We all know Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. I like to say it that way. That's
the way David meant it. Now, he's the sustainer of all
life for all men, all creatures, big and small, it doesn't matter.
He provides everything that's necessary for all the supplies
for everything in this world. All the future. Everything on the earth below.
Mark this place. Look at Psalm 145. Verse 15, The eyes of all wait
upon Thee, and Thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou
openest thine hand and satisfyeth the desire of every living thing."
Can you just imagine that? All the food, all the water,
all the essentials for every creature in the world are spoken
of here as something that God himself provides for. And when
you talk about that task, it's unimaginable to our minds what
all is involved. I watched a show the other day
where they were showing these gigantic whales following these
schools of fish opening their mouths and just swallowing all
of this. I thought, how many fish to feed that whale? And
yet that food's there. That food's there. Such a great,
gigantic task, and yet here when the psalmist describes it, he
describes it as something that God just has to do by opening
his hand. That's how empty, that's how simple this is. He opens
his hand, and the desire of every creature is satisfied. He sends
the rain, the scripture says, for He maketh, I love this, He
maketh His Son to rise on the evil and the good and sendeth
rain on the just and the unjust. It's His rain, it's His Son,
and He makes it to rise, just and unjust. You know, that's a language that's
lost in our day, the language of giving credit to God. And
I was walking out of work last night, and someone said, I'll
see you tomorrow. And I said, Lord willing. And you know, when
you say it, you know they're thinking, what in the world's
wrong with him? Deus Valente, the Lord willing. The year of our Lord. I'd like
to see a Christmas card with the year of our Lord, 2006 on
it. You might as well speak Hebrew.
You might as well speak Latin, some ancient Armenian language,
something that's long gone, because that's a dead language in this
day. The language of giving credit to God Almighty. That's what
the Bible does. It's something every child of
God should own. Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the
field, if God clothed the grass of the field, which today is
and tomorrow is cast in the oven, shall not he much more clothe
ye, O ye of little faith? That's over in Matthew 6. He
clothes the grass. Shall he not clothe you, O ye
of little faith? All these things. Things that
go on every day in life are his goods. David here is speaking
about this. When he talks about the Lord
being his shepherd, this goes beyond just the Lord taking care
of everybody. This man is claiming a particular,
peculiar interest that God Almighty has towards him. Now, that's
what it means. Particular. The Lord is my shepherd. He's my shepherd. And I love
it because he speaks of himself here as a dumb, weak, stupid
animal. And I was listening to the old
tape the other day. It was probably back in the 70s. Henry was preaching,
and he's talking about all we like sheep have gone astray.
And he talked about the significance of the scripture, how it uses
the word sheep in reference to us. He doesn't say dogs, because
you can drop a dog off out in Grayson. He'll probably find
his way home. You cow go out forty acres, night
time he'll come home. The ox knows his critter. But
you can take a stupid lamb and he can find a hole in the fence.
He can get through that hole and he's too dumb to get back
through it. That's what David's saying. I'm just a weak, defenseless,
stupid critter. But thank God the Lord's my shepherd. The Lord's my shepherd. He cares
for me. And because of that, I shall
not walk. I'm not going to walk. I'm not
going to lack is the best word either. I'm not going to lack.
He's able to supply all my needs. Not only that, he's willing to
supply all his needs for his people. It's not just the ability,
it's the willingness. You'll see that here. You know,
we talked a moment or two ago about temporal things, how if
the Lord takes care of the lilies, how much more so shall he take
care of us. Now, these temporal things are important in our lives. If he feeds the birds, you're
not going to go home. If a sparrow doesn't fall from
the branch of any tree, and that's what the scripture says, listen
to this verse in Matthew 10, 29. Look at it. Look at Matthew
10, 29. Are not two sparrows sold for
a farthing, and one of them, now that's one of them, that's
just half a farthing's worth. One of them shall not fall on
the ground without your father, but the very hairs in your head
are all numbered. All right. See, there's no such thing as
chance or luck. There's not even a chance or
luck when it comes to birds. How much the more so in the lives
of his people. How much the more so in the lives
of his people. No such thing here. If the life
or death of a sparrow was that important, then I'm telling you,
if the Lord's my shepherd, I shall not walk. I shall not walk. You
think about the hairs on your head being numbered. That talks
about the minuteness of God's care for his people. It also
speaks about the continuing care of God's people. And every day
I get up and shower, and I'll just tell you honestly, I'm losing
hair. But the tally is none. Not a
hair falls. Not a hair falls from one of
his people. All these earthly affairs are in no way left to
chance, and every step of our lives, every step of our lives
are guided by minute, exquisite care. The care of the shepherd
for his people. Ah, my goodness. Now here he talks about this,
and I mention this because, you know,
we all acknowledge the sovereignty of God in creation. I hope everybody
here does. And we all say with our mouths
that we believe in the sovereignty of God in salvation. I believe
it with my heart, and I believe people. But I tell you, this
is the last little bastion, the last little stronghold of our
natural unbelief. We just don't see it every day.
