PSA 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
PSA 23:2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.
PSA 23:3 He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake.
PSA 23:4 ¶ Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
PSA 23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.
PSA 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Do more beloved words exist in the English language? Memorized by children and clung to by the dying. In these lines sinners find hope, saints find an anchor and the struggling find a friend and I look forward to mining the treasures of it with you in the next 2 weeks. But before we do….. Allow me to read to you some actual police reports I found on the internet. You’ll understand the significance of these in a couple of minutes. Our first 2 accounts take place in Arizona. A man successfully broke into a bank's basement through a street-level window, cutting himself up pretty badly in the process. He then realized that he had 3 very distinct problems. (1) he could not get to the money from where he was,(2) he could not climb back out the window through which he had entered, and (3) he was bleeding pretty badly. So he located a phone and dialed "911" for help ... After medical treatment he was promptly arrested. A company called "Guns For Hire" stages gunfights for Western movies, One day, they received a call from a 47-year- old woman, who wanted to know how much it would cost to knock off her husband. She got 4-1/2 years in jail. Lets move to Redondo Beach, California - After a short chase, officer Joseph Fonteno charged the driver of a white Mazda with a DUI. The car had been driving down Pacific Coast Highway with the upper half of a traffic light pole laying across its hood. When Fonteno asked the drunk driver about the pole, he responded: "It came with the car when I bought it."
Michigan: Drug possession defendant Christopher Jansen, on trial in March in Pontiac, Michigan, said he had been searched without a warrant. The prosecutor said the officer didn't need a warrant because a "bulge" in Christopher's jacket could have been a gun. Nonsense, said Christopher, who happened to be wearing the same jacket that day in court. He promptly removed the jacket and handed it over to the judge for inspection. It turns out that the bulge that the judge discovered wasn’t a gun after all but a large packet of cocaine that Mr. Jansen forgot to remove. This caused the judge to laugh so hard that he required a five-minute recess to compose himself. Still in Michigan, A pair of robbers entered a record shop nervously waving revolvers. The first one shouted, "Nobody moves or I shoot!" When his partner moved, the startled first bandit shot him. Lets move to Arkansas, it seems this guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that he'd just throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his head at the window. The cinder block bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the head, knocking him unconscious. He later discovered that the liquor store window was made of Plexi-Glass and the whole event was caught on videotape.
I saved the best one for last. Seattle Washington. When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a Seattle street, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find a very ill man curled up next to the motor home. A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline but apparently plugged his hose into the motor home's sewage tank by mistake. Did I mention he tried to siphon it? The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges, saying it was the best laugh he'd ever had in his whole life. Man, talk about stupid!
Can anyone be dumber than those guys? Maybe we better withhold our judgement until next week. Lets look at verse 1 together.
PSA 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd,
I must be honest with you. All that I know about farming and the habits of livestock, I’ve gathered from watching reruns of Green Acres. So, most of the facts I will give you, I got from a book by a real shepherd named Phillip Keller in his book, a shepherd looks at the 23rd psalm. However, David, the author of this psalm was himself a shepherd and the son of a shepherd and was later to be known as the shepherd king of Israel. So when he writes to us it is from the unique position of being able to identify both as a shepherd and a sheep.
When you look at the countries of the world and the emblems that they use to represent them, all of them take emblems that show they are fierce & courageous. There’s the screaming Eagle of the United States, there’s the Lion of Great Britain, or the bear of the Soviet Union. No country uses the sheep as their national symbol. When God wanted to compare us to the animal kingdom, He didn’t use the eagle, majestic, swift and beautiful? He didn’t pick the lion, strong, fearless and terrifying. He didn’t use the fox, cunning and intelligent. No, God in His omniscience picked the Gomer Pyle of the animal kingdom and compared us to sheep, who are known primarily for their stupidity! I used to think it was a compliment to be compared to a sheep. I mean you look at sheep grazing in the field and they look so cute and exude an air of peacefulness. It wasn’t until years later that I realized that if sheep were cutlery, lets just say that they wouldn’t be the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Most of us find comfort in the metaphor of God as Shepherd. However, now that you understand the unflattering symbolism of people as sheep; we may protest and become rather indignant—we’re not dumb and blind like sheep, are we? We don’t easily fall astray or get lost very easy, do we? No one is able to fool, trick or deceive us by “pulling the wool over our eyes,” are they? Sorry, I couldn’t resist that last bit about the wool. So before we go any further, I feel we need to spend some time getting to know just what sheep are like and when we are done, I believe you will be much more thankful that we have a good shepherd. Psalms 22, 23, and 24 are often called the Shepherd Psalm Trilogy. Psalm 22 tells of the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the flock and is a summary of what He did. JOH 10:11 ¶ "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. It tells us what He did.
