The Lord Shepherds

Psalm 23 ESV

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 still waters. 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 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 your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Prayer

I want to tie together this advent theme of Hope with our text. Our text centers round God being our shepherd. He leads, guides and protects us as his sheep. We are clearly sheep. The very nature of Christianity is the fact that we are eternally and spiritually and even physically dependent upon God as our shepherd.

Can sheep survive in the wild?

I love being in the outdoors. I do not get to hunt or travel as much as I would like to, but I have gotten to see a bit in my life. In our area here, it is not uncommon to see animals wandering alone. We have a lot fo deer, coyotes, and not long ago, I even saw a fox. Last year, while I was traveling in the mountains, I saw a bear walking down the side of the road.

Throughout the world, you will see all kinds of animals wandering on their own. But, generally speaking, you do not see sheep alone in the wild.

Sheep are very dependent animals. I do not think it is a coincidence that the bible uses this to describe us. Sheep need a shepherd. They are dependent creatures. And if you have ever dealt with sheep, you will also know that they are often stubborn and sometimes just down right dumb animals.

As I read about sheep in scripture and the analogy of people to sheep, please know that I do not view church people as dumb. The church, THIS church is not a family of unintelligent individuals. But, as I often tell my daughter, there is a difference in being dumb and acting dumb. I know that I can often act downright dumb. And that is why I need hope.

As Shepherd, God is our Hope

This season serves as a reminder that our hope is found in God and in him alone. He sent his son, in the form of a baby, to grow up and be our ultimate hope. We find hope in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. He is a depiction of what it means to be a shepherd. So we will look at the first couple of verses in this Psalm today, and we are going to see how it points to Jesus, and at the end, I am going to give us 3 ways that we look to the good shepherd as believers.

The Lord is my Shepherd

I think it is important for us to know who is writing this. This is being written by David. Now, we aren’t exactly sure the exact moment this was written, but from the tone he is using and from the way that he is speaking on his reliance upon God, we can know that David has been going through a rough time. Even though he may not have been king yet when he was writing this, he understands what it means to be persecuted. He is looking to God as his protector and provider.

There was a time when David was being hunted down. Later on in life by his son, Absolom. But also when he was younger when he was being hunted down by Saul. He understood what hardship was. He knew what it was like to be on the run and not have permanent shelter. He knew what it meant to not know what his next meal would be, or even if he would get one. But one thing he knew for certain was that the Lord was his shepherd.

David knew what it meant to be a shepherd because he was a shepherd himself. He had many years under his belt of caring for livestock. He has herded the flocks, slept under the stars, and protected them from predators. He knew what it means to be a shepherd. And he knew that above all else, God was the ultimate shepherd.

When Jesus came and was ministering here on earth, he described himself as the “good shepherd”. He distinguished what it means to be an owner and a hired hand. An owner is going to take better care of anything that a hired hand.

John 10:11–15 ESV

11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.

This is about ownership. The way that Jesus speaks about being the good shepherd and the way that David speaks about the Lord being his shepherd, we know that David belongs to God. The Lord is his shepherd. Even though he would be king over people, even though he was blessed beyond measure, he knew that the Lord was his shepherd.

Shepherding was not an occupation that was highly thought of. It was a dirty nasty job that would take someone away from their family for great lengths of time. The conditions were unpredictable. If a storm came up, you had to either be out in the storm or find shelter for you and the sheep.

There was no time clock. Your co-workers were 4 legged, wooly, sheep. At night, you would find a cave for the sheep to sleep in. And it would be your duty as shepherd to sleep at the door of the cave to keep them protected. You would have to build a fire by the door for light for protection. This is why in John 10, Jesus says that he is the door to the sheep. The shepherd was the door for them and served as a barrier for their protection.

The shepherd would also have to protect them as they grazed during the day. He would carry around a shepherds staff that he would use as a weapon to kill predators. We know that David was good with weapons. Through the power of God, he killed a giant with a slingshot. David was not afraid to protect the sheep. It didn’t matter if it was a small predator or a large one. He tells us in 1 Samuel 17:34–35 “34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, 35 I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him.”

