Psalm 23: The Song of Conquerors

The psalm’s careful Mosaic structure reveals its comforts to be the spoils of conquest.

In contrast to David’s songs of complaint, Psalm 23 is a precious song of comforts. But although each of its five stanzas relate to eras in David’s life, they also work through key eras in biblical history—some in Israel’s past, and some in Israel’s future. Just as the king represented Israel and was to be its Law incarnate, so David’s experience is the Bible in miniature, from Creation to Glorification.

The psalm has five sections, each of which takes place in a different domain: a garden, a road, a wilderness, a palace, and a temple. This pattern is chiastic, since a garden is an Edenic sanctuary (nature), and a temple is a glorified garden (culture). Within this beginning and end, a road relates to the itinerant tabernacle (priesthood, the camp of the saints) and the palace is an established dynasty (kingdom, the holy city). At the center is the wilderness, the place of isolation where a soul or even a nation is put to the test. In this way, the psalm works through the familiar “there-and-back-again” pattern found throughout the Bible. In its basic form, it follows the five step format of biblical covenants.

For David, the pattern speaks of his origins as a shepherd, his anointing and itinerant ministry, his persecution by King Saul, his victories as king, and his preparations for succession by Solomon, the builder of the temple. However, these five periods of David’s life correspond to the major shifts in the history of redemption.

• The first era is really the entire book of Genesis, which begins with Adam and ends with the spiritual and territorial conquests of the man Adam should have been—Joseph and his wisdom during a famine. The major themes are Edenic: marriage and family, barrenness and fruitfulness, and the process of finding a trustworthy heir. The first man refuses to be shepherded by God and follows a serpent; the last man is crowned with a serpent and becomes the Egyptian shepherd staff in God’s hand.
• The second era begins with the restoration of Israel from the “iron furnace” of Egypt, the giving of the Law, the guidance of the pillar, and the preservation of Israel despite disobedience for the sake of Yahweh. The shepherding theme moves from type to antitype in an even greater way. It begins with Moses in Midian and Moses becomes the shepherd of an Israel that is now a nation. Israel is prepared by God to exercise priestly authority over the nations as a mediatory body tending a new Sanctuary. Just as the Law brought humanity to Christ, so this era—which ends with the conquests of judges as God’s champions—also brought Israel to the era of kingdom.
• The third era concerns Man’s response to the Law, so it is interesting that the entire kingly era is represented by the valley of death—fighting enemies more dangerous and subtle than lions and bears. The core concept is the dark night of the soul in which only the Law of God lights a man’s path, hence the repeated mention of men doing what was right in their own eyes, and rulers doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Since ancient kings also ruled as judges, Israel’s king’s were thus commanded to write out a copy of the Law by hand. In a crucial sense, they were to be shepherded by Moses. The conquest here is the battle against flesh and blood—the Philistines without and the carnal temptations within. The commands at the center of the Law prohibit the kingly sins of murder and adultery. Notice that the central book of the Torah, Leviticus, focusses on death and sex in its rites of purification of the flesh. What the High Priest accomplished in the Garden via the veil of death, the king was to accomplish in the Land. After David sinned, the sword never departed from his house.
• The fourth era is another period of restoration, matching the exodus in the symmetry. Following the biblical pattern of death-and-resurrection, the allusion here is bridal. The primary reference is to the raucous feasts held before battle designed to taunt and demoralize one’s foes, but the crown jewel in Israel’s history after the exile was the vindication of the Jews in every province of Persia, from India to Ethiopia. Just as Israel was cursed by God and disciplined by her enemies, so God used Israel to discipline her enemies. The stanza prefigures the feasts held by Esther to entrap the serpentine Haman, the battle prophesied in Ezekiel 38-39, and the enthronement of the perfumed beauty as co-regent of the empire.
• The fifth era finally unites the two trees in Eden (which represented priesthood and kingdom) as priest-kingdom. The two pillars of Solomon’s Temple represented these same two offices. Solomon built his house next to God’s house, again, representing the two trees as branches of divine government, submission to heaven leading to dominion on earth. When Israel’s kings were cut off, the Lord said that such proximity of dwelling would never occur again. Why would David say that he would dwell in the house of the Lord when he knew that this was forbidden? By the Spirit, he understood that Man’s ultimate office is priest-kingdom. The reunion of Judah and Israel, then Jew and Gentile, would restore the “Noahic” order of priest-kings, the “royal priesthood” established by the Son of David, ruled from a throne in the heavenly court of God—forever. The final stanza places the house of the Lord in the “Joshua” step, possibly as an allusion to Exodus 33:11. It also uses a joke to express God’s sovereignty over His sons—goodness and mercy would pursue (not follow) David and actually catch him.

As usual, further insight is gained from the correspondence of the biblical literary pattern with the domains of the Tabernacle, working from top to bottom. In Christ, the Most Holy Place is fulfilled in a tomb in a garden. In Christ, the veil of Moses is removed from Israel. In Christ, the Law was finally fulfilled in the eyes of God, and Man was invited to God’s table. In Christ, the enemies of God were—and are—baited, trapped and despatched by the baptised, bridal Church. In Christ, all nations of the earth become the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven.

TRANSCENDENCE
Adam in the garden

HIERARCHY
Moses in the desert

ETHICS
David in the wilderness

OATH/SANCTIONS
Esther in the palace

SUCCESSION
Jesus on the throne

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