It begins with the Lord's first words from the cross and ends with His last. Psalm 23 portrays the Great Shepherd, Who protects His flock. HEB 13:20 Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, It's what He's doing right now. It begins with our pledge of allegiance to Him and ends with the rapture. Psalm 24 describes the Chief Shepherd, Who rewards His flock. 1PE 5:4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. It explains what He's going to do. It begins with the God of Jacob establishing His ownership of Planet Earth and ends with the Messiah in Jerusalem. So in psalm 22 you have the past, psalm 23 speaks of the present and psalm 24 the future. The first is the psalm of the cross, the second is the psalm of the crook, not crook in the televangelist sense but crook as in that candy cane looking staff. and the third is the psalm of the crown. We see Him dying in psalm 22, we see him living in psalm 23 and we see Him coming in psalm 24. That is also the order of which we must know Him. In order to say the Lord is my shepherd in Psalm 23, you must know Him as savior in psalm 22 in order to meet Him as sovereign in psalm 24. Notice the second half of verse 1.
I shall not want.
In his book, I Shall Not Want, Robert Ketchum tells about a Sunday school teacher who asked her group of children if any of them could quote the entire twenty-third psalm. A little four-and-a-half-year-old girl was among those who raised their hands. A bit skeptical, the teacher asked if she could really quote the entire psalm. The little girl came to the podium, faced the class, made a little bow, and said: "The Lord is my shepherd, that’s all I want." She then bowed again and sat down. Now she may have missed a few verses but I believe that little girl understood the psalm a lot better than many so called theologians. She knew that the shepherd was the most important part of the psalm. We now switch our focus form the shepherd to the sheep. One strange aspect of sheep is that because of their makeup its almost impossible for them to lie down unless 4 conditions are met. They must be free from fear, tension, aggravations and hunger. What is significant is, it is only the diligence of the shepherd as to whether these conditions can be met. Lets consider each of these. Firstly, Because of their timidity they must be free from all fear. When one startled sheep runs in fright, all of the others will follow behind it in blind fear, not waiting to see what frightened them.
There have been instances where a squirrel jumping from a behind a bush has caused an entire flock of sheep to stampede. Actually I don’t know if sheep are cool or hip enough to stampede. Probably spazing out would be closer to their character. Secondly, They will not lie down unless they are free from flies or parasites. Only when free of these pests will they relax. Other animals lick, scrape or roll themselves in the grass to get clean, not sheep, they will carry parasites and remain filthy unless the Shepherd cleans them. Isnt that a perfect picture of unregenerate man. We will stay steeped in our sins and wallow in filth unless the shepherd cleans us up. Isaiah 64:6 says all of our righteousness is as filthy rags to God. So even those who seem to have higher morals still stand putrid and unclean before a Holy God. No one is excempt .
One particular problem sheep have is insects -- flies, mosquitoes and gnats. Sheep are especially bothered by the nose or nasal fly. These flies buzz around the sheep’s head trying to deposit eggs on the damp nose of the sheep. If they are successful, the eggs will hatch to form small worm-like larvae. They crawl up the sheep’s nose and cause a great deal of aggravation. That’s a pleasant thought before lunch today huh? So, at the beginning of fly season, shepherds will mix up an oil concoction. In Palestine, they used a mixture of olive oil, sulfur and spices. It would then be applied to the heads of the sheep. How important is the oil? Well, if it is not applied, sheep have been known to beat their heads over and over against rocks to escape the torment of the bugs. Likewise, In the Christian life there is bound to be many small irritations. There are the annoyances of petty frustrations and nagging issues. Even people have bug problems. Sometimes when undergoing irritating circumstances caused by an individual we even say, That person is bugging me or that guy is ticking me off.
This, to me is the exact picture of irritations in my own life. How easy it is for there to be a fly in the ointment of even my most lofty spiritual experience! So often it is the small, petty annoyances that ruin my days. It is the nagging distractions that become the issues that can drive us crazy. At times some tiny, tantalizing thing torments me to the point where I feel I am just beating my brains out. Its then I need the oil more than ever. Thirdly, Because of the social behavior within the flock they will not lie down unless they are free from friction with the other sheep. Another source of fear that the shepherd must contend with is that of tension, rivalry and cruel competition from within the flock itself.
In every animal society there is established an order of dominance or status within the group. In a penful of chickens it is referred to as the pecking order. With cattle its called the horning order but among sheep its named the butting order. Generally an arrogant cunning and domineering old ewe will be the boss of any bunch of sheep. It is then up to the shepherd to deal with such behavior. Now, surely David isnt suggesting that within Gods family that there will be friction among the saints of God is he? I mean we’re all family. We’re not like a bunch of dumb sheep who cant get along are we? (pause) Since its just us here we may as well be honest. If you have been a believer for more than lets say….. 2 days, you can probably identify with this part of the verse.
