23rd psalm final

8/14/2019 23rd Psalm FINAL

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A g u i d e p o s t s o u t r e A c h p u b l i c A t i o n

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The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: Heleadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths ofrighteousness for his names sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadowof death, I will fear no evil; forthou art with me;thy rod and thy staffthey comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of

mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil;

my cup runneth over.

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.


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c o n t e n t s

Introduction........................................................................................... 3

1. TheLordIsMyShepherd.................................................... 6

2. HeMakethMetoLieDown................................................. 8

3. HeLeadethMeBeside...........................................................10

4. HeRestorethMySoul............................................................12

5. HeLeadethMeinthePaths.............................................14

6. Yea,ThoughIwalkThrough.........................................16

7. ThyRodandThyStaff.........................................................18

8. ThouPreparestaTableBeforeMe...........................20

9. ThouAnointestMyHeadWithOil.......................... 22

10. SurelyGoodnessandMercy.......................................... 25

11. AndIWillDwellIntheHouse........................................ 27

12. HeKnowstheShepherd......................................................... 29


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urmodernword psychiatry comes rom twoGreek words that mean (1) Soul or mindand (2) treatment or healing. Together, they

mean the healing o the mind, or, as David mighthave said, the restoring o the soul. And only God

can heal the soul.So, the rst and most important psychiatry must beGods psychiatry, the essence o which I nd containedin the best-known passages o the Bible.

A man I admired came to see me. Many years ago,he started with his company at the bottom, but with

determination to get to the top. He had unusual abili-ties and energy and he used all he had. Today, he ispresident o his company and he has all the things thatgo with his position.

Yet, along the way, he let out something, and oneo the things he did not achieve is happiness. He was

a nervous, tense, worried, and sick man. Finally, hisphy- sician suggested that he talk with a minister.We talked o how his physician had given him

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prescriptions and he had taken them. Then, I took asheet o paper and wrote out my prescription or him.I prescribed the Twenty-Third Psalm, ve times a day

or seven days.I insisted that he take it just as I prescribed. He was

to read it the rst thing when he awakened in the morn-ing. Read it careully, meditatively, and prayerully.Immediately ater breakast, he was to do exactly thesame thing. Also immediately ater lunch, again ater

dinner, and, then nally, the last thing beore he wentto bed.

It was not to be a quick, hurried reading. He was tothink about each phrase, giving his mind time to soakup as much o the meaning as possible. At the end ojust one week, I promised, things would be dierent

or him.Ralph Waldo Emerson said, A man is what he

thinks about all day long. Marcus Aurelius said,A mans lie is what his thoughts make it. And theBible says, For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he(Proverbs 23:7).

The Twenty-Third Psalm is a pattern o thinking, andwhen a mind becomes saturated with it, a new way othinking and a new lie are the result. It contains only118 words. One could memorize it in a short time. Inact, most o us already know it. But its power comesnot rom memorizing the words, but rather in thinking

the thoughts.The power o this Psalm lies in the act that it repre-

sents a positive, hopeul, aithul approach to lie. We


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assume it was written by David, the same David whohad a black chapter o sin and ailure in his lie. Buthe spends no time in useless regret and morbid look-

ing back.Take the Twenty-Third Psalm as I prescribe, and

in seven days a powerul new way o thinking will bedeeply and rmly implanted within your mind. Andthat will bring marvelous changes in your thinking andgive you a new lie.

Charles L. Allen

From Gods Psychiatry by Charles L. Allen 1953 byFleming H. Revell Co. Used by permission. Printedin U.S.A.


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mmediately ater World War II, the AlliedArmies gathered up many hungry, homelesschildren and placed them in large camps.

There the children were abundantly ed and cared or.However, at night they did not sleep well. They seemedrestless and araid.

Finally, a psychologist hit on a solution. Ater thechildren were put to bed, they each received a sliceo bread to hold. I they wanted more to eat, more

was provided, but this particular slice was not to beeatenit was just to hold.

The slice o bread produced marvelous results. Thechild would go to sleep, subconsciously eeling hewould have something to eat tomorrow. That assurancegave the child a calm and peaceul rest.

In the Twenty-Third Psalm, David points out some-thing o the same eeling in the sheep when he says,The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. Instinc-

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tively, the sheep knows the shepherd has made plansor its grazing tomorrow. It knows the shepherd madeample provision or it today, so will he tomorrow. So

the sheep lies down in its old with, guratively speak-ing, the piece o bread in its hand.

