Alright, we're going to be in
Psalm 23. Psalm 23 this morning. We're probably just going to
get through verse 2. Alright, Psalm 23. Now, we don't know exactly when
this Psalm was penned. We don't know what the occasion
was that prompted David to pen this psalm because he doesn't
mention it here. What we do know is that it is
a psalm of David. That's what we see in the introduction
there, a psalm of David. But the placement of the psalm
is very telling. Where this psalm appears in the
midst of the psalms is rather remarkable and it tells us a
lot. We know that this is a psalm
of great joy. It's well recognized in the world. A lot of people know this psalm
and a lot of people refer to this psalm when they're troubled
or sorrowing. It's often used at funerals and
put on funeral cards, laminated and given out to people to remember
their loved one by. but it's a great joy. This is a great, a psalm of great
joy and gladness for the flock of Jesus Christ. The world looks
to it and reads it, but they don't No, they don't understand
the author of it and why we have such joy. They don't know these
things, but the joy and the gladness that's outlined for us here in
this psalm for the flock of Christ, it's actually all owing to the
sorrow and the suffering of our great Savior. It's all, oh, and
the reason why the flock of Christ has joy and is glad today in
the Lord is because of the sorrow and the suffering of our great
shepherd on the cross. And this is all traced out for
us in the Psalm that comes just before Psalm 23. In Psalm 22,
there on the cross, Psalm 22 speaks of the cross
of Christ and when our great shepherd hung on the cross, he
knew no green pastures. He stood beside no still waters. When God's wrath came flooding
in, he didn't experience any peace and comfort. He was on
the cross bearing the wrath of God. He bore the raging sea of
holy God's infinite justice all the while He sustained and provided
for His beloved sheep. We're told in Hebrews, Hebrews
10, 14, that He, by one offering, hath perfected forever them that
are sanctified, sanctified by the Lord. And He purged us of
our sins there on the cross. bore the sin of his people, he
endured every strife, suffered every blow that was our due,
that which should have been laid upon us, but for our iniquity
and our sin he put it away by the death of himself." Isaiah
speaks at this time saying that Christ was wounded for our transgressions. And note that word, our. It's
used in the same way that we use the word our. When we use
our, when we're talking about our, it's for a specific people. We have a specific people in
mind. And he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him and by his stripes we are healed. And so every debt that we owed
to God, every debt of righteousness that we owe to holy God, it was
charged to Christ's account. And we're told in Psalm 69, 4
that Christ restored that which He took not away. He didn't go
to the cross because He's a sinner. He committed no sin, no crime
against God. He's perfect and holy, righteous
and just. And so He didn't He didn't owe
anything to God, but he fulfilled all righteousness for his people. And so through Christ, through
Jesus Christ, the Great Shepherd, that's how his people are brought
into the family of God, so that even now we are righteous. We are the righteousness which
God requires for us to stand before him, thanks be to Jesus
Christ. So that is through his power
and his glory, because of his faithful work in doing and completing
what the Father sent him to do. Now, we're just gonna look at
just probably a couple of the verses here in Psalm 23 today. And so just remember, though,
that the tender care that you who know Christ, you that believe
Christ, the tender care that you know and experience in him
because of his mercy and grace. It's all born out of the fact
that he was forsaken. God forsook God for his people. He was forsaken for his people.
