Get Set To Be Hunted

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me… – Ps 23:6

Some of the most blessed truths of scripture are hidden in plain sight – in the most popular passages and verses that we quote often and feel we know like the backs of our hand.

Thanks to a quaint church tradition, Psalm 23:6 is quoted more times than any other scriptural verse (except of course 2Co 13:14); yet it has a most blessed treasure embedded in it.

The word translated “follow” in Ps 23:6 has a more aggressive sense in the Hebrew. It’s a judicial term (analogous to a warrant issued by a judge ordering the arrest of an offender). It’s a military term (to “ambush” or “waylay”). And finally, it’s a hunting term (to “pursue”, to “track down”, to “persecute”).

WOW! You are in some serious trouble Beloved.

The Psalmist is telling you that the Chief Shepherd/Judge of the Earth has issued a bench warrant on your head. He has commanded a certain “GOODNESS” and another “MERCY” to hunt you down. They have been ordered to waylay and ambush you – “ALL THE DAYS OF YOUR LIFE!”

Stop! Turn around! Look who is pursuing you! Do you see them now? Are they “ancestral curses”? NO! Are they spirits from “ancient altars”? NO! Are they forces from neglected “spiritual covenants”? Again NO!

Even if those constructs exist, I don’t think they can outrun these two divinely commissioned emissaries. Heads up Beloved, they that be for you are more than they that be against you.

You shall win. You shall succeed. You shall rule. Because the LORD is your shepherd, you shall not want!

We’ll round up our two-week meditations on the most-beloved Psalm with this updated rendition of its last verse:

Surely, (without a doubt or without fail) Goodness and Mercy shall PURSUE, PERSECUTE, CHASE, DOG, and HARASS me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

AMEN and AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

Are You Drinking From Your Saucer?

Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. – Ps 23:5

Michael Combs, in the 2^nd stanza of the classic poem, “I’m Drinking From My Saucer” writes:

“I thank God for his blessings,

and the mercies He’s bestowed.

I’m drinking from my saucer,

‘Cause my cup has overflowed.”

The Psalmist’s word picture in the phrase, “my cup runs over” is not just speaking of abundance but of EXCESS. It speaks of receiving more than is necessary. That is the kind of God we serve; He’s the One who does exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think (Eph 3:20).

King David has first-hand experience in this. When he told the prophet Nathan of his plans to build a temple for the LORD, he received a most overwhelming and unexpected response: the LORD assured him that not only would his son build the temple, but there would always be a “son of David” on the throne forever – he would be the first and ONLY king to have an eternal dynasty!

In his response, David said, “LORD All-Powerful, my family and I don't deserve what you have already done for us, and yet you have promised to do even more. Is this the way you usually treat people?” 2Sa 7:18,19 (CEV).

Yes, David, that’s the way God treats people. The LORD is “full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in mercy and truth.” (Ps 86:15); He says if you open wide your mouth, He will fill it, (Ps 81:10). He will give you much more that you ask. He will anoint your head with oil, and your cup shall run over! (Ps 23:5).

Hallelujah!

“And as I go along life’s way,

I’m reaping better than I sowed.

I’m drinking from my saucer,

‘Cause my cup has overflowed.”

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

Masochistic Christianity

...your rod and your staff they comfort me.. – Ps 23:4

“These rules may seem to be wise as part of a made-up religion in which people pretend to be humble and punish their bodies. But they don't help people stop doing the evil that the sinful self wants to do.” Col 2:23 (ERV)

Have you ever heard that “Christianity is a call to suffering”? Pious as this may sound, it’s an appealing bait that has carnal religion hidden beneath it.

Not too long after the Apostles and early church fathers died, the Church slipped into a deviant form of religiosity that equated piety with abasement and encouraged any outward manifestation of humiliation, suffering, hunger and other forms of “mortification of the flesh” as worthy spiritual disciplines.

Saints attained fame and notoriety for the amount of pain and suffering they endured in caves, monasteries, mountaintops, etc. Unfortunately, vestiges of this religious masochism (the tendency to invite and enjoy misery), still remains with us today. And one of it is manifested in the way some Christians define the Psalmist’s “rod and staff”’; (Ps 23:4).

 

It’s said that the “rod and staff” are instruments used by God to correct and discipline us through affliction and chastisement. It’s from this thinking that we get the shepherd-will-break-the-stubborn-sheep’s-legs doctrinal fallacy. No right-thinking shepherd will deliberately cripple his own sheep because it’s ‘stubborn’. And if human shepherds don’t, the Good Shepherd doesn’t.

