Psalm 23, it's a familiar psalm, but I want to go through it this
morning and I want to just divide it into three points. And we'll begin here with verse
1. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Now the first thing we see is
the tone of this whole psalm, is that the Lord, Jehovah the
Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the shepherd who provides
all things for all his sheep. By God's grace, the Father has
given us various titles of this shepherd. I want you to turn
to Ezekiel chapter 34 with me. Ezekiel chapter 34. I want to
go through a few of these. I won't have you turn to all
of them, but in Ezekiel 34, we see that the Father has given
one shepherd and David here is mentioned, but David is a type
of our Lord Jesus Christ. We see here at this outset of
this psalm, this is a psalm of David, and he's singing about
the Lord who is his shepherd. Now this passage here is a type,
David's a type of Christ. Listen to this, Ezekiel 34, verse
23. I will set up one shepherd over them, And he shall feed them, even
my servant David. He shall feed them, and he shall
be their shepherd. And David my servant shall be
king over them, and they all shall have one shepherd. They
shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and
do them." So he's one shepherd, set up by God the Father to feed
his people, to be king over his people. He walked in the judgments
of God. He observed God's statutes and
did them as the representative of His people. Made us perfect
by what He did. And He gives us His Spirit and
makes us willing to walk in Him. And then look over to Zechariah
chapter 13. Go further to your right. Zechariah
chapter 13. He's God's shepherd. He's God's
shepherd. I said this to you quite a few
times before, but the preeminent reason that Christ came, the
chief reason Christ came, was to declare God His name, to declare
His attributes, to declare His righteousness. Look here, Zechariah
13, 7. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd. You see, He's God's shepherd.
against the man that is my fellow, equal with God, one with God,
saith the Lord of hosts, smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall
be scattered, and I will turn my hand upon the little ones."
He's God's shepherd. He manifests the righteousness
of God. He declared God just and the
justifier. God will not clear iniquity.
God will not pass over transgression, and he came and and went to the
cross and was made sin for his people, and God plunged the sword
of justice into him, into the shepherd. He smoked the shepherd
with the sword of his justice. He felt the piercing sword of
God's justice by himself. He said, no, I pitied me. There
was none to help me. And he satisfied God. He propitiated
God for all whom he represented. And now the Lord of hosts says
he'll receive his little lambs. He said, I'll turn my hand upon
the little ones. And then, I won't have you turn
here, but Hebrews 13.20 says he's the great shepherd. The
Lord Jesus Christ is the great shepherd of the sheep. Great
because according to everlasting covenant between God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, when Christ cried out,
it is finished. God raised Him from the dead.
God the Father raised Him from the dead because God was satisfied.
It's what He promised He would do. Christ, the Lord, the Son
of God promised to finish the work God gave Him to do, and
He finished it. God promised to raise Him to His own right
hand and give Him an inheritance of all things, that He might
be the firstborn of many brethren. And He raised Him to the right
hand of God. And He's great because He's a
man touched with the feeling of our infirmities. And yet He's
God. He's man and He's God. He's God's
fellow. He's equal with God. And He's
our Savior. He knows us. He knows the frailness
of our frame. The frailty of our frame. He's
the great shepherd of the sheep because He's got perfect knowledge
of all your needs. and all my needs and all power
to protect and defend his sheep. That's a great shepherd. All
knowledge and all wisdom and all power. That's a great shepherd. Great shepherd because out of
the fullness of his grace, this shepherd strengthens his people. This shepherd teaches his people. He keeps each of his sheep. And then in John 10, turn there
with me, John 10. I want to set this forth first
so you'll see here what kind of shepherd we're talking about.
John 10, verse 11. The Lord Jesus Christ
speaking. John 10, verse 11. He says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd. We've seen
there's one shepherd. We've seen he's God's shepherd.
We've seen he's the great shepherd. And here our Lord says, and I'm
the good shepherd, the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep, John 10, 11. But he that is a hireling
and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, he seeth the
wolf coming. He's trying to pretend to be
a shepherd. He's acting like a shepherd. But he sees the wolf
coming and he leaves the sheep and he flees. And the wolf catches
them and scatters the sheep. The hireling fleeth because he's
a prostitute. He's hired out for the highest
wage. He's a hireling. He's just doing
a job for hire. He's a gun for hire. The hireling
fleeth because he's a hireling and he doesn't care for the sheep.
