Summer Psalms #3 - The Shepherd Psalm
Psalm 23:1-6
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - June 10, 2009
*There are very few words in the Bible more well-known than these. Millions going through grief have found great comfort here.
*You have probably heard me say that this Psalm meant so much to me when my mother passed away 15 years ago. It was the summer of 1994, and God was merciful to us in a lot of ways. My Mom was only sick for a short while. After having some trouble swallowing, she went to the cancer doctor in mid-June. Mom was diagnosed with cancer on July 1st, and went to Emory in Atlanta for surgery on July 18th. What was supposed to be a 4 or 5 hour surgery turned into a 13 hour marathon, and my mom basically never woke up again.
*After 2 weeks in the ICU at Emory, she passed away in her sleep on Aug. 1st. One of the great blessings of that summer was the way we were treated by the people over at Emmanuel Baptist Church. They were so gracious to let me spend as much time as possible with my mom. I would drive over on Monday, and come back on Friday to be able to preach on Sunday. One couple even gave me plane tickets to save me from driving that long way. Altogether, I was in Georgia 5 weeks that summer.
*On the Friday before my mother died, I was about to drive back here. And somehow I knew that I would never see my mother again in this world. I went in to pray with her one last time, and basically I prayed the words of this Psalm: “Lord, we know that You are our Shepherd. . .”
*Up to that point there had been no response whatsoever from my mom since her surgery. But when I finished that prayer, God gave her the grace to smile at me and squeeze my hand. I have always been convinced that was a miracle from God. And 3 days later, my mother passed away peacefully in her sleep.
*What a Scripture, what a song, what a Savior, what a Shepherd! “The Lord is my Shepherd.” I am quite sure that most of us here tonight can say that.
1. And if the Lord is my Shepherd, He provides for me.
*In vs. 1-3, the Good Shepherd provides for my every need.
(1) First, He provides an eternal relationship with God. David said, “The Lord is MY Shepherd.” I belong to Him, and He belongs to me, -- that’s a relationship. David didn’t just know about the Lord. He knew the Lord in a personal way. And that’s what Jesus Christ wants for all of us today. By turning to Jesus and trusting in Him, by receiving Him as our personal Lord and Savior, we get a relationship that will last forever. We get the best relationship we can ever have, a relationship with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
(2) But the Good Shepherd also provides rest. In vs. 2, David said, “He makes me to lie down in green pastures.” We need more rest. James Merritt points out that Americans are working longer and sleeping less than at any other time in our history. A CNN poll said that 59% of all Americans would like to slow down and relax more, and a Harris Poll said we have 8.5 hours less leisure time than we did just ten years ago. According to other surveys, only 28% of American adults get eight hours of sleep a night. The average is about 6 ½ hours, and 1/3 get 6 hours or less. Drowsiness has become a major problem in this country. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that drowsiness causes 38,000 deaths a year, and is directly related to over 100,000 motor vehicle crashes. (1)
*We need physical and emotional rest. Most of all, we need spiritual rest, and the Lord will give you rest. Jesus said, “Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matt 11:28)
(3) The Good Shepherd also provides refreshment. In vs. 2, the Good Shepherd “leads me beside the still waters.” Have you ever been thirsty? Maybe a little, but real thirst is dangerous. It makes us desperate. It is deadly. But the Good Shepherd leads me beside refreshing waters.
(4) In vs. 3, He also provides restoration. David said, “He restores my soul.” The word picture in the original language is very strong. It means, “He brings me back from the point of death. He causes my life to return.” The Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ will restore your soul.
(5) But He also provides righteousness to His sheep. In vs. 3, David said: “He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” There is no way we can be righteous on our own. None of us is good enough to get to Heaven on our own. But the Good Shepherd loves us anyway, and He gave His life for us. Jesus Christ died on the Cross for our sins and rose again from the dead to give eternal life to all who trust in Him. So 2 Cor 5:21 tells us that God the Father made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. It’s not our righteousness that takes us to Heaven. It’s His righteousness. It’s not our goodness. It’s His amazing grace.
