“The Shepherd`s Psalm” Sermon Series on the Psalms Dr. Peter B

“The Shepherd’s Psalm”
Sermon Series on the Psalms
Dr. Peter B. Barnes
(Ps. 23)
June 22, 2014
Introduction.
On a cold day in December in 1975, I sat with my
mother and two brothers in front of a casket at a
cemetery in Picayune, MS.
My father died
unexpectedly at the age of 55 the week before, and
we made the pilgrimage from Atlanta to his
hometown of Picayune to bury him next to his
mother and father and two brothers. I don’t
remember much about the committal service that
day, but I do remember the pastor reading Psalm 23.
This passage has been a comfort to me ever since.
Over the years, I’ve found the psalms to be a great
help in difficult seasons of my life, and this book of the Bible is unique in giving voice to the
cries of our hearts both in praise and pain. Philip Yancey once wrote1 that the psalms are a
mosaic of spiritual therapy in process. Doubt, paranoia, giddiness, delight, hatred, joy,
praise, betrayal – it’s all there in the psalms. The writers don’t rationalize their anger or
give advice about pain. Rather, they express their emotions vividly and loudly, directing
their feelings primarily at God. From the psalmists we learn to tell God whatever we feel,
and we don’t have to cover up our failures. We can be honest about our weaknesses and
our pain.
Over the course of this summer we’ll be camping out in the psalms, and I trust that
you’ll find it a great source of spiritual blessing in your life. This morning we consider the
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23rd Psalm, the one that was read at my father’s funeral. It’s one of the best known and
most-loved of all the psalms, and sometimes it’s called The Shepherd’s Psalm.
I. The Provision of the Shepherd.
The LORD is my shepherd; I have all that I need.
He lets me rest in green meadows;
He leads me beside peaceful streams.
He restores my soul.
As you know, David was a shepherd in his early life, and he drew upon his experience to
think about all the ways God cared for him. And the first thing the passage reminds us is
that God is the Good Shepherd, and He provides everything we need. He’s attentive to our
concerns, and He’s interested in caring for our well-being. Everything you and I need, the
Lord will provide.
Sometimes it takes a while to provide what we need, and we wonder why He takes so
long on occasion. Other times His provision isn’t quite what we had in mind, and He
doesn’t give us what we imagined He would. But we’ve got to trust that the Shepherd loves
His sheep, He wants the best for us, and He’ll provide what we need in due time.
There’s a difference between want and need, isn’t there? Sometimes we think we need
something when in reality it’s only a want. Did you happen to see the letter one clever
college student sent his father with a subliminal message trying to get some things he
wanted?
Dear Dad,
$chool i$ really great. I am making lot$ of friend$ and $tudying very hard.
With all my $tuff, I $imply can't think of anything I need, $o if you would
like, you can ju$t $end me a card, a$ I would love to hear from you. Love,
Your $on.
Dear Son,
Dear Son,
I kNOw that astroNOmy, ecoNOmics, and oceaNOgraphy are eNOugh to keep
even an hoNOr student busy. Do NOt forget that the pursuit of kNOwledge is
a NOble task, and you can never study eNOugh. Love, Dad.
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Every once in a while, Red Lobster advertises an all you can eat shrimp special. When
our kids were growing up, our family liked to go to Red Lobster for this special. And
whenever we did we’d always try to eat until we made a profit! About mid-way through
my third order of shrimp, I began to realize there’s a big difference between need and want.
I may want another half-dozen shrimp, but I sure didn’t need them.
Where do you struggle with want vs. need?
Where do you struggle with the difference between need and want? How do you ask
yourself the hard questions about these things? Sometimes I think it’s difficult to discern
and it’s a subtle matter, but I think we need to own up to the ways a want we may have isn’t
really a need.
I traveled to Tanzania a few years ago with folks from my former church, and we visited
children we sponsor through Compassion International. It was an amazing experience, and
it provided a healthy corrective to my understanding of the difference between want and
need. I was humbled when I saw the living conditions of the kids Lorie and I sponsor, and I
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was embarrassed at the opulence of my life when compared to theirs. All of a sudden,
many of the things I think I need in life came into clearer focus, and I saw that they are
really just wants, not needs.
I was talking to a friend a while ago, and he said that during a potentially fatal illness he
thought he needed to be healed. However, over the course of battling the disease he
realized that while he really wanted to be healed physically, what he needed most was a
more intimate relationship with Christ in this life and the next. Eventually, my friend was
healed but not before he got clarity in this matter. “The Lord is my shepherd. I have
everything I need.”
There is a second aspect of the Shepherd’s provision I want to emphasize, and that is
the Good Shepherd also provides rest for his sheep. “He lets me rest in green meadows; He
leads me beside peaceful streams, He restores my soul.”
A while ago I listened to a talk by Dr. Richard Swenson on “margin.” I heard it a
number of years before, but it was a great re-fresher to listen to it again. Swenson said that
most of us don’t have any margin in our lives. We over-commit our schedules, we
overspend our bank accounts, and we over-tax our emotions with too many commitments.
The result is we have no margin.
One of the illustrations he gave was the way in which a book has a margin on its page.
The margin gives the space we need to read effectively, and if the print was written all the
way to the edge of the page, it would be so much more difficult to read. It would tire us out
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because it’s too cluttered. How much of a printed page in a book is margin, would you say?
He measured it and found out. Would you believe forty-three percent of the average page
of a book is margin?! If you and I need margin on the page of a book to read effectively,
how much more do we need margin in our lives to live effectively for Christ?
