Good morning. I invite your attention to the
book of Psalms, the seventh psalm, and the seventeenth verse. God
willing, today's message is the fourth in this series on Jehovah's
names or Jesus' names, and we'll be looking at two names this
morning, Jehovah Elyon and Jehovah Roi. But first is this short
text in Psalm 7 and then we will go, God willing, to Psalm number
23. Psalm 7, 17. the psalmist writes, I will praise
Jehovah according to his righteousness. How different are the saints from people in religion. We might hear many in religion
say, I will praise myself according to my righteousness. We hear
many doing that. They may not say that they are
doing so, but we can ascertain from what they do that that is
indeed. They praise themselves according
to their righteousness. Not the psalmist. I will praise
him according to his righteousness. He says in another place, I will
speak of thy righteousness, of thine only. That is a mark of
every true child of God. The only righteousness of which
we speak is that of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Then
the psalmist says, I will sing praise to the name of the Lord
Most High. The Hebrew text is Jehovah Elyon. When he says, I will sing praise
to the name of Jehovah Most High, it is not merely to that name,
specific name, but the word name here has to do with whom and
what God is. When the police officer says,
stop in the name of the law, he's not talking about some name
by which the law is described. He's talking about the law itself,
the name of the law, is the law itself, whom and what it is. And the name of Jehovah is whom
and what he is. I will sing praise to the name
of Jehovah Elyon, Most High. Meaning that Jehovah is higher than all and
lower than none. And that is true of Jesus Christ,
is it not? We read of him, as Paul writes
in I Timothy 6.15, that he is the blessed and only potentate,
king of kings and Lord of lords. Potentate, that can be a scary
word. A potentate is usually a dreaded
thing. He is in absolute authority,
answerable to none, doing as he will. Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, potentates. I do not know of a man in this
world that I would want to be potentate. You most certainly do not want
me to be the potentate. In our form of government, we
cannot have a potentate because of supposed checks and balances. I'm so glad of that, and I do
not care who the president is. I'm glad there are checks and
balances. But there is one who has no checks
and balances. He is the Potentate. But observe the blessed Potentate. He's blessed and he's blessed
blessing and everyone under his authority is blessing him. He
is the only Potentate He's the blessed Potentate, King of kings
and Lord of lords. Now some may say the only Potentate,
that means he has to be God the Father. Yes, it is God the Father. But you're saying that this is
also Jesus Christ. Yes, Jesus Christ is the only
Potentate. Well, now you've got two Potentates.
No, we do not. Jesus himself said, I and my
Father are one. There is only one blessed potentate,
and he is God the Father and God the Son, the one God. He is here said to be King of
kings and Lord of lords. Therefore, we know that this
is Jesus Christ. Twice in the revelation of Jesus
Christ, the last book in the Holy Scriptures, He is said to
be King of kings and Lord of lords. Of all the kings on this
earth, He is their King. Of all the lords on this earth,
He is their Lord. But interestingly, if you look
at that word, Lord of lords, in Deuteronomy 10, 17, you'll
find that The Lord of Lords, who is the King of Kings, is
also the God of Gods. All Kings are answerable to Jesus
Christ. All Lords are answerable to Jesus
Christ, the Lord of Lords. And all Gods, if they existed,
would be answerable to Him, for He is the God of Gods. This is
Jesus Christ, Jehovah Elyon. Higher than all, lower than none. Now we come
to the 23rd psalm. We're going to look at a second
name this morning, Jehovah-Roi, the Lord, my shepherd. Psalm
23. You probably have memorized this
psalm. It is perhaps among the most quoted and memorized
passages in all the Holy Scriptures. The Lord is my shepherd. Now
notice that in that first verse, the word is, is italicized, meaning
that It was added by the translators. The verse simply reads, Jehovah
Elroi, the Lord my shepherd. Now this says something about
him. He is my shepherd. But it says also something about
me. If he is my shepherd, then I
am one of his sheep. Sheep. Now what do we know about
sheep? They are meek, mild, not at all ferocious. Men have been attacked by bears,
lions, wolves, even birds have been known to terrorize neighborhoods. something as small as bees, wasps,
and hornets. And I've seen some damage done
by fire ants. But no one ever bruised and battered
ever said I was attacked by a flock of sheep. Never happened. Never happened. On the other hand, Sheep must be protected. They cannot take care of themselves.
