The Lord is my Shepherd
Summer in the Psalms • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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The Lord is My Shepherd
Psalm 23
The title of the message this morning is
“The Lord is My Shepherd” because that is the theme of Psalm 23, everything in this Psalm hinges on that phrase.
There is an old saying I know you are
familiar with, it says, familiarity breeds contempt. That means the more familiar we are with something the more we miss the beauty of it’s blessings.
Someone once said familiarity only breeds contempt in contemptible people. That might be true, but the problem is we are all by nature contemptible people.
For example, we can be married for a
number of years, and we can forget what a blessing it is to be married to that person. We can raise our children and forget what a blessing they are to our life. We can forget what a blessing it is to have a career or a job until it’s not there anymore.
Unfortunately, the same thing is true in our relationship with God. We can become so familiar with His blessings that we begin to take Him for granted, this is especially true of His Word.
Next to John 3:16, Psalm 23 is probably
the most familiar scripture in the Bible. It has often been quoted by believers and unbelievers alike. It is a scripture most read at funerals because of the comfort and peace it brings to our life.
Charles Spurgeon called it the pearl of the Psalms. James Montgomery Boyce said, it has been the last words uttered by many saints of God. Psalm 23 is a masterpiece, and I say that because this Psalm has inspired and brought comfort to so many people’s lives for centuries, it is easy to overlook, and take it for granted.
What does it mean for the Lord to by my shepherd? It means I experience all of the blessings of God in my life.
A Psalm of David.
1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.
3 He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Our Passage this morning begins with an
astounding statement. It would be a very arrogant statement if God had not revealed Himself this way throughout history.
Vs. 1 says, “The Lord is my shepherd.” That would be an astonishing statement no matter who it was coming from. To say the Lord, the Creator of the universe, the self-sustaining God who needs nothing from man and owns it all, is my shepherd. That is an amazing thought.
There are many images of God throughout the Old Testament used to describe Him. He is described as a King, a Deliverer,a Ruler. On a more personal level He is called a rock, a shield, and a fortress, but David calls Him his shepherd.
A shepherd was not a prestigious position not even in Israel and David knew exactly what He was saying here. He grew up as a shepherd, but now he was a king, looking back on his life and what God had brought him through.
You see David knew that a shepherd cared for his flock. He took care of their every need; he fed them, protected them, guided them, and rescued them. A shepherd literally lived with his flock.
So, this is a personal statement. David
says, “The Lord is my shepherd.” Notice the personal pronouns throughout the Psalm; I shall not want, He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters. David recognizes that God takes a personal interest in him and his life.
In fact, he feels so intimately acquainted with God he wrote in
Psalm 139:1–4 “1 O Lord, You have searched me and known me. 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. 3 You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all.”
So, this is a personal statement, but it
is also a humble statement, because to fully appreciate this Psalm, you have to
understand the nature of sheep.
A sheep is something you would never
want to be. Sheep are dumb, stubborn, defenseless. A sheep has no sense of
direction and is prone to wander, and it cannot survive on it’s own.
So, this is a very humbling statement by David saying, “The Lord is My shepherd, and I am one of His sheep.”
It’s important we understand this is
David’s personal testimony. He doesn’t say, the Lord is our shepherd. He says, the Lord is my shepherd. And He is certainly the shepherd of everyone who is a genuine believer.
But that is not a statement that can be made by just anyone. So, the question becomes can you say with David, “The Lord is my shepherd?”
Because David knew what it meant to be
forgiven. David knew what it meant to be redeemed, and it is not until we know
the Lord as our redeemer that we can know Him as our shepherd.
The New Testament makes it clear that the Lord is not our shepherd unless Jesus is our Savior.
Jesus is the great shepherd who stepped down from heaven, was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on a cross for our forgiveness and rose again for our justification, and He told us
in John 10:11, “I am the good shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep.”
What does it mean for the Lord to by my
shepherd? It means the same thing it meant for David, It means I experience the blessings of God in my life. There are four great blessings from God in this Psalm.