This Psalm does not begin with a petition askingGod or something; rather it is a calm statement oactThe Lord is my shepherd. We do not have tobeg God or things.

St. Paul says, My God shall supply all your needs(Philippians 4:19). David puts it, The Lord is myshepherd, I shall not want. With that aith, we canwork today without worrying about tomorrow.

The Lord Is

My Shepherd;

I Shall Not Want


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nemorning, as I was hurriedly dressing to be-gin a ull and thrilling day, I elt a pain in myback. I mentioned it to my wie, but was sure

it would soon pass away. However, she insisted I seea physician, and he put me in a hospital.

In the hospital, I was very unhappy. I had no timeto waste in bed. My calendar was ull o good ac-tivities and the doctor had told me to cancel all myappointments or at least a month. A dear minister

riend o mine came to see me. He sat down and veryrmly said. Charles, I have only one thing to say toyouHemaketh me to lie down.

I lay there thinking about those words in the Twenty-Third Psalm long ater my riend had gone. I thoughtabout how the shepherd starts the sheep grazing about

4 a.m. The sheep walk steadily as they graze; they arenever still.

By 10 a.m., the sun is beaming down and the sheep

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are hot, tired, and thirsty. The wise shepherd knows thatthe sheep must not drink when it is hot, neither whenits stomach is lled with undigested grass.

So the shepherd makes the sheep lie down in greenpastures, in a cool, sot spot. The sheep will not eatlying down, so it chews its cud, which is natures wayo digestion.

Study the lives o great people, and you will ndevery one o them drew apart rom the hurry o lie

or rest and refection. Great poems are not writtenon crowded streets, lovely songs are not written inthe midst o clamoring multitudes; our visions o Godcome when we stop. The Psalmist said, Be still, andknow that I am God (Psalm 46:10).

Sometimes, God puts us on our backs in order to

give us a chance to look up: He maketh me to liedown. Many times we are orced, not by God, but bycircumstances o one sort or another, to lie down. Thatcan always be a blessed experience. Even the bed oan invalid may be a blessing in some ways, i he takesadvantage o it!

He Maketh Me to Lie

Down in Green Pastures


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hesheepis a very timid creature. Especially isit araid o switly moving water, which it hasgood reason to ear.

The sheep is a very poor swimmer because o its

heavy coat o wool. It would be like a man trying toswim with his overcoat on. The water soaks into thesheeps coat and pulls it down.

Instinctively, the sheep knows it cannot swim inswit current. The sheep will not drink rom a movingstream. The sheep will drink only rom still waters.

The shepherd does not laugh at the sheeps ears. Hedoes not try to orce the sheep. Instead, as he leads hissheep across the mountains and valleys, he is constantlyon the watch or still waters, where the thirst o thesheep may be quenched.

I there are no still waters available, while the sheep

are resting, the shepherd will gather up stones to ash-ion a dam across a small stream to orm a pool romwhich even the tiniest lamb may drink without ear.

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This petition o the Twenty-Third Psalm has won-derul meaning or us. God knows our limitations, andHe does not condemn us because we have weaknesses.

He does not orce us where we cannot saely and hap-pily go. God never demands o us work that is beyondour strength and abilities.

Instead, God is constantly ministering to our needs.He understands the loads upon our shoulders. He alsoknows where the places o nourishment and reresh-

ment are located.It gives one condence to know that even while he

is sleeping, the Shepherd is working to prepare or hisneeds tomorrow.

One o the nest ways to relieve tension in your lieis to picture still water clearly in your mind. Maybe a

little lake nestling among some pines.Maybe a tiny, cool spring on some hillside. Maybe

a calm sea with gentle, rippling waves.Ater the picture becomes clear, then start repeating

and believing, He leadeth me beside the still waters.Such an experience produces a marvelous surrender

and trust that enables one to ace the heat o the daycondently, knowing there is rereshing and relaxedpower awaiting under the leadership o One wiserthan we.

He Leadeth Me

Beside the Still Waters


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letterto me concludes with: Lie ended orme somewhere during these years . . . througha slow process. It took years to stife my aith;

but now it is entirely gone . . . I am only a shell. Perhaps

the shell. . . (is) gone.I would like to talk with the writer o that letter about

the meaning o Davids words, He restoreth my soulin the Twenty-Third Psalm. David remembered that, asthe sheep start out in the morning to graze, each takesa denite place in line and holds that same position all

during the day.However, some time during the day each sheep

leaves its place in line and trots over to the shepherd.The shepherd gently rubs the nose and ears, lightlyscratches the ears, and whispers in an ear o the sheep.Reassured and encouraged, the sheep takes its placein line again.

