Let's just read it together and then we'll work our way through it. Psalm 23, it says there in verse 1, He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. And even though I walk through the Your rod and your staff, they come from me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
Surely goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life and I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Let's pray together. Father, we thank You so much for Your goodness and Your grace. We thank You for being our shepherd.
Lord, I pray that You would speak to us. I pray that You would draw us close to yourself. I pray that You would reveal to us more about who You are and how You seek to love us and care for us and guide us. And God, I pray that if there's anybody here today that they don't know You as their shepherd, that Lord, You would convict them of their sin and bring them to a place of total dependence upon You as their shepherd.
That they would know Your Lordship and Your salvation, Your security and Your peace. And I pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Well, if you think about this, the Lord is my shepherd.
The shepherding theme really runs throughout Scripture. If you go all the way back to Cain and Abel, Abel was a keeper of the flock. He brought the first reach of his flock and it was acceptable unto God. So there you see, Abel was a shepherd.
You move on from there. Jacob himself was a shepherd. In fact, Joseph, you remember Joseph when he brings his family to Egypt. He tells them to tell Pharaoh that what is your occupation?
Your shepherds. And they despise you, but they'll put you in Goshen. The Lord will take care of you. When God brings the people of Egypt out, He raises up a man named Moses and Moses while He grew up under Pharaoh.
When He fled Egypt, He went into Midian and what was His occupation? He was a shepherd. Before He ever shepherded the people of God, He shepherded a bunch of sheep. When God raised up a great king for the nation and David, David primarily was a shepherd.
You get to the New Testament and you see that Jesus Himself calls Himself, I am the good shepherd. I'm not like the higherlings. I lay down my life for the sheep. When Jesus commissioned His Apostles out for service, He commissioned them to be shepherds.
You remember Peter when Peter was restored by the Sea of Galilee, he says, he loved me. Three times, you remember at the final one, what did He say to Peter? To end my sheep. Be a shepherd.
In fact, in the New Testament, the role of pastor, it's really the function. The pastor is not an office. In the New Testament, the office is elder, overseer, or bishop. But the function is pastor.
So we as pastors are called to be shepherds. This theme runs throughout the Scripture to define the relationship that God has with His people. And it's the most compassionate, kind, and intimate illustration that God can use when He describes His relationship to His people. Now, know this, first of all, when we look at this and David says, the Lord is my shepherd.
It's not a blanket universal statement. Let's just be very clear here at the outset. The Lord is not everybody shepherd. There's a lot of people, non-believers who love this imagery, the idea of the Lord as a shepherd.
But the Lord is not everybody shepherd. In fact, David is not even saying He's the shepherd of Israel. He's saying He's my shepherd. Spurgeon in his commentary on these talks about the fact that the context of Psalm 23 is Psalm 22.
And what is Psalm 22 all about? Now it makes me upset that I didn't pick Psalm 22 to do it because we really need to know it. But Psalm 22 is all about the suffering, suffering, and Jesus Christ who would lay down His life for the people. Listen to me today, until you come to a place of understanding that Jesus Christ died on a cross for your sins, and you place your faith in Him for salvation.
The Lord is not your shepherd. It's only by faith in Jesus Christ and acknowledgement of what He's done for you that Christ comes to you, your shepherd. It's a beautiful illustration, but it's also very humbling from our perspective. Listen to me, sheep are dumb.
Be encouraged today. That's what God calls you, sheep. Not smart. They're some of the most helpless animals on the face.
They're symbiotic with man, meaning a sheep. You don't just see sheep outfitting for themselves. They've got to have a shepherd. They have to have a shepherd to look out for them.
They're not fast. They don't run fast. They don't have claws. They have no camouflage.
They're just big white marshmallows. They're just a meal on legs. It's all they are. They don't have stink glands.
They don't have sharp teeth. They can bite, but I've never heard of anybody saying, you know that boy died of a sheep bite. You know what got him? And just destroyed his life.
They have no defense mechanism. And they're not smart. They're just prone to wander. In fact, if a sheep misses its haircut, it can die.
Because if they grow out too much hair and they fall over, they can't write themselves. They're totally helpless, and they're completely dependent upon a shepherd. Can I tell you today, you may have bought into the lie of Satan that you can live life on your own. See, that's what Satan will like to you.
He'll tell you you're not a sheep. He'll tell you you're a wolf. He'll tell you you can do it on your own. He'll tell you you don't need God.
