by Jilene Scherenske
This is the tenth in a series of articles on Psalm 23. I have found this study to be a great blessing to my soul and trust it will be to yours also. The reader should be aware that I have used Phillip Keller’s book A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 as a resource. I refer often to his book and knowledge of the care of sheep. Then I take his insights, combine them with the Word of God and meditate thereon. This is the result of my meditations.
Psalm 23:5b
“ … thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.”
Let us remember that in this psalm David is remembering the entire year of the sheep. He began with the late fall, winter, and spring months where the sheep graze in the pastures at home. Then David brought us through the valleys and the climb toward summer pastures high in the mountains. Here there are fresh pastures, clear running springs, and intimate closeness to the shepherd. However, in the heat of the summer there is also a pesky enemy that needs to be dealt with speedily.
Keller tells us of a foreboding threat to the sheep when in the mountain pastures. Summertime is when all the flies and insects multiply. These parasites can pose a serious threat to the sheep. They are many and varied. “…there are warble flies, hot flies, heel flies, nose flies, deer flies, black flies, mosquitoes, gnats, and other minute winged parasites that proliferate at this time of year.” These will attack the sheep mercilessly and torture them, causing great harm.
I grew up a farm girl. Although we did not have sheep, we had cows and I well remember all the flies during the summer. They were relentless! The cows at least had a tail to swish them away, and they kept their tails busy at all times! I remember the smells of the barnyard, the flies covering our nearby house, and my mother’s constant and endless battle with the flies indoors! We all took turns with the fly swatter!
Let us consider the damage just one of these flies can cause for a sheep. The nasal fly, or nose fly will buzz about a sheep’s head and attempt to lay its eggs on the damp, mucous membranes of the sheep’s nose. If it is successful, those eggs will eventually hatch, and the larvae will work their way up the nasal passages into the sheep’s head. There they will burrow into the flesh and create an intense irritation and severe inflammation. This will cause the sheep to beat its head against a tree or rock or toss its head up and down for hours. Because of this fly the sheep will become frantic with fear and panic and will stamp their feet erratically and race around the pasture attempting to get away from the flies. Some run so much that they drop in exhaustion. They may try to seek shelter in nearby bushes. Often, they will refuse to graze in the open pastures. Keller says that in extreme cases a sheep will even kill itself in an effort to be free of the discomfort. These larvae can also cause blindness. It is interesting that once again we see that God has given sheep no defense abilities even against flies! They have no tail to swish away the flies. They cannot use their limbs for protection. They are completely and totally dependent upon the shepherd to help them combat this enemy. These pesky and dangerous flies have a devastating effect on the flock. They do not eat as they should and thus do not gain weight and become weak. Ewes, if panicked enough by these parasites, will stop producing milk which then means that the lambs stop growing.
So what can the shepherd do? At the first sign of flies, he applies an antidote to their heads. Often it will be a mixture of linseed oil, Sulphur, and tar which he smears over the noses and heads. This will keep the flies at bay. Suddenly the sheep’s behavior is once again calm, and they begin to feed again in peaceful contentment. But once is not enough. The ointment has to be applied over and over again. This the shepherd does most gladly. I remember, as I said before, the flies that would bother our cattle. My father frequently would take some type of effective bug spray and spray it over their backs to ward off the pests.
So how do we relate this to our lives? The flies represent all the pesky irritations in our lives. Irritations like that particular habit of your husband. It might be ever so little, but it irritates you none the less. It might be some quirk in your friend’s personality. Maybe it is a personality conflict with someone with whom you must work in close contact. Sometimes an irritation occurs because someone seems to always be getting the things or positions or accolades that you want. That envy can drive us batty! Or maybe you have someone in your life who continually puts you down. Sometimes the irritation can be an offense; something someone said that hurt or upset you. Perhaps the irritation is over the way the driver ahead of you is driving! Sometimes it is something little like a noise the water pipes make every time you run water. Or maybe it is something else in your house that needs fixing, but it never seems to get done.
What will happen if you choose to keep on being aggravated? Satan will use the aggravation to take over your thoughts more and more. Therefore, you will be less focused on Jesus and what His will is for your everyday life. Your devotions will be filled with distractions. You will lose your peace. You will stop growing spiritually and will actually become less and less Christlike; the fruit of the Spirit will wane. An irritation can become so bad that we would think of taking our life just to rid ourselves of it! Or it can make us dead spiritually – not losing our salvation, just no longer pleasing God but pleasing self.