It's because because of his cry where he said, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from hearing,
from helping me and from the words of my Lord? All right,
our title is the Lord is my Shepherd. The Lord is my Shepherd. And
the first division we'll be looking at is the first verse, Christ
our shepherd. So let's look at Christ our shepherd. The psalm here begins, verse
one, saying the Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. That's the title which is given
to the Lord. That's the title that he takes
to himself and it denotes the care, it denotes the condescension
of God Almighty who cares for his people, who takes care of
his people. He's the shepherd of his people. The psalmist in Psalm 8 noted,
what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that
thou visitest him. So our Lord is the shepherd of
His sheep. He's the shepherd of His sheep. Now, I don't know when it started,
but I know that on social media today, people use the term sheep. And when they call people sheep,
or when they call them sheeple, it's a derogatory remark. They use it to insult people
because they're saying If someone calls you a sheep, they're saying
you're a simple-minded fool. You're just listening to whatever
they're telling you. You're not thinking. You're not using your
own brain. You're just following lies and
whatever it is that people are telling you, whatever they're
arguing about. In terms of the believer, in
terms of those who love Christ and trust Him, it's really no
insult to us at all. It affirms the truth of what
the Lord tells us about us. He tells us who it is that He's
gathering in as a shepherd into His fold, into His flock. Paul
writes of this in 1 Corinthians 1.26, saying, For ye see your
calling, brethren, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound
things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and
things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which
are not, to bring to naught things that are. So, they can say what
they want. People can call us all sorts
of names and call us whatever they want, but we're reminded
of what our Lord said. When they speak against you,
it's not you that they speak against, they're speaking against
me. It's the Lord who chose us. It's
the Lord who chose us, and so they're insulting him. They're
charging him with folly. They're charging him with foolishness. in the day of his choosing, he'll
deal with them very soon. So, the world's people, they're
actually not called sheep in the scriptures. The world, the
inhabitants of the world who know not God, they're never referred
to as sheep. There are some who are called
wolves, wolves who are deceivers, right? The wolves who come in
sheep's clothing to deceive and they're liars. And then there
are many who are called goats. They're called goats. They have
no part in the family of God. And we're told that the Lord
is the one who separates his sheep. He's the one that will
separate out his sheep. We're told in Matthew 25, before
him shall be gathered all nations and he shall separate them one
from another as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats. So
he's dividing his sheep. his sheep from the goats, right? And oftentimes when we hear that,
when we think of that view, we're thinking to ourselves, well,
which side am I gonna appear on? On the left side of the Lord
with the goats or on his right with the sheep? But David here
in Psalm 23 verse one, he says with incredible conviction, he
says, the Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd." And
we know that there's many today that speak with presumption,
right? A lot of presumption. And even
in places where the gospel is not preached. They accuse others
of being presumptuous to think and to say that Christ is my
Lord. Many people would say, well,
unless you're doing what we set up and you're jumping through
the hurdles and the hoops that we've set up for you to do, you
can't say that Christ is your shepherd. You can't speak of
him as your Lord and your Savior until you've done this thing
or that thing. When the heart in hope speaks
of this, when we, having nothing of ourselves, having no confidence
in ourselves, are hoping in Christ, believing Him, believing the
testimony of our God, trusting His righteousness and not our
own, we may say the Lord is my shepherd. You're not trusting
yourself, you're not trusting another Jesus, you're not trusting
in some other religion, or what you're able to do in this world,
you're trusting Christ. And the scriptures are very plain,
they tell us, you that believe on him, he's your shepherd. Because it's from the heart,
it's from the heart that we speak that. You and your heart, now
I don't know your heart and you don't know my heart, but we know
that many can say these things, but if you and your heart believe
that there's nothing you can do for right that Christ was sent of God,
given of God, spared not by the Father to put away the sins of
His people, and that then rest in Him, trust Him, believe Him,
and He is your Shepherd, your Savior. All right? So when we're
pressed for a reason of our hope, the answer for the believer is
always Christ. It's always Christ. All right?
Well, don't you have anything that you can look to, right?
