Last Sunday morning, I asked
our brother to read Psalm 23 for our scripture reading. And
hearing him read it caused me to think it has been too long
since we have looked at Psalm 23. So here we are. Psalm 22, Psalm 23, and Psalm 24. These three Psalms
are referred to as the Psalm of the cross, the comfort and
the crown. Psalm 24 is the Psalm of the
crown. It says, Psalm 24 verse one,
it says, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. the
world and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the
seas and established it upon the floods. It's all his. Verse seven says, lift up your
heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors,
and the King of glory shall come in. I see this as after our Lord
accomplished his work and ascended back to glory, a cloud received
him out of their sight. And it says in the scripture,
the cloud carried him back into glory. I didn't write down where
that is. I believe it's in Isaiah. And all of heaven sees him coming
back in victory. Verse 8, who is this king of
glory? The Lord, strong and mighty,
the Lord, mighty in battle. Where was that battle? The cross
of Calvary. Verse 9, lift up your heads,
O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the
King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The
Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory. That's the crown. That's the
psalm of the crown, the King. Look at Psalm 23, verse 1, it
says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me
to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. That's the psalm of comfort,
that whole psalm, psalm of comfort. But a man made the statement
one time. He said, it is only after we
have read and understood, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Psalm 22, the psalm of the cross. It is only after we have read
and understood the psalm of the cross that we can enter into
the comfort and the crown. The only way we can truly understand
what it means to say the Lord is my shepherd Is if we understand the purchase
that the shepherd had to make for his sheep. If we have to
understand, he did it all for me, what it all is. The purchase that the shepherd
had to make for us to be called his sheep. We could not just
be called his sheep. Had the shepherd not made the
way for us to be called his sheep. And that's what Psalm 22 tells
us. Psalm 22 verse one says, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Who is saying that? That's Jesus Christ. And think
about what he's saying. I've looked up the word forsaken.
Why hast thou forsaken me? He's saying, why have you left
me? You know, because of all this,
it's not until we understand this that we can understand and
enjoy the fact that He said, I'll never leave you. I will
never forsake you. He cried, My God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Why have you left me? You left
me. Why have you abandoned me? Why have you turned your back
on me? He went on to say, why art thou
so far from helping me? Why will you not help me? Why have you closed your ears
to me? Verse one, he said, why are you
so far from the words of my roaring? Verse two, oh my God, I cry in
the daytime, but thou hearest not. And in the night season
and I'm not silent, I keep crying and crying and crying. What a
holy thought that is. What an awesome and holy thought
that is. Verse seven. All they that see
me, laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip. They
shake the head. That's exactly what happened
to our Lord as he hung there on the cross. Verse 11, he said,
be not far from me for trouble is near for there is none to
help. There is none to help. I am by myself in this. That's
what he's saying. I am by myself. Verse 14, he
said, I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted in the midst of
my bowels. My strength is dried up like
a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought
me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me, the
assembly of the wicked have enclosed me, they pierced my hands and
my feet." Why? Why? Why? Turn with me to John 10. John 10, this is the reason why,
verse 14 says, our Lord said, I am the good shepherd and know
my sheep and am known of mine. As the father knoweth me, even
so I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep. You ever get tired of reading
John 10? I think we've gone to John 10 every message for the
last month. I don't ever get tired of going
to John 10. I lay down my life for the sheep. Why did he go through all that?
He said, because I lay down my life for the sheep. I'm going
to die for my sheep. How did this good shepherd? He said, I'm the good shepherd. How did the good shepherd lay
down his life for his sheep? How did he do that? Look with
me at Acts chapter eight. Acts chapter eight. Verse 29, it says, then the spirits
said unto Philip, go near and join thyself to this chariot.
And Philip ran thither to him, this Ethiopian eunuch, and heard
him read the prophet Isaiah, chapter 53 to be exact. And he
said, understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, how
can I except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip
that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture,
which he read was this. He who the shepherd, and this is amazing. The shepherd, he was led as a
sheep. The shepherd took the place. of the sheep. How did this good
shepherd die for his sheep? He took the place of his sheep.
He was led as a sheep to the slaughter. Why the slaughter? Sin, disease, death, Decay, ruin,
that's all that the sheep were. Therefore, that's all they were
good for, the slaughter. And that's exactly where all
of them would have ended up had the shepherd not taken their
place. because of the shepherd's great love for them. Verse 32
says, he was led as a sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb
done before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth. Every charge, every railing accusation
Everything his sheep were accused of for their sin and their disease
and their death and their disobedience and their rebellion against God,
everything they were accused of. For his great love, the great
shepherd took the place of his sheep, took the condition of
his sheep. Why hast thou forsaken me? He
was in the condition of His sheep. He took the blame of His sheep. He took the guilt of His sheep
and He bore it all for His sheep. Verse 32 says, He was led as
a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb done before his shearer,
so opened he not his mouth. Not one time did he ever say,
I didn't do it. My sheep did it. Not one time. Not one time. Does that make
you love him more? Not one time. He was accused for the sin of
His sheep. He was convicted for the sin
of His sheep. He was stripped and mocked and
beaten and crucified and killed for the sin of His sheep. And
not one time did He ever open His mouth to defend Himself.
