PREVIOUS SERMON  (sorted accordingly,starting from recent )

We turn to focus on the next phrase in this our inspired Psalm 23: ‘You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.’ To understand this we once again draw on the experience of those who know from first-hand experience of keeping sheep, the problems of these fascinating animals that are likened to those problems of us human beings. Sheep, we are told, are especially irritated by flies and other winged parasites which buzz around their heads and make their lives a misery disturbing bites and deposition of parasites. The Handbook of Bible Times and Customs lists over twenty varieties of flies that can be found in the Middle East –warble flies, nose flies and so on. ‘Sheep are especially troubled by nose flies’, says one shepherd, for they ‘buzz about and around the sheep’s head, attempting to deposit their parasitic eggs on the damp, mucous membranes of the sheep’s nose.’ Do you know or can you imagine the amount of deadly parasites that seek to deposit themselves on us. So irritating can be the effect that sometimes a sheep will beat its head against a tree or a rock wall in order to find relief. Do you know the amount of irritations that humans suffer without knowing that these irritations are coming from deadly parasites and germs that have found their ways into our body, but God saves us from their deadly blows unknown to us? Which is why an alert shepherd, when he sees this taking place, goes to the sheep and bathes its head in olive oil which could be likened to anointing the head? This bathing of the sheep’s head with olive oil results, almost immediately, in a dramatic change: Gone is the frenzy and restlessness caused by the flies and soon the sheep begins to quietly graze or lie down in peaceful contentment; which is exactly what the anointing of the Holy Spirit of God is meant to do to us. Perhaps at this very moment you are facing an endless bombardment of irritations and difficulties and stresses that are causing you to become worried, downcast and fainthearted. All you have to do is Draw Near to our Lord Jesus –your/our heavenly Shepherd and He will grant you calm and peace in life. In this generation of ours, one sure way to draw near to our Lord Jesus Christ is to read His Words in the Scripture and in the Gospel and begin to practice them. It is important for us to spend some moments in quiet prayer and contemplative meditations and let Him bathe your hurts in the soothing oil of His Holy Spirit. So with all of this divine knowledge and wisdom, let us rise and go our way in the knowledge that no matter how frustrating life’s circumstances and situations, that the divine Shepherd is only a prayer distance away from you, seek Him and try draw close to Him to assist and help you. It is important to know that Worldliness is always drawing us away from our God, so let us always make efforts to resist the attractive dragging of worldliness on us in an effort to push us away from God knowing that we are never lost when we are close and near to our Lord God Almighty!

Some commentators believe that when David wrote the words, ‘You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies’; he had in mind the events about which we have read in today’s passage in v28-29 of 2 Samuel 17 and bear in mind that this is not Moses and his people’s wilderness, here we are talking of another wilderness experience in King David’s time. Driven into the wilderness by his own son Absalom’s rebellion, David and his followers and loyalties became desperately hungry, thirsty and weary in their hiding place. God came to his aid, however, and directed to him three men–Shobi, Machir and Barzillai –who ‘brought beddings and bowls’ (so that David could wash and refresh himself) as well as ‘articles of pottery …wheat and barley, flour and roasted grain, beans and lentils, honey and curds, sheep, and cheese …’ it is interesting to know that Shobi ben Nahash was the son of King Nahash of Ammon and brother of his predecessor Hanun who was deposed by the Israelites under King David, Shobi was made king of Ammon in Hanun’s place and became a loyal vessel of David’s and showed kindness to David, Machir on the other hand was of Manassite (son of Manasseh, grandson of Joseph and father of Gilead) family who helped David when he was in exile. You can imagine how King David must have rubbed his eyes in astonishment to see clearly as he saw God’s unexpected providence for him in preparation of a ‘table in the presence of his enemies’ as Shobi, Machir and Barzillia gave these gifts to him in the time of his greatest need and desire just as He often does it for us in our own time of need. Can you cast your mind now back at this moment to something ‘special’ that God has done for you to demonstrate His tender Love and care? I can. Pause to recall it now–how sad that we forget such times so soon as time passes by. Too bad and unfortunate! Let us begin to learn how to cast our minds back to all the events of divine providence that God has made available for us! You see, God never does anything ‘special’ in our lives just for the sake of the passing hour–it is done also as a pledge for the future. It is as though God is saying: I’ll do this for you now, not only to meet your need, but that you might always know you are the object of My love heart.’ Do we always see our God in this light? And I say again –what a tragedy that we forget so soon. That is why new dangers startle us into fear and dismay because we do not use what He has done for us of old to encourage ourselves in another time of need believing that as He did it of old, He will also do it of new and of the future to come. We have forgotten the past mercies! I don’t doubt that David’s calmness and confidence in God was due, in no small measure, to the fact that whenever he faced a new problem, he remembered vividly the past hour deliverance. So let us always learn to act like David believing God will provide for us according to our needs in line with His Will for us!