Doesn't the world look to various things? When, think back of all
the various people that you've met in your life, and there's
many who say, well, I have a verse. I have a verse that was made
special to me. And I remember that day when
this verse came to me with power, and that's my hope. I have a
verse, right? And others, others were told
when they were young or sitting in other congregations, with
all your heads bowed and eyes closed, put up your hands if
you're giving your life to Jesus today. Put up your hands. God
sees you, right? And that's how people have a
hope because they put up their hand. Other places tell you to
come down the aisle, come down the aisle to the altar and give
your heart to Jesus. Pray a prayer with the prayer
captain and he'll lead you to Jesus. And he'll give you the
Romans road and you just say these things and learn these
verses and then you'll be saved. It's always in their doing. Man's
religion is always in their doing. of what they've done for the
Lord, and that's where their hope and confidence is. But the
Lord's people have no confidence in the flesh. We don't put our
trust in those things. We continually look to the Lord
Jesus Christ. We're continually believing Him,
continually trusting what He has done, because it's His righteousness
that makes us fit the work. It's not us, but of Him. And
so, when pressed what our confidence is, and asked what we've done
for the Lord, all we can say is, I'm only a sinner saved by
grace. By grace. There's nothing I've
done. I'm only a sinner. I've done nothing but the Lord
in mercy has saved me by grace. Peter, if you notice Peter, and
all the apostles, In 1 Peter 2, verses 24 and 25, they're
always bringing us back to look to the Lord, to give Him glory,
Him praise, Him honor. It's not what you or I do, but
what Christ has accomplished in Himself. We're told, Peter
says, who His own self bear our sins in His own body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness.
were healed. For ye and me, we were as sheep
going astray, but now are returned unto the shepherd and bishop
of your souls." Christ is the shepherd and bishop of the souls
of his people. That means that he's shepherding
your soul. He's the one who's leading and
guiding each of his children to where he wants them to be. He's the one who's calling them
and drawing them to himself. And so you think about that,
that the God who created the heavens and the earth, all things
that we know of and see or don't see but know of, God who created
everything, he is called the shepherd of his people. He's never called the shepherd
of all the world. He's never called the shepherd
of all people. He's always referred to as the shepherd of his people. There's a peculiar relationship
there. There's a special relationship
between the Lord and his people. And so, as our shepherd and bishop
sees fit, everything he deems necessary, he's provided it. freely by his grace in Jesus
Christ, through his work, what he's accomplished for them. And
now because he's the shepherd of his people, we read, the Lord
is my shepherd, I shall not want. Will have no want. Now, it doesn't
matter how rich or wealthy a person is in this world. They always
have wants. They're never satisfied. They're
never at peace. They're always wanting something
more. It doesn't matter what they have.
They always want something more. But the Lord's people are made
content. We're made content in the Lord.
We rest in His righteousness. We're at peace with what the
Lord Himself has provided. And so we learn contentment under
His care and His provision, seeing as He's revealing to us and making
known to us that he's provided everything, he's done everything
necessary, and we learn contentment in him. So the righteous, they
don't want for Christ, they don't want for righteousness. And the
Lord provides, he cares for them, he provides for them, he watches
over them, and preserves his people to the end. All right,
now in the next verse, we see this, we see this care of the
Lord. Look at verse 2 with me, Psalm
23 verse 2. He says, he maketh me to lie
down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters. There's a sense that's presented
here to us, right? There's a rest. There's a contemplative
rest there for the people of God. They're at peace. He maketh
me to lie down in green pastures. And there's also another sense
that's presented here of action or movement. He leadeth me beside
the still waters. You see that there? There's a
rest where he maketh me to lie down in green pastures. and there's
action, there's movement there where he leadeth me besides still
waters. So the first thing that the Lord
does for his people is he makes them to do nothing. He makes
us to be still. And that's a hard, hard, impossible
thing for the flesh to do because we're always excited, we're always
worried, we're always fearful and afraid when we hear the things to action. We've got to start
doing something now to earn God's favor and to appease his wrath,
to quiet our guilty screaming conscience. But the Lord says,
be still, be still and know that I am God. We've got to be still. And that's something that carnal
man doesn't want to do. Carnal man wants to take things
by his hands and make happen what he thinks should happen.
But the Lord says, be still. Do nothing. You can't do anything. You and I can't do anything to
save ourselves. And so, the Lord is going to
bring each of his people to an end in themselves and to stop
doing and to stop amends with God, but to just be still and
to know, to know that He is God, to know that He is our Lord and
Savior. Now, while we want to be doing
things, we're told in Psalm 23, verse 2, that He maketh me, because
we can't stop, we won't stop, we don't want to stop, but He
maketh me to lie down in green pastures. And how do we do that? How does He make us to lie down?
