The LORD Is My Shepherd - Part 1

Well, just saying, those glorious psalms containing glorious truths, I think one of them is named 10,000 Reasons. When you open that Excel spreadsheet and you open your Bible and you read your whole Bible front to back and everything that speaks about some glorious reason or aspect or attribute about the Lord, you add that reference right with that attribute. I mean, how many would you get? The problem is we're not going to see a lot because our eyes are not fully opened and we don't have everything recorded that there is to be said about the Lord. Another one of the psalms said we have a well that is too deep to fathom. Don't you feel that at times? There's so much in the Word of God. And there's so much behind the phrases in the Word of God that speak about Christ and about our Lord that you just fail to put words accurately to it to describe it to its fullness. So hopefully today I can give you at least 10 reasons out of the 10,000 reasons. But two weeks ago, we looked at God being a God who carries His people as a father carries his son. And today, I want to start looking at another passage that focuses on the greatness of the heart of God towards you, the believer. And one way to approach this passage is viewing it as a member of a church describing in detail the qualities of their lead chief pastor. This pastor's qualities are such that he bears the highest perfections. There has never been one member who is a part of this person's flock who has ever had anything legitimately to complain about his leadership. There's never been a member of this lead pastor who has ever lacked. It's never happened. And in this passage, we're going to hear a first-hand experience from one who was personally within this shepherd's flock. And what this person describes about this shepherd, it's glorious. It's too much for me to fully even scratch the surface right now. And on top of that, many of you all are a part of this lead pastor's flock. What passage do you think I'm going to have you turn to? Psalm 23. Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 23. Whereby one under the care of the Lord, under His oversight, speaks about this shepherd's qualities. And Peter does call him the chief shepherd. And I give that little pull-in illustration there at the beginning to get your minds to remember, brethren, at the end of the day, whatever happens with us, your under-shepherds who are under the chief shepherd, whatever happens to us, whatever deficiencies we have and we have them, you're never going to find one deficiency in your chief shepherd, in your head pastor, in your lead pastor who's Jesus Christ. It's not any of us. It's Christ. And I realize some would even use that terminology in other churches, and I know they mean something well by it, but brethren, don't get lost from Christ being that ultimate One who is guiding you. So, let's think about this. Psalm 23. We're going to read the whole psalm right now. And we're not going to begin to exhaust this psalm today. By the end of this message, we will basically just have looked at verse 1. And in two weeks, I speak again, and my plan is to deal further with Psalm 23. And we'll see how many messages I can bring out of this chapter here. Now, we're going to read this. I'm going to make multiple interpretive comments as we read this psalm. Kind of like a run-in commentary. We're going to read the statement and just give a quick thought. And I'm not saying all of these are for certain what the metaphor is saying this aspect of the shepherd symbolizes. But someone wrote this. I don't know who wrote this, but I thought it would be helpful to give you something to pull you in further to this psalm, because you can easily read it and miss some of the depth. And one of the ways we get help when we read our Bibles is we restate what the text is saying. You read it and it sounds like it's saying something. You try to think, how can I restate it? In other words, he's saying this. And sometimes that opens the window for us to fully grasp what the author of Scripture meant or what he is saying there. And another thing to notice as we read this, you're going to notice this is David here describing the Lord, and the repeated focus is on the Lord and what the Lord has done. This is not David thinking about himself. This is him thinking about the Lord and boasting in this shepherd. So, Psalm 23. A psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd. That speaks about relationship. I shall not want. That speaks about supply. All I ever need is found in Thee. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. That could speak about rest. He leads me beside still waters. That could speak about refreshment. He restores my soul. That could speak about healing. He leads me in paths of righteousness. That's speaking about His guidance. For His namesake. That's speaking about the purpose. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. That's speaking about testing. I will fear no evil. That's protection. For You are with me. The Lord is faithful. That's speaking about His faithfulness. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. And we're going to have to look at this in the weeks to come. But it could be speaking about His discipline or His protection with this rod and this staff. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. That's speaking about hope. You anointed my head with oil. That's speaking about being consecrated and set apart. My cup overflows. That speaks about abundance. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. That speaks about continual blessing from God. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord. That speaks about security. And then that last word right there, forever. It speaks about eternity. See, there's a lot here that is David speaking about the Lord. And there's so much comfort and truth that we can find in this passage. So let me go ahead and pray for God's sake. Father, Lord, these are Your sheep. At least, many of them are. They're Your sheep. And Lord, You love Your sheep. You want Your sheep to be fed and reminded of You and encouraged of You and pointed to You and directed to You. And Lord, that's my hope. I want them to leave here thinking more and more about You and glorying in You and boasting in You and finding Your promises to be true for them personally. But Father, I can't make that a reality through my personality, through the tone of my voice. Lord, it's only going to happen through the power of Your Spirit. And so I ask, Father, send Your Holy Spirit and guide me and speak to the hearts of these precious ones who are Yours. And Lord, if there's some here who don't know You, if they're not among Your flock, Lord, I pray they hear Your voice. That they would hear of a shepherd that they want to be under, they want to be managed by, they want to be in His flock, and that they would come to You and find all these promises here to find their yes in them as well in their life. And so, Lord, we just commit this time to You in Christ's precious, redeeming, glorious, altogether lovely name. Amen. So let me just start by giving a few observations about this passage and maybe thinking about the overall flow before we try to start dissecting it. Now, first thing, you go to a passage, you ask who wrote it, when did they write it? Those are natural questions to ask. Who wrote it? The Psalm of David. David wrote this psalm, the previous psalm, the next psalm. There's multiple psalms here that David wrote. David. Who was David? Before he was King of Israel, what was David practically in his career? He was a shepherd. When Samuel inspected all of David's brothers, David was not there. He was the young one. He was the one that his father most likely thought was not going to get picked. And yet, he was the one who was anointed with oil and would become King. But what was David doing? He was keeping the sheep. Keeping the sheep, 1 Samuel says. And what happened when David had to leave keeping his sheep? Remember when he had to take rations to the army when they stood before Goliath? What did he do with his sheep at that time? It says he left them with someone. He didn't leave the flock without a shepherd. You could say in a way he even got a hireling or someone he hired with money. We don't know what their heart was towards the sheep. But he got them. And despite getting them, his eldest brother basically accused him of leaving the sheep alone in the wilderness. His brother said when he got there, after he made his bold statement of faith, his brother in his insecure pride couldn't stand that his younger brother was making these statements, and he said, with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know the presumption and evil of your heart, for you have come down here to see the battle. He was being accused of something that was not true. David cared for his sheep. He made sure someone was watching those sheep. And then eventually, he goes from this lowly task of being an actual shepherd to being a king of Israel. Talk about a great responsibility shift in his life. When did he write this? We can't prove when he wrote it. It makes it sound like he's been through some valleys, right? Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. It depends on what that is specifically referring to, but it sounds like he's been through different trials, different tests, different opportunities to fear no evil. Look, David didn't fear evil before Goliath. Those words are remarkable. The boldness and the confidence he had in his God before this great giant and this army of the Philistines. And so David, he's the one who says these words. He was a shepherd. Here, another question is how many metaphors does David use in this chapter? How many metaphors? And a metaphor is a comparison made between two or more things using figurative or descriptive language. How many metaphors are here in Psalm 23? Anyone? I mean, look at verse five. Is he talking about a sheep still? You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies? And is he talking about getting this table and getting all those sheep sitting down at the table? Do sheep now eat at tables? Right there, no, they don't. There's at least two metaphors in this psalm. Two metaphors. The Lord is my shepherd being the first. And we see that in the first verses leading up to verse 4. And then he shifts, and he talks about the Lord basically being a royal host, providing food that nourishes in spite of the fact that they have their enemies surrounding them. Imagine that. Their enemies are looking upon them and unable to harm them as they feast before the Lord as a royal host serving them. So that's something to consider. As I try to look at this psalm in the months ahead, this isn't just one metaphor. I do not believe it is. That he's just talking about the Lord as my shepherd, but he shifts and he's talking about the Lord as a royal host in verse five. Your third observation is, is this psalm just about God's commitment to us? I ask this question because that's often the emphasis. Right, Psalm 23, one of the most well-known psalms, one of the psalms that is most memorized. People often go to the psalm and they're primarily thinking about it describing the Lord's commitment to us and David describing the Lord's commitment to him as a sheep. But is it just about that? Clearly it's about that. But is it just about that? Look at the passage. What stands out to you? I mean, an actual phrase from Psalm 23. We just read it. What here actually gives an explanation of why the Lord is even doing what he is doing? Say again. Verse three. You see that? He restores my soul. He leads. He's doing all these things in paths of righteousness. And then what does he say? Conjunction for his namesake. This passage is not just about God's incredible care for you and me, which it's incredible. But you've got to realize, wrapped up in God's care for you and I and his commitment to us is his commitment to himself. Right, God is committed to God. Even Jeff kind of hit on some of that in the first hour. I mean, Romans 11 and Romans 10, so much of that is about God proving he is trustworthy. He is committed to his word. He has not lied. He has not wrongly represented himself. So believer, the Lord's concern for you and for me, it's actually his concern for himself that's involved in that. And we actually praise God for such. Because that all the more gives you the comfort that God will not fail. Because this isn't just about you and me. This is actually about God. Being committed to God. And since he is, it all the more should comfort you that he will be faithful to his character. And this is something that even one of those songs that are right there, was it the last one? I mean, it was just saying this reality for his namesake, for his namesake. But listen to Isaiah 48. Behold, don't turn there. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver. I have tried you in the furnace of affliction for my own namesake, for my own namesake. Is that a typo? For my own namesake, for my own, that's not me repeating it. That's what the text does. For my own namesake, for my own namesake, I do it. For how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. That's no typo, brethren. God is about Himself. And that means His character and jealousy to be God and be fully committed to who He is, that's going to overflow into you and I's life and His care of us. And we've got to not forget the big picture here is I'm submitting to this Chief Shepherd and as He leads me, He's leading me for His own namesake. I mean, that's why Paul can come along and say whether you eat or whether you drink or whatever you do, do what? Do all for the glory of God. That's what this is about. It's about doing all for Him. And we can heartily amen what Paul said. I was bought with a price. So therefore, I want to glorify God in my body in view of this price. The fourth thing here, an observation of this whole psalm or a thought to think about as we try to dive into it. The Lord is my Shepherd. When it says Lord there, who's it talking about? God the Father? God the Son? God the Spirit? Is it yes? Is Jeff saying yes? Meaning all of them? Or is there one Person of the Trinity of the Godhead that is specifically being thought of? He says the Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want. Now, look, we know this. Yeah, the word is Yahweh. And you know what happens again in Philippians 2? Paul comes and he actually applies Yahweh to Christ and says Christ is Yahweh. I mean, the Father and I are one. Isn't that what Christ said? So maybe we don't get so lost into this, because the character of the Father and the character of the Son is the character of God. The Son took upon flesh, but it's still the same character of God. Actually, a perfect imprint of His nature displaying that with perfection. We know in John 10, what does Jesus say in John 10? I am the Good Shepherd. So Christ in the New Testament comes along and He identifies Himself as the Good Shepherd. How much was David thinking though about Christ here in this psalm when he said what he said? Was he thinking about the pre-incarnate Christ? Or was he more so thinking about the Lord as Jehovah, as Yahweh? But we more now know the Shepherd as Jehovah Jesus, as the Lord Jesus Christ. And to quote, as I mentioned, John 10:30, I and the Father are one. So the answer could simply be the Shepherd is our one true God. All the persons of the Trinity are involved in the shepherding of you and I's soul. Yet, we don't want to deny the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ clearly takes His identity of fulfilling this role of Shepherd of the sheep in the New Testament specifically upon Himself. Yet, He and the Father are one. You see? Okay. A fifth thing here. Should this psalm just be applied to Christ's love for the church and the believer? Let me try to explain this. Where does this psalm come in context? What's right before it? What's in Psalm 22? Psalm 22 points forward and speaks about what's happening. Christ, His death. There are words from Psalm 22 that Christ states, my God, my God, why have You forsaken Me? What happens in Psalm 24? What's Psalm 24 ultimately about? Is it just about us having clean hands and a pure heart? No. The end of Psalm 24 talks about the ascension and the coronation of the Lord Jesus Christ who is this King of glory, the strong and the mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads. I'm speaking about Christ's ascension and His coronation. So we've got this psalm right between two psalms that all the more clearly speak about the Lord Jesus Christ coming in the future and certain things pointing to Christ. Doesn't any of that happen in Psalm 23? This is my question. Could Psalm 23 in any way be taken up by Christ for Christ to say, Yahweh, God the Father, is My shepherd, therefore I shall not want? Is this just about us? Or could Christ own Psalm 23 for Himself? I mean, is David a type of Christ? Is not David a type of Christ? The words in Psalm 22 that David said are words that Christ actually ends up saying on that cross. Here's something to think about. John 16, 32, Behold, the hour is coming. Indeed, it has come when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave Me alone. And what were his next words there? Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with Me. You look at Psalm 23, For I will fear no evil, for you are with Me. Look, the Father had His fatherly care of His Son through His one perfect life of obedience that He lived. Christ, no doubt, was being enabled and helped by the Spirit. And the Father was with Him just as Christ is with us. And even in John 10 when He talks about being the Good Shepherd and I know My own and My own know Me, He then says that's parallel to My relationship with the Father. So Christ looked at His relationship with us and He says that's parallel. In the same way that I know you, so I know My Father and My Father knows Me. You've got to remember, Christ is the what in John 1:29? I am the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Christ puts Himself in the place not just of the Shepherd in John 10, but as the Lamb. As a sheep. Even a sheep led to the slaughter before its shears is silent. Here a question is, who has been so led in paths of righteousness for the namesake of God? Who tops the list? Christ. And no doubt, the Father, the Spirit, the three Persons of the Trinity, all involved. Christ was full of the Spirit without measure. Christ lived the perfect, righteous life. He's been the One who's been led on a path of righteousness more than any other Person. And you know Christ's motive? What was Christ's motive? It was for the glory of the Father. What's the psalmist say is going to happen? It's going to be for the glory of God. So, I offer that thought, because if you read some of the old writers, they will apply some of this to Christ. And they will say that Christ Himself could own this psalm. Whether there's something there or not, I think that Christ doesn't come in the New Testament and take parts of Psalm 23 like He does of Psalm 22. But it doesn't mean there isn't a reality of God being with Him just as Christ is with you and me. Okay, a sixth thing to think about here. David wrote this and is boasting in the Lord at a time prior to the incarnation of Christ. I wonder what it would be like if David could write a Psalm 23 after Christ came, lived, died, rose, and is seated. He wrote in the midst of the shadows about who the Lord is. We've got the full picture. We've got the fulfillments of the prophecies. We've got the sacrificial death of Christ and His