The LORD is my Shepherd

Ps 23:1-3

1 The Lord is my shepherd;I have all that I need. 2 He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. 3 He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.

Holy Bible, New Living Translation ®, copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

The Lord Is My Shepherd

 (Ps. 23:1-3)

Intro:

            A.  The presidential election, along with other government offices, will end the voting period on Tuesday.  You may have seen a few ads here in Pennsylvania in the last few weeks.  I know several of you have already voted and others plan to vote on Tuesday.  I look at your social media and see the passion several have around their candidate.  I even hear strangers talking about it at the store.

            B.  Here is something I know.  The government leaders will not bring me lasting peace or meet my greatest needs.  I know that while we can try to mitigate this virus that is hitting the world, we won’t see it end because of an USA election.  We can argue over masks, physical distancing, and hygiene until we all can’t stand each other and it still won’t solve the problems our country faces.

            C.  Let me share with you some words that help me focus on truth and bring me peace.  They are found in the opening verses of Psalm 23.  (READ vs 1-3 in NLT)

            D. When speaking about this Psalm, Henry Ward Beecher, the great American minister of the 1800’s said this:  "It has charmed more griefs to rest than all the philosophy of the world. It has remanded to their dungeon more felon thoughts, more black doubts, more thieving sorrows, than there are sands on the sea-shore. It has comforted the noble host of the poor. It has sung courage to the army of the disappointed. It has poured balm and consolation into the heart of the sick, of captives in dungeons, of widows in their pinching griefs, of orphans in their loneliness. Dying soldiers have died easier as it was read to them; ghastly hospitals have been illuminated; it has visited the prisoner, and broken his chains, and, like Peter's angel, led him forth in imagination, and sung him back to his home again. It has made the dying Christian slave freer than his master, and consoled those whom, dying, he left behind mourning, not so much that he was gone, as because they were left behind, and could not go too." (Henry Ward Beecher, as cited in Spurgeon)

            E.  This morning we begin a series of sermons that center upon this beloved Psalm.  The sermons are not intended to bring you knew knowledge or enrapture you in some great revelation. I simply want to reflect up the picture that David gives to us in words.  I want us to soak in the emotions and attitude that David seemed to have as he penned these words.  And so today, we simply look at the first three verses and try to let God speak to our souls the way he obviously did to David’s soul.

I.  The Lord Shepherds Me

            A.  The truth is we don’t know when David penned these words, but the context seems to indicate that David was reflective, looking back over his past.  Let’s assume that David wrote these when he had been king over Israel for a while.

            B.  If that is accurate, it lends me to take from these words one who, like when he was young, still was a man after God’s own heart.  His first word is YHWH; not “I” or anything to do with his achievements as king.  He starts with an acknowledgement of someone greater than himself – YHWY.  

            C.  David doesn’t just acknowledge YHWH, he acknowledges that Jehovah continually shepherds him personally.  The creator of heaven and earth, the self-existent One, the one and only true God personally shepherds David and David is not afraid to be call a sheep.

            D.  Let’s be honest, most people will tell you that sheep are dumb animals.  I am not sure that is true, but I do know David was a shepherd as a boy and knew the responsibility that a good shepherd took.  David would tell King Saul that he had defended his sheep from a bear and lion.  Now, David writes that Jehovah is shepherding over him and that brings a peace that no one else can bring.

            E.  Jesus took this imagery upon himself.  John 10 records Jesus as good shepherd (Read John 10:11, 14-15, 27-30).  Let me ask you, is Jesus your shepherd?  Like David, can you say that Jesus continually shepherds you and because of who he is you lack nothing and have all that you need?  “The Lord is MY shepherd, I shall not want.”

II.  My Shepherd Provides

            A.  Continue with me as David explain what Jehovah has done as a shepherd.  READ Ps. 23:2.

            B.  Remember, this is about imagery.  It is about a picture that was so vivid and real for the people of David’s time who understood the value of sheep and the need of good shepherds. 

            C.  For David, the reason he didn’t lack anything was because God provided for him.  For David, the Lord took him to a place of abundance.  The green pasture is a place where he can have all the food he wants and the quiet waters are not stagnate waters, but gentle flowing waters that all him drink freely and deeply.  The idea is that the Lord wants him to see the abundant life that comes from being in His fold.

            D.  Another psalm that David wrote would have him tell the people that God allowed the difficult time to come upon them, but David wanted them (and us) to know result.  Listen to Ps. 66:8-12.  That entire psalm is a praise to God.  It is not about “woe is me, God has let me have a terrible life.”  It is about look where God has led me even though I had sinned.  God allowed the trials of my sin to lead me to him, and then God brought us to a place of abundance. 

            E.  Jesus, our Good Shepherd, talks about what he has given to us.  Listen to John 10:10.  Jesus came to give you and me an abundant life.  That’s not a statement about wealth and health and luxury vacations.  It a statement about what it means have eternal life in him.  Yes, my abundant life has part of its joy right now, but what is to come for me is so much greater than all this world has to offer. 

III.  My Shepherd Gives Me Rest

            A.  He makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters, but there is more in this opening.  READ vs 3.

            B.  David says that God makes him like new.  He restores him, not just refreshing but giving him new life, new strength, new vigor.  The reason this psalm is so enduring is that man people have turned to it when they are at their weakest hour.  They have nothing left and need to know that God can restore their soul.

            C.  I love the words of Isaiah 40:28-31.  In this life my own strength will fail.  Yet when I am putting my trust in the Lord, when I am walking in the paths of righteousness, I will soar on wings of eagles, I will run and not grow weary, and when I walk, I won’t faint from exhaustion.  Jesus gave us his own imagery when he told us in Matt. 11:28, “Come unto me all you who are weary and I will give you rest.”

            D.  David says that not only does the Lord as a shepherd restore his soul, but he does so by leading him in the right pathways.  He does so on account of his name.  It is because David’s shepherd was YHWH that the name, the power of YHWH was at work.  God loves you and leads you.

Conclusion:

            A.  If you are a child of the Lord, then you also are being shepherded by the creator of the universe.  You also are being led to a place of abundance.  You can find rest and renewal in the one who takes care of your soul. 

            B.  This may be a time when many feel afraid of what is happening to our country, to us as people, to the church as we know it, to our own personal future.  Can I ask you to simple breathe?  Step back with me into this beloved Psalm and know your Shepherd loves you.  If we can help you grow closer to him, then come as we stand and sing.

Because of Jesus,

Jeffrey Dillinger, minister