The twenty-third Psalm is presented as a precious jewel between Messianic Psalms about the cross and Christ's coming glory, offering comfort and edification. The sermon applies the Psalm to David's life, beginning with his early years as a shepherd where he personally experienced God as his shepherd, akin to The passage's own conversion at sixteen. It then explores David's 'dark day' of sin and repentance, illustrated by his adultery and Uriah's death, highlighting God's restorative power. The message further examines David's dangerous encounters, such as facing Goliath, and his experiences of betrayal and anointing, culminating in the assurance of dwelling in God's house forever.
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after a good deal of prayer and burden of heart. I have decided to speak on three great Messianic Psalms that we find in the Old Testament. They're well known, but they have been a tremendous blessing and help to me in recent days. The first one has to do with the cross and the third one has to do with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And right in the center between the two, we find the good shepherd. And I don't think I need to tell you that what I want to speak about this morning is the twenty-third Psalm.
To me, it's a precious jewel between these two great messianic Psalms. One describing the cross. and the other describing the coming glory of the Lord Jesus Christ himself in the kingdom. But right in the center is this precious jewel, the twenty-third Psalm. It must be more than eighty years ago that I learned it for the first time. I came from a God-fearing environment, family. and I remember sitting on my grandmother's knee, and she taught me the twenty-third song.
And you know, I thought long ago I knew all about it, but as life comes to a close, we go back to these precious, precious jewels that we find in the Word of God, and we derive a tremendous amount of comfort and consolation and edification from it. So that's what I have in mind to speak about this morning, the twenty-third Psalm, and then this evening I want to look at the other two, the cross and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's read the Psalm together. Psalm twenty-three. 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 restores my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness, for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for the Lord with me. My rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest the 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.
Now may God add his blessing to the reading of these beautiful words. In my library I must have at least a dozen books, expanding the twenty-third Psalm. And it would be interesting to mention some of them. All I want to say about them is that from all of them I have derived a good deal of instruction and help. One of the latest that has come out that's possibly known to most here this morning is one by Philip Taylor. And the title of it is A Shepherd, Luke's of the Twenty-third Psalm.
And then Dr. A.T. Pearson, the great scholar, Bible scholar, he has what he calls the dispensational application of the Twenty-third Psalm, a very deep and a very precious exposition of the Psalm. There was a Scottish evangelist called John McNeil, and he too, as a lovely exposition of it, he calls his book the seven strings of David's harp, the musical exposition of the twenty-third Psalm. I have also heard the Psalm expanded along the line of the seven titles of Jehovah and applying to the Psalm the different verses.
where we find it here. And we could go on and on and on. We never get to the end of it. And beloved, here this morning, all I want to do is in a very simple way to apply the Psalm to the life of David himself. I can't help but feel that David here at the end of his life, he wrote this Psalm. I don't think that any young man could have written the Twenty-third Psalm. I believe that David at the end of his life, as he goes over different episodes and experiences that he had in the school of God, he sits down at the end of his life just before he passes on, and he writes these beautiful words.
And I want to apply it in that way. If anything that I have to say about it, if you don't agree with it, we won't argue about it. But as far as I'm concerned, I can't help but feel that David here is speaking about himself and the different experiences that he had in his life, right from the early days until at the end when the Lord took him home. So with that in mind, I want to read the first two verses and apply it to his early life. 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. Now I believe that David is speaking about the early years of his life, possibly about the time he was sixteen years of age. We know that he was a shepherd. And if we were to turn over to the historical portions of the Old Testament, especially in the first book of Samuel, There are a number of things about David that we find there that describe his experiences as a shepherd when he was taken care of his father's sheep. But the first thing I want to emphasize here is a little personal pronoun that he uses right at the beginning.
The Lord, Jehovah, is my shepherd. and a little personal pronoun, my. The Lord is my shepherd. Not the shepherd or a shepherd, but my shepherd. And I can't help but feel the divot as expressing something that, an experience that he had in his early life whereby he could use these words, the Lord is my shepherd. I believe that he had a personal experience in relation to who, in relation to God himself, and I can use this little personal pronoun.