David was a great protector. I love this idea of what we have in a shepherd here. When a predator comes and takes one sheep, he goes and hunts down what takes the sheep from the flock and if needed, kills it. I am glad to have a savior who does this very thing as the good shepherd for me as one of the sheep.

I know that we will look even more over the next several weeks about being a shepherd. David knows that God is his shepherd. So, as his shepherd, what does this mean for David.

I Shall Not Want

I have learned as I have gotten older, that land is a commodity. Someone told me one time that it is one of the few things you can buy that they aren’t making any more of. If I were to have livestock, I would be locked in to where I could let them feed. I can’t just cut a hole in a fence and let them over into my neighbors paddock. What happens if there is a drought and I don’t have the good grass in my field. If there is a drought, there is a good chance there is a lack of funds too. Sometimes, there are things the farmer or shepherd cannot control when providing for the herd.

But the good shepherd is different. The good shepherd owns the land. All of the land. He is going to make sure his sheep feed on the most nutritious feed. He has no need to cut fence line because he owns it all.

I have known people to take this verse and think that they are going to get everything they want. That is not the sentiment to this verse. When you study the word, it means that you will have no lacking. You will have everything that you need.

It is like the Israelites in the Exodus. If you have not been able to make it to our Wednesday night study, we have been looking at the Exodus of the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt. Even when they were disobedient and wandering in the desert, God still provided for their every need.

He does this for David and he still does this for us. This doesn’t mean that we are going to hit big on the lottery this week. This may not even mean that we don’t miss a meal or two or struggle to pay our bills. What this does mean is that maybe what we think we need and what we actually need are two different things. And what God wants from us is to go to the source that he has given us that is sufficient for our needs.

There is nothing that has happened in my life that I cannot go to God’s word and find guidance and answers. I want to encourage you to do the same. But don’t wait until you are in the struggle. A soldier does not go to war unprepared. Be in God’s word. With God as our shepherd, there is nothing that will come up that he does not provide for us in the right way.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures

The verb tense in the word lie means that God, as shepherd, causes the sheep to lay down. I know that it is easy to try to think that we have control. But a virtue of being a Christian is knowing that God is the one who is in control and we should bow to that. He knows when we need to rest.

I have a hard time stopping. I know that many of you are the same. We go, go, go, and then we crash. We know that we should stop, but we think that the world cannot go without us. But guess what? It can. The world does not revolve around the sheep. Instead, the shepherd is the one who keeps the world going.

Think of it like a parent with a baby. It is the best time of the day for mom. It is nap time. And she goes and lays the baby down in the crib, but the baby cannot stop screaming and crying and just go to sleep. It isn’t because the baby isn’t tired. But what the parent does for the baby, just like the shepherd does for the sheep, is they know the best environment for rest. They go in the nursery and they remove all distractions. They stay close. And, if they need to, they go in and make the child lay down. And eventually, rest happens.

But it isn’t just about the rest itself, it is about the environment. He makes me lie down in “green pastures”. He takes the sheep to the place where they will be safest and most nourished. This is why it is important where we go to church. There are a lot of sheep out there who are trying to feed on dried up grass. It will cause them to choke and to eventually die of starvation. Be sure you are getting fed and be sure you are where you can rest. But rest in the good shepherd.

He Leads Me Beside Still Waters

Some of my fondest memories growing up are going fishing with my grandpa. We would get up real early, get in the truck, and pull the boat to the lake. The best time to go fishing is early in the morning because the water is still really calm. The wind isn’t usually blowing really hard, there isn’t a lot of action on the water, and it is just peaceful.

He would tell me that a lot of movement and talking would scare the fish away. Not sure if that was a way to catch fish or for him to have some peace and quiet. But if you were having a party on the boat, you can guarantee that your fishing is not going to go well.

Sheep are much like fish. They are very timid. When you need to take one to drink, you are not gonna take them to rushing water. The water moving rapidly would scare them. They would never have anything to drink. You take them to a calm stream or pond.

