Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

Don’t forget that this Friday, May 20th at 7pm, we’re showing the movie Sabina in the auditorium.

We’d love to have you join us—admittance is free; and we’ll provide snacks and drinks as well.

Please feel free to invite friends and family to join us.

On May 27th at 10:30am, we’ll be canvassing the Chester Hill neighborhood.

We could use some help as we do this, if you’d like to help, contact Natalie for the details.

On Saturday, June 4th, we’ll have a work-day here at the church building.

We need a handful of people to help deep-clean the building both inside and out.

There are a few other projects that we need to work on that day as well but I’ll let you know what they are on that day.

Let me remind you to continue worshiping the LORD through your giving.

To help you with your giving, we have three ways for you to do so: (1) in-person giving can be done at the offering box at the front of the room—if you give cash and you’d like a receipt for your gift, please place it in an envelope with your name on it; if you give a check, please write it to Grace & Peace.

If you’d prefer to give with a debit or credit card or through ACH transfers, you can do that either by (2) texting 84321 with your $[amount] and following the text prompts or (3) by visiting us online at www.gapb.church

and selecting giving in the menu bar.

Everything that you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Sermon

If you have your Bible this evening, please turn it to Psalm 23.

This evening’s psalm is probably one of the most well-known psalms amongst believers and unbelievers.

I can say that because it’s often utilized in times of great sorrow, particularly during funeral services and memorials.

So, even if you aren’t necessarily a believer in God, you’ve probably heard this psalm multiple times.

It is simple but it’s in its simplicity that the message of the passage really shines through.

We don’t have much information concerning provenance but we do know, from the superscription that David is the author of this text, which shouldn’t surprise us because David is uniquely qualified to speak about God being a shepherd because he much of his childhood and young adult life as a shepherd caring for his own father’s sheep.

David had significant experience being a shepherd caring for sheep, so it makes sense that he can see the parallels between God the Father and God’s people.

Let’s read Psalm 23 before we dig into Scripture.

As we study this passage together, we’re going to break it into two parts that emphasizes the relationship that God has with his people.

(1) The Lord is my Shepherd (vv.

1-4) and (2) The Lord is my Friend (vv.

5-6).

Both of these concepts—God being the shepherd and the friend speak of a level of intimacy in the relationship between the psalmist and God.

And it speaks of the great amount of confident trust that David has in the Lord.

The beauty of this psalm is that what David expresses in it are expressions that we as believers can experience as well.

We can rightly say that the Lord is our shepherd and that he is our friend today, which should encourage us to confidently trust the Lord today, as well.

Prayer for Illumination

The Lord as Shepherd (1-4)

Our psalm for this evening starts with a statement familiar to most, “the Lord is my shepherd.”

It’s familiar not just because it’s utilized here in Psalm 23, but because the illustration is utilized in the New Testament, speaking of Jesus, as well.

Jesus says of himself, John 10:11 “11 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”

The author of Hebrews ends his letter with Hebrews 13:20-21 “20 Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, that is, Jesus our Lord, 21 equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever.

Amen.”

It is such a familiar concept is Scripture that it’s rarely ever explained in much detail, so, let me give you a little bit of information about what exactly a shepherd did and how they were viewed in the Old and New Testaments:

A shepherd in the Old Testament was often, but not always, a child that was charged with protecting the flock and guiding them to good food and water.

Some of the details of how this worked is actually given in this psalm, so I don’t want to mention them now just for us to work through it again later, but let me simply state that the role of a shepherd was one that was looked down on by society—the majority of people viewed shepherds as the lowest of the low.

That’s part of the reason why when Jesus is born, it’s such a shocking thing for the angels to make the pronouncement to the shepherds because shepherds weren’t viewed kindly of in that culture.

It’s also part of the reason why David being picked by God to be king was so shocking.

Shepherds in the Old and New Testaments, despite the truth that they were utterly vital to their society, they were typically poorly treated and looked down on.

Although, I do want to point out that many kings in the Ancient Near East would compare themselves to shepherds in their leadership capacity—that’s why Isaiah in Isaiah 40:11 compares the coming Messiah to a shepherd, “11 Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in the fold of His robe; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.”

So, there’s a little bit of tension in how people typically viewed shepherds in that practically they looked down on actual shepherds but the kings typically thought of themselves as shepherds.

David would be familiar with that tension between how people viewed shepherds and how kings would describe themselves

Yet, David has no issue at stating that God is his shepherd.

And because God is David’s shepherd, David will not want.

