The Lord is my shepherd and I
shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green
pastures. He leads me beside the still
waters. He restored my soul. He leads 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 our with
me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies,
and 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. I noticed I asked three things
when I first looked at this psalm. One, it's a very beautiful psalm.
It's one that we all know. It speaks of the great shepherd
providing for his flock. It's a very popular psalm. It's
the first one I can remember as a child being made to memorize. I dare say most every one of
us have read this before. The next question I want to ask
is, is it a universal psalm now? And what I mean by that is, does
it apply to everyone? Can anyone take comfort in this
song? Matthew 15, 24 says, I'm not sent unto the lost sheep,
but of the house of Israel. Those are Lord's words. And he
answers this question for us, that he's not sent to everyone. He's only sent for his sheep.
The shepherd is not sent to sheep that are not of his fold. So
I believe this song was not given for everyone and it's given to
the Lord's people. in order that they despair not
in this life, out of fear or out of want, or even for the
promises to come. It's a psalm of comfort. So looking
at verse one, the Lord is my shepherd. So I ask, well, then
what is a shepherd? The Lord is my shepherd and I'm
a believer. I need to know what that means
to me. It's simply a man is given charge over another man's sheep.
Sheep in the Old Testament day were much more than they are
to us today. They were a source of wealth.
They were a source of food and clothing. And so you didn't have
just anybody tend after your sheep because this was your life.
These are what we relied upon. And so not just any shepherd
will do. So I look at what are the responsibilities
of a shepherd. So there are three responsibilities
of a shepherd. One is to lead. To feed is number
two, and number three is to protect. And so to lead, the shepherd
leads because sheep are followers. Among sheep, there's no contention
for who the leader is. Unlike other animals, like lions
or even deer, you have one male who's contending to be the leader
of the group, and you don't find that among sheep. They just follow.
They follow the shepherd. And secondly, the shepherd's
responsibility is to feed. Sheep don't know where to go
for food, or else they wouldn't need to be led. And so the shepherd
does. The shepherd leads them to sheep,
to their food. And thirdly, the shepherd protects,
because sheep are defenseless animals. Wolves, thieves, you
know, I'm not as familiar with what sheep have after them, but
those are the two things that came to mind. Sheep are responsible, the shepherd
is responsible for bringing all the sheep back. So that's part
of the protection. He can't just go out and let
some of them get away. Some of them die. He can't allow
it. His job is to bring back each sheep. Each one's accounted
for. So I wanted to look at, real quick, the parable of the
lost sheep. That's found in Luke, chapter 15. Let's start in verse three. And
he spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you, having
a hundred sheep, if you lose one of them, did not leave the
ninety nine in the wilderness and go go after that which was
lost until he find it? And when he found it, he lays
it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he come with home, he
called together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them,
Rejoice with me, for I found my sheep, which was lost. I say
unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner
that repented over more than ninety and nine just persons
which need no need no repentance. So what we see here is the Lord's
the importance that he puts upon just one sheep, even though there's
one hundred ten thousand, you can't lose one. It's that one
sheep is just as important as the ninety nine. And so he's
got to bring them all back home and account for. So. That bears to record who is the
shepherd that's responsible for this job, what man is fit for
this. And so we being as men and women, we're we're not fit
for this job. And there's no one fit for this job other than
the Lord. And so let's look at a little bit of that over in
John, chapter 10. And who the shepherd is. Starting verse one. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold,
but climbeth up by some other way, the same as a thief and
a robber. But he that entereth in by the
door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth, and
the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep out by
name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his
own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, and
they know his voice. And a stranger will they not
follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of
strangers. Going over to verse eleven, I am the good shepherd
and the good shepherd giveth his life. The sheep, but he that
is a hireling and not the shepherd who's on the sheep or not, see
if the wolf coming and leave it the sheep and flea and the
wolf catches them and scatters the sheep. The hireling flea
because he's a hireling and care if not for the sheep. I am the
good shepherd and I know my sheep and have known of mine. So he
says here that he's the good shepherd, writer of the Hebrews,
calls him that great shepherd of the sheep. I noticed three
things from this. One is the sheep don't choose
the shepherd. Shepherd chooses the sheep. And
secondly, he calls them each out by name. He knows each of
them individually. They're not just a group to him.
He has an individual knowledge of each each one of them. The
third thing I noticed was the sheep hear his call and they
follow him. He knows his sheep and John 10,
14, where he said, I'm the good shepherd and know my sheep and
have known of mine. And what the blessing here is,
is that we also know him. It's not just that he knows he
knows us, but we know him, too. We have a relationship with him
and. I don't you know, I wish that
I had. had more of a relationship than what I do in my experience.
