Turn back to Psalm 23. Psalm 23. This is a psalm for
the sheep. This is one of those green pastures
that he makes us to lie down in. I wrote this out last Wednesday
before I canceled the service. I woke up with this psalm on
my mind. I like to wake up like that.
I don't usually wake up like that, but I woke up with this
psalm. Actually, and I don't put any
stock in dreams, but I was dreaming that I was supposed to have preached
and I'd missed it. And you all wanted to know where
I was. And I couldn't tell you. I was
just totally blank, absolutely blank. I didn't know where I
was, what happened or anything in my dream. And so I just stood
up at the pulpit and I just started preaching from this psalm. And
I thought, well, the Lord is my shepherd. When I don't know
where I'm at, the Lord's my shepherd. When I can't remember my name,
the Lord's my shepherd and He leads me. And that was going
on. And I woke up and I laid in bed for an hour, hour and
a half with this psalm. just going over and over and
over in my mind. And the comfort, the comfort
that it gave me, I thought, well, I've got to look at that. So
I went down to my study and I just wrote out this outline. But this
psalm is a very comforting psalm to the Lord's people. David starts out here And he says, the Lord, the Lord
Jehovah, he's thinking upon Him. You see, back in Psalm 24, he
says, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the
world is they that dwell therein. That's the one he's speaking
of. The Lord who owns all things. This is my Father's world. He's the one that is my Shepherd. He's my master. He's my Lord. He's my God. He's my keeper. So it says in Psalm 121, the
Lord is thy keeper. He's thy shade upon thy right
hand. He's my counselor. I'm sure glad I have one who
counsels me with infinite wisdom. I'm glad I'm not left to the
counsel of men. but to the counsel of Almighty God. He's my counselor. He guides the steps of my feet.
I don't know which way to go, do you? You and I don't know
what the next minute will bring. But He does. He's determined
it. He's decreed it. The steps of a good man, and
those who are in Christ are good, are ordered by the Lord. He's
my protector. Do you remember when David Fought
that lion over that one lamb. I believe you and I would have
let that lamb go. I do believe we would have let, we'd just
look at that flock and say, well, we can sacrifice that one. But
he fought that one, he fought that lion over that one lamb. He's my protector. He's my owner. He's my owner. I'm glad he owns
me. Somebody owns me. You know, we're
not our own. Somebody else owns us. But he's
my owner. And because I have such a shepherd,
and because the Lord, that's where it starts, the Lord, because
he's my shepherd, I shall not want. I shall not want. David said this, I have been
young and now am old. I have not seen the righteous
forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. And you won't. You won't. He providentially meets all my
needs. Everything that went on today,
the Lord brought it to pass providentially that we may have our needs met.
When I leave this life, and in a little while we all
will, when I leave it and I stand before God, what an awesome I
think of those who've gone on before us. What an awesome experience.
I just can't even fathom what that's going to be like to leave
this body and to go be with the Lord. But when that happens,
when that day comes, I shall not want, I shall not want, I
shall not want for any good thing. I shall not want for wisdom.
I shall not want for righteousness. I shall not want for sanctification.
I shall not want for redemption. I shall not want because the
Lord, who is my Shepherd, is all these things to me. He doesn't just give them to
me. He is these things to me. What a provider my Shepherd is. What a provider. I shall not
come up short in anything. needed to stand before God. I tell you, I was thinking of
these things for a long time, and I drew, I really drew some
comfort from this the other, or a week ago, and today as I'm
going over it again. In my shepherd, I am complete. You notice how David makes this
a very personal psalm. He says, the Lord is my shepherd,
I, and he speaks of his relationship between him and his shepherd. And that's the way we are saved. We're not saved by bunches. Individually. We are led individually. He leads
his church as a whole, but he leads us also individually. And he maketh me to lie down
in green pastures. Green, lush pastures. He's the one who provides the
pastures. He's the one who leads me to
them, and He's the one who enables me to lie down in them. Listen, I thought about this
when I was writing this. He has provided me 66 passages
to lie down in. Now, why should I ever be hungry?
