The Lord is presented as the ultimate shepherd, providing peace and contentment not through circumstances, but through a personal relationship. This relationship is rooted in His present care, not just past salvation, offering guidance, protection, and provision even through life's trials, including the 'valley of the shadow of death.' The sermon emphasizes that true contentment comes from recognizing the Lord as one's personal shepherd and willingly embracing the role of a sheep, trusting in His unfailing goodness and mercy that will follow throughout life and into eternity.
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Thank you so much. It's so very good to be here. If you have your Bibles, I would like you to turn to the twenty-third Psalm, Psalm twenty-three. This is the first chance or the first time that my wife Nancy and I have been down here to Park of the Palms. I recognize that for most of you, I am a totally unknown quantity. But as I look out at this group, I see some people that sort of tell my story and what God has done in my life. I look at a woman next to the back row, I think it is, Gert Gill, whose son was one of my very good friends in high school.
Jack Gill was used by God to lead many, many students in my high school class to the Lord. And through his witness and through their witness in nineteen fifty eight in Westfield, New Jersey, I came to know the Lord Jesus Christ is my Savior. Those were exciting times. We had a terrific, terrific young people's group. We had a lot of Bible studies, we had a lot of fellowship, we did things together. In that winter of nineteen fifty eight to nineteen fifty nine we started a winter retreat at Pine Brook Bible Camp and there were a group of us that traveled to that retreat in the car of the speaker, Mr.
Ernest Woodhouse. He gave us not only his testimony, he gave us his messages before, during the trip. You know, I even remember what you spoke of in nineteen fifty-eight or fifty-nine. It was on Colossians one eighteen. You taught us the verse in the car, and he is the head of the body of the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. So that was a wonderful experience. You know, he hasn't slowed down or lost any of his enthusiasm since then, has he?
His son came to teach at Emmaus and this has come to teach at Emmaus and so I now have the privilege of serving with him as a colleague. Went to college in Rhode Island at Brown University and was attending a little assembly there and One of our speakers who would regularly come down was Mr. Jim Harvey, and so I got to know him during those days. And I've met a couple of families here, again, whose children I've had as students, the Loudons and Mrs. McLaren. So do know a few of you. And I'm looking forward to this week getting to know a lot of you a lot better.
Now I'd like to turn, I'd like us to look this morning at what I think is probably the most well-known and the most loved of all of the Psalms. It is a Psalm that speaks of peace and it speaks of contentment in the Lord. But the peace that Psalm twenty three speaks of is not the peace of escapism. And the contentment it speaks of is not the contentment that is based upon circumstances. It is a peace of mind that is based upon a relationship with the Lord. And it is the contentment of a person who has gone through deep trials and difficulties.
May I ask you, do difficulties, trials and crises cause you to be anxious and troubled? The one thing that can give us peace and confidence in the midst of difficulties is to know that we are sheep in the care of the good shepherd. Psalm twenty three says this. I'm reading it in the New King James and they've basically taken out the these and vows and dust. It says, The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul.
He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His namesake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art 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 runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all of the days of my life. and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Now the message of this psalm, the whole point of this psalm is found right at the beginning.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. This psalm is saying because I am related to the Lord. I have one who cares for me and who watches over me and who will meet all of my needs that is why I can have peace and that is why I can have contentment I have a shepherd I have a shepherd now I want you to notice that verse one does not say the Lord is my Savior Psalm twenty two speaks about the Lord is the Savior that's the Psalm where The Lord Jesus quoted the beginning of the Psalm on the cross when he cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
They pierced my hands and my feet. Psalm twenty two is the work that Christ has done for us to become our Savior. Now, Psalm twenty three is talking about his present work. He is the shepherd. This is what he is doing now. He is taking care of his sheep like a shepherd. A shepherd guards and protects his sheep. A shepherd feeds his sheep. A shepherd guides and cares for his sheep. That is what the Lord Jesus is doing for us who are his. That is what he is doing for us right now.