We don't see the sovereignty of God Almighty every day in
the lives of His people. He is their shepherd. He shall
not fall. Now, if that's true of things
temporal, you know it's got to be true of things spiritual.
How much the more so? Paul said, His grace is sufficient
for you. He always will be. His grace is sufficient for me.
As thy days, so shall thy strength be, the scripture says. That's
the case. You know, you think back in the
old time in Israel, when those people were coming up out of
Egypt, all the way to the promised land. I don't care what the weather
was. It didn't matter if the sun was
out or if it was a cloudy day. It didn't matter what was going
on around them. The Canaanites might have been starving. The
Philistines may have been doing without. The economy may have
been real bad. And I want you to know, every
day the manna fell. Every day the needs were met
for those folks. Temporal needs, yes. Shoes on
their feet, didn't wear out. But those are just pictures of
how much the more so that's true in the spiritual sense. Every
day, the spiritual needs of the Lord's people are being met.
They're being met. You see, He is our security,
not only today, but He is our security forever. He, the Lord
Himself, has always been our security. I love that verse that
says, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. You've
been our dwelling place. He's been my security throughout
time and will always remain the security of a child of God. And verse two says here, He maketh
me to lie down in green pastures. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. I love that too. You know, if
you can enter into verse one, the rest of these verses don't
make a lot of sense. He maketh me to lie down. He has to make
me lie down. He just has to do it. It talks
about green pastures here. This is grazing, grazing ground
the Lord. We've got green pastures, plural. We've got the Word of God. You
know, it's normal for a sheep to eat grass. That's healthy
food for a sheep. And I'm telling you, normal food
for one of God's children, his sheep, is the Word of God. And
it's grazing, great grazing. Food for the soul. Food for the
soul. Supernatural food for the soul.
It's pastures in plural there. Plural. There's just a variety.
that we find in God's Word. You know, it's interesting. No
matter how many times you hear a text preached from, there's
always something else there. Have you noticed that, friend?
There's always something else there. Every time I've ever had
to get up and preach something again, I find something else.
I love it. I love it. It's always going
to be that way. This is an infinite God with
an eternal Word. And this book is far beyond our
comprehension. It's an infinite book. He makes
us to lie down to rest on His promises, and He leadeth me beside
the still waters, the still waters. He leadeth me. I couldn't find
these waters. I couldn't find these waters.
I've got to be led. I have to be led. He leads me. I need pasture, and I tell you,
I need refreshing, too. And that's what the still waters
are, the still waters. That word is important, still
waters. You know the Hebrew word there is waters of rest. That's what that says. He leadeth
me beside the waters of rest. It speaks about his spirit, it
speaks about his word, it speaks about his grace, and the scripture
waters off of a picture of his grace and his spirit in the life
of an individual. It's a picture of this. The Lord
told that woman at the well, you drink of this well and you'll
be thirsty again. But if you drink of the water I give you,
you're never going to thirst. You're never going to thirst.
These are still waters because, you know, if you get down next
to a running water. I remember one time I was with
Henry down in Mexico at Agua Azul. If you've ever been down
there, this river comes down out of those mountains. And I'm
just telling you, you wouldn't want to stick your head down
in that and try to take a drink out of that. It'd sweep you away. It'd choke you. But the Lord leads us to still
waters, waters of rest, because He knows what's best for us,
and He takes us there, and we have that water, that supply.
