Let's open our Bibles again to
Psalm 23. I have no doubt that Psalm 23
is the most familiar passage of scripture to everyone, everywhere. People who may not even own a
Bible know something about Psalm 23. This group gathered here
this evening is undoubtedly very familiar with Psalm 23. But let's be warned and not let
familiarity make us overlook it quickly. Don't let us think,
well, I've seen that before and miss a great blessing in this
psalm. This psalm is a great blessing,
has been a great blessing to God's people throughout the ages. Someone said David wrote many
psalms, but he only wrote one, Psalm 23. These six verses have something
for everybody here. Everybody. These verses have
comfort for everyone of every age in every situation. This
is the psalm of the shepherd. And you'll notice that the psalm
of the shepherd comes immediately following the psalm of the cross.
The bloody agony of Psalm 22 must come first. It must come
before the sheep can know the sweet care of the shepherd. In
Psalm 23, Christ can't be our shepherd until he first buys
his sheep with his own blood. There can't be any surely goodness
and mercy. So follow me all the days of
my life in Psalm 23 until the my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? In Psalm 22. So I want us to
look at this psalm this evening with this theme. This is the
title of the message. I shall not want. I shall not
want because of who my shepherd is. Verse one, the Lord is my
shepherd. Jehovah is my shepherd. I shall
not want. The Lord is my shepherd. Now you think of how the Lord
had to condescend to become the shepherd. people like you and
me. Oh, how he condescended. But
you know, the Lord being a shepherd is not something that he does. It's not a function that he comes
and fulfills. The shepherd is who the Lord
is. This is one of the names of Jehovah
in scripture, Jehovah Rea, the Lord, my shepherd. This is who
he is. He's the shepherd of his people. And the reason the psalm is such
a great blessing to God's people is it speaks so clearly of the
Savior. This psalm is such a great comfort
and encouragement to the sheep because it talks all of our shepherd. Christ is the shepherd of the
sheep. What a shepherd he is. Look over
in Isaiah chapter 40. What a shepherd he is. Isaiah chapter 40. It begins,
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, sayeth your God. And here's the
reason for our comfort, verse 11, or verse 10. Behold, the
Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arms shall rule
for him. Behold, his reward is with him and his work before
him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. This shepherd
shall gather the lambs with his arm. This shepherd will carry
them in his bosom. and he'll gently lead those that
are with young. This is our shepherd, how he
tenderly cares for each one of his sheep. Whatever it is, whatever
their need is, whether they're little lambs that can't walk,
whether they're weak, whether they're with young, whatever
their situation, whatever their need, he cares a great deal about
it. And he moves to take care of
that need. He cares for his sheep. You remember before the Lord
fed the 5,000. He had the little boy's lunch, the five loaves
and two fishes. And we read that he looked at
that crowd and he was moved with compassion on them because they
are a sheep not having a shepherd. And he acted as their shepherd
and he fed them. He cares about his people. Look
at John chapter 10. Here's our shepherd in action,
John chapter 10. Here's the shepherd describing
himself to his sheep. John 10 verse three. To him the porter openeth and
the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name
and leadeth them out. And when he put forth his own
sheep, he goeth before them and the sheep follow him for they
know his voice. Our shepherd, calls His sheep. I read about these shepherds
going to those massive sheep folds where they just put all
the sheep and they all mingle in together. And each shepherd
would start calling out to His sheep or whistling or doing something
distinctive. And those sheep recognized, that's
my shepherd. And they're all mingled in and
they all go out and form these lines. They know the voice of
their shepherd. And Christ our shepherd leads
His sheep out. He leads them. Every step they
take, he takes first. Whatever it is you're going through,
whatever it is you'll go through in the future, I can promise
you this, the Lord stepped there first. He went there first to
make it okay for his people. Look at verse 11. He says, I'm
the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for his sheep. I told you that the Lord cares
about his sheep. He loves his sheep with a redeeming
love so that he died for them as their substitute. Verse 15
says, I laid down my life for the sheep. He lays it down as
their substitute. The shepherd became a lamb so
that he could die as a substitute for his sheep because he loves
his sheep. Verse 14, he says, I am the good
shepherd and know my sheep. and have known of mine. The Lord
knows his sheep. He knows them in love, and he
makes sure his sheep know him. He makes sure they come to him.