In any church, there is going to be some turbulence from time to time among the sheep. Actually its even worse than that. Listen to the warning of Paul in Acts 20:29 "I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; that means that if the shepherd isnt diligent in his duties, there is the possibility of wolves among us who are disguised to look like sheep. Now is not a good time to look around the room. Maybe you’ve experienced it. Maybe in your church life you’ve ran into one or 2. Oh, they look like sheep, they act like sheep, they even talk like sheep but to quote little ride riding hood, Oh my Grandma what big teeth you have. This is what Jesus was referring to in John Chapter 10.
JOH 10:9 "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
JOH 10:10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
JOH 10:11 ¶ "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
So hopefully you can see the need for a shepherd, Wolves without and sometimes imposters within. Earlier I told you that the shepherd would apply oil to the heads of the sheep because of parasites. He will also apply oil to their heads when they start butting their heads against one another so that the oil would cause their heads to glance off each other. We know that the oil is a symbol of The Holy Spirit. Listen to the words of Psalm 133:1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brothers to dwell together in unity!
PSA 133:2 It is like the precious oil upon the head, Coming down upon the beard, Even Aaron's beard, Coming down upon the edge of his robes.
In the same way that the sheep needs oil on his head because of irritations without and friction within, we too need our heads anointed with oil. But not physical oil. I mean you can pour oil on your head until you smell like the olive garden. The oil poured on our head is symbolic of allowing The Holy Spirit to control our minds. That is when and only when we will be able to deal with all the little aggravations that life sometimes brings.
and finally they will not lie down as long as they feel in need of finding food.
If sheep are left to themselves, they will continue to graze the same hills until they turn to a desert waste. They will gnaw the grass to the very ground until even the roots are damaged. Verse 2 tells us the shepherd makes them to lie down in green pastures.
Green pastures were not the natural terrain of Judea. The hills around Bethlehem where David kept his flock were not lush and green. Even to this day they are white and parched. Green pastures didn’t just happen by chance. It was the result of labor and time by the shepherd clearing rough and rocky land, of tearing out brush and roots and stumps. Of soil preparation by planting special grains. All this was the result of a good shepherd. The Lord does that today for us. He works to clear out the rock of stony unbelief. He takes time to tear out the roots of bitterness. He then sows the seed of His Word which if given a chance will produce rich crops of contentment and peace. So, to review, In order for sheep to rest, They must be free from fear, tension, aggravations and hunger. Once again, What is significant is it is only the diligence of the shepherd as to whether these conditions can be met. Look at verse 2.
PSA 23:2 He makes me lie down in green pastures;
Sometimes though even with all their needs met, some sheep still refuse to lie down. Remember when you were little, one of the worst things that could happen to you was if your parents wanted you to lie down. I never wanted to lie down. I was having big fun running through the woods throwing sticks like some pagan native. I only wanted to stop long enough to drink another glass of sugar laced Kool Aide. Yet my mom knew that if I didn’t take a nap, I would be very grouchy in the evening making life miserable for everyone including myself. Because of the 4 factors we mentioned earlier, sometimes The shepherd would have to come and apply gentle but firm pressure to the back of the make them lie down. The Lord sometimes does that to us also.
There are times in our fast paced, microwave, 30 second sound byte world that we need to lie down but are so driven we refuse to. Its at those times that the good shepherd comes along and applies pressure so we don’t burn out. How does He do that? A myriad of ways I suppose. Maybe He allows a trial to come our way or maybe He frustrates our best laid plans with some sort of setbacks. Whatever the method, He will not allow us to press on past our limits. He knows when we need rest. The last part of verse 2 says
He leads me beside quiet waters.
Sheep also need water to survive. And they will not drink from noisy, turbulent water. They will only drink from quiet still pools. They have a natural fear of fast moving water and for good reason. If a sheep should slip into a river or stream its wool would soon soak up the water and become completely saturated. Sheep are poor swimmers anyway, but the weight of the water in their wool would cause them to sink and drown. Try to imagine swimming a few laps in a full length fur coat or in the case of my wife just try to imagine owning a full length fur coat. We may as well enjoy the dream. That's why the waters must be gentle and still. When sheep are thirsty they become restless and set out in search of water to satisfy their thirst.
I was not aware that sheep can go for months on end, especially if the weather is not too hot without actually drinking as long as there is heavy dew on the grass each morning. Sheep, by habit, usually rise early before dawn to feed. I believe in the Christian life that it is more than passing significance to observe that those who are often the most serene, confident and able to cope with lifes complexities are those who rise early to feed upon God Word. It is during those quiet early hours of the morning that they are led beside the still waters and talk with Their shepherd. If not led to the good water supplies of clean, pure water, they will often end up drinking from the polluted pot holes where they pick up internal parasites and other disease germs. And in precisely the same manner Christ, our Good Shepherd, made it clear that thirsty souls of men and women can only be fully satisfied when their capacity and thirst for spiritual life is fully quenched by drawing on Himself.