That last phrase of v. 1, that David will not want speaks of provision—provision of food, water, and necessities and David expounds on that provision in v. 2, “He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.”

God is the shepherd who provides for David.

A good shepherd who is intent on taking care of his sheep will know where to lead the sheep of proper sustenance.

It might sound obvious but green pastures happen to be where the best food for livestock is.

Pastures that aren’t green are typically either dead or they’re filled with rocks, thorns, and thistles that aren’t just inedible, they’re actually dangerous for the sheep.

Not to mention if a shepherd regularly lead his sheep to pastures that aren’t green, then eventually the sheep will become malnourished and die.

A good shepherd will intentionally lead his sheep where they can find proper sustenance.

The second sentence, “He leads me beside still waters” speaks of another great need for sheep.

Sheep need water but sheep are actually pretty timid.

All this means is that when sheep come up to water, they’re very scared of rushing water or water that they would consider unsafe, which makes sense, because if you’ve ever seen a sheep, it’s clear that they completely lack the ability to swim.

Because of their timidness and their inability to swim, they typically won’t even bother going near any sort of water with a current, which means a good shepherd would have to be able to find water that’s near the green pasture with water that doesn’t flow too fast and they would need to be patient and willing enough to lead the sheep to that area.

Now, I do want to point out before we continue in the text that often when we read a text like this, we think purely in terms of physical nourishment—that the shepherd provides physical sustenance, which is absolutely true.

There’s a reason as to why Jesus tells his disciples to not be anxious about their lives, concerning food, clothing, and housing.

Matthew 6:31-33 “31 Do not worry then, saying, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear for clothing?’

32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you.”

But I’d like to suggest that this isn’t just speaking of physical sustenance, though it is speaking of physical sustenance.

I’d suggest that it’s also speaking of spiritual sustenance and the reason for that is two-fold: (1) the text is clearly a metaphor.

God isn’t literally a shepherd but he acts like a shepherd in the way that he deals with his people.

(2) The remaining parts of the text focus more on spiritual issues than physical issues, so vv.

1-2 could very easily be about spiritual sustenance.

David will not want spiritually because God leads him to good spiritually food and a water.

Regardless, the point is still the same.

God is the shepherd who provides.

V. 3 then focuses on the leadership of God.

God is the shepherd who leads, “He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”

Now the first sentence is subject to some interpretation.

There are two senses of this sentence that are typically proposed:

Some believe that it’s speaking of a straying sheep that’s brought back into the fold.

In that light, it would be like Isaiah 49:5, in which Isaiah speaks of Jacob needing to be pulled back into the fold or probably more familiar to you, like the shepherd who leaves the ninety and nine to collect the one lost sheep.

Some believe that this is speaking primarily of salvation, that God restores the soul of the one who first believes.

I’m of the opinion that while it could be both of those ideas, that it’s really more of spiritual renewal than it is of God finding the prodigal sheep or God saving and my reasoning is two-fold: (1) David is already a believer at this point and the concept of “restoration” here is a continuous restoration, which means that it can’t be talking about initial salvation and (2) the imagery makes sense if you’re thinking of spiritual renewal.

God, as the shepherd, leads his people to where they can find good water and food.

God as the shepherd provides a place where they can lie down and rest.

Through the Lord’s leading, there is rest, cleansing, restoration, and refreshment.

“Here the spiritual lesson is clear: the Lord provides forgiveness and peace for those who follow him.”

(Allen P. Ross, “Psalms.”

The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, edited by J.F. Walvoord and R.B. Zuck.

Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985, 811)

The last sentence of v. 3 then starts speaking of God’s leadership after God brings restoration, “He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”

Now, this is where the figurative nature of illustrations come in.

Clearly, sheep don’t walk in paths of righteousness in the same sense that mankind can.

For a sheep, a path of righteousness is no more than just a good path for them to walk, but for God’s human flock, for his people, the paths of righteousness have a much more moral sense.

God as the shepherd knows the right paths on which to bring the sheep home safely.

God guides his flock in the right way because he is the good shepherd.

It is interesting to note, that according to v. 3, God restores souls and leads his people to paths of righteousness not because of who the people are.

Not because of the sheep themselves, but as the last phrase says, “for his name’s sake.

While God does lead his people out of love, that’s not what David focuses on in v. 3. What David focuses on in v. 3 is that God leads his people and he restores their souls and he takes them in righteous paths because of his own reputation.

Or in other words, the focus in v. 3 is on who God is and what will be said of God for God restoring and leading his people.