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Psalm 23

THE SHEPHERD PSALM

INTRO

1. We know that David wrote this psalm, but we are unsure of the time.

2. Some believe that he wrote it as an old man looking back over his life and rejoicing in the

goodness of God.

3. Others think he wrote it as a youth, out there on the Judean hills, his father's flock around him,

his harp in his hand, and his soul aflame with the great thought which had just come

to him---

The Lord is my Shepherd!

4. I like to think that David faced the giant Goliath in the valley of Elah, as he ran to meet his

foe, he sang:

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.

5. The psalm divides into three parts:

1st: David takes us into the glen.

2nd: David takes us down into the gorge.

3rd: David takes us on into glory.

6. Here is another way to outline this chapter:

1st: We see the One who can take care of our frailty.

2nd: We see the One who can take care of our foes.

3rd: We see the One who can take care of our future.

7. For this lesson we will outline it like this:

1st: The Secret of a Happy Life (v.1-3)

2nd: The Secret of a Happy Death (v.4-5)

3rd: The Secret of a Happy Eternity (v.6)

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I. THE SECRET OF A HAPPY LIFE (v.1-3)

"A happy life is not the result of chance."

A. Its Roots In A Magnificent Spiritual Relationship

1. David says, "The Lord is my shepherd."

a) "Lord" means Jehovah.

To Be:

1) Yehi - "He will be." Future

2) Hove - "Being." Present

3) Hahyah - "He was." Past

b) Notice...

1) Take the first 3 letters of Yehi... YEH-

2) Take the middle 2 letters of Hove... OV-

3) Take the last 2 letters of Hahyah... AH

YEHOVAH (JEHOVAH)

c) God's name signifies that He is the eternal One.

2. The Jews well-understood the meaning of this great name.

a) When Jesus stood before them and said, "Before Abraham was I AM." they understood He was claiming to be God in the absolute sense of the word.

b) Jesus was claiming the Jesus of the New Testament was the Jehovah

of the Old Testament.

3. The Lord is not just a shepherd to us... He is MY shepherd.

4. It is not enough to own Him as...

a) A shepherd, for that only equates Him with the founders of the world's

religions.

b) THE shepherd, for that simply sets Him apart from everyone else.

WE MUST ESTABLISH A

PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM.

5. The secret of a happy life has its roots in a magnificent spiritual relationship.

B. Its Results In A Magnificent Spiritual Reality

#1. This good shepherd shares His life with us.

"I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leadeth me beside the still waters."

1. His own resources and His own restfulness is hared with His own people.

2. We need have no worries.

a) Our Shepherd undertakes to look after everything.

b) This is something that the world cannot give and cannot take away.

3. The Lord Jesus shares His life with us.

4. He cares for us as though we were the sole care and concern He

had in all the universe.

#2. This good Shepherd gives His life for us.

"He restoreth my soul."

1. The Hebrew word for restoreth is a stronger word than appears in English.

a) It literally means: He brings back my soul.

b) This is the point of the Lord's story of the lost sheep.

2. A sheep is not:

a) STRONG like a lion.

b) SWIFT like an antelope.

c) SMART like a dog.

3. A sheep is STUPID.

a) When a sheep goes astray it does so for no reason.

b) And once it has gone astray, it cannot find its own way back home.

c) This is why the good shepherd leaves the 99 and goes seeking the one.

4. But...

None of the ransomed ever knew

How deep were the waters crossed;

Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through

Er'e He found His sheep that was lost.

5. But He gave His life for us and today even bears the scars of Calvary.

6. So...

Up from the mountain thunder riv'n,

And up from the rocky steep;

There comes a glad cry to the gates of Heaven

"Rejoice! I have found My sheep."

And the angels echo around the throne

"Rejoice! for the Lord brings back His own.

#3. This good Shepherd puts His life in us.

"He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness

for His name sake."

1. There can be no true happiness apart from true holiness.

2. Nor can we walk this path of righteousness in our own strength.

3. As Paul says,

"He was made sin for us, who knew no sin,

that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."

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II. THE SECRET OF A HAPPY DEATH (v.4-5)

A. The Tomb

"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."

#1. The Lord's Presence

•Thou art with me.