He has provided me and you Sixty-six books of the Bible here, His
Word. But He has provided sixty-six passages for us to lie down in.
And each one of those are full of promises. Full of the promises
of God to His sheep. Oh, we ought to find much comfort
in this. And His Word gives us great comfort. It gives great
comfort to the weary heart. It gives great comfort to those
who need it. It gives great comfort. And in
His Word are many promises for the weary sheep. This is a wearisome life, isn't
it? As you get older, you realize
more of it, how wearisome it really is. He says this in Matthew chapter
11, Come unto Me, all you that labor, and are heavy laden, and
I will give you rest." Isn't that a good promise? There's
a green pasture to lie down in. There's something to munch on.
And He leadeth me by His Spirit, by His providence. I wasn't looking for the Gospel
when I found it. I actually thought I had it.
I wasn't looking for it. And then I found it, found to
them that sought me not, made known unto them that asked not
after me. By his Spirit, he leadeth. By
his providence, that mysterious providence of God, he leadeth.
And by his wisdom, he leadeth. He leads us to the pastures that
we need to lie down in. He leads us to the promises that
we need. He leads us to the portion of
his word that's fitting for us at the time. He leadeth. He leadeth
me, he says, beside the still waters. He leadeth me, he feeds
me, and he waters me. That's a good shepherd. That's
a good shepherd. He not only feeds his sheep,
but he also waters them. Takes them down by the still
waters, enables them to drink. And he leads me to rest. This
just drips of comfort and rest. He leads me down to the still
waters. Even though things may be in
turmoil outwardly, even though I may be in trouble outwardly,
there is a real inward peace that the sheep of the Lord enjoy,
even in the midst of trouble. There are some still waters that
He leads them by, even when things seem to be chaotic. They have
that inward peace, that inward joy that just can't be described. But it can be experienced. Because
He leads them to it. And He leads us into it. He nourishes
His sheep. But this also speaks of His provisions
for us as we pass through this life. Who provides them for us? I know we all have jobs. But
who provided the job? Who provided you the intelligence
to do the job? He provides for us all things. I lost four jobs, and every time
it got better. I didn't think so. I'm telling
you, I would have never thought so. But over the time that Vicki
and I were married, I've lost four jobs. They went out of business. He provided. I can say that to
any young person. He provideth. This shepherd is real and he's
ours. He's real and he's ours. And
he restoreth my soul. Can you restore your soul? Can you restore anybody else's?
What about your children? Can you restore your children?
He restored. He's the Restorer. It's in His
hands to restore. It was given to Him to restore.
My soul was lost. What a terrible word. Lost. What a terrible place. Lost.
Terrible way to be. Lost. My soul was lost in Adam, but
restored in the Lord Jesus Christ. Restored really better than it
was in Adam. Much better. Because it can't
be lost again. And He lifts me up. He restores
my soul. When I sin, when I get cold,
begin to get a little indifferent, He restores my soul. He's the
one who brings me back. He's the one who creates the
interest. He's the one who wakes me up. He's the one who puts
me in check. He's the one who hedges up my
way. And we do. We get cold. We get a little
indifferent at times. We start to just get with the
humdrum busyness of life. And then He checks it. He restores
my soul. He restores it. He's the one
who made reconciliation for me. I didn't make it, He did. He's
the one who reconciled me to God. God was in Christ reconciling
the world to Himself. We didn't reconcile ourselves
to Him. He reconciled us. He's the one who did it. He's
the restorer of my soul. And He has brought me into true
fellowship with God the Father. We really know something about
God. We really, and I hesitate to
say it this way, but we really know God. Because I know we don't
know. We know in part, we preach in
part. And when we speak about the immenseness of God and God's
infinite wisdom and knowledge, we know God. We know God. And that's because
He has restored us to that fellowship and given us a knowledge and
understanding of God. He has revealed the Father. He
revealed the Father. And then he leadeth me. You know,
we're never left alone. The shepherd never leave the
sheep alone. He's always leading right now.