The phrase “to drink” in spiritual terminology means to take in or accept or believe. That is to say, it implies that a person assimilates the very life of Christ to the point where it becomes a part of Him. We will engage in that symbolism today when we partake of communion.
All the long and complex history of earth's religions, pagan worship and human philosophy is bound up with this insatiable thirst for God. Saint Augistine summed it up well when he said, “O God, Thou hast made us for Thyself and our souls are restless, searching till they find their rest in Thee.” It amazes me the lengths people will go to try and satisfy their thirst. Do you remember in John Chapter 4 when Jesus meets the Samaritan women at the well? Jesus asks the women for a drink and the conversation goes like this. JOH 4:10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."
JOH 4:11 She said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water?
JOH 4:12 "You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?"
JOH 4:13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again;
JOH 4:14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."
The key to that story I believe is verse 13 when Jesus says everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. For that women, she was trying to quench her thirst with relationships. It really doenst matter what the quenching agent is, the results are always the same. You will thirst again. Things like pornography, greed, bitterness or pride may satisfy you thirst for awhile, but you must always go back to that well for another drink. Not only that but it begins to take more and more water to quench that thirst and you really never know true satisfaction. Notice verse 3 with me.
PSA 23:3 He restores my soul;
Look at the first part of verse 3: “He restores my soul.” The word, “restore” means to “bring back to a former or normal state, to make new.” David knew about restoration. He very well may have been thinking back to the time when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and then had Uriah murdered. We know that he stayed in this rebellion at least 9 months since the child had been born when Nathan the prophet confronted him After his repentance though, David wrote Psalm 51 and in verse 12 he pleaded, PSA 51:12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit.
Be sure that restoration is more than a theological term to David. You know we need a shepherd because from time to time we mess up. Its usually not something that we purposely do. I never wake up in the morning and say, Today I’m going to go out and do something really stupid but sometimes I do, its like a spiritual gift.
Being stubborn, creatures sheep often get into the most ridiculous and preposterous dilemmas. There is an Old English shepherd’s term called a "cast" sheep. This is a sheep that has turned over on its back and can’t get back up again. It is then said to have been cast down. Sometimes when a sheep would lie down and if the place wasn’t completely flat they would roll over and if their center of gravity shifted enough, they would end up on their backs. If it was a hot day, they could sometimes die in less than 24 hours, if it were cooler, they could maybe last a couple of days. It happens frequently. And when it happens, all the sheep can do is lie on its back, with its feet flaying frantically in the air. Sometimes it will bleat, but usually it will just kick. Many times a shepherd will search for hours for a single sheep, only to find it on its back, lying helpless. He will turn the sheep over on its side, rub its legs to restore circulation, then lift it to its feet. After a while the sheep will stumble and stagger, and then eventually walk steadily and surely.
Comedian Ken Davis who grew up a sheep farm tells of the time he turned the corner to see one of their sheep upside down in the feeding trough. He looked at his dad and said, Dad, shes too stupid to live. Lets kill her, it would be a mercy killing. David who knew firsthand what it means to stumble and fall probably had this in mind when he said, "He restores my soul" because that’s how our Lord treats us. We stumble and fall, and sometimes all we can do is lie on our back kicking our spiritual legs. It is then, when we realize we are powerless and call out to God that our great shepherd comes and helps us back to our feet again. Another psalmist was likely thinking of this when he wrote in Psalm 42 where he says, PSA 42:5 ¶ Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence. You see he knew that just like that sheep there would be times when his soul would be turned over and could get no footing and was then at the mercy of both the shepherd and the wolves. And when those times come and they will, we too should put our hope in The Lord knowing He will hear us and hasten to help us. And finally, the last part of verse 3.
He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake.
Sheep do not just take care of themselves as some might suppose. They require more than any class of livestock endless attention and meticulous care. If they don’t have a shepherd to guide them, they almost immediately become lost.
Sheep also have no homing instincts. A dog, horse, cat, or a bird can find its way home, but when a sheep gets lost, it’s a goner unless someone rescues it.
In the animal kingdom do you know what they call a sheep that wanders off away from the shepherd. Breakfast, lunch or dinner depending on the time of day. I mean if a sheep wanders behind a tree, its lost, and those are the smart ones. Without a shepherd to guide them, they’re without hope. Sheep have been none to wander off cliffs one after another until they were stopped or ran out of sheep
We are a lot like sheep in this way also. As humans, we prefer to map out our own courses and do things our way. "All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way." (Isaiah 53:6). Like that old Frank Sinatra song, I did it my way which I’ve always thought could be the national anthem of hell. " We need a guide who knows where He is going. There was a time when Albert Einstein was going on a train to an out-of-town engagement. The conductor stopped by to punch his ticket. The great scientist, preoccupied with his work, with great embarrassment rummaged through his coat pockets and briefcase to no avail.