Not one time. He took it all He bore it all. He suffered it all for His sheep. Verse 32 says, He was led as
a sheep to the slaughter. And like a lamb dumb before His
shearer, so opened He not His mouth in His humiliation. His judgment was taken away. And who shall declare His generation? for his life was taken from the
earth. That's why he was forsaken. And that's why we now can say
this. That's why we can say this. Go
with me to Psalm 23. Psalm 23 verse 1 says, The Lord He is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. The Lord is
my shepherd. The one who is King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. He is my shepherd. You talk about something to brag
about, something to brag on. Where is boasting then? Right
there. It's right there. The one who
is the King of all Kings and Lord of all Lords. He's my shepherd. The one who made the worlds,
the heavens, the earth. He's my shepherd. The one who
created everything visible and invisible. the One who controls and reigns
over every throne, every dominion, every principality, every power,
the One who is before all things and by Him all things consist,
the One who everything is to Him and for Him, the Lord Jehovah
God Almighty. He's our shepherd. If that does
not make our hearts rejoice, nothing will. He's our shepherd. He is the one who is our shepherd. He is the one who is our shepherd.
You know what that tells me? Honestly, you know what that
tells me? We shall not want. We shall not want. That's comfort. That's where the comfort comes
from. The fact that it's the Lord who is our shepherd. He is Lord because of who he
is. He is Lord because of who he
is. He is God manifest in the flesh. God almighty manifest
in the flesh. He said, you call me Lord and
master. And you say, well, or so I am. He is Lord because of what he's
done. He died, rose and revived that
he might be Lord. Lord in Christ, the one who was
crucified, God made him to be Lord in Christ. He is Lord because
of where He is now. He's Lord because of who He is.
He's Lord because of what He's done. He's Lord because of where
He is right now. Because of His humiliation and
His obedience unto death, God also hath highly exalted Him
and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and
things in earth and things under the earth. and that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. That's who our shepherd is. Therefore,
that's where our comfort comes from. The Lord, the Lord is my
shepherd. Aren't you so glad the word of
God does not say the Lord might be our shepherd. Aren't you so glad the Word of
God doesn't say, as long as I meet certain criteria, the Lord will
be my shepherd. The Lord is. God-given faith
has caused us to say the Lord is. He is. My shepherd. Not just our shepherd. Not just
the sheep's shepherd. My shepherd. He's mine. How do
you know? Because he said he's the shepherd
of sinners. And that's what I am. That's how I know he is my shepherd. That's exactly what I am. According
to God's own word, God's own promise and his own word, he
is mine because the father gave me to him before the foundation
of the world. How do you know he's mine? How
do you know he's yours? According to his promise, the
father gave me to him before the foundation of the world.
Every child of God can say this personally, individually. He's
mine because he bought me with his own precious blood. He's
mine because he loved me and gave himself to me. He gave himself
for me. He gave himself to me. The comfort
of our hearts is he's mine. The Lord is My shepherd. Shepherd. I want a shepherd. You want a
shepherd. We want to be sheep of the shepherd,
don't we? I think about sheep in a sheep
fold and I think, man, they have the good life. If they're in
a fat pasture, that's what I want. I want to
be a sheep. Each one of us can say, He is
my shepherd because He leads me. He feeds me. He shelters me. He protects me. That's what I want. He loves
me. He loves me. Here in His love,
not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son
to be the propitiation. What's a propitiation? Psalm
22. A bloody victim sacrifice for
our sins. We love him because he first
loved us. He's our shepherd. He's the good
shepherd. Aren't you so glad to know that
he is the good shepherd? He said, I'm the good shepherd.
He's the great shepherd. He's the chief shepherd. He's
the only shepherd. Every child of God can say, that's
who my shepherd is. And that's where my comfort comes
from. That's where my comfort comes
from. Verse one says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want
because the good, great chief shepherd, Jesus Christ, the Lord,
because he is my shepherd. I am not going to lack anything. I'm not going to lack anything.
