Sermon: The Lord Our Shepherd

Psalm 23. It is unfortunately, I think, become kind of a funeral sermon. Uh, it's not a death sermon, uh, death psalm, it's a life psalm. Now there's only one verse outta the six verses that even touches upon death. The psalm is all about life and I wanna look at that together this morning. So let's pray before we open God's word together.

Our Father, we are thankful, thankful that even as we have sung this morning to hold us fast in the person of your son, that you lead us, the person of your son, to abide with us. That even as we stand and sit in this room this morning, you are with us and the person of your son and by the spirit of your son and oh we would hear your voice this morning. You speak your truth to our hearts and our souls and our minds and our spirits as we each have need.

Uh, everyone of the sheep in this room has need. We all have different needs. You minister to each of us says only you know us

and we pray that we would know that we have heard your voice this morning. We pray all of this in the strong name of Christ. Amen. Psalm 23 this morning. This is a holy inherent sufficient word of God.

The Lord is my shepherd shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me besides Stillwaters. He restores my soul. He leads me in powers of righteousness for his namesake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. You are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anno my head with oil. My cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever with the grass withers and the flower faiths. The word of God is forever. Thanks Peter to God. Amen.

There is a reason that this is probably the most well known text and all of the Bible, even unbelievers will go running to uh, this text and moments of trial and moments of desperation. Unfortunately, they do so though and they receive empty comfort. But the Christian for whom the Lord is indeed our shepherd, his or her shepherd, this has to be one of the most gloriously comforting texts in all of the scriptures and probably is one that many of you have committed to men memory.

If you haven't, you should one that you can reflect upon often or a few more beautiful pictures than this, that the Lord is my shepherd. Shepherd is a psalm, as I said, that's about life. It's all about life, that life here and he ends with life there. That's all about life and I wish that we had weeks to look at this this morning. Uh, I was this text over the next weeks. I was thinking about this morning, maybe I should have planned this differently.

I wish I had. Uh, but this was the psalm that I had put on the schedule to preach this week and there is a lot in it. There's a wealth of theology and application in every verse, so we can't touch on all of it, but we're gonna walk our way through it. Let's start with this. This morning he begins with the Lord is my shepherd and there is some discussion with regards to is this reflecting upon the first person or the second person of the triune Godhead?

Is he speaking about the father? Is he speaking about the son? The reality is is that as you and I go through the scriptures, you will see both the father and the son referred to as the shepherd of his people. So I think it's fair that you could attribute it to either the father or to the son or you could do so generally to the one triune God. However, it seems best to me at least that we would have in our mind's eye the person of the Son as we're going through Psalm 23

and I have two arguments for that this morning. The first is context. When you think about Psalm 23, where it's placed, Psalm 22 is that great messianic psalm. It is that great messianic psalm where you and I get a a picture into the anguish that the son suffered as he was upon the cross. It is maybe the most insightful passage in all of scripture about what our Lord endured Psalm 22 and then you go to Psalm 24 and we often sing it together in Psalm 24.

It is that great triumphant psalm that speaks about Christ, that he is the king of glory who has a claim over all the earth. And so in context I think can make sense that we would see this as the son but maybe even more so when we get to the New Testament. Jesus is very clear. He calls himself the good shepherd. In fact, one of the very longest discourses that we have from the Lord Jesus, they're in John 10. He takes an entire what we will call a chapter,

an entire chapter to walk through the fact that he is our good shepherd. And so surely as we think upon the Lord, as our shepherd, the Son is to be upon our minds, the Lord is my shepherd. Wonderfully comforting words. Martin Luther, the great reformer said about God being called our shepherd. He said the other name sound somewhat too gloriously and majestic and bring as it were, an awe and fear with them. When we hear the muttered,

this is the case when the scriptures call God our Lord, our king, our creator. This however is not the case with the sweet word shepherd. It brings to the Godly when they read it or hear it as it were, a confidence consolation or security like the word Father. And isn't that true? I want to look at the Lord our shepherd in three ways this morning breaking down into these three stanzas. So the first stanza being verses one through three as our

shepherd. He is our provider. Then verse four, as our shepherd, he is our defender and then verses five and six as our shepherd, he is our host. So first as our shepherd, he is our provider. Verse one through three, David begins a psalm with very sound reasoning. It is the best of reasoning. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Here's the fact, the Lord is my shepherd. The implication is I shall not want this is pristine,

perfect reasoning. If the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth is my shepherd, if that's true this morning, then I shall not want [unknown]. Everything is in his hands. He's my shepherd. I shall not want for anything. It's all encompassing. Why? Because he provides. He provides for me materially food, drink, shelter, clothing, life. He provides emotionally for me. He provides socially for me. He provides spiritually for me anything required for my life.

A life abundant as the Lord Jesus says he provides. He's my shepherd. No notice that what David does is he puts this in the future tense I shall not want. David is looking forward with great trust. He's looking down the pathway of life and as he sees it laid out before him, he doesn't know what all is going to come. He can't see everything that is on the horizon. He doesn't know what's around the next bend of that turn.

And yet as he looks out upon the prospect of the rest of his life, he says, look, as I look at it, I shall not want. There's nothing that's going to be lacking as I go down this route

in the future tens, which also means I do not want. Now present tense. If it's true in the future, true in the present,

listen, aim, I may not have everything that I want in the present. I surely won't have everything I want in the future, but I have everything that I need.

How do I know that? It sure seems like I need this. I know I have what I need because he is my shepherd.

God is not stingy, it's not reserved and provision and he knows what I need better than I do. I shall not want and so I do not want, it's often easier to think about the future rather right? I shall not want. The reflection is is looking at the future. You're supposed to look upon the President and go, I don't want nothing lacking for me.

Plumber and old Puritan said this. He said, the faith which can truly say my shepherd, my Lord, my rock, my God, turns prophecies into history, promises, into deliverances sorrows, into joy, prisons, into palaces, perils into victories, death into life. Nothing else can do so much our shepherd provides

isn't blind nor neglectful. He's busy about us. Notice the language as he provide, he provides as he provides in these first three verses. There's one act of person he makes, he leads, he restores again. He leads and look at the provision he leads besides still waters. Literally he leads us by waters of rest. He restores my soul. That is he brings my soul, my soul back to restoration. He revises me. He makes me to lie down in green pastures

as sheeps. We we are. We are harassed by the world. There's all kinds of troubles in the world. Constant danger, constant trial. The world around us can be raging billows. It can be a desert wasteland, but with this good shepherd, we are at rest

side still. Waters lying down in green pastures. This is something the person outside of Christ can never understand. They never know this kind of rest.

I never know this kind of quieting of soul. The world cannot and it does not provide true rest. It cannot and does not satisfy the hungry, let alone anxious soul. But our good shepherd in the midst of a turbulent world provides rest and he satisfies. He restores my soul. He quiets my soul

before we begin to beat ourselves up. You may not always feel that way. I don't always feel that way.

David is not always of this frame of mind in the Psalms as he is here in Psalm 23 at peace at quiet. Martin Luther again said this. He said, the prophet has not at all times been so happy he has not been able all times to sing as he does so here. And we all experience those moments where our joy or our patience or our quiet or our hope or even our faith feels like it's shaking or has been shaken. It happens to the very best of saints. You aren't abnormal.

That's where you're at this morning or you've gone through season of that. You aren't the proverbial black sheep of the flock, just a normal sheep in the midst of this flock. But and here is the huge, but we also know as a sheep that we have every reason to be happy that we have every reason to be at rest, every reason, to be content and satisfied because he is our shepherd and he's provided it.

I want you to see verse three, especially in this light. He cares for you for his own namesake, for his own namesake, just in case you were worried about his continued provision based upon your present faithfulness or your present truster, your present joy. These blessings poured out upon us are not ul, ultimately about us. Verse three, they are for his namesake. This to me may be the most comforting part of the entire song.

It's for his namesake. All this blessing that David has just articulated. All that comes to us. It's not based upon us,

based upon who we are, based upon what we've done or how we felt or how we now feel. It's not based upon what faith we exercise or hope or happiness we exhibit. The genesis or the cause for these blessings was God's own character. The blessings we enjoy were not caused by us. So they do not cease because of us. It's not based on us. It's for his namesake.

A creek that is downstream from a mighty river can never make the mighty river's headwaters stop. So the sheep of the good shepherd cannot stop his care for them. It was not started by us, and so it is not stopped by us. The Lord is our shepherd and provider just keeps providing.

Second, we see in verse four that the Lord is our shepherd as defender and David's voice now turns to counseling his own soul. In verse four, though he walked through the valley of the shadow of death. He will fear not evil. Death is in view here. This is the verse where it's in view, but that valley of the shadow of death, it's not just death, it's everything that's accompanied with it. So he has in view everything, all affliction,

all sufferings, all darkness, all evils that our soul or our body might face. Though he walked through the valley of the shadow of death, he says in counsel to himself, I will fear none of it. Fear no evil.

This makes me think of Martin Lloyd Jones in the favorite famous sermon series that he did that was turned into a book that you haven't read it, you should read it, uh, called Spiritual Depression. And in that book, one of, in one of the sermons, I can't remember which sermon, but in one of those sermons, he, he talks about the need that you and I have to, to engage in self-talk or to talk to ourselves. Sometimes when people talk to themselves, it's the definition of being crazy,

but sometimes when you talk to yourselves, it's the definition of sanity. Wisdom. As Lloyd Jones encouraged and as David is demonstrating, we're to speak to our own hearts. The truth of the Lord being our shepherd. Sometimes, not always, but sometimes our minds know what our hearts have trouble resting in. And so you have to speak to yourself.

This is a good practice. Listen up

to or Jeff or

Chip or Kelly or Paulette or Jason, listen up.

You walk through the valley of shadow of death. Don't you dare fair fear. Evil

Lord is your shepherd. He's my shepherd. Don't you fear Jason?

I will fear no evil. David says he resolves it. He then speaks these things to God so that his heart hears you are with me, your rod and staff. They comfort me. God already knows that what he's speaking to himself.

That is God is our defender. He's with us. You're with me. A small child is in the dark and they're scared. What do they do? They cry out from mommy and daddy. They just want them with them. My child is lost in a grocery store. What did they do? They cry out. They, they just want that presence with them. It's frightening to be alone.

You are never left alone, Christian. Never. He's with you. I will never leave you. Jesus said, I will never forsake you. Jesus said,

I am with you always to the very end of the age. He said,

is always with us.

Speak to your soul. Over and over, he's with me. You're with me. And as our defending shepherd with us, he keeps us noticed. He's equipped to do so with his rod and his staff. These two implements, they, they go together to express comprehensive protection from every and all harm that you might possibly face in this world. He isn't simply with us. He's actively guarding us. He's keeping you. The rod was an instrument that would be used as a instrument of

blunt force to, to smack a animal that was hunting the sheep like a ul. The staff was used to direct and correct think shepherd's hook here, the one used to defend and the other dis steer, the one used to fight off wild animals and the other dis steer from wandering. He defends us actively. As Dale Ralph Davis said, Jesus Christ, our shepherd is no emaciated weakling. Our shepherd is a warrior as shepherds had to be, no one can snatch his sheep out of his hand. John 10 28,

the muscles of his arm are flexed to defend his flock. He doesn't carry a club for nothing. He is obviously enough for whatever the valley throws at us. The Lord is our shepherd defender.

Third, the Lord is our shepherd host verses five and six. And as our host, he, he finally brings us home first though note that he makes David's cupped overflow. This is true for all of his sheep. This is abundant blessing. This is saturation, this continual abundance.

Maybe you've seen these prank videos, uh, on the internet. Uh uh, there are teenage boys, young teenage boys that are in their swim trunks and they're at summer camp and they're taking a shower. Uh, and the one boy is in the shower and he has put shampoo in his hair and he is washing his hair. Remember those days? Uh, just camp, but washing my hair. Uh, and that boy is in the shower. He is put the shampoo in his hair. And as you do,

when you put shampoo in your head, you close your eyes not to get the shampoo in your hair. And so there's another boy that is behind him, and as the boy's rinsing his hair to get the shampoo out, the boy behind him is just squirting more shampoo into his hair and the boy's rinsing and rinsing and, and it's just more and more suds and he can just feel it and it's becoming more and more suds. And finally he reaches a moment of exasperation and he is yelling,

right? Just an abundance,

a cup overflows,

blessings just keep coming. You can't stop it. A cup saturated in Christ. You have a never ending cup of blessing. We take a drink from that cup and it never runs dry. It, it doesn't even lessen. It just keeps overflowing

even in difficult days. This is true.

My favorite passages in all the scripture, not just the Psalms, but all of scripture, Psalm 56

and it's a psalm again of David and I love those verses eight through 11. Few of you sent that text to me this week and oh, they blessed be you. It's one of my favorites if I love the verses where David says, you, you keep count of my tossings on my bed at night. Isn't that an amazing thought

that the Lord of heaven and earth keeps count of his sheep's tossings upon their beds? And then he says, you, you store every single one of my tears in your bottle. He, he notes every single tear that trickles down your face and he stores them. Your sufferings aren't lost on him.

Hey, what I like even more, and it's the next verse, it just comforts I think even more. David says this, he says this, I know that God is for me, says I know God is for me in God whose word I praise in the Lord whose word I praise in God. I trust I shall not be afraid. This I know God is for me.

He's my shepherd. My cup overflows.

David says it here in verse six. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, God is for me. That's what every Christian can say. Goodness follows me. Mercy follows me. He's for me,

middle and high school, I was in a um, a musical every year in middle school and high school. And you can remember those moments in middle school, high school where you're up on the stage and all the lights would be turned out except that one, two spotlights that were shining on that one individual that was dancing and singing across the stage. And without fail, as those two spotlights are shining upon that individual that is dancing and

singing across the stage, there would be a shadow that that was behind that person.

And you can't, as they say, outrun your shadow. It doesn't matter if you go to the right or you go to the left. It doesn't matter if you go forward or you go backwards. It doesn't matter if you crouch or if you stand as tall as you possibly can. Your shadow is still that. There it is.

The light of Christ shines on his sheet.

The shadow of mercy and his goodness follow you all the days of your life. You can't shake them because you can't shake him

follows you every day of your life. You're himmed in Dear, dear Christian, by his goodness and his mercy, no matter what your life circumstances say you're himmed in.

Now Grant, it often doesn't feel like that. That's simply a matter of perspective.

That child that is sitting upon their parents' lap in their bedroom and is screaming and crying because they saw a spider on the other side of the room

just has a lack of perspective.

Their fear is very real. It's not even wrong and it's surely not to be shamed, but it's just a lack of perspective.

You and I will never get to the end of our lives. We will never walk into eternity and look back and think, well, he was with me in every moment of my ex life except then we will never be in heaven and look back and think, oh, and that was true. Goodness and mercy followed me all the days of my life except for that season.

Just a matter of perspective,

goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our life into eternity. He can't be shaken. And so the blessings to his people can't be shaken.

Poll car, the disciple of the Apostle John. So this is second generation Christian Polycarp, the great bishop of Smyrna is taken prisoner by the Romans during the persecutions and he is led into the coliseum and he will be threatened with being burned at the stake or fed to wild animals if he does not curse Christ and Polycarp will be burned at the stake. But his great response to that, Roman that is standing there with all the crowd around calling for his death,

when that Roman says to him, curse Christ and you'll be set free. I love is one of my favorite quotes from all the church history. He says, 86 years I have served him and he has done me no wrong. Take your age and put it in there. 16, 26, 36, 46, 56, 56, 46 years, whatever it is. And he has done me no wrong.

I should be the anthem of every Christian

goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever, whether in life or in death our shepherd has us. We can be taken away from all except Christ. All can be taken from us except Christ. And whether he is hosting us here or he is hosting us there, we have his perfect care. He is with us. Can't escape it. Christian, no matter how hard you even try

again, just go back to the beginning of this glorious psalm. He leads us. He doesn't drive me or you. He leads us. He's before us. We are behind the path that is well traveled. I mentioned this just a couple of months ago as we were talking about the Oregon Trail and that similar and similar westward trails. There were ruts in the ground that were formed by thousands of wagons over time headed in that same direction. They create a path.

We have such a path. It's a well-traveled path that all the saints triumphant as we call them, those that are already in glory, they traveled this path. You and I are just to stay on this trustworthy way through the wilderness of this world. Other travelers have walked. But the great imprint upon the path that created the deep ruts that you and I, as I told you before that we just slide our feet into is that radius of men walked that path

our shepherd leads us.

You are suffering nothing. He did not suffer a hundred fold more.

Your faith is no more being tested than his was tested

and you will be no less kept than he was kept.

We walked through the valley of the shadow. Death. We'll get to the other side where we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

One old saint once wrote, he said, blessed Jesus. How infinitely has thou outdone the best shepherd that ever existed? Many have been remarkable for looking diligently to the state of their flocks, providing for them suitable pasture, taking care that none of them go as Australian defending them against the beast of pray to which they were exposed. But when did anyone lay down his life for the sheep? Yet this has been done by our compassionate savior.

He deserves all our love. Had I 10,000 tongues, not one should silent be had I 10,000 hearts. I give them all to the

three quick applications.

Can you say the Lord my shepherd?

That little two letter word makes an eternal difference. Can you say this morning, the Lord is my shepherd. There are no greener Pastures in the one he leads To. There are no stiller Waters than the ones that he takes his Sheep be. So there is no better way to face the prospect of death, which you face

than having the Lord as mine shepherd. And you say that this morning, I hope so.

Second, if you can say that this morning and keep following and keep Trusting him. Keep following and keep trusting him. Now, here's The temptation is that you and I may say, well, he is my shepherd. I believe that. But what I'm doubting in this season of life is whether he's actually A good shepherd. Whether it's really True that goodness and mercy follow me all the days of my life because you know what is sure does not feel like

That this week.

He's worthy of your trust. He sees what you don't see. He knows what you need beyond. You know what you need. He's your shepherd. You trust him.

Videos that are made their rounds a couple of years ago where you see this sheep, he's in this long ditch. He's stuck in the ditch and the shepherd goes over and he is working and he pulls that sheep out of the ditch and he throws it up onto the solid ground and you watch the sheep go running and he takes about five steps and he's right Back in the ditch.

You are that sheep.

He knows what you need better than you do. Keep trusting him.

Finally, my friends rest In God's providence.

This song Provides The greatest balm to life's challenges.

I'm not sure how unbelievers make it through things in this World. I'm Not sure how you face things. Surely how they face death without the balm of this.

We have a great shepherd who sovereign sits and thrown over all things. I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds tomorrow. I don't like everything about today, but I know who determined today. And he is my shepherd

is so good. He's so very good

and you can just rest with him.

Such rests under his care.

He's active, he makes, he leads, he restores, he leads again. He's with me. He prepares, he an annoys the Lord. Our shepherd is actively tending to every one of his sheep. Rest in that. Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we do exalt you this morning as the great shepherd of the sheep,

thankful that you tend

such wayward sheep as us and oh, what a comfort it is to know your care. We continue to look to you with the eyes of faith, trusting in you all the days of our lives into eternity. Christ's name we pray. Amen.