And Christ, our great shepherd, never has lost one of his sheep.
Never. And he never will. Verse 16.
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 fold and one shepherd. Christ is the shepherd
of his sheep. He'll never lose one. But here
David says, the Lord is my shepherd, my shepherd. That means he loves
me and he cares for me as one of his sheep. And it means this,
that Christ the shepherd has all authority over me. Christ is not my co-pilot. He's
not my good buddy and He's not my example. Christ is my shepherd. It's not what would Jesus do,
it's what has He ordered me to do. He's the shepherd. I go where
He tells me to go, when He tells me to go, how He tells me to
go. He's the shepherd. He has all authority over me
and whatever it is He does with me is right because I belong
to Him. He owns me as one of His sheep.
But this shepherd, owns his sheep in love. He's not a hireling. He's not in this for the money.
This is not just a part-time job for him. He owns his sheep
in love. David knew something about being
a shepherd. He knew something about sheep. Sheep are not wild
animals. Somebody bought them. They belong
to somebody. And they were bought at a great
price. Christ's sheep are no different. He paid for his sheep.
with a great price, with His blood. Sheep were a symbol of
great wealth. If you want to know who the richest
fellow in town was, just see who's got the biggest flock of
sheep. They're a symbol of wealth. Christ, the Great Shepherd, the
Good Shepherd. He owns a flock no man can number.
All His wealth, how He owns these sheep. And even though they're
a number no man can number, He cares for every one of them individually. And He'll not let one of them
go. He loves them, he won't let them go. And the glory of his
name depends upon it. In verse three there, he says,
he leads them in paths of righteousness for his namesake. He's not gonna
let one of them go for his namesake, for the glory of his name. The Lord of glory is my shepherd. Now since Jehovah is my shepherd,
I shall not want. For anything. For anything. Jehovah-Raya is Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord my shepherd is the Lord
will provide. He'll provide my every need.
Physically, that's true. The Lord feeds the ravens. The
ravens. I mean, you know, you'll notice
he didn't say the robins or the, you know, some, you know, bird
we all know. The ravens. The Lord feeds the
ravens. Do you reckon He's going to feed us? I think so. The Lord clothed the lilies of
the field. Consider the lilies. The Lord clothed the lilies of
the field. Do you think He's going to clothe us? I think He
will. I think He will. Now this doesn't
mean I'm going to have everything I wish for. I'm not going to
have everything I wish for. But I will not be in want. Not if the Lord's my shepherd
I won't be. You know, if I'm wishing for something I don't
have, that must mean I don't need it, right? Or else the Lord
would give it to me. That's true physically. I shall
not want. And if you can say it's doubly true, that's doubly
true spiritually. If the Lord is my shepherd, I
shall not want for any spiritual good. Not want, because of who
the shepherd is. Verse 2, He maketh me to lie
down in green pastures. Christ is my shepherd. I shall
not want for any spiritual food because my shepherd is the bread
of life. The green pastures David talks about here are the word
of God. This is where the God sheep come to feed. They feed
upon the word of God. They feed upon Christ. Christ,
the incarnate word is Christ, the written word. So we feed
in these green pastures. We feed upon Christ himself. Brethren, if we're feeding on
Christ, We've got to feed, don't we? I'll not be in want. I won't
want. I won't be hungry. And the Lord
leads his people. He leads them to feed on his
word. Now, how does he lead his people
to feed upon his word? It's by revealing himself in
the word. Our shepherd opens the word to
our understanding. So we see him just exactly like
he did for the disciples after his resurrection. then opened
he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures.
Well, didn't they understand what the scriptures were saying
all along? Yeah, they understood. But now they understood the meaning
of them. Now they understood that the meaning of all those
scriptures is Christ our Savior. That's how the Savior leads his
people is by opening our understanding. So we see him. And that's why
the sheep love nothing better than to just feed. in the green
pastures of God's Word. Just be able to get in God's
Word and roll around and eat to our heart's content. And you
can do that in this Word. You'll not find a single thorn.
You'll not find a single pebble that's going to break your teeth.
