The Lord Is My Shepherd
Notes
Transcript
Handout
I invite you to turn with me to Psalm 23.
I certainly enjoyed Matt Felton being with us and preaching to us this past Sunday.
Today, we are jumping back in to our sermon series called “Jesus in the Psalms.”
And today, we are considering one of the most popular, beautiful, and most well-loved Psalms throughout the history of God’s people.
It is one of the most recognizable and memorable passages in the whole Bible.
This Psalm containing a mere six verses has inspired innumerable amounts of people throughout the ages.
I have no doubt that throughout history, it has been read and rehearsed from battlefields to children’s nurseries, from lofty cathedrals to the most lowly of dwellings, from hospital rooms and great banquet halls, as parts of grand speeches and whispered in the midst of distress on a sleepless night.
It has been my privilege to read it aloud at many graveside services.
It is so well known that for many, all they need to hear is the first five words, and they immediately know it: The Lord is my shepherd.
What does it mean that the Lord is a shepherd?
A man named Timothy Laniak wrote a book about pastoral shepherding, and in it, he reflects on what a Shepherd’s primary task is.
One of the shepherd’s constant and most urgent responsibilities is securing food and water for the flock in a land where both are often scarce.
Pasture isn’t reliably available, and water sources may be distant, seasonal, or difficult to access.
Because of this, the shepherd must carefully plan routes, pace the movement of the flock, and anticipate need before it becomes crisis.
He writes that water, in particular, is a limiting factor—especially in hot, dry climates—so the shepherd cannot simply react but must lead proactively, ensuring the sheep are never too far from a life-sustaining source.
The work requires attentiveness, knowledge of the terrain, and a willingness to endure hardship for the sake of the flock’s survival and well-being.
Now, if you know much about sheep at all, you know that they are absolutely helpless on their own.
They are in desperate need of a shepherd to provide water, food, safety, and care.
So, to follow the metaphor, if you haven’t realized it already, God is the shepherd, we, His people, are the sheep.
Would you follow along as I read this Psalm over us?
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.
This Psalm opens with one overarching statement then it goes on to depict five different ways that this statement is true.
So first, the one overarching statement:
1. The Lord Is My Shepherd
1. The Lord Is My Shepherd
Anytime we read a passage of Scripture, we must first understand that the author is writing truth in the midst of his own time and his own situation.
The Psalm was written by King David who knew what it meant to be a shepherd to a flock of sheep, and then became a shepherd to God’s people as their king.
So, David, the shepherd-king is speaking very personally when He writes: The Lord is my shepherd.
Yet, as the King of God’s people, David was also set up as a representative for all of God’s people.
And it is very true that throughout the whole Old Testament, God is depicted as His people’s great shepherd who saved them out of slavery in Egypt and shepherded them through the wilderness, providing for them, guiding them, and protecting them all the way to the promised land of rest.
So, while God was personally David’s shepherd, he was also the shepherd of all His Old Testament people.
Then, God sent His son Jesus, and God shepherded his son Jesus, and Jesus identified so closely with His Father to the point of calling Himself the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep, for while Jesus was fully man, He was also fully God.
And because we who are saved from God’s wrath now find ourselves in Christ, it is altogether good and right to apply these words to God’s church and us as individual members of it.
The Lord is my shepherd.
If you are in Christ, you can believe that statement with confidence.
Anytime we read the name “Lord” in the Old Testament where all the letters are capitalized, we know that is referring to the one true God, the Creator God, the God who relates with mankind through covenant promises of blessings and cursings.
The conclusion the Psalm makes due to the reality of the Lord being our shepherd is seen in the second phrase of verse 1:
The Lord is my shepherd, therefore I shall not want.
David is picking up language that Moses used back in Deuteronomy.
7 For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.” ’
The Lord is my shepherd, therefore I lack nothing.
I have no need of want. I am in want of nothing.
But notice, who is the one who is confident that they will have no lack?