resurrection. I mean, this is old in a way. This is written without a fullness of knowledge. And even yet, we do not have a fullness of knowledge. But imagine what David would pen today. I would say that should all the more ask ourselves, what do you and I pen about the Lord Jesus Christ? What can we say about Christ in our life? I mean, could you write Psalm 23? Could you say all of these statements here? Can you say that you have no want? Can you say that the Lord is nourishing and providing for you? Can you say that He's leading you? Can you say that He restores your soul? A seventh thing to think about here. This Psalm is about what the Lord is doing for you and not what you are doing for the Lord. If you look at the language there, look what he says. He says He makes, He leads, He restores, He leads, He's with me, He prepares a table for me, He anoints my head, He's causing goodness and mercy to follow me. I will dwell in His house. This is He gives us a place to dwell. This Psalm is all about what the Lord is doing for you. That should really be our constant focus as Christians. That's going to lead to action in the Christian life. The more and more that you and I see what God is doing for us and what He's done for us through Christ, the more and more we're going to act out of love for the One who has so loved us. David is just fixed on the Lord. He's not fixed upon his circumstances. If you're more fixed upon your circumstances than upon Christ, then you're not going to have this reality. A well-quoted psalm, Psalm 26:3, what's it say? You keep Him in perfect peace. That's a nice statement. What's he say next? Whose mind is what? Is briefly on the Lord? Whose mind has stayed on Him. Why has his mind stayed on Him? Conjunction. Because he trusts in Him. If I'm trusting in the Lord, my mind's going to be on the Lord and there's going to be a perfect peace. I mean, where's self in that? Yeah, I've got to set my mind on Christ. Sure, there's something to do. But in a way, it's not doing. It's thinking about what He's already done and what He's doing for me. And I've got perfect peace. Devoid of whatever circumstance I'm in the midst of. So this psalm is about what the Lord is doing for you. What the Lord is doing for you. And the eighth thing to think about, he says, the Lord is my Shepherd. My Shepherd. Then he goes on to describe the absolute perfect spiritual provider and guide that the Lord is. The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want. I mean, right there, there is so much being communicated and we can read it over. We can say it. The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not lack. We're going to look at that more next time. I shall not want. But this psalm shows the absolute management and guidance provided by a Shepherd for the sheep's every single need. And you know, when David, like I said, when he brought food to his brothers, he found someone to watch the sheep. Does the Lord do that? When the Lord goes to help Jonathan, does the Lord then have to leave me and put me in someone else's hands in order to go provide for his needs and then the Lord's over there? No, the Lord's not like that. The Lord's always there. Even people in a bad church with heretics preaching to them, if they're a true Christian, the Lord is still intricately involved in shepherding them. Even though they might be sitting before hirelings who are saying things to them, they're not from the Word of God. But God's going to pull them out of there. He's going to give them truth. I mean, He's done that to many of us. How did we even end up here? We got saved and many of us, we didn't know up from down. We started to study the Word and we started to realize, wait a minute, what's going on? Where am I at? What are they teaching? Who got us out of there? The Lord our Shepherd. He led us. He got us out. A Shepherd. A Shepherd. Think about how the Bible describes shepherds. Condemning those in Israel. He says in Ezekiel 34, the weak you've not strengthened, the sick you've not healed, the injured you've not bound up, the strayed you've not brought back, the lost you've not sought. And then He says this, and with force and harshness, you have ruled over them. You know, one of the elder qualifications is that we be gentle. That doesn't mean there's not a place for a strong, sharp rebuke. But isn't it interesting here how He says with force and harshness, they've ruled them. The Lord's the opposite of Ezekiel 34. That means the Lord isn't shepherding over us with harshness. That means the Lord, He does strengthen us when we're weak. When we're sick, He heals us. When we're injured, He binds us up. When we're strayed, He brings us back. When we're lost, He comes and restores us. And with gentleness, He rules over us. Brethren, whether you believe it or not, if you're a Christian, that's happening in your life. One of our biggest issues is wrongly interpreting the hand of God as He faithfully guides us as a shepherd. We miss some of His cues in His guidance, and therefore, we start to feel like we lack when we're not really lacking. The shepherd's just leading us somewhere to teach us something we don't fully recognize we needed to learn. Or you think more about shepherds in the Bible. Revelation 7, verse 16 and 17, they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more. The sun shall not strike them nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd. He's a Lamb and a shepherd. He will guide them to springs of living water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. You see, that's God's heart towards you. Look, you might be the one, you have a loved one who's under the discipline of the church. You might be one who has a child who is going out and living in sin and it's grieving you. You might be the one who has lost parents who are nearing death. The Lord's not forgotten you in the midst of all of that. He's there shepherding you and guiding you. Christ laid down His life for us. I mean, what greater evidence do you and I need that He loves us? He paid our ransom. He watches over us. He goes after the wandering. He's faithful. He has the strength to deliver us from any enemy. It doesn't matter what the enemy is, He's not going to lack the strength. Christ is never too far away to deliver us. One fear people have is there's no one here to help me. There's no one here to deliver me. Christ is there. Call upon Him. He's not in the other room. He's not away dealing with another individual. He's able to help you if you call upon Him in your distress. Christ can anticipate