[aron]

Psalm 23:1-3. "The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake."

Now, who is speaking here? Who is "he" and who is "me"? Lee said that "he" is Jesus, who is Jehovah incarnated (John 1:1,14), and who is our Shepherd (John 10:11,14). So who is "me" speaking here? Lee says, the christian believer, following Jesus.

Good, huh? No -- I contend that this misses the incarnation. Even Lee taught this: incarnation, inclusion, intensification. So in Psalm 23 (supposedly) Jesus was crucified (Psalm 22) and now is resurrected and ascended, in the heavens, shepherding us, as the indwelling life-giving Spirit (1 Cor 15:45b). However, I respond that unless you first see the incarnated Jesus being shepherded by His Father, how can you, an incarnated sinner, be shepherded yourself? But Lee had his hermeneutic working, and ignored this.

Jesus said, "Everything I do is from the Father". Can we not see this, and be shepherded by the Lamb? Sheep shepherd one another by leading. The lead sheep goes to the place of food, water, and rest. The other sheep recognize this and follow. The Roman Centurion recognized that Jesus was a man under authority. Jesus was obedient. The Father's revealed will, clearly stated by the law and prophets and psalmists (see His statement in Luke 24) gave Him the power to function. When you saw Jesus move, speak, act, it was the Father moving, speaking, acting.

It seems to me that this was missed by Lee. And I contend that perhaps in Psalm 23, the Word of Christ, "he" is the Father, and "me" is Jesus Christ. When we see this, we repent of being stubborn, willful goats, we turn and confess Jesus as the Lamb of God, we are forgiven and born anew, we begin to take this word as our life (John 6:63), this word begins to indwell us richly (Col 3:16) in the Psalms (and other texts, of course) and eventually we may sense that "it is not I, but Christ in me" who is now functioning. Now the word indwelling us truly is a lamp unto our feet! The incarnated Word, Jesus Christ, who truly incarnated all the declarations of the God-seeking Psalmists and prophets; now His guiding example shines before us and indwells our consciousness.

Now, how is this "not I, but Christ" different from the "feeling" of the inner life folks? Number 1, it is based on Jesus' sinful life, not the our illusion of our own, and number 2 it is based on the word declaring this Jesus to us, and not our subjective sensations.

If you miss this simple thing that the word is speaking to us, which has been referenced repeatedly "in diverse manners and ways" (Heb 1:1) in the NT, then all your subjective feelings are in vain. And if you think your feelings are covered by the subjective explications of your self-styled apostle then you are doubly deceived. Your covering is just cobwebs. It is not real; do not trust in it. Whether you have 2 layers of cobwebs covering you or just one, it doesn't matter. It won't stand. Only the experiences of Jesus Christ the Nazarene will stand. Accept no substitutes.