1. So far what person has David been writing? [...Third person singular.]

a) He leadeth...

b) He maketh me to lie down...

c) He restoreth my soul...

d) He leadeth me in the paths...

2. Suddenly death looms on the horizon and instantly David drops the

third person for the second person singular:

Thou! Thou! Thou!

a) He is no longer talking about the Shepherd.

b) He is talking to the Shepherd.

3. Did you notice that he is writing about the shadow of death?

a) The shadow of a dog cannot bite.

b) The shadow of a sword cannot kill.

c) The shadow of death cannot harm the child of God.

4. Where we have a shadow we have two other things:

a) We have substance.

1) There must be something there to cast the shadow.

2) What do you think is that substance?

3) Psalm 22 has already addressed this substance:

"My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"

4) This is what Jesus said at Calvary.

5) So the very substance of death is to be forsaken of God.

6) This is the essence of eternity---to die God abandoned.

7) This is what awaits those who die lost in their sins without a Shepherd.

b) We have light.

1) It is the light shining on the substance that casts the

shadow.

2) This is what makes the difference between the death of

a believer and the death of an unbeliever. The

unbeliever goes out into the dark. The believer goes

out into the light.

5. We have the assurance of the presence of the Shepherd when we come face to face with the tomb.

#2. The Lord's Protection

•Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.

1. Commentaries say that the staff was for the shepherd and the rod to

chastise a wayward sheep.

a) This does not sound like a comforting thought.

b) Is the Shepherd waiting in the shadows, rod in hand to beat the

wayward sheep? It almost sounds like a Protestant purgatory, that at death punishment awaits us.

2. Consider the rod and the staff from another perspective: an exodus.

a) David was thinking of his exodus from this old world and

his mind goes back to the exodus of the children of Israel

from Egypt.

b) Moses had a rod and as Pharaoh's chariots are being deployed

for a thunderous attack on the Israelites, Moses takes his

rod and he uses it to part the waters and the Hebrews march

over on dry ground. After passing safely, Moses again takes

the rod to summon back the banked up waters of the sea,

and Pharaoh's hosts are swept away to be seen no more.

c) That rod was not for the Hebrews, it was for the foe.

d) The staff in Moses' hand was a pilgrim's staff. Israel was not

to stay there, in the bed of the sea. They were simply passing through.

3. When death comes to us we shall look up and see our Shepherd there,

rod and staff in hand.

a) He will see us safely over the sea.

b) No foe can daunt us even in the hour of death.

c) For the believer it is simply a matter of being absent from the

body, present with the Lord.

B. The Table

"Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

Thou annointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over."

1. This is what God did for Israel in the wilderness.

2. He spread a table for them in defiance of their foes.

3. There was the table in the Tabernacle, there was manna to carpet the desert sands.

4. Point: The table was to sustain and satisfy on the journey home to the

Promised Land.

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III. THE SECRET OF A HAPPY ETERNITY (23:6)

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:

and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

A. A Glimpse of the King's Highway

•Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

1. We are on the same journey David was on.

2. Two of God's ambassadors are right on our heels, following after us:

a) Goodness

b) Mercy

3. Goodness: takes care of my steps

4. Mercy: takes care of my stumbles

5. C.H. Spurgeon used to call "goodness and mercy" God's footmen.

In his day, when a wealthy man traveled, two footmen took their place

behind him on his coach. Their task was to smooth the way for him.

Where he went, they went, always there. When his coach stopped they jumped down to open the door for him. They would hurry into the inn to make sure his room was ready and his supper served.

God's two footmen are goodness and mercy and they follow us just like those footmen to smooth our journey home.

B. A Glimpse of The King's Home

•And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

1. At last...there it is: a happy eternity.

2. In 1572 John Knox died.

a) As he lay dying, his friends gathered around him and one of them

begged him that, if all was well as he crossed the river of death,

he would give them a sign.

b) The poet tells us what happened:

Grim in his deep death anguished the stern old champion lay,

And the locks upon his pillow were floating thin and gray:

And visionless and voiceless, with quick and labored breath

He waited for his exit through life's dark portal death.

"Hast thou the hope of glory?" They bow to catch the thrill,

That through some languid token might be responsive still;