This is all lush green grass, all the blessing of Christ. That's
where our Savior, our Shepherd, leads His people to feed. The
end of Christ is my Shepherd, I shall not want for the water
of life. It's here at the end, rest of verse two. He leadeth
me beside the still waters. Christ leads his people to drink,
to come drink of him. Isn't that what he said? The
man thirst. Are you thirsty? It's not, do
you know how to drink? It's not, do you have a cup that
you can get some water in? Are you thirsty? Then come to
me and drink. Oh, if you knew the gift of God
and who it is that saith thee, give me to drink. God would have
asked of him and he would have given thee living water. Well,
how does the Lord give this living water to his people? How do we
drink the living water? It's by faith, by faith. He that
believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. That's how we have the living
water. It's by believing Christ through faith. And these are
not hard waters to drink. You know, complicated preaching,
not Psalm 23, is it? Complicated preaching and not
still waters. I've heard a lot of preaching
that's very, very shallow water over great big rocks. It makes
a lot of noise, but they're nothing to drink. Christ is not hard to drink. David says they're still waters.
And that phrase, still waters, means waters of quietness. These
waters are deep. cold, smooth flowing waters. They're not rushing waters that
would frighten a timid sheep, but they're still waters that
we can come and drink of deeply. If Christ is my shepherd, I can
drink all I want. I have the waters of life. I
never want for water. The end of Christ is my shepherd.
I shall not want for life because my shepherd is Jehovah Rapha,
the Lord who healeth thee. Verse three, He restores my soul. By his sin, Adam plunged his
entire race into spiritual death. Adam caused his race to lose
righteousness. He caused his race to fall into
death. The moment Adam ate that fruit,
not only did Adam die, all of us did too. Adam caused all of
his race to lose fellowship with God. Have you all walked bodily
with the Lord Jesus in the cool of the day? We lost that fellowship
with God in Adam, didn't we? So Christ came to restore to
his race everything Adam made us lose. By the obedience of
Christ, Christ undid everything Adam caused by his disobedience.
We lost life in Adam. Christ came to restore life to
his people. He came to restore soul life,
life in the soul to his people. By not just giving them life,
although He does, but it's more than that. By being their life. Christ is our life. That's how
our souls are restored, because Christ is our life. Christ restores
fellowship with the Father, not just by pointing the way, but
by being the way, that we can come before the Father accepted.
And Christ daily, daily, hour by hour, minute by minute, restores
the souls of his people. He strengthens the souls of his
people. As we're here in this journey below, there's some tough
paths, aren't there? That's a long path sometimes.
Some of the steep uphill climb. And we're weary. Souls are weary. Oh, how weary. But Christ comes
and restores the souls of his people. When we're weary, He
restores our soul. He gives us strength by fellowshipping
with the hearts of His people. When we sorrow, He restores the
joy of His salvation to His people. He restores my soul. He gives
health, strength to His people. The end of Christ is my shepherd.
I shall not want for righteousness, because my shepherd is none other
than Jehovah, said Lord, our righteousness. And this is very
important because without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. The
rest of verse three, he leadeth me in paths of righteousness
for his namesake. Christ our shepherd does more
than just lead us in the paths of righteousness. You know, people
mistakenly think if the Lord's leading us in paths of righteousness,
once he gets us in the path, then we can do righteous things.
No, that's not the story. That's true. I'm mighty disappointed,
aren't you? I've never done anything righteous.
Christ is the righteousness of His people, and He makes His
sheep righteous in Him through union with Him. Christ obeyed
the law as a man. He was made under the law, and
He obeyed that law for His people. And through union with Christ,
His obedience is my obedience. Whatever it is He did, I did
in Him. Through union with him, Christ
our shepherd makes his sheep righteous as the lamb of God. He is the righteousness of his
people. Hang on to your seat. If Christ
is your shepherd, you are as righteous as the son of God himself. Have to be. God couldn't accept
you any other way. He is the righteousness of his
people. Even if the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. I
shall not want for companionship. I don't have to fear being alone
because my shepherd is Jehovah Shammah. The Lord is present. He's there. Verse four. 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, they
comfort me. David said, this is the reason
I'm not going to fear any evil, because thou art with me. Jehovah
Shema, the Lord is there. Now you notice David didn't say
there wouldn't be any evil. You don't have to read much of
the story of David's life to find out he did not mean that.
