I have a lot of bulletins that
come across my desk every week from literally all over the world,
and I take care to read each of them. And last week, I got
Brother Milton Howard's bulletin, and he had a brief article given
the outline of the 23rd Psalm in which he demonstrated how
that the Lord God, through the praise of his servant David,
reveals his name in this 23rd Psalm. And I knew immediately
I would have to preach on that soon. So I believe God's given
me a message for you. Let's read the Psalm together,
and then I'll try to show you how God, the Holy Spirit, inspired
David to reveal our Savior's name in this Psalm. Psalm 23.
Psalm 23. Somewhere I read years ago, about a stage actor a long, long
time ago who read this psalm with great precision and accuracy,
sort of like listening to Alexander Scobie's reading of the scriptures,
I presume. And the audience listened attentively
and applauded when it was done. In a few days, he and one of
his friends were attending a worship service in a place kind of like
this, and an old man got up and read the psalm and kind of stammered
a little and had to pause a little bit to look at the words. But
before he was done, the whole congregation was moved to tears.
And this actor's friend said, I don't understand. That man
read the psalm who could not read very well, and the whole
congregation moved to tears. When you read the psalm and read
it perfectly, Folks applauded, but no one seemed to be moved.
And the actor said, there's a big difference. I know the psalm. He knows the shepherd. I hope
God will be pleased to cause you to know the shepherd and
hear his voice. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not walk. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 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. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Surely,
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house
of the Lord forever. Now before we look at this psalm
together, let me remind you again of my reasons for preaching to
you. My reasons for preaching all
the time. My reasons for preaching this
message and every other message. My reasons for preaching in this
place and wherever God opens the door before me, for preaching
as I do the gospel of God's grace all the time. First and foremost,
I want from the depths of my soul to extol, magnify, honor,
and praise the name of our great God. In this, the house of God,
it is fitting and proper that we praise Godhood, nothing else
and no one else. We make it a point in this place
never to lift up men, never to extol men and magnify men. Properly we give honor to whom
honor is due, but never is it our intent to magnify the creature,
but rather the creator. With the psalmist, I'm resolved
I will praise thee Lord my God with all my heart and I will
glorify thy name forevermore For great is thy mercy toward
me and thou has delivered my soul from the lowest hell God's
great mercy toward us compels us to magnify his name God's
great mercy known and experienced in my soul compels me to seek
his honor. As I think of the mercies of
the Lord, my heart cries, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,
but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and thy truth's
sake." Truly, God's mercy to us is great. Think of mercy. Think of mercy. It is always
special, distinguishing mercy. I have heard people say, and
I have erroneously said myself in the past, anything outside
of hell is mercy. That's just not true. There are
folks who walk on this earth who are kept alive on this earth
whom the Lord God is fattening as an ox for the slaughter. who
are being held in slippery places, and God will cast them down in
due season, and that which they think to be mercies upon the
earth will prove to be their torment unto everlasting damnation. God's mercy is always special,
distinguishing mercy for His elect, eternal covenant mercies,
immutable electing mercy. In mercy He loved us and chose
us. Redeeming, saving mercy is preserving,
keeping mercy. And oh, how great are His daily
providential mercies. Truly, the mercies of the Lord
are great. Jeremiah said, it is of the Lord's
mercies that we are not consumed. Therefore, I will bless the Lord
at all times. His praises shall be continually
in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
of the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof
and be glad. And I say to you who know my
God, oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name
together. I have a second reason for preaching
as I do, preaching to you as I do. I want you who hear my
voice to trust our God. I want you who do not know Him
to come to trust Him. And I want you who trust Him
to trust Him more. Oh, that we may learn to trust
the Lord. If by the power and grace of
God the Holy Ghost, He will allow me to show you from His Word
who He is, you'll trust Him. If you knew Him, you'd trust
Him. If you knew Him, you'd trust Him. All whoever knew Him, trusted
Him. All whoever knew Him, loved Him. This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou
hast sent. It is written, they that know
Thy name will put their trust in Thee. So let's look at God's
name as he shows it to us in this 23rd Psalm. We won't look
at all of them, obviously. The Lord's described by many,
many names in Scripture. We read the word Lord and God
in Scripture and those words themselves come from many different
names. But as we read this psalm, the
Lord specifically reveals himself to us in his saving character
as the Lord Jehovah in specific ways. Let's look at it line by
line. The Lord is. The Lord is. There, the psalmist speaks of
the Lord God as he describes himself in the last verse of
the book of Ezekiel. When Ezekiel looked at the church
of God and describes God's church in the final consummation of
salvation and everlasting glory in Ezekiel 48, he says, this
is the name of that city. The Lord is there. The name is
Jehovah Shammah. The Lord is there. Ezekiel, with
inspired prophecy, looked beyond the struggles and trials, the
heartaches and bitter tears which must be endured by God's elect
in this world. And we must endure struggles,
trials, heartaches, and bitter tears. This is a world of sin
that makes it a world of pain and of woe, conflicts and difficulties. Ezekiel looked beyond Satan's
rage and fury and the world's opposition to God's church, to
the final conquest of God's church, our ultimate triumph in this
last chapter of his prophecy. And the Holy Spirit describes
the fullness and completion of God's church, the Holy City,
the New Jerusalem, when the end comes and all God's elect are
gathered together in one in Christ and he presents us to wandering
worlds as monuments and trophies of his grace and he says this
is how the city is to be described. It was round about 18,000 measures
and the name of the city from that day shall be the Lord is
there. What a name for our God and what
a name for his church. Understand this, my brother.