I thank God that in my life I had a personal experience. It happened when I was sixteen years of age. I'm not going to go into detail about it. But seventy-three years ago, I found out that I was a law sinner. and at great danger of losing my soul. And the Holy Spirit took a dealing with me, awakened me to see that I was in real danger unless I put my faith and trust in the Savior. And just to cut a long story short, on the third of May, nineteen eighteen, not seventy-three years ago, I put my faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I can say, the Lord is my shepherd.
And I would like to say, too, to anyone who may be here this morning, who never has had a personal experience, today we call it the new birth. We call it a conversion. And I think that each one of us should search our hearts and find out whether... this great fundamental matter that David speaks about here, whether it is true in our lives. Have we had a personal experience with the Savior himself? That is important. It's fundamental. It's absolutely basic. And David, he tells us that he has. The Lord is my shepherd.
I would love to illustrate this. that I can't take time in going into a lot of illustrations. But I do thank God for everyone who is here this morning that has had this wonderful experience being convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit of God and then coming to the foot of the cross and acknowledging Christ as Savior and Lord, putting our faith and trust in Him. And then we can say, the Lord is my shepherd. So David, I believe, had that experience. But then he goes on here to describe some other things in connection with his relationship to the Lord.
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, or the waters of rest. When we turn over to the historical part of David's early life, we find a number of things that he experiences that he had at that time. He tells us that when he was later on, he described it at the time, he didn't say anything about it, but he tells us that one time he met a lion and a bear while he was taking care of the sheep and he was able to save the flock the sheep from the lion and the bear.
You know, a lion is one of the most powerful animals in creation. And then a bear is one of the most subtle animals in creation. I have had a good many experiences with lions. The place where we lived for many years was lion country. And we did have face-to-face experiences with a lion and to know a little bit about the power of that animal. I have seen a lion jump on the back of a bull and steady himself and then lift that mighty paw and with one slap on the side of the face of a bull break its neck.
He's a powerful animal and I would pretend to just start and tell lion stories. I'm not going to do that. But David has an experience when he was a boy, that he was able to kill a lion and then a bear. You know, a bear is an entirely different animal from a lion. A Kodiak bear, find them up in Alaska. When they stand up on their hind legs, they're over seven feet tall. A mighty animal. And in the Reader's Digest, recently the husband's story about a bear. And it was the most interesting narrative that is described in connection with it.
It's a subtle animal. But you know, a lion, if he wants to kill a person, he'll come and he'll knock them down. And he'll put one paw between their shoulder blades. And then with the other paw, he would grab you by your forehead and give it a little pull and break your neck. That's the way he'll kill a person. But a bear... He's different. I have never had an experience with a bear, but I've read quite a lot about it. When a bear wants to kill a person, he'll put out his two arms, and he'll come sidling up to the person, and he'll throw those mighty arms around the neck of the person, and he'll squeeze you to death.
There are two entirely different animals, the lion and the bear. And beloved here this morning, I would suggest that young people have two enemies today. The first one is the lion. Oh, that devil is a roaring lion. He goes about seeking whom he may devour. That is the devil. But then they have the world. And I believe that the bear, in his method of approach, is a picture of the world. I have all the sympathy in the world for our young people today.
I tell you, they're up against two enemies. And the one is Satan, and the other is the world. And David had an experience, an encounter, a face-to-face encounter with the lion to the bear that the Lord delivered from it. Not only did he have those experiences, but he also learned to play the harp. and he became the sweet singer of Israel. And some of the most beautiful, beautiful words and some of the most beautiful expressions of poetry that we find in the book of Psalms were written by David. I believe that the foundations of his life were laid in those early days as he was a shepherd boy and God spoke to his heart and delivered it from his enemies and made him a man that later became a tremendous blessing to all that he came in contact with.
So these first two verses, I would suggest without going into any more detail about it, would describe his early life as a shepherd, possibly up until about sixteen years of age. But then in verse three, we get another experience. He restores my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. You know, in his early life, that was the delightful time of his life. As a young believer, David had intimate contact with the Lord himself, but here he said, He restoreth my soul.
Oh, the first part was the delightful time in his life, but I believe that he had a dark day. and we get that in first samuel chapter twelve and if i was writing david's life i would leave it out but you know god doesn't leave anything out and when david is speaking here about delightful delightful time in his life when the good shepherd spoke to him he said he restores my soul or i think he's looking back to an experience that he had that's described in detail in the Word of God. You know, there's a little word sometimes I think of it in Scripture describing it.