And He restores my soul, verse three. He restores my soul. You see, this is a continual
concern. When I'm down, He brings me up. He brings me up. He gives me strength. He restoreth
my soul. You know, you can have a lot
of friends in your life that help you. A lot of friends in
your life that can help you. But, you know, there are things
the preacher can't do for you. He restoreth my soul. He restoreth
my soul. And actually, that word actually
there in some of the scriptures say, He bringeth it back. I like
that. He brings it back. Prone to wander,
Lord I fear. Prone to leave the God I love,
He brings it back. He brings it back. And He leadeth me in paths of
righteousness. for His name's sake. He leadeth. It's just constant. It's just constant here. He leadeth
me. The steps of our lives, the ones
the shepherd leads us in are paths of righteousness. Paths
of righteousness. How does that happen? I wouldn't
even know what a path of righteousness looks like. I couldn't find it
with a guide dog. I mean, I'm blind when it comes
to these things. But I'm telling you, we have
a Savior that has come and borne away our sins. And this One who
has made sin for us has made us the very righteousness of
God in Him. Paths of righteousness. What He's done for us is so extensive
that everywhere we put our foot is a righteous path. Because
of what we are in Him. You see that as paths of righteousness.
Paths of righteousness. Leading us all the way and it's
for His glory. For His own name. I love that.
It's for His namesake. It's for His namesake. That's
why I know the gospel I preach is God's gospel. Because absolutely
nobody gets any glory in it but the Son of God Himself. My wife's not here tonight. Last
night about 12 o'clock midnight I was flagging down an ambulance
down on the country road to point them up to the house where my
mother-in-law and father-in-law lived. My father-in-law was having
heart pains and he was feeling bad enough that he didn't want
to drive and nobody wanted to do CPR. They got up there and
took him down and I tried to sleep, but I want you to know,
I thought about that. I thought about facing death,
and the thought came to me that I'm so happy that all my hopes
are pinned on one man, and that that man ain't me. You know what I'm saying? I'm
so happy that there's been a righteousness provided that God Almighty will
accept through the blood of His Son. that the vilest might be
washed clean, and stand forever holy in the presence of a God
who even the angels and the seraphim shade and cover their faces rather
than look at Him, to walk in His presence and have communion
with Him. I'm telling you, He leads me
in paths of righteousness, and it's all been for His own namesake,
and it's all been because He's done it all. is the kingdom. Thine is the
power. Thine most certainly will be
the glory forever and ever. That's how the Lord ended that
prayer. And that's the way it is. Paths of righteousness. The shepherd restoring our souls,
making us walk righteous in Christ Jesus, all for His glory. I'll
tell you, you see, you're not only not going to lack the things
of this world, you're not going to lack the most important thing
you're ever going to need, And that's only true because
the Lord is my shepherd. Look at this verse four. Yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff. They comfort me. I'm not going
to lack comfort. I'm not going to lack companionship.
That's what he's talking about. All through this life. I'm not
going to lack comfort or companionship. One day, you and I are all going
to have to go through the valley of the shadow of death. I'm glad
it doesn't call it the valley of death. It's very plain. It's the valley of the shadow
of death. It's not the valley of death
for a believer, but the great news is we're going to walk through
it. Calmly. We're not going to have to run. We're going to be able to walk.
Because the Lord is our shepherd. That's something only a believer
can say. That's the kind of thing that
would make Paul say, to die is gain. And it's not the valley of death,
it's the valley of the shadow of death because the very substance
of death has been removed for believers. You know, I've heard it said
so many times, the shadow of a dog can't bite you. Shadow
of a dog can't bite you. And I'm going to tell you something
about a shadow. Where there's a shadow, there's light somewhere.