And really, they're not really intelligent and bright. And yes,
that's what we are. You can train an elephant to
do tricks in the circus. And in the circus, you'll find
bears doing tricks. You'll find lions doing tricks. You'll find all kinds of animals
in the circus doing tricks, but you never saw a sheep in a circus. You cannot teach it to do anything. That's about a pretty good description
of us, despite what we might think of ourselves. Sheep, you
better be glad you have a shepherd ye who are the Lord's sheep or
we would be in a very sad shape. Jehovah is my shepherd. Jesus
Christ undoubtedly would quote this verse during the days of
his incarnation and now we his sheep quoted and speak of him
as he spoke of his father Jehovah is my shepherd and there is one
great consequence about that, I shall not want, I shall not
lack anything that I need. But it is interesting to note
that throughout the Holy Scriptures and in the prophets, the prophet
Isaiah in particular, it's interesting to note that sometimes Jehovah
says, I am coming as the shepherd. And sometimes he says, I am sending
Jehovah to be the shepherd. And Jehovah said what he meant
and meant what he said. Let's consider a couple of these
texts, if you will. Jehovah is my shepherd. What
do we find? Jesus is the good shepherd according
to John 10 verses 11 through 18. I am the good shepherd, he
said. That word good means ideal, perfectly
adapted and suited for its need. Jesus is the ideal shepherd,
he says. He knows all his sheep and is
known by them. He knows them all. interesting that I am a shepherd. That's what the word pastor means. In fact, shepherd is a better
translation of the term than is pastor. We use the term pastor,
but the word pastor is better cited as shepherd. Now, I know every one of you,
particularly those who are sheep among the flock here, and you
know me, we have become very well acquainted. That's a good relationship when
a shepherd knows the sheep over whom the Lord has given him charge.
And it's good when they know the shepherd. I conversed some
years ago with a man who is a member of a mega church, a few thousand
members. membership is so large they cannot
meet in one building. So they have one large church
building and then they have campuses around the city and in other
places. The man's been a member of this
church for some years, never met his pastor. Never met him. Pastor never met him. Knows nothing
about him. And I'm thinking, you know what?
You really cannot say you have a shepherd. Not in the scriptural
sense of the term. Jesus the shepherd says, I know
my sheep and they know me. And I can say, I know you and
you know me. How sad it is that some people
claim to have a shepherd who does not know them and they do
not know him. They just sit in a room and watch
him preach. How sad. How sad. And the good shepherd gives his
life for the sheep. Now that's a blessed thought.
He gives his life for the sheep. And you see that word for the
sheep? It's a very important word. It denotes substitution. I give my life in exchange for
the life of my sheep. He dies so that we may live. Furthermore, He is that great
shepherd of the sheep. In Hebrews 13 verse 20. The great shepherd of the sheep.
This is one of my favorite texts. That great shepherd of the sheep.
He is so great that God through Jesus' blood will make you complete
in every good work to do His will. God does not do that through
any other shepherd. He is the chief shepherd, 1 Peter
5 verses 1 through 4, meaning that he is the shepherd over
the under shepherds. I am a shepherd here, but I have
a shepherd too. And he is the chief shepherd.
We therefore do not recognize the authority of any other chief
shepherd on this earth. There's one in Rome, claiming
to be the shepherd over all the Lord's church on earth, and we
do not recognize his authority. The chief shepherd with us is
none but our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And then we read
in 1 Peter 2, verse 25, that he is the shepherd and bishop, overseer
of your souls. the shepherd of your souls. I
am a shepherd over your spiritual needs, but not over your souls.