That is my present relationship to him. There are some Christians that only think of Christ in terms of, yes, He is my Savior. This is what He did for me. I accepted Him in the past. I accepted Him as Savior. I put my faith and trust in Him. And I know that one day I am going to be with Him in the future. And they've forgotten about the present relationship. If you have one, only have one who you think of as saving you in the past and one that you are going to be within glory in the midst of troubles and difficulties and trials and crises, you are going to have anxiety and you are going to have times when you are overwhelmed.
One of the things that I have found during some of the difficult experiences in life is that I have a shepherd. I have a shepherd who is with me at all times. I have a shepherd who in times of trouble will come to me and will put his arms around me and will lead me through that difficult circumstance. The Lord is my shepherd. I am content because I have that shepherd. I have that shepherd. I am content not only because I have a shepherd, my shepherd is a good shepherd who is able to take care of me.
Not all shepherds are good shepherds. There is a book by a well-known writer by the name of Philip Keller, and for a time in his life he was a shepherd. And so the title of his book is, a shepherd looks at the twenty-third psalm and he was saying that during his days when he was a shepherd some of his neighbors were not good shepherds they neglected their sheep they they did not care for their sheep they let they let their sheep just sort of wander around on their own and the sheep would be attacked and the shepherd was not there and the sheep would get sick And the shepherd was not there.
And the sheep would wander off. And the shepherd was not there and they would eventually die. That is not my shepherd. My shepherd is... Well, look at who the verse says my shepherd is. It says, the Lord is my shepherd. The word that is translated, Lord, is the Hebrew word Yahweh. Sometimes we call it Jehovah. Call him Jehovah. But that is the one who is my shepherd. He is the one who, when asked by Moses, who is it that I shall say has sent me, tell them that I am has sent you.
I am whom I am. He is the eternally existing one. He is the one who has brought all creation. into being from nothing. He is the one who is the creator and sustainer of this universe. Is that shepherd able to take care of me in any situation that may arise in my life? Is that shepherd able to take care of you? If that shepherd cannot take care of you, there is no hope. No one can. It says here that the Lord is my shepherd.
He is the good shepherd who cares for his sheep. He not only is able, he is the holy and righteous and loving shepherd who really does care for me. The thing that is important for me to know in the midst of a real difficulty and trial is that my shepherd really does care for me. Whatever happens to me, he is seeking what is best for me. That is the basis of my confidence in him.
The life of a sheep that finds himself in the hands and in the care of that kind of shepherd is a contented life. Now I think probably the most important word in verse one for my contentment is that word, my. The Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. Most of you do not know my wife, Nancy, who is sitting right back there. Some of you will get to know her this week.
and you will be able to say at the end of that week she is a good woman some of you may know us a little bit better and know in our personal lives you can say she is a good wife but I can say of this woman that I met when I was in high school back in New Jersey around nineteen fifty eight i can say nancy fish is my wife that makes a big difference she's my wife you could look at my house and say uh...
that's a nice house that's a comfortable house i can tell you one thing about the house it has a slippery roof i started off this year january first two thousand and one shoveling the snow off of my roof and fell from the roof onto the back deck and I broke five ribs. I'm still recovering from that. And some of you are saying at this point, I knew that was the reason that I came down to Florida for the winter. Just that kind of circumstance. But in spite of that, it's still a good house and a nice house and a comfortable house.
But that's my house. That word, my, makes it personal. Unless you can say my, you're on the outside looking in. But when you can say my, that is something that belongs to you, that you are a part of. Many people will look at God, the great God of the universe, and they will say, I believe in God. But their God is a is a distant God. He is out there. He is an awesome God. He is a powerful God. He is a creator God, but He's not a personal God.
David, who is writing in this Psalm, can look at that God and he can say, He is my God. He is my Lord. He is my Savior. He is my shepherd. It's personal. Can you say that? because God is your God and your Lord and your Savior and your shepherd. If you have that kind of relationship to the living God of this universe, He is your shepherd, then you can have peace and contentment no matter what kind of circumstances that you go through. Now, one of the things that we have to realize in this, if the Lord is my shepherd, what does that say about me?