Even though you may not be able to detect it, he's leading. He's leading us. We pray often,
Lord, give us your leadership. He does. We pray for it, but
I know this, he leads his sheep. And He leadeth me in the path
of righteousness for His name's sake. We sing that song, He leadeth
me, He leadeth me. Oh, precious thought. It is a
precious thought. He leadeth me. I don't know which
way to go, but He does. And He leads in the path of righteousness. Where He leads is always righteous,
and the path is always right. It's always right. If He's leading it is. And He
does this for His namesake because of who He is. Because of who
He is and He does it for His eternal glory. He's leading to
the praise and glory of His grace and our eternal good. He leadeth
me. Oh, He leadeth me. And He never
leads astray. Never leads astray. He's been
every place He's going to lead you to. He's already been there.
He's already been there. No surprises. No disappointments. He's already been there. He never leads astray or into
sin. Never. Always in paths of righteousness. If we go astray or into sin,
it's because we've been drawn away by the lust of our flesh.
That's what James tells us. But he leads us in the paths
of righteousness, in a right path. Trust his leadership. Trust his leadership. It leads
to glory. And then he says, yea, though
I walk. This drips with confidence, doesn't it? This drips with confidence. I walked. Enoch walked with God. Then it says Noah walked with
God. This is just full of confidence. I have a
Bible program on my computer Tom Harding gave me some time
ago. And you can do a word search
and it will bring up any word in the Bible that's in there.
And I put in there, they ran with God. Run with God. That doesn't come up. Walk. Walk. No hurry. You know, you run when
you're either you're scared. Usually you're scared if you're
running. You're trying to get out of the house or you're trying
to, you know, something, there's danger. Walk with God. Any walk with God right in the
midst of that evil generation. It says, the earth was filled
with violence, Enoch walked with God. He walked with Him. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, that's not just the grave, that's
his whole life. This whole life is a valley of
the shadow of death. That's what it is. I will fear no evil, for thou
art with me. I will not fear the evil one.
I'll not fear him. He's been bound by my shepherd.
My shepherd has bound that lion that goes about roaring, seeking
whom he may devour. He's been bound by my shepherd. I'll not fear the evil one. I'll not fear what evil men can
do to me. I'll not fear that. Their heart
is in the hand of the Lord. It says, like the rivers of water,
he turns it withers whoever he will. The king's heart is in
the hand of the Lord. Like rivers of water, he turneth it withers
whoever he will. He has every man's heart in his
hands. Every one. I will not fear evil tidings.
For all things are of God. All things are of God. They may
surprise us, and they do. They do. You know, they shock
us sometimes. But not him. Not him. All things are of God. And I will not fear the grave.
For it is only a shadow. It's just a shadow. Like walking through a tunnel.
Have you ever walked through a tunnel? The sun's shining on
both ends. It's just a shadow. You know,
the shadow of a serpent never bit anyone. The shadow of a bee
has never stung anyone. It's just a shadow. Death, hell,
and the grave had no sting in them. They'd been conquered by
my shepherd. Like I said, he's already been
where we're going. He's already taken care of those
things. But here's the reason why. For
thou art with me. Thou art with me. Right in me. The Scripture says Christ in
you. the hope of glory, leading and guiding and carrying and
bringing you through. If God be for us, who can be
against us? If God is with us in Christ,
we have nothing to fear, not at all. He said, Thy rod and
thy staff, they comfort me. I don't know exactly what his
rod and staff are here. I really don't. I don't know
exactly what they are, but is that okay? There's a lot of things
I don't know. A lot of things. But I do know
this. If he's speaking of the rod of
discipline, it may not be pleasant at the time, but it will yield
peace. It will yield peace and comfort
eventually. But you know, over in Psalm 110,
let me turn over to Psalm 110. His rod and his staff comfort
me. I think it has something to do here with the gospel. Over here in Psalm 110. Let me see what verse it is. The Lord shall send, listen,
the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Thy rod shall comfort me. I think maybe he's speaking there
of the gospel. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength
out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy gospel,
the gospel we sit under week after week, shall comfort us. When our hearts are broken during
the week and we come in here, His gospel comforts us. Just
like I woke up last Wednesday thinking about this psalm right
here. This psalm. And I found I was comforted.