I have no control over your souls, but there is one who does. He
is the shepherd and the bishop of your souls. Paul the Apostle
says, therefore, take heed to yourselves, speaking to the Lord's
ministers. And to all the flock among which
the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church
of God, which he purchased with his own blood. Now, note in this, in reality, there is not a flock
of the Lord's sheep in Great Falls, because our Lord has only
one flock. Now a portion of his flock are
here, and a portion of them are meeting this morning in Lexington,
Kentucky. And they have another shepherd,
our friend Todd Norbert, down in Apopka, Florida. There is
a portion of the Lord's one flock meeting there, and they have
another shepherd, our dear friend Greg Yelmquist. And across the
world this morning in various places, Paul says, the Lord has
put you among His flock in various places. Some of them here in
Great Falls are put under my care, but we're not just one
of many flocks. There's only one flock and one
foal. Paul says, you're going to give
an account to the Lord one of these days for the way that you
took care of His sheep. But I am not the bishop and the
shepherd of your souls. Only Jesus Christ is. I can feed
you, but he can nourish your soul. He can save your soul. He can restore your soul. None
but he can do that. Jesus fulfilled the prophecy
of Isaiah 40, verses 9 through 11, in which we read, O Zion,
You who bring good tidings, get up into the high mountains. O
Jerusalem, you who bring good tidings, lift up your voice with
strength. Lift it up and be not afraid,
and say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God. Now what a remarkable
statement is that. If you are told to behold God,
that means He can be seen. But wait a minute, Preacher,
did not the Scripture say no man ever saw God at any time?
That's true. Does not the Scripture say God is spirit, incorporeal, invisible,
incapable of being seen? That is true. Then how can you
say he has been seen? Behold your God! That means he
can be seen. How can you see him? When one of the apostles of our
Lord said, show us the Father, that would suffice, show us the
Father, Jesus said, I've been among you all this time and you're
still asking that question? If you have seen me, you have
seen the Father. If you have seen Jesus Christ,
even with the eye of faith, you have seen God. Behold your God! And one of these days, that eastern sky is going to
open up The heavens will be unfolded and here he'll
come. Here he'll come. He came the
first time as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. But
oh, when he comes back the second time on that white horse and
the hosts of heaven with him, King of kings and Lord of lords,
and coming as the shepherd to gather his sheep one last time,
to gather them all. And what will we say? Behold
your God, my God, he's coming, behold your God. What do we read
of him? He will feed his flock like a
shepherd. Notice, notice, Jehovah is coming. And he will feed his flock like
a shepherd. He will gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom and gently lead those who
are with Yod. He did that the first time he
came, did he not? Gathered the little ones, carried
them in his bosom. What a tender shepherd is this.
Every one of us, when we were little lambs, and He would lead
us, and we could not keep up, He'd pick us up and carry us
in His bosom. But in the other prophecies,
and there are others, and I will not read them out this morning,
they're too lengthy, Ezekiel 34, verses 11 through 16, Zechariah
13, verse 7, And in some of these, as I said,
Jehovah says, I am coming as the shepherd. And another time
he says, Jehovah is sending Jehovah to be the shepherd. But I want
us to go right now to the 23rd Psalm. Let's see this description
of Jehovah-Roe, the Lord, my shepherd, I shall not walk I'm going to read the psalm to
you and then briefly give some descriptions that are given unto
us in it. The Lord is my shepherd. The
consequence of that is I shall not want. And here the psalmist
will describe what it is that I shall not like. He maketh me
to lie down in green pastures. I want you to observe here the
direction of the declarations. It is as though this sheep is
talking to another sheep. Let's put the
other sheep in quotation marks. over yonder, and the sheep is
here having a sheep to sheep conversation about the Good Shepherd. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. Where does your shepherd have
you to lie down? He leadeth me beside the still
waters. Where does your shepherd lead
you? He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for his name's sake. Now watch something important
that will happen right here. The sheep who is singing this
hymn has been having a conversation with someone else But now, the
eyes are cast upward, and the rest of the soul is directed
toward the shepherd. The sheep, in these first three
verses, described the shepherd to sheep, and now the sheep looks
to the shepherd and confesses what the shepherd is to the sheep,
saying this. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou
art with me. Now do you see this? The sheep
is talking to the shepherd. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil,
my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the
house of Jehovah forever. Now let's look at this. Since
Jehovah Jesus is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing that I need,
and I will here enumerate what my needs are and how he takes
care of them. Let's consider these one by one. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. Notice, pastures, there are many
of them. They're green, lush, beautiful and bountiful. The shepherd does not lead his
sheep in places where they have to go look for a clump of grass
over here, another clump of grass over yonder. No, no, no. It's
pastures that are verdant and full with grass. The grass is
so bountiful that the sheep do not walk around
to feed. They lie down. They lie down. and just graze upon the bountiful
grass that is all around them. He makes me to lie down in green
pastures, pastures that are lush and green. I shall not lack food. My shepherd will see that all
my needs of food shall be satisfied. Then he leads me beside the still
waters, waters plural, and they're still. What do you know about
still waters? They run deep. They run deep. The rivers of grace are deep. They're still waters, furthermore,
in the sense that, and so I am told, sheep will not drink water
that is rippling. You can take them to a water
trough, I have read, And there's plenty of water there for them.