Can I tell you nothing could be further from the truth? God has designed us and created us in such a way that we are completely dependent upon Him, God, for every need of our life, most prominently the need of our salvation. And so David, picture this, David, when he writes this Psalm, he's the mightiest man of the mightiest nation on the face of the earth. And you know what he says?
I can't live one moment without the Lord. I can't make it one moment without the Lord's shepherding me. I got to have his constant care, his constant provision, and listen to me. If you haven't come to this place, I pray that the Lord would bring you there.
You know, in ministry, I've seen a lot of men, their self-made men, their tough men. They kind of pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. They do all this stuff. And can I tell you sooner or later, more often, not God will bring you praise.
And they would say, I believe in God. They might even say, I believe in Jesus, but the Lord really isn't their shepherd until they hit one of those moments. And the doctor calls and says, we found something on the MRI, and you need to come in. And you need to come in now, or they have a heart attack, or they get a phone call at 2 AM.
And you know what they realize? They're not as strong as they thought they were. And they realize their only hope is a good shepherd. I'm telling you, it's a sweet place though, when the Lord brings you to a place of, and God does this in so many ways.
He has ways of bringing us close. One of the illustrations that I think about as I study this is, I was sharing with Faith this week is Jean Stolings. Jean Stolings, he was the head coach at Alabama, he coached at Texas A&M, coached at Arizona Cardinals, coached at the Dallas Cowboys with Tom Landry. He was a man's man, he was a disciplined guy, he was a tough hard-nosed coach, and he had three daughters, and you know what he wanted?
He wanted a son, he wanted a football player. And finally, they were going to have a boy, and this is in the 60s, and the boy was born named Johnny, and the doctor came out and said, your son's special needs. He said, it crushed him. Him and his wife just crushed.
It was sad what they told them their options were, and they had, there was no option in their mind. They're going to bring Johnny home. And Jean Stolings said, you know what, I prayed with all my might that God would change Johnny. He said, you know what God did?
He changed me. He changed me. And they asked him in an interview, how did he change you? He said, God made me soft.
He showed my total dependence upon him, and how much I needed him. And he said, you know, at the end of the interview, his son had since passed away, but he said, at that point, the interview, he said, you know, if his son was 36 years old, he said, if you could take me back 36 years ago, and God were to give me the choice, you could have a perfectly normal son or you could have Johnny. He said, it wouldn't even be a thought in my mind, because God has taught me so much about himself through this son. And I can tell you story after story of similar people in their lives and how God has used moments of deep struggle and pain to draw them close and teach them that he's their shepherd.
In fact, if you notice in the Psalmist starts out with he, he guides me, he leaves me. At the end of it, it says what you are with me. It's a story, really, the 23rd Psalmist, the story of your life, the life of a she, depending upon a shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd.
Then what does he say? I shall not want. I shall not want. Meaning that as he recognizes the Lord as his shepherd, he finds a contentment in the Lord.
That as long as I have the Lord in my life, I've got everything I need. Some people say, well, pastor, what happens when the Lord is your shepherd, but you find yourself that you need something and you don't have it. Can I tell you, if the Lord is your shepherd and you're following him and you find yourself in a place where you don't have what you think you need, can I just tell you, you probably don't need it? Because the alternative to that is that God can't provide your need or he's unwilling to provide your need.
And what the Psalmist says here, what David says here, and what Paul would say in Philippians 4, he said, I've learned a secret of being content. Well fed or having need. What does he say? I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
It's a favorite for athletes, but it's not about winning football games. It's the declaration of a man named Paul who said, you know what? I don't care if I have nothing or I have everything. The only thing that matters to me is I have the Lord.
And he's enough. Is that the case for you today? Is the Lord your shepherd or you content in him? That's what David's saying.
I found contentment. I shall not want. Then notice what he says, he makes me lie down and green pastures. He leaves me beside the still waters.
Meaning he meets my physical needs. When we know the Lord is our shepherd, we have a God who's not just interested. It's not just some spiritual God who said, I've met your spiritual needs. Now you've got to figure it out on your own.
Now we have a God who meets our physical needs, our daily needs. That's green pastures. That's water. That's food and water.
As long as we have food and covering a water, Paul says in Timothy that we'll be fine. We have all we need. This is a picture of Matthew chapter 60. My Matthew chapter 60.
Jesus says, look at the birds. They don't reap or sow or gather into barns. Lord takes care of them. Look at the lilies of the field.
They don't toil or spin, but Solomon and all his glory never looked as beautiful as one of these lilies. Can you not trust that God will take care of you? Can we trust God to meet our needs? God says he'll take care of us.
The Lord is my shepherd. He leads me beside still waters. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He meets my physical needs.
Look at what he says. He restores my soul. We have a shepherd who not only meets our physical needs, but he meets our spiritual needs. He restores our soul.
That we have a shepherd who sustains us daily spiritually as we abide in his word and in prayer. This is David. You studied it last week with Pastor Kim. Let me say some Pastor Bill and Pastor Kim did a phenomenal job preaching these past couple weeks.
Wasn't it awesome? I'm telling you, I was blown away. So grateful for these men of God and how they expos it in the Scripture. But they led you through that.
And last week, what if Pastor Kim teaches you that a lot of the words perfect are so in the testimony, sure, making wise and simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart, the fear of the Lord is clean, during forever. Doesn't mean Lord are true. They're more desirable than gold.
And much fine gold and sweeter also than the honey. The dripping of the honey come more over by it. Your servant is more than keeping their great reward. David just goes overboard about how if I got his word, I got everything.
He just sustains me. More over by it, your servant and keeping their great reward. David was saying to his Lord, I'm warned, I'm directed, I'm sustained, I'm guided. Listen, if you're not, man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word, proceed to the mouth of God.
If you're not in the word every day, you're not availing yourself of the spiritual sustenance that you need to survive the day. In fact, if you're like me, there's certain days you're just getting the day and days get so junky and hard that you just have to say, I need some of the word. And you've got to just get alone and pull your Bible out and say, I just need to read a little bit. I need to be sustained.
He restores our soul. He guides us in paths of righteousness. Notice that present tense. He's guiding us.
So we start out just meeting our daily needs. Then he restores our souls. And then as we're walking through life, he just guides us in paths of presently. He just keeps guiding us in paths of righteousness.
And notice paths is plural. That we're constantly making decisions about moral decisions. I think it's what he's primarily talking about here, but we're making moral decisions about paths we'll take. And the Lord just guides us.
He gives us directions that man makes us plans, but the Lord orders his steps. And let me just say this here, the heartbeat of David, you'll notice he guides me in paths of righteousness. David was not a man who was worried necessarily about winning wars. And he wasn't worried about fortune.
And he wasn't worried about, you know what David was always just worried about? Faithfulness and righteousness. This is to me, this is the difference between mature and immature believers. Imature believers only think about their fortune.
Only think about decisions that are most beneficial to their bank account and their personal well-being health. That was King Saul, preceded David. All he cared about was winning battles and getting wealthy. And the mature believer says, I don't care about that, but what I do care about is making sure I live a life of faithfulness and following the paths of righteousness.
Young men come to me all the time and cast on. I just don't know what the Lord's will is. When they're trying to discern the Lord's will, normally they're saying, I don't know who I'm going to marry and what job I'm going to have. You know what I'm telling them?
Stop worrying about those things. You let the Lord guide you in paths of righteousness and heal me every need of your life. Listen, nobody has ever ruined or tanked their life because they didn't have enough money or they lost their paycheck or they lost their job. But I've seen a lot of people tanked their life because they weren't walking in fellowship and obedience with the Lord.
They walked in sinfulness and disobedience and they ruined their lives. David is saying here, he guides me in paths of righteousness. He guides me along in his path according to his word, righteous paths. And then he goes on and he says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death and verse 4, I will fear no evil.
Now, having the Lord as your shepherd, does that mean that you're immune from trials, from difficulties, from dangerous and scary places? No, most people believe that they interpret this to mean that the shepherd, he would have to move the sheep from one pasture to another. So they'd be at one place of pasture and they'd kind of utilize up the resources of that pasture and you'd have to take them to another pasture. And they would take them to another pasture, they would kind of be exposed to the elements and they'd have to walk through valleys.
And when they did so, they were opening themselves up to all kinds of predators that could attack them and take advantage of them. And the shepherd would intentionally lead them into scary places because of something better that he had for them in the future. Can I just tell you today, listen, you follow Christ, if he's your shepherd, sometimes he will lead you into scary, dangerous places. And he will do so to teach you that you can trust him.
Because see what he says here, even though I walk through the valley and shout out, I'll fear no evil. Does David say I fear no evil because you know what, God made me mighty and strong and I'm powerful? No, he says I'll fear no evil why, for you are with me. David says I don't have anything to fear because I know the Lord is with me.
He will take care of me. I'm in a scary spot, but he's with me. Now please understand, when he says I will not fear, I'll shut off fear. It doesn't mean that we don't ever get afraid.
I'll be honest with you, there were some moments when I was afraid. It means that fear doesn't dominate our lives. It means faith dominates my life. And my faith overcomes my fear.
And even though I'm afraid, I just take another step forward trusting God. Because I know he's with me. David says I know he's with me. Your rod and your staff, the rod, the shepherd's rod, about an 18 inch instrument, keep it in his belt, and it's had his big knob on the end of it, a wooden stick with a knob carved out on the end of it.
And he would use it to fend off predators, lions and bears and wolves that would come. And he would pull out that rod. He would use it to defeat the enemies that would come against him. David is saying, you're running, when I get into scary places, I know that I got a God who's bigger than whatever I'm scared of and he'll stand in the gap between me and the enemy.
He's not a hired hand. When things get tough, God doesn't run. He's right there. He stands in the gap and he's going to protect me and he's going to fend off my enemies.
His rod and then his staff, his staff, was the long shepherd's crook that they would use. And the long shepherd crook it would be used because she's done. And they'll just just wander off and do stupid things. And I think that is me.
And aren't you grateful for a God who won't let you get too far and will yank you back? That shepherd's crook not only used to yank him back, sometimes it was used to thump him on the head. How many of you praise God for a God will thump you on the head every now and then? Well, I've been thumped on the head so many times.
And I'm so grateful because in my stupidity, this is a good reminder. You're two greatest enemies. As you go out in the world, are Satan and your own sin. I pray every day, God, protect me from Satan and protect me from my own sinful flesh.
And I need a God who will discipline me. I need a God who will thump me every now and then and keep me from doing stupid things. How many of you say, boy, I'm glad I had some parents who weren't afraid to discipline me? My mom's with Jesus now.
She used to chase me around with a bell. I ain't lying. She would chase me swinging like this and I'm running. And then she'd say, just wait till your dad gets home.
That it's all over now. But I praise God for a dad who loved me enough to discipline me. And it taught me about my father's discipline and how God loves me. You're rod and your staff.
They comfort me. Then look at verse 5. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, even knowing in my head with oil. My cup overflows.
You prepare a table before me. The picture here is not that we're, we get to eat in our enemies, watch us eat it. It's a celebration of victory over the enemies even though they're surrounding them. So the enemies surrounds us and yet we eat in celebration of the victory that we know there's ours.
You want a good picture of this. We don't have to live for a picture. They're beautiful picture of the scripture in the Old Testament. You remember the Passover?
The dad would say, the sun's going to put the blood over the door post. Put the blood over the door post. Get it over the door post. Now get inside.
Shut the door. What are we going to do? We're going to have a dinner. We're going to eat because tonight the angel of death is going to be all around us.
But because we're trusting the blood of the Lamb, we're going to go ahead and celebrate victory right here. Isn't that good? You know another illustration of it? Think about Jesus in the last supper.
The final Passover, the firstborn supper. Jesus has got all the Pharisees described and Judas are out there conspiring to his enemies are coming against him. And Jesus says, get them already. And we're going to eat in celebration of the victory that I'm going to accomplish for you.
Even though the enemies are all around us and guess what? In here just a minute we're going to gather around this table. And is there a world out there that hates us and despises us and wants to take us out. We have an enemy Satan who's seeking to take us out and guess what?
In here in a minute we're going to gather around the table and we're going to celebrate the victory of Jesus Christ in the presence of our enemies. Because of God who loves us, a shepherd who cares for us. You've anointed my head with the oil. Some people commentators talk about the medicinal purposes of oil for us.
It's kind of interesting that at this point the kind of the shepherd metaphor, it changes. God is pictured as a host. He's hosting us for a meal. I don't think this is medicinal.
This is celebratory oil. It was oil over joysine and joy of celebration of what God had done. Anointed my head with the one cup overflows. The verse 6, I love this.
Surely goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life. Surely goodness, love me. There's a promise here. As the Lord has my shepherd, goodness, loving kindness are following me.
Now note the progression. As this starts out, remember, this is a story of your life as a sheep. You start out and he just provides your basic needs. Food, water.
He restores your soul. He brings you to a place of salvation and trusting in him. Do you realize that before you knew Christ did God meet your needs? Did the sun still come up?