I wish my faith was stronger. I wish I could know him more. And there may come a day where
I don't even know my own name. But what we're truly to be thankful
for is that he knows us and that he knows my name, even if I don't
know his. And that whether my faith at
the time is weak or if it's strong, he still knows my name and calls
me as his own sheep. So how do I know if I'm one of
the Lord's sheep? Well, keep reading in John chapter
10 here, verse 24. Then came the Jews round about
him and said unto him, How long does thou make us to doubt if
thou be the Christ? Tell us plainly. And Jesus answered
them, I told you and you believe not the works that I do in my
father's name. They bear witness to me. But
you believe not because you're not in my sheep. As I said unto
you, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.
And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish.
Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. The three things I notice here
were sheep believe they respond when the master calls and they
call him wherever he goes. Peter felt that he could do this
when they were in the garden and he basically would told his
lord that he'd go with him unto death. But he ended up denying
him three times. But that still didn't mean he
wasn't a sheep. Sheep follow him is following him in faith,
through his word, through Christ. It's not our outward actions
in this life. And I wish I could do these things
more like I ought to, though. So let's go back to our text. Still in verse one, the Lord
is my shepherd. I shall not want. So what does
this mean? I shall not want this mean that
I'll get everything that I want and then I'll stop craving and
stop wanting things. If it does, I'm in trouble because
I still do not in this flesh, not while we're in this life.
We'll always want. We'll always crave. We have many
vain desires and wants. This promise that we read here
of I shall not want speaks of something of greater value for
our spiritual needs. And that's that's what this is
speaking of. What are my fleshly wants if
they were granted to be in comparison with the peace that I have of
knowing my salvation rests in Christ? And what of my fleshly
wants being granted compares to the joy of knowing and communing
with my Lord? There's nothing to compare with
that. of knowing mercy, knowing that God, for Christ's sake,
would be merciful to someone like me who's so undeserving
of his mercy. And what of my fleshly wants
could I have granted that could be compared with Christ? He's
everything to me. He's my salvation. He's my true
and only contentment in this life. It's all that we it's all
that we'll ever have that won't that won't be lost. All the fleshly
wants and desires I might have are all things that can be lost
the one day. grow old or die or one day they'll
be burned up. So Christ is the only thing that
we do have that's of any true and lasting contentment in our
lives. So I shall not want or I shall
not lack. There are actually 11 things
in this passage of scripture I'm going to quickly go through.
And the 11 things are I shall not want rest. I shall not want
for peace. I shall not want for restoration.
I shall not want for righteousness. I shall not want for protection.
I shall not want for his presence. I shall not want comfort. I shall
not want provision. I shall not want the Holy Spirit.
I shall not want his goodness and his mercy, and I shall not
want eternal security. So look at verse two, he may
get me to lie down in green pastures. These green pastures were the
sheep's food. This is what they ate. So they
had to be taken to the green pasture and they needed a guide. This is not something they could
do on their own. That's why they had to have the shepherd leave
them. This applies to God's word, which is our food. We can't just
come here and meet and expect to figure this out on ourselves,
on our own. We have to have the Lord to show
us the way he has to meet with us and show us these things.
I need a guide. Look over Luke, Chapter 10. If
you would. First, twenty one. In that hour,
Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, I think the father, Lord
of heaven and earth, that those hippies things from the wise
and prudent. and has revealed them into babes,
even so, father, for it seemed good in that site. So this is
speaking of his word and who he reveals himself to and how
the Lord reveals himself. And so I see that it's hid from
those that think they know it. Those that don't need the Lord's
intercession don't need him, his Holy Spirit to reveal these
things. Those that think they can figure
it out on their own, that it's hid from them. Secondly, it's
revealed in the babes, those that could never find it on their
own. It has to be shown to them. And what I was thinking of with
this was it's always new to them, too. You can give a baby a toy
every day of one week, and it's just as new as the first time
that it had it the first day. And so that's kind of our experience
in our walk through this life is that I hear something preached
or I read something, the Lord shows me something, and I think
that'll stick with me. I can never forget that. It's
so strong in me at the time. Soon it goes away and I hear
it again and it's just as good news as the first time I heard
it. And that's a blessing to me that the Lord continues to
reveal it to me and doesn't just hold me to the one time that
I heard it. Turn over to Ephesians chapter three, please. And we're going to look at one
through five. For this cause, I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus
Christ, for you Gentiles, if you have heard of the dispensation
of the grace of God, which is given to me to you, word how
that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery as I wrote
a four and few words whereby when you read, you may understand
my knowledge and the mystery of Christ. Which in other ages
was not made known under the sense of men, as it is now revealed
unto his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit. So we hear that. See here that it is revealed
by the spirit. It's revealed by the spirit. And we're in the Lord is our
guide, and so where one is, the other is also there. You have
to have revelation and you have to have the spirit to do it.
