In Sunday’s sermon at TDF, we’re coming to Psalm 23:5, which says: “You anoint my head with oil.” Here’s an excerpt. For the whole message, click here:
One day when I was checking on our sheep, I was alarmed to find that the horse had taken a serious bite out of Ethel’s ear. I didn’t see it happen, but there was no doubt that a good portion of Ethel’s ear had been torn away by the horse’s teeth. At first I didn’t know what to do, but I thought of this verse of Scripture. Grabbing a bottle of olive oil from the kitchen, I washed Ethel’s ear and rubbed that olive oil into the wound. It seemed to sooth her, and after several treatments, the wound healed. Later as I was talking to a sheep farmer about it, he said, “Oh, yes, that’s a little trick we use at livestock shows. If we’re showing a sheep and she gets a nick or a cut, we rub a little olive oil on it, and it does the trick.”
The Good Shepherd is alert to various hurts and cuts and problems they have. He anoints them with oil. The Lord knows how to heal our hurts and bind our wounds. He rubs the soothing oil of His grace and of the Holy Spirit onto the rough spots of life. Oil is a constant symbol in the Bible of the Holy Spirit.