There are a lot of Christians that really don't want to be sheep. What do you think of a sheep? Are you content to be sheep? Back in the sixties or in the seventies, there was a game that we used to play called the ungame. and really what it was was a game that was designed to promote conversation when you get people together and it would have questions and you would move a piece on the board but you weren't moving them anywhere you were just moving them so that somebody would get question and answer the question and the question would tell things about you and so it was a pretty interesting game as far as getting to know people and number of times I used that game or the questions of that game with our young people, with high school students or junior high students or vacation Bible school students.
And I remember that one of the questions that was asked in that game is that if you could be any kind of animal that you wanted to be, what kind of animal would you choose? Some people would say, I would like to be an eagle. Soar, high, the powerful, majestic bird like an eagle. Some would say, I'd like to be a lion or a panther. Some of the kids that were into cowboys and Indians would say, I'd like to be a horse. You know, I never heard anybody say, I want to be a sheep.
I want to be a sheep. You know, we have animals that are used to symbolize nations. The national, the symbolic animal of the U.S. is the eagle. Or you have the British lion or the Russian bear. I don't know of any nation that says that we are, that they have as their symbolic animal, a sheep. If you say of a people, or a nation. It's a nation of sheep. That's an insult. A sheep represents everything that we despise or we look down upon.
Sheep are weak and defenseless and dependent and stupid Nobody wants to be sheep. But unless you are willing to be a sheep, you will never appreciate what the twenty-third psalm is saying. Unless you are willing to be a sheep, you will never enter into the blessings of our shepherd. You have to be willing to say, Lord, you are my shepherd.
Leave me alone. and I'm going to wander off and do something foolish. Leave me alone and I am going to fall by the wayside. Lead me alone and I will not be able to care for myself. We have to be willing to say that we are our sheep. I cannot make it by myself. The turmoils, the difficulties, the trials of life. are too much I need you to be my shepherd contentment in life comes from having the Lord as my shepherd and the willingness to say I want to be one of his sheep I want to be his sheep now notice what David says about this sheep who has this shepherd he says the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want I shall not want now the word want does
not mean desire we use the word want to say I I want this or I want that meaning I desire this I desire that that is not the word that is used here and it's translated want the word want in this context means to be lacking because the Lord is my shepherd I do not lack anything that is important for me to have if you have that kind of attitude I have everything that is essential and I am content with that that is the secret really for a satisfied life now what What David does here in verse one, what he says here in verse one, he pictures in verse two.
Verse two says, he makes me to lie down in green pastures. That is the picture of the statement that is made in verse one. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. One of the things that characterizes Hebrew poetry, is what is called parallelism. In English poetry, well, I should say, what used to be characteristic of English poetry is that you would have one line and then the next line would rhyme with it. Now, free verse has killed poetry, but we rhyme the sounds of our words.
Hebrew poetry didn't rhyme sounds we could say they rhymed ideas you would state one thing in one line and then the next line would say the same thing or a similar thing with different words you can see that if you glance down to Psalm twenty four when it says the earth is the Lord's and all its fullness the world and those who dwell therein see how the world and those who dwell therein is parallel to and says the same thing that you have, the earth and all its fullness. This kind of parallelism characterizes Hebrew poetry.
Now what we have at the beginning of Psalm twenty three is a kind of parallelism where the psalmist makes a statement, makes a statement And then he, in the second line, gives a picture of that statement. That's sometimes called emblematic parallelism. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. That's the statement. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. That is the picture of a sheep who is saying, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Philip Keller, who I mentioned earlier, says that in his experience, it's very difficult for a shepherd to get his sheep to lie down.