*When Jesus Christ is my Shepherd, He provides all these things for me!
2. And He pilots me.
*He pilots me. He leads me in the right direction. In vs. 2, “He leads me beside the still waters.” And in vs. 3, “He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”
*It makes a difference who your leader is! When we were kids going on summer vacation, I don’t ever remember my dad getting lost. -- But Eric Ritz writes:
When I was a young boy, our family always vacationed together. It was my mother and father and five kids in an old Ford Falcon station wagon. I was always so thankful that my mother sat in the front seat with a map, because my Dad couldn’t get out of a parking lot without getting lost.
*My Dad didn’t have a good sense of north, south, east or west. I was always thankful for those highway signs which would say "Route 80 West" or "Parkway North" to assure my Dad we were going the right way. I only wish they could have been 100 yards apart.”
*Eric Ritz added: “In the state of Texas, there is a place where you have the choice of taking five different roads in a matter of moments. A sign cautions motorists to choose carefully. That place in Texas represents life. We have so many roads to travel, so many groups and organizations wanting our love and loyalty. We need more guidance and shepherding than we have ever needed in our spiritual pilgrimage. (2)
*Isaiah 53:6 tells us that all of us are like sheep who “have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way.” William Barclay tells us that sheep have a very poor sense of direction, and extremely poor eyesight. They get lost very easily. Thank God Isaiah 53:6 says in full: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” The Good shepherd paid the price for our crooked ways. And because He is risen from the dead, He can lead us in the right ways.
*When Joseph Gilmore was just out of seminary, he filled in a couple of weeks at FBC in Philadelphia, PA. And he gave this testimony:
*At the mid-week service, on the 26th of March, 1862, I set out to give the people an exposition of the 23rd Psalm, which I had given before on three or four occasions. But this time I did not get further than the words “He Leadeth Me.” Those words took hold of me as they had never done before, and I saw them in a significance and wondrous beauty of which I had never dreamed.
*It was the darkest hour of the Civil War. I did not refer to that fact, that is, I don’t think I did, but it may subconsciously have led me to realize that God’s leadership is the one significant fact in human experience, that it makes no difference how we are led, or whither we are led, so long as we are sure God is leading us.
*At the close of the meeting a few of us in the parlor of my host, good Deacon Wattson, kept on talking about the thought I had emphasized; Then and there, on a blank page of the brief from which I had intended to speak, I penciled the hymn, talking and writing at the same time, then handed it to my wife and thought no more about it.
*She sent it to The Watchman and Reflector, a paper published in Boston. I did not know until 1865 that my hymn had been set to music by William B. Bradbury. I went to Rochester (NY) to preach as a candidate before the Second Baptist Church. Going into their chapel on arrival in the city, I picked up a hymnal to see what they were singing, and opened it (to) my own hymn:
He leadeth me, O blessèd thought!
O words with heav’nly comfort fraught!
Whate’er I do, where’er I be
Still ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me.
He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
By His own hand He leadeth me;
His faithful follower I would be,
For by His hand He leadeth me. (3)
*God led Joseph Gilmore in a marvelous way. And He will surely lead you. When Jesus Christ is my Shepherd, He pilots me.
3. And He hears my prayers.
*Up to this point, David has been giving His testimony about the Good Shepherd:
1. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.
3. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.
*David has been introducing us to His shepherd, and that’s a great thing to do. It’s something that all of us as believers should be doing, because when Jesus is our Shepherd, we’ve got something to sing about! We’ve got something to share! But down in vs. 4-5 there is a change. David has stopped talking about the Shepherd. Now he is talking to the Good Shepherd:
4. Yea, 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 runs over.
*Here is some wonderful news: The same God who listened to David is surely willing to listen to you. He hears our prayers.
*Steve Malone gives this great definition of prayer.