It says that David wholly followed the Lord, except, I wish that wasn't there, except in matter of Uriah, the Hittite. And you know, David, he was trapped. and the whole details in connection of it we find in the Holy Scripture. I'm not going to go into it. I feel so sorry. And as far as I'm concerned, I'm not pointing the finger at David. I know the devil is very subtle. And I believe that many a person in an unexpected time are trapped into something that the leader very, very sadly regret.
And I believe the dark day... that David had when instead of being on the battlefield he was having a siesta and going to the rooftop of his house and looking over the pantheon there in the city of Jerusalem he saw a woman and David committed three sins the first thing sin he committed was adultery and the second sin he committed He covered up what he had done. And the third thing, he was responsible for the death of the man whose home he had wrecked.
That is, Uriah the Hittite. These are three sins. And they're described in detail in the Word of God. And God had to take a dealing with them. And God sent his servant, Nathan, to him. And again, we know the whole story. Nathan told him a little parable, and at the end of the parable he pointed his finger at David and he said, You're the man. And when David knew that his sin was discovered, he had to throw himself on the mercy of Almighty God. In the fifty-first psalm we read, If I could bring an offering, an ox with horns and hoofs, I would do that.
But the only offering that I can bring is the offering. of a broken and a contrite heart. Now David sinned before the Lord, and sinned grievously in that three-fold way. God forgave him of sin when he was truly repentant. On the fifty-first Psalm, on the thirty-second Psalm, it describes this experience at that time. God can freely forgive if there is true repentance, but at the same time there are repercussions. And Nathan had to tell him, He said, David, the sword shall never depart from my house. You know, sins of that kind always bring terrible, terrible repercussions in their track.
And when Luke and David's family later on, what he committed at that time was reproduced in his own children. And I think the reason that is recorded in the Word of God in connection with Absalom and some others of his family, I think it is that we might learn the lesson. But oh, I thank God for what he says here. He restores my soul. He restores my soul. Thank God for the man that has sinned against God. If there's true repentance before God, there can be forgiveness. But don't forget, God and his governmental dealings with his people, particularly in sins of this kind, that has always, always repercussions in connection with it.
So I think in connection with the delightful day in his early life, the contrast is the dark day when he sinned against the Lord. He restores my soul. He leadeth me in the plows of righteousness for his name's sake. And then verse four, 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. You know, the first part of the song, he's speaking about the shepherd. And he uses the pronoun he.
But notice here, the pronoun is changed. Instead of speaking about the shepherd, he's speaking to him. And you notice the word thou from this point on, He's speaking to the shepherd and in communion and describing some of the events in his life. Me, 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. Many times we have had the experience, some of us that have lived any length of time, of sitting by a bedside.
when one of God's dear children are going through that deep valley and going to the other side and taking their hand and reading these words. But I would suggest that David is thinking about another valley. I think that he's thinking about the valley of Elah where he met the giant. And if you notice the description that we get here and the words that he says, it takes us back to that great event in this life. the most dangerous day of his life when he went down into the valley of Elah and he met the giant. Again, we can't take time to go into the details connected with it.
But you remember when he went down to the valley of Elah and he saw the giant speaking, threatening the nation of Israel. And he made some remarks to someone standing by. And the remarks that he made was taken to Saul. And Saul said, are you able to meet this man? And then David, he reminded Saul that when he was a boy, he met the lion and the bear and was able to overcome them. And he said, the Lord God is able to help me to overcome this giant.
Saul put his armor on him, but he cast the armor aside. And instead of going down to the valley of Elah to meet the giant as a soldier with the armor, he went down into the valley as a shepherd. And he met him with the same weapons that he had when he met the lion and the bear, a sling and a stone. We all know the story, and Goel delivered him from the hand of the enemy at that time. I can't help but feel it. This is what he's speaking about here. Speaking about the rod and the staff and the different equipment of a shepherd.
