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Pick up the 23rd Psalm so Psalm 23 and gonna encourage participation. If you have a thought, something you wanna share concerning the portion and I've asked himself to read it for it.
Shepherd, I shall not want to make it for me to lie down in green pastures, still waters to restore my soul. He leaves me in the path of righteousness for His namesake.
Yeah, you know, I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I will fear no evil. So thou art with me. I Rod and my staff, they comfort me, Stop, prepare us. They came over for me in the presence of my enemies. Uh, anointed to my head to boil my cup run 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.
I'll just, uh, make a couple of introductory comments in connection with this song. If you notice, it's a Psalm of David. And when we read these psalms, it's always good to notice the titles of the song.
Because the titles of the Psalms were not added by the translators. They're part of the original manuscripts, and being part of the original manuscripts and part of the word of God, they have something to say to us. Because as Solomon said in the book of Proverbs, every word of God is pure. And the title. I know some of the Psalms don't have titles, but the titles of the song kind of open up what follows in the song. It's like the title of a book or a song.
It gives you a hint as to what the book or the song or the poem or whatever is about. And so God has, by His Spirit, caused the writers of these psalms to often put titles. Now all the songs were not written by David. When we think of the Psalms, we think of David, and David wrote a good many of them, but not all of them according to the title. And some of them were not sure because they don't have titles.
But this one, like many of them, is a Psalm of David. Now these psalms can be looked at in different ways. These psalms are prophetic in their character. These psalms bring before. Some of the psalms bring before us the feelings and expressions of Christ as a man passing through the circumstances of life and the work of redemption. For instance, on Lord's Day morning, in connection with the sufferings of Christ, we often read the 22nd song, the 69th song, the 40th song, the 102nd song, the 88th song. Songs that bring before us the inner most.
Expressions and feelings of the Lord.
That you don't get in the Gospel. In the Gospels you Get the facts, in the songs you get the feelings. Some of the songs, like this one prophetically, are the expressions and feelings of God's earthly people in a coming day as they go through tribulation and finally are brought into blessing and association with the Lord Jesus. So they're Jewish in their character. They have to do with the restoration, some of them with the Jewish remnant, some of them with Israel especially.
Later on in the Psalms with Israel as a whole.
Some of the songs and.
Having said that, so we have the feelings of Christ, the expressions of God's earthly people, but they are also the feelings and expressions of the Saints in any age. I know there are some expressions in the Psalms that are really Jewish in their character, but they take us through the ups and downs of life and the circumstances that we pass through, and I think that's why all of us appreciate many of the songs.
And this song with a title is a Psalm of David. Remember, as we go through these verses, it is the personal experience of David as a man experiencing relationship with his God, with his Lord, and going through the ups and downs and circumstances of life. And I think if we see it in that light, in these little times we share together, I think we'll get some benefit and some profit in a practical way.
00:05:25
For our own soul. But always read the title of the Psalm. It's part of the inspired word of God and it has something to say to us. So this is a Psalm of David about the shepherd, written by a shepherd from real personal, practical experience.
Roberta said that the first verse could be.
Could be, it could be said, uh, the Lord is my shepherd, what more could I want? And uh, I've enjoyed that often in regards to thinking of how sufficient the Lord is for, for our every, for our every need.
The Lord is my shepherd. What more could I want?
There's almost a boasting there, isn't there? You can you, you can just.
You can say the Lord is my shepherd and and.
You can say there's confidence knowing that the Lord is, is is capable.
It's very personal, isn't it? And 17 times in this song you have either I, me, my or mine. It's David claiming the Lord and the Lord's provision for him in a very, very personal way. And that's what everyone of us here can do if we know the Shepherd.
And not only know, but acknowledge Him as as a shepherd.
That's that many times we want to get the green pastures we wanted, the waters we want, all the nice things that follow through in this, but we don't wanna really recognize the Lord as being a shepherd of our lives.
Related to I shall not want. I think there is.
Connection to Psalm 37 Sometimes we we look at a little different on this verse, but Psalms 37 four the light thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. In many cases we want to see it as he will give us what we want in our hearts, but we can look at it as that he's the one who provides the things that we want as we were looking at southwest 23 that I Shawn off want or if I want.
Am I wanting something according to?
His desires.
Just to make another connection there with uh 23 one I've enjoyed the, uh, psalms 8411 and it says, uh.
For the Lord's God is a Son and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. No good thing will he withhold and then walk uprightly just again. It's God's provision for us.
I just got back from a trip from California and I was in the Central Valley and, uh, I wasn't there to look at the seat, but every now and then driving down the road we see, you know, S the field and out in the middle of the field would be a bunch of sheep. And there are always two things out there. In the middle of a bunch of sheep. There would be a big water truck and a little camper that the shepherd stayed in and the separate was there the whole time.
