Sermon Tone Analysis

It’s been a couple of summers, but here we are, back in the Psalms.

It’s “Psummer in the Psalms”.

All told, between a few of us here, we’ve preached 34 individual psalms so far.

Some of them were scattered psalms.

But then, a few summers ago, we started at Psalm 1 and preached consecutively through the summer.

And then we did it the next summer.

The last time we were in the psalms, we stopped at Psalm 22.

It works out well; I get to preach Psalm 23 this morning.

I’ve been so excited to preach this.

What a joy this psalm is!

Dollars to donuts, if you know any of the psalms by heart, it’s this one.

This morning, I want us to listen to this psalm anew and think about it with fresh eyes.

If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to Psalm 23.

Stay seated and follow along as my good friend, Keith Green, takes us through Psalm 23.

[VIDEO: Keith Green “The Lord is My Shepherd”]

I love that song.

It helps me really feel this psalm.

Plus, it doesn’t get any better than Keith Green.

And if you disagree with that, you’re wrong and I’ll be praying for you.

The likelihood that you are familiar with this particular psalm is pretty good.

It’s been read and memorized, shared at funerals and gravesides, and it has been of comfort to many throughout their lives.

There’s no psalm quite like it, really.

One would think it’d be hard to pick a favorite psalm for the masses, but it seems like this psalm is it.

For whatever reason, people ask for the 23rd Psalm to be read instead of the 107th or the 46th.

People memorize Psalm 23 for more reasons than that it’s only 6 verses; if people wanted a short Psalm, they’d memorize Psalm 117.

There’s something about this psalm—Psalm 23—that makes it stand out in a book crowded with 150 psalms.

Each psalm, each song, is equally inspired, equally poetic, equally beautiful.

But there’s something about Psalm 23.

Why do we gravitate toward and love this psalm so much?

I’m not sure if I can put my finger on it exactly, but as I was studying this very familiar psalm, I decided something about it.

I think we love this psalm because it’s so immensely personal.

There’s an intimacy about Psalm 23, a deeply personal feeling in these words (possibly more so than any other psalm).

We just spent a while in 1 Samuel studying the life of David.

We don’t know for sure at what point in David’s life he wrote this song of praise, but we know (and we’ll see) what David was feeling about the Lord.

David had a personal relationship with the Lord.

He related to the Lord on a personal level, even as he walked through the valley of the shadow of death.

David wrote this psalm, sang this psalm, directed this psalm to the LORD.

This is big.

I’ve pointed this out before, but it bears repeating here.

Look at your Bible.

Look at the word LORD in verses 1 and 6.

What’s up with that word—LORD?

Right!

It’s in all capital letters.

Capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D.

I love the opening line of Psalm 23—The LORD is my shepherd— I love it.

It so meaningful and moving.

I’ll say it sometimes just to remind myself that He is.

But we have to be careful that we don’t miss the fullness of what David is saying.

He says, “The LORD is my shepherd.”

This is the way our English translations of the Bible translate and designate the name of God.

Whenever you see LORD (all caps), this is the personal, covenant name of God.

This is Yahweh, YHWH, Jehovah.

We can lose something with the translation “the LORD” for the simple reason that “Lord” is a title, not a name, and it conveys more distance than intimacy; more distance than the personal connection that David is communicating.

What David is doing here at the outset of Psalm 23 is this: David is calling God by His “first” name, as it were.

David is addressing the personal God whose name is Yahweh.

Yahweh is my shepherd.

So far in the psalms, if you take a glance back at the first 22 psalms (something I did this week just to make sure I wasn’t stretching this point)—if you look back you’ll see this is the most personal psalm yet.

In the psalms before Psalm 23, David and the other psalmists, refer to the Lord as their shield, refuge, fortress, and rock.

They speak to Him as their king, as God Most High, deliverer, savior.

But here—Psalm 23—David pulls out a different image to communicate who this God is.

A king is separate from His people, enthroned, majestic, etc. God Most High is a very important image, but it makes Him more than a little removed from little, ol’ me.

But shepherd…well, that’s different.

The King rules over His people.

God Most High commands angel armies and reigns supreme.

But the shepherd lives with His flock and is everything to it: guide, physician, and protector.

This is a picture of the personal, covenant God who has a deep and personal relationship with His people.

This is what David is getting at.

Thanks to the opening line, we know what David is saying.

The essence of what he’s writing and singing and praying and praising is this:

The Lord (the covenant, personal God, Yahweh) is my shepherd (the One who lives with me, cares about me, protects me, provides for me, guides me).

David is singing (and urging us to sing) about the personal God.

The Personal God is With Me

Not only is God personal (LORD and shepherd), but notice the pronouns in verses 1-3.

My, I, He, me, He, me, He, my, He, me.

This is immensely personal.

This is a song—a true song—about the Lord Yahweh and David.

It’s equally true for us who belong to Him.

It’s “He & me”.

What the Lord Yahweh does is of direct benefit to me.

Look at all the Lord does here for David (and for us).

(Verse 2) He makes me lie down and He leads me beside the quiet waters.

(Verse 3) He restores/refreshes my soul and guides me along the right paths.

(Verse 5) He prepares a table before me and He anoints my head with oil.

God is not some distant deity.

Contrary to what so many people have thought throughout history, God didn’t wind the clock of time and then step back and watch, uncaring, as the world burned.

God is entirely different than the conception some people have.

He is with us, as a shepherd is with his sheep.

He’s there, doing everything for the sheep of His pasture.

He is intimately involved in the details of our lives.

We are sheep.

He is our shepherd.

This metaphor of the Lord Yahweh as shepherd extends throughout the Bible.

Jacob blessed his son, Joseph, recounting how the Lord had shepherded him:

David will write in another psalm:

And we know, Jesus is the Good Shepherd who says:

From the days of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, to Moses and the wandering Israelites, to King David and the One who came from his line to sit on his throne forever: Jesus, ever-present with His people—the Lord Yahweh is the personal God who is ever and always with His people, the sheep of His pasture.

The Lord Yahweh is my shepherd.

He is your shepherd, and it’s deeply personal.

The Personal God is With Me for His Name’s sake