There was a real comfort in this when I woke up and was thinking
upon this psalm. Thy rod shall comfort me. Thy
word, thy rod, thy staff, it'll comfort me. It will. And thou preparest a table before
me. Who's preparing the table? Our
Lord. How condescending is that for
God Almighty to come down and prepare a table for the sheep?
I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give
my life a ransom for many. Thou preparest a table, the table
prepared of our Lord, and before me in the presence whereof mine
enemies." Right now, we have a feast. Right now, we have a table prepared
right now for us to feast on in the midst of our enemies,
in the midst of trouble, in the midst of turmoil. Right now,
we have it. We come in with what we're doing
tonight. We all have our different troubles.
We all do. We all have things going on out
there that sometimes we know of. But we all have our different
troubles. But we can come here and feast.
We can come here to the Lord's table when we have the bread
and the wine and feast. We can come here to the Gospel
and feast. The table that the Lord prepared by His life, His
death, His resurrection, He's prepared us a feast. He said over in Scripture, Come
and dine. Come and dine. He prepared us a table of grace,
a table of mercy. He's prepared us a banquet. Oh,
what we have in Christ to feast on. What we have in Him. Right in
the presence of all those who hate Him and us, we have this
banquet, this feast going on. And I think this speaks more
of that inner man feasting upon Him. Because we have all these
troubles going on outwardly. And we have trouble inwardly.
We have conflict inwardly. But there's a feast, there's
a banquet that we have in Christ that He has prepared that we
can eat of. He said, Thou anointest my
head with oil, my cup runneth over. His grace is poured forth
upon us continually. Not spurts. It doesn't come and
go in spurts. continually. We are continual
partakers of His grace. It is continually poured upon
us. But also, we have been anointed
by the Holy One of Israel. We are His. We are His. He has made us kings and priests
under God. We are sealed with the Holy Spirit
of promise. And listen, He qualifies us He
qualifies us for the work of each day. He qualifies us to
do what we do every day. He qualifies us. And he says
here, in my cup, my cup runneth over Christ and all this too. My cup runneth over. And I thought this, if not, Why
not? If my cup's not running over,
if not, why not? And here's the answer that came
to me today as I was going back over this. Hold it under the
fountain of grace and it'll run over again. It's only going to
run over if it's under the fountain, if it's where the water's running.
It's when we get caught up with all these other things that we
We lose sight of these things and we lose joy. We lose the
joy of salvation. We lose the joy of these things.
But when our cup runneth over, it's because it's under the fountain
of grace. And He's pouring it in. And it runs over. This speaks of joy and fullness. It says over in Psalm, I believe
it's Psalm 1611, In thy presence, listen, in thy presence is fullness
of joy. Now where is our cup going to
run over? When is our cup going to run over? In thy presence. He said in thy presence is fullness
of joy. And here we are going to close
with an indisputable fact. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life." These two guardians are always
with us, His goodness and His mercy. Always. Never without them. They always
follow us. They're always with us. They
are our guardians, His goodness and His mercy. And the end result
of a believer's life in Christ is this, and I will dwell in
the house of the Lord forever. This is not it. This is just
a journey home. Now, the wicked, he said, will
not stand before the Lord over Psalm 1. They will not stand
in the judgment. They're going to be cast out.
But the sheep They are going to dwell in the house of the
Lord, listen, forever. Forever. We are going to go home
here in a few minutes. We're going to separate, go home,
then we'll come back, Lord willing, Sunday and Wednesday. But there
is a coming of time when it's forever. It's forever. All His sheep. Every last one
of His sheep. have a good end. They have a
good end because they have a good home that they're going to. I
will dwell, not visit. I'm not going to visit. I will
dwell in the house. In my Father's house are many
dwelling places. If it weren't so, if it were
not so, I would have told you. And the comfort that David is
drawing here that He's given to us is that the end result
of all this is that we are going to dwell in the house of the
Lord forever. Well, I hope once again that
you can draw some comfort from that 23rd Psalm. It's a real
blessing. Okay, Mike.