He could not find his ticket. The conductor said, "We all know who you are, Dr. Einstein. I’m sure you bought a ticket. Don’t worry about it. Everything is okay." The conductor walked on down the aisle punching other tickets. Before he moved to the next car, he looked back and saw Dr. Einstein down on his hands and knees looking under his seat trying to find his ticket. He came back and gently said, "Dr. Einstein, please don’t worry about it. I know who you are." Einstein looked up and said, "I too know who I am. What I don’t know is where I’m going!"I’ll be 40 years old this year but for the first 22 years of my life I too didn’t know where I was going. I do know the direction I was heading wasn’t very promising. But I can tell you that only after I received the shepherd did my life ever find meaning and purpose. So, if this morning, if you feel disconnected and confused about life, I would offer the shepherd to you. I’ll be happy to talk with anyone after service if you’d like to know more. Next week We will look at the last 3 verses but I must warn you, the sheep don’t get any smarter.
I’d like to open this morning with a few answers that some kids gave when asked various Bible questions. Heres a sample of their responses. Adam and Eve came from an apple tree. Moses wife was Jonah of ark. Lots wife was a pillar of salt by day and a ball of fire by night. Samson slayed the philistines with the ax of the apostles. Moses went up on mount cyanide to get the 10 amendments. The 5th commandment is to humor thy father and mother and the 7th commandment is thou shall not admit adultery. Moses died before he could reach Canada and After that Joshua led the Hebrews in the battle of Geritol. Solomon had 300 wives and 700 porcupines. The men who followed Jesus were the 12 decibels and the epistles were the wives of the apostles. And finally, a Christian should only have 1 wife, this is called monotony.
it contains all of this beautiful and peaceful imagery. The gentle shepherd leading us, the sheep lying down in rich green pastures, drinking from quiet pools of clear water and restoration when we fail. But suddenly and almost abruptly, the imagery shifts by taking an ominous turn and we find ourselves walking through the valley of the shadow of death. So unlike those kids, when we ask David a Bible question such as, What do you think about dying? We should deeply consider his answer. Look at the first part of verse 4.
PSA 23:4 ¶ Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,
That is why I think the vantage point of David as a mature believer is so much more comforting. He’s not speaking from the outlook of a life of no heartache. And unfamiliar with dying. He has seen countless men die. He was a warrior, in fact the reason why God wouldn’t let him build the temple is because in Gods words, David was a man of blood. David is well aquatinted with death. Is there a more dreaded word known to man? Death, the great equalizer. I don’t know if you’ve seen the latest statistics on death but they are quite alarming. The latest poll reveals that 10 out 0f 10 people die. Saint Bernard once said, not the dog. The 13th century monk. It is a misery to be born, a pain to live, a trouble to die. And yet everyone has to formulate their answer to what happens when I die.
Actually there are 3 basic questions that everyone has to answer. It doenst matter if you are a humanist, a communist, a satanist or a Christian. They are the questions of origin, morality and destiny. Origin, Where did I come from? Morality, How do I behave now that I’m here and destiny, what happens when I die? No one is excempt from these. Even those who don’t answer them in word, answer them in behavior. Although no one likes to think about death, it is inevitable. I heard a story of 3 men who had all lost a mutual friend. Sitting in the funeral parlor, The question was asked, What do you want people to say on the day they come to view your body lying in the casket. The first guy said, I want people to say that I was a good husband and a good father. The second friend echoed, I would like people to say that I was loyal servant and faithful Christian. About a minute passed and they prompted the third guy, What do you want them to say as they look in your casket. Sheepishly the guy responded, I want them to look at me and say, Look, I think I just saw him move! That last guy probably wasn’t a believer. Why should we not fear? Look at the next phrase. for You are with me;
Notice the transition in verse 4. David no longer speaks to God as He put now makes it personal with You. This verse has been so often painted on funeral home cards and quoted at grave services. But, it is not a scripture of death or for the dying, it is about living and about God’s care and provision now. Notice that it is called the valley of the shadow of death. Its like a dark tunnel we go through only to come out on the other side. Death is only a shadow. It is a valley we pass through in order to get to the land of the living. When I read this my mind went back to 1st Kings chapter 20. The story in a nutshell is the Arameans are attacking Israel. The get routed one day and go back and their king that the reason why they lost is that The God of Israel is a God of the mountain since they believed had limited territorial powers. So they tell the king, if we can get them into the valleys, we’ll win for sure.