You can't have one without the other. So the Lord is my guide
and he does two things for me. He makes me willing to follow
through the new birth or new nature. I didn't have this before
and I wasn't willing to follow. I rebelled against him. And secondly,
he leads me to the food. Again, we see that we can't find
it on our own and he has to take us to it. These green pastures,
it's also translated as tender grass. which is, you know, what
the actual sheep feed on. They don't eat just weeds, evidently.
Sheep will only eat on the clover grass, the fine green grass.
And so that's where they're led to. And so this tender grass
is also God's message of truth. And so to his sheep, those who
are believers, they can have nothing less than God's message
of truth. Anything added to or taken away
from that is not that message of truth. And is is weeds. It's not it's not the tender
grass. We have to have just only the pure thing. Because God's
record of who he is, is the gospel, and we don't want to misrepresent
him, of who he is, how he saves, because this robs him of his
glory. Isaiah 42, eight says, I'm the Lord. That is my name
and my glory. I will not give to another either
my praise or graven images. So the message of the gospel
glorifies Christ. And it's seen when he's revealed
unto us and he's revealed this unto us by a shepherd. The Lord
Jesus Christ, and he's the one who makes me to lie in the green
pastures and go back to our text again. Verse two, he makes me to lie
down in green pastures and he leaves me beside the still waters,
I shall not want for peace. Still waters can be translated,
the waters of quietness. And so what's the only time water
is not quiet is when it's disturbed. It's when it hits against something
that opposes the flow in which it goes. And I was thinking about
this, and I thought of a rock in a river. You've been in a
river, and when nothing's in it, it looks kind of like a carpet
of water. It just moves along silently when nothing's there.
But whenever there's a big rock in a river, It creates rapids. It creates noise. The rock opposes
the way that the river is trying to go. And so this, it stands
in obstinance. It rebels against it. This exemplifies
our sinful nature. We're at war with the new man.
The way, the direction that the new man is trying to go, there's
something standing in obstinance to it. It rebels against it.
And so it creates noise. Look over at Romans 7. This is
what Paul had to say about it. That is simple nature. We're going to look at verse
19. For the good that I would, I
do not, but the evil which I would do, which I would not that I
do now, if I do that, I would not. It is no more I that do
it, but sin that dwells within me. Now, we see this is Paul's
confession of what he finds that the things that he wants to do,
he can't do. And the things he doesn't want
to do, that's what he does. And that's that's our experience
of believers. Our sin is a plague to us. We can't get away from
it. We can't gain any ground on it.
As soon as I find something that I that I I end up seeing in myself
that I'm more sinful every day, the more grace I'm given. And
as frustrating as that is, there is one who has conquered sin
and has conquered death. And if I'm in Christ, then I'm
viewed before the father is without sin. The war is over. There's no more war between the
new and the old man. He's been put away because the
victor has already been crowned. And this is how I'm led by the
still waters, these waters of quietness, there's rocks there
no more. It's just it's all going one way with nothing opposing
it. There's nothing left to fight against the flow and then we
can rest. And second, one thing the shepherd
does is he guards against these wolves. I shall not want for
protection. And I was thinking here, as we
go back to our text in verse two, where he says he makes me
lie down in green pastures and leaves me beside the still waters,
that if I'm a sheep in his pasture and I'm able to lay there in
peace and be able to go by the waters in peace. I'm not looking
for danger around me. I'm not worried and watching
against, you know, a wolf or somebody to seek to do me harm.
I'm content and have complete assurance that Christ is taking
care of that. He protects me and he watches
over me. I don't have to worry about that.