Understand this, my sister. Wherever you are, whatever you
experience, in the day of sunshine and prosperity, happiness and
peace, in the night of weeping and sorrow and bitterness, wherever
you are, Whatever you experience, the Lord is there. Rejoice in
the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Let your
moderation, your ease, and gentleness of spirit be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. The Lord
is at hand. Translated the Lord is at hand
mean this Our great God Father Son and Holy Ghost is God at
your elbow all the time He's God at your elbow all the time
You have a child who has a bad dream or wakes up in the middle
of a a bad storm and the little child's terrified and just shaking
with fear. And you run to the child's bed
and you put your hand on the little baby's chest or shoulder.
He says, all right, honey, daddy's here. Daddy's here. And the child
begins to calm down. And there's just a gentleness
that overcomes him because he knows everything's all right.
Daddy's here. Daddy's here. Listen to me, children
of God. He who is our God, God at hand,
ruling all things, governing all things, disposing of all
things, doing His will in all places with all people all the
time for your benefit. Let your moderation then be known
to all men. The Lord's at hand to sustain
you, to hold you, to guide you, to strengthen you when you fall,
to lift you up, to protect you. The Lord is at hand That means
everything is exactly as it should be. The Lord's at hand. That
means everything not is going to be all right. Everything is
all right. The Lord's at hand. The Lord's
at hand. Now look at this psalm again. The Lord is my shepherd. The name here is Jehovah Ra'ah. The Lord my shepherd. Throughout
the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Savior,
is revealed as a shepherd. Blessed is that man. Blessed
is that woman. Blessed is that child who with
a heart of true faith can say, the Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. I've told you before, a little
Sunday school girl once was called on by a teacher to quote the
psalm. This first verse in the psalm, she said, the Lord is
my shepherd. He's all I want. That's a pretty
good translation. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall
not want. The Lord is my shepherd. What a blessed word that personal
possessive pronoun is. David, with a heart of faith,
lifts his heart to heaven, looking upon God on his throne, Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, revealed in Christ the Savior. And he
says, he who is God on his throne, he is my property, my property. As much as I am his property,
he has made himself my property. The Lord is my shepherd. As he possesses me, I possess
him, and he's given me the privilege of possessing him by the hand
of faith. In Genesis 49, you don't need
to turn to these. Listen to how the shepherds describe.
The shepherd, the stone of Israel, is how he's called. That one
who would come from the mighty God of Jacob. And indeed, our
shepherd, the mighty God of Jacob. Isaiah said that Christ would
be that shepherd who would feed his flock like a shepherd. He
shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom
and shall gently lead those that are with y'all. In Ezekiel 34
God promised that in this gospel age he would gather his elect
from the four corners of the earth, Jew and Gentile, under
one shepherd. And he said in verses 23 and
24, I will set up one shepherd over them and he shall feed them,
even my servant David. He shall feed them and he shall
be their shepherd. And then in chapter 37 he says,
concerning his elect gathered out of the four corners of the
earth, all shall have one shepherd. You're familiar with the prophecy
in Zechariah 13. The Lord God speaks of our good
shepherd giving his life for the sheep, but he speaks of him
as being slaughtered in the room instead of his sheep. And God
says, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man
that is my fellow. Awake against my shepherd, the
man who is my equal. For he who is God, our shepherd,
is himself Jehovah, our God. Smite the shepherd, and the sheep
shall be scattered. But they will be scattered only
to be gathered. I will turn my hand upon the
little ones. And then our Lord Jesus, in that
marvelous 10th chapter of John, describes himself as our shepherd.
