Pastor Steven Ferrar
July 14, 2013 - W1328

Psalm 23

1) “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want

2) He makes me to lie down in green pastures

3) He lead me beside the still waters, He restores my soul

4) He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake

Yea though I walk through the valley of shadow and death

I will fear no evil, for You are with me, Your rod and Your staff they comfort me

5) You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies

You anoint my head with oil

6) My cup runs 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.”

When I was in college at Southern California, I was one of the worst students. Being a college student during the 60’s there are a lot of distractions. I always waited to the last minute to do my homework assignments. Well after one fun-filled weekend, I woke up on Sunday realizing I needed to do a book report on the 800-page book War and Peace and I didn’t even have the book yet. I instantly ran to the University bookstore and picked up one of those yellow and black 80-page books known as Cliff notes. These are summaries, a compendium of literature. Psalm 23 is like the Cliff notes of Christian life because in 6 short verses, it contains all the lessons to be learned as a Christian.

I love to quote Yogi Beara who, though very much is like a theologian, was actually a catcher for the New York Giants. He coined such famous sayings as, “It ain’t over ‘till it’s over,” and “If you come to a fork in the road, take it.” There’s even a story about him ordering pizza one day and when he was asked, “Do you want it cut into 6 or 12 slices?” His answer was, “You better make it 6 because I don’t think I can eat 12.”

Verse 1:

“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want”

Notice that David though David is a shepherd, he is writing this from the perspective of a sheep, not the shepherd. In his youth, he took care of his father’s sheep. He fought off lions and bears to defend his father’s flock. He knows what it means to be a shepherd but he doesn’t write it from the perspective of a shepherd; instead he writes it from the viewpoint of a sheep. He writes, “The Lord is my Shepherd.”

Everyone has a shepherd no matter who you are. The shepherd of your life is the thing that is most important to you. It is that which you are pursuing with your heart. For some people, their shepherd is wealth. For others, their shepherd is popularity. For a lot of people, their shepherd is control. But David says, “The Lord is my Shepherd.”

John 10:27 describes Jesus as the Great Shepherd of sheep.  It says, “My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give eternal life to them and they shall never perish, no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

Living in the South, a lot of the people say they know Christ but what is really happening is that they know ABOUT Christ. In reality, they don’t really KNOW Him.

John 17:3, “This is eternal life that they may know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent.”

It’s not about just knowing Him but about knowing Him.

In Israel, water and rainfall are very scarce except up north near Mt. Herman. There is snow up there and when the snow melts, it feeds into the Sea of Galilee and funnels down the Jordan River into the Dead Sea. There is not a lot of rainfall so there are times when the shepherds gather at the wells to water their sheep. Sometimes there would be 4 or 5 different flocks at a well but the sheep aren’t tagged in any way to identify which sheep belong to which shepherd. What happens is that the shepherd will simply call to his sheep and his sheep will know his voice and follow him. Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice and they follow Me.” That is how you know who (or what) is the shepherd of your life. Whose voice do you follow?  Who is number 1?

Years ago while in Seminary, I was asked to do a series on the Psalms. I wasn’t going to do all 150 Psalms but I also wasn’t going to do Psalm 23 because it was so familiar. Everyone was asking me to do Psalm 23. I didn’t really want to do it but I will admit that it was singularly the most significant week of study up until that point of my life. Did you know that there are 200 verses in the Bible in which God calls us sheep? Through my studies, I discovered three characteristics about sheep that I’d like to share with you.

1) Sheep are stupid.

When we lived in Southern California we would take our family and visit the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus. We’d see trained lions, tigers, bears, elephants, poodles, and seals, but not once did we see trained sheep. Why? Because sheep are stupid and 200 times in the Bible God calls me a sheep! And it’s true. I am stupid. So often I ask myself, “Why did I say that?” or “Why did I do that, again?” Why? Because I’m stupid. And I’m not the only one either, right? We all have regrets, and it’s painful to look back. As Paul writes, “forgetting what was left behind I press forward towards the high quality of Jesus.” Fix your eyes upon Jesus because Jesus died for our sins and He died for the “stupid.”  Jesus says, “What the locusts have eaten I will restore.” Because He is the Great Restorer, He is the Great Shepherd. Because we are a people who are stupid, we really need a Shepherd who knows what He is doing.