But I'm the good shepherd, and I know my sheep, and I'm known
of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even
so know I the Father. And I lay down my life for the
sheep. And other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring. And they shall
hear my voice, and there shall be one foal and one shepherd. And then, I won't have you turn
to this one, you can go back to our text, but in 1 Peter 5,
verse 4, he's called the chief shepherd. The chief shepherd. Chief shepherd in regards to
his under shepherds, his preachers that he sends forth to feed his
flock, to care for his flock. He gives them the charge, feed
the flock of God. And they take the oversight thereof,
not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of
a ready mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but
being examples to the flock. He tells us, you were a sheep
going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop
of your soul. And you who know him, can you
say with David, the Lord is my shepherd. This is the shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. It means you won't lack, you
won't be without anything. Now let's see that. Here's the
second thing. Our Lord makes us to rest in
green pastures. Watch this, verse 2. Psalm 23,
2. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. You know, the fullness of grace
that's in Christ is green pasture. We looked a few weeks back at
how, remember when the Lord fed the multitude? He was going to
feed the multitude. They had some fish, a few fish
there and a few loaves of bread. And they were looking at the
carnal. Men despise the day of small things. Men look at that
which God uses and says, this is base and it's nothing. They
said, there's only a few fish here, a few loaves of bread.
And even when Philip said that, he even turned one of the... Andrew from... Andrew said, this
won't feed everybody. And the Lord said to His disciples,
He said, make the people sit down. And you know why they sat
down? Because there was green grass
there. There's a green pasture there.
You know what's going to make a sinner sit down at the feet
of Christ? A green pasture. And you know
what the Lord did? The Lord took that that they
despised and thought was nothing. And He made it plentiful enough
to feed everybody. Christ our bread. That's what
He despised and rejected. but He's abundant in goodness,
full of grace and mercy, able to save to the uttermost all
those that come to Him. And He gave that bread to who? He gave it to His under-shepherds. And He said, now you go, give
it to them. That's the Gospel. That's our
Lord. He maketh us to lie down in green
pastures. He said, I'm the door, and by
Me if any man enter in, by me. If you enter in through the door,
you shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture.
He's our rest where we lie down in safety. We're no more oppressed in the
attempts, our own vain attempts to keep God's law. We're not
oppressed by our own imagination, by our own Conscious accusing
us. We're not oppressed by Satan.
We're not oppressed by his messengers We're not oppressed by this world
into trying to keep God's law. You know why? We've kept it The
believers kept it fully kept it in thought word indeed by
faith in Christ We're no more tormented by the law because
of our sin. He said sin shall not have dominion
over you. You're not under the law, you're
under grace. We're not tormented by that.
The conscience has been purged so that it doesn't dominate us
anymore. We mourn our sin. We're the only
ones as believers who mourn our sin. Only the believer mourns
his sin. You didn't have a problem with
sin until you became a believer. But we're not, it doesn't have
dominion over us, not in our thoughts and our conscience and
not in, as far as justice goes anymore. It's satisfied toward
us. We're free from it. We're no more the slaves of sin
like we were. But now we're the servants of
the Lord our righteousness. God be thanked, you were the
servants of sin, like we saw this morning. You're either one
or the other. And you were, you were slaves
to sin. But you have obeyed from the
heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. And being
then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. His church is green pasture.
He said, Back there in Ezekiel 34, I'll just read this to you.