The human mind is like the human body. It can be

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wounded. Sorrow is a wound. It cuts deeply, but sor-row is a clean wound, and will heal, unless somethinggets into the wound, such as bitterness, sel-pity, or

resentment.Wrong is also a wound.When I violate my standards, I wound my mind,

and it is an unclean wound. Time will not heal thatwound. Gradually, a sense o guilt can destroy a lieand make it only a shell. There is only one Physician

who can heal.He restoreth my soul can have another meaning.

Moatt translates it to read, He revives lie in me.Like a watch, the human spirit can run down. We loseour drive and push. We become less willing to attemptthe dicult. We are crusaders no longer.

Like squeezing the juice rom an orange and leavingjust the pulp, lie has a way o squeezing the spirit outo a person. A person can become only a shell. Weeel the thrill o no new enthusiasm, the dawn o a newday leaves us cold and hopeless.

The Bible tells that God made the rst man, and

breathed into his nostrils the breath o lie; and manbecame a living soul (Genesis 2:7). And God has thepower and the willingness to breathe a new breath olie into one who has become lost.

He restoreth my soulHe revives lie in me.

He Restoreth My Soul


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ecometo the orks o lies road and cannot

decide which way to turn. There are decisionsto be made and yet it is so hard to decide. Wedo get lost. We need guidance, and condently Davidin the Twenty-Third Psalm declares, He leadeth me inthe paths o righteousness (in the right paths).

Doubtless, David remembers his own experiences

as a shepherd. He knew that the sheep has no sense odirection. A dog, a cat, or a horse, i lost, can usuallynd its way back. They seem to have a compass withinthemselves. Not so with a sheep.

The sheep has very poor eyes. It cannot see 10 or15 yards ahead. Palestinian elds were covered with

narrow paths over which the shepherds led their sheepto pasture. Some o these paths led to a precipice overwhich the simple sheep might all to its death.

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etmedraw an illustration rom the story o a

mother who collapsed when news came thather son had been killed. She went into herroom, closed the door, and would see no one.

Her minister came and sat down by her bedside, butshe would not speak to him. For a little while, all wasquiet, and then slowly he began saying, The Lord is

my shepherd, I shall not want. Phrase by phrase, hegently spoke the calming words o the Psalm, and shelistened.

When he came to that great phrase o comort, shejoined in and together they said, Yea, though I walkthrough the valley o the shadow o death, I will ear

no evil; or Thou art with me.A smile fickered on her lips, and she said, I see itdierently now.

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Henry Ward Beecher said that the Twenty-ThirdPsalm is the nightingale o the Psalms. The nightingalesings its sweetest when the night is darkest.

I have suggested to many people in the valley othe shadow that they get o by themselves in a quietplace. Quit struggling or a little while. Forget the manydetails. Stop your mind or a little while rom hurryingon to the morrow and to next year and beyond.

Just stop, become still and quiet, and in the midst

o your glen o gloom you will eel a strange andmarvelous Presence more powerully than you haveever elt it beore. Many have told me o eeling thatPresenceo hearing the nightingale singing sweetlyin the darkness.

Wherever my pathway leads, I will not be araid,

said David, and countless multitudes also have ridthemselves o ear. Why? For Thou art with me.There is power in His presence.

Yea, Though I WalkThrough The Valley

Of the Shadow of Death,

I Will Fear No Evil;

For Thou Art With Me


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onceknewa man who was hurt badly in acyclone. From then on, much o the joy o lie

was gone or him. Not because o his injury,but rather because he was araid that another cyclonemight come. There was nothing he could do.

He worried because there was still nothing he wouldbe able to do i he saw another cyclone cominguntilone day his children decided to build a cyclone cellar.

They completed it and the man looked at it with relaxedjoy. Now, no matter how hard a cyclone blew, he hadprotection. It was a great comort to him.

In the Twenty-Third Psalm we read, Thy rod andThy sta they comort me. The sheep is a helplessanimal. It has no weapon with which to ght. It is easy

prey to any wild beast o the eld. It is araid.But the shepherd carries a rod, which is a heavy,

hard club two to three eet long. When David wrote

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Thy Rod and Thy Staff

Comfort Me

this Psalm, he probably remembered his own need orsuch a rod. In I Samuel 17, David tells Saul how heslew a lion and a bear in protecting his sheep.

