so so the idea of the shepherd and the idea of shephering is throughout the Bible at the forefront all over the scriptures and here in Psalm 23 right in the middle of the Bible we find this iconic psalm which has the most well-known presentation of the idea let's look then at Psalm number 23 if you have your Bibles and if you have the ESV let's let's read this together this morning should we stand together as we read Psalm number [Music] 23 the Lord is my shepherd i shall not want he makes me lie down in
green pastures he leads me beside still waters he restores my soul he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for you are with me your rod and your staff they comfort me you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies you anoint my head with oil my cup overflows surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever thank you
you can be seated again three movements from two perspective perspectives the first from the perspective of the shepherd and the second from the perspective of the sheep and I believe it's insightful when we look at the psalm in this way first let's look at it from the shepherd's perspective van Gimmerman writes "The first word of the psalm the Lord Yahweh evokes rich images of the provision and protection of the covenant God." And that's the first thing that we see is the shepherd's providential care for the sheep the Lord is my shepherd now note that the
shepherd's providential care is limited the Lord is my shepherd david is not making a universal statement about God's relationship with all people in Psalm 23 and this is one reason that we can be rather disappointed when we come to the psalm this is a psalm that is known not only by believers but by unbelievers alike unbelievers like the idea of God as a shepherd and they take Psalm 23 to mean that this is God's disposition toward all people but David is not making a statement about God's disposition towards all people in fact David is not
even making a statement about God's disposition toward all of Israel the king is making a statement about God's disposition toward him the Lord is my shepherd not everyone can say that not everyone in Israel could say that not everyone in this room can say that only those who understand Psalm 22 and the redemption that we have in Christ because of his blood shed on our behalf when he bought and purchased a people for himself as the sheep of his fold only those can make the step the statement the Lord is my [Music] shepherd only when
you get Psalm 22 only when you understand that redemption can you truly make this statement the shephering that the psalmist describes is not universal it's based on God's unique disposition towards his people we are born enemies of God deserving of his wrath so it can't be talking about us in that state in Ephesians chapter 2:es 1-3 "And you were dead in your transgresses or trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world following the prince of the power of the air the spirit that is now at work in the sons
of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind all of mankind stands under the wrath and condemnation of God all of mankind is being shepherd by the prince of the power of the air they're being shepherded by the evil one you cannot be shepherded by the evil one pursuing your evil desires and simultaneously claim the Lord is my shepherd jesus makes it clear that we must become the children
of God or the sheep of his pasture john 1 beginning verse beginning in verse 11 we read he came to his own and his own people did not receive him but to all who did receive him who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God folks you don't need the right to become something that you already are we are not all God's children let me say it again we are
not all God's children we are all his creatures we are all his creation but those who believe have been granted the right to become children of God we enter into this sheepfold and it is only then that we can say the Lord is my shepherd john chapter 10 again jesus answered them "I told you and you do not believe the works that I do in my father's name bear witness about me but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep you don't have to take my word for it take Jesus Christ himself
at his word and he says that there are those who do not believe him because they are not his sheep uh notice also that he doesn't say you're not my sheep because you don't believe he says you don't believe because you're not my sheep it is being marked out as his it leads us to belief so you must not feel free to claim the blessings of Psalm 23 haphazardly we've got to understand that first and that is what Spurgeon meant that you have to put Psalm 23 in its context so you you can't say I
I just love thinking about God this way this psalm really ministers to me it really makes me feel good about God therefore I will take Psalm 23 as the way that I explain God's disposition towards me you're not allowed to do that you're not allowed to do that it is only those who understand Psalm 22 it is only those who have been redeemed by the death in Psalm 22 that can make the claim in Psalm 23 the Lord is my shepherd it is only when you have come to him through repentance and faith that you
can lay claim to him being your shepherd it is only as Jesus says when you believe him that you can lay claim to being one of his sheep because that is one of the marks of being one of his sheep that you believe him you cannot say simultaneously I do not believe him on the one hand and on the other hand I am one of his sheep do you believe today do you believe that Christ is who he says he is do you believe that he is the son of God do you believe that he