The first thing I want you to see is The blessing of God meeting our every need. Vs. 1-3.
Notice Vs. 1, “I shall not want.” The Hebrew word for “want” is to lack, it’s to be without. David could say with absolute certainty that God was going to take care of him. That he would never lack the necessities of life, and this is true of everyone who puts there trust
in God.
Now, that doesn’t mean that we have
everything in life we want. God is not a cosmic genie in a bottle you rub and get three wishes. This means you will lack nothing in terms of what you really need.
Notice Vs. 2-3, “He makes me lie down in
green pastures; He leads me beside the quiet waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” This is all speaking of God taking care of our needs both physically and spiritually.
The phrase green pastures here literally mean green meadows of freshly sprouted grass. That was very rare in Israel. A shepherd had to work hard to find pasture for his sheep. All of this speaks to how hard God is at work in the life of a believer.
Notice how active He is in these verses. He makes me, He leads me, He restores me, He guides me. God is the one doing the work. Blessing His people meeting their needs both physically
and spiritually.
The word “restores” in Vs. 3 is one of the most frequently used words in the Bible. It means to return to its original position. It gives us the idea of God bringing us back to where we need to be.
It is the same word used of the dove Noah sent out from the ark in search of dry land. When it could find a place to put its foot down it was restored to Noah.
It reminds me of my brother who has an infatuation with classic cars. He spends all of his time, talent, and resources restoring them to their original form. That is the picture of what God does in our life. He restores our soul. Through the forgiveness of God and the grace of the cross, Jesus makes us a new creation.
Is that the kind of blessing you are
experiencing in your life? Because when the Lord is your shepherd Jesus is your savior and you get to begin again. Your sins are forgiven, your relationship with God is restored, and you are made new.
The next thing I want to show you in this Psalm is, the blessing of not living in fear and anxiety, Vs 4.
It says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for you are with me; Your rod and staff, they comfort me.”
There are people who spend their whole
life plagued by worry and fear. But when you put your trust in Jesus, you don’t have to worry anymore, because God knows what you need and He knows what is best for your life.
Jesus told us in Matthew 6 not to worry about what we will eat or drink, or worry about what tomorrow holds, but to trust God.
Someone once said, “I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds tomorrow,” and that is so true when you know Jesus.
You see worry is a contradiction of trust,
and sheep simply follow the shepherd to the water and grass they need, they don’t worry about it.
Jesus teaches us that’s the way we are supposed to live. In Matthew 6:33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
I want you to notice in Vs 4 how David changes the way he is addressing God. At first, he was speaking about God in the third person. He said, He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters.
But now, he begins to address God personally. He says, “You are with me. Your rod and staff comfort me. You prepare a table before me. You anoint me.”
David now begins to speak to God out of
the experience of his life. David had gone through some things in life and he found God to be faithful no matter what he was going through.
Can you say the same things today? Can you say you will fear no evil because the Lord is with you? His rod and His staff comfort you?
I am reminded of the Apostle Paul who was able to sit in a Roman prison cell not knowing if he would live or die and in Philippians 4:4 say, “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice.”
The difference between a believer and an unbeliever is we should be able to look at the images we see taking place in the world around us and not be afraid. We should be able to look at the world as it crumbles and say, “nevertheless Lord come quickly.”
However, I also understand there are many people who can say, “the Lord is my shepherd” but cannot say, “I will fear no evil.”
I want you to know that is not a sin, it is a lack of trust. We can have an assurance we are a child of God and still fail to trust Him in our everyday walk in this world. That is because we don’t put our knowledge of God into practice. We don’t walk by faith.
For example, If I know I am saved and I
know I am going to heaven. Why would I battle this constant fear and anxiety about life? Why would I live without peace?
Dr. Richard Caldwell says, “We will not have that kind of assurance until we know our life is in the hand of God and there, our life is safe.” So, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will not be afraid.
The next thing, I want you to see is; The Blessing of God’s Abundance, Vs 5.
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; my cup overflows.”
