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We lie as we.
Call him.
Our snake hurry.
Raise light and try.
On there, Yeah, yeah.
Sports.
It is crap.
Surely, I swear.
Shall.
Measure.
All day.
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Is perhaps just for this reading meeting.
It's an unusual suggestion.
But in both the opening hymns of the of the prayer meeting this afternoon and the hymn we've just sang, we've had brought before us.
The Shepherd who cares for us. And as I say, this suggestion is really only just for this meeting and then see what the Spirit of God would have further. But I wondered if it would be an encouragement to consider the 23rd Psalm.
123.
Psalm 23 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 restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His namesake. Yeah, 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.
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.
Just by way of introduction, before we take up these verses, it's helpful when we take up the Psalms to realize that the Psalms are Jewish and prophetic in their character and the songs are taken up in different ways. We know that many of the Psalms are the feelings and expressions of the Lord Jesus Christ as He passed through the circumstances of life as a man to as he took up the work of redemption, the work of the cross, and so on.
We have the 22nd Psalm, 69th Psalm, 102nd Psalm, 40th Psalm, so many psalms that we read on Lord's Day morning when we're together to remember the Lord Jesus, because those psalms bring before us in a very graphic way the innermost breathings and feelings of the Lord Jesus as a man, feelings and expressions that we don't get in the Gospels. We Get the facts in the Gospels.
Concerning his life and work. But in the Psalms we get the feelings. We know too, that many of these psalms are the expressions of the godly remnant in a coming day.
And I have no doubt that this very Psalm will have its fulfillment in that way. They're also the expressions of the Saints in any age. And that's why we go back and we appropriate and apply these to ourselves. In fact, I've been struck in visiting elderly ones, those who are shut in going through a circumstance, a difficult circumstance or a trial, often ask them what part of the word of God they'd like to share together. And I would say that more often than not, they want you to read a Psalm because these psalms are a comfort to us and we apply them.
To our own circumstances, these psalms too are the expressions of David, especially the psalms of David, the feelings and expressions of David as he as a man passed through the circumstances of life. And I sometimes have wished that the titles of these psalms were printed just a little bit bigger in our Bibles, because when we read these psalms, we often Passover the titles. But I would just say this too, that the titles of these psalms.
Were not added by the translators. They're part of the inspired Word of God.
And it tells us in Proverbs that every word of God is pure. And I believe we miss something if we miss the titles of these Psalms. Some of the Psalms have No title. Some of the Psalms have a more lengthy title. Some are very short. But there are quite a number of Psalms that are entitled a Psalm of David. And that was what I was particularly on my heart in suggesting this Psalm for this meeting. Because David as a man, when you trace his life.
He didn't have an easy life. It was a life full of ups and downs, full of sorrows and fears. He felt rejection even after he got his Kingdom. It was a Kingdom that was plagued by wars from his enemies, domestic problems, problems in his own family. He knew what it was to lose a child in death. All these things. And yet, when you come to the Psalms of David, well, there are times when it just seems as hard as going to fail him.
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Yet he always comes back to what he has in and of the Lord, and that was so much greater than the trial and the difficulty. And so as we look at this Psalm, brethren, let's realize that we have everything in and of the Lord. I know there's brethren here, your heart's burdened, there's sorrow, there's tears as we had this afternoon. But I believe, brethren, we can rejoice like David in the portion that we have in the Lord, and we have a far, far greater understanding.
In port of our portion.
The far greater portion than David ever had. We ought to be the happiest people on earth.
Let us mention you mentioned that.
Sing psalms and so on to understand what you mean by that expression. All of our blessings are in heavenly places in Christ Jesus and the worst that can happen to a believer, as we say, but hastens the journey that leads us home. I knew a man and he had a friend who was a taxi driver in London and somebody pulled a knife on him and the taxi driver said to the man, go ahead.
Send me straight to heaven. Well, the worst thing that could happen to him would bring him closer to home. And we often see older ones that are going through trials, and the trials are the very means of blessing. But to a Jew, every one of his blessings is here on this earth.
The physical possession of the land of Israel is required for the Jews blessing. We have mercies in this earth. We're enjoying mercies in this room. We enjoyed mercies going over good highways. These are mercies to believers. But the difficulties that you may have getting to a conference, the difficulties you may have in your home really will just bring out the blessings that God has in store for us. We know that from Romans. All things work together for good to them that love God and call according to His purpose, but to the Jew to possess the land, to possess wealth in this life.
To possess health in this life, that is his blessing. It is here. And so that helps us understand some of these expressions. The only way that the Jew is going to enjoy his inheritance, as if the enemy is driven out of his land now. Now he's trusting in horses and Chariots to do it, but they'll never really possess it until they trust the Lord for it. But that's what we mean by those expressions. So it helps us understand many of these expressions where they're crying for deliverance of from their enemies and so on.
And we can make spiritual application to those expressions, but our blessing does not depend on the eradication of our blood of our enemies here, but the Lord would deliver us from from evil. But I just mentioned that because often expressions are taken up in the Psalms, and we've often heard Christianity has been Judaized, meaning that it's all a matter of wealth and safety here on this earth and prominence of the nation and so on.
And those are all Jewish type of blessings. The blessing of the believer is.