It is the one who has submitted themselves to the reality that God is their shepherd, and has handed over their rights to Him to lead, guide, and care for them.
God has offered His great care, guidance, and provision to the ones who will submit themselves to His rightful rule and his loving shepherding.
Let’s now consider the five different depictions given to show us how it is that God shepherds us, His people, the church.
1. A Grassy Meadow
1. A Grassy Meadow
Verse 2: He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.
This first depiction of the sheep in a grassy meadow near still waters is the picture of how the Shepherd provides sustenance, safety, and rest for His flock.
The sheep are in constant need of grass to eat, so the shepherd must constantly be finding new places to feed the sheep.
It points to the physical and spiritual needs that God provides to us through bread and water as well as the spiritual needs of giving us Jesus who is the bread of life and the living water.
Would you think with me for a moment what it would take for a sheep to be lying down in a green pasture?
It would take the confidence of safety.
Sheep can be extremely skittish and anxious animals given the fact they have no way to defend themselves.
So, the fact that the sheep is lying in the middle of a grassy meadow with more than enough grass all around speaks to both the provision and the safety provided by the shepherd.
It reminds me of our Lord Jesus’ words in:
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Not only does He make me lie down in green pastures, but he leads me beside still waters.
The mention of bodies of water in the Scripture usually carry the connotation of God’s wrath and the chaos brought on by mankind’s sin.
Great bodies of water are dangerous places where mankind cannot dwell.
Yet, in the promises of God to His people to bring them into the land of promise, He promises there would be springs of water and still waters to provide for their needs and give rest to their souls, as water is a spiritual sign of cleansing.
I remember growing up my family used to take our tent trailer to this campground in Tennessee that had this peaceful stream flowing through it that we would listen to as we drifted off to sleep at night.
He leads us by still and peaceful waters.
He restores my soul.
My youngest son let me know after last week’s guest preacher that he likes to listen to the guest preachers more than he likes listening to me.
So, in order to try and get back in his good preaching graces, I have an illustration that I think he will like.
It is not original to me, I heard it from another pastor.
But, in the story Harry Potter, the bad guy Voldemort has killed people, and every time he killed someone, his soul was divided.
That’s why he ends up being so brittle and angry is because he has a divided soul.
So, at the final stand between he and Harry, Harry pleads with Voldemort to find remorse for his divided soul.
You see, because of our sins, we have a divided soul, but it is our Good shepherd who restores our souls through continual confession, repentance, and faith.
7 The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple;
Our good shepherd God uses His word constantly in our lives to restore our souls.
For in Christ, our guilt dealt with and our souls are redeemed and restored.
The second depiction of the shepherd we see is Him leading in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
2. The Right Paths
2. The Right Paths
God is gracious to gift us with His righteousness when we trust in Christ, and He then uses the life of the Spirit of God working through the Word of God in order to lead us on the right paths.
Because we are all sinners, before we know Christ, we are like sheep without a shepherd, so all we know to do is follow the well worn paths of wanting in this world that always lead to dead ends and ultimately lead to destruction.
The Bible consistently teaches us that God created us to find all of our needs met and our desires satisfied in God alone.
That is the essence of what worshipping the true God is: finding all of our needs met and desires satisfied in Him.
But, in our sin, we have chosen walk the paths of the world instead of the paths of God’s righteousness, and when we do that, we find that our needs are never fully met and our desires are never ultimately satisfied.
We keep needing more and more. We try this path then that path then that one over there.
We trade one idol for another hoping this one will truly satisfy, but they never do.
Do you realize that those who never submit to Jesus as Savior and Lord and are led to destruction spend an eternity of torment in Hell, because Hell is the ultimate reality of life apart from the presence of God’s grace and mercy, so desires are never satisfied and the flames and torments of hell eternally want for more and more and more.
12 There is a way that seems right to a man,
but its end is the way to death.
But God has provided another way, He has worn another path and invited us to walk in it.
It is the path of righteousness.