He said, I will feed them in a good pasture and upon the high
mountains of Israel shall their fold be. There shall they lie
in a good fold and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains
of Israel. He's the pasture and His church
is the pasture. He makes us to lie down and He
feeds us there in that pasture. Look here in our text in Psalm. Notice how He does this. The
shepherd does all this. Look there. Psalm 23 verse 2. He maketh His sheep to lie down
in His pasture. He does that. For thus saith
the Lord God, Behold I, even I will search my sheep, and I'll
seek them out. And as a shepherd seeketh out
his flock in the day that he's among his sheep that are scattered,
so will I seek out my sheep and will deliver them out of all
places where they've been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And
I'll bring them, he said. And he brings us, and he makes
us willing in the day of his power. to rest in Him, in this
green pasture. And He makes His sheep to lie
down together in the church of God. He knits our hearts together
in love by the Spirit of God's grace. And He causes us to come
into union and fellowship into this green pasture. You are the
green pasture. This tender grass that surrounds
you. Every believer is a blade of
tender grass. and together you're the green
pasture. He uses brethren to feed each
other, to comfort each other, to be safety for each other,
to provide for each other, using the bread from heaven, Christ
our pasture, to feed and comfort and guide and protect. And he
makes us rest here in Christ the pasture and in his church
from the wolves, from those that would harm us. It's a safe place. It's rest and ease and safety. Are you afraid when you come
in here and sit down on Sundays? Are you afraid that one of these
men that gets up and reads and comments or that when I get up
to preach, that we're going to whip you? and yoke you and oppress you
and bring you back under that bondage again? Are you afraid
of that? Because the Lord our God has brought you to a place
and He's made you to rest. He's brought you to a place where
now you can be comforted and lay down. Lie down in a green
pasture. Look here, it says in verse 2,
He leadeth. He does this continually. He
leadeth, leadeth me beside the still waters, the waters of the
gospel. You know, a sheep is afraid to
drink water beside a loud, running, rapid creek. He's scared to do
it. A sheep is a scared animal. frightened by everything, and
he's scared to drink from that water. He's scared to go by it
and to drink from it. That's this world's gospel, brethren. It's shallow. That's what makes
it run so rapid and violently. It's shallow. It's got no depth
to it. It's dangerous. It's full of
waterfalls. It's noisy waters. It's forceful
waters. And sometimes it's running violently
and most all the time it's dry. At the same time it's just a
dry stream. But you remember when Isaiah
went with the gospel to Ahaz. He went to Ahaz the king and
he met him at the waters of Siloam. And he went there and the gospel
was this, Ahaz, It was just this simple now. There was a war raging,
they were being besieged, all this was getting ready to take
place, transpiring and coming about, and Ahaz the king saw
it. And this was the gospel that was preached to the president
of Israel, of Judah. The president of Judah, the same
as our president. If you had one message to preach
to the president, what would you preach to him? Isaiah went
forth, and this was the message. God's people are not going to
be entered. It's not coming to pass. Because God's going to
save in Emmanuel, His Son. If you believe Him, you'll be
established. If you don't, you'll perish.
That was His gospel. That was it. And the Lord called
that the waters of Shiloah that go softly. That go softly. They didn't try to make him do
anything. He just set it forth. Wait on the Lord to do it. Our
shepherd leads us by these still waters. They run deep. There's
no end to this water. It's an abundance of water. It's
as full as Christ our Redeemer. It's as full as Christ our well
of salvation, this water here. It's quiet water. And He leads
us, He doesn't drive us. He leads us. You drive goats,
you lead sheep. He leads us there. He says, He
shall feed His flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
His arm and carry them in His bosom and shall gently lead those
that are with young. That's how He does it. That's
when Peter said, take the oversight, not by constraint, but not being
lords over God's heritage, not driving them, but being examples
from the flock. Where do we get our example? Christ the chief shepherd who
leads gently those that are with you. And I like this too. He's our shepherd, but because
He's a man, touched with the feeling of our infirmities, knows
everything about us, He's also a lamb. He's the Lamb with His
sheep and He knows exactly how to lead us. Listen to this scripture,
Revelation 7, 17. For the Lamb which is in the
midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto
living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes. He's the Shepherd and He's the
Lamb with us. Well, look at verse 3. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness for His namesake. He restoreth
my soul. We were ruined. We were undone. We were depraved. We were ignorant. We were vile. We were God-haters,
is what we were. And by grace, by power, He came
and He quickened. He made alive. He regenerated. He gave faith and repentance
and all things that pertain to godliness to draw us to Himself
and make us leave and flee the husk that we were feeding on
and come and cast all our care on Him because He restored our
soul. Stocked our soul full with all
spiritual blessings. And now, When our soul grows sorrowful,
He revives it. When it's sinful, He sanctifies
it. When it's weak, He strengthens
it. Why does He have to continually do that? Have you ever seen a
shepherd and what he has to do for sheep? You've seen this latest
video they have now where they put those lights all over those
sheep and they get those those dogs and take them out and. at
night and they leave those sheep in all different places, make
the dogs, make the sheep go up and set up and then folks take
on another hill way over they take they take still shots of
it or video of it maybe that is video I think and they you
can find this on on the internet and they they speed it up and
whatever it is they're doing like sometimes it'll look like
a firework shoot off and it's just sheep that's been herded
by these dogs with lights wrapped all around Christmas lights wrapped
all around them And then they'll make them into like a U.S. flag
or something. You'll see all the stars and
the stripes. But you watch it. It all moves and it forms on
the hillside. And they showed how they made
it. I watched them show how they made it. And there was a guy
out there. And he had some dogs. And those
sheep were just dumb. And they were just standing there,
wrapped up in these lights. And wherever those dogs barked,
that's where they'd go. And they'd just stand there.