I may be the weakest sheep in the fold. I may be the weakest
one in the fold. I may be the dumbest one in the
fold. I may be the most wandering one in the fold. I may be the
sickest one in the fold. I may be the saddest one in the
fold, but as long as I'm in his fold, I will not lack one thing. I will not lack one thing. Verse two says, he will make
me to lie down in green pastures just like all of his other sheep. He will lead me beside still
waters just like all of His other sheep. Verse 3 says, He will restore
my soul just like He does for all of His other sheep. He will lead me in the paths
of righteousness for His name's sake. Just like He leads all
of His other sheep in the paths of righteousness for His name's
sake. That line in that verse there
has become very dear to me. It's become a true joy to me. I never truly understood or entered
into the meaning of that statement until I attended the funeral
of our dear, kind brother, Bill Grisham, Karen's dad, two years ago. Four? Three? Time flies. So I'm 47. I never really understood
this line until I was 44 years old. And I'm sure the Lord will
reveal more as time goes along. After his funeral, there was
a large turnout in Crossville, Tennessee. And there was a long
procession from the funeral home to the gravesite. And it was probably a 20-minute
drive at least. It was a good while. And I was
the second to the last car in line. Brother Tony was behind
me. We had our families with us.
And it was so long, we got started
out, it was so long, I couldn't see the front. And as we were going, we came
up on the first red light And it was turning red, and cars
were in front of me. And I thought I was going to
have to be the one to make a decision. Do I stop at this red light or
keep going? Because I was used to, in Rocky
Mount, they always stationed police officers at every red
light, stopping everybody, saying, you come through. And I was used
to them just telling me what to do. And there was nobody there
to tell me what to do. And I didn't know what to do.
And thankfully, the car or two in front of me ran the red light.
So did I. But I didn't like that moment. That didn't feel good. I thought,
I'm breaking the rules here. I'm not supposed to be doing
this. But we did it. And there were quite a few red
lights after that. And I mean, just many of them. We just kept going under red
light, under red light. So every time I went under a
red light, I was thinking, this is sin. That's what I'm doing. This is
sin. But as people do, you know, they
saw the procession and they stopped and let us all go through. And
I'm telling you, some of us talked about this. Even Donnie brought
it up. That is, that had to have been
the most moving procession I have ever been a part of. There were
so many people along the streets where we were going. It was lined
with people and they were all paying attention to this procession. And it was so moving to me how
people were so honorable and there were some cars parked in
a parking lot. And as we were going by, people
got out of their cars and stood there with their hands over their
heart. One man saluted while the whole thing went by. He stood
there and saluted the whole thing. And I was just so, you would
have thought the president was coming through. I was so just
moved by this. But by the time we got to the
grave site, this whole scene, this whole illustration came
into my mind. In this procession, the first
car in line was a police car. The Law. The Law led the way. The second car in line was our
Beloved. And it's like when Boaz told
Ruth, I'm going to redeem you, but there's a nearer kinsman
that must be satisfied first. The Law. The Law has to be satisfied
first. The Law has to approved this
first. But that second car was our beloved,
the one in whose honor every one of us was there for. We were
all there in honor of him. Every car after the beloved,
we were all followers of the beloved. Wherever he went, that's
where we were going. I didn't know where we were going.
I was traveling on faith. I had no idea where the grave
site was. And wherever he went, that's where we went. Every turn he made, every light
he went under, we followed him under it. And according to the law, and
this is what struck me, according to the law, the whole way was
righteousness. The whole way was righteousness. I'd come up to that red light
thinking sin, sin, and the law would, who was leading my way,
the law would say, nope, follow on. There's no sin here. There's no sin here. In this
path is no sin. I didn't break the law, but I
went under a red light. According to the law, I didn't
break the law. In this path is no sin. The law said that. Every onlooker
said that. No sin. Go ahead. You go ahead
after you. You're free to go. But what about
that red light? Free to go. It hit me that there was one
reason only why this was the case. Only one reason why this
could be said to us, our beloved. He was the only reason that whole
path, that whole journey, that whole procession was for his
name's sake. It was all for his name's sake. And therefore the whole path
was righteousness. After the burial, I thought about
this after the burial, had I gone back to the funeral home, and
taken that same path again and run those same red lights again,
that same law that was leading the way would have cuffed me
and stuffed me in jail. Had I done that without him,
had I taken that path without him, I would have ended up in jail. But with Him, with the Beloved,
is all righteousness. As long as we are with our Shepherd,
every path He leads us down is righteousness. In Him is no sin. Righteousness is not just what
He does. Righteousness is what He is.
It's righteousness because He does it. He's the lawgiver. He's the lawmaker. And in Him,
with Him, following Him, every path He takes us down is righteousness. That's just amazing to me. Verse
4 says, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I'll fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff,
the rod and the staff of your word, 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." No matter what our situation in life is,
all of God's sheep can say that. All of God's sheep can say, you
have prepared a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You've provided for me. You've anointed my head with
oil. You've anointed me with blessing. My cup runs over. My cup runs over. Verse six says, surely goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will
dwell in the house of the Lord, the Lord, my shepherd. I will
dwell in his house with him forever, forever. What a Psalm of comfort
from the cross to the crown. That's our comfort. Amen.