The Song Of The Shepherd Pt. 2 Series

The Song of the Shepherd – Pt.2

Psalm 23:1b

Introduction:

Illust: The story is told of a missionary in the mountains of Turkey who gathered a group of Turkish shepherds together to read the Bible to them. It was a cold night, and as they sat around a fire, the missionary read from (John 10) about the good Shepherd, the thief, the hireling, the sheep and the door of the sheepfold.

Oh, sir, is that in the Gospel? Asked one of the shepherds in surprise. Yes, said the missionary, that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh, said the shepherd, the glow of fire lighting his eyes, I didn’t know before that the Bible was a sheep book.

Sheep, shepherds, lambs and flocks are mentioned nearly 700x’s in the Bible. The sheep is the first animal God mentions by name in the Scriptures - (Gen.4:2). From that first mention, the pages of the Bible are populated by millions of sheep.

Interesting that when God wants to describe the special relationship, He has with His people… more than any other description He uses the precious bond that a Shepherd has with his sheep.

Relationship is never more clearly illustrated than in the 23rd Psalm. Where the Psalmist David gladly proclaims, “The LORD is my shepherd!”

Our God is a Shepherd God! Good news is that those who belong to Him are His Sheep!

Ps. 100:3 – “Know ye that the LORD, he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”

In Psalm 23, David as one of the sheep in the Lord’s pasture extols and exalts what it means to be one of the LORD’s sheep.

Sheep are unique little creatures…they are unlike any other animal, wild or domesticated. A horse, cow, dog, or cat can live without its master… it can fend for itself. A sheep; on the other hand, is completely dependent upon the shepherd for its survival. A sheep needs a shepherd! You and I need the Lord!

Focus our attention on the last 4 words of (v.1) – “I shall not want.”

“Want” = to suffer need or to be abandoned; to lack – (lit) because the Lord is my shepherd; I shall not lack anything!

TS: I shall not lack anything because of…

I. A PERSONAL SHEPHERD!

Look: v.1 – Two words: “The LORD”

“LORD” = Yahweh/ Jehovah – this is God’s personal name -- a name so sacred and holy that Jewish High Priests would only pronounce it one time a year and that was in the Temple, behind the veil in the Holy of Holies. The Jewish people considered the name too high and holy to be spoken by human lips.

Ancient Scribes before writing this sacred Name while copying the holy Scriptures would take a bath, change their clothes, take a new pen and ink well and write that blessed Name. Afterward they would destroy that pen because after writing the name Yahweh or Jehovah there was no other word or name worthy enough to be written with that pen.

Our Shepherd’s name is a High name; It’s a Holy Name! Precious Name!

“LORD” = comes from a word that simply means, “I AM.” It was a name Moses learned at the burning bush… it is the name the Holy Spirit moved David to

It is a statement of being… reminds us that our God is…

A. The Self-Existent One

Cf. He is the One who has never had a beginning – and One who will never have an end. He is the One who caused but He Himself was uncaused. Ge creates but was never created. He makes but was never made. There was never a time when God was not and there will never be a time when our God is not!

Quote: The evangelist Angel Martinez described this relationship in this way: "The LORD, the One who made the world and everything that is in it, the One who

lit the taper of the sun and put the stars in their

places, that's my shepherd. The One who threw a carpet of green grass upon the earth and tacked it down with beautiful flowers; the One who scooped up the valleys and piled up the hills; the One who took the song of

the seraph and robed it in feathers and gave us the nightingale; the One who took the rainbow and wove it into a scarf and threw it about the shoulders of a

dying storm, that's my shepherd. The same One, who in the dawn opens the door of the morning and floods the world with light and beauty, that's my shepherd. At evening times He pulls down the shade of night and shoots it through with sunset fire; that's my