Psalm 23 show us the heart of our loving Heavenly Father. He is a generous, extravagant loving God who constantly overflows our cups with blessing. Verse 4 says that our cups run over. He is the God of the much more, the overflow, the far above. He doesn’t just give us more, but much more. Not just above, but far above. Not just flowing but overflowing. Not just abundant, but exceedingly abundant. Not just life but an abundant life.
In the country of Israel, the Jordan River flows from one end of the land to the other. On its journey from north to south it flows into two bodies of water. The Sea of Galilee and then the Dead Sea. It's the same River that flows into both yet there are different outcomes. One produces life the other death. The reason being that the Sea of Galilee has water flowing into it and then flowing out again, but the Dead Sea only has water flowing into it and nothing comes out the other end. Galilee is full of fish but the Dead Sea has no life in it at all. It's the same life giving water that flows into both yet one gives out and the other keeps its water to itself.
Christian's can be like this too, they have the same God in them and the same River of Life flowing into their lives, yet there can be different outcomes. Some Christians give out, while others just take it all and keep everything to themselves, and this produces death.
Let’s look at Paul’s prayer in Romans 1:8-10 in the King James Version. He asks God to give him a prosperous journey to Rome. “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers; Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.” When you look at Paul’s journey to Rome, from the world’s point of view, it was far from a prosperous journey, for everything went wrong, but from God’s point of view it was great and glorious. The trouble is our perception of ‘prosperity’ and God’s can be very different. We need to see things from God’s point of view.