Listen to verse 28.1KI 20:28 Then a man of God came near and spoke to the king of Israel and said, "Thus says the Lord, 'Because the Arameans have said, "The Lord is a god of the mountains, but He is not a god of the valleys", therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord.'" The result was 100,000 Aramean foot soldiers were killed in one day. I’m glad for that. I’m glad in the symbolic sense that God isnt just a God of mountaintop experiences when things are going great. I’m thankful that He is also The God of the valleys when everything goes wrong. He is still God when you get that late phone call, that pink slip, or that doctors report and you despair even of life. That’s when I need The Lord the most I believe and I need to remember that death can only cast a shadow. Normally even the Don Knotts of the world arent scared of a shadow. I mean, The shadow of a dog never bit anyone. And speaking as a mailman If one ever tried I would still try and spray it with mace. The shadow of a gun never shot anyone and the shadow of a truck has never run over anyone. I think maybe one thing we fear is because the shadow of an object can seem much bigger than the object itself? And isnt that how death can seem? Dark and threatening, Looming large and overwhelming right behind us.
Before we go any further, there is something fundamental we need to understand about darkness, and that is this: Darkness is not the presence of something, it is the absence of something. Darkness is not a thing in itself, it has no real existence on its own. Darkness is nothing more than the absence of light. That is why you can turn on a light switch, but you can’t turn on a dark switch. You can shine a light in the darkness, but you can’t shine a dark in the lightness. Light is something; darkness is nothing but the absence of light. Now let’s talk about the light. The first thing we need to understand is that God is light. The Bible says, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). God is light and in Him is no lack or deficiency of any kind.
ALTHOUGH NOT IN THE TEXT, THE BEST WAY TO KNOW GOD WAS THERE in the valley IS BECAUSE OF THE SHADOW! GOD IS OUR LIGHT THROUGH THE PRESENCE OF HIS SON JESUS CHRIST THE SHEPHERD! So I think that means that when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, it is God Himself behind us still in absolute control even in death. Or in Davids words, I will not fear because you are with me. The last part of verse 4 says Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
Last week we established the fact that sheep are not the brightest animals in the food chain. They need almost constant supervision and need meticulous care. When Jesus looked out on the people with compassion, the Gospel writers say that He saw them "as sheep without a shepherd." That’s not a compliment, either, but a concern, because sheep are so helpless when they’re all alone. So the shepherd in those days would carry 2 items.
A rod and a staff. The rod was a young sapling that they would dig out of the ground where the trunk joins the roots. They would then shape it into a smooth rounded head and whittle it to exactly fit their hand. They would then spend hours practicing throwing it with amazing speed and accuracy for the times when the wolves would get too close. It also had another purpose. That of discipline. Now theres a word that sometimes gets a bad rap isnt really appreciated in Christian circles. Let me read you Gods take on discipline.
HEB 12:5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him;
HEB 12:6 For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives."
HEB 12:7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
HEB 12:8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
HEB 12:9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?
HEB 12:10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.
HEB 12:11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
Now my earthly Father never had a problem when it came to disciplining me. Those of you who know me well may be thinking, He wasn’t nearly diligent enough. I do recall this one time when we were camping. I had done something wrong and was about to suffer the consequences. I don’t remember what it was. Probably something involving the campfire. Later I found out I was what they call a pyromaniac. Anyway, instead of taking my medicine, I took off running full speed down this path…. I cant fully describe the horror I felt when I looked over my shoulder and saw my father running after me and gaining fast. When I saw that I couldn’t outrun him and being the genius that I am I decided to jump into some bushes and make my way through the brush. It Turns out That these bushes weren’t ordinary bushes but poison oak.
I was covered with. If I remember correctly I think my dad let that suffice as my punishment. But heres the thing. My father didn’t chase me because he hated me but because he loved me and wanted the best for my life and therefore wasn’t scared to apply the rod when needed. And I did need it because I was in the words of the old hymn Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love, We are still prone to wander from time to time arent we? That is why At least once a day the shepherd would count all of his sheep. I have to wander if that made him very sleepy. Remember the story that Jesus told about the lost sheep? He said, “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the 99 to find the one?
Well, occasionally, There were sheep like that who would run away from the flock and so time after time the shepherd goes out and finds it and puts it on his shoulders and carry it back. Then, after this has occurred again and again, the shepherd will do a rather strange thing. He’ll go out in the darkness, find the sheep and then when he gets it back home he’ll break its leg and puts that leg in a splint. The next day the sheep is helpless. It cannot walk and so the shepherd will pick it up and carry it. Sometimes that’s what God has to do for us if we continue in disobedience. But even then its motivated by His love.
Even today People sometimes will accuse Christians as leaning on Jesus as a crutch. I would reply a crutch is a good thing to have if you are crippled and sin has made us all lame. The only question is what crutch are you going to use in life? What does that mean to us? In Biblical terminology the rod speaks of authority. And in fact, the Scripture is the rod of God. They are an extension of His mind and will and intentions for us. And just like a good shepherd, God uses it both ways. Sometimes we use the Scripture is used to protect us from our enemies, the flesh, the devil and the pride of life and sometimes the same Scripture is used for our rebuke and discipline when we need it and we do need both aspects.
