You Anoint My Head With Oil

Captain Moy Hernandez, Jr

You Anoint My Head With Oil

Psalms 23

When we think of Psalm 23, a Psalm that I am sure we have all heard and may even be able to recite from memory, we understand it to be a Psalm that brings us great promises from God.

First, of all that our Lord is our shepherd and we will not be in want. He will always provide.

Second, He brings us peace and refuge.

Third, He keeps us on the straight and narrow, through our obedience and surrender to His will.

Forth, no matter what life brings our way He provides security and comfort.

And fifth, He provides nourishment, fellowship, abundance, and acceptance at His table.

I thank God that He makes all of these provisions for us.

You see He does this for us not because we are perfect, but it is only because of His Grace, Mercy and His invitation of Love to each of us.

But in Psalm 23, David goes on to speak of an additional blessing that God bestows on those who faithfully submit to His purpose and will. David proclaims, “You anoint my Head with Oil; My Cup Runs Over.”

This morning I want to concentrate on this particular blessing that God grant us with, His anointing.

Now when David gives thanks to God and says that He anoints his head, David is speaking of a symbolic custom of his day in which Kings where anointed to represent the chosen one of God.

This anointing was also representative of the responsibilities and if you will accountability that the King would assume over the people.

According to the biblical meaning of the word anointing of a particular person, was also carried out then for the purposes of healing, both physical and spiritually.

In Luke 10:34 we have the story of the Good Samaritan who bandaged the wounds of the beaten man and poured on oil for healing.

But anointing was also a representation of setting someone or something aside for the Service of God.

We as believers and followers of Christ must indeed be separated for the service of God. Living in this world but not of this world. And we must be anointed for healing and forgiveness as well.

In fact in James 5:14 it is proposes that if any one amongst us is sick they should call for the elders or the leaders of the church and through prayer and the anointing of oil pray for healing.

Further more if sin in present this symbolic act will also allow for the forgiving of such sins. But we’ll return to this at the end of our message today.

Coming back to Psalm 23, we see in David’s words a humble image as he compares himself to a sheep in relationship to what God does on our behalf.

Did you know that sheep actually face various enemies, many wild animals? Such as; Lions, Bears, Wolves. Now this is something David knew first hand because as a young boy he worked as a shepherd and so I am sure he had opportunities and instances when he perhaps had to kill some of these wild animals to protect his flock.

But you see sheep face other enemies that we don’t think too much about because these enemies are so small. These creatures can make a sheep’s life very miserable.

I did some research on this and here are a few of these smaller threads. They face the Warble Flies, Mosquitoes & Gnats and something called the Nasal Fly.

Sheep are specially troubled by the “Nose Fly” or the “Nasal Fly.” These little flies buzz around the sheep’s head attempting to lay their eggs on the damp mucous membrane of the sheep’s nose.

If they are successful, the eggs will hatch in a few days and it forms a small, slender, worm-like larvae. They work their way up the sheep’s nasal passage and into the sheep’s head.

It causes severe irritation to the sheep and for relief from the pain the sheep will often; beat their heads against a tree or rub their heads on a rock. This as you can imagine causes great pain to the animals and it has been known to kill some sheep.

But when the shepherd begins to see signs of these tiny enemies, he will begin to apply an antidote to the sheep’s head.

This antidote is made up of several ingredients. Many times it is linseed oil, suffer and tar and the shepherd smears it all over the sheep’s head and nose.

Once the oil has been applied to the sheep’s head, there is an immediate change in the animal’s behavior. The aggravation is gone, the irritability is gone, and the animal can lie down and rest, just as David suggests in Psalm 23.