Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
Good morning!
It’s great to be here again to bring the Word of God to you.
If I haven’t met you, my name is Jackson.
And this morning I am privileged with being able to bring to you one of the most famous passages in the Bible - and that is Psalm 23.
I grew up in a non-Christian home but I memorized that Psalm and I can’t tell you when that happened.
It is part of the air we breathe.
But for moment I want to drink again of this Psalm anew.
I want us to taste it as it supernaturally feeds us in our thirst and desire for God.
Let God lead us to green pastures and to sill waters.
Let him restore our soul.
Let me read it for us:
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.
(Smile) Our God is a God of goodness and mercy isn’t he?
Let me give you our main point this morning:
Main Point: God is with us always, caring for us whether in blessings or in difficulties
This Psalm captures beautifully what all of Scripture states - which is that God is a loving and good God who is with us even when we can’t see it.
Let’s look at our first point:
Point 1: God is the ultimate provider (vv 1-3)
Verse one starts, “The Lord is my shepherd.”
I just want to pause there for a moment.
I want us to just think about the profoundness of that statement.
The Lord is my shepherd.
The Lord here is in small caps which means in the Hebrew it is God’s covenant name - Yahweh.
Yahweh is my shepherd.
Yahweh - the God of the universe.
Yahweh the God who created the heavens and the earth, sea and dry land, who shepherded Israel out of bondage in Egypt and grew them into a mighty nation.
Yahweh who sustains the universe - He is my shepherd.
He is your shepherd.
The incomparable, unimaginable, supreme creator is personal.
He cares for you, Christian.
Yahweh is his shepherd, therefore, David says, “I shall not want.”
The want here is not that you shall have desires.
Rather, it is that you shall not lack what you need.
David says, “God, you are my shepherd!
I SHALL NOT LACK ANYTHING!
I have all I need because of you!”
Verses 2 and 3 expand on what this means.
How is it that David does not want?
David here continues the imagery of God as the shepherd and himself as sheep.
He says, “He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.”
God, the good shepherd, gentle lays us next to green pastures.
It is where sheep are fed in bounty!
Where there is water that nourishes our thirst.
God provides and provides for our physical needs.
He gives us food to eat and water to drink.
He gives us the ability to process food and water to nourish our bodies.
You might wondering - what about Christians who starve?
I think common sense tells us that Christians still lack all the time!
God promises that will ultimately care for us who are his flock.
I want us to see something here.
There are promise land overtones in this text that can a little obscured by the translation in the ESV as “still waters.”
What David is literally saying is “waters of resting places.”
And the Hebrew term “resting places” is used by God for the Promised Land - the land of Caanan.
And even before that, a verbal form of the word is used for when Yahweh God took man and caused him to rest in garden of Eden!
It is the land of inheritance.
There are promise land overtones here that can a little obscured by the translation in the ESV as “still waters.”
What David is literally saying is “waters of resting places.”
And the Hebrew term “resting places” is used by God for the Promised Land - the land of Caanan.
And even before that, a verbal form of the word is used for when Yahweh God took man and caused him to rest in garden of Eden!
It is the land of inheritance.
David is saying that God will him - and by extension, us Christians - into the land of promise.
Into the paradise that He has prepared for us when he restores the world.
God provides for our physical needs.
And he provides that ultimately by giving us the promised rest in the restored heavens and earth.
So that even Christians who, in this life, may die of starvation or malnourishment or anything else - God promises that He will give us what we will need to be nourished forever.
In the new heavens and new earth we will never want for food or drink again.
God will lie us down in green pastures and lead us to unending streams of water that will satisfy our needs forever.
But God doesn’t just satisfy our physical needs.
He also satisfies our spiritual needs.
Verse 3, “He restores my soul.
He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”
“I have no needs,” David says, “Not only because God provides everything I need physically.
But more than that - He provides for me spiritually.
He restores my very soul!”
But what does it mean that God restores my soul?
Brothers and sisters - have you ever felt dry and lifeless?
Have you ever felt a lack of joy?
A lack of excitement about life?
About God? Have you ever been depressed?
Have ever left like life is gray and bleak and meaningless?
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