If a sheep is hungry, it will not lie down. If a sheep is frightened, it will not lie down. Here you have a sheep that is content, satisfied, lying down because that sheep has the Lord as its shepherd and is not lacking anything. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. Can you say, because the Lord is my shepherd, I have everything that I need. Because the Lord is my shepherd, I can relax.
I am content. I'm really not anxious about my life. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter six and verse twenty five. He says, don't be anxious for your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor for your body as to what you shall put on. We can be anxious about many things. We can be anxious about our own life. We can be anxious about the life of those that we love, those who are important to us. But if I have a shepherd who will take care of me and provide all that I need, one who will watch over me, if I am a helpless sheep and have that kind of shepherd who is taking care of me, then there is no difficulty in life that I have to fear.
There is nothing about tomorrow that I have to worry about. There is no experience that I will encounter in my life that my good shepherd does not allow. Indeed, there is nothing in my experience that is not part of his good plan for me. He is that kind of shepherd who is watching over and taking care of me. Now, I may not understand a lot of the things that the good shepherd allows to come into my life. I may not see any good in it at all. I may not know where he is leading me or why the way is so rough.
But there comes a point where I have to trust this good shepherd. He knows what he is doing. And I have to rest and trust him. So what we've said here is that the first part of this psalm verse one and then the first part of verse two that's the whole message of the psalm that's what this whole psalm is is talking about now there are other things that we can look through in the psalm that specify some of the things that the Lord does for us that also indicate why we can be content whatever happens I can be content with this kind of shepherd verse to be to three because he gives rest and refreshment it says here he leads me besides the still waters he restores my soul those two lines go together in this
pair you have the picture first and then you have the statement. He leads me beside the still waters. That probably should be translated quiet waters. Literally it says waters of rest or waters of refreshment. Still water can be just a stagnant pond. So he is referring here to waters of refreshment. He leads me beside the waters of refreshment. He restores my soul.
Now you need to see the parallelism here. Unless you see the parallelism, you may misinterpret this line in verse three. that says he restores my soul. This is not talking about a backslidden believer being restored to fellowship with the Lord. This is referring to a weary, tired, worn out believer whose soul is refreshed. He leads me beside the waters of refreshment. He restores, he reinvigorates my my soul now whatever that means he restores my soul he refresh me refreshes me it does not mean that he necessarily is going to take away the trial it does not mean that he is going to take the difficulties out of our life it means that he is going to give grace and power to endure and that he will allow us to have the courage and the steadfastness to go through those circumstances.
David was content not because his life was a life of ease but David was content because of the peace and the rest and the refreshment that the good shepherd gives. You notice he also says in the rest of verse three he was content because His shepherd guides him in the right paths. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His namesake. I have a shepherd who guides me on the right path.
It doesn't say He drives me. One of the things, He leads me. It doesn't say He gives me a set of directions and then hopes that I will find the right way. My wife gets frustrated sometimes because the directions that I follow don't lead us to the right place. She always wants me to stop and ask for further directions. And I guess it's sort of a man thing. Men don't stop and ask for directions. They keep driving around until they get to the place.
Women always stop and get there right away. But anyhow, it doesn't say he gives me directions and hopes that I will find the right path. He leads me. He leads me on the right path. He leads me where he wants me to go. You know what that says? Right now, where I am, what I am doing is the place that the Lord has led me to. One of the things that I have found over the years is that so many Christians are quite anxious as to whether they have found God's will for their lives.
We find that especially with young people when they are at those years where they have to make a lot of important decisions in life. And somehow many have the idea that God is constantly leading us to forks in the road and maybe I've taken the wrong fork. Maybe he wanted me to go left and I went right. Or then I came to another fork and he wanted me to go right and I went left and I'm really in the wrong place. Look, if you are a sheep who wants to be in the will of God, it's not your job to find the right path.
