The Lord is My Speherd
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
The Lord is My Shepard
The Lord is My Shepard
Open up with explaining night and how it will be run
Lets start with reading Psalm 23
English Standard Version Psalm 23
23 A PSALM OF DAVID.
1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
3 He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
English Standard Version Psalm 23
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;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.
God is the Provider of all
Lets break down this text, we are going to that this Psalm is broken up in 3 sections. The Lord is my Shepherd, He is my comforter and protector, and Lastly the Lord is my host.
Firstly the Lord is My Shepherd
Where do I get that
It says the Lord is my shepherd. So what does that make us. That we have to be sheep. In the bible we are referred to as sheep many times, Zecariah 10:2, , , and many other passages. Now Biblically, what are sheep? Sheep are those who stray, they go astray. As a sheep we have nothing. Those times have good health, productive time at work or seeing God clearer in His word. Is not from you. It is from
our shepherd. The Lord is our shepherd. This shepherd provides all. Look back the text.
English Standard Version Psalm 23
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
3 He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
This is incredible. The Lord is MY shepherd. Because of his goodness and greatness as my shepherd, I shall not want. The statement I shall not want can also be translated as I shall lack in nothing. Lack in nothing because of God as our shepherd. You see in this Psalm his care and love for us and also how he provide for us. If you are in a spiritually good time or a good time in your life it is from God. We see here God as shepherd leading us and making us lie down green pastures. He provides a rest and nourishment for us.
God cares and provides for us and cares for us. We have a showing of his goodness, that he brings us to these places and makes us lie down.
And we also see here that He leads me besides still water. This is not the violent stream that rushes. But a quite calm water that is inviting. The word still in the Hebrew emphasizes rest and security. And again he is the provider of our needs.
The good shepherd allows us to see these times of rest. And Where he as verse 3 says He restores my soul. He leads me in path of righteousness for his name sake.
Our shepherd restores us and sets us on paths where we are safe and pleasing to him. Everything here is for His name sake. It is for His glory and wellness. This may look like the time in our lives where we are understanding the word, responding to sermons. Serving with the right heart or just maybe success. A time without difficult trials. But these time do not last. These are amazing times while we are
in them but they just do not last. The times wither and go away. We will walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
And here we see the Lord in a different way. Point 2 the Lord is my Protector and Comforter
Here we see the the good shepherd loves us too much to let us stay in these green pastures. He will not let stay here where we can get proud and lazy. and can not relate to the people around us who are going through tough times. Now this valley is not something that is related to physical harm always. But this is the hard times in your life, the times where do not see the love, light and love that are shown in the first 3 verses. This could be you losing your job, fighting some illness, a hard breakup, seeing your prospects of marriage fly away, see the fragility of life through someones death, seeing someone you love walk away from the faith or the terrible reality of the sinful life you have been living (committing the act, you never thought possible), maybe it is the times where you open your bible with no interest and feeling those words you loved no longer jump off the page like they used to, feeling like every time you pray they just bounce of the walls. But what is it to say the Lord is my shepherd in those times, that you will fear no evil. What does it mean to say these things in those hard trials. It is remembering that God leads us there.
someone you love walk away from the faith or the terrible reality of the sinful life you have been living (committing the act, you never thought possible), maybe it is the times where you open your bible with no interest and feeling those words you loved no longer jump off the page like they used to, feeling like every time you pray they just bounce of the walls. But what is it to say the Lord is my shepherd in those times, that you will fear no evil. What does it mean to say these things in those hard trials. It is remembering that God leads us there.
Here he is our comforter. We need to remember here that he is with us. Lets read again verse 4
English Standard Version Psalm 23
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.
Our great shepherd has his rod and staff ready. These would have been the tools a shepherd would use to guide his sheep. The rod was used to drive us other dangerous animals away. And in the same way the Lord protects us with driving danger away and the staff was used to pull and push us back in the right direction. Very few times in green pastures and still waters will the rod and staff ever have to be used. They are used in those tough times of life. Where there is a trial and God now has to use the rod and the staff. In the valley we see our true need for his help. There is nothing profound or great about saying I will no evil in the good and comfortable times of life. It is hear in valley where we are tested and it can be hard to say I will fear no evil for you are with me and you comfort me.
This is difficult. Think n those tough times in your life. Those times where in a trial. Think about that pain and suffering and hardship you went through. Was it easy to say the Lord is my shepherd and because of that fact I will not fear but I will be comforted because I know that he is there? No! it is hard to say those things.
Even though logically we may say yes we know that the Lord is always there. And many of yes know this Psalm very well. And we can recite it by heart. But do we really believe it. Do we believe that even though I walk through this valley that I will fear no evil. Not even a hint of fear, because we truly know and believe that God is there with us. And that he is truly our protector and comforter and protector.
Now this Psalm shows God in a different light. We see that his goodness is soooo great that the analogy switches. It switches to God as our host. This is the third truth we see here. We see The Lord as our great host.
Lets read again verses 5 and 6
English Standard Version Psalm 23
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.
English Standard Version Psalm 23
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;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.
God as our host prepares us a table. For we once enemies but now we are seated at his table. This section of the shows our God as an amazing provided. Even though we were enemies he still loves and provides for us. And as we continue in this Psalm we see that he gives to us abundantly. My cup overflows. He is giving us more than we will ever need. He is amazing. and God as our host and shepherd we see verse 6 with open eyes. That God will surely have goodness and mercy follow me. But that word follow in the hebrew is a much stronger would than follower. Some translations use the word pursue. I think this is a much better translation. Because this word here is used different times in the Old Testment
And it is used mostly in a sence of an active pursuit. sometimes it is used it a military sence. Of and army pursuing its enemies. It is also in Dueteronmy we see a list of commands and what will happen when you dont follow. How you can not escape what will happen. this is exactly what is happening here. That the goodness and mercy from God will follow me all the days of my life. And I shall live with him forever. With my God in his house forever.
Now I want to make it clear before we break off that this is not for everyone.
These promises that are in psalm 23 and all the promises that are the bible in fact are not for everyone. The harsh reality is that we are condemned. Commended to hell. Yes there are amazing things in the bible about God’s love and goodness but we can not be right with him and we can not receive these blessings and promises. says for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
But but
let continue reading
in
and are justified by his grace as a gift, through redemption in Christ Jesus, who God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.
It is amazing that Go has put forward a way for us to right with him, on the cross. And now we can see God as our Shepherd, our protector and comforter and He is and will be our great host. Lets close in prayer then we will break up into groups.