So let's go to verse three. He restored my soul. I shall
not lack restoration. He restores me daily, he gives
me strength in time of weakness. Turn over to Psalm 23, Psalm
27, page over. Verse 13, David says, I have
faith that unless I believe to see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living. So David says here to see the
goodness, so David never really saw this with his eyes, but he
trusted with his heart. He believes in believing on the
Lord. He's trusting in him. And this restores our soul. So
what is my token or my evidence that I have anything or any hope
in salvation? Because all I see is my sin and
my inability. I can't keep God's law. I can't
even keep from sinning sins that I'm aware of and guilty of sinning
sins that I don't even realize I'm sinning. So I can't do it. And if I look within myself,
my experiences is all fine. I'll never get any further from
this. So I need a more sure evidence and my more sure evidence, the
only evidence I have is Christ and that he died and the Lord
himself never sinned any sin, but he died and therefore sin
had to have been present because the wages of sin are death. So
somebody's sin had to be on him and we're told that he was made
sin. And so if sin has been punished by Christ dying, a debt has been
forgiven. And by Christ being risen, he's
paid that and then he's given me his righteousness. And Christ
being risen is my evidence that my soul has been restored for
something to be restored. It first had to be lost. Turn
over to Psalm 69, one of the Psalms from the cross. In verse four, they that hate
me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. They that
would destroy me being my enemies wrongfully are mighty. And this
next verse is what took my attention. Then I restored that which I
took not away. So here we see the Lord is restoring
our soul. He didn't cause us to sin. We
sinned of our own free will. And that's our nature. That's
all we could do. And. The Lord restored that which
we lost. It had to be restored. He restored my standing, and
my soul was appointed at one time unto death, and now it's
appointed unto life. Let's turn back to our text,
if you would. He restores my soul, and he leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness. So I shall not want for his righteousness.
The paths of righteousness or not my works in this life. I
can't do any righteous works. I've seen that already. We've
covered that, that we're in and of ourselves altogether sin and
evil. So I can't produce any righteous works that would recommend
me to God or mean anything in terms of my salvation. What I
was thinking of here is that imagine for a minute that you've
wandered into the woods, that you've gone on a long walk and
you've been looking at things and not really paying attention
to how you got there. And so now you find yourself, you're
lost in the woods, you don't recognize your surroundings,
you don't even know which way to really go to get out. And
so you're on this path and you really don't know where to go.
So a path can lead to many different endpoints. You can have a choice
of paths come up. I've got a fork in the road,
so which way do I choose? I've got to choose the right
one. It's basically left up to me. I'll choose the wrong one.
And secondly, I could wander off the path and try to go down
over the hill to see if I can get out and find a way out. But
then I'm even probably more lost than when I started. And thirdly,
a path can lead to a dead end. So I can't be left with a choice
at this point. I'd be even more lost. I can't
go the right way when I'm blind. I have to be led. I need a guide.
But what I found interesting here was this word paths also
means trench. And so when I was thinking of
trench, I was thinking of what trench warfare was. In the Civil
War and the First World War, they would dig a trench down
on the front line of the battlefield on either side, and the trench
was protection. But the trench is also a path.
It's just a path. It's below where the danger is. So I've got this war going on
all around me, shots overhead, and the trench also has walls
on the sides. It keeps me from wandering off
the path. I keep only on that path. And
the trench also only goes one way forward and backward. There's
no forks in the trench. It's just one path. And so I'm
actually protected from all the war around me. I'm on this path
and he sets me on a path and I can't wander off of it, even
if I wanted to, because I've got these walls on my sides.
The Lord is my keeper and responsible for my safe delivery of my life
to his father. And so that's what this path
of righteousness does for me. It keeps me in this. The Lord
keeps me there. And so if we keep reading the text, I'm 23,
all these things the Lord does for me, he's my shepherd. And
because he's my shepherd, I shall not want he leads me in the green
pastures. This is his word. And he leads
me to decide to spill waters. And this is removing our sin
from us and giving the new man. We have peace. He restores my
soul and he leads me in the path of righteousness. All for what?
Why does he do it? The end of verse three tells
us all for his namesake. Now, my word is of great importance
to me and I will. To go to great lengths, even
great inconvenience to keep my word for something that I say
that I'll do and undoubtedly through circumstances or through
my own fault, I'm not always able to keep my word, even though
I want to. But sometimes it just doesn't work out that way. But
his word is of much greater importance. It's not as simple as he kept
this part, but this part got away. He can't have that. And
so it means actually his glory is his word, and he has to keep
for his name's sake, for him to swear by his own name. This
is his glory. Turn over, if you would, a few
pages, Psalm 106. In verse eight. This is a blessing here, and
nevertheless, he saved them for his namesake, that he might make
his mighty power to be known. Nevertheless, is a good word,
because that means that you and I, those that are in Christ,
have a chance. The Lord, the Lord. Nevertheless,
I'm I'm altogether unprofitable and a complete disaster, but
yet nevertheless, for his own name's sake, for his own glory,
he keeps his promise and he is responsible for my life. And
so therefore, he has to keep his promise. So for every knee
to bow and for every tongue to confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God, the father, he must keep his word.
This is his covenant. So turn back to our text, you
would. Verse four. Yay, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. So I look
here, what do I see? So the first thing we see that
this a lot of people look at is it's talking about death.