every one of our needs. Look, we think we're good at anticipating what we need. Brethren, we are pathetic at doing that. If you recorded every single thing you thought you needed and you wrote down a list anticipating I'll need this at this point in my life and at my marriage, you probably got it greatly wrong. And the Lord comes along and He's anticipating it perfectly for you and I. So the Lord is my shepherd. What's that imply we are? Sheep. So let's think about that. The ninth thing here, we're sheep. The New Testament clearly talks like that. Even in the Old Testament, the Israelites. I want to think specifically about sheep in the sense of one who has been saved. The Bible doesn't always call people sheep who are actually converted. It speaks about Israelites being sheep who are yet in unbelief. But how far can we take this idea of being sheep? If someone here was a shepherd of sheep, do we go up to them and we ask them, what did you learn from having sheep? Is there something we could get from them? Yes. But we've got to think, how does the Bible describe sheep? What comes to your mind? What verses? How does the Bible take sheep? What verses were dumb? What's Christ say? Without a shepherd, we're what? Helpless? Helpless? Matthew 9, verse 36, "...because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." Zechariah 10, verse 2, they wonder like sheep. They're afflicted for a lack of a shepherd. They don't have a shepherd. Isn't it amazing? Without a shepherd, we're helpless. Without a shepherd, we're lacking. Without a shepherd, without John 15 and abiding in Christ, you can't do anything. And that's the Bible's message to us. We're creatures completely reliant upon the Lord. And yes, you could go look at an actual sheep and we could go buy some acres and put sheep out there and we could learn something, no doubt, that those Jews and the people back then more commonly knew about sheep that we don't know. I mean, I don't think anyone here is a shepherd over actual physical sheep. And so there's not insights that I can glean from you and hear that might help me more enter into what the Lord is trying to say in this metaphor. We just want to be careful to not read too much into it. Clearly, the metaphor is focused on the shepherd far more than the sheep and the shepherd's qualities to lead and to guide. Can you find any account in the Bible of a sheep defending themselves? Can you find that? Do sheep defend themselves? I can't find anything that speaks about a sheep defending themselves. And in nature, what do you find? You go look at the sheep. Do they defend themselves? What does he say? Like a sheep before its shearers is silent. I mean, they're facing the wolves. They're facing some trial. And they're so scared, they can't even bleat and make a sound. They're just there paralyzed. Like a sheep before its shearers is silent. They're silent. They should be making a fuss when the knife is being taken to them, and they're not. They're not. They need a shepherd to come in and to defend them. I mean, we read here in Psalm 23, what does he say? He makes me lie down in green pastures. To stretch themselves out in green pastures. Is that an easy thing to do? We kind of have to have a shepherd here to ask them. Is that an easy thing for a sheep to do to get them to lie down in a green pasture? Or does that take a whole lot of work to accomplish? So for the sake of this, let me read what W. Keller wrote. W. Keller was a shepherd for I think eight years, and then he became a pastor. And he wrote a book on this psalm. And I find it interesting what he says here. Listen to him. He says this, The strange thing about sheep is that because of their very makeup, it's almost impossible for them to be made to lie down unless four requirements are met. Number one, owning to their timidity, they refuse to lie down unless they are free of all fear. Number two, because of the social behavior within a flock, sheep will not lie down unless they are free from friction with others of their kind. Three, if tormented by flies or parasites, sheep will not lie down only when free of these pests can they relax. And fourthly, sheep will not lie down as long as they feel in need of finding food. They must be free from hunger. Now what I find interesting about his observation, even though it's not right here saying that's exactly what is meant by the fullness of the metaphor, but isn't it true when you're afraid, do you find some rest? What's one of the big things in the world today? Insomnia. People can't sleep. And you ask them why they can't sleep, there's something on the mind in most cases, or something medical in some cases, but something's on the mind, they're struggling to find sleep. What about a second point? I mean, when you have an unresolved conflict in the church, or in your life, or in your marriage, can you just sit down and rest in the green pastures? I hope not. When enemies of our spirit harass us, that's the third thing he said, can we rest? When the enemies are harassing, the slanderous lies of the devil, or some of you young people, you talk about before you go into bed and just all these lies that are tempting you, it's hard to rest. It's hard to rest right there. And then the last thing, when we're hungry, it's hard to rest. I mean, there's truth there. There's a hunger, right? Hunger and thirst for righteousness. And we're hungering for the Word. We're hungering to know the Lord. And so sheep, maybe one of those four things is not being met in your life right now. Guess what? The Good Shepherd wants to meet that need in your life. He's trying to guide you and get you to a point where those four things are met that you can really rest and trust in Him and lay down and not be afraid of the wolves that could be around trying to devour you. But you and I are likened to sheep. It's not a glorious animal. As someone said, many would say, it's a very dumb animal. It's an animal that has thick wool. It's easy to get dirty. It's easy to have a bunch of ticks in that wool. They record as babies, the shepherd sometimes physically has to move the jaw for it to start nursing or else it will die. So he's got to get down there. They're not eating their food! He's got to open the jaw and get them to eat. To drink. It's an animal that can be grazing in the greenest of grass. And then just go wander off a cliff and fall. And get trapped. Have you ever done that before? Just feasting on Christ and then it's like, what happened in one week of my life? David had that happen. Victory, victory, war, all these things, God's