The other thing the shepherd would carry was his staff. It was normally a long slender stick often with a crook or hook on one end. It is smoothed, shaped and cut to fit his hand perfectly. With it he would pull any erring sheep who would begin to wander away from the flock back to Himself and he would also lean on it for support and strength. I think just as the rod is emblematic of the Word of God, so the staff is symbolic of Gods Holy Spirit.
Isnt that what The Holy Spirit does in our lives? When we begin to wander, it’s the Spirit that lives within us that pierces our heart and moves us to repent. It’s the Holy Spirit of whom we lean on for strength and support every day of our lives.
ROM 8:26 ¶ In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;
We truly need both The Scripture and The Holy Spirit as we walk through the valley. Notice verse 5 with me.
PSA 23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies
When David speaks of a table, he very well may have been thinking of the high mountain ranges known as table land or what we call the mesas which is the spanish word for table. The shepherd and his flock will be gone for weeks or perhaps months. They will stay well into the autumn until the grass is gone and the chill unbearable. David understood this annual pilgrimage since before he led Israel he led sheep. The shepherd would go on ahead of the sheep for the purpose of preparing the terrain for their grazing. Early in the season, even before all the snow has melted, the shepherd would make preliminary trips to survey the land. He will check for poisonous weeds and will either eradicate the weeds or plan his grazing program around them. Last week I alluded to the insight I’ve received from a real shepherd by the name of Phillip Keller in his book “A Shepherd looks at the 23rd psalm.”
Listen to his account regarding this. He says, “Unknown to me the first sheep ranch I owned had a rather prolific stand of both blue and white cammas. The blue cammas were a delightful sight in the spring when they bloomed along the beaches. The white cammas though a much less conspicuous flower were also quite attractive but a deadly menace to sheep. If lambs, in particular ate or even just nibbled a few of the lilly white leaves it would spell certain death. The lambs would become paralyzed, stiffen up like blocks of wood and simply succumb to the toxic poisons from the plants. He then goes on to say, My children and I spent days and days going over the ground plucking out these poisonous plants. It was a recurring task that was done every spring before the sheep went on these pastures. Though tedious and tiring with all the bending, it was a case of preparing the table in the presence of my enemies.”
How about us? Does God do that? Does He still prepare tables in the wilderness? On Wednesday nights we are going through the book of numbers. A good portion of it deals with the grumbling and murmuring of the people in the wilderness. One of the many complaints they level against God is recorded in Psalm 78:19.
It reads, Then they spoke against God; They said, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? I believe David would answer that with a definitive Yes. God prepares for me a table in the presence of my enemies. You may be thinking. I don’t really have an enemies I can think of. Maybe not physical ones, but we all have spiritual foes. Things like guilt, fear, condemnation and doubt. What do we do with those? We come to the table God has prepared. It is then during communion that we drink the wine and eat the bread and are once again assured that God is for us and longs to be gracious to us. Look what else He does, still in verse 5. You have anointed my head with oil;
We talked a little last week about the shepherd taking a concoction of oil, spice and sulfur to anoint the head of the flock. The purpose was 2 fold. To repel the bugs and to cause their heads to glance off one another when they would fight. In studying for this I learned that in our time, we now have what is known as sheep dips. Now that’s not what wolves dip their potato chips in, its not that kind of dip. It’s a big tank that they drive the sheep through and they are bathed in this medicine that gets rid of scabs, parasites and other infections. We do play a part by the way. In order to be anointed, the sheep must stand still, lower their heads and let the shepherd do His work. Isnt that what Peter exhorts us to do? To be humble under Gods mighty hand that He may lift us up at the proper time?
Maybe at this point Davids mind wanders back to that day when the prophet Samuel came to his fathers house to anoint one of his sons to be king. Where was David? 1 Samuel 16:11 tells us David was out tending the sheep. After David arrives Samuel pours the oil over his head anointing him as king. Maybe at this point in the psalm David is looking back over his life, fighting giants, running from Saul, Adultery, murder and his own sons treachery. And do you know what he can say about Gods faithfulness in his life? My cup runs over. What does that mean? My cup overflows.
Max Lucado explains the symbolism of the overflowing cup. He writes, “The overflowing cup was a powerful symbol in the days of David. Hosts in the ancient east used it to send a message to the guest. As long as the cup was kept full, the guest knew he was welcome. But when the cup sat empty, the host was hinting that the hour was late. On those occasions, however, when the host really enjoyed the company of the person, he would fill the cup to overflowing. He didn’t stop when it reached the rim. He kept pouring until the liquid ran over the edge of the cup and down on the table.
If you had lunch today with The Lord, which pouring action would He use? Please note the verb tense here. It doesn’t say my cup ran over past tense or my cup will run over in the future but my cup presently, right now runs over. In other words, we can be confident that God has accepted us and put the ring on our finger, shoes on our feet and the robe around our shoulders and even now pours into the cups of our lives until we too overflow with His goodness. Nearing the end verse 6.