Also, the shepherd carried a sta, which measuredabout eight eet long. The end o the sta was turnedinto a crook. Many paths in Palestine were along thesteep sides o mountains. The sheep would lose itsooting and slip down, hanging helplessly on someledge below.

With his sta, the shepherd could reach down, placethe crook over the small chest o the sheep and litit back onto the pathway. The sheep instinctively iscomorted by the shepherds rod and sta.

It is the comort o knowing that the shepherd willbe able to meet an emergency.

Thy rod and thy stathat takes a lot o the dreadand ear o the uture out o my heart.


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nthepastureso the Holy Land grew poison-

ous plants that were atal to the sheep, i eaten.Also, there were plants whose sharp thorns

would penetrate the sot noses o the sheep and causeugly sores.

Each spring, the shepherd would take his mattockand dig out these enemies o the sheep, pile them up,

and burn them. Thus the pastures were sae or thesheep to graze. The pasture became, as it were, a tableprepared. The present enemies were destroyed.

We constantly must do this or our children. Whenmy children go and come rom school, a policewomanstands on the corner. She is there to protect them.

I want my city to exercise vigilance to protect ourschoolchildren rom drugs. I eel the same way aboutobscene literature and many other things that harm

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and destroy lie. We must constantly crusade againstthe enemies o lie.

It is not enough or the armer to plant his seed. He

must go through his crop again and again to destroythe weeds. So must the spirit o God in man militantlycrusade. It is not enough just to preach the Gospel. Wemust destroy the enemies.

Thou Preparest a Table

Before Me in the Presence

Of Mine Enemies


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willnever orget what the coach said to usthe rst day I went out or ootball practice.He told us that ootball is a rough game and, i

we expected to play it, we must also expect sometimesto get hurt.

So it is with lie. I you expect to live it, you must

also expect some bruises and hurts. This is just theway it is. And David, thinking o that act, said in theTwenty-Third Psalm, Thou anointest my head withoil; my cup runneth over.

Sometimes, as the sheep grazed, its head would becut by the sharp edge o a stone buried in the grass.

There were briars to scratch and thorns to stick.Then, some days the sheep had to walk steep pathsunder a hot, merciless sun. At the end o the day it

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would be tired and spent.So the shepherd would stand at the door o the old

and examine each sheep as it came in. I there were

hurt places, the shepherd would apply soothing andhealing oil. Instead o becoming inected, the hurtwould soon heal.

Also, the shepherd had a large earthen jug o water,the kind o a jar that kept the water rereshingly coolthrough evaporation. As the sheep came in, the shep-

herd would dip down into the water with his big cupand bring it up brimul. The tired sheep drank deeplyo the lie-quickening drat.

Remember how, as little children, we would bruise anger or stub a toe? We would come running to mama,who would kiss the hurt away. There was mystic heal-

ing in her loving concern.As older children, we still get hurt. A heart can be

broken, a conscience can ache like an inected tooth,eelings can be hurt, the world can deal cruelly andharshly. One can become discouraged and tired. Some-times, the burden o lie can be unbearable.

But also there is the tender Shepherd who under-stands the hurt o His children and is ever ready andable to minister to that hurt.

Harry Lauder, the amous Scottish comedian, wasgrie-stricken at the loss o his son. But he ound theShepherd. Later, he was giving a concert in Chicago,

beore an overfow crowd. He responded to repeatedencores, and nally he quieted the audience by saying,Dont thank me. Thank the good God who put the


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songs in my heart.Notice David said, Thou anointest my head with

oil, my cup . He didnt say our heads. It is the

singular, personal pronoun. All day long, the shepherdhas been concerned with the fock. But as they go intothe old, he takes them one by one.

I had a proessor in college, one year, who neverdid learn my name. Somehow, I never liked him verymuch. I read that Jesus said, He calleth his own sheep

by name (John 10:3). I like that. It makes me eelimportant.

The Psalmist said, He healeth the broken in heartHe telleth the number o the stars (Psalm 147:3,4). Thepower o the universe is power at my disposal.

Thou Anointest My Head

With Oil; My Cup Runneth Over


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anypeoplethink themselves into disaster. They

eel a little bad and they ll their minds withthe thought o being sick. They start out the

day with a dread o some bad happening. They lookto tomorrow with ear and trembling.

There is a very successul teacher I have read aboutwho teaches people to sit quietly and conceive o their

minds as being absolutely blank. Think o the mind asbeing a motion-picture screen.