Only a psychologically unsound (or ‘religious’) mind will say that a buffeting rod is comforting.  Even Heb 12:11 freely admits that “No chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous.” So if the Psalmist says the rod and staff comfort him, it’s because the rod and staff are for defending and protecting him, not for punishing him.

Does our Shepherd correct? Yes He does. With what does He correct? He corrects us with His Word! Not with sickness, pain and loss; because we’re not “as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle,” (Ps 32:9). We’re the sheep of the Good Shepherd; and His sheep hear His voice, and He knows them, and they follow Him. (Jn 10:27)

Hallelujah.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

The Nature of Biblical Faith

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death... – Ps 23:4

Biblical Faith is not the denial of facts, but the refusal of that fact to define your reality.

A Believer who is diagnosed of a disease is not expected to shout back at the doctor. The doctor isn’t lying with that diagnoses. Nevertheless, life experience makes us to know that the fact that someone isn’t lying doesn’t mean they are telling the truth.

What is the truth? The truth is whatever God says in His Word.

Faith is not “fake it until you make it”. if you’re faking it then you obviously don’t believe it. Faith acknowledges the Facts, and then speaks Truth to the facts.

The Psalmist accepted the grim, despondent realty of the valley he was in; but even in that acknowledgment he affirmed the Truth of God’s word.

The Lord has said that He will never leave you, nor forsake you. (Heb 13:5). He has promised you that though many are the afflictions of the righteous; He will deliver you out of them ALL.

Hallelujah!!! That’s how biblical faith speaks.

Even if I walk through a valley as dark as the grave, I will not be afraid of any danger, because you are with me. Ps 23:4 (ERV) 

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

God’s Path of Righteousness

...He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. – Ps 23:3

Greetings Beloved, and welcome to our continuing meditations on the most-loved “Shepherd Psalm”.

The principle of righteousness is often conflated by many, even in the body of Christ today; and this can be dangerous for those who do not understand it.

Speaking of the Jews in Rom 10:3, Apostle Paul explains that “Because they disregarded the righteousness from God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to God's righteousness.” (HCSB-r)

This tells us that there’re two types of righteousness – God’s righteousness and man’s. The latter takes on many forms depending on the religion or organisation.

Whereas Man’s definition of righteousness is moral rectitude and uprightness, the Bible’s (i.e. God’s) definition of righteousness is right-standing with God. Whereas Man’s righteousness is based on things people do or not do, God’s righteousness is based on what a person is in relation to Him.

There’s no such thing as “moral rectitude” with respect to God. All of our acts of righteousness are as filthy rags before Him. Because “all have sinned”, there’s nothing we can claim to do that’ll qualify us to stand before the One who is of a purer eyes than to behold iniquity. (Is 64:6; Rom 3:23; Hab 1:13).

This is why Biblical righteousness is not right-doing but God’s doing. God’s righteous is imputed as a result of faith in Christ, and not attained by a checklist of moral deeds.

People in the church who do not know this distinction, can live moral, commendable lives, yet still be headed for condemnation.

Beloved, we are called to seek first the kingdom of God and HIS righteousness (Mt 6:33), not ours. The world’s religions, cultures and traditions may try fruitlessly to attain God’s standard of righteousness; but we who are His sheep have the assurance from Ps 23:3 that He’ll lead us in the path of (His) righteousness. Not for our sake, but “for His name's sake”.

HALLELUJAH!!!

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

Receive His Restoration

He restores my soul. – Ps 23:3

Is 53:6 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way;”

Each one of us has a past that we’re either running from or/and are ashamed of. We all came into Christ, battered and abused by the Devil. Even though our spirits were recreated anew in Christ, our souls still remain the same – tortured, scarred and hardened.

Are you faint and weak?

Do you feel like giving up?

Have you lost sight of the joy of Christian fellowship?

The LORD, the Chief Shepherd promises His returning sheep a restoration of their souls.

He’ll fetch you back again, He’ll relieve you, He’ll refresh and comfort you.

How does the LORD restore?

Ps 17:7 says “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul”.

The word, “convert” here is the same Hebrew word (shub) translated “restore” in Ps 23:3. It means to return, to bring back, to restore, refresh, repair…

Every time you go to the Word, regardless of what or where you’re reading, watch out for God’s restoration. Be conscious of His love, His promises and the consolations of His Spirit.

There’s joy and full restoration in the Word. Receive and enjoy it today.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN