Last week we learned just how sufficient our Shepherd is in all areas of life.
2 Corinthians 3:5 “…Our sufficiency is from God.”
We learn that in verse 1: Jehovah Raha = “God my Shepherd” Did you know that there are 7 times in the Bible that Jehovah is connected to another word that makes a name for God? This is great…
• “Jehovah Raha”… Psalm 23:1
• “Jehovah Jireh”… The Lord my Provider - Geneses 22
• “Jehovah Ropha”… The Lord my Healer – Exodus 15
• “Jehovah Shalom”… The Lord my Peace – Judges 6
• “Jehovah Tsidkenu” … The Lord my Righteousness – Jeremiah 23
• “Jehovah Shamma” …The Lord Ever Present – Ezekiel 48
• “Jehovah Nissi” … The Lord My Victory – Exodus 17
But now are you ready for a blessing? In Psalm 23
• “The Lord is my Shepherd” = who is that, Jehovah Raha
• “I shall want” = Jehovah Jireh
• “He makes me to lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside the still water” = Jehovah Shalom
• “He restores my soul” = Jehovah Ropha
• “He leads me in paths of righteousness” = Jehovah Tsidkenu
• “I will fear no evil, for You are with me” = Jehovah Shamma
• “You prepare a table in the presence of my enemies” = Jehovah Nissi
No other chapter in the Bible can we find this!
Would you agree with me that life’s struggle is tough, tedious and even torturous at times? Ever feel like you are burning the candle at both ends? If you did not know – Americans are dying a slow death because of the mess of stress – it’s at an all time high here and around the world! And I don’t see stress leaving very soon from the fabric of society!
Would you also agree that when we are stressed, we have a tendency to get down on life? Shakespeare’s Macbeth reveals his philosophy of life when he said, “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard of no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Contrary to some, God rally does want us to have purpose, pleasure and peace this side of heaven, but we let stress cloud our thinking and then that moment of stress robs us of a lifetime of rest!
Let’s Look at Solutions to Stress:
1. Learn to Rest In The Presence of The Shepherd.
“He makes me to lie down”
Don’t we have a tendency to just go running pass that phrase? I’m learning more about sheep than I thought I ever could or wanted.
First, sheep usually get up around 4:00am, because they like to eat when it’s still cool outside. Second, sheep don’t digest their food if the shepherd doesn’t make them to lie down in peaceful surroundings. Sheep are fearful of lying down – for good reason!
There’s an old expression with Arab Bedouins “You can lead sheep to water, but you can’t lead them to lie down.”
Let me ask, when you were young did you like to lie down and take a nap? If you are anything like me, it was a royal battle most of the time. Have you ever had a child say, “Mom, I’m going to just go lie down right now!”
So the shepherd knows best when the sheep need to lie down!
LifePoint: Resistance to rest is a mark of immaturity both in the natural and spiritual realm.
We all struggle with this – don’t we? We get up and we have our routine and hardly even think about God for the first half of the day – and God is saying to us along the way, “You’ve got it all wrong!” God wants us to rest in the presence of the Shepherd!
Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God.”
“Still” = Cease from trying to strive without the shepherd. You can stop your restlessness when you surrender to the Good shepherd! The wars going on in your spirit, the battles going on in your mind and the fight going on in your will all cease when you surrender to the presence of the shepherd.
The stress of keeping up with the Jones is a sure mark of stupidity, the mess of keeping up with the hottest toys is a sure mark of immaturity and the pressure of keeping up with a schedule from hell is a sure mark of insanity!
We have so many in our society that if they are honest, have found that personal prosperity alone has failed to give real personal peace. We have so many today that if they are honest, have found that the power grab has failed to give real personal power.
2 more facts about sheep:
• They really don’t digest their food until they lie down. And it’s then that they regurgitate or re-chew that meal. Folks - that works for us when it comes to taking in the word of God, meditating on the truth of God and properly digesting the promises of God – this is key to a healthy life with God.
• It’s a proven fact that sheep’s wool grows the fastest and their bodies grow the strongest when they are at rest.
We are at our best, most productive when we have had our time with God – every day!
Someone wrote, “I wasted an hour one morning besides a mountain stream, I seized a cloud from the sky above and fashioned myself a dream. In the hush of the early light, far from the haunts of men, I wasted a summer morning fashioning my dream again. Wasted? Folks who say so, have never walked with God. But I have found strength for my labors; I have found joy and contentment, I have found peace and power in that one short hour. My dreaming has left me a treasure, a hope that is strong and true and from wasted hours I have rebuilt my life and found renewed faith.”
2. Learn to Rely On The Provisions of The Shepherd.
“In green pastures”
The Hebrew is, “pastures of tender grass”
Sheep don’t eat day old pizza like your dog!
Why does David mention green grass? For good reason – he knew that some grass was inferior to other grass that sheep should eat. In the Middle East grows “goats grass” and it’s as green as grass can get, but one problem – if sheep eat goats grass, it will kill sheep within 24 hours. Only a trained shepherd knows the difference.
Also sheep will only lie down if they have abundant shelter, shade and safety; if lacking, sheep are literally useless to the shepherd. A good shepherd meets those basic needs.
Remember last week a shepherd is responsible to guide, guard and give to the welfare of sheep! It’s not an easy job being a shepherd!
But God wants us to rest in the green pastures of His word and feast on His great provisions in life. You know our lips say God is #1 but our lives many times say grief and guilt are #1 – and we wonder why we are sick servants, sleepless saints and stressed out sheep of the Shepherd!!
Jeremiah 15:16 “Your words were found and I ate them, your words were to me joy and rejoicing of my heart.”
Psalm 119:103 “How sweet are Your words to my taste.”
Ezekiel 34:14, 15 “I will feed them in good pastures, and their fold shall be on the high mountains of Israel. There they shall lie down in a good fold and feed in rich pastures. I will feed My flock and I will make them lie down.”
Ephesians 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”
“Blessing” = eulogy – everyday God is speaking incredible word over us as take in His word! Thank God that He doesn’t wait for us to day to speak wonderful blessings over us!
I’ve come to one conclusion; God’s sheep do not thank their Shepherd enough for the blessings He gives us! I’ll prove it – how many of you have been blessed far more than you deserve? Do you know what you just said – if I didn’t get one more blessing the rest of my life, I’ve got no reason to complain! But you know we will be blessed unbelievably in the days ahead!
3. Learn To Be Refreshed In The Peace of The Shepherd.
“He leads me besides still water”
Literally, “He leads me besides quite waters”
The hustle and bustle of life and the pain of all the gain in life sometimes have to be exchanged with seasons of peace that’s beyond our comprehension!
Israel has really only one water source – the Jordan. And water has to be plentiful for sheep because without a lot of water sheep die. For the size of their body, sheep require lots of clean water.
Fact: Sheep’s bodies are made up of 70% water – higher than most animals. They need all that water to keep their metabolism up in order to produce all that wool. Remember I said last week that sheep have smaller brains than pigs…with all that water in them I wonder if they have water on the brain!
Sheep are so pitiful that while they will not drink from rushing water, they will drink from a mud hole filled with parasites that affect their body in making plentiful wool!
Studies show that sheep actually do have a fear of water! For good reason they have a fear of drowning! Just look at their gee gee legs! Do they look like good swimmers? Sheep have been known to drown in 2 feet of water – because they don’t float – just look at there gee gee bodies!
So a shepherd has a tough job before him. Many times in the country side a shepherd has to create a dam with rocks and sticks to make the water still enough for his sheep to drink from!
Folks, just as grass speaks of rest and His word, water speaks of His Holy Spirit!
John 7:37, 38 “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”
In Mark 9 Jesus looks out on the multitude and said, “They are like sheep without a shepherd!” God’s heart must break when people reject the blessings of His only begotten Son! When God looks down on society he doesn’t see us going to work, the mall, or the store – He sees America as sheep without a shepherd!
Like sheep we are tempted to drink from the polluted ponds of relativism, the stagnant streams of progressivism and the contaminated creeks of cultism!
Over 230 years ago, God gave America the wonderful streams of living water to quench our thirst, but now it seems that we’ve decided to drink elsewhere – from the wicked waters of alcohol, drugs, anger, greed, pride, pornography, fame and hatred! We’re like a man drinking salt water – it never quenches the thirst and it eventually kills you!
John 4:14 “Whoever drinks of the waters that I shall give, he will never thirst again.”
Let me sum it up like this: David is saying to us today – when sheep are lying down and beside a quite stream, that’s when they are the most peaceful, productive and powerful; and Jesus wants nothing less than that for each of us! Every day God wants us to feed on His word and drink in the Holy Spirit!
3 Simple Words To Overcome Stress:
• Stop. Everything at some point everyday.
• Look. In His word and receive it everyday.
• Listen. He has something to say to you everyday!
You see with these 3 simple words applied every day, while the rest of the world is without rest, you will be at your best. While most of the world is spiritually starving and spiritually thirsty, you will be satisfied, safe and strengthened the rest of your days!