I am the good shepherd, he says. The Good Shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. The Good Shepherd gives his life
that he may have the sheep. The Good Shepherd gives his life
in the place of the sheep. The Good Shepherd gives his life
to die for the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd, he says.
I know my sheep, and them known am I. The Apostle describes our
Lord Jesus Christ saying, our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd
of the sheep, by the blood of the everlasting covenant, arose
from the dead. And the apostle Peter says, you
were as sheep going astray, but are now returned to the shepherd
and bishop of your souls. And he assures us that when the
chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of
glory that fadeth not away. This is our Savior's name, Jehovah-Rah-ah,
the Lord my Shepherd. He was called and appointed by
God the Father to be our Shepherd. And the Lord God trusted all
His elect to the hands of the Lord Jesus. Before the world
was in covenant mercy and committed to Him all His sheep, and the
Lord Jesus voluntarily assumed total responsibility for his
sheep as their shepherd. Total responsibility. So that
the Lord God does not look to us for anything. Oh, how that
ought to comfort our souls. How that ought to comfort our
souls. God doesn't look to you for satisfaction. God doesn't
look to you for righteousness. God doesn't look to you for anything. God looks to the shepherd for
everything and committed all responsibility to the shepherd.
And the shepherd says, I give them eternal life and they shall
never perish for no man can pluck them out of my hands. The good
shepherd comes and lays down his life for the sheep. The good
shepherd seeks his sheep until they find it. And when he finds
it, he lays it on his back and carries it all the way to glory,
rejoicing in the fact that he's found his sheep that was lost
and brought it safely into the fold. Oh, may God teach us to
trust our Savior, the Lord, our shepherd. If Christ is my shepherd,
I have nothing to fear. Oh, if I could know by experience
and practice in experience, just a tithe of what I'm telling you,
oh, how blessed it would be. If Christ is my shepherd, I have
nothing to fear from anyone under any circumstance at any time. And I have every reason to have
comfort and hope and peace and joy even now in this world, in
this dark valley. In this 23rd Psalm, David declares
a blessed fact which he perceived and rejoiced in by faith. The
Lord is my shepherd. As he meditated on this fact,
he began to realize something of the blessedness that must
follow that fact. And he speaks of it with praise
to God. Read on. I shall not want. I shall not want. You remember in Genesis 22, when
Abraham and Isaac went up to Mount Moriah, to worship God. Abraham left his servant at the
foot of the mountain. He said, I and the lad will go
yonder and worship you, and we will come again. And Abraham
and Isaac took the wood and the fire for a burnt offering and
made their way up the mountain. And as they made their way up
the mountain, Isaac, knowing what his daddy had taught him,
he said, Daddy, we've got the wood and we've got the fire for
a burnt offering. Where is the lamb? We can't come
to God without blood. We can't come to God without
a sacrifice. We can't come to God without a lamb. Where's the
lamb? And Abraham spoke prophetically
by the Spirit of God and said, my son, God will provide himself
a lamb for a burnt offering. He didn't say God will provide
for himself, though that certainly was true. He said God will provide
himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And he strapped Isaac to the
altar. And he drew out his knife to slaughter his son. And the
Lord stopped his hand and said, don't touch the boy. And he looked
and saw a ram caught in the thicket. And he took Isaac up off the
altar. And he laid that ram on the altar and sacrificed him
in the place of Isaac. What a picture of redemption
by Christ. God, the God-man, the Lamb of
God, sacrificed in our stead upon the altar of God as our
substitute. And Abraham and Isaac started
home and he said, let's call this place Jehovah-Jireh. Let's call this place Jehovah-Jireh. That's how David speaks of our
God here. I shall not want. Jehovah-Jireh might be translated
three different ways. The Lord will see. The Lord will
provide. And the Lord will be seen. All three translations are necessary
to give us the meaning of what the word is. The Lord will see. Particularly referring to the
sacrifice of our Redeemer, he sees our need. He sees our need. But more than that, in all our
circumstances, the Lord sees our need. Our Savior spoke this
way. He said, why do you fret about
what you're going to eat, what you're going to drink, what you're
going to wear? Why do you worry about where you're going to live?