One thing that wasn't there was a fence. There was no fence. I've seen people keep cheap in their backyard in a fence, but there'd be a flock of, I don't know, maybe 200 sheep and they'd all be around the shepherd in that water tank and, and the green pastern. When they see they got down, the, the shepherd will find his thoughts and move the water truck in the camper too. And the the sheep would fall and move to the new spot. And it was everything that the sheep needed, the shepherd provided.
And it's it's the same for the Lord's house.
00:10:03
Yeah, that's good, because it's a person that that this song brings before us and when we talk about the shepherd, it's the attraction to a person. And we're going to be followers. We're going to walk in the proper way as the Lord sheep in the measure in which we're attracted to the to the person. And sheep are one of the few animals. And I'm not a farmer, I'm a city boy. But I do understand that she.
Are one of the few animals that you lead, you know, when we're in the West Indies and South American places, you see, uh, flocks of goats coming down this, the road to the villages and they're usually being driven. There's a little boy behind with a switch or a lady behind with some kind of a stick and they're driving the goats ahead of them. You drive cattle, but you lead sheep. The other thing that's wonderful in connection with the shepherd is, as we were saying, it's very individual and he, a shepherd does not treat every sheep the same way.
The shepherd takes into account the personal need of each sheep. Turn to Isaiah 40 and I think you see it.
Uh brought out very well in Scripture, Isaiah chapter 40. This personally is one of my favorite verses in the Word of God verse 11.
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd, He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. To me, what this verse brings out is that the Lord knows that there are we're at various stages in our Christian growth and experience. Some of us need to be LED, some of us need to be carried. We all need to be fed.
And and so on. There's individual needs with each one. My father.
When he was a young man, he kept sheep and he used to tell us that as a shepherd you went out into the walk of sheep and you looked at each sheep for the individual needs. Some of them sometimes had a cut on their foot. Some of them needed different, different attention. And on a particular day, if you were leading them in a certain way, some of them when you came to a rough spot, they needed more time to get over the rough spot or maybe a little extra encouragement to get through.
That narrow passage or whatever. Well, the Lord is our shepherd. He understands the individual need of every person in this room today, young and old. Sometimes you young people, you think, well, the older people don't always understand what we're going through and what we have to face in our day. And that's true. I, I'll be the first to confess, I don't always empathize or understand what you're going through because it's a different day.
As we said this morning, there's these are different times for you than they were when I was a young person in a large family. I know some of you come from large families. Perhaps you feel that your parents find it hard to treat everybody equal or as individual. It's hard not to have favorites in a large family, but in God's flock of sheep, He has no favorites and He treats everyone according to their spiritual and physical need at the time.
The second version reminds me of that the verse in the gospel that says come unto me, you'll either labor and on our heavy laden and I will give you rest. That's really what the Lord wants for each one of us is he wants us to come into his presence and enjoy his company and and his fellowship, and those are the places of true.
Rest.
Yes, and that verse you quoted we often use in the gospel and rightly so, but strictly speaking it applies to one who knows the Lord. And sometimes we don't have real peace and rest in our soul. Why? Is it because we're not walking in the company of the person, We're walking apart from him? And so he says, you come to me. You know, it's interesting again with David in his life, he's a picture of the Lord Jesus.
And you remember that there were those who came to him in The Cave of Adela and it says they were the distressed and those who were in debt and those who had all kinds of problems. And they came to David and they found a place of safety and rest beside, uh, in dwelling with David in The Cave. And again I say the picture of the Lord Jesus. So maybe there's a young person here and you just, you've come to this, these meetings and you just don't have real peace in your soul. You know, you're, you're, you're a Christian. You know, you're gonna go to hell.
00:15:25
You know, your sins are forgiven, but you say I just, I mean, only in a turmoil inside. I just don't have peace in my circumstances. Well, I suggest that it's at least in part because we're not walking in company with the Shepherd. And you notice it says he's gonna, He leads us in various places, but it begins by saying he makes me. You know, he leads us and we sometimes think about he gently leads us and so on. But when it comes to green pastures, he makes us to lie down.
You know, some of us perhaps feel this more than others. Some of us are doers and we like to be on the go and we like to be multitaskers and so on. You know, sometimes the Lord has to put His hand on us and make us stop. He has to allow circumstances to make us lie down in green pastures because the green pastures in Scripture speak of personal communion with the Lord.
And sometimes then I'll be the first again to confess it in my own life. Sometimes I substitute service for Christ, for commute with and, and I, I, I substitute communion with the Lord for service with Christ. And if we do that, then our service, as good as it might be, is simply activity. It's not true service. And there's not going to be the fruit that God desires from it. So.
If we don't stop and and enjoy the green pastures, enjoy personal communion with the Lord, sometimes he has to make us to lie down. Might be sickness, that might be circumstance. It can be any number of things.
Ultimately, He's put us in this world so that we might know His heart. Isn't that right? It's not Even so much, although service is good. Like you say, it's knowing God's heart.
Yeah. Remember, young people, that there is no substitute for personal fellowship and communion with the Lord. Martha was busy with her service, but the Lord said to her, one thing is needful. You know, I often think about that just one thing. I think if the Lord was to tell me about things that were needful in my life, it would be more than one thing. It was a pretty good record, but the one thing that was needful was the thing she needed the most.