Well, it's not in the flesh. It's not a work of the flesh.
It's by His Spirit, because it's only by the Holy Spirit. His
voice, and that will be given a heart to obey Him. It's only
by the Spirit of the Lord. He's the one that creates obedience
in the heart. He's the one that takes out the
heart of stone, the hard heart, and He's the one who gives a
heart of flesh, that is, one that is turned by Him, one that
is of His creation and His work, and then we rest in Christ. Our Lord was speaking of sheep. He said there's other sheep besides
the Jews here. There's those that aren't religious
at all that I'm calling. There's Jews that that know nothing
of the truth but I'm calling them and there's Gentiles that
are sitting in darkness and know nothing of God. They're entirely
ignorant of the truth of God and them also I'm calling and
so he says other sheep I have and he tells us they shall hear
my voice. They shall hear my voice and
that's voice. They hear it by faith. There was many in Egypt, many
Jews by the flesh in Egypt that heard the word and they exited
out of Egypt and went with Moses into the wilderness and were
told that they heard the word but it wasn't mixed with faith.
They didn't have faith. They didn't have the Spirit of
God whereby they only heard it in the flesh. They only heard
the word of a man and saw Moses and were following him. But they
weren't following the Lord. So the Lord is the one who makes
us to hear his voice. And so we're made to feed upon
green pastures. What are these green pastures?
What are the green pastures that we're made to feed upon? Well,
these are the promises of God. in Christ. These are the promises
of God in Christ that we are fed and nourished by. The Lord
tells us that all who are in Christ that he shall be a father
unto them. And he says you shall be my sons
and daughters. you that are mine, you shall
be my sons and daughters, and I will be a father to you." He
promises that in Christ. He also tells us that he sent
his son for the very purpose to wash us and cleanse us of
our sins. We're never going to satisfy
Holy God by anything we do. Never. God isn't pleased with
the works of the flesh. He's not impressed with what
we think impresses God. whether you're sinning through
the lust of the flesh or doing some religious work, that all
of it is of the flesh and it doesn't please God. The one work
that pleases Him is what Christ did, is what Christ His Son accomplished
for His people. And He tells us that Christ has
made His people, He successfully purged his people of their sin
and made them righteous to stand before God faultless before his
throne. And another promise that we have
in Christ is that he gives us his Holy Spirit. He seals his
people with the Holy Spirit whereby they hear his word and obey his
word, whereby they believe him, and rest in him, and feed upon
the Lord Jesus Christ continually, so that having made us alive,
the Lord has made us alive, he's made us full, he's made us healthy
in Christ, because in Adam, we're dead, we're sick, dying, worthless,
weak, unable, not strong, unable to please God or to do anything
for the Lord. but he makes us full and healthy,
and then, therefore, he leads us. He leads us. Verse two continues
saying, he leadeth me beside the still waters. Well, where
does he lead us? Well, he leads us out from the
teaching of the Whore of Babylon. He takes us out from all those
lies, all those deceptions, all that trickery, all those things
that are works of darkness. He leads us out of those things
which keep us deceived and in bondage. You know, there's a
lot of spiritual things in this world. There's a lot of activity.
There's a lot of weird things, and people experience things
in various forms of religion, in various things, and they think,
well, I've experienced this, so this must be the truth, this
must be of God. Well, no, there's spiritual beings
in dark places, sitting on thrones and doing what they do, but the
Lord says that's all wickedness. It's not a man. And the Lord takes us away
from those things. He delivers us out of those things. So it doesn't matter what we
experience here. That doesn't mean it's salvation.
That doesn't mean it's true. The Lord delivers us from that.
So He's taking us out from under the bondage of the whore of Babylon,
and He leads us to Christ. He's going to keep us coming
to Christ. We never cease coming to Christ.
