I wanted to mention before we
turn to our text tonight, last Sunday evening, there were 49
devices that were tuned into the streaming service. So we're
thankful for the good number who who watched the broadcast
and who heard the gospel. I know this is something that
Ellie had desired and, and many of her co-workers even tuned
in from South Carolina. So the gospel goes out and we're
thankful for that. Now, if you will, let's turn
tonight to Psalm 23. We looked at Psalm 22 last Wednesday,
and as I said, I do not plan to bring a message from every
psalm, Just several of the Psalms in this book, and I couldn't
skip over this Psalm. Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. 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 namesake. 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. This, I believe, is the best
known of all of the 150 psalms. Very seldom attend a funeral
service when this psalm is not either read or printed on the
brochure. When Pat and I attended Spanish
language school years ago, we were required to learn this psalm. It was practicing Spanish and
also it helped to learn the psalm. Jehovah es mi pastor. In Spanish, as you hear, it is
Jehovah. But we recognize as we look in
our Bible, as we read in our Bibles, our translation, English
translation, that the word Lord, or the name Lord, each letter
is in uppercase, which tells us that this is the name Jehovah,
Jehovah. God's name Jehovah is his name
which is written simply in these capital letters, Y-H-V-H, which
is pronounced Yahweh, Yahweh. God's name Jehovah. is his covenant
name, especially used in reference to the covenants that he has
made with his chosen people. And it especially tells us of
God's self-existence, that God is self-existent. He needs, he depends on no one
or anything outside of himself. This is a name that God gave
to Moses when he asked at that burning bush. Moses, you remember,
told the Lord there that they would surely ask him when he
went down into Egypt and told the Israelites that the Lord
had sent him there to lead them out. They would surely ask his
name. And God gave him this name. I
am that I am. It's not I was or not I shall
be, but I am eternally self-existent, the Lord God. There are other
compound names of the Lord in the Old Testament, but there
are seven compound names of Jehovah, seven compound names of Jehovah. And a compound name is the name
Jehovah, and a descriptive name added to that. And the descriptive
name reveals God's work in the lives of His people. And I want
us tonight to look at this psalm again, and let's look at all
seven of these names, Jehovah, compounded with a descriptive
word. The psalm begins with one of
these names, Jehovah Raha. Jehovah, R-A dash A-H. Jehovah Raha, the Lord my shepherd. Or as we have it translated here,
the Lord is my shepherd. Now this begs the question, how
does a person come to have the Lord as his shepherd? That's
wonderful, isn't it? that the Lord is your shepherd?
But how does a person come to have the Lord as his shepherd?
He's not everyone's shepherd. We know that. Well, here are
three ways that men may own sheep or may have sheep. And in these
same three ways, we see how a person becomes one of his sheep. That is, that have the Lord as
their shepherd. A man might be given a sheep. Someone might give a person a
sheep, and so he would then have a sheep. It would be his sheep.
A man might buy a sheep, and it would be his sheep. He bought
it. A man might find a sheep, and
it would be his sheep. Now, every one of these three
ways that I've just mentioned are true of all of those who
have the Lord as their shepherd. They're true of you. If he is
your shepherd, these three things are true of you. First of all,
all of the sheep of Christ were given to him by his father and
the everlasting covenant. The Lord Jesus Christ said this
in John chapter 6, All that the Father giveth me shall come to
me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Every sheep, every person who
has the Lord as their shepherd, they were given to him in an
everlasting covenant of grace from before the foundation of
the world. In Hebrews chapter 2 and verse
13, we read, the Lord one day will appear before the Father
with these words, behold, I and the children which thou has given
me, which God has given me. So everyone who has the Lord
as their shepherd is a sheep who was given unto him. And then
secondly, all of the sheep of Christ were bought by him. bought
by him. He said, I am the good shepherd.
You know, there are many hirelings. There are many false shepherds.
You read about that, especially in the book of Ezekiel, Zechariah,
lazy, slothful shepherds that serve themselves of the sheep. But the Lord Jesus Christ said,
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life
for the sheep. He bought his sheep. Paul writing to the church, the
believers at Corinth, he said, for you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's. You're bought with
a price. And we know the word redeemed
is many times used in the scripture, speaking of how the Lord bought
his people, redeemed them. Now that word redeemed, we were
already his. We've been given unto him. We
were his, but we had sold ourselves into slavery, into bondage. and
he redeemed us, he bought us, and he redeemed us, the scripture
emphasizes the fact, not with silver or with gold, but with
his precious blood. And then third, all of the sheep
of Christ are his by him finding them. In Psalm 119, let me turn
over here to Psalm 119, and the Psalmist David, He said, I have gone astray like a lost
sheep. Psalm 119. I have gone astray
like a lost sheep. All, all of Christ's sheep have
gone astray. And if, now listen, if, if he,
the shepherd, the good shepherd, if he did not seek his sheep,
None of his sheep would ever seek him. We love him because
he first loved us. All of his sheep, we had all
gone astray, everyone turned to our own way, and if he did
not seek us out, we would never be found. Our Lord in the New
Testament gives two parables, speaking of the good shepherd,
or the shepherd who had a hundred sheep. and there was one missing,
and he seeks until he finds that one lost sheep. We were all lost
sheep, those who have the Lord as their shepherd. We were all
lost sheep, and he finds them. And how does he find his sheep?