It's the job of the shepherd. It's the job of the shepherd to get you where he wants you to be. God is much more anxious for us to follow his will and to be in his will than we are ourselves. and if you are sincerely wanting his will i do not believe that the good shepherd is going to let you go astray so he says here he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake and then he says in verse four i can be content because my shepherd protects me from the greatest of dangers yea 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. One of the paths that the good shepherd does take us through, cause us to walk on, is that path that leads through the valley of the shadow of death. I don't know that there's anyone that would not wish that all of our lives were spent in the green pastures. Isn't that where you would like to dwell? But the Lord does take us through the valley of the shadow of death. And that valley is just as much the right path for us to have to follow as the green pasture.
But we do recognize that it is a dark valley and it can be a fearful path. And we can be fearful when loved ones have to go through that dark valley. And we are fearful when we go through that dark valley. In Scripture, death is not only the last enemy that we will face, it is also the worst enemy that we will face. But you notice what David says, that even though I have to face the worst enemy that I could possibly face, I will fear no evil. I will not be afraid. Why? You are with me.
You are with me. The question is not whether we will have to go through the valley of the shadow of death. The question is not whether we will have to go through other dark valleys in our life. The question is, do I have a shepherd who is with me and who will protect me and who will comfort me? We have a shepherd who himself has faced death. He conquered death. He overcame death. He was victorious over death himself. and he has taken the sting of death away from us.
I am his and he is mine. Death cannot really strike me only the shadow of death. Have you ever been hurt by a shadow? Have you ever been bitten by the shadow of a dog? Have you ever run into the shadow of a tree? Donald Gray Barnhouse was one of the great preachers back in the middle of the twentieth century. His first wife had just died and he was driving along in a car and he was stopped at a light with one of the children in the car.
And as he was sitting there, there was a big truck that came from the opposite direction and the shadow of that truck just passed over the car and he turned to his child who was still grieving greatly over the loss of his mother and he said would you rather be hit by a truck or the shadow of the truck and the child said by the shadow and he said to her Mother has just been hit by the shadow of death. It didn't hurt her.
She is with the Lord Jesus. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. What a comfort. What a comfort. And that is why we can be content with our shepherd. Now in verses five and six, David changes the figure a little bit from the shepherd to the figure of a host and his guest. He says, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil.
My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all of the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Here's the table of a king who lavishly provides for his guests. It's lavish. My cup overflows. It's joyful. You anoint my head with oil. It cannot be taken away. My enemies. cannot disturb it surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all of the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever what verse six is saying is that I have the Lord's goodness not only in this life I have it forever not just as a guest who is attending a banquet but as a member of God's household, a member of his family, enjoying his presence and
enjoying his provision. Verse six, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all of the days of my life. That really summarizes what David is saying in this Psalm, because the Lord is my shepherd. Surely goodness will follow me all of the days of my life." You remember what Paul says in Romans eight twenty eight? God works all things together for good to those that love Him. It doesn't say bad things won't happen in your life. Some people misinterpret that verse, misinterpret what David is saying here, saying that everything happens in life must be good.
You get cancer. Is that good? Your husband or wife dies. Is that good? Child dies. Is that good? Paul doesn't say those things are good. Paul says that God takes all of those things, which may be bad themselves, and He works them for good. to those that love Him. That's why David can say, goodness will follow me all of the days of my life. Have you ever tried to eat the ingredients of a cake? Sit down sometime and eat.
Straight now, a cup of flour. Even a cup of sugar. a tablespoon of salt, a tablespoon of baking powder, or eat a stick of butter. You know, those things are not good themselves. But you know a good cook can take all of those things and put them together and make out of them a delicious cake?
The Bible says that God, the one who is taking care of us, is our good shepherd. And he will take all of those circumstances of life and he will work them together for good. And David can say, because the Lord is my shepherd, surely goodness and mercy will follow me all of the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. You can say that too, if David's shepherd is your shepherd. Let's pray.
Father, we do thank you for the one who is the good shepherd. The Lord Jesus is that shepherd who has given his life for his sheep and is the one who watches over us and takes care of us in all of our life. We do pray that we might know him and rest in him and be content