And what he said to Saul, I believe in this verse here, yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, he jeopardized his life. He took his life and going to meet that man. And the only equipment that he had was the equipment of a shepherd. And God delivered him. And I think this is what He was speaking about here. It was the most dangerous day of his life. First of all, the delightful time, then the dark time, and then the dangerous time when God delivered him. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thart with me, thy rod, thy crook, and thy club, the instruments of a shepherd.
they comfort me. Then verse five, thou preparest the table before me in the presence of mine enemies. You remember immediately after this episode of the Valley of Elah, the women sang, David, Saul has slain his thousands, but David is ten thousands. And Saul heard that. And while he invited David to his table, He brought him to the royal palace and he actually gave him his daughter, Michael, to be his wife. At the same time when David, after the episode of the Valley of Hila, he went into the royal palace and sitting there before the king, King Saul, a terrible thing happens.
And again, it's recorded in the word. Read that Saul, when he heard the song, jealousy, that green-eyed monster entered his heart. And he lifted a spear or a dagger, and he tried to smite David to the wall. He tried to take his life. And there was the man that had been the deliverer, not only deliverer, he delivered himself, but the deliverer of the nation. A man tried to take his life. Jealousy is an awful thing. And my beloved friends here this morning, Never, never allow that wicked thing to take possession of your mind and heart.
Some of the worst crimes that ever were committed were committed by jealousy. And you know what happens all the time? I have been reading the life of William Curie, that great missionary in India. And I understand Mr. Curie, that he was able to translate the scriptures into thirty-five different languages and dialects. A man who had no formal education, whatever, but he was a genius and he had a gift. And in India, and by the way, he never had a furrow. He never came home. But he went there and spent his life on the proclamation of the gospel.
And at the end of his life was an old man. He was sitting at the table in New Delhi. And the great of the land were there as well. It was a banquet. The Viceroy was there and some high-ranking military officers. And Mr. Carey was being honored. But when it was sitting there, there was one of the military officers speaking to him in a patronizing way. He said, I understand, Mr. Carey, that in your early life, you were a shoemaker. It was a stab. It was a dagger. before that August company, I understand you were a shoemaker.
And the dear old man, he smiled. I said, oh, no, no. He said, nothing so great as that. He said, I wasn't a shoemaker, but I said, I was a cobbler. I mend its shoes. And I said, I want to tell you. He said, my business was to preach the gospel, and I combed shoes to pay expenses, and I'm not ashamed of that. And neither should any man. Beloved, we thank God for the records we have of some of these outstanding servants of Christ. And possibly someone here sitting at a table, someone has thrown a dagger at you. Just pass it by.
David had that. Now he prepares to table before me in the presence of mine enemies. And then the next thing is, thou anointest my head with oil. You know there's something beautiful about this. We find three different times David's head was anointed with oil. The first time after Saul had passed away, you remember Samuel went to the house of Jesse and in the presence of his brethren, David was anointed as king. The oil was placed upon his head And by the way, it wasn't a vial of oil, something artificial, but it was a full horn of oil, the product of sacrifice.
And the oil was placed upon his head, and he was anointed king in the presence of his brethren. And then the second time after Saul had passed away, you remember he was king over the royal tribe of Judah. And he was anointed the second time. as king over the tribe of Judah and then when he had reunited the whole nation and the twelve times of Israel was under his command at Hebron he was anointed the third time with oil he was anointed as king thou anointest my head with oil have you ever seen a coronation ceremony I have on television I never was present at one but when Queen Elizabeth of England when she was declared the head of the British Empire she was anointed with oil.
It's a very important point of the coronation ceremony. David had it three times. I remember one time in Africa we were having a Bible school and trying to help some of our African brethren and I made the statement in the Bible school that there were three men on the Bible who had an anointed head. I said, the prophet and the priest and the king, they all were anointed at the inauguration to their office, the prophet and the priest and the king. And there was an African sitting there on the front seat, very intelligent man, and he put up his hand and he says, Ghenna, the term that they used for the missionary, Ghenna, There's another man in the Bible that had an anointed head.
I said, Lungong, you come up and you tell the man who the fourth man in the Bible was that had anointed head. And with a twinkle in his eye, he looked at me and he said, have you never read Leviticus thirteen? I said, of course I have. I said, that's where you get the leper. You remember the leper is, first of all, his disease. It was discovered. It was diagnosed. And then it was dealt with. the covering upon his upper lip and outside the camp. That's where he had to go. I said, that's Leviticus thirteen. He said, there's also Leviticus fourteen. And he said, on the day of his cleansing, the leper was anointed.