And if you sit there and just keep kicking that water trough
so that the ripples keep flowing, they won't drink it. They want
still waters. My shepherd leads me beside still
waters, a water here and a water there and a water over yonder.
And they're deep because the river of God is fathomless. He leads me beside the still
waters. Then he does something else.
He meets my need of restoration because he restores my soul. How often has he done that? He
restores my soul. How many of us have watched a loved one die? been there, and our hearts have been overcome
with grief, and when there was none who could
comfort us, He did. He did. How many of us, when
wounded in the battle for the faith in the fiery darts of Satan,
have done some wound unto us and He has restored us. I may
speak comforting words to you and you may speak comforting
words to me, but we're going to depend upon Him to restore
us. How many times when we have backslidden,
we've done this and that that we should not have had, Instead of punishing us, and
bear this in mind, the Lord never punishes His children. I repeat,
the Lord never punishes His children. All their punishment was suffered
by Jesus Christ. He chastens us, He chastises
us, and when He does, He restores us. He does not send us away. He restores my soul. That's my
shepherd. And he does it like a shepherd,
tenderly, softly, kindly. He meets my need for guidance
throughout my life. He leads me in the paths of righteousness. Notice, he does not drive me.
Goats are driven. Sheep are led. He leads me in
paths of righteousness. He never leads me into an unrighteous
way. And His righteousness knows many
paths, a path here and a path there. He leads me in paths of
righteousness for His name's sake. He does it so that I will
speak highly and kindly of Him. He does it so that we may speak
of Him to others and say, look where He led me. He has not dishonored
His name, and I will not dishonor His name. When I was a young
lad, my father pastored a church in the mountains of West Virginia,
a small town. Everybody knew my father. He
was the pastor. one of the pastors in the town,
and everybody knew me, and everybody knew that he was my father. We
had a G.C. Murphy store in that little town,
Rainiell, West Virginia, and on Saturday night, my father
would go into town to buy the groceries, and six of us children, at least a couple of the older
ones, I'm the firstborn, got turned loose in G.C. Murphy, maybe a quarter. And, you know, spend whatever,
buy whatever you could for the quarter. But I can recall my
father giving the quarter to me and letting me loose in the
G.C. Murphy store and then saying,
remember whose son you are. And I knew exactly what he meant,
because I'm going to be on my own behavior. I'm going to be
in that store where everybody knows him and everybody knows
me, and my behavior reflects upon him, and I better not bring
any dishonor to his name. Jesus, my shepherd, leads me
in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. And God forbid
that I should ever dishonor my shepherd with misbehavior when
he's leading me in a path of righteousness. He leads me in
paths of righteousness for his name's sake. And then, yea, though
I walk through the bough in the shadow of death, he's going to
give to me deliverance in death. He's going to lead me all the
way through my life, and then at the very end, He's going to
give me deliverance in death. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou
art with me. Now consider this. Here's a valley. You cannot ascend
the hill of Zion until first you descend the valley of the
shadow of death. You're not going to heaven until,
first of all, you go to Sheol, the grave. It is the deepest valley into
which you will ever go. And God forbid you should go
by yourself. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, It is death. But to us, it is only a shadow. And a shadow may scare us, but
a shadow never hurt anyone. Here's a man. He's lined up against
the wall. He's to be executed by an arrow
fired by the archer over here. And he's watching the archer
pull the arrow back. The arrow is let go, and it's
coming straight toward the man who's waiting. And lo and behold,
it misses. It hits about six inches away
from his body, and he can see it hit the wall beside me. But
in the sunlight, the shadow of the arrow is going right across
the man's heart, and he never felt it at all. He never felt
it at all. Death for the child of God, it's
a shadow. It's a dark place. You better
not be there by yourself. It is the valley, the shadow