-Prayer is coming into the presence of God.
-Prayer is taking our concerns to the one who cares for me.
-Prayer is communicating with the creator of the world.
-Prayer is a child talking to His Father.
-Prayer is bringing our hurts to the Father of Compassion and the God of all comfort.
-Prayer is reaching out to our Redeemer.
-Prayer is calling out to the only one who can save us.
-Prayer is touching the one who loves us with an unfailing & unquenchable love.
-Prayer is bringing our questions to the one who has the answers.
-Prayer is reaching out to the NEVER; tired, confused, afraid or taken by surprise God.
-Prayer is connecting our lives with the all-knowing, all-present and all-powerful KING of kings. (4)
*When Jesus Christ is my Shepherd, He hears my prayers.
4. And He protects me.
*In vs. 4, “Yea, 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.” Sheep need protection. John Phillips reminds us that sheep have no natural defenses against predators. Sheep are not strong like a lion, swift like a deer or smart like a dog. Sheep need protection, and so do we. (5)
*No one can protect us like David’s Shepherd. He protects us with His presence. David said, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me.” Christian, the same thing is true for you right now. Right now you can say, “Lord God, You are with me.”
*Jesus protects us with His presence, and that gives me courage! “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me.” Thinking about that shadow of death Charles Spurgeon said: “Nobody should be afraid of a shadow, for a shadow cannot stop a man’s pathway even for a moment. The shadow of a dog cannot bite; the shadow of a sword cannot kill; the shadow of death cannot destroy us. Let us not, therefore, be afraid. (6)
*The Shepherd protects us with His presence and with His power. David said, “Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” The rod was a weapon that could be swung or thrown at predators with deadly accuracy. The staff had a crook which could be used to guide the sheep and pull them away from dangerous places. Our Good Shepherd has unlimited power, and infinitely better tools to protect us. And His power gives us comfort: “Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me” -- Because I know You are more than able to protect me!
*When Jesus Christ is my Shepherd, He protects me.
5. And He prepares for me.
*In vs. 5-6:
5. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.
6. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.
*Here is a wonderful truth: God prepares for my future by forgiving my past! Last week we looked at Psalm 22, the Psalm of the cross. And I like what Spurgeon said about Psalm 23 coming after the Psalm of the cross:
-“There are no green pastures, no still waters on the other side of the 22nd Psalm. It is only after we have read, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!” that we come to “The Lord is my Shepherd.” We must by experience know the value of the blood-shedding, before we shall be able truly to know the sweetness of the good Shepherd’s care.” (7)
*You can have full confidence in the Good Shepherd’s care. David would tell you that today. And untold millions who have been blessed by the Shepherd Psalm would tell you the same thing. If the Lord is my Shepherd, He provides for me, He pilots me, He hears my prayers, He protects me, and He prepares for me. Therefore I can say with David, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.”
1. Adapted from ChristianGlobe.com sermon “A Bridge over Troubled Waters” by James Merritt - Psalm 23:2 (Sermon references: US News and World Report, 10-23-95, p.98, USA Today, and Leith Anderson in Leadership that Works, p. 71.)
2. Adapted from ChristianGlobe.com sermon “A Soul Restored” by Eric Ritz - Psalm 23:1-6
3. Adapted from http://nethymnal.org/htm/h/l/hleademe.htm
4. Adapted from SermonCentral Weekly Newsletter - April 18, 2005
5. “Exploring the Psalms” by John Phillips - p. 174
6. Charles H. Spurgeon, THE TREASURY OF DAVID Vol. 1, Psalms 1-57, (Zondervan 11th printing, 1979), pg. 355. (Found in ChristianGlobe.com sermon “A Rod And A Staff) by Eric Ritz - Psalm 23:1-6)
7. Charles H. Spurgeon, THE TREASURY OF DAVID Vol. 1, Psalms 1-57, (Zondervan 11th printing, 1979)
