Psalm 23 Devotional:

GNV: 1 Because the Prophet had proved the great mercies of God at divers times, and in sundry manners, he gathereth a certain assurance, fully persuading himself that God will continue the very same goodness towards him forever.

A Psalm of David.

23:1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5 Thou dost prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou dost anoint my head with oil; and my cup runneth over.

6 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.

We saw previously the manner in which the Lord pours holy oil upon the heads of His people, consecrating them and setting them apart for His purpose. And this shows the remarkable honor that God hath bestowed upon us in calling us into His family, and governing us by the Holy Spirit. Even as it is written, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.” and again, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Therefore this power is conferred upon us by the gift of the Father, even to be renewed in knowledge, righteousness and holiness after the image of Him that created us. And this is intimately connected with the Trinity and the threefold office of Jesus Christ our Mediator, as He is anointed as our Prophet, Priest and King. He is anointed as our prophet to teach us the will of the Father. He is anointed as Priest to intercede for us and bless us with His own righteousness, and He is anointed King to rule and reign over us by His Spirit, as it is written, “For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us.” and again, “And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” Therefore as Christ is anointed as Prince and Mediator over us, even so we are anointed with that same Spirit and are enabled to call upon God in truth. We are given knowledge through Christ’s prophetic office, teaching us by His word in the church, we are granted righteousness to stand before God accepted and beloved in Christ our head, and we are blessed with the divine gift of the Spirit to rule in us and prevail against the lusts of the flesh that war in our members. Therefore we see this is most sacred when David saith, “thou dost anoint my head with oil”. For although we are not so anointed to royal kingship as David was, to rule and reign over God’s people for a time, yet we with a higher calling, more substantial and eternal, more dignified and noble than any earthly king, for we are made prophets to speak a word against this wicked generation and comfort to the people of God, priests to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God, and kings to subdue our lusts and make war with the forces of darkness. As it is written, “And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” Therefore may all the people of God say with David, thou dost anoint my head with oil, and my cup runneth over. For we are brought into God’s house to by our profession and holy activity, make war with the flesh, and await God’s coming kingdom in glory, where we shall reign with Him according to the promise, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.”

Calvin,
Now, when he says that they knew all things, it is not to be taken in the widest sense, but ought to be confined to the subject treated of here. But when he says that they had an unction from the Holy One, he alludes, no doubt, to the ancient types. The oil by which the priests were anointed was obtained from the sanctuary; and Daniel mentions the coming of Christ as the proper time for anointing the Most Holy. (Daniel 9:24.) For he was anointed by the Father, that he might pour forth on us a manifold abundance from his own fullness. It hence follows that men are not rightly made wise by the acumen of their own minds, but by the illumination of the Spirit; and further, that we are not otherwise made partakers of the Spirit than through Christ, who is the true sanctuary and our only high priest.

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Opening Prayer.
Intro. William Gurnall (Christian in Complete Armor)
DIRECTION V.—FIRST GENERAL PART. [Truth of Doctrine as a Girdle for the Mind.]

The Westminster Confession of Faith.
Lesson 5. Introduction. [5] The Nature and Remedy of Ignorance and Deceit.

To The Christian Reader – by the Westminster Divines.
A Note to the Heads of Families Concerning the Confession.
ESPECIALLY HEADS OF FAMILIES.