PSA 23:6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,
It says goodness and mercy will follow me. Don’t think of it in the sense that far behind you somewhere goodness and mercy is lagging behind. Really a better translation would be pursue or chase. One translator rendered the word follow as hunt. Surely goodness and mercy will hunt me all the days of my life. I like that one the best. It conjures up in my mind the great hound of heaven relentlessly pursuing me in the words of Francis Thompson down the arches of the years and labyrinthine ways. And I suppose that’s one of the great advantages of knowing The Shepherd.
While those in the world spend their time chasing satisfaction through power, greed, sex and materialism, even if all their dreams are realized, they still search for meaning and true contentment. Some of them spend $500 an hour to lay on some couch and talk to a psychiatrist which by the way has as a profession has one of the highest suicide rates today. That’s one of the drawbacks of being in the rat race. Even if you do win, you’re still a rat. But To those in the sheepfold, its just the opposite, the text says goodness and mercy chase us. What the world cant obtain, we can not escape. We are hunted and consistently pursued by love.
So if The Lord tarries and one day we lie on a death bed. We will look back into that dark canyon and realize it was goodness and mercy, like 2 faithful sheep dogs, nipping at our heels and driving us home. Goodness to guide our steps and mercy to guide our stumblings. But I think there is another meaning. Sir Alfred Tennyson wrote in one of his great classic poems, "The good men do lives after them." Just as God's goodness and mercy flow to me all the days of my life so goodness and mercy should follow me, should be left behind me, as a legacy to others, wherever I may go. Sometimes its easy to forget but daily we are carving out our legacy.
The things we do the decisions we make are all brush stroke on the canvas of our life. How do you want to be remembered? Sociologist and writer Tony Campolo visited Wake Forest one year to spoke at a convocation. He told a great story about his home church, a large African-American congregation in West Philadelphia. They have a student recognition Sunday once a year in which, one by one, the student members of the congregation come up to the front and say what they are doing. They say things like. “’I’m studying engineering at MIT.’ ‘I’m studying literature at Yale.’ ‘I’m studying law at Harvard.’ Campolo then tells of the pastor’s words afterwards as he puts their dreams into perspective. He grabs the side of the podium and loudly proclaims.
Children! … Children, you’re going to die. You are going to die. You don’t think you’re going to die, but you are going to die. They’re going to drop you in a hole. They’re gonna throw dirt in your face. And then all your friends and family are going to go back to the church and eat potato salad! When you were born, you were the only one that cried; everybody else was happy. That’s not important. Here’s what’s important. When you die, will you be the only one that’s happy and everyone else will crying? That Depends on what your life is about and what your commitments are. Titles are good things to have. But if it ever comes down to a choice between a title or a testimony, - go for the testimony."
How do you want to be remembered? I don’t think anyone said it better than the apostle Paul. It’s the words I hope to be remembered by. Coming to the end of his life he tells he protégé Timothy. 2TI 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; Looking at the last part of verse 6. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Lets not forget that the Psalmist, writing from the standpoint of a sheep, is reflecting on and recounting the full round of the year's activities for the flock. He has taken us from the green pastures and still waters of the home ranch, up through the mountain passes onto the high tablelands of the summer range. Fall has come with its storms and rain and now the shepherd guides the sheep down the foothills and back to the home ranch for the long, quiet winter. In a sense this is coming home. It is a return to the fields and corrals and barns and shelters of the owner's home. During all seasons of the year, with their hazards, dangers and disturbances, it is the rancher's alertness, care and energetic management that has brought the sheep home.
When Jesus looked out on the people with compassion, the Gospel writers say that He saw them "as sheep without a shepherd." That’s not a compliment, either, but a concern, because sheep are so helpless when they’re all alone. We need to follow a shepherd, but there are many who would like to seduce us. There are so many voices speaking to us in our world today. The mass media, especially through advertising, speaks with a very influential, manipulative, seductive voice. There are indeed many fraudulent voices. I can not possibly stress enough the importance of heeding the right voice. JOH 10:14 "I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and my sheep know my voice.
I realize that I’ve been pretty hard on the sheep for the last 2 weeks. I’ve mocked their intellect, made fun of their courage and exposed their many weaknesses. Maybe I’ve portrayed the flock as a group you’re not sure you’d want to join. Speaking as a sheep of the Lords flock, I would tell you that there is one day coming when you had better make very certain that you are considered part of the sheepfold. MAT 25:31 ¶ "But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.
"All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. And in a strange twist, He then goes on to explain how both the sheep treated the shepherd instead of the shepherd caring for the sheep. "Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
And then on that day we will trade our wooly white coats for white robes. Listen to the end and the beginning of your destiny.
REV 7:13 ¶ Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, "These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?"
REV 7:14 I said to him, "My lord, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
REV 7:15 "For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them.
REV 7:16 "They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat;
REV 7:17 for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes."
I guess I would close by saying, When you have a great shepherd, being a sheep isn’t so bad after all.