hands on him, and boom, adultery. Because he didn't go to war. He wasn't where God had called him to be. In a matter of moments, the king was in adultery and then staging a man to be killed, to be set up to die. It's incredible, but he says right here, he restores my soul. So praise God we have a shepherd who's involved in restoring the soul. And sometimes, like a sheep, we don't know how to scream. We don't even bleat. We're in the midst of a trying situation. And we won't even open our mouth, much less for the Lord to help us, but we won't even ask the brethren to help. We won't even let others in the flock know. It's kind of like we start wondering a little over there and we're kind of getting further away from the flock. You know what? The shepherd sees you there. Why isn't he going and grabbing you and pulling you back right away? Why isn't the Lord doing that? Maybe there's something to be learned there. Or he's saying if you really hear his voice, because if you hear his voice, you're going to ultimately follow him. Because my sheep know my voice and they hear me. This is an animal. Many shepherds record this, so I'm taking it it's true, but a sheep could fall on its back, and in most cases, it can't get back up. It will lie there. And the gases will form in and it will die without the shepherd coming and flipping the sheep back up onto its legs. Philip Keller, this actual shepherd, he wrote that that would happen. That shows how pathetically weak we are. That's why it's so important, even for us in the church, to go after those. Because again, remember all of this, ultimately, the Lord is your shepherd, but that doesn't mean we sit around and we don't try to imitate these qualities. All the more us four who are here locally right now trying to shepherd you, we need to be imitating these very qualities of the great shepherd. But this isn't something that you just defer to us. You want to imitate and be like Christ in these ways as well. And so someone might be over there laying down on their back and the gases are coming in and they might not make it and we've got to find them. We've got to bring them back. You know, sheep are animals that can be led. Isn't that something? And so it is with us. But there's many observations from actual shepherds that could maybe add to this metaphor. Because they had far more of a general knowledge of what a sheep was and what a shepherd was than we do today. And so when he says the Lord is my shepherd, no doubt those hearing it thought of certain things about sheep and the Lord's shepherding care that we might not have come to our mind. So a tenth thing. How do I approach this passage? How do I approach this? Even in two weeks. And you say, well, what do you mean? You approach it for what it is, right? It isn't preaching. You read the passage and you figure out what's the main point that the author had from the passage itself and that's your main point and all your sub-points are from that. Well, that's true. But here we've got a psalm. It's very scattered. Yet everything said is about the Lord. And it's someone saying these things about the Lord. So how am I going to approach this? Here are questions. Have you ever heard a sheep talk? You just did. Psalm 23. That's a sheep talking and describing to us the care of His shepherd. This is a shepherd you all have if you're a Christian. And every other believer in every other church, they've got this ultimate head shepherd. This chief shepherd. Here we've got David declaring and announcing the qualities about his perfect shepherd's treatment of him. One called this psalm a hymn of praise to divine diligence. I mean, this is different than the Lord declaring who He is. You understand that? I mean, the Lord is declaring who He is through the Spirit guiding David to say what He says. So in that sense, this is the Lord declaring it. But in another sense, this is David writing this about the Lord. You understand the difference? If I come and I say something about me, maybe you wouldn't take it with as much credibility, but when someone else comes and they say things about me and it's exactly what I was saying about my own character, maybe it's more believable because they're saying it and not myself. So here David is saying, look, this is true of the Lord. Whether you fully recognize it or not at the moment, this is truth about who He is. The Lord is. The Lord is. You find that phrase throughout your Bible. You know what we find here? We find the believer's confidence in who the Lord is. This is a man who's got assurance about who his God is and is God's care of him. This deals with assurance of salvation. And all of this begs the simple question, what is your perspective of the Lord? What is it? Do His staff and His rod comfort you? Is He with you in the valleys? Can you say, I shall not want? David gives us his perspective on the Lord. You come. You tell me what's your perspective. Not your experience. I mean, your experience will line up with your perspective, but even there, there's times we're experiencing the very promises of God and we don't even realize it. So we say, I don't see this happening in my life, but it might be because we're blind to the fact it is happening. God actually is fulfilling that exact promise that's here in this psalm. You just are too blind to recognize what He's doing. And since we're sheep, that's highly possible that we could be doing that. But what is my perspective on the Lord? Not what am I feeling about the Lord. Not what are others telling me about the Lord. What is my own perspective? What can I declare about the Lord as one of His sheep? And yes, part of doing that, we have to wrestle with what some of these statements symbolize. But is having the right perspective of the Lord vitally important? I mean, that's exactly what Paul is dealing with in Romans 11. He wants a right perspective of the Lord. That's a big part of the picture. That's what the whole Bible is about in many ways, front to back. It's about telling you and I who God is in order that we might have a right perspective of the Lord. Remember Agar's prayer? He wanted not too much, not too little. He wanted to be right in the middle when it came to food, when it came to resources and money. Why? What reason did he have? Lest I be full. And what happens? Lest I be full and deny you and say, who is the Lord? David says, the Lord is my Shepherd. Agar recognizes you could get to the point where you end up saying, who is the Lord? The once clear, vivid thoughts of the character of God and the person