And Spurgeon said this, and it was, I thought, a great, great
illustration. He said that death stands by
the side of the highway in which we have to travel, and the light
of heaven itself shining upon him throws a shadow across our
path. I want you to know there is light
beyond that shadow. So I'll fear no evil. I will
fear no evil. Look at Psalm 46. This is Luther's
psalm. Psalm 46, they call it Luther's
Psalm, we'll call it Culver's Psalm tonight. God is a refuge
and strength and very present help in trouble. Therefore, will
not we fear, though the earth be removed, though the mountains
be carried to the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof
roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake, though the
swelling thereof, there is a river. The streams whereof shall make
glad the city of God, the holy place of tabernacles and the
most high. I'm telling you. All this trouble,
all this strife, there's a river, there's going to be some tabernacles
waiting for us. I'll fear no evil. I'll tell
you, in this picture, too, I want you to see the sovereignty of
God that comforts this man. He talks about thy rod and thy
staff comforting him. You see, the rod of the shepherd
is the rod that he uses as he goes with the sheep. When they
get out of the fold, he takes that rod and brings them back
in. He rules them with his rod. It's a symbol of his authority.
And that same rod that rules the sheep is the rod that he
knocks the noggins of every enemy those sheep have. It's his sovereignty. He takes care of the enemies
of the sheep with that rod, and he takes care of the sheep with
that rod. What he's saying is, because
the Lord's my shepherd and I know he reigns, I'm comforted. I have
comfort and consolation. I have comfort and consolation.
Your rod and your staff comfort me. I'll tell you, I find no
comfort in a God that's not raining. I know there's a lot of that
being preached today, but there's absolutely no comfort to be had
if things are catching God by surprise. He's sitting around
waiting to see who's going to believe. He's sitting around
waiting to see what's going to happen in Israel so he can figure
out what to do. That's not the God of the Bible.
And this man writing this wasn't thinking that way. Look at verse
5. This is a short psalm, but there's
so much that could be said. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. I've got enemies. You've got
enemies. The Lord's sheep have enemies. David here doesn't seem to be
losing any sleep over it. He says, the Lord prepares a
table, a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You know,
man's at war, and I've never been to war, but I know this,
that if I were in a battle, fighting, and I was hungry, anything I
got to eat, I would grab it, get it down fast, and get back
to work. But you don't get that picture
at all. Dave is describing a feast being prepared for him in the
presence of all his enemies. He's out in the middle of a battlefield,
and they're setting the tables up. You see that? I'm not going
to have to grab a bite here. What's that mean? Well, it means
that the Lord Himself, the Lord Himself is not afraid. He calmly
sets and prepares a table for us in the middle of a battlefield. He's not concerned with these
enemies. He is not at all, in any sense
of the word, concerned with them. Nothing is hurried. Everything
is perfect peace with Him. And you can just sit down and
eat. Sit down and eat right out there in the middle of the battlefield
with all the enemies hating you, fussing, fuming. What was the
Scripture? The Scripture speaks of consulting
together to cast us down. And for all the plans, the Lord
Himself is setting a banquet. He's talking about right here,
while our enemies are still present. Sitting and eating in a battlefield
as if our enemy didn't exist. There's only one way. The Lord
is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. Thou anointest my head with oil.
My cup runneth over. Not enough that I'm at a feast,
but it's such a feast, with all the enemies around me, that He,
God Almighty, has taken the time to pour His oil over my head.
Sitting there as a special guest at this feast with my hair dripping
with this oil, the oil of gladness that's poured upon the heads
of the children of God, And there with a cup handed out, he is
pouring, he is pouring wine over the top of it. I'll tell you,
I used to visit a friend of mine down in Louisiana years ago.
Haven't been down there in a while, but he, he loves community coffee. And when I, the times I've been
down there, he gets up, you get up in the morning, their coffee
is off. And generally, if you walk in, there's a cup sitting
there. And he'll fill that thing at the top. And I want you to
know, if you sit down in the living room, every time you get
about halfway down, or that's not quite as hot as it needs
to be, either he or his wife will be right there pouring you
more. You know what that is? That's being honored. And beyond my comprehension,
God Almighty anoints the heads of His people and fills their
cups, overflowing, overflowing. He's, it speaks of his wealth
also. I mean, it just speaks of his
wealth. You know, a man just pours things out like that and
don't think about it. I've been to some dinners where
everybody there had prime rib. I wasn't the host. You know what
I'm saying? We generally do what we can afford
to do, you know. Look at Ephesians 1. I was thinking,
as I come over here tonight, my daughters have always had
old used cars. That's what they got. That's
what they got, old used cars. And frankly, if it had been up
to me to buy them, they wouldn't have had that, or for the health
of some plants. Look at Ephesians 1, verse 8.