And we think, you know, this is kind of a scary portion of
it. But really, we see that we're
walking through this and we're not setting up camp. We're not
in here forever. We're just walking through. Second
thing I see is that we're walking. We're not running. You're running
from something that you're afraid of, that you have to be fearful
of or that we're trying to get somewhere really fast. And, you know, the Lord's not
going to allow us to get anywhere before we're supposed to be there.
It's all going to unfold in his own time. Even though we may
not see that, but it's going to unfold in his own time. And
thirdly, it's not the valley of death, it's the valley of
the shadow of death. And so it's just a shadow. It
can't hurt we hurt me. It's been put away. It's just
a silhouette has no power over me. And there's going to come
day when I'll die when they say, you know, Andy's dead, my body
will cease to live. But in actuality, I'm not dead.
My body of flesh is dead, but I'm not dead. Death has claimed
to my fleshly body, but it has no claim to my soul. The Lord's
taken that away. And so it can't hurt me if I'm
in Christ. The sting of death has been removed. There's no
more, no more death. Let's continue on, verse four. And I will fear no evil. Why
will I fear no evil? For thou art with me. Thou wrought
thy staff to comfort me. So I shall not lack his presence.
He's with me all the way. I have nothing to fear. He's with me. He's God, the creator. The whole earth trembles at his
presence and his rod and his staff. They comfort me. So what
do we use a rod and a staff for in this? What would a shepherd
use them for? He'd use them one. He could use
it as a weapon. He used his rod to beat away
the wolves or beat away somebody that was trying to cause him
or his sheep that he's trying to protect. Secondly, the shepherd's
staff, he leans on when he's weary in that he's on a long
journey. He's taken the sheep far off
to the pasture and it's a long journey and he leans on it to
rest upon. And you're going up a hill and
it's too hard to climb. He can use that staff to help
him. He leans upon it. The third thing it can be used
for is to pull the sheep back when they wander. You know, as
a sheep, We're going to wander. And so the Lord uses that shepherd's
crook to pull us back over, keep us back in the fold. So his rod
protects his staff as his word. We lead upon it and it pulls
us back when we wander. So verse five, thou prepares
the table before me in the presence of mine enemies. I see here that
I'll not lack provision. The Lord does all this out in
the open. It's not done in secret. He does
this in front of our enemies. He spreads the king's table before
us and the king's table was only put out at high occasion. And
the only ones who were allowed to sit at the king's table were
the royal family. That would be his wife and his
children. And so as children of the king,
we will be able to sit at his table that he's prepared for
us. And what a blessing that will be that we can be with the
Lord and sit at his table. And he'll do it ever in front
of every one of our enemies and they'll see it. We're his prize
and one day the wicked will be cut off, but he's provided for
me a seat at his table. I'm going to keep reading now,
so that prepares a table for me in the presence of my enemies
and now I notice my head with oil. And so I shall not want his Holy
Spirit, and that's what the anointing is of the head with this oil.
And so being anointed with the Holy Spirit, that's what we do.
When we come in here, we pray that the Lord would anoint the
speaker and be in our presence to teach us. It quickens to give
his life. If we don't have the Holy Spirit,
then we don't have that. And so my cup runneth over. And so a full cup won't overflow.
Only a cup with more than what it can hold will overflow. So
by Christ's righteous work in his life and his death, he paid
for my sin. And he rose and when he arose,
he gave me his righteousness because he took my sin away.
And I'm viewed by God is just like Christ. And so if Christ's
righteousness is mine, it's more than I'll ever need. And then
truly my cup overflowing, it runneth over. Verse six. Surely, goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. I shall not lack his goodness
and his mercy. So to the man or woman who is
a child of the king, these promises shall not fail. His goodness
and his mercy will never leave me. It will never fail. I can
never fall too low that his arm can't pick me up. I can never
go so far away that he won't seek me. And through his great
mercy and goodness. I'm given all of these things.
I'm given these promises that the Lord will be faithful to
what he's promised. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever. I shall not lack his eternal security. So our real,
true and earnest want in this life is to be with him. The good
shepherd gave his life for the sheep, and one day he'll collect
all his sheep and bring them home. All of them all accounted
for, not one missing, and there'll be no more tears. There'll be
no more death. No more sickness, no more crying. There'll be no more sorrow and
no more pain. And he'll make all things new.
And so I'll close with Psalm 119, the last verse. Verse 176. I have gone astray. like a lost sheep. Seek thy servant,
for I do not forget my commandments. I can also say that I, too, have
gone astray, but I trust my shepherd will seek me and bring me back
into his fold safe and accounted for.