No, there's evil, plenty of evil in there. And we can say that
from our own experience. There are plenty, plenty, plenty,
plenty of evil in me. There's plenty of evil around
me. I don't have fear of that evil. I don't fear it. As long
as the Lord, my shepherd is there. And he always is. He always will
be. So I have no reason to fear. Child of God, listen to me. Listen. You don't need this right now.
You're good. No matter where you are, no matter where No matter
where you will go, our God will always be there. He'll be with
his people always. You go to the mountaintop of
joy and you just enjoy such great spiritual blessing and learning
and just, oh, you have every reason to give thanks, don't
you? The Lord is there. But now listen, When you go into
the time of darkness and doubt and fear, you feel loneliness. You suffer heartbreak. You suffer
sickness and pain. You don't have to wonder where
the Lord is. He's with you there just as much as He was there.
The Lord is always there with His people. Your shepherd is
there. So we'll hurt. We will hurt. But we don't have to fear. Because
our shepherd is always with us. Let me give you a couple of illustrations.
I know a little bit about little girls. You all know little girls. They're playing here in the summertime.
They got their sundress on, their sandals, and they're running
around playing. And oh my goodness, she falls and skins her knee
on the concrete. Oh my goodness, you think you're
going to have to get a surgical team, don't you? I mean the agony.
Oh, she's going to have to wear a band-aid on that knee for three
weeks. And she's crying and carrying on, and Mama comes. And she scoops
her up and says, honey, it's all right. Mama's here. And you
know those tears start to dry up? Just because Mama's here. A little boy. Now, a little boy, I remember
we just recently went to Danville. I showed my brother where we
used to walk to school. And you know, there were times
walking to and from school, it wasn't very far, but there were
times I was afraid. I was afraid of a dog or a bully
or something, you know. But if I would have walked from
that house to that school with my dad, I wouldn't have feared
not one thing. Not one thing! Every little boy
knows that. Why should he be afraid? My daddy
can take care of anything. I won't fear. if my daddy's there. Truth be told, there are problems
a human daddy can't handle. But our Heavenly Father can handle
any problem. His arms are not short. Nothing
is too hard for God. He takes care of every evil,
the evil within. He takes care of it. Our shepherd
takes care of that evil within by cleansing his people with
his blood from that evil that's within, washing them in his blood.
He keeps his people safe from evil without, from evil in the
world, from the evil one, because he's in control of them. Even
when we face what we call the evil of death. Now we really ought to get out
of the habit of calling death evil, shouldn't we? We really
should. For the believer, it's the best thing for us. It's not
the best for the family left behind, but it's best for that
child, the death of this body. We've left it. We've left this
decaying, dying, sinful body and gone to be with the Lord.
But we live in a world where death is all around us and it's
because of sin. We live under the mountain of
death. I try to think of someone living
right beside the Rocky Mountains, and they know someday I've got
to cross that mountain, but not today. But they live in the shadow
of it, knowing it's there. That's the belief. We live in
the shadow of this great mountain, death. We know we've got to face
it someday. We've got to cross it someday.
And there's some fear involved about that, just because it's
unknown. I've never done that before.
If I'd crossed the mountain before, I wouldn't be worried about doing
it again, but I've never done it before. There's some fear
of the unknown, what it's going to be like and so forth and so
on. But David tells us, now listen, we're only in the shadow. We're
just in the shadow of the mountain. You don't have to fear a shadow.
The shadow can't hurt you. There's nothing to it. Christ
our shepherd has already taken the substance of death away from
his people. He already took the sting out
of death. So it's just a shadow. There's nothing to fear. One
of the writers said death is the front porch to the house
of eternal joy. We don't fear going on the front
porch, do we? We kind of like sitting on our front porch. That's
all death is. It's just the front porch to
the house of eternal joy. But here's another reason. Don't
fear the shadow. Don't fear the shadow. You know,
if you see a shadow, light has to be nearby, doesn't it? Isn't
that right? Well, if we see a shadow, Christ
the light is nearby. And we don't have to fear. He's
there with his people. He's there in the valley with
his people. Now when we speak of trouble, trial, and affliction,
we call it the valley, don't we? And it is, it's a valley. I picture two mountains. There's
a valley between them. You know where all the lush grass
is? Two mountains and a valley. You know where the lush grass
is? You know where the river is, where the water is, where
that deep still water is? Down in the valley. It's not
up here in the rocks. It's down here in the valley.