Notice, he does not say that we must cut a path of righteousness, for our shepherd has already gone before us, He has cut the path and leveled the way through the teachings of the word of God and ultimately through the word made flesh, Jesus Christ.
Jesus came as a man and lived the perfectly righteous life.
He cleared the path of righteousness on this earth that no other man or woman had ever been able to clear.
We sometimes use the metaphor of our spiritual walk to describe our following Jesus along the paths of righteousness.
Paul picks up this imagery when he writes:
1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
Walk in a manner worthy of the gospel. A manner worthy of Christ.
We learn this righteous path by seeing it in His word and walking according to it.
And notice, He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
The glory of the covenant gospel promise made to us is God is mine and I am His.
Jesus has attached his name and reputation to us, and the way we walk makes a declaration about who Jesus is and what he is like.
He empowers us by his grace for righteousness.
He leads us in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake in order to declare in the earth this is Jesus, this is what Jesus’ people are like, this is the righteousness God has wrought in us by the power of His gospel.
The way we live in our marriages, with our children, in our workplaces, and in the church is for Jesus’ name’s sake.
Is the way you are living declaring what is right about the name of the Lord our God?
Are we, God’s church, showing an accurate reflection of God’s name in all the earth?
The third depiction of the shepherd we see is through the valley of the shadow of death.
3. The Valley Of Death
3. The Valley Of Death
Verse 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.
Notice, up until this point, the passage has been all about what our shepherd God does.
He makes me lie down, He leads me, He restores my soul.
But, now in verse 4, look at the first thing that we do.
We walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
The most dangerous place a flock would ever have to go is through a valley.
Valleys were darker, they provided cover for predators and bandits wanting to destroy or steal the sheep.
And the fact is: as finite and frail humanity whose sin will lead to physical death, we all walk through our valleys in life.
We all walk through times of difficulty, times of danger, times of loss, times of darkness, and ultimately, we all will finally die.
Yet, even though difficulty, dangers, loss, times of darkness, and death will come for each one of us, notice, the one who has the Lord as their shepherd fears no evil.
I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
When Harry Potter finally walks into the forbidden forrest to face Voldemort, there is this moment where he is able to see his closest family members and friends who had already died, and they promise that they are with him and will be with him until the end.
There is something powerful about having someone else with you that gives you confidence and courage to face what is ahead.
We have someone so much greater with us than what Harry had.
We have the Spirit of our Lord Jesus who faced down our sin and death to the point of dying on a cross to pay the penalty for our sin,
Then, God rose Jesus on the third day to defeat our sin and death, so for all who believe in Him, Jesus promises that He will never leave or forsake you and he will finish the work He started in you and will finally bring you all the way safely home.
No matter what it is you are facing this day or anything you will face in the future, if you are in Christ, be sure of this, you will never walk alone.
He is always with you.
He walked through the valley of actual death and came out on the other side in his resurrection so that the worst you will ever walk through is simply the shadow of death.
Verse 4 again: 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.
The rod and staff were tools the shepherd would use to do two different things.
One way they would use the rod and staff was to discipline the sheep in order to keep them on the right path.
It make me think of:
3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”
Have you ever considered the discipline of the Lord as a comfort to you?
If you weren’t truly His child, He would not be disciplining you.
The second way the shepherd could use the rod and the staff was to keep the sheep safe from other animals.
He could use the rod to swat away a predator or crush the head of a snake that threatened to hurt the sheep.
In the same way, we take comfort in knowing that the Lord our shepherd fights for us, He defeats Satan on our behalf, he saves us from the power of death, I have no doubt He has protected our bodies and our souls in thousands of ways that we cannot even see.
Be comforted by the fact that your good shepherd the Lord Jesus defends you and because of His defense:
17 no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed,
and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord
and their vindication from me, declares the Lord.”
For greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.
The fourth depiction we see of the shepherd is as a host at the victory party.
4. The Victory Party
4. The Victory Party
Verse 5: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
After ancient battles, many times the victors of the battle would hold a great victory feast where the defeated foes would look on as a sign of humiliation for the foe and glory for the victor.
