Beside Still Waters
Psalm 23:2b
Introduction:
Illust: Article – “Baby Boomers – Then and Now
Then: Getting out to a new, hip joint.
Now: Getting a new hip joint.
Then: Acid Rock
Now: Acid Reflux
Then: Being called into the principle’s office.
Now: Storming into the principle’s office.
Then: Long Hair
Now: Longing for Hair
Then: Passing the driving test.
Now: Passing the vision test.
Then: Trying to look like Marlon Brando or Elizabeth Taylor
Now: Trying not to look like Marlon Brando or Elizabeth Taylor
Then: Worrying about no one coming to your party.
Now: Worrying about no one coming to your funeral.
We live in a world that is anything but satisfied. In our consumer driven society… people are on a fervent yet elusive quest for that which will make them happy… we are a generation always after something bigger, faster, thinner and nicer.
Generation = dubbed with an “unhappiness epidemic.”
Quote: Dennis Wholey, author of “Are You Happy,” reported that from his studies he found that perhaps only 20% of Americans would call themselves happy.
Times I speak to people in public and ask them how they are. Often, I get the reply – “living the dream.” Yet if I sat down and talked them… their dream is a façade, a mirage… some elusive fantasy they are searching for… inwardly broken, empty, and unsatisfied. Anything but happy.
Dr. Michael Smith said, “Western men are richer, healthier, and better educated than ever before. And yet-as we nibble our ‘happy meals’ or sup our ‘happy hour’ drinks – happiness itself seems hard to find.”
Quote: Article in Christianity Today by David G. Meyers entitle, “Wanting More in an Age of Plenty,” wrote, “Our wallets are fat, but our souls are empty.” He went on to write, “The Paradox of our time in history is that we spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy it less.”
The pursuit of peace, satisfaction and happiness apart from God is a futile endeavor. Someone described it like chasing a greased pig. The moment we think we have it in our hands, it slips away!
Lord Jesus = described it terms of a sheep having no shepherd!
Glad we have a Shepherd who knows that we have need of these things… He is the answer to our needs. Source of our peace, satisfaction, happiness.
Psalm 23 = described as a Psalm for Today!
Psalm. 23:1 – “The LORD is my Shepherd…”
“He and Me” = speaks of the faithful leading and tender care of my Shepherd. He knows my needs and promised to care for them.
o Green Pastures = restful life.
o Still Waters = a peaceful, satisfied, happy life.
When we think of this verse our minds are filled with images of vast, lush, green meadows with a slow, moving, meandering stream or brook. That wasn’t what was in David’s mind when penned these precious words.
David shepherded his sheep in the Judean wilderness… arid, dry, rocky, barren land… grass and water was scarce. But the good shepherds knew where and how to abundantly provide food and water sources for their sheep.
Sheep = are terribly afraid from any type of running water. Think about it… they have spindly little legs that give them little or no capability for swimming and they are covered from nose to rump in a wool overcoat that would absorb water like sponge… easily drown.
Yet in order for sheep to lay down they must be properly hydrated… Sheep are made up of 70% water… every cell of sheep’s body has to have water… proper hydration is necessary for digestion, metabolism, and health of sheep.
Picture: Shepherd leading his sheep beside or up to still quiet pools of water at other times they led to wells where the shepherd draws the water and pours it into a cistern for the sheep to drink. In each case water provided for them by their shepherd.
Water is vital to the physical life of a sheep. And what is true of a sheep spiritually is true of each of us spiritually. Our souls are thirsty and in need of the spiritual water only our Shepherd can provide!
Our Great Shepherds leads us beside the still waters of…
I. HIS SALVATION!
Isaiah 12:3 – “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.”
John 4 – Lord Jesus met a thirsty woman of Samaria in the middle of the day at the well of Sychar. She was broken, empty, searching… gone from man to man to man… seeking that which would satisfy the inner thirst of her soul.
As she came up to the well to draw water…
v.7 – “Jesus said unto her, Give me to drink.”
v.9 – how is that thou being a Jew askest drink of me, a woman of Samaria. Do you not know who and what I am. Jews don’t have any dealings with the Samaritans (outcast people)… if you know who I was you wouldn’t have anything to do with me.
v.10 – Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.”
v.13 – “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.” = water in the well; also wells she had been drinking from.
v.14 – “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
v.15 – “The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.”
Woman exchanged her water pot for a well! Drank deep of the water of life… well of salvation… forever quenched the thirst of her soul!
Good news: You can drink from that well too!
John 7:37 – “If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink.”
Does that mean that I will never be thirsty again; no, it means that I will never have to go anywhere else to satisfy the thirst of my soul… I have a well that will never run dry.
Reason our world is so thirsty, so empty, broken and dissatisfied… drinking from the wrong wells.
Jeremiah 2:13 – “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”
Wells that can never truly satisfy… have to drink again and again and again!
When a person comes to the Fount of Living Waters and drinks from the well of His salvation… never again have to drink out of the muddy, polluted, wells that this world has to offer. Wells that can never truly satisfy the thirst of the soul.
II. HIS SPIRIT!
Look: John 7:37-39
When you drink for the well of salvation… you become a well. There is within the heart of every child of God an artesian well… a water source so to speak that fills our lives to overflowing and then spills over into the lives of others.
v.39 – “the presence of the sweet Spirit of God who permanently lives within the heart of every child of God.”
Phil. 1:19 – “the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.”
We drink of the Spirit so to speak when we in obedience to our Shepherd… yield our lives to the Holy Spirit’s control.
Eph. 5:18 – “Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. = satisfied Christian is a Spirit-filled Christian.
Do you realize that the Holy Spirit is to you everything that you need:
Look: Gal. 5:22,23
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance…”
Christian you can’t drink of the Spirit and then drink from the dirty wells of this world at the same time! He can’t fill you with His presence, peace and satisfaction if you are wallowing in the wells this world has to offer!!!
You sheep don’t always follow the shepherd… times they will stray and stubbornly drink from muddy, polluted puddles of water rather than the clean, still waters provided by their shepherd.
Not long… sheep are bloated with parasites and they become sick, leaving them restless, dissatisfied, and empty!
Times when we feel empty, dissatisfied, sick spiritually… evidence we have strayed from the Shepherd… drinking from the wrong wells. Strayed from the Shepherd’s care!
Need to be restored! At those times our loving shepherd restores our souls… forgives us of our sin and failure, brings cleansing and again leads us to His still waters!
III. HIS SUFFICIENCY!
Lamentations 3:22,23 – “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”
“New every morning” = speaks of the heavy morning dew that drenches the grass with its freshness.
Much of the sheep’s thirst is quenched as they feast on the dew drenched grass provided by the shepherd.
Times we as the Lord’s sheep go through rough patches in life… feel like don’t have the strength to go on… not going to make it.
Christian: I have good news for you this morning. As one of the Lord’s sheep… you are going to make it!
Look to the Shepherd! Follow the Shepherd! Call on the Shepherd!!!
Heb. 4:16 – “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
Glad in those times when life seems hard, empty, barren, restless and dissatisfying… we can wade out into the rich green pastures that drenched with the dew of heaven… speak sweet peace to our soul!
We can go time and time again to the well that never runs dry and find a fresh supply of His mercy and His grace… giving us the strength to go on!!!
Quote: “The wells of this world will all eventually run dry but this well, God’s well will never run dry!!!
Conclusion:
Last words of the Bible echo the call of our Great Shepherd…
Rev. 22:17 – “And the Spirit and bride say, “Come. And let him that hearth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