Even the unrighteous get three squares a day. The sun rises and the rain falls. God meets our needs even when we don't love him. God meets our needs.
He restores our soul. He brings us to a place of trusting in him. And then he just starts guiding our lives for his name's sake, for his glory. And all of a sudden he becomes a you and we get personal and we love God and he draws us close.
And he prepares a table before us. We celebrate here of his victory even though we got enemies around us. And so the picture here is that it starts out. You got God guiding us.
He's before us. He guides us in paths of righteousness. He's out in front of us guiding us. And then you'll notice in the middle of the psalm he's with us.
So God's out in front of us at the beginning. In the middle he's with us. He's beside us. And at the end he's what?
He's following behind us. Now take note if the Lord is your shepherd. He's all around you. He's in front of you.
He's beside you. And he's behind you. But it's also kind of the progression of growing and walking with Christ. I see a great picture of parenting.
When your kids start out their lives you're in front of them telling them what to do. You direct all their life. You're in control. You're in charge when they're little.
Then the older they get, guess what? You kind of start getting beside them, don't you? They have to start making some decisions. But they're still under your control and you're right there beside them.
And then later as you launch them out as adults, guess what? You're just behind them. But you're always behind them and you love them. And they know if they get into a bad time all they got to do is turn around.
Loving kindness is the Hebrew word kesit. It means it's a hardware to translate from Hebrew. But it means a faithful loving loyal kindness. Isn't this so good to know?
As you grow and mature you can't continue to walk with the Lord. No matter what you run into, no matter what happens to you, God will never forget you. He'll never forget his promises. He never gets tired.
He never wears out. He'll never leave you. He'll never forsake you. And no matter what you run into, no matter what you face tomorrow, all you got to do is look over your shoulder.
And there's goodness and mercy like two little sheep dogs. Just following right behind you. Always there to snatch you up in his arms no matter what you face. Isn't that so good?
And then you get to the very end because it ends with, and we'll dwell on the house of the Lord forever. Meaning you're following the progression of your life. You start out just meeting your basic needs, spiritual life, guiding you, dark times, draws you close, celebrating victory even though you got enemies all around you. Goodness and mercy following you.
But then guess what? At some point you're going to die. At some point the old ticker is going to stop working. You're going to be on that bed and the hospital is going to go.
And here's the question. Will the Lord still be there? The promise of this is that God will never ever ever stop shepherding you. That when you come to the very end, this God who's always taken care of you, this God who's always guided you, this God who's always been with you, this God who's been following you with his goodness and mercy.
At that moment of death when you take your last breath, he'll be there to take you by the hand and lead you home. Powerful promises in this. In fact there's some statements that we should be able to make that David makes here. If you know the Lord is your shepherd, number one you should be able to say, I shall not want.
Meaning you should have a contentedness in Christ. That as long as you got Jesus, you got everything. You got everything. Secondly, you should have peace.
You should be able to say, I will not fear. Not that you won't ever get some fear in your heart because you will. But you will be able to say, my faithful overcome my fear. And I'm going to take steps forward because I have peace in Jesus Christ.
And finally, you should have security. If you know the Lord is your shepherd, you need to know that you know that you know that you know that when you take your last breath, you know exactly where you're going. Not because you're good, but because you have a really good shepherd and he don't lose any of his sheep. All that the Father has given to me, Jesus says, will come to me.
And he who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out, but I will raise them up on the last day. Here's the question is the Lord your shepherd. And if he is, do you have contentment? You have peace.
You have security. Father, thank you for your word today, Lord. I just pray that if there's anybody here today that doesn't know you as their shepherd, Lord, I pray that you would draw them close to yourself. I pray that they would see the depth of their need.
I pray that they would see the depth of their sinfulness. No matter how great they might think they are, no matter how good they might think they are, I pray that you would show them that they're sheep. You have made them to be dependent upon you. And they can't save themselves.
And so I pray that they would see the salvation that you provided in Christ, who is the good shepherd who lays his life down for the sheep. And Lord, I pray that they would trust in Christ as their personal word and Savior. God, for those of us that do know you, it's very easy to get to a place where we know you as God, but we don't know you as shepherd. Lord, I pray that you would draw us close.
You'd remind us again that if we have you, we got all we need. We'd be reminded again today that if we have you, we have nothing to fear. And if we have you, it doesn't matter what happens in this life. One day you're going to be with you forever.
Thank you for being our shepherd. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.