The Lord is My Shepherd

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.

In the Bible, a shepherd is a common subject. That’s what we call a theme, a subject that just keeps popping up. A shepherd is someone whose job it was to look after the sheep. There are quite a few shepherds in the Bible. David was a shepherd. Abel was a shepherd. Moses was a shepherd in the wilderness after he fled Egypt. Shepherds were present at the birth of Jesus to witness the coming of the messiah.

Being a shepherd was a grueling task. Their job in taking care of the flock was to provide for every need. Leading them to water and food was incredibly important. Of course, a shepherd wouldn’t have a flock if they didn’t defend their animals from predators and thieves. They were survivalists whose responsibility was to ensure that a population of animals raised for the slaughter wasn’t prematurely slaughtered by wild animals or killed by exposure. They were always on duty. They slept with the flock. When a sheep would go astray, even though 99 sheep remain, the shepherd would go looking for that one wayward animal. It didn’t matter if the weather was poor, hot, or cold, the shepherd needs to be with their flock. Not only this, but the shepherd also had to act as the veterinarian for his flock. Removing thorns, sheering, administering medicine, tending to wounds. And the shepherds had to do this for each and every animal under their care. One person could easily be responsible for dozens of animals.

The fact of such a difficult job instills in the shepherd certain qualities that the Bible frequently points out. The Bible indicates that a pastor’s job is to shepherd the flock of the church. Jesus’ job is to shepherd us all. God is called the Good Shepherd.

A good shepherd will have endurance, patience, strength, humility, love, care, and kindness. A good shepherd will sacrifice for his flock, lead them, provide for them and nurture them. A good shepherd would protect his flock, feed his flock, water his flock, and keep them safe from those who wish to harm or lead them astray.

Being a shepherd is more than a job. It’s in the immaterial qualities. A selfish person who runs at the first sign of hardship would not make a good shepherd. An entitled, fearful, lazy person could never shepherd animals. A shepherd has to give up a lot to be a good shepherd. And it’s in the shepherd’s best interest to do these things. He cares for them, and at the end of the day, they are his livelihood.

God doesn’t rely on us for His livelihood, but He does love us and wants a good relationship with us, which is why He goes to such extreme lengths to ensure that His flock is safe and saved.

Let’s look at this Psalm verse-by-verse. We will see that with each line we found out what it looks like to discern a good shepherd from a bad shepherd, what it looks like to be a bad flock and a good flock,

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

By being our shepherd, the Lord is calling us sheep.

Philip Keller says in his book A Shepherd’s Look at Psalm 23, “It is no accident that God has chosen to call us sheep. The behaviors of sheep and humans are similar in many ways… our mob instincts, our fears, and timidity, our stubbornness and stupidity, and our perverse habits are all parallels of profound importance… Yet despite these adverse characteristics Christ chooses us, buys us, calls us by name, makes us His own, and delights in caring for us.”

Philip Keller, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, pg. 22.

For God to be our shepherd, we have to be His sheep. Not only that, but we need to ensure that the shepherd we are following is truly the Good Shepherd.

A bad shepherd, a shepherd we ought not to follow, will only take care of his own needs. He will be like a tenant, not an owner. Only in the position of the shepherd for a short time in order to make some money and then leave. He’s not caring about the long-term health of the flock, only about getting out of it what he can. He’s short-term, perhaps promising to be around for the long term, but his true intentions show when he leaves at the sight of a better opportunity.

The Good Shepherd will provide for us and take care of our needs. They are in their station for the long haul and sacrificially provide for the flock. The Good Shepherd is balanced and beloved (pg. 23). They are gentle yet stern. This is such an accurate depiction of our Lord. And yet He is more and even greater than this.

To be a good flock to our shepherd, we have to be under his control, recognizing He is sovereign over us and we are to be obedient to him. God provides for our wants. But the interesting thing about our wants is that they will be shaped by our shepherd. He takes care of our needs so well that we don’t want. We don’t go without those things we truly need and are good and holy.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.

The bad shepherd, by not providing, makes the flock stressed and live under duress. By not providing necessities, the flock struggles. This doesn’t mean there won’t be difficult trials or issues, but it does mean the bad shepherd won’t lead the flock through those times.

The Good Shepherd will ensure our rest and be the source of our refreshment. He will lead us to those places where we are safe and we will experience peace and patience. He doesn’t just meet the bare minimum standard to keep us alive, no he refreshes us, brings us beside still waters, and cares for us.

To be a good flock to our Good Shepherd, we must be able to lead, surrendering ourselves to the Lord. Imagine a sheep that refuses to go to the pasture and water.

3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

The bad shepherd will not restore. When things start to break down, he is more likely to leave them that way. He will leave the flock in a worse position than when they started.

The Good Shepherd will lead the flock into righteousness, living a life that pleases the Lord.

The flock led by the good shepherd will desire righteousness and do so because they know it pleases the Lord.

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.

When the going gets tough, the bad shepherd will leave to protect his own interests and safety, not caring if the flock is in the valley of the shadow of death. He is fickle in that way. Chances are this shepherd never knew what it was like to be a good shepherd. Perhaps he never had a clear example of what the position requires because he never knew in the first place. Maybe that shepherd didn’t have a strong personal walk with the Lord, maybe no relationship with Him at all.

The Good Shepherd does not depart the flock in the valley of the shadow of death. He uses this opportunity to brandish his rod and staff and protect the flock.

A good sheep trusts and has faith in its shepherd. This is how we find comfort in the Lord. We trust him and rely on him to get us through the hard times as he sustained us in the good times. We have to be able to say “I fear no evil, for you are with 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.

As sheep, when we follow the good shepherd you can expect that we will flourish. We will be content. We will be plump and healthy.

As a church, meaning the flock, we have to be a group of people who base everything we do on the Word of God and conduct ourselves in the way that He has instructed us. We cannot expect to flourish without that. That’s where we find our contentedness.

We need to be people who can recognize their shepherd from anyone else. To know him we need to be spending time in the Bible. That’s how we discern the difference between our Good Shepherd and a tenant shepherd who has their own best interests at heart. Our eyes and heart need to be trained on Him and vigilant to not follow the wolf in sheep’s clothing.

When we follow a bad shepherd, because we aren’t able to discern the difference, or maybe it was convenient, or maybe they were the only shepherd we thought we saw, then we as the church will be weak and thin and disease-ridden (pg. 23). We will fall apart from the inside out. We will suffer under satan and sin. We won’t be challenged to be under the wings of our God and instead, we will find ourselves making allowances for evil in our hearts and worship.

The flock must rely on the shepherd for all things to sustain us. We need to give ourselves over to the Shepherd who, like the shepherds of old, will put his mark on us to distinguish us from any other and show that we belong to Him. We have to be willing to forfeit our way of life, how we thought it best to live and serve, and instead place our practice of worship and faith on a foundation of God’s Word.

Pray the psalm to end the sermon.