So it must be good for us to be in the valley. At least there
we learn our shepherd will provide. He's there with us and he'll
provide for us. Here's the green grass. Here's
the water. Here's the shepherd. What more could we want? And
David says, now we're in the valley. All of us are in this
valley, the shadow of death. But David says, now I don't fear
it. I don't fear it at all. And he proves it by saying, I
walk through the valley. He's not running through the
valley in a panic just as fast as he can to get through it.
He's not like he's running, you know, a race, a 5K race to see
if he can get through it as fast as possible. He's not scurrying
all around as fast as he can. It's like a little mouse, scurrying
all through the valley, trying to find some way out, even though
he don't know no way out. He's not doing that. David says,
I'm walking through this valley. Walking. Because I don't have
any reason to fear. My shepherd is with me. I'm following
my shepherd. And since he's here with me,
I walk calmly. I don't fear the valley of the
shadow of death. It's the presence of Christ that
comforts the hearts of His people. That's the only thing that comforts
the hearts of God's people. It's the presence of our Savior.
David says His rod and His staff You know, we think of the, we
get a vision of a shepherd. We get a vision of this fellow,
you know, nobody would be scared of, like little boy blue or something,
you know. That's not what a shepherd looked like. I mean, these men
were fierce. They had to be. They protect
the sheep from bears and wolves and all these, you know, all
these things. And they go out armed to the
teeth. to protect the sheep. I mean,
this is a serious business to them. They're hardened by being
out there in the sun and the elements. They got a rod and
they got a staff. And buddy, they mean business.
They mean business with them things. David said, I see my
shepherd, his rod and his staff, comfort them. Those piercing
eyes, that look of determination, that doesn't frighten me. No,
it comforts my heart. He sees everything. He's determined
to save me and to keep I don't fear my shepherd. I don't fear
because of my shepherd's rod and staff. They comfort me from
every danger. They protect me in every danger,
both within and without. That shepherd used his rod to
correct the sheep. The sheep would start going in
the wrong place. He'd get them back in line. Use
that hook to pull around their neck and pull them back in line.
That rod keeps me from going off the wrong way. Protects me
from the evil from within. And his staff he'd use to beat
off predators that got too close. Protects me from evil with that
one. But I'll tell you what else the rod was used for. It was
used to number the sheep. As they were going into or out
of the sheepfold, he'd use that rod to count his sheep. This one's mine. This one's mine. This one's mine. The shepherd's
rod counts me as one of his. He chose me. He bought me. I
belong to him. He's my shepherd. What do I have to fear? Not one
blessed thing. Nothing. The end of the Lord
is my shepherd. I shall not want for victory
because my shepherd is Jehovah Nissi, the Lord my banner. Verse
5. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. God's people They fight under
the banner of Christ lifted up. What draws God's people together?
It's Christ lifted up. Christ said, if I be lifted up
from the earth, I'll draw unto me. All my people will be drawn
unto me. When we're drawn to Christ, we've
got to have the victory. He's the mighty victor. He's
a great conqueror. If we're with him, we've got
the victory. So we sit down to this table and eat calmly. You
know, soldiers on the front line, They don't sit down to a nice
meal. They don't sit down with a nice chair, at a nice table
with nice china and silverware and napkins and gorgeous tablecloth. They don't do that when they're
on the front lines. When they're under attack, when
they're in a place of danger from the enemy, they eat rations
out of a little bag, just, you know, whenever, wherever they
can. The only time a soldier sits down to a table like this
is when victory is won. The enemy is vanquished. And
God's children eat at a full table. Sometimes go read about
the provisions for Solomon's table every day. I mean, all
the deer and pheasants and fruits and vegetables. Read about his...
I mean, I just cannot imagine the people he's feeding and the
feast that they have. That's table scraps compared
to the table our Lord, our Shepherd prepared for us. He's prepared
the banquet. He supplies the banquet for his
people. Christ is the table. He's the
whole table, the Lord's table. We observed last Wednesday that
broken bread, that shed, shed blood. That's the Lord's table. He is the table and he's the
one that prepares for it. He prepares it for his people.