Your Father knows that you have need of these things. That ought
to content us. Our Father knows our needs. That's
all right. That's all right. You say to
a friend or to a family, to children, to wife, I know. I know. And you expect them to understand.
That means since I know, I'll take care of it. I know what's
needed. I'll take care of it. You don't
have to worry yourself about it anymore. I know. I'm fully
aware. The Lord will see. And God who
sees the need of His people. always provides the need of his
people. God who sees the need of his
people always provides the need of his people. Some years ago,
when Brother Larry first moved here, I had a couple of things
happen, just sort of insignificant things, insignificant things,
but they weren't too insignificant to us. I called him up one day,
his mother was visiting with him when he was living over on
Lancaster Road, And I said, Larry, bring your trailer and come quick.
And he just jumped in the car and came down here and brought
his trailer and got down here. Some fella hauling flowers and
plants for gardens to one of the stores turned over and dumped
everything right here on the road. And State Trooper was out
there just a little bit and I asked, what y'all gonna do? He's gonna
get somebody out here to clean this mess up. I said, clean it
up, can I? He said, if you can get it done,
we can. And so Larry came out here. We needed some plants. We needed flowers around the
church building. And we gave flowers to everybody. We had
flowers galore that year. Plants galore. And I heard Larry
describe it numerous times. He said, I don't know what this
man needs. Whatever it is, God just drops it in his lap. That's
what God does for his people all the time. He just drops it
in your lap. the Lord will provide, particularly
with regard to his son. The Lord saw our need and in
the person of his darling son provided our need before ever
we had the need. He provided him the lamb slave
in the foundation of the world and the Lord will be seen. The
Lord sees to it that we see him in the provision he makes. How good it is to be in need,
only to have God supply the need in such a way as you say, God
did that. God did that. I wouldn't have
known it this way if he hadn't brought me into the need and
provided for the need, particularly in the saving of our souls. Every
aspect of our salvation is the revelation of our God, Jehovah
Jireh. That's the meaning David gives
to his name. I shall not want. Here's the fourth line. He maketh
me. I wouldn't take anything in the
world for those two words, those three words. He maketh. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures beside the still waters. Here are the green pastures.
The still waters of grace flow into our souls from the fountain
of the throne of God. But we would not lie down in
the green pastures in any time of care sorrow and trouble, except
he make us to lie down here. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures beside the still waters. And here with David we worship
and adore the Lord God as Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our peace. That's how God revealed himself
to Gideon in Judges chapter 6. He is the Lord our peace. I don't know that there's anything
in this world comparable to peace. I'm not talking about world peace
or national peace, though that would be a blessing. I'm talking
about Peace inside. Peace in your mind. Peace in
your heart. Peace in your soul. Peace. Sweet peace. He maketh me to
lie down in green pastures. He meeteth me beside the still
waters. constantly ministering to my
peace. Would you have peace? Peace with
God? Peace in your soul? Peace in
your heart? Peace of mind? Would you walk
through this world with peace, at ease, with gentleness? Trust the Lord God our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Jehovah shalom, the Lord our peace and you will
find rest into your souls. Look at the next line. He restoreth
my soul. Our blessed Savior's name is
revealed in Exodus 15 at the bitter waters of Mara as Jehovah
Rapha, the Lord that healeth thee. The children of Israel
came to the bitter waters of Marah, and they were out of water,
and they were thirsty. But the waters were so bitter
they couldn't drink them. And they began to murmur against
Moses. But that's the kind way of saying
they were murmuring against God. They were murmuring against God.
See, murmuring, it doesn't matter who you name. Murmuring with
God's providence is murmuring against God. Fussing with what
we experience is fussing with God. Questioning what's going
on is questioning God. They began to murmur against
Moses, murmur against the Lord. And the Lord God showed Moses
a tree close to the waters. And he said, take the tree and
cast it into the waters. And when he cast the tree into
the waters, the bitter waters were healed. What a picture of God's grace
flowing to us through Christ our crucified Redeemer. With
His stripes, we are healed. And day by day, my brother, day
by day, my sister, as you meet with bitter experiences, and
bitter experiences you will meet with, as you do, cast in the
cross in the midst of every difficulty and watch God turn your bitter
water sweet and make that which you refuse to even taste refreshment to your soul. And I promise you, He does. I promise you he does. You who
are his will never endure a bitterness that he doesn't sweeten. You
will never endure a heartache that he doesn't soothe and turn
to joy. You will never endure a sorrow
he doesn't turn to gladness. Read on. He leadeth me in the
paths of righteousness for His namesake. This, again, is the
name of our God, and it's revealed to us as the name of His church. Jehovah Shekinu, the Lord our
righteousness. That's what our Savior's called
in Jeremiah 23. And that's what we are called
by our God in Jeremiah 33. The Lord our righteousness. He who is our Savior is our righteousness. And we are made the righteousness
of God in Him. Yeah. David concludes. Though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, though I walk through this dark
valley with death all around me. I laid in bed last night
trying to pray for you. And I couldn't help thinking
that about half of us here tonight are under constant doctor's care.
