What will sustain you especially when you feel tired and jaded and drained and even spent? Well in the verse that we’re looking at today, David tells us how God sustained him. It’s verse 5 of this wonderful psalm. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Welcome to Open The Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick and Colin, for those of us who do feel tired, jaded, drained or spent, I’m hoping today’s message is going to be one of encouragement. It is, because the whole of Psalm 23 really is a wonderful encouragement. The Lord is my shepherd. And this psalm beautifully lays out what the Lord does for his sheep, how he provides for us. And today, we’re looking at how he sustains us, how he feeds us, how he keeps us going. And anyone who has a demanding task or perhaps a responsibility that you’ve been carrying for a long time, you’re going to know what it is to ask the question, how long can I keep this up? Can I really keep going? I know I’ve asked that question many times in my own life. How long can I keep doing this particular thing? And here’s the answer. God is able to sustain you to do all that he’s calling you to do. And we’re looking particularly in Psalm 23 at how he does this. There are particular ways in which God sustains us, renews us, revives us, keeps us going. So, I hope it’s going to be a wonderful encouragement for you today that it’s going to renew your strength and that the Lord himself will nourish and feed you through his word as we open it in Psalm 23. Well, you heard that so let’s get into the message. We’re in Psalm 23 verse 5 as we start the message, he sustains me. Here’s Colin. As we move through this psalm what we’re seeing together is that the greatest blessing any of us can ever know is to be wholly owned by the son of God. When the Lord is your shepherd when you have been bought and born into the flock of God you can see that the good shepherd leads me he leads me in to rest and he leads me into righteousness. He restores me that is he brings me back when I wander and he picks me up when I falter and he guards me even though I walk through the Valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil because my shepherd is with me. Now today we’re coming to the fourth blessing that belongs to the flock of God and that is that the good shepherd sustains me that is he gives me all that I need to keep going. That is very good news in tough days. My older son Andrew is a long distance runner and is competing several times in the Ironman. That’s the thing where you swim for two miles jump on a bike and go for one hundred and twelve miles and then have a bit of a warm down in the form of a marathon of 26 miles all end to end. The Ironman is a wonder to behold. As Karen and I watched him compete on several occasions we stand there at these folks saying how in the world do they keep going? Now that’s really the question that’s before us today. How in the world are you going to keep going? What will sustain you? Especially when you feel tired and jaded and drained and even spent. Well in the verse that we’re looking at today David tells us how God sustained him. It’s verse five of this wonderful psalm You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You can anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Now in the Bible God often uses material things to help us understand spiritual things. And here God uses three things that we can touch and see and handle. That is a table oil and a cup to communicate to us how he sustains us. Let’s begin then with the table which reminds us that God sustains us by giving strength. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Now this is eating in style. So forget grabbing that bag of chicken nuggets and eating them in the van which I guess most of us have done at some time or other and probably too often. Think in your mind now about Thanksgiving dinner. Get the image in your mind of the table spread, the place settings, the flowers, the candles, the platter. Loaded with steaming turkey, the balls with all of the fixings. Someone has prepared a table. That’s the picture that’s been placed before us. David says, You prepare a table before me. So try and imagine this. You come home from work, hard day. You’re tired, you’re jaded, your energy is spent and someone is in the kitchen cooking up a storm, and you of course when you come in say, Let me help. This person says, No, you sit down. Let me prepare this for you. So you sit down and you watch this person at work preparing the meal. That’s what it is. He prepares a meal before you. That’s what David says. He does it before me. When it’s done, what do you do? You come to the table and you sit down and you eat the meal. And as you eat the meal, your strength is wonderfully renewed. That’s the picture. And here’s the obvious question. Who’s going to do that for you? Well David says the person who does this for me is the Lord himself. You, my good shepherd, you prepare a table before me. Notice it’s present tense, this is not something that God did for David as a kind of one off a long time ago, it’s not even something he does once in a while, it is what God always does for his people. It’s how He sustains us. You prepare a table before me. Now God uses this picture to tell you that he will sustain you by giving you strength, that’s what the meal does. Your body is strengthened by a good meal and in the same way you will be strengthened as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself feeds you. Now notice there’s something else here. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Now David’s life was an unrelenting battle. Some of you know a little about the story of David, and if you do you’ll recall that in his early years he was a shepherd despised by his older brothers. Then for years he was a fugitive hunted by King Saul. When he became king he inherited a deeply divided kingdom, rival tribes, deep divisions and distrust. And then in later years David’s family was literally torn apart through terrible abuse and violence and destruction. Now, how in the world when you think about the cumulative difficulties of all of David’s life, the weight that was on his shoulder through the years, how in the world did he keep going? How are you going to keep going? This is the question that’s being addressed right here. Here you have also burdens, and conflicts, and pressures, and troubles in life, how are you going to keep going? Well, here’s David’s answer, God prepared a table for David, God renewed David’s strength