Do you see the importance of being prayed for by a real anointed person in life! Let’s continue meditating on the thought that our Shepherd has gone before us in life, anticipating every problem, need and preparing a ‘table’ for us in the midst of our enemies. This state of our being in life whereby our Creator prepared a table for us is similar to what we call predestination which is why no matter how poor everybody is in life; God has made it possible for us to be fed in life. A classic example of the way in which the divine Shepherd ministers to His children is seen in the passage before us today. Lord Jesus tells Simon Peter that Satan has sought to tempt him and sift him like wheat, but that He has prayed that Peter’s faith might not fail in that moment of overwhelming testing. Where would I have been, where would you have been, but for that blessed ministry of the divine Shepherd –going before us, anticipating our circumstances and supportively working and praying for us, so that we might not be overtaken by the enemy? If He did not minister to us in this way …. Where should we be? What would have been of us? This does not mean, of course, that the responsibility for our safety and security rests entirely on Him, we too have a responsibility –which is to make sure that we keep as close to Him as we possibly can. This is the one sure place of safety that each and every one of us need to be in. ‘It is always the distant sheep, the roamers, the wanderers’, says one shepherd, ‘which are picked off by predators in an unsuspecting moment which is why we must make sure we do not wander away from Him. Sometimes the sheep is so overtaken by fear that it is too frightened to even cry out. It might give a plaintive bleat (sounding sad and mournful) before its blood is spilled.’ The divine Shepherd wants to forestall every calamity that would come our way, and strives to keep our lives free from serious dangers and hazards. And, of course, our lives will be danger-free if we stay close to Him, where He can provide for us and protect us.

In The Song of Our Syrian Guest which is a commentary on Psalm 23 by a Syrian first published in 1904 by Faduel Moghabghab a Syrian shepherd, the shepherd, when talking of ancient Bible customs and the ways of eastern shepherds, states quite categorically that: ‘There is no higher task for a shepherd than to go from time to time to study places, examine the grass type whether poisonous or not and find a good and safe feeding place for his sheep by chasing away dangerous snakes and animal preys on the grazing point.’ There are many poisonous plants in the grass and the shepherd must find them and avoid them so that his sheep doesn’t mistakenly graze on them. It has been known for a shepherd to lose hundreds of sheep in one day by failing to take the necessary precautions in this matter and as such shepherds do not like having those ugly experiences of losing their sheep repeated in great numbers, so they try guide against it. Another observer of eastern customs says: ‘There are vipers’ holes from which the poisonous snakes emerge to bite the noses of the sheep injecting deadly killer venoms into them. The shepherd must burn the fat of hogs at the holes to bring out the snakes and then either kill them or drive them away.’ Hogs are domesticated pigs, especially the castrated male reared for slaughter. In addition to these dangers around the feeding ground, there are holes and caves in the hillside in which live wolves and jackals, species of dangerous wild dogs abode. The bravery and heroism of the shepherd reaches its highest point as he works to close up these dens with stones, or confront and kill the wild beasts with his long-bladed knife, which is a kind of the type we see the Fulani herdsmen hung on their shoulders concealed by their dress. The ancient shepherds boasted of nothing more proudly than their achievements in securing a safe feeding ground for their flocks. It is important to note and know that our Lord God Almighty is the actual Good Shepherd Who carries out all of the above listed functions of a shepherd in the lives of all His created children. The way God protects and cares for His children as they go out into the world is a grander (better, greater, higher, excellent) and more wonderful thought than that of seating them at an indoor banqueting table. If it was not apparent before, it should be quite clear by now that in those timeless and beautiful lines: ‘You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies’; the shepherd figure is as real as in the previous section of the Psalm. Pontus where John the revelator was when gathering the book of revelation by revelation is north-eastern Anatolia joining the black sea in modern-day Turkey. Pontus has boundaries meeting those of Galatia, Cappadocia and Armenia, it is important to know that most of the people are Muslims today and majority of them live also in Greece following Alexander’s conquest under Greek rule. Also know that Pontus is a large district in the north of Asia Minor now Turkey on the black sea coast with Cappadocia and Western Armenia on its Island.