of death. But notice, I'm going to walk
through it. I'm not going to get into that
valley and shrink back. And I'm not going to run in that
valley. I will not be in the herd to
get out of it. I'll take my time and I will
walk. I will not walk into the valley. I'm going to walk through it,
all the way. When I come to that valley, I'm
going to enter it, traverse it, and come out on the other side.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil. Even though evil is full in that
place, the devil is there. It is his domain. His impious and fiendish demons
are there. There are pitfalls. There are
snares. There are traps. But I'm going
to walk through it. For one reason, my shepherd is
with me. Yea, though I walk through the
valley and the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou
art with me. I can recall various instances
as a young lad being very scared. I recall when my father was called
to pastor the church in West Virginia, and I was about seven
years of age. And in one of the first trips
we made, we stayed at the farmhouse of some of the members, and my
father And my mother had five children. One later came, but
there were five of us, the three boys and the two girls. We children were sent to bed
before the adults came to bed. So my father took the three boys. He was to sleep with us. My mother
was to sleep with the daughters in another bedroom. He put us
three boys, young boys, and I was about seven, two brothers younger
than me, put us into the bed, turned the light off, and walked
back downstairs to fellowship with the church members, and
I'm scared out of my wits. In a room in which I've never
been before, and it's pitch dark, and I cannot even see my hand
in front of my face, And I remember being scared and two younger
brothers, depending on me for strength, and I'm as scared as
they are. And I was scared until a few
minutes later, my father came back into the room and climbed
into the bed with us. And from then on, I was not as
scared the rest of the night. My father was with me. And so
it is in value, the shadow of death. In that place that is
so dark you cannot see your hand in front of your face, if he
will walk with me, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. I shall not lack comfort. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. I shall not lack comfort. the
rod and the staff. Let me describe this rod for
you. It was usually 18 inches, two feet long or so, and it was
a small sapling that had been pulled up out of the ground,
the bulbous root being pulled up with it, and you take the
rootlets off of the bulb of the root, and you cut it down And that becomes your rod, the
heavy end, where the root is at the end of the rod. And the
shepherd uses that for protection. It was always in his hand. Did
you ever notice when you read about Moses, there was always
a rod in his hand? What rod was it? The rod of a
shepherd. When the Lord called him on the
mountain, he had a rod in his hand. And every time you read
about Moses afterward, at the Red Sea, Moses, stretch your
rod. The Lord knew he had it. It was
the symbol of Moses' authority. He carried it everywhere he went.
Stretch your rod over the water. Well, our Lord has a rod, and
the shepherd would spend sometimes hours practicing, and he could
hit a snake with that rod. My Lord's got one. My shepherd
has one. It's in his hand. Well, let the
seed of the serpent come after me. His rod is there. And then
his staff, the long staff with a hook on the end. And how
many times have I wondered from the flock and the Lord has taken
his staff and reached out put that hook around my neck and
pulled me back. And how often has he kept a lion
or a wolf away by that staff just keeping it there? How often
times have I been in the valley feeding on the lush pasture and
looked up and seen my shepherd on the hill A rod in one hand
and leaning on the staff that is in the other and said, I'm
safe, I'm safe. He's watching all around and
his rod and his staff will keep me safe. Thy rod and thy staff,
I get comfort from them. Yeah, the devil does not. The
devil is not comforted when he sees the rod and the staff, but
the Lord's sheep are. And then you prepare a table
before me in the presence of mine enemies." A table in the presence of the
enemies. Perhaps even in the valley of
the shadow of death as we're walking through and the shepherd
says, it's time to eat. Lord, we are in enemy country? We're going to eat? What are
we having? You going to give me some rations?