even in the relentless pressures of his life, even in the presence of his enemies, that is what God did for David, and that is what God will do for you. That’s the first picture, the table. Second picture, the oil, which speaks to us of how God sustains us by giving purpose, you anoint my head with oil. Now oil was used in the Old Testament scriptures to commission certain people for work that God had given them to do. So prophets, and priests, and kings were all anointed with oil, because God had given to them a particular assignment. And as the table speaks to us of being renewed in strength, that’s what the meal does for us. The oil speaks to us of being renewed in purpose. That’s what its significance is. Now there’s a beautiful description, and it’s worth getting this picture in your mind, of Aaron, the very first high priest being anointed with oil. It’s in Psalm 133 and it says this, How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. And then to picture how beautiful this is, the psalmist says, it is like precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron. Running down the collar of his robes. So understand this is not a little bit of oil that’s being rubbed on the head of Aaron, this is a flask of oil, and it’s literally being poured over his head in such an amount that it runs down his beard, drips on to his collar, and soaks into his robes. That’s the picture of the anointing with oil that David is referring to here. And of course when David says to the Lord, you anointed my head with oil, surely he must have been thinking about the day when he was anointed as the King of God’s people. We’re told in 1 Samuel chapter 16 and verse 13, Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him, that’s David, in the midst of his brothers and the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. So you see that the oil speaks of God giving a purpose, God giving a calling, God giving an assignment. And of course in the Old Testament, there were only a very few people who were ever anointed with oil, prophets, priests and kings, but in the New Testament, God anoints all of his people with the Holy Spirit because all of God’s people are called to ministry, He has purpose for each and every one of us. Now do you see the significance of this? The question before us is how are you going to be sustained? Especially when you are tired and jaded and when you feel drained and sometimes even feel spent. And the answer to that question lies not only in God renewing your strength, which is what the table speaks to us about it is in God renewing your sense of purpose, which is the significance of the oil. A sense of purpose sustained David he came to times when it was very tough to keep going, but here’s something that kept him going the anointing with oil. God has given me this work to do. I’ve been called, I’ve been anointed. I therefore must persevere in the power of his spirit. I’m not simply drifting into what I’m doing, I’m sent into what I’m doing by God himself. Now do you see if you lose sight of why you are here, and what it is that God has called you to do. If you lose sight of that, if you lose a sense of purpose, then you will very soon be jaded, and tired and drained and spent. But here is the good news. God has work for each and every one of us in this first service today to do. We are his workmanship, Paul says in Ephesians. We are created in Jesus Christ for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should do them. God has you here for a purpose. Find out what he has called you to do and pursue it, and as you do, God will sustain you. We are sustained as strength is renewed, and we are sustained as purpose is renewed. That is the significance of the oil. You’re listening to Open The Bible with Pastor Colin Smith, and today’s message, He Sustains Me. It’s part of a larger series, The Lord Is My Shepherd, based on Psalm 23, and if you’ve missed any of the series or if you’d like to go back and listen again, you can do that by coming online to our website— that’s openthebible.org.uk— you can listen to any of the series up to date on our website. Also, as a podcast, you’ll find our podcast on any of your favorite podcasting sites, search for Open The Bible UK and subscribe to receive regular updates. Back to the message now, here’s Colin. Thirdly, the cup, and this speaks to us of how God sustains by giving joy. My cup David says, overflows. Now, there is a downbeat version of Christianity that some of you may have come across and may even have been discouraged by. Let me try and describe it. The downbeat version of Christianity, which isn’t Christianity at all, by the way, it goes something like this. Well, in this world, you’re going to be surrounded by enemies and somehow you’re going to have to get through it. Not going to be easy, it’s going to be pretty tough. You have to endure, you have to stick it out, you have to put up with it. But if you do, you will be blessed in the end. When your life in this miserable world is over, then you will go to heaven. And then you will have joy. So to put it in a line, the Down Beat version of Christianity says this, life stinks but heaven is coming. That’s what it is. And I want you to note that that is clearly not what David is saying here. Here is a man who knew plenty of trouble throughout the entire course of his life and yet he says, my cup overflows. Here in this fallen world, with all that I face, all the weight that’s on me, all that I suffer, even now in this fallen world with my enemies still present, even here though I walk through the dark valley, my cup overflows. Now you see that is genuine Christianity. Jesus says, in this world you will have trouble. Don’t be surprised at that. But he doesn’t leave it there. He also says, these things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. David says my cup overflows. Some months ago I had the opportunity of helping move my aunt into a care home. She is now 96 years of age. And that meant sorting through her stuff before selling her home. It was like a tour through the 20th century. I’ll tell you, we found some fascinating things. One of them was a little ration book from the second World War. See during the war in Britain food was rationed. People needed a little book. Everyone had a little book with a weekly tear out slip, a ration slip, that entitled you to buy a small amount of meat and a small number of eggs, and that was your limit for the week. They were rationed. It makes me think, when you go to the grocery store having cut out all these