Look at this, in verse 7, talking about what we have in Christ.
In whom? That's Christ, the beloved. We
have redemption through His blood, now listen to this, the forgiveness
of sins according to the riches of His grace. I'm telling you,
when you talk about this feast that we have here in Christ,
the feast that's ours, this salvation isn't something, this mercy and
grace that's been given to us isn't a crust of bread that's
been tossed our way. You know what I'm saying? The
cup runs over. When it comes to salvation, grace,
and mercy, I'm not driving. I'm not riding in some old jalopy
here. This thing is according to the
riches of His grace. That's riches of His mercy. How rich His mercy is towards
us. You know, Isaiah, when he described—I'll
read the Scripture to you. Isaiah 40 said, Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people. speak comfortably to Jerusalem,
cry to her that her warfare is accomplished, her iniquities
pardoned, she's received the Lord's hand double for all her
sins. He didn't just take care of it.
It's way beyond taking care of it. You understand that? This
is a rich salvation in Christ Jesus. It's a feast in the middle
of a field. Ah, abundant. It shows the wealth
of this one who's putting on this feast. And I'll tell you,
sure, I love the way he speaks here. The word of God is never
empty. Surely, goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. All the days of my life. This man's not counting
on his personal worth. He's not counting on his merit,
his faith. is in this shepherd he's been
talking about. I heard years ago, I believe
it was Walter, talked about these two sheepdogs, goodness and mercy, following
the flock all the day of their life. That's what that is, two
sheepdogs. That's not very original for
me. But I can tell you something, and I think I've told this before.
Years ago when my oldest daughter went to UK, went away, she got
her apartment up there. At that time she decided she
was going to start exercising. So old Renee would get up early
in the morning, just about dawn, and she'd take off jogging. And
this happened. One day as she was jogging down
there by the campus, she was running down this street, the
sidewalk, And this dog come running up next to her. Now that would
do me. I'm not, you know. The dog comes
towards me and I'm running, you know. I'm either going to run
faster or stop and fight, you know. But she said that dog started
running right next to her down that sidewalk. And she was just
kind of talking to that dog. That dog was looking up. That
dog reached over, opened its mouth, and bit her hand. Granted,
firmly. didn't break it, the skin. And
that dog pulled her straight across the street, kept right
running at the same pace. And she was running along with
her hand in this dog's mouth. She looked across the street
and there behind the bush was a man. They say dogs know things we
don't know. Dog finally let go of her hand.
She ran all the way back with that dog right with her, all
the way back to that apartment. When she got there, she thought,
this is just going to be the greatest pet I've ever owned. This is
a stray dog. This is going to be my dog. She went and got a
bowl and put some food in it and grabbed the bowl with water,
walked out the back door and set it down and looked and that
dog was gone. I'll tell you why. That dog took her home. I know the name of that dog.
That was either goodness or mercy. And it's the goodness of God
that leads us to repentance, and it's the mercy of God that
puts away all our sins. He hath not dealt with us according
to our iniquities. Why? For as high as the heaven
is above the earth, so is His mercy towards us. Infinite mercy! Mercy so high
that you couldn't touch it. You'd get in an airplane, a rocket
and fly for a hundred years at the speed of light. You wouldn't
get out of this quadrant of the galaxy. That's how high his mercy
is towards them. And that dog took her home. And
I'm sure that dog, she said, I never saw that dog again. But
I'm telling you, I wouldn't be surprised if that dog grabbed
a few more hands. And I will. I will dwell in the house of
the Lord forever." What you got to say about that? Well, when my last breath is gone, I will dwell in the house of
the Lord forever. Goodness and mercy, His goodness
and mercy will take them. Right now, we go through this
life with our heads shining with that oil and that cup overflowing
with this abundant salvation that ultimately is going to culminate
with us actually being taken into the very presence of God
Himself forever. It's all because of the Lord
and my shepherd. I don't know how to express it.