No, no, no. Here. And he sets up a table. He puts the linen of his righteousness
across it. He puts on that table the bread. And he feeds me there in the
presence of my enemies. And I can hear the devil and
his wolves howling, and here I am, and in the midst of the
worst place I can be, my shepherd is feeding me at a table that
he spread and furnished, and I'm eating in safety and comfort. And then he takes The pitcher of wine puts the
goblet there before me and begins to pour, and he pours, and he
pours, and he pours until my goblet is completely running
over. Well, that's because he gives
to me abundance of everything. Notice what we read. You anoint
my head with oil and my cup runs over. Lord, my cup is running
over. You're pouring too much wine.
Nah, it's okay. It's from the wine cellars of
heaven. All the vats are full and there
is an abundance. He just pours and pours. There
is an abundance. The Lord is never stingy. My
shepherd is never stingy. in the way that He takes care
of me. You anoint my head with oil. The word here actually means
prosperity. Prosperity. Our Lord, our Shepherd
simply sees that we have an abundance of all we need. And then goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Goodness
and mercy. Years ago, A certain pastor was
in a study, and there was a knock on the door, and he opened the
door, and one of the members of the church rushed inside and
said, close the door. And the pastor said, what's wrong?
And the church member said, two people are behind me. And the
pastor said, yes, I know who they are. Oh, you, who are they?
Goodness and mercy. The psalmist says, goodness and
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Do you see how
blessed I am? My Lord is not only in front
of me leading me, He also is beside me to hold me up and ascertain
that I do not stumble and fall. And behind me, goodness and mercy. Mercy preventing any enemy from
overtaking me from behind, and goodness ascertaining that goodness
is not only before me, but behind me as well. Goodness and mercy
surely follow me all the days of my life, and then when this
life is over, When I have come through the valley of the shadow
of death, when I have crossed chilly Jordan, when I begin my
ascent into the hill of Zion, when at the last I reach it,
I will dwell in the house of Jehovah forever. It's my father's house,
my father's house. When my father was still alive,
his house was one of my favorite places. I did not get to go there very
often. I lived such a long distance,
but I was always so delighted. I'd
get excited. I'd get excited. And the excitement
would increase the closer I got to my father's house. Not because
of the house, but because of he who occupies it, my father's
house. I'm going to my father's house.
It was always such a joyous occasion. And it was a sad occasion every
time I had to leave. And I recall my father when it came down to what we
knew were among his last days. And I went to see him, and I
assumed it would be the last time that I ever saw him. And I recall saying goodbye to
him, getting into my vehicle, pulled out of the driveway, into the highway before the house
and I pulled over to the side of the road and just took a long
look and realizing this is probably the last time I ever see my father's
house. When he's no longer in it, it
is not my father's house. And it was a sad day. But when my shepherd takes me
to my heavenly Father's house, I will dwell there forever, forever. I'm never leaving that house.
Do not want to leave. He will never kick me out. No
evictions from my Father's house. I will dwell in the house of
Jehovah. forever. Where will you dwell after you enter the valley of the shadow of death? Will you enter that valley without
a shepherd and therefore succumb and not come out? Will that be
your final resting place? Death? Shield? Or can you truly say, I'm going
to go through that valley, I'm going to cross chilly Jordan,
and I'm going to climb the hill of Zion, I'm going to enter my
father's house because he will open the door for me, and I will
dwell there forever. And you will if Jesus Christ
is your shepherd. He never failed to take one of
his sheep all the way to glory. Never did. That's my shepherd. Jehovah Jesus is my shepherd. I shall lack nothing that I need. O God, our Father blessed, we
pray this word to the glory of your Son, in whose name we pray. Amen.