And they'd turn them another way and they'd go this other
way. And next thing you know, you'd look over and there'd be
one just wandering off from the rest of them. And that dog would
have to go over there to get him to lead him back. That shepherd
there was giving the signals and he was keeping that herd
all right, that flock, right where he wanted it to go. There
was a man that Charles Spurgeon, in his lectures to his students,
he told this story about this fellow who, he was young and
on his father's farm, he tended to his father's sheep. He was
a shepherd, so to speak. And then when he got older, and
the Lord called him into the ministry, and he began to pastor. And Spurgeon said that, this
man said, of the two kinds of sheep, I find the believer to
be far more sheepish than sheep. And that's us, brethren. We're
those wandering off that have to be pulled back, led back into
the flock, and have to be kept, and have to be provided for,
and kept. We're sheepish. That's what we
are. Oh, to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be,
daily. Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, O take and seal
it. Seal it for Thy courts above. He restoreth my soul, and He
leadeth in paths of righteousness. In the right path. In the right
ways. The shepherd does it, and it's
through this great shepherd that the God of peace makes the believer
perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that
which is well-pleasing in His sight. You look that up, see if you
can find that, about those sheep. When you look there and watch
those sheep, you think, there I am, right there. That's what
I thought when I watched it. I thought, that's me, right there.
I've got light. I've been lit by Christ my light,
but I need my shepherd to just lead me and guide me and take
me in each way. And look here, this is the glorious
thing at the end of verse 3. He does this for his namesake. For his namesake. That's a word
of comfort. The Lord's so zealous for His
name's sake that He don't give His name to anybody but those
for whom He has honored His own name already before He gives
you His name. That's how zealous He is for
His name's sake, and He's so zealous for His name's sake,
He's not going to allow you to perish from Him. to fall away,
to go off in a wrong direction. He's going to lead you in the
right path where you need to go because His name is attached
to you and what you do. He does this for His namesake.
That's guaranteed assurance for a believer. Now, here's the third
thing. Our Lord will never allow us
to perish. Not in the valley of the shadow
of death. Watch verse 4. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou
art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Now sometimes scriptures speak
of the shadow of death as troublous times in this life. Psalm 107.14
says, He brought them out of darkness in the shadow of death
and break their bands in sunder. It's when we're in bondage, when
we're in darkness, sometimes in trial and what have you. And
outside of Christ, all is death. Outside of Christ, all is death
and all are dead. We're walking through. Every
day in our lives, we're walking through the valley of the shadow
of death. We're walking through that valley
of dry bones that Ezekiel saw. We're compassed about on every
side by the shadow of death, by evil itself. And we pass through
the dark valley of the shadow of death in many trials, many
trials. I think of the disciples. when
the disciples were speaking with the Lord and He was about to
go to the cross. And they're not going to see
Him anymore. He's walked with them and been with them, been
in their presence the whole time. The shepherd has been right there
with His sheep the whole time and He's going to the cross and
they're going to see Him suffer that shameful death on the cross. going to see, everybody's going
to scatter from Him and leave Him and be gone. Peter's standing
there. Peter's about to go through a
severe trial. He's about to forsake the Lord. He's standing there right now
with the Lord and he's telling Him, Oh, I'm not going to forsake
you. And the Lord turns to all of
them and He says, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. He said, in my Father's house
are many mansions. I go, I'm going to that cross
to prepare a place for you. I'm going to that cross to eternally
secure your place at my Father's right hand. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, if I shed my blood for you, if I lay down
my life for you, if I pour out my life's blood for you and suffer
unto death under the wrath of God, you can be sure I'm coming
back to get you. I'm coming back to get you. That's
our comfort as we walk through this valley, this shadow of death. But then we've most often heard
about this at funerals. We hear this passage read at
funerals, preached from at funerals, and we know it's also death itself. The valley of the shadow of death. But those who have Christ for
their shepherd, they have no reason whatsoever to fear death. You, brethren, were flesh and
blood. And that's why Christ partook of flesh and blood. That
through death He might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is the devil, and deliver you who were all your lifetime
subject to bondage, torment, and the constant bondage that
Satan kept you under. We said one time, we saw it before,
Satan and his messengers use the law two ways, and it's sinful. All of it's sinful. And they
do it using the fear, using the fear factor, because your fear
of death. And they use the law to condemn you and say you're
guilty, you're guilty, you're guilty. Continually bringing
you under bondage to the law, even after you're a believer.