And that was personal communion to sit at Jesus feet. And so Mary had chosen the good part. She let some work go. Wasn't that the housework and getting the meal wasn't important. But she let it go because there was an opportunity to sit in fellowship at the feet of the Lord Jesus. And Mary said this is an opportunity that can't be missed. So don't substitute personal communion with service.
Or vice versa, service with pub for, uh, communion. Communion is vital. We need to lie down in the green pastures. I say that too, because one of the characteristics of a clean animal like a cow was that they chew the cot and you see cows out in the fields. Maybe they're standing or lying and they're just contentedly chewing the cut. They're taking that food and they're going over it, regurgitating it and going over it. It's personal communion and meditation.
On the food that comes from the word of God.
And then there's the still waters. Remember I said this morning, sometimes water is a commute, is a picture of the word of God. And I suggest that's what we have here, the still waters here, it's not running water. That would be a picture of the Spirit of God. But here it's Stillwater and it's the refreshment that comes from the Word of God. In other words, there's nothing in this world to feed your soul, to feed the new man, the new life you have in Christ.
And nothing to refresh your spirit spiritually apart from what we have in the shepherd. And how do we get this? How do we get the food and refreshment we need? It's the Word of God. And so it's the washing of water by the words that we speak so often about. We need that refreshment and cleansing that comes from the still waters.
00:20:11
The margin of my Bible that says water and quietness, I just kind of enjoyed that, as in, yes, we're opening up the word of God right now, but it's that quiet time of the Lord, one-on-one personal communion that's kind of carry us along very good.
So we fail, we sometimes signals allowed in our lives, dullness of soul, we get away from the Lord. You know, David did that. You read the life of David. There were times when there was a moral sin in his life in connection with Bathsheba. There were times of discouragement, times when he was afraid. But as he says here, he restoreth my soul. Maybe there's someone who came to this camp and you think, you know, I haven't been following the Lord or maybe I've allowed some sin in my life and got away from the Lord.
You know, there's restoration you can get before the Lord. When David's sin in connection with Bathsheba was brought before him, he immediately got in the presence of the Lord. And on your own time, Joe said in the quiet of your own reading, read the 51St song. It's the prayer of David. It's David's confession when his sin was brought before him by Nathan the prophet. And there was restoration for David. So when David said he restoreth my soul.
He knew that by experience he'd experienced the restoring grace of God and the joy and peace that comes from that. And everyone of us needs that, and we can enjoy it too.
Will be a direct connection to 1St John 19.
If we confess our sins, is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to pleasant us from all righteousness.
Yes, we don't have to ask for forgiveness. I have the forgiveness of sins, but what He does want me to do is come and confess when there's failure in my life. And then there's that cleansing to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's again the cleansing effect, moral cleansing effect of the Word of God. That washing of water by the word, the feet washing to remove the defilement and the things that chill and dull our soul. It all comes from.
But He doesn't just restore us. That is, when we confess our sin, there's restoration, but then there's something that's ongoing. He leads us in the path of righteousness. In the verse that Lucas read in John, it says if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And then notice what it says and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That is to keep us from going any further in that path and to lead us back into the right path.
Righteousness is just that which is right.
And how are we gonna get back on track? The grace of God.
Restores us, but he doesn't leave us there. He puts us back on the right track. Are you on the wrong track? You wanna get back on the right track? You don't wanna just stop on the wrong track, that's one thing. But you wanna be back on the right track. And so he leads us then back into the paths of righteousness so we can continue on. Because don't ever think that you've gone too far.
That you can't have full restoration and be back on the right path. Yes, there may be consequences in your life and we reap what we sow. And sometimes in God's government there are things that we bear marks the rest of our life. But as to personal restoration and living for the Lord in a right way, there's always sufficient grace to put us back in the path of righteousness.
And it's for His name's sake. Notice that. In other words, it's because of His faithfulness.
Not because of our faithfulness. We can claim nothing if we have restoration and we're on the right track today. Don't think that's anything of ourselves, that he's done it all and he's done it for his glory, for his name's sake. Remember when the MO, the children of Israel sinned and God said, I'm just gonna cut them all off? Oh, Moses said, no. He said, Lord, if you do that, you're it's gonna bring, it's gonna be a reflection on you.
00:25:08
You've brought them out, you've redeemed them, you've delivered them, now you're going to let them perish and let the heathen think that you're not the God that you say you are. And basically that's what Moses was saying. He said, Lord, for your sake, carry this people through. And the Lord said yes. And so he carries each one of his sheep through, not so much, yeah, for our sake too, for our good and blessing, but even over and above that, for his own sake and for testimony and glory to his name and to his person.
It's beautiful to think of how the Lord will leave the 90 and 9:00 to to to search after the one, the one sheep that's lost.
Well, our time is gone. Let's have a little word of prayer. Our blessed God and Father, we thank thee for this, uh, little Psalm that.