Again, David is still addressing God in
a personal way, and He is speaking of His abundant blessings.
In Vs. 5 The metaphor shifts, and David
goes from describing God as a shepherd to describing Him as a gracious host.
David trades the green pastures and the still waters for banquet hall with a table and a cup. The idea here is that God is serving David and satisfying Him and that is what God does in the life of a believer. We normally think of ourselves as serving God, but here God is pictured as serving us.
The word “prepare in Vs. 5 means to arrange, to set in order, to put into its place and that is what God does in our lives. He arranges them and puts them in order, and He does it right in the presence of our enemies.
The enemy here is pictured as sitting right at the very table with us and that was certainly true in the life of Christ. Judas spent three and a half years with Him serving along side Him and then he betrayed Him.
But this same thing is often true in our
life. Many times, it’s our family, friends and co-workers who are opposed to our relationship with God. They don’t understand why you would want to live your life different because they don’t understand the blessings of abundant grace.
Jesus said in John 10:10, “I came that you might have life and have it more
abundantly.”
When David talks about his cup overflowing, he is talking about the abundant supply of God’s grace. God’s supply never runs out. He always has more to give and it is more than we can contain. God doesn’t give us grace through an eye-dropper but He pours it out on us in buckets.
Some people think that being a Christian
is to hard. There are to many things to give up in life to live for God. And I say are you kidding me? What is hard about God serving me and protecting me and providing for me.
“My cup overflows” if you don’t know Jesus your cup is empty. There is nothing greater you can do in your life than become a part of the shepherd’s
flock. (Bobby)
The final thing, I want you to see is a blessing that encompasses all the blessings. The Blessing of Salvation, Vs. 6.
“Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
The picture in Vs. 6 is God pursuing us in life and then keeping us for eternity.
Everything in this Psalm has been building to this point. I counted 16 times David used the personal pronoun I or me in this Psalm. And it all speaks to the personal relationship we have with God.
That’s important because what that tells us is; we don’t just have an external religion, but we have a relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ. So, no matter what we are going through or where we find ourselves, He is always with us.
Notice the two attributes of God that
are following David throughout His life: God’s goodness and Lovingkindness.
The word “goodness” is a broad term used to describe all of God’s blessings, all of the benefits of knowing Him. The spiritual prosperity that comes from a relationship with Him. We prosper even as our soul prospers.
And the word “lovingkindness” is the
Hebrew word “hessed.” It’s the Old
Testament form of mercy or agape. It describes God’s unconditional love that once He has given it, He never takes it away. All of this gives us a picture of God pursuing us with His love.
But how long does God pursue us? Look at what David says, “all the days of my life.” In other words, God never gives up on us. That is true in the life of every believer.
God pursued you and He will continue to pursue you forever. You may walk away from God but He will never walk away from
you.
And not only does God pursue us but He
keeps us. David says, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Once you move into the Lord’s house you never move out. You shut the door and you throw away the key. And every moment of every day we dwell in intimate fellowship in the presence of God.
This is what we call the eternal security of a believer or once saved always saved. There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God and once you are indwelling you are always indwelling.
27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;
28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
29 “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
30 “I and the Father are one.”
Conclusion
These are the blessings that belong to a
believer. These blessings are only true of those who can say, “The Lord is my shepherd.”
Can you say, “The Lord is my shepherd today?” If you can, I want you to know Goodness and mercy are following you and God is at work in your life.
But if you can’t, I plead with you today
to humble yourself, repent of your sin and seek God’s forgiveness. There is only one way into the sheepfold of heaven and that is to follow the shepherd.
Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life no man comes to the Father except through me.”
Don’t wait, don’t put it off and miss out on the abundant blessing of God in your life. There is nothing in this world that is worth giving up what God has in store for you.
God sent His Son Jesus into the world to
seek and to save that which was lost and Jesus said, “what does it profit a man to gain the world but to lose his soul.” And the answer is nothing.
There is nothing in this world that is worth giving up the blessings of God. Wont you come to know the Lord as your shepherd today.