And here, we see the shepherd master prepare a table before his sheep, which is very odd.
It would usually be the master who would be the one to call his servants to prepare the meal and the table for him to eat.
But for the Lord who is our shepherd, He prepares the table before us in the presence of our enemies.
It depicts the great grace of God sharing His great victory with us.
He has served us His people.
He has won the victory.
He serves us the victory meal.
And can you imagine for a moment your greatest foe, I don’t just mean Satan, but the demons you are most intimidated by, the temptations and sins you have fallen to the most, the enemies that have battered your flesh and spirit the most, all defeated, all stripped of all power and authority, all watching as you eat at the table of victory that Christ has set for you.
You anoint my head with oil.
Think about the times that someone anointed the Lord Jesus with oil.
It was always seen as a lavish gift and sign of God’s favor, esteem, and blessing.
Your great shepherd lavishing his love, care, favor, esteem, and blessing on you in the presence of your defeated enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
The cup is used many times very similarly to the idea of my portion or my lot in life.
My cup overflows speaks to the lavish grace of God providing in abundance all our needs and more.
It makes me consider once again the end of:
11 You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
We were made to find all of our needs met and desires satisfied in God alone, and the promise is that our shepherd will finally supply all in an over abundance.
The final depiction of the shepherd in this passage is him chasing us down and bringing us into our eternal home forever.
5. Our Eternal Home
5. Our Eternal Home
Verse 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.
There is a Hebrew word used here that packs such a punch that it takes four or five English words to get at its meaning.
It is a popular Hebrew word that is pronounced Hesed.
The Hesed of the Lord is his steadfast, faithful, committed love and mercy that never fails.
In one of the children’s Bibles we used to read to our kids, it read, “The never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love.
It is one of the words used here when we read surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
The original word used for follow is the same word used for hunters tracking down their prey.
So, David is using the pursuit of the hunter for his prey in order to describe how God’s goodness and mercy tracks down the one who places their faith in Him.
Consider the parable of the prodigal son when the Father does not wait for the Son to make it all the way to him, but instead runs to his son in order to welcome Him and lavish him with grace and mercy.
If you are here today, and you are not a believer in Jesus, I want you to know that the fact that you are sitting under the preaching of the Word of God means that God is tracking you down with his goodness, mercy, and grace.
God wants you to know that while you are a great sinner, you do not have to take great steps of sacrifice or obedience in order to be made right with God.
God, in his great love and grace, has already taken every step of sacrifice and obedience needed in your place, so that if you would simply turn from your sin and believe in him, you will find him right there ready to save you, because he is tracking you down with his goodness and mercy.
For us as believers, we can be assured that His goodness and mercy will continue to be with us every moment of our lives.
His mercies are new every morning and He is always faithful to his promise of forgiveness and adoption of you as a child of God.
Even the most difficult things in your life, God promises that he will finally use ultimately for good for all those who love God and have been called according to his purposes.
Verse 6 again: Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Because the goodness and mercy of God follows us all the days of our lives, we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
The original language gives a sense of continually returning to the house of the Lord forever.
It gives this picture of the Christian’s experience of unhindered relationship and worship of God.
David would have continually gone time and time again to the temple to worship God.
In our day, we gather time and time again to worship God through song, and preaching, and baptism, and taking the Lord’s supper.
And we go to him continually in prayer and communion throughout our days.
And remember, from the very beginning the great tragedy of sin was mankind was separated from God and kicked out of the garden,
And the greatest gift of the gospel is the reconciliation of God with man that we might dwell with him now through the Holy Spirit, through prayer, His word, and His church, and there is coming a day when Revelation says
15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
And we will dwell with him in unhindered glory forever finding all of our needs met and desires satisfied in the worship of God alone.
Have you submitted to the Lord as your shepherd?
Are you following His leadership and guidance?
Are you experiencing His goodness and mercy?
Let’s pray.
(Elder at couch)