We never cease needing Christ. We never stop coming to Him.
We're always coming to Christ. We're always looking to Him.
We're always being drawn to our Savior. In Christ, I was thinking
about these still waters and I was reminded last night as
I was looking at this about the waters of Shiloh that go softly. Isaiah spoke about that in Isaiah
8, 6. He said, these are the waters of Shiloh, these peaceful
waters which the Lord has for his people. In Israel, in Isaiah's
day, they heard it and they refused it. They refused the waters of
Shiloh that go softly. but the Lord won't let us refuse
it. The Lord leads us to Christ. The Lord leads us to those still,
peaceful waters, which is Christ. And so in Him, we grow in Him,
we hear His word, we see that it's all by the working of the
Lord our God, who is our shepherd, who loved us and gave Himself
for us. Over in Ezekiel 34, If you want
to turn there, Ezekiel 34, it's a good-sized passage, so I'm
not going to read it all, but it speaks of our Savior as the
Shepherd. It's a good reading later today
if you want to read it all. It shows us what Christ came
to do, what He accomplished for His people. Isaiah 34, we'll
just pick up in verse 12. And it outlines his work for
the flock. It says, Ezekiel 34, 12, as a
shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his
sheep that are scattered, so will I seek out my sheep. And
I will bring them out from the people and gather them from the
countries and will bring them to their own land and feed them
upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, those waters of
Shiloh that go softly, and in all the inhabited places of the
country." So the Lord's doing it. He's bringing us to Christ.
And then those words inhabited places caught my eye. And that's
where the Lord has established a gospel church. Those are the
inhabited places where living souls dwell. Living souls, right,
are here among the Lord's people. And He brings us to inhabited
places. He brings us to a place where
we can hear the gospel as His sheep. He makes us to lie down
in green pastures to hear His promises. which He has provided
for us freely and abundantly in His Son Jesus Christ, our
Savior and Shepherd, who provided everything necessary for His
people in Christ. And so, therefore, being made
alive in Him, to hear His voice, we hear His word, right? In Luke
9, 23 and 24, where he said to them all, if any man will come
after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow
me, which we know is the gospel. We take up the gospel of Christ.
That's our banner. We march under the banner of
Jesus Christ, not under our own righteousness, not under works
of righteousness, which we have done, but we march under the
banner of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And so we take
up that gospel Because we're not talking about
and boasting about our works and what we've done, we're talking
about and boasting in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we lose our
life, but we gain it in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, having said
those things, you see how it takes faith. It takes faith for
both of those things. It takes faith to stop and to
have nothing in your hand, and to trust the Lord, to lie down
in green pastures, to trust His promises, to feed upon His promises,
which He gives freely and abundantly in His darling Son, Jesus Christ. And it takes faith to be led,
to go where He leads us, to trust Him and to believe the Lord where
He's bringing us. And that's what we're told, that
just shall live by faith. We shall live by faith so we
believe him. And I'll just close with this
verse in Romans 117. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. The spirit of God takes
of the faithfulness of Christ and the gifts which he's given
and earned for his people is given to his people. He gives
his people severally as he will, the gift of faith. According
to the measure of the gift of faith, he gives his people and
reveals to them the truths of these things that we're speaking
of in the Lord Jesus Christ. For it is written that just shall
live by faith. So I pray the Lord would comfort
your hearts so that our comfort is resting in Christ. It's not
just because it's nice words and a nice poem, but it's because
Christ, our Savior, is indeed the very shepherd of his people,
and that he give you the hope and the comfort and the confidence
to say, the Lord is my shepherd, my shepherd. I pray the Lord
will bless that to your heart. All right, let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, for the abundance of life which
you've provided in your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, help us. Help us to hear. Help us to believe,
Lord. Make us to hear. Make us to believe
what You have accomplished in Your Son, Jesus Christ, for Your
people. Draw Your people out of darkness
and into the light of Your Son, Jesus Christ. It's in His name
we pray and give thanks. Amen.