God, the Holy Spirit, uses the gospel. I like that saying I've
mentioned to you before. I think it was Goodwin, Thomas
Goodwin, who said this, but he said, the Holy Spirit comes riding
in the gospel chariot. The Holy Spirit comes riding
in the gospel chariot. And yes, God has chosen the preaching
of the gospel. And God, the Holy Spirit uses
the word in finding his sheep. He said, my sheep know my voice
and they follow me. So the Lord is my shepherd, Jehovah-Raha. But then we see the meaning of
another of these names, Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord will provide. And I see that when the psalmist
says, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. I shall not
want. Why? Because he is Jehovah-Jireh. Now that name we know was given
to Abraham. When Abraham held up the knife
and was ready to sacrifice his son Isaac on the altar as the
Lord had told him to do and God stayed his hand and he saw a
ram that was there caught in the bushes and he took that ram
and it was sacrificed in the stead of Isaac and That name
was revealed there, Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will provide. He will provide everything for
His children, every need that we have. He will not withhold
one thing that is good for His children. He may withhold things
from us that we want, that we desire, but He will never withhold
one thing that is for our good. The Lord will The very hairs
of our head are numbered, showing His constant watch care and provision
for all of His people, all of His sheep. Look back with me,
if you will, to Genesis chapter 33. In the message Sunday morning, I use
this as an example. I did not have this in my notes.
I thought later there may have been some people here who did
not quite understand or were not that familiar with this passage
of Scripture here in Genesis chapter 33. So I thought we'd turn here and
look at it tonight. But it is telling us what took
place when Jacob returned from Mesopotamia. working for his
father-in-law, Laban, for his two wives, and he's returning
to Canaan. Now, the last thing that he heard
about his brother Esau was his mother told him, he's talking
about killing you. He's talking about doing away
with you. And so as Jacob is coming back,
and God told him to come back, but he's got a large family.
four wives, he's got twelve children, he's got many animals, great
herds, and he's coming back and he's fearful of Esau, what Esau's
going to do when he meets him. And so you know the story, he
begins to send some sheep, some goats, some camels, some asses,
droves of them to Esau as gifts to his brother Esau, thinking
that he had to somehow appease the wrath of his brother. But
notice, if you will, here in chapter 33 and verse 8, when
they meet, Esau says, what meanest thou by all this drove which
I met? All these presents that you've
sent to me. What do you mean by this, Jacob?
And he said, These are to find grace in the sight of my Lord.
Now notice what Esau said. He said, I have enough, my brother. I don't need this. I don't need
these gifts. I have enough, my brother. Keep
that thou hast unto thyself. Now, if you look down in verse
11, when Jacob responds, he's trying to Encourage Esau to take
the gifts to receive the gifts He says take I pray thee my blessing
that is brought to thee because God hath dealt graciously graciously
with me and because I Have enough, but you notice there. There's
a little number before that word enough and when you look in the
Hebrew and If you have a concordance, you look this up and you see
there are two different words which are translated by the English
word enough. Esau said, I've got enough. What
did Jacob say? What does it say in the margin?
I have all things. I have all things. And that's
true of everyone who has the Lord as their shepherd. Jehovah-Jireh. He will provide. Now, we think
about this, especially maybe with physical things. We have needs of food and clothes
and shelter and things like that. Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will
provide. But more especially, more so
than physical things, material things, the Lord has provided
for us all that we need as His sheep. What do we need? We need
a fountain. We need a cleansing agent to
cleanse us from all our sins. And we need a righteousness that
will allow us as sinful as we are by nature, one day to appear
in the very presence of God, the thrice holy God, Jehovah-Jireh. He provides. He provided the
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd. He maketh
me to lie down in green pastures. trying to point out is we see
these compound names in this psalm. He maketh me to lie down
in green pastures. The green pastures, you say,
what does that represent? Well, I'm convinced it represents
the word of God. We are his people, the sheep
of his pasture, the word of God. And when you see animals which
chew the cud and sheep do, and they're lying down, What does
that tell you? That tells you that their needs
have been met. They're not out grazing, they're
lying down. Why? Because they have filled
their stomach and now they're going through that process of
regurgitating and all of that. You know how that works. All
right, here's a third way. We may see the meaning of another
of the names. This is Jehovah Shalom. Jehovah Shalom. Many people are
familiar with that word, Shalom, because we hear it used when
leaders meet over there in the Middle East with the Israelites. Shalom, and that's the way they
greet one another, I've been told. Shalom, what does it mean? It means peace, peace. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our
peace. Did you know that sheep will
not drink from running water that's making a lot of noise?