So how do I fix these irritations? By applying the ointment of the Holy Spirit to our souls, not once, but continually. Satan, the world, our own flesh do not attack once and leave us alone; they are pests that keep on pestering us and will pester us until the day we die! We must keep on applying the Spirit to our life. Only He can give us the ability to respond to these many aggravations and annoyances in a Christ-like manner. Isa 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. When our mind is focused at all times on Jesus, then we have peace from these irritations. Ga 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. The fruit of the Spirit cannot grow in us when we allow these pests to continually bombard us.
How do I apply the ointment of the Holy Spirit? Firstly, by realizing that there is absolutely nothing that you can do about the irritations. We all are dumb helpless sheep, totally in need of our Shepherd. We must therefore surrender to Him. We must die to self. Galatians five goes on to say: And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Gal 5:24-25. A dead man cannot be bothered by irritations! So how do I die? By simply asking Jesus to apply His anointing oil of His Spirit to your situation. “Lord, I am bothered by ___________. I am unable to cope with this pesky thing. It is affecting my mind and my focus on You and what You want for my life. Please take my mind and center it on You. Return to me the peace I had before this irritation came into my life. I cannot control my thoughts, but You can. Remove these aggravating thoughts from my mind. Give me the faith to leave them with You and trust that You will work Your will in this situation. If You purpose to leave the irritation in my life, then give me the patience I need to live with it and enable me to accept it cheerfully, knowing that Your will is always best, and You are using it to effect something wonderful in my life. I know You are more than able to remove it, but I am willing to have it stay if it be Your will. Thank You for whatever You choose to do with this aggravation.” When you have done this from the heart than this will be your theme: Ga 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Now you can continue growing into Christlikeness and walking victoriously with Jesus.
I have such a pest in my life (of course there have been many!). It is something my husband does that is not a sin, but, if I allowed it to, it would drive me batty because it is exactly opposite of my personality. There was a time in my life where that is exactly what it was doing – driving me batty. I thought about it many times every day. I would steam over it, be angry about it. I would attempt to confront him in many ways, always trying to manipulate him toward my way. That would only end in an argument with both of us being wounded! Finally, one day I knew what I had to do – I had to surrender it completely to Jesus. I did that, telling Jesus exactly how I felt about the whole situation (as if He did not know), attempting, I think, to convince Jesus that my way was better! But then, I surrendered! I told Jesus that I realized that allowing this to annoy me was only harming me. I wanted a closer walk with Him, and I knew that was not about to happen if I kept on being annoyed. I gave the whole situation over to Jesus, even to the point of telling Him that if He chose to not change my husband in this regards, I would be okay with that. But I also told Jesus that He was going to have to effect this change in my heart because I knew I could not drum it up by myself. That prayer was probably first prayed 20 years ago! Steve has not changed! Yes, I have had to pray that prayer more than once, but now I pray it as soon as I feel the irritation rising within me. I suppose it has been a thorn in my flesh, but by learning to surrender it, it no longer aggravates me. I am over the hill in love with my husband and it no longer matters that this thing still exists! It has, after all, taught me well how to be dead to my flesh and my ways and how to live allowing Jesus to work in me to give me peace and love despite its presence. For the sheep, the flies never went away, but when the ointment was present, they could live in peace.
As we stated in the beginning there are many more parasites than just nasal flies. There is another minute, microscopic parasite that multiplies in the summertime. Commonly referred to as “scab”, it is highly contagious and causes the wool to fall off and scabs to appear on the skin. This disease is transmitted by direct contact, and since the sheep love to rub their heads together in an affectionate manner, the disease readily spreads amongst the flock. Once again, the cure is to apply an ointment, but because this pest can attack any part of the sheep’s body the shepherd usually dips the entire sheep, submerging it in a solution until its entire body is soaked. One can only imagine the cost of such a process. Dipping tanks had to be purchased and enough solution to dip the entire bodies of the whole flock. And then there was the expense of time and labor. Special attention had to be made for the head, so with great care the shepherd would apply this solution to the head by hand. This may have been also what David was thinking about when he penned “Thou anointest my head with oil…” In Palestine in the old days they used a mixture of olive oil and sulfur and spices. Imagine the amount of olive oil needed to cover entire bodies of the entire flock!!
So, what is scab in our lives? It is sin, sin that comes to us as we rub up against the world. It comes through the ideas of the world and our own flesh. It is sin in our thought life. All sin begins there – in our minds. Then it travels to our heart and eventually, to our actions. That is why scripture warns us repeatedly to guard our heart/thoughts.