When did you last spend time with God in a green meadow or by a peaceful stream–
either literally, figuratively, or spiritually? How long has it been since you rested in the
Shepherd’s arms? When was the last time you felt like your soul was restored? Most of us
are going 100 miles-an-hour doing too much, and we fail to take time and rest. We’re
breathless, and we’re overcommitted.
“The Lord is my shepherd. I have everything I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; He
leads me beside peaceful streams, He restores my soul.” The shepherd’s provision.
II. The Presence of the Shepherd.
Even when I walk through the darkest valley,
I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me.
Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.
You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.
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God as the Good Shepherd promises to be with us whenever we have to walk through
the dark valleys of this life. Sometimes that valley is the valley of the shadow of death, as
some translations of the Bible render this passage. It’s one of the reasons this psalm is
often read at funerals. However, other times it’s the valley of despair, or pain, or loss, or
suffering. Or it’s the valley of poor health, or rejection, or criticism. No matter what valley
you may be in, God is with you, and the Good Shepherd wants to remind you you’re not
alone.
How do you cope with loss? I’m in the season of life folks call middle age. It’s a season
where your losses begin to mount up. You lose your parents. Your kids grow up, get
married and move away. You lose your dreams of what you thought your life was going to
be. You lose your hair (well, I lost that a long time ago!). You can’t do what you once did
physically. When you retire you lose your job and your sense of identity. Friends and loved
ones die, and the losses mount up as you get older.
When I experience loss, the thing that really sustains me is the knowledge of the
Shepherd’s presence. I haven’t always felt it, and sometimes God seemed a million miles
away. But I know Scripture is true, and I have clung to this verse as a promise whenever
I’ve experienced a loss in my life.
Whatever valley you may find yourself in right now, God is with you. Cling to that truth.
You’re not alone, and He wants to walk through this valley with you. When everyone else
abandons you, when the days are the darkest, when you don’t feel like you can put one foot
in front of the other and you simply want to give up, stand on this promise in the Bible –
Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for You are close beside me.
You’ll note that just on the heels of this promise of the Shepherd’s presence there is an
interesting verse about God being with David not only in the darkest valley but even in the
context of his enemies. God’s presence is important to remember when opposition comes
our way, and it helps to recall we’re not alone when we find ourselves in conflict with other
people. For David that meant God was with him even when Goliath tried to kill him in
battle, even when Saul tried to take his life out of jealousy and envy, and even when David’s
own son Absalom tried to take David’s throne.
This truth concerning God’s presence is a sustaining comfort, but I’ve got to be attentive
to the shepherd’s voice if I want to experience it. Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd; I
know my sheep and they know Me…. They... listen to my voice” (Jn. 10:14,16). Are you
listening for the voice of the Good Shepherd?
After a hijacked plane slammed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, many people
inside the building were trapped by a cloud of thick, blinding smoke. Police officer Isaac
Hoopi ran into the darkness, searching for survivors, and he heard people calling for help.
He began shouting back, over and over again: "Head toward my voice! Head toward my
voice!"
Six people, who had lost all sense of direction in a smoke-filled hallway, heard the
officer's shouts, and they followed him. Hoopi's voice led them out of the building to safety.
"Head toward My voice!" That's the invitation of Jesus the Good Shepherd to each one of
us when we are in danger or when we have lost our way. Are we listening for Jesus' voice
through prayer and reading Scripture and through His Spirit? When we're in difficult
circumstances, are we walking toward Him instead of groping around in the dark?2
The psalm ends with the promise “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days
of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.” The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ
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is a message of reconciliation – reconciliation with God and with one another. Mercy is a
prerequisite for reconciliation. Forgiveness doesn’t give us what we deserve, it gives us
mercy instead. That kind of mercy results in reconciliation which brings peace to our
hearts. It’s something that only God can accomplish. In John 14, Jesus said that in His
father’s house there were many rooms, and that He was going there to prepare a place for
His disciples. Jesus’ promise of our heavenly dwelling with God for all eternity is
foreshadowed here in this psalm, and it’s a promise Jesus will keep.
Conclusion.
What a great psalm this is. It’s a passage of Scripture I want to take with me through
the summer, and perhaps you will too. There is much in this poem to provide direction and
correction as well as comfort and hope, and I’ve only touched on a few of the great truths of
this text. Read through the whole psalm every day this week, and see what you can
discover for yourself. Better yet, let me encourage you to do something for the next 30
days. Read 5 psalms and 1 proverb every day for the next 30 days, and you’ll be able to get
through them all. This is a discipline Billy Graham has used for many years to deepen his
walk with Christ. Let’s do this together and see what difference it can make in our spirits.
A Sunday School teacher decided to have her class memorize Psalm 23, and she gave
the kids a month to learn it. Little Bobby was excited about the task, but he just couldn't
remember the psalm the whole way through. Even after much practice, he could barely get
past the first line. On the day the kids were scheduled to recite Psalm 23 in front of the
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whole congregation, Bobby was so nervous. When it was his turn, he stepped up to the
microphone and proudly said, "The Lord is my shepherd..., and that's all I need to know!"
That’s all you and I need to know, too. I invite you to rest in the arms of the Good
Shepherd. Take time to walk in green pastures and rest by His still waters. Allow the Lord
to restore your soul. Remember that the Lord is your shepherd, and He’ll provide
everything you need in due time. He assures us of His presence in whatever valley we must
walk. So let’s look to Him to see us through. He’s a good and loving God who wants the
very best for you and me. And one day we’ll be with Him in heaven, and we’ll dwell in the
house of the Lord forever. Amen.
1
2
Philip Yancey, Our Daily Bread, August 5, 2008.
David McCasland, Our Daily Bread, October 29, 2003.