They just won't do that. But sheep find peace. The Lord, He is our peace. The Lord Jesus Christ, our shepherd,
He is our peace. And by that, I mean He made peace
for us with God. And that word peace, of course,
means he reconciled us to God. There was enmity, enmity on our
part. And we never read that God was
reconciled unto us. God doesn't change. He's the
thrice holy God. It was us who needed to be reconciled
unto God. Christ did that. How did he do
that? The Apostle Paul tells us he
did it by the blood of his cross, by his sacrifice. A fourth way
we may see the meaning of this name is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord
that healeth thee. That name was given in Exodus
chapter 15. And we see that here, he restoreth
my soul. You know the prophecy in Isaiah
53 says, by his stripes we are healed. When we are first brought
to Christ, when we first trust in him, we find that healing
virtue in his blood, that that blood is sufficient. And yes,
I don't know about you, but I would imagine sometimes the flesh of
Satan overwhelms you with reminding you of your sin, the greatness
of your sin. Isn't it a blessing to not argue
about it? Confess, yes, that's true. But
my sins, no matter how great they are, the blood of Jesus
Christ is greater still. Greater still. That song they
used to sing, greater than the stain is gone. the blood of Christ. He healeth all our diseases. But the psalmist here says he
restoreth, that's continuous action, he restoreth my soul. As we continue our journey through
this world, through this wilderness, how many times do we need our
souls restored? How many times do we need that
healing power You might say, well, why do we need our soul
restored? Well, one reason is because we
grow cold. We do. We just grow cold. We read that passage in Revelation
2 Sunday morning at the beginning of the service, but the letter
that Christ wrote to the church at Ephesus, my, he commends them
on so many things, so many great things, but I have one thing
against thee. What is it? Thou hast left thy
first love. It's easy to grow cold, coming
to all the services, reading the scripture, praying, and yet
still it's easy. If we allow ourselves to grow
cold, we need the Lord to restore our souls. Why do we need our
soul restored? Because it's all nature that
we have. It is a constant enemy and many
times we listen to the old nature instead of looking unto Christ
and we get discouraged and we get downcast in our mind and
in our spirit. And why do we need our soul restored? We sometimes just grow weary. The Apostle Paul told the churches
at Galatia, let us not be weary in well-doing. You know, preachers
never grow weary of the work, but we do grow weary in the work. And the same thing is true of
all believers. We never grow weary of the work,
we love the work of preaching, we love that's our desire to
serve him to honor him to glorify him. But at the same time, sometimes
we do grow weary in the work. He restored our soul, Jehovah,
Rafa, the Lord, that he let the and then here's a fifth way we
may say the meaning of another of the names Jehovah Nessie. Jehovah Nissi. You say, well
that's a strange name. Yes, Jehovah Nissi. What does
that mean? The Lord by banner. When Israel
came out of Egypt, the first time they had to engage in any
kind of warfare with the Amalekites, you remember, he had to go down, Joshua did, had to go down and
fight the Amalekites in the valley. And Moses was up on the mountain,
and they had to hold his hands up. And when they held his hands
up, the Israelites were defeating the Amalekites. And when his
hands grew weary, the Amalekites began to get the better of the
Israelites. So they put two stones there
and held them up. But after that battle was over,
the Israelites got the battle. built an altar and sacrificed
unto the Lord, and that's the name Jehovah Nissi, the Lord,
our banner. Now they call their altar Jehovah
Nissi. Who is our altar? Christ. He's our priest, he's our altar,
he's our sacrifice. He's our everything, isn't he?
Yes. Jehovah Nissi. Another word for
banner is ensign. Look at this verse in Isaiah
chapter 11. You know what a banner is or
an army's colors or ensign? There's someone there that that's
in the fray and he's got the banner, he's holding the banner
up, the ensign up, the flag, the colors of the company up,
so that the men can always see that banner and know where to
engage, where to fight. Here in Isaiah chapter 11 in
verse 10 we read, and in that day there shall be a root of
Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people, To it
shall the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious."
The Lord Jesus Christ, Jehovah Nissi, he is our banner. And the spouse in the Song of
Solomon said, he brought me into his banqueting house, and his
banner over me was love, love. Christ is our banner. And then
a sixth meaning of another name, righteousness here. Righteousness
for His namesake. In verse three, He leadeth me
in the path of righteousness for His namesake, Jehovah Tiskanu,
the Lord, our righteousness. His righteousness is charged
or accounted or imputed unto everyone that believe it. Those
are the words the Apostle Paul uses in Romans chapter four,
illustrating how a person is declared just before God. He
cites the case of Abraham, then he cites the case of David, and
both tell us that the righteousness that we need is accounted unto
everyone who believes in Christ, the Lord, our righteousness.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness unto everyone that believeth.
And then lastly, the meaning of the last of the names, Jehovah
Shammah. What does that mean? The Lord
is there. Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is
there. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for Thou
art with me, the Lord is there. And not only that, but at the
end of the psalm, he said, I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever. Jehovah Shammah. Well, I pray
the Lord would bless these words and these thoughts to all of
us here tonight. What a precious and beautiful
psalm it is. And it never was intended just
to be for funerals, that's for sure. But it is an encouragement
to us as we go through this life. Let us sing another hymn and
we'll be dismissed in prayer.