coupons in order to get better prices, they had to tear out coupons in order just to have the right and privilege of buying. Why do I mention that today? For this reason. The blessings of God in Jesus Christ are never rationed. They’re never rationed. From the fullness of His grace, we have received one blessing on top of another. Grace just keeps coming, and David says, my cup overflows. See, this is why when Isaiah the prophet speaks about God’s forgiveness, it’s not enough for him to say, Now come back to God because He will pardon. He says return to God because He will abundantly pardon. When the psalmist speaks about hope, when the bottom has fallen out of life, it’s not enough for him to say that there’s hope for you because with God, there is redemption. He says there is hope for you because with God, there is plentiful redemption. And Paul speaks about the richness of Christ. He doesn’t simply say there are riches in Jesus Christ. He speaks about the unsearchable riches of Christ. When Jesus speaks about the life that He offers, He doesn’t simply say I’ve come to give you life. He says I’ve come to give you life more abundantly to give it to you in the full. When the protocol son returns home, the father did not meet him with reluctant grace. So you decided to come home at last, did you? Well, you better make sure you don’t muck up again. No, the father runs out to meet the son. He kisses him. He puts his arms around him, puts the best rob on his back, puts the ring on his finger. When the protocol son comes home, the father does not say to him, well, you might find a cold hot dog in the fridge. He says now bring out the fatted calf and let’s eat. Let’s celebrate. Now, you see this is what David had experienced in his own life. Think about David’s life. He’d experienced abundant pardon. He had experienced plentiful redemption. And as he thinks about the grace of God that has come into his life he says, my cup overflows. So there you have it. Three powerful images that God uses in the psalm to communicate how he will sustain you and me. The table, the oil, and the cup. The table reminding us that he renews us by giving us strength. The oil reminding us that he sustains us through an ongoing sense of purpose. And the cup reminding us that God sustains us by giving us joy. Now, here’s the obvious question that arises at this point. How do these things become yours? Clearly they were David’s. He’s testifying to them. He says this is what God does for me. How does what David enjoyed become yours? That’s the question that’s before us today. And the answer to that throughout the Bible, and you can help me complete this verse, is that we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. We’re blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. By the way, that was true of David who lived a thousand years before Jesus. The blessings that were purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ and given from His hand came to David a thousand years before Jesus in the same way as they come to those who believe in Jesus two thousand years after the birth, death, resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The whole of the Bible points us to Jesus, and by the way, our Lord Jesus knew the 23rd Psalm. In fact, we know from the number of times that our Lord Jesus quoted the Psalms which were really the hymn book of His day that the Psalms were constantly in His mind. So I want us to think about this because we’re asking the question now, how do these things become ours and they become ours through Jesus, what then did the table and the anointing of oil and the cup mean for Jesus Christ? You’ve been listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith in the message, He Sustains Me. We’ve been looking at the table, the oil, the cup and how God sustains by giving strength purpose and by giving joy. And on our next broadcast we’re going to see what the table meant to Jesus and the anointing and what the cup meant to Him. So I hope you’ll join us for that. Don’t forget, if you ever miss one of our messages you can always come online and catch up or go back and listen again. That’s at openthebible.org.uk. Or if it’s easier for you to catch Pastor Colin’s teaching at a time convenient for you, you can do that by searching for the podcast that will be available on your regular podcasting, just search for Open the Bible UK and subscribe to receive regular updates. Many people like to start the day with a short time of reflection and maybe you’d like to try our Open the Bible Daily? These are 2 – 3 minute reflection pieces based on Pastor Colin smih’s teachings and read in the U.K. by Sue McLeish. There’s a new one on our website every day, also available as a podcast. Come to OpenTheBible.org.uk Open the Bible is supported entirely by the generous gifts of our listeners and if that’s something you’ve been considering to do then we have an offer for you this month. If you’re able to begin supporting Open the Bible with a new donation of £5 per month We’d love to thank you by sending you a new devotional by Pastor Colin Smith called Green Pastures, Still Waters. Like today’s message it’s based on Psalm 23. Colin, this devotional comes from a sermon series that you preached a while back And as you prepared for the series, what was the main thing you took away from it? Oh, that single word encouragement. I mean, I can’t think of any better place to go when a person feels down or jaded or just generally exhausted. If you need encouragement, Psalm 23 is the place to go. And God has been using this Psalm to encourage his people for 3000 years And I reckon that’s probably the reason why this is one of the best-known and best-loved chapters in all of the Bible. I mean, to know that in Christ you have a shepherd and that in the shepherd you have everything that you need, that is the greatest joy and that will renew your strength, so I’m absolutely delighted that were able to make this available as a devotional. You can read it over 31 days and it will renew your strength, it will refresh your soul Psalm 23 one of the best-known, best-loved chapters in the Bible Now we’d love to send you a copy of Green Pastures, Still Waters if you are able to begin supporting the work of OPEN the Bible this month in the amount of £5 per month or more. Full details on our website For OPEN the Bible and Pastor Colin Smith I’m David Pick and I hope you’ll join us again next time God has new purpose, new strength and new joy for you Find out how he can be yours next time on OPEN the Bible