Pr 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
Mt 12:35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. Mt 12:34 … for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
Mr 7:21-23 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
Jas 1:14-15 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
We have a multitude of things before us that seek to influence our thoughts. Perhaps one of the giants is television. Our nightly news is filled with liberal ideas and seeks to inform us only of their point of view. It is no longer news; it is brain washing. But another giant is the internet. It, too, seeks in many ways to deceive us and to entice us to sin. Games which take our time away from the Lord, immoral web sites, information of all sorts, on every topic imaginable – much of which is full of lies, sites enticing us to buy what we don’t need, teaching us violence, hatred, prejudice, greed, disrespect, and self-love. On every website we go, even the godly ones to do Bible research, for instance, we are bombarded with all sorts of advertisements and often, these ads are so deceitful that we might easily click on them unintentionally. These all lead us away from those things which are true, honest, just, pure, lovely; things and thoughts that are valuable and worthy of praise (Phil 4:8). When we allow the world to contaminate us, then we will become ugly, just like a sheep with scab. Ugly on the inside and eventually ugly on the outside also! Two huge things happen when we allow our mind to be taken captive by any type of wrong thoughts. It will take away our fruit, we will no longer seek to spread the gospel, it will not be important to us to introduce others to Jesus, and, secondly, we won’t grow spiritually into Christlikeness. And that is exactly satan’s goal – to use the world’s influence to make us impotent.
How can we avoid scab in our lives? We cannot! Only the Shepherd can protect us from it. We must beg Him continually to give us a consciousness of the Presence of the Holy Spirit, keeping our mind fixed on Him (Isa 26:3). We must plead with Him every day to show us our sin. Ps 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. We must begin our day focused on Him, reading His Word, studying and meditating upon it, and spending time talking to Him, inviting the Holy Spirit to control us that day. When the world slips us a thought, then we must examine that thought in light of His Word. Does it pass the test of being truth? Honest? Just? Pure? Lovely? Is it valuable for my spiritual life as well as my physical and emotional life? Is it a good report or does it slyly attempt to deceive and destroy something good? Is it something the Bible would say we should praise? If one is not in the Word daily in a quality, meaningful way, then comparing worldly concepts with what the Bible says will be difficult. The Holy Spirit will use what we have learned from scripture to bring us truth. Imagine being completely submersed in the fountain of the Holy Spirit! Dipped head to toe! Then completely protected by that dipping from the scab of sin. What a wonderful picture!
As you might imagine, sheep do not wholeheartedly succumb to the process of dipping! They kick and struggle with the shepherd. Like them, we too can be stubborn and refuse the loving aid the Holy Spirit wants so desperately to bring us. If we want to be free of the disease that the world attempts to give us, we must be diligent. Hebrews 11:6 says, But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Two things in that verse I want to highlight. One, just as we had faith to accept Him as our Savior, so we must have faith that He will work in our lives to prevent this scab. Two, God is the Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. That word ‘diligent’ in the Greek means to “zealously seek for something with all of one’s heart, strength, and might. It presents the picture of one who seeks something so passionately and determinedly that he literally exhausts all his power in his search…..[it has] the idea of being hard-working, attentive, busy, constant, and persistent in one’s devotion to what he or she is doing…” [Sparkling Gems from the Greek Vol 1, Rick Renner, Harrison House, 2003 Pg102] Would you say this is what your daily fellowship with the Lord looks like? Is this how you are pursuing your walk with Christ? Are you passionate about allowing the Holy Spirit to control your every thought? Job said, How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin. Job 13:23 Every day I beg God to show me my pride and my sin. My flesh wants desperately to hide them from me! Then when He reveals my sin I quickly agree with Him and confess it. In no way do I want the parasite of sin to lodge in my heart!
Praise the Lord! Even when we are lackadaisical, or even completely turning away from the Lord, yet He comes searching for us, encouraging us to come unto Him, stimulating our minds with thoughts of Him. It is never about what we do, it is always about how He enables us, leads us, guides us. I love the following hymn. It is a great prayer to sing every day. [May the Mind of Christ My Savior by Kate B. Wilkinson]
May the mind of Christ my Savior
Live in me from day to day,
By His love and pow’r controlling
All I do and say.
May the Word of Christ dwell richly
In my heart from hour to hour,
So that all may see I triumph
Only through His pow’r.
May the peace of Christ my Savior
Rule my life in every thing,
That I may be calm to comfort
Sick and sorrowing.
May the love of Jesus fill me,
As the waters fill the sea;
Him exalting, self abasing,
This is victory.
May I run the race before me,
Strong and brave to face the foe,
Looking only unto Jesus
As I onward go.