of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit that were vivid in your mind, that were true, that were impacting you, you could lose that perspective, you could become full, and you could forget who God is. We need to not just have a right perspective of the Lord, but obviously maintain it. Imagine if Psalm 23, if everything was the opposite. Think of how depressing that would be. Right? The Lord is my Shepherd, so I shall constantly be left in want. He never gives me rest. Some people, that's how they feel about the Lord. They don't have the Lord of the Bible. The Christ of the Bible says, come unto Me, all who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The lowercase Lord of a legalistic religion emphasizing laws and doing, that won't give you rest. You will feel like you're striving to the point of atheism and is God even existing? Because you feel no power. There's no power. There's no help from God. And I want to stop there lest I read everything in the negative and put some thought in your mind about God that is not true. Because you know what? That's the devil's goal. I don't want to give him ammunition that he might take and implant in your mind. And you know the real danger here? It's not you and I doubting everything said in Psalm 23. What's the danger? It's you and I doubting one thing. None of you are going to go to Psalm 23 and every one of these say, I don't see that in my life. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. I shall not want. I don't think you're going to go there and say, well, I don't see all of that. You know what the enemy wants you? He wants you off in one area. He just wants you to have a distorted view of who Christ is, of who God is in one area. In one area. And you know, there is another shepherd out there. Psalm 49 says, like sheep, they are appointed for Sheol. Death shall be their shepherd. Death shall be their shepherd. You don't want death to be your shepherd. You don't want to be famished and dried up and diseased and die without food or water, full of discontentment, always feeling like you lack. That's what it sounds like when I was a lost teenager. All of those things. Famished, dried up, diseased, without food, discontent. In the spiritual realm in my heart, is that not what you, brethren, felt when you were lost? You went from one empty cistern to another. It promised to have water, but it was just a mirage. And you got there and you started to drink and it was bitter. Didn't satisfy? Didn't get your thirst satisfied? So brethren, that's kind of an overview, some thoughts that came to me that I wanted to share on Psalm 23. But in closing here, let me emphasize one thing from verse 1. There's so much more here that I want to deal with, Lord willing, as the months go on. But the first thing here is the Lord is my shepherd. My shepherd. Is there not a drastic difference whether you have that word in the text or not? How big of a deal is it? It's a massive deal. And to use someone else's illustration, this helped paint it even for me. A farm servant carrying the sick boy to his mother said the child is dead. That's far different than when the mother says, my child is dead. You see, that person's child died in Ukraine. It's different than my child died in the Ukraine in war. He was mine. This is really the difference between you having knowledge of the Lord, being the shepherd, and you actually receiving Him as your own, and actually being one of His sheep. There's a drastic difference between the two. Can you only say Jesus is the Savior? Or can you say that He is my Savior? I have believed His promises for a guilty sinner to be true for me. I've embraced them. I'm trusting Him. And you know what this also shows about David? The Lord is my shepherd. It shows the personal nature of God. David singles himself out. It doesn't mean the Lord isn't other people's shepherds. That's not what he's saying. But he's making it completely personal for himself. So David was consciously aware of his individual relationship to the Lord. Brethren, you and I don't want to forget that. You don't want God to become different than a personal God where you're walking with Him in a personal way. You don't want Him to just be a God up there. It's not Christianity. It's knowing the Lord personally. So could you write, even just the first verse of Psalm 23, could you write, the Lord is my shepherd? I'm asking every one of you here. Could you write that? Could you say He's mine? Because He loved me and gave Himself up for me. It's not because I loved Him, but He loved me. This speaks of David's assurance. It's kind of like Paul saying, He loved me. Right? There's assurance there. And that could be one of the most difficult things to state in the entire passage. That could be one of the things you do not want to fail to believe. You've got to believe the Lord says, I'm His sheep. He's my shepherd. Don't let the devil slander His character to the point where you lose that reality that He is my shepherd and I am His. Satan will attack that for you to doubt the love of God for you, to get you to think that you don't belong to Him. And look, maybe you don't and you're deceived, but if that's the case, go to Him. And say, save me from my deception and my false Christianity. I don't want to be under this taskmaster and this shepherd of death any longer. What's one of the most difficult qualities to receive from this psalm? I hope it's not that the Lord is my shepherd. You know what? Maybe there's some present trial that makes it more difficult to believe something that is said in this psalm. But brethren, there's never going to be a better shepherd than the Lord and there's never going to be another option of an ultimate shepherd than the Lord. And when you look at Christ, I guarantee you, it would make the most... If you go read the biographies of pastors who've died and they were so gifted and they were so used of God, even those pastors, they look at their life, their ministry, and they feel the depth of how far they've fallen short of the character of the Great Shepherd and imitating it. But just because they did, it didn't mean they weren't striving to be like Christ and we too should be. I trust we're all seeking to do that. But David is saying I'm a cherished object of the Lord. I'm in His flock. Brethren, that's incredible. I'm actually in His flock. How did I get here? What happened 15 years ago? How did I even get here? This is just a miracle. It's a miracle. The Lord sought me. I heard His voice. He opened my eyes. I believed on Christ. And I'm still