wrapped himself in flesh satisfying the righteous requirements of his father so that he might imputee that righteousness to those who believe and do you believe that in his passive obedience he died on the cross just as Psalm 22 said that he would do you believe that he died for sins committed by sinful men thus satisfying the wrath of his father in heaven do you believe that you needed this death on your behalf because you are a sinner an enemy of God and that the only way for you to access rightness with God is through this
death that you deserved but Christ died do you believe that he is your only hope of salvation beloved it is only when you can answer yes to those questions that you can lay hold to Psalm 23 otherwise you are deceiving yourself but not God the Lord is my shepherd the shepherd's providential care is also necessary the the Lord is my shepherd i need a shepherd the the nature of sheep tells us that it's amazing that throughout the Bible God refers to his people as sheep there are a lot of things we could have been he
could have said you know we are his dogs could have said that we are his birds weird whatever he said "Sheep defenseless sheep ignorant sheep needy sheep frightened skittish sheep weward wandering sheep." He refers to us as sheep sheep need a shepherd you don't find sheep out in the wild fending for themselves they don't make it [Music] long a sheep out in the wild fending for himself a sheep can't even make it if someone doesn't cut his wool off for him he could fall over and not be able to write himself [Music] that's how worthless
sheep are they can die from falling over and not being able to write [Music] themselves they can't run fast they don't have sharp teeth to fend off predators they have no claws and they are not bright and unless you have the humility to think of yourself like that you don't understand the nature of sin you know what sin does sin takes a sheep and makes him think that he's a wolf sin takes a sheep that can't survive and makes him think that he's a predator who's on top of the world who doesn't need a shepherd
i don't need God i can make it on my own we're in desperate need of shephering it's not a flattering picture the separate shepherd's providential care is also comprehensive it's physical and spiritual in nature look at the physical nature of it a and notice the pronouns he makes me lie down in green pastures he leads me beside the still waters he restores my soul he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake no notice the pronouns there he He He the Lord is my shepherd he Why because I can't do this i'm a
sheep i can't take care of myself so this is why it's important to have this shepherd metaphor because we are incapable of caring for ourselves there is this idea of him providing for our physical needs he makes me lie down in green pastures you need green pastures to [Music] eat it leaves me beside still waters otherwise you couldn't even find water to drink but notice the parallels two lines about our physical needs and then two lines about our spiritual needs he restores my soul does this not sound like Christ matthew 11 "Come to me all
who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly of heart and you will find rest for your souls he restores my soul he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake." You are not capable of righteousness in and of yourself it is the shepherd who leads you in paths of righteousness so even your righteous deeds are dependent upon the shepherd we offer them to him and we strive in those paths wherein he leads us because we
desire righteousness but even the desire for righteousness comes from the [Music] shepherd we see this in the Lord's prayer in the fourth petition we find "Give us this day our daily bread our physical needs." The fifth petition forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors spiritual and then the sixth petition lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one so even when the Lord teaches us how to pray he teaches us how to pray like sheep this is important for us to remember because the fact of the matter is being led
by a good shepherd can lead you to be overconfident when he provides for you and you eat well and drink well and when your soul is restored and when you're walking in paths of righteousness the tendency is to become puffed up and to forget that the Lord is my shepherd the tendency is to look at other people who are not being shepherded as well as you are being shepherded and to look down upon them there there's a great line about this and I I won't tell you where the line comes from but there's bickering between
two brothers and and these two brothers are bickering over you know money in the family that they're inheriting and you know one of them has done well for himself and the other one hasn't done well for himself and the the one who hasn't at his college a picture of the the prodical son if you will in this particular film and the elder brother is sitting there as the other brother is coming you know saying I I I need this I need that I need the other and the elder brother just like the elder brother and
the prodical son is sitting there proud of what he has made of himself and the younger brother looks at the elder brother and says we were both born on third base stop acting like you hit a [Music] [Music] triple that's our tendency when things are good in our lives here we are home run trot coming toward home plate forgetting the fact that we were born on third base and somebody else knocked us in it is Christ it is all of Christ the Lord is my shepherd