He said, first of all, on the first day he was anointed. On the first day he... before he was made a member of the congregation. On the first day, his clothes were washed and water, and a razor was taken, and all the hair was taken off his body. That was the first day. And then, on the seventh day, again, there was another ceremony. And on the eighth day, he said, the ceremony there was a little word, alive and clean was taken and it was killed.
And with the blood upon its wings he flew up into heaven. And he said, isn't that a picture of the death and resurrection and ascension of Christ? I said, it is. But he says, don't forget there was another thing. He said, on the eighth day before he was introduced to the congregation, there was a multiple sacrifice. and oil was placed upon his thumb, upon the great toe of his right foot, and upon his ear. His ear, his thumb, and the great toe of his right foot was anointed with oil. But then the blood, first of all, the blood, and then the oil.
And he said, the last thing the priest did, the remainder of the oil, he poured it into his left hand, and the last thing he did was he anointed his head. Four men in the Bible that had an anointed head. And he said, I, that's the man that was talking, he said, I used to be an old leper, but he said, I've had the oil of God in my head and I've been brought right into the congregation. You know, David could say, God anointed my head with oil. What a wonderful, wonderful statement we get here. It was the distinguished day in his life when he was made king over all the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel.
Lord prepares to table before me in the presence of my enemies. Lord anoint us my head with oil. My cup runneth over the overflowing cup. If we were to go into a second Samuel chapter six, we find there that God make a covenant with David. And he told him that he was going to be king in millennial days. And that comment that God made with him, it would be interesting to turn over to the passage and note the different terms of it. David was going to have a future.
And even when Christ would be upon the throne, David would have a very prominent place in the millennial day. And when David heard that, he said, O Lord God, what manner of man is this? It just seemed that God had spoken to him and given these wonderful promises, and his little cup was first of all filled, and then it flowed over. My cup runneth over. Did you ever feel like that when you were sitting at the Lord's table? You know, this morning, as I was sitting here, I'm thinking that all that God and His mercy and love has done.
My little cup too, it started to run over. That's what worship is, the overflowing cup. When you think of all that God has done with all of us, in spite of our failures, in spite of the things that happen in our lives, thank God. we can take the cup of blessing and the cup of salvation and not only full but running over and the worship that sends from the heart to God for all that he has done for us. My cup runneth over and then surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
David had a disappointment He remembered towards the end of his life, he had been accumulating treasure to build the house of the Lord. It was the great ambition that he had. He wanted to build a temple. We get it in the one hundred and thirty second Psalm. That desire that he had to build a house. But then his friend Nathan came to him and he said, God has spoken. He said, you've been a man of war from your youth up. He said, your son will build a house. But you cannot build the house of the Lord. That was a disappointment. But I tell you, there's something here that is no disappointment.
He said, I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. No building made with hands down here. But the house of the Lord forever. To be with the Lord in his house forever. That was the culmination of all his hopes and his desires. My beloved brethren, sisters, you this morning, I don't know what you feel about these different things that we've mentioned, but I believe with all my heart that the twenty-third Psalm describes episodes in David's life personally. And that's what he's talking about here. And as we go back over our little lives, those of us that are coming to the end, we know that when we come to eighty, ninety, Then we begin to think, you know, about the past.
And you go with this episode and that episode and the other episode in your life. But thank God, if we can say, as David did at the beginning, the Lord is my shepherd. At the end, we can say, I shall dwell in the hearts of the Lord forever. May God bless his word to our hearts for his name's name. Shall we pray? Our blessed God and Father, we lift our hearts to thee in the precious name of the Lord Jesus. Very often, it's very difficult for us to know just what to say. But our Father, we offer to thee our praise and worship.
We thank thee that in spite of all our waywardness, in spite of all our failure, our Father, we thank thee that thou art the one who has made these wonderful promises. And we can truly say that the Lord is my shepherd. Our Father, we know we can also say that I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And in the meantime, our Father, give us loyalty to thyself, loyalty to that precious word, loyalty to the person who died for us upon Calvary's cross. And our Father, we will be content. So we just commit us to you this morning.
Bless thy dear people, we pray. Now if we ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.