The shepherd doesn’t want jumpy sheep. He wants them to be calm. We should be thankful for a shepherd that looks out for us and gives us what we need to remain calm.

In the first 2 verse of this beautiful passage, we have this wonderful picture of God and the shepherd who provides, protects, and guides the sheep. Those are the qualities of God that we should take from this passage today.

This world is not easy on us sheep. We wander around and often try to do it without a shepherd. The wolves and bears and lions, they try to come in and attack and devour us. We follow the herd and we find fields of dried up and dead grass. So what should we do?

Find Provision in the Shepherd

It is no secret that we tend to go to other sources to be taken care of. But, I believe that our biggest problem sometimes is trusting in our own selves more than God. It is very easy to look at our lives and point to things and say, I did this or I earned that. We forget that everything that we have has been given to us by God. And we should treat it as such.

I once met a man in Georgia on a ranch. I believe there were about 120 acres. I was talking to him and I asked him how long he had owned it. He quickly corrected me and told me that he was not the owner, he was just the caretaker.

This is the mentality we should all have when it comes to where things have come from. We do not deserve any of it. The only thing we deserve is death. But God, in his mercy and goodness, has provided for us beyond measure. Just like sheep needing to eat, we need to follow the shepherd to where that luscious green grass is. And know that the reason we are feasting on grass is because the shepherd has led us there.

Find Protection in the Shepherd

I don’t know about you, but I like weapons. My wife gets uneasy at times because I like watching videos of people making knives. But, my ultimate hope should not be in a firearm. Yes, they give us protection from physical threats. But there are threats out there that are not seen by our eyes.

Scripture tells us that Satan has come to steal, kill, and destroy. He will do whatever is within his means to take us away from the herd. That is what the predators do with the sheep. But God, as our good shepherd, will protect us from this. We are under the protection of the shepherd when we are close to the shepherd.

How do we stay close? As Christians, we stay close to God through our worship and devotion. This doesn’t mean that we are legalistic and think that going to church make us close to God. Should that be an indicator of how close we are? Absolutely. But being close is more than that. It means that when we are away from meeting together, we are pursuing God. We are reading his word to get to know our God. We are spending time in meditation and prayer. We are sheep who are growing in our love for our shepherd. And through this, we find protection in him.

Find Providence(Guidance) in the Shepherd

We believe that God, in his sovereignty, guides us as. You are here today, sitting in Immanuel Baptist Church, because God has led you here. You are in the job that you have because God has put you there. You are in the relationship you are in because God has brought you together.

We believe that God is providential. This does not mean that we should take it as we are living a life of chance. But we should seek God to make sure we are being obedient in his guidance. There is this beautiful tension between God’s sovereignty and mans choice. There are times when God lets us go our own way. So we must seek God’s guidance.

There will be times where the spirit of God gives us peace about God’s guidance. But there will be times where we don’t have as much peace about where God is guiding us. We must weigh into account whether or not what we are doing will be obedient or disobedient. And then trust that God has given us wisdom. God, as our shepherd, will give us guidance. We just need to ask and be patient and open to his leading.

Wrap up.

This beautiful passage today about God being our shepherd and leading and protecting and providing for us is something that we all should keep on our hearts and minds this week. We should read this and it give us hope. Just as we begin this season of looking towards the first coming of Christ which points us to the second coming of Christ, we have hope in God and in him alone.

We are going to celebrate the hope we have in Christ today through the Lord’s Supper.

This was instituted by Jesus to his disciples the night before he went to the cross to die for our sins. When he was teaching them about this, he took the bread and gave it to them as a symbol of his body that was nailed to the cross for them. He gave them the wine as a symbol of his blood that was shed for them.

Today, we do this as we look back on the sacrifice of Jesus for the sins of man while at the same time looking forward to him coming back to gather his church once again.

This act is reserved for believers only because we do this as a remembrance of what Jesus did for us. We, as a church, ask that if you are not someone who has been baptized as a believer, that you abstain from partaking in this. We are not singling you out, but we want you to be obedient to the command that this is for believers only.

As the deacons come forward and prepare to serve, I ask that you spend time in prayer and prepare your heart for participating in this.