And any of us might drop dead before the evening is over. We walk constantly with death
all around us. Children of God, ask God to give
you grace. Daily to look death square in
the face and smile with anticipation. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, walking itself implies peace. You fellas remember the days
when boys were raised, and in our day, a boy didn't dare express
fear. You might have been scared out
of your britches, but you didn't let anybody know. If you did,
you were tormented for it until folks forgot about it, just tormented
for it. You didn't dare indicate fear. And so when you get in
fearful circumstances, you try to whistle for a little bit,
pretend you weren't afraid and then you'd run like a scared
rabbit. God's people in this world walk
through this valley. How is that? How is that? David
says, I will fear no evil for thou art with me, my shepherd. There he stands with his rod
and his staff. His rod to correct, His staff
to protect. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Oh, how blessed we are who walk
through this world in confident faith in Christ our Savior, who
is the Lord our righteousness. Now look on. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine in a name. Thou anointest my head
with oil, my cup runneth over. Here we are like the children
of Israel in Exodus 17, surrounded by enemies in a stern conflict. And as Moses lifted up his hands,
the children of Israel prevailed. But when his hands dropped, they
were being prevailed upon. The Amalekites were defeating
them. So Aaron and Hur held up his
hands. and Israel prevailed. And the
Lord revealed himself as Jehovah Nissi, the Lord, our better. So it is with us. Just when we
have no strength, Christ, our high priest, represented by Aaron,
and God, the Holy Spirit, represented by her, whose name means liberty,
inspire us to lift up our hands in prayer to God. Fixed upon
Christ, our sure foundation, we again see the rod of God,
our mighty Savior, exalted and lifted up like a banner before
us. And looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
our knees are strengthened and our hands are strengthened. Then
we press on in the race, having this word from our God, be of
good cheer. I have overcome the world. And by His grace, we too shall
overcome the world. At the end of the day, Moses
built an altar. He called the name of the place
Jehovah-Nissi, which means the Lord, our banner. What does all this mean? What
does all this mean? If this God is our God, If this
Redeemer is our Redeemer, if this Savior is our Savior, if
truly He's ours and we're His, what does this mean? Look at
the last line in verse 6. Surely. Surely. Benjamin, this is not a supposition.
Surely. Surely. No question about this,
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. When I was a boy, I used to go
coon hunting with my uncle. Sometimes my dad would go along.
This is when I was just eight, nine, 10 years old. I don't think
I ever went with him after I was 12 or 13 years old, but we used
to go coon hunting. Did so a good bit. Coonhounds. And you know why
we went hunting? It took me a long time to figure
this out. We didn't go hunting to catch the coons. Nobody wanted
them. Even back then, the skins weren't
worth anything, and nobody ate them. We only went hunting for
two reasons. Sometimes you get a coon on the
ground and you just wanted the dogs to fight the coon. Just
the foolish nature of humanity. But most of the time, Well, other
than for my uncle to get away from his wife and drink all he
wanted to. We went coon hunting so that we could listen to those
coons holler in the woods. Not the coons, but the hounds.
And oh, my soul, you could hear them for miles. You could hear
them for miles. And we didn't usually even try
to chase after them. They'd be way out above us. We'd
go after them once we got the coon tree. We'd get rid of the
coon and then go chase some more coon. And that was the whole
purpose, just to listen to those hounds chase that coon up that
tree. That's the whole purpose. Like those hounds, God's goodness
and God's mercy will chase you, my brother, will chase you, my
sister, right into glory. Surely goodness and mercy shall
pursue me all the days of my life until at last I will dwell in
the house of the Lord forever. Blessed be his name. The Lord
is my shepherd. He's all I want. Amen.