Join John and Brandi Belt as they breakdown Psalm 23.
The Transcription
Hey, friends, it’s Brandi and John Belt. And we are just so honored to spend a couple minutes with you tonight. You know, God is still at work in the midst of all of the crazy things going on around the world right now. And so we really just wanted to talk to you for a couple minutes tonight about Psalm 23. You know, we woke up this morning, and one of the blessings about having our kids home has been we’ve gotten to do extra God time with them. And so this morning, we were sitting around, and I generally try to just pick a psalm. And usually it’s whatever the day of the month is. And just so happen, of course, today is March 23. And so Psalm 23, which happens to be my favorite song. And I know John loves the Psalm. And so we just want to spend a couple of minutes though tonight talking to you about the Lord, being our shepherd. Because when the Lord is your shepherd, you shall not want and not only that, he makes you lie down in green pastures. So John, you mentioned this morning, something great about green pastures. That’s right, that it wasn’t just lying down in pastures, but they were actually green pastures, which are the best kind. So if you want expand on that a little bit, yeah.
We’re just sharing with our kids. We’re having a morning devotional with our kids on Psalm 23. And, and we just kind of went line upon line in that chapter. And we were talking about the first part of that passage, says, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. And I’m so thankful that it’s green pastures. Because, you know, it’s not brown pastures, and it’s not pastures filled with snakes, and scorpions, and all this kind of stuff. We stole this bad stuff. He wants to make us to lie down in green pastures and what green represents his life. He wants us to have life He wants us to experience life. He wants us to be able to lay down and rest in His presence. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not well what does that say, except that I don’t have any worries. I have the shepherd, I have Jesus who’s over my life. He is Lord in my life. And because of that, he’s a good shepherd, who takes care of his sheep, just like Jesus said, I’m the Good Shepherd. And so he’s going to take care of us. And so we don’t have anything to worry about. He’s gonna make us to lie down in green pastures. He has good things in store. In Jeremiah 2911, it talks about how God has great plans for us for a future and a hope. It’s not bad stuff. It’s all good. Because he is good. That’s who God is. He’s, he’s totally good. It’s the essence of who he is. It’s, it’s not what he does. It’s who he is. He’s the great I AM. And he says, I am good. And so that means everything. When you understand that God is good, then you can rest in that and you can have peace in that it’s not denial of the things going on around you is the reality of His presence is the reality of who he is, is the reality of His faithfulness to you, in your life. And you can trust in that.
Yeah. And what I love as you get further down in the Psalm is it says, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. And you know, one of the things that I love about that is it’s only a shadow. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you know that it’s not an actual thing. It’s a shadow, do you know, shadows have no real substance. And actually, a shadow can’t exist without light, going through something to project it on. And so it’s like, even in the midst of what might feel like, deep darkness, and just the valleys of the world that we’re currently in, God is still with you, you have nothing to fear, because it’s literally a shadow. We don’t live in this realm. We are seated with Christ in heavenly places, you are seated with Christ in higher places. And so we just want to encourage you tonight, you know, don’t get so caught up in what you can see around you. Make sure that you’re continuing to live from the place that God has already put you which is in the heavenly places.
He is see this as he is seated us with Him in heavenly places. And he is far above all principality, power and wickedness, every bad thing you can imagine. He’s above it, and it’s under his feet. And because you’re seated with Him in the heavenly places, it’s under your feet to sow under your feet to you and you don’t need to worry about it. God has it covered. And it’s a beautiful thing. And Psalm 23 is we’re going back to Psalm 23, talking about how he prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. And so yes, we have circumstances we have trials, we have tests, we have enemies, we have all these things, but it’s the secret place of his presence. It’s Psalm 91. He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under that true shadow of the Almighty, which is the covering is the true covering that we have as Christians is to know him is to know the Lord and to dwell in that secret place. That’s where we want Be Found Amen. That’s the place.
Yeah. And even when you get to the end of Psalm 23, it’s my favorite. One of my favorite verses says, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days in my life as I dwell in the house, the Lord, you know. And as you’re dwelling in his house, even in this time in this season, as you get time alone, time away, it’s so important that you are spending your time dwelling in the house of God. Because when you dwell with Him, He can fill you up to overflowing so that way, everywhere that you go, you can leave footprints of His goodness and mercy behind you, that all the days of your life, there are literally prints that you have left, the Holy Spirit has flown out of you, and transformed the atmosphere around you, and you’ve literally left prints of Him and His goodness and mercy, that long after their people can still encounter him. And so I just think it’s so important that during this time away, that we are getting back to that secret place that John mentioned in, in Psalm 91. And really the end of this chapter, it’s just so so critical that you’re spending your time with God, during the season.
Yeah, um, atmosphere is so important atmosphere really is everything, the atmosphere that you experience on a day to day basis. And so you can walk into some places, and you can tell that’s not the atmosphere, you want to experience, you know, someone’s overloaded with fear. And maybe that’s where you are today, maybe you just you’re just overwhelmed with fear. But let me tell you, the good news is Jesus wants to set you free from that he is not giving you that spirit of fear, that he’s giving you a spirit of power, love and a sound mind. And he has come to set you free from that. He hasn’t come to leave you in that place. And so he wants to bring you out of that. And he wants to change the atmosphere of your life you want you to experience the Holy Spirit really does. He say I haven’t experienced the Holy Spirit. Oh, that’s okay. If you haven’t experienced the Holy Spirit He wants you to, that’s the good news. That’s why it’s good news is because he has good things in store for you. And Jesus said, You know, if you ask for a fish, he’s not gonna give you a stone. If you ask for bread, you know, he’s not gonna give you stone, if you ask for a fish, he’s not gonna give you a serpent, he will freely give the Holy Spirit to those who asked. So all you have to do is ask and receive. And I think receiving is one of the hardest things that people struggle with is just their ability to receive from God, to really realize that he wants to give you something good. He wants to give you something good, he wants to give you His Holy Spirit, even more than anything else. First, he wants to just fill you with this presence fill you with His Spirit. So you can experience the overflow in your life, the overflow of who he is the reality because you are created to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. So that’s his plan for you.
First of all, is to have that divine intimacy, you are created for personal intimacy. Personal intimacy, it’s so critical, that is the foundation of Christian reality. It’s all about you and your own personal relationship with God. But I love what John hit on with atmosphere, you know, we want to do our part in helping you create an atmosphere. So here in the next day or so we’re going to be doing our best to put together a bunch of resources, we’re going to be giving them away completely free, but just some soaking music, some teaching some things that we want to give you and just bless you with to help you create an atmosphere of peace in your home of rest in your home. And that will helpfully, you know we can’t spend time with God on your behalf. But what we can do is help you create an atmosphere to encounter him, right. And so we want to do our part on that. So make sure you’re joining our email list or follow us on social media and we will be sure to let you know about that here. Probably in the next day or so we will figure it out. We will figure it out. We’re flying by the seat of our pants here, guys. We’re figuring out all the technology as we go.
But so we just want to pray for you tonight. We want to release just grace to have fresh intimacy with God. Amen. Grace to have fresh intimacy with God. So right now wherever you are, whatever you’re doing Holy Spirit, we just thank You, Father, God that you want to love each and every person got that you want to not only love on them, and fulfill them up and refresh them Lord, but you want father you want to spend time with them every day and so Lord, we just ask right now, Father that you just released upon grace in Jesus name.