Is in heavenly places I remember as a young boy attending a Sunday school where I had to memorize this 23rd Psalm and.
It never entered my mind, nor was I told by any teacher there that the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want the Lord is my shepherd. I just took that to mean God and never realized that that's.
The Lord Jesus, I did not know the Lord Jesus at the time, but to us who are Christians, and when we read a Psalm like this, we have an understanding that goes far beyond, you might say infinitely beyond, what the Jews understood by this Psalm. They, and especially a Jewish person today, they can read this Psalm and they don't understand it at all because they don't identify with the word Jehovah.
All capitals with the Lord Jesus and until you do that, you, you, you just miss it. You miss it and we, we are his sheep and it's very precious. This is just one of the words that you can prove the deity of Christ because it's when it says the Lord and it's all capitals in our King James, that means Jehovah and then the Lord Jesus in John 10, he says I am the Good Shepherd and, and I am the Good Shepherd and I give my life for the sheep. That's the first time he says it.
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And the next time he says I am a Good Shepherd, I and I know my sheep and am known of mine.
Is that not precious? We know as Christians we know who this shepherd is. They don't. They don't, and what a difference it makes.
Nice that we have the thought of Shepherd in the New Testament in three different ways.
That correspond to the Psalm 22, Psalm 23, and Psalm 24.
In the New Testament, in John 10, we're given the Lord Jesus. I am the Good Shepherd that giveth his life for the sheep. And in the 22nd Psalm we have that work of the Lord Jesus and the atoning work of the cross brought before us.
In the 24th Psalm he refers in verse 7.
And the King of glory shall come in. And the 24th Psalm looks on to millennial glory, in which the shepherd has his place over all the earth. And we see that referred to in Peter in the 5th chapter.
Where it speaks of the.
Chief Shepherd, I'll just read the verse and first Peter chapter five, I think it is.
First Peter 5.
And.
Verse four. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, that's his coming in glory, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. And so it anticipates the time of the Millennium. But in Hebrews chapter 13.
We have that in the New Testament, which corresponds to this Psalm we're considering this hour.
And it's in verse 20, Hebrews 13, verse 20, and the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep, who threw the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ.
To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. And so we have our Lord Jesus.
Who is presently the great Shepherd of the sheep. And it's brought before us an application here in Psalm 23. It's His present work for us as His chief. He's gone to the cross as a Good Shepherd and given His life for us. Now He lives, and He lives to shepherd us all the way through to the end of the journey until that day of His glorification.
Over the earth. It's very intimate here too, isn't it? Because in those verses you read, he's the shepherd, the Good Shepherd, He's the chief shepherd, He's the great shepherd, but he's not just the shepherd here, He's my shepherd. And this brings it down, brethren, to us individually. The Lord Jesus, as the shepherd has a vast flock of his own, but he treats each of us as an individual.
I think it's very precious to realize too, that He doesn't treat all the sheep the same. I'm just going to, we read it earlier, but I'm just going to reread the verse in Isaiah 40 that we read in the prayer meeting. Make this little application. Isaiah 40. And again, I know this is prophetic here, but we can apply it to ourselves today. Isaiah 40 and 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. But I enjoy in this verse is that the Lord Jesus as the shepherd doesn't treat all the sheep the same. He realizes that there are lambs. There are those of us with families. There are those of us who are those who are here who are further along in the path of faith and service. Some of us need to be LED. Some of us need to be carried too.
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And the Lord Jesus is the shepherd. He knows how to feed us with food convenient for us. He knows how to carry us. He knows how to lead us. And so he takes up each sheep individually. You never get lost in the crowd with the Lord Jesus. And then that precious that the Lord Jesus is the shepherd, he looks down into this room and he's with us collectively, individually, and he knows every side.
He knows every burden. If anyone of us had a glimpse into every heart that was here this afternoon, it's something we couldn't stand even for a moment. The burdens and the size and the exercises and the needs of each one. But that divine Shepherd, then that divine heart knows it all, sympathizes with us. And not only is he my Shepherd, but he's able to provide everything that's needed so that I can say I shall not want.
To comment on that word, my shepherd.
There's a lot of young people here and you know, when we were children, we were strapped into the car seat. We were taken to meeting and we were told what we could do and what we couldn't do and so on. Another team came in our life when we were called teenagers. There came a time in the Lord's life when he was a teenager and he would came to meetings. You would say he went up to Jerusalem and his parents saw him sorrowing and he said, wish ye not that I be about my father's business. There was a direct relationship there between himself and his father and what he was doing.
And often when we were young people, we came to our parents and we asked them often knowing what they were going to answer and said, can we do this or can we do that? And you give them an answer and they say, oh, yeah. But the young people over there, they're allowed to do that. Or they do that down there in California. They do that in New Jersey or something else like that. But you know, there has to be a personal and a direct relationship like the Lord as he moved into those teenage years with ye. Not that I be about my father's business.
When you inquire of the Lord as to what the Lord would say about it and we can't simply like when we were children, get strapped in a car seat and get taken off to meeting. There was a time in our life for that. Our brother Jim referred to the different phases of life. But as we become teenagers, we need a direct exercise before the Lord and to know the Lord is our shepherd. And then there is a