2) Sheep are dirty.

Sheep are very dirty creatures.  In Israel where rainfall is very scarce, it gets very dusty especially as the fields gets over-grazed and the sheep will get so filthy. All that dust and dirt gets embedded in their fluffy, wooly fur and since they are stupid, they don’t know how to clean themselves. We had a kitten who would sit there for hours grooming and cleaning itself. It is an inbred instinct for cats to clean themselves, but sheep won’t. As the filth stays tangled in the thick wooly coats of the sheep, they become diseased as maggots start to develop. And God calls me a sheep. I find myself living a dirty life. I have dirty thoughts. I sometimes completely misunderstand things and things get out of hand. I’m dirty, I’m sinful, and I can’t make myself clean.

 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all our unrighteousness.” Notice that it says “all,” not “most.”

Martin Luther was a Catholic Priest in Germany who was constantly in prayer, asking forgiveness for all the sins he ever committed. He would perform all kinds of good works in order for God to forgive him; however, he became a tormented man when he realized that there were just simply too many sins to be forgiven of. However, Jesus died on the cross for those sins.

Jesus died for all our sins, not just most, but ALL. He who was sinless took on all of the wrath of God by dying on the cross for us. And when Martin Luther realized that Jesus paid it all, he was set free.

 John Newton is the great hymn writer who wrote Amazing Grace. John Newton was once a slave trader he would rape women on the boats from Africa to the West Indies.  He was a horrific blasphemer, most cruel man, but he wrote one of the greatest hymns in Christian history. To get his attention, God actually had him enslaved for a while on a Caribbean island to a black woman and a white man.  Other slaves would feel sorry for him and, with rattled chains, they would bring him food out of pity for the way he was treated. Even then he did not believe until he was caught on a ship in a storm.  It was then that he realized how great God was. Even he could not believe how God would save such a wretch like him. At first, John Newton could not believe that Jesus died for him but he soon believed and wrote, “I am a great sinner, but Jesus is a Great Savior.”

You may still say to me, “But I still sin. The things I know I shouldn’t do, I do.” Well, so do I.  Romans 7 says, “We all fall short,” but Romans 8:1 says, “There is now NO condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,” because of what Jesus did. He died for our sins.  “Whom the Son has set free is free indeed.” That’s the Gospel.

3) Sheep are defenseless.

Every other animal has some way to defend themselves but sheep are totally defenseless. After all, what can they do? They can’t bark or claw anyone, nor can they emit an obnoxious odor to chase their enemy away. Sheep are totally and utterly defenseless, and God calls us sheep. Why? Because like sheep, we are also totally and utterly defenseless. Oh we like to think we can defend ourselves but in reality, we can’t. When 9/11 happened, we started something called Homeland Security, but terrorists still penetrate us. In Texas, when you buy a home, it comes with an alarm system. Face it, when you key in your alarm 4-digit code, it’s usually your year of birth which is so common. Can you be with your children 24/7? Can you be there for someone every day, every hour of your life? No. David says the Lord is our defense of whom shall I fear? Jesus is our Great Shepherd; He is our defender.  So why would you want any other Shepherd than Jesus?

“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” What does this mean? This verse doesn’t mean that we don’t want Him, it means that Jesus has every aspect of our life covered because He is the sovereign God. He is in absolute control of all things including our lives.

Psalm 103:19, “His throne is in the heavens and His Sovereignty rules over all.”

Isaiah 40:18 says, “To whom will you liken me?”

Any of these great nations like Iraq, God can blow dust on them and they will wither. Remember Nebuchadnezzar? He thought he was the most sovereign king, but what did God do? God put him in the fields to slobber with the cows for seven years but after 7 years, God restored him and gave him his mind back, then Nebuchadnezzar gave all the glory to God. God is in control of all things even though it looks like things are out of control. He IS in control of all things right down to the nanosecond. He is always right on-time.

After Verse 1 where he declares that the Lord is our Shepherd, David writes about all the things that God will do for us. What follows is a whole list of benefits. You know when we take on new jobs, we want to know what the benefits are. Well here in Psalm 23 is a list of benefits upon knowing that the Lord is your Shepherd.