Then they turn around and use the law and say, now obey it
and you'll be alright. But Christ came and took away
their power. Christ came and took away their
power. Sin, the strength of sin is the law. And He fulfilled
it. And He purged us of all our sin. And He gained the victory over
death. And now death has no claim on
His people. Sin has no claim on His people.
The law has no claim on His people. He destroyed the power of the
devil and of his messengers. They got no power now. Not at
all. Look over at 1 Corinthians chapter
15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I think of this. I have some
loved ones that are in their 80s that are believers, and I
think of this often. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 51. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, not gonna all be in the grave at the time
the Lord comes, but we shall all be changed. In a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet
shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible. Those
that are in the graves, their bodies will be raised first,
incorruptible, with a body that can't be corrupted. and we shall
be changed, those of us that remain. For this corruptible
must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. So you can say
with David, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. The rod and thy
staff, those are shepherds' tools. The rod of thy Word and the rod
of Christ's strength and the staff of His promises and His
provisions. He's with us. Thou art with me. They comfort me. Do they comfort
you? This Word, is it comfort to you
to hear that these sure promises, these sure mercies of David,
Christ our David, I love this. I got this from Spurgeon too.
He said, someone has said that when there is a shadow, there
must be light somewhere. And so there is. Death stands
by the side of the highway in which we have to travel. You
just picture that death standing there by the highway and we got
to come down through there. And the light of heaven shining
up on him throws a shadow across our path. Let us then rejoice
that there's light beyond." Isn't that good? That's good. Christ is our light. Even in
the valley of the shadow of death, He won't allow us to perish in
the midst of our enemies either. Look at verse 5. Thou preparest
a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest
my head with oil. My cup runneth over. In the wilderness,
some tempted God, spake against God. They said, Can God furnish
a table in the wilderness? Behold, He smoked the rock, and
waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. They said, Can He
give us bread also? And He rained down manna upon
them to eat and gave them corn of heaven. They ate angels' food,
the Scripture said. Their clothes never wore out
for 40 years. Their feet never swelled for
40 years. He led them by a pillar of fire
at night and a cloud in the daytime. And He delivered them from all
their enemies into the land of Canaan, just like He said He
would. Thou preparest a table before me." Christ is the smitten
rock. The water of life flows from
Him freely, overflows in abundance. Christ is the bread from heaven
that's come down that we feed upon. His righteousness is our
garments. His gospel is the preparation
of our feet. He sends forth the Spirit to
guide us by day and by night into all truth. He covers our
head in the oil of gladness. And our cup just continually
runs over with all these spiritual blessings that He's given us. And He spreads this feast of
fat things, this wine on the leaves right here in the world,
right here in the presence of all our enemies. He provides
us, prepares this table right here. What do we say to that? What do we say to these things?
Look at Psalm 23, verse 6. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow
me all the days of my life. And then after that, I will dwell
in the house of the Lord forever. When peace like a river attendeth
my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot,
thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul. Though Satan should buffet, though
trials should come, let this blessed assurance control. My shepherd, our shepherd, hath
regarded my helpless estate and hath shed his own blood for my
soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul." I love how he starts this, the
Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. I don't have to. Amen.