May His beauty rest upon me
As I seek the lost to win,
And may they forget the channel,
Seeing only Him.
As we continue on in the seasons of the life of a sheep we now move into autumn. The nights become cooler, some even see frost. The insects begin to disappear. The leaves are ablaze with color. The earth is preparing for winter. Changes occur in the flock as well. It becomes mating season and, as is true of many creatures, the rams battle for possession of the ewes. Here is what happens: Their necks actually swell and grow strong. They strut about proudly and fight furiously for the ewe. They do this by crashing their heads into another ram’s head and ram their bodies into that of their competitor’s body. This will go on all day and all night. Each ram competes to become the winner. As you can imagine, many rams are wounded and badly bruised, some are even maimed and killed. What can the shepherd do to alleviate this in-born competitiveness? He applies generous amounts of axle grease to the head and nose of each ram. Then when they butt heads the lubricant causes them to bounce off one another, softening the impact! The ram appears to feel rather stupid and frustrated! But it has the effect of dissipating the fierce competition so that little harm is done.
How does this relate to Christians? Unfortunately, we live in this fleshly body and sometimes we are tempted to subtly compete with one another so that we can gain the place we desire. Sometimes jealousy is involved, sometimes it is just a desire to appear to be better than another. Sometimes there is actual rivalry with another. These battles create offences, wounds, hurts, and ill-will amongst the body. Unbelievers looking in will say to themselves, “Why should I become a Christian? They are no different than what I and my friends are right now.” Our pride, our stubbornness of “I’ll forgive when she apologizes to me first.” is anything but a good example. The pride of our thoughts that make us think we are better than another, our pride that makes us intolerant and judgmental of someone who is slightly different than we are, or thinks a bit differently – these all create havoc in our bodies, the church. Paul, when writing to the Philippians, encouraged unity and love over and over again. Php 1:27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; Php 2:1 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, 2 Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. 3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. 4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
What does Jesus do for us to solve this problem? Once again, He applies the precious ointment of the presence of His Holy Spirit to our lives. He did that just before His crucifixion. Remember some of the disciples were having a fleshly battle arguing about who should be first in the kingdom of heaven? Jesus answered that conversation by promising them the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, saying that He would bring them peace. He went on to say that His people would be known for their love for one another. When the Holy Spirit is allowed to control a person, that person will be satisfied and peaceful and will exhibit a love for others, patience with others and generosity, both materially and of spirit. A forgiving spirit will prevail, contentment of where one is will be all one needs.
In the East it was a custom to anoint the head of a guest with oil which was great refreshment to them because it added smoothness to the touch, brightness to the sight, and a pleasant smell. This was considered giving the guest great respect. Although in our American culture that does not sound very nice, yet in their culture it was precious. It made the guest happy and made him feel very welcome and honored. The anointing of the Holy Spirit in our lives does the same. He refreshes our soul continually, if He is allowed to control us than we become welcome and pleasant to those around us. It is the oil of gladness. It is the perfumed oil of God’s grace that is poured out on our souls to purify us, adorn us, strengthen us, and secure us and uplift us. The Holy Spirit introduces us to the Savior and woos us to Jesus (John 15:26, Rev 22:17); He convicts of sin (John 16:8); He quickens us (Rom 8:11, 1Pet 3:18); He dwells in us (Rom 8:9, John 14:17, 1 Cor 3:16, 6:19, 2 Tim 1:14); He helps us pray (Rom 8:26); He enables us to minister/do the will of God (2Cor 3:6); He speaks through us (2 Pet 1:21). The Holy Spirit longs for us. James 4:5 says, Jas 4:5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? The Greek word for lusteth means that He has “an intense desire, a craving, a hunger, an ache, a yearning for something, a longing or pining for something….it describes an intense, abnormal, excessive yearning.” [Sparkling Gems from the Greek Vol 1 by Rick Renner pg 91, Harrison House] Our great and wonderful Shepherd, because of His death, has given us His very own Spirit to indwell us. This Spirit longs to have control of us with a longing we cannot imagine. When He controls us, we live in perfect harmony with those around us. No competitiveness exists. No jealousies. No envying. Just boundless love for one another.
Ps 133:1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! 2 It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments;
Let us acknowledge it: Jesus is in complete control of all of our circumstances. If we find ourselves in a lesser position than we desire, we must remember we are there because that’s where Jesus wants us right now. If He wants us in another position, then He will make it happen and it will happen graciously, not competitively. There will not be any hard feelings, there will only be love and peace amongst the brethren. If I am not where I wish to be, then perhaps I need to learn humility and gain compassion for others who are also there. If there is one who seems bent on battling with me, then perhaps I need to learn how to practice forgiveness. Wherever I am, whatever state I am in, I must realize that I am there because Jesus Himself has placed me there, and, for whatever reason, it is the best place for me to be at that time. I must learn contentment – even when trouble surrounds me. I must learn how to praise and be thankful for those times, for those places that I would not have chosen.