Verse 2

“He makes me lie down in green pastures”

Right here is the benefit of REST. There is an American pace of life. We are constantly in a hurry, or we constantly stay busy and become exhausted. We have a name for our pace of life, we term it “24/7.” It means we never stop. We just keep up the ragged pace and we become so fatigued.

I remember when my son was young and my wife and daughter were out together. When it was time for his nap, he didn’t want to go to sleep. I fed him, dressed him, put him in his crib, and closed the door. I waited for about 90 seconds because I knew what was going to happen. He would rattle his crib because he didn’t want to take his nap. Then I would go back into his room and he would be there rattling his crib, then I would put him back down in his crib, on his tummy with my hand on his back. At first he would fight it but I press on his back a little harder and in 90 seconds he was out like a light.

We are so much like that because we are always so much in a hurry. We don’t even have time to have dinner with each other anymore. But, every once in a while, in His goodness, that Shepherd will interrupt our plans and He will make us lie down. If you have ever lost a job, He has made you lie down. It’s not that your employer fired you because God is sovereign over him and that situation.

Proverbs 21:1, “The kings heart is like channels of water, in the hands of the Lord He turns it whatever way He wishes”

God is most high; He is sovereign over all things. Some have said after losing their jobs that it was the best thing that ever happened to them.  Why? Because God made them lie down. He probably even extended their lives by taking them out of that stressful situation. He gave them rest.

He knows all things about our lives, He knows our every need, He has appointed a time for us, and He will see us through it because He has a plan for us. It’s all under the sovereignty of God.

Now the last point for this lesson is Verse 3

“He leads me beside still waters”

He leads us. There are two ways that shepherds tend their sheep. In the western Hemisphere, that’s in the US, Australia and New Zealand, the shepherd walks behind their flock, they drive their sheep like a cattle drive. They push their sheep along.  In Israel, however, the shepherd walks in front. They LEAD their sheep. In John 10 we read that Jesus leads them from the front. He leads us. He doesn’t push us or drive us.  He goes ahead of us.

Think about it, when we go to the doctors and we go through a series of tests, and we are told we have to wait for 10 days, what happens?  We worry about it for 10 days. Or we hear that there will be layoffs in 30 days, we fester through those 30 days wondering what will happen. But let me tell you about Jesus, if something is going to happen in 10 days, He is already out in front of you 10 days ahead. He is already there. He already has that solution 10 or 30 days ahead of you. He is the Great Shepherd. He restores us. He knows what we need.

Every night at twilight in Israel, the shepherd does the same thing, he counts his sheep. If one is missing, he goes out and finds it. It is usually a yearling. Like Isaiah says, “we like sheep go astray we have turned to our own ways.” So the shepherd goes and finds it, and carries it back on his shoulder. Every night the same thing, He counts and goes out to find the missing sheep and carries it back on his shoulder. If this continues to happen, he will actually take the sheep and fracture its leg. He doesn’t do it to be cruel but to teach it a lesson, because if it continues to wander, it could be killed by a bear or fall off a cliff. So the shepherd fractures the leg so the sheep will learn to stay with the shepherd. He then carries it on his shoulder until the leg heals. It may still have a limp, but, at least it won’t wander anymore. So like that little sheep, we must be taught not to wander.  We must learn to stay close to the Shepherd; we must learn to stay close to Jesus.

There are probably some of us who wandered in here today with a limp because we have had our heart broken by God. Oftentimes that is what He has to do to get our attention because we are so strong-willed. Then in desperation we cry out to Him. Then for the rest of our lives we walk with a limp.

For me, I know right here in my heart I always have a tendency to try to get ahead of Him, but I have had to learn to submit and get under His authority.  And I have to remind myself of it every day of my life, because it is the safest place in the world to be. What a Savior. What a Shepherd. What a Lord. What a God. What a Redeemer.  ”The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”

DISCUSSION SUGGESTIONS

1) What areas do you need to trust God to shepherd in your life?

2) How has God tried to grab your attention to submit to His shepherding?

3) What mountains or valleys has God taken you through to bring you back to His grace?

4) Why did you wander from His shepherding?

5) How did He bring you back?