As we turn on the next phrase in the “Shepherd Psalm’; that is Psalm 23, we cannot help but notice that King David appears to change the metaphor –from the good shepherd to the Gracious Host: ‘You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.’ Metaphor, a figure of speech that describes an action or object in a way that isn’t literally true, but helps explain an idea or make a comparison. Metaphor states that one thing is another thing! For instance, when I say, ‘’Dude, I am drowning in work,’’ I’m using qualities associated with one thing—the urgency and helplessness of drowning—to convey meaning for another thing—the work I’ve got to do. With the way King David applied the use of metaphor in this Psalm, many commentators take this as a natural division in the Psalm, believing that it is written in two parts: the first using the figure of a shepherd and his sheep, and the second using the figure of a banquet table with the host and the guest. One writer says: ‘It’s a pity that King David didn’t finish his Psalm by staying with the one figure of a shepherd, rather than bringing in the concept of a banquet and a host. It seems to me to lose the sweet simple melody and to close with strange heavy chords when it changes to a scene of banquet hospitality.’ For me, that conclusion is quite wrong, for despite the seeming change of metaphor, King David actually keeps the shepherd figure right to the end, and King David only digressively brought in other areas in life where the good shepherd also functions in our life. When David referred to a ‘table’, bear in mind that he was not thinking of an indoor house banquet, but of the high, flat-topped plateaus or mountain or hill where the sheep were taken up to graze in the summertime; you can visualize it when you see some of these Fulani people with the cows on a flat hill grazing especially on our cassava crops. Prior to taking his sheep onto this higher ground, a smart good caring and concerned shepherd would leave his sheep on the present grazing low-point and go up the grazing high ‘table’ ground, flat-topped plateaus alone with his rod and staff on direct safety grounds to see if there were any wild animals or poisonous weeds or snakes and, if there were, he would plan his grazing programme to either avoid that area or take whatever steps were necessary to eradicate or chase them away before bringing in his sheep to graze. The sheep arriving on the glorious high tableland would not, of course, realize what the shepherd has done for them, but they owed their safety and security and good providence decision to the fact that the shepherd had gone before them to prepare for them a ‘table’ in the presence of their enemies. Do you now get the idea? This is exactly what our good shepherd, our Lord God does for us in life, even before we were born, He has already planned out every aspect of our life and aim to guiding us through His Spirit, which we call destiny but time without number, we humans distort and foolishly rearranged things ourselves by not being led by the Holy Spirit of our Lord God Almighty, too bad, which is why again some of us finds it very difficult to achieve God’s aims in our life and we complain and grumble seeking for who to blame, some will blame it to their birth circumstances or conditions, others will blame it on the polygamous or single parentage! But no matter how you see it I want you to know today that Igbos says, ‘ihe na eme anyi si anyi n’aka’ and the English man say, ‘as you make your bed so shall you lie on it’!