believing. And I've been able to say for 15 years, the Lord is my Shepherd. It's a miracle. And that should make you ask, how can the Lord be your Shepherd? Well, I would say this, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ just as was told the jailer and you will be saved. Believe Him. Believe that He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and He can take away your sin freely, forgiven, forever. Not because of works that you have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy. Believe that. And you know what? A second thing, Jesus comes and He has very, very strong words for those who would not believe Him when He did His mighty works in John 10. Jesus said to them, I told you, you didn't believe. Brethren, not brethren, people, if you're not believing Christ and you're hearing Christ and you're hearing about Christ, don't miss these words of Jesus. It should make you feel your total inability to save yourself and your desperate need for the mercy of God. Jesus told them, you do not believe. They're refusing. You do not believe. The works that I do in My Father's name bear witness about Me. But you do not believe. And then what answer does He give? Because you're not among My sheep. My sheep hear My voice and I know them. They follow Me. I give them eternal life. They will never perish and no one will snatch them out of My hand. This wasn't Christ sharing this just with His disciples. He was targeting the religious Jews who were not believing on Him. And brethren, there's something there for us to tremble at. Is election absolutely true? You better believe it's true. But what surprises someone might be the fact that Jesus in a way looks at them and says the reason you're not saved is you're not elect. I didn't choose you. He says that to these self-righteous Jews who were already rejecting and believing Christ. Not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a warning to us who sit under the truth. We might get to a place where it's no longer someone evangelizing us, but it's Christ condemning us for not believing in Him. Despite all of His works, despite all that He's done, we refuse to trust Him and let Him be our Shepherd. Don't refuse Him. Isaiah 53, 6 All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned every one to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the sin of us all. 1 Peter 2 He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you've been healed. You can be healed spiritually. Verse 25, For you were straying like sheep, but now have returned to the Shepherd and the Overseer of your souls. Return. Return. You hear His voice? You hear Christ saying, Come to Me? You hear the rest He'll give? You hear the love that He will impart to your believing heart? Don't reject that. Don't procrastinate. Don't wait. Don't put it off. But come and trust Him, and He will rescue you from spiritual death. He'll give you life in a relationship with Him. And it won't be a relationship of His righteous anger towards you. It will be a relationship of His love towards you and not of His wrath. Who are you going to flock to? Who are you going to go to when death comes? Who are you going to find refuge from? When the claw of the lion of death comes to take your life, is Christ going to be there swinging the stone to knock death dead where there's no power and you're secure eternally forever? Do you have someone there who's going to defend you like the Lord Jesus will? Will stick out that rod and that staff and protect you? You can have Him. He says, come. Trust in Him. Brethren, it is a privilege to be the sheep of His pasture. And we can look forward to His return. I mean, 1 Peter 5 says it well, when the Chief Shepherd appears. That's happening. One day He's going to appear. You will receive the unfading crown of glory. What? Sheep getting unfading crowns of glory? What kind of shepherd does that? The Lord does. Psalm 100, verse 3, Know that the Lord, He is God. It is He who made us, and we are His. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Well, amen. Well, in two weeks, my plan will be to look at verse 1 and what He says there, I shall not want. Let's pray. Father, Lord, we want to have a right perspective of You. We do not want distortions to enter in. We do not want to be deluded in our thinking. We do not want our thoughts led astray from a simple and pure devotion to Christ. We don't want to be so full that we get to the point where we say, who is the Lord? And Lord, we're thankful that You're right now. We know You're shepherding us. And Lord, forgive us if we're failing to obey Your guidance. Forgive us if we're wondering. Forgive us, Lord, if we're even complaining. When You say there's no lack, Lord, that's difficult. To say that, to fully believe that. Lord, it brings all these questions to our mind. But Lord, Lord, we know at the end of the day, You are right and Your Word is truth. Whether we can fully comprehend it or whether we can understand all the ins and the outs of it. Lord, thank You for being our Shepherd. Thank You that You are my Shepherd. Lord, I thank You for bringing me in 15 years ago and not leaving me out there to die of famine and of drought, to not be eaten by a wolf. Lord, I pray that You'd bring in, and You'd call some even here right now. Lord, they've heard Your voice in one sense through the preaching. Lord, I pray that they would stop making excuses, that they would come to You. Lord, that they would bow to You, that they would trust You, that they would not refuse You. Lord, have mercy. Lord, we long to see the lost among us converted. And yet, Lord, we feel the absolute helpless reality that in our own power, we can't add them to Your fold. So we pray You would do that very thing. And Lord, we even appeal to Psalm 35 for You to do it, because You said only goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life. Lord, let us see mercy following and chasing after us through people here being converted who we've been praying and weeping and asking You that they might come to know You. Lord, that would be a manifestation of Your Word and of this psalm that all the more affirms its true reality to encourage our faith. Lord, I pray You'd do that. That Psalm 23 would all the more become alive to people in their life on a daily basis, Lord, that You would guide them and even do things that make it evident to them that this is the Lord. And help us to not be like the Israelites who grumbled, Lord, about Your provision for them. Lord, help us to not want. I pray all these things in Christ's name, Amen.