Flash on the screen o the mind a picture o some-thing good you want to happen. Then take the pictureo. Flash it on again. Take it o. Repeat that processuntil the picture becomes clear and sharp.

Through that process, the picture becomes rmly es-tablished in ones conscious and subconscious mind.

Then the proessor tells the student to go to work

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to make that picture a reality, to maintain a spirit oprayer and aith.

It is amazing how completely and how quickly that

picture in the mind will be developed in lie.Quit predicting disaster or your world and your-

sel. Say with the Psalmist, This is the day which

the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad init (Psalm 118:24).

Begin the morning with hope. Plant this rmly inyour mind, Surely goodness and mercy shall ollow

me, and they will.

Surely Goodness and Mercy ShallFollows Me All the Days of My Life


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avidclosesthe Twenty-Third Psalm with this

mighty crescendo o aith.One o the heart-stirring passages in John

Bunyans Pilgrims Progress is when Mr. FeebleMind speaks o his hope o home. He says:

But this I am resolved on: to run when I can,to go when I cannot run, and to creep when Icannot go . . . . My mind is beyond the river thathath no bridge, though I am, as you see, but oa eeble mind.

Sometimes the greatest inspiration or living comeswhen your mind is beyond that river that hath nobridge. Were it not or that assurance, many experi-

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ences o lie would be unbearable. David did not havethe insights that we have. He never heard the words:I am the resurrection, and the lie: he that believeth

in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: andwhosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die(John 11:25,26).

Just knowing, intimately, a God like the One hedescribes in the Twenty-Third Psalm gave David assur-ance that at the close o lies day he would go home.

And I Will Dwell In the

House of the Lord for Ever


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hereisastoryI do not know its sourceoan old man and a young man on the sameplatorm beore a vast audience o people. A

special program was being presented. As a part o theprogram, each was to repeat rom memory the wordso the Twenty-Third Psalm. The young man, trainedin the best speech technique and drama, gave, in thelanguage o the ancient silver-tongued orator, the wordso the Psalm.

The Lord is my Shepherd . . . . When he had n-ished, the audience clapped their hands and cheered,asking him or an encore so that they might hear againhis wonderul voice.

Then the old gentleman, leaning heavily on his cane,stepped to the ront o the same platorm, and in a

eeble, shaking voice, repeated the same wordsTheLord is my shepherd . . . .

But when he was seated no sound came rom the lis-

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teners. Folks seemed to pray. In the silence, the youngman stood to make the ollowing statement:

Friends, he said, I wish to make an explanation.

You asked me to come back and repeat the Psalm, butyou remained silent when my riend here was seated.The dierence? I shall tell you. I know the Psalm, buthe knows the Shepherd!

This Psalm o David has sung its way across thebarriers o time, race, and language. For 25 centuries,

it has been treasured in the hearts o people. Today itis more beloved than ever beore.

The reason it lives? Not just because it is greatliterature. Because it tells that above all the strie andears, the hungers and weaknesses o mankind, thereis a Shepherd.

A Shepherd Who knows His sheep one by one,Who is abundantly able to provide, Who guides andprotects and, at the close o the day, opens the door tothe sheepoldthe house not made with hands.

In the quietness o the South Pole, Admiral Byrdsuddenly realized he was not alone. That assurance

caused aith to well up within him, and even thoughhe stood in the coldest cold on the ace o the earth,he elt a comorting warmth.

The Twenty-Third Psalm gives men that sameassurance. That is why it lives in the hearts o men,regardless o race or creed.


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What is the greatest power in the universe? Ibelieve it is a connection between the great God whoscattered the stars in the infnite night sky and the crea-ture made in His own image: man. It is the mechanismknown as prayer. Norman Vincent Peale

For more than 50 years, Guideposts Prayer Minis-tries has been praying or people seeking inspirationand solutions to specic needs and problems that comein by phone, regular mail, and through computer e-mails. On average, we receive approximately 50,000requests a month.

Each request receives personal attention rom ourvolunteers who pray or each individual, by name andby need. And as we lit these prayers up to God, it ismore than a responsibility; it is a privilege.

Although we are only the messengers, we knowthat God listens and hears our prayers. For the person

in need, we oer strength, aith and the hope or ananswered prayer.

As a Christian, I believe in the word o God andin the power o prayer. Please pray or us. Ask Godto give us strength, perseverance, and protection

rom evil. Also, please pray that in times o doubt,discomort and trouble, that He will guide us.

John, a soldier in Kuwait

Ministering Through Prayer . . .


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