As we cannot but with grief of soul lament those multitudes of errors, blasphemies, and all kinds of profaneness, which have in this last age, like a mighty deluge, overflown this nation; so, among several other sins which have helped to open the flood-gates of all these impieties, we cannot but esteem the disuse of family instruction one of the greatest. The two great pillars upon which the kingdom of Satan is erected, and by which it is upheld, are ignorance and error; the first step of our manumission from this spiritual thraldom consists in having our eyes opened, and being turned from darkness to light, Acts xxvi. 18. How much the serious endeavours of godly parents and masters might contribute to an early seasoning the tender years of such as are under their inspection, is abundantly evident, not only from their special influence upon them, in respect of their authority over them, interest in them, continual presence with them, and frequent opportunities of being helpful to them; but also from the sad effects which, by woeful experience, we find to be the fruit of the omission of this duty. It were easy to set before you a cloud of witnesses, the language of whose practice hath been not only an eminent commendation of this duty, but also a serious exhortation to it. As Abel, though dead, yet speaks by his example to us for imitation of his faith, &c., Heb. xi. 4; so do the examples of Abraham, of Joshua, of the parents of Solomon, of the grandmother and mother of Timothy, the mother of Augustine, whose care was as well to nurse up the souls as the bodies of their little ones; and as their pains herein was great, so was their success no way unanswerable. We should scarce imagine it any better than an impertinency, in this noon-day of the gospel, either to inform or persuade in a duty so expressly commanded, so frequently urged, so highly encouraged, and so eminently owned by the Lord in all ages with his blessing, but that our sad experience tells us, this duty is not more needful, than it is of late neglected. For the restoring of this duty to its due observance, give us leave to suggest this double advice. The first concerns heads of families in respect of themselves; That as the Lord hath set them in place above the rest of their family, they would labour in all wisdom and spiritual understanding to be above them also. It is an uncomely sight to behold men in years babes in knowledge; and how unmeet are they to instruct others, who need themselves to be taught which be the first principles of the oracles of God, Heb. v. 12. Knowledge is an accomplishment so desirable, that the devils themselves knew not a more taking bait by which to tempt our first parents, than by the fruit of the tree of knowledge; So shall you be as gods, knowing good and evil. When Solomon had that favour shewed him of the Lord, that he was made his own chuser what to ask, he knew no greater mercy to beg than wisdom, 1 Kings iii. 5, 9. The understanding is the guide and pilot of the whole man, that faculty which sits at the stern of the soul: but as the most expert guide may mistake in the dark, so may the understanding, when it wants the light of knowledge: Without knowledge the mind cannot be good, Prov. xix. 2; nor the life good, nor the eternal condition safe, Eph. iv. 18. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, Hos. iv. 6. It is ordinary in scripture to set profaneness, and all kind of miscarriages, upon the score of ignorance. Diseases in the body have many times their rise from distempers in the head, and exorbitancies in practice from errors in judgment: and indeed in every sin there is something both ignorance and error at the bottom: for did sinners truly know what they do in sinning, we might say of every sin what the Apostle speaks concerning that great sin, Had they known him, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; did they truly know that every sin is a provoking the Lord to jealousy, a proclaiming war against Heaven, a crucifying the Lord Jesus afresh, a treasuring up wrath unto themselves against the day of wrath; and that, if ever they be pardoned, it must be at no lower a rate than the price of his blood; it were scarce possible but sin, instead of alluring, should affright, and instead of tempting, scare. It is one of the arch devices and principal methods of Satan to deceive men into sin: thus he prevailed against our first parents, not as a lion, but as a serpent, acting his enmity under a pretence of friendship, and tempting them to evil under an appearance of good; and thus hath he all along carried on his designs of darkness, by transforming himself into an angel of light, making poor deceived men in love with their miseries, and hug their own destruction. A most sovereign antidote against all kind of errors, is to be grounded and settled in the faith: persons unfixed in the true religion, are very receptive of a false; and they who are nothing in spiritual knowledge, are easily made any thing. Clouds without water are driven to and fro with every wind, and ships without ballast liable to the violence of every tempest. But yet the knowledge we especially commend, is not a mere speculation; this may be in the worst of men, nay, in the worst of creatures, the devils themselves, and that in such an eminency, as the best of saints cannot attain to in this life of imperfection; but an inward, a savoury knowledge, such as was in the martyrs. This is that spiritual sense and feeling of divine truths the Apostle speaks of, Heb. v. 1,1, Having your senses exercised, &c. But, alas, we may say of most men’s religion what learned Rivet speaks concerning the errors of the fathers, “They were not so much their own errors, as the errors of the times wherein they lived!’ Thus do most men take up their religion upon no better an account than Turks and Papists take up theirs, because it is the religion of the times and places wherein they live; and what they take up thus slightly, they lay down as easily. Whereas an inward taste and relish of the things of God, is an excellent preservative to keep us settled in the most unsettled times. Corrupt and unsavoury principles have great advantage upon us, above those that are spiritual and sound; the former being suitable to corrupt nature, the latter contrary; the former springing up of themselves, the latter brought forth not without a painful industry. The ground needs no other midwifery in bringing forth weeds than only the neglect of the husbandman’s hand to pluck them up; the air needs no other cause of darkness than the absence of the sun; nor water of coldness than its distance from the fire; because these are the genuine products of nature.

1. The nature of ignorance/deceit, like darkness. Ignorance is the subject of deceit.
An ignorant man is prey for the devil.
Proverbs 2:6-13, Prov. 7
2. The nature of the devil (to deceive). 1 Pet. 5:8
App. Beware that ye be not deceived by him, others, or yourself.
a. The deceit of Satan. (heresy, the world)
b. The deceit of others. (flattery, evil speaking)
c. Self-deceit (self-justification, complacency)
3. The nature of deceit (to appear pleasing).
App. Beware that you follow not that path because it is pleasant to the flesh. (preservation of the soul vs self love.)
4. The nature of fallen man in bondage to ignorance.
a. After the fall, deceived in all things.
b. After regeneration, liable to be deceived, but not according to the fundamentals.
c. It is easy to be deceived. It is hard to be instructed. Knowledge comes easy, but with resistance. “The flesh lusts against the Spirit.”
App. Strive to get right knowledge. Submit to the word of God. Put on humility, and grow in grace.
5. The nature of knowledge (to engender and strengthen faith).
App. Get that understanding that is according to faith.
6. The Nature of God, and the restoration of His image. 1 Sam. 2:3
7. The use of knowledge and repentance.
a. Original sin and conversion. Hos. 1:10-11, Matt. 3:10.
b. Actual sin and knowing what offends God.
Job 34:31-32

Conclusion.

Closing Prayer.

YouTube Audio: https://youtu.be/kg0wEXyCTso