindness are in a speedboat behind your rowboat, and they are going to catch up with you and give you what they’ve got! And it’s not a beating, it’s a lavish barbeque picnic retreat beside restful waters and a key to your very own room in God’s house! “What wondrous love is this, Oh my soul? What wondrous love is this!”

^{^[9]} The phrase “the house of the LORD” is definitely used throughout the Old Testament to denote the earthly tabernacle and the temple (Jesus called it “my Father’s house in Luke 2:49), and David certainly loved temple worship and wrote lots of songs for it. But there is also a sense in which the temple stands as typology for God’s heavenly dwelling, as the book of Hebrews explains (8:5). So which one could David actually live in? Well, only priests who were on-duty could live at the tabernacle; David would never be able to live in the earthly tabernacle. I believe David is speaking of heaven. The New Testament, however, speaks of a sense in which we can experience living in the house of the Lord in the here-and-now. Peter’s first epistle talks about the church being a “spiritual house” in which we are “living stones” and Jesus is the “cornerstone.” In that sense, we can live in the Lord’s house all the days of our life if we trust Jesus for our salvation and live under His leadership and relate in community with the church. Gerald Wilson describes it this way in his commentary (p.445), “If such dwelling means to be in God’s presence and see his gracious beauty, then we need to find ways to acknowledge that presence in the small, seemingly insignificant happenings of everyday life. Most often it is a choice we make to acknowledge that God is present and active around and in us. To stop and admit that the chatter of a small child’s voice in the bushes outside our window is a testimony to the goodness of God; to acknowledge that the compassion that pours out of us for a person in pain is a link to the compassion of God himself; to allow ourselves to be angry at the violence and injustice that fills our world – these are ways of entering God’s presence and dwelling with him. When a sunset reminds us of the creative and sustaining power of God; when the hassles of the long commute remind us how far the brokenness of our world is from God’s intention; when we open our innermost secrets to the judging, healing, forgiving eyes of our maker – then we know God is among us and we are with him [even now].” It reminds me of the Old Testament equivalent in Deuteronomy 30:20 “...love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers...” (NKJV). But there is coming a day when dwelling with the LORD will be more literal. Jesus said, “In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2-3, NASB). Now, the length of time that this rooming and boarding with the Lord will occur is literally in Hebrew “for length of days,” or perhaps it refers to days which are indefinitely lengthened like, “with the LORD a day is as a thousand years” (Psalm 90:4, 2 Peter 3:8) – not that long stretches of time will get boring, but rather that the good times will not be so fleeting; we’ll be able to enjoy them longer! Anyway if we’re talking about eternal life, then it is forever. Several translators have rendered this as “for a long time” - Brenton, Symmachus, Geneva Bible. When this same Hebrew phrase occurred in Psalm 21:4, all the standard English versions translated it “length of days.” In other places, however, this phrase is translated “long life” or “forever” - Job 12:12; Psalms 91:16; 93:5; Proverbs 3:2,16; Lamentations 5:20, so it seems to depend on the context.

^{^[10]} Symmachus: mjkoV xronou “for a long time”

Psalm23^{^[1]}	NAW	KJV	NKJV	ESV	NASB	NIV	LXX	Brenton
5 תַּעֲרֹךְ לְפָנַי שֻׁלְחָן נֶגֶד צֹרְרָי דִּשַּׁנְתָּ בַשֶּׁמֶן רֹאשִׁי כּוֹסִי רְוָיָה:	5 You will organize a buffet^{^[2]} in front of me opposite my adversaries. You will fatten me^{^[3]} with rich [food]; my cup is satisfyingly-full.	5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.	5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.	5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.	5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.	5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.	5) ἡτοίμασας ἐνώπιόν μου τράπεζαν ἐξ ἐναντίας τῶν θλιβόν^{^[4]} των με· ἐλίπανας ἐν ἐλαίῳ τὴν κεφαλήν μου, καὶ τὸ ποτήριόν ~~σου~~^{^[5]} μεθύσκον ὡς ~~κράτιστον~~^{^[6]}.	5 Thou has prepared a table before me in presence of them that afflict me: thou hast thoroughly anointed my head with oil; and ~~thy~~ cup cheers me ~~like~~ ~~the~~ ~~best~~ ~~wine~~.
6 אַךְ טוֹב וָחֶסֶד יִרְדְּפוּנִי כָּל-יְמֵי חַיָּי וְשַׁבְתִּי^{^[7]} בְּבֵית-יְהוָה לְאֹרֶךְ יָמִים:	6 It is goodness and lovingkindness that will certainly^{^[8]} pursue me all the days of my life, and I will settle down in Yahweh’s house for extensive days^{^[9]}.	6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.	6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.	6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.	6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.	6 Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.	6) καὶ τὸ ἔλεός σου καταδιώξεταί με πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας τῆς ζωῆς μου, καὶ τὸ κατοικεῖν με ἐν οἴκῳ κυρίου εἰς μακρότητα ἡμερῶν^{^[10]}.	6 Thy mercy also shall follow me all the days of my life: and my dwelling shall be in the house of the Lord for a very long time.