Remember that night, the disciples rock fishing all night, caught
nothing. Saw the Lord there. They didn't know it was him yet.
They saw him on the On the shore, he said, children, have you any
meat? They said, no, we caught nothing. They had to admit their
failure. They caught nothing. He said, well, cast your net over
there. Oh, they caught a great bunch of fish. And they came
to shore and it's the Lord. And he prepared for them a meal
of fish and bread. I just bet that was the best
meal those fishermen ever had. The Savior prepared it for them. That's our gospel. Our gospel
is a gospel, is a meal prepared for his people. And it's the
best meal a believer ever ate. It's the best moment because
the Lord prepared it for us. And this table is a rich table,
a full table, a table for a hundred guests. Look at the rest of verse
five. Thou anointest my head with oil,
my cup runneth over. When a host would have a big
party, when his guests would show up, he'd anoint their head
with oil to refresh them. They're out in the hot sun, the
hot, dusty elements, and he would anoint their head with oil to
refresh them. You think how often the Lord
refreshes his people. He refreshes them with oil, the
oil of his spirit. He refreshes his people with
the word. He refreshes them with his presence, with his spirit.
They have. None of his guests, no one at
his table shall ever want. When an honored guest would arrive
for the meal, the host would greet him and he'd give him a
glass. Put it in his hand. He'd take a bottle of wine and
he'd start pouring. And he wouldn't stop when it
got three quarters of the way full. He wouldn't stop when it
got full. He'd keep pouring until that
wine just ran over, just ran down everywhere. He told his
guest, There is an abundance here for you. As long as you're
in my house at my table, you'll not want for anything. There's
abundance here. David said, the Lord made my
cup to run over so that I won't want for anything, anything. I won't want for peace because
the Lord is my peace. I should not want for wisdom
because Christ is our wisdom. We should not want for sanctification
because Christ is our sanctification. We should not want for comfort
because Christ is our comfort. We have a high priest, a shepherd
who's touched with the feeling of our infirmity. Now, since
all this is true, since all this is true about who our shepherd
is, then this surely is true. Verse six. Surely, without a
doubt, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Goodness
and mercy are God's two bodyguards. He's sent to be with his children.
They go with those children everywhere they go. Goodness to supply our
every need. Mercy to blot out our sin. Everywhere
a child of God goes, Goodness and mercy are there with us.
Whether they're dark days or bright days, there's goodness
and mercy. Whether they're days of joy or
days of sorrow, goodness and mercy are there. When our heart
is thrilled and when our heart is broken, goodness and mercy
have left us. They're always there. And when
this life and this valley of the shadow of death is over,
goodness and mercy will go with us. We're not going to be left
homeless. David said, I shall dwell in
the house of the Lord forever. Joy. The unspeakable joy to be
eternally with Christ. There, Certainly we'll know we
won't want for anything. Isn't that right? We're going
to know that. And there we're going to look
back and you know what we're going to see? I never did. I never did want for anything
because Christ is my shepherd. I may be the weakest of all his
sheep, the littlest one, but I shall not want. I may be the
dumbest sheep, stray away from the shepherd at just every chance
I get. But I shall not want. I'm going
to grow old in people. But I shall not want. Not because
of me. In spite of me. Because the Lord
will bless it. I hope the Lord will bless that
too. Let's bow in prayer. Our great God. Our Heavenly Father. We thank you for this evening.
We thank you for this blessed passage of your word that you've
allowed us to look into. Father, cause it to be new to
us like we've never seen it before. Apply it to our hearts that it'll
thrill us just as much as any other time we've ever read it.
Cause us to leave here resting, thrilling in the thought that
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of heaven and earth, is our shepherd. And since he's our shepherd,
since all fullness is in him, since every spiritual blessing,
since he's the fountain of grace, he's the fountain of mercy, he's
the source of peace, since everything is in him, if he's our shepherd,
we shall not want him. Father, how we thank you. Bless
us now as we go back home, bless us, give us traveling mercies,
and cause us to take this with us tomorrow. Take it to bed tonight,
take it to work, take it out to the end of the world tomorrow.
That the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. It's in his
precious name we pray and give thanks.