Realizing we are dumb sheep, completely incapable of caring for ourselves wisely, incapable of making wise decisions, of protecting ourselves, of making ourselves happy – realizing that we have absolutely nothing, no sufficiency in ourselves, this will finally bring us to the point of living in the fulness of Jesus.
Feasting in His Presence our cup overflows even in the face of our enemies. Confidence in Him and His abilities and His love for me. Confident He will never fail me – I can expect nonending care and love! More than enough! My cup overflows with Him! With His Presence. With His gracious care!
Application
Remember the nasal flies? Those irritations and aggravations of life? Have you surrendered every one of your personal pests to the Lord? If not, I urge you to do so now so that your fellowship with Him is not hindered; so that your growth into greater Christlikeness is not halted.
What about the scab that is in your life? We all have it, sin that is. Temptation abounds because satan wants desperately to trip us up, to destroy our salt and light so that we are no longer an influence for good for Jesus. But, because of the precious anointing oil of the Holy Spirit, we can live victoriously! We simply must beg God to reveal to us our sin and then confess it. Then go on to live in the control of the Holy Spirit Who will always be faithful to keep us from sinning more.
Look into your soul. Are you satisfied with your present circumstances or are you secretly wishing you could obtain another place? Realize that where you are now is from the Lord and He completely controls those circumstances. 1 Chronicles 29:12 Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Ask Him to show you what He wants you to learn right now. Search your heart for any competitiveness or jealousy or envy or covetousness and ask for forgiveness and for Jesus to replace it with love.
All of the pests of our lives and the scabs of sin and the competitiveness of our flesh can be relieved by surrendering to the control of the Spirit. I have told you that every morning as I begin my fellowship time with Jesus I begin by praying Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Ps 139:23-24 In the Hebrew the word ‘search’ means to dig and penetrate. Make sure that is what you want God to do, it is imperative that He dig down deep into the recess of your soul to find even a crumbs worth of sin that lurks there. The Hebrew word for ‘try’ means to be tried like gold is tried in fire. It is an intense proving. That is serious stuff!! But I like the Hebrew meaning of the word ‘lead’ most of all. It means that He leads as if I am being transported in a wheelchair! I love that! I love that He wants to lead me into a place where there is absolutely no will of my own, where He is making all the decisions for where I go. That is the greatest desire of my heart – to be completely driven by Him, completely living in the control of the Holy Spirit.
“…my cup runneth over.” Blessing galore! Help and even pleasures. My cup, my soul, is extremely full! The Lord, as my Father, and my Savior, is shepherding me through all of my life with all of His limitless abilities! He has given me His Spirit so that I can understand all that He is doing for me – all because He loves me so! Because of His superior care, yea perfect care of me, I lack nothing, absolutely nothing! He has seen to it all of my life that I have whatever I need…and has given me time and time again much more than I need. His protection of me is so much better than any alarm system! He knows the minds of all my enemies! He knows when they are about to strike and He knows what their plan of deception is, and He keeps me from them. Thus, I am enabled to walk about in peace and perfect contentment. He satisfies my thirst with Himself and, oh, what a joy that is! It brings more joy than anything else could ever attempt to bring to my soul. When I go astray, get defeated in my walk with Him, He graciously and mercifully brings me back to Himself, not with rebuke but with loving words. He leads me every day along those paths that lead to even greater intimacy with Him; paths that are rich beyond measure with Himself. He may take me through valleys that can be filled with dangers, but He amazingly protects me thoroughly in those valleys. He gives me strength – His strength to climb out of the valley. He puts me on the mountain top and feeds me with lavish food – Himself. Yes! My cup overflows with His goodness to me! Abundance of food, protection, His continual presence, abundance of the Holy Spirit living within me and working in me are only a bit of His goodness to me. As the Spirit refreshes me with abundance, it must naturally overflow to those around me. They cannot help but see and wonder at our joy, our kindness, our countenance that betrays us as having spent time with Jesus. There is only one reason our cup would not overflow. Sin. Sin cracks our cup, makes it leaky so that it cannot run over! Let us make sure we are keeping short accounts. Let us continually ask God to reveal sin to us and then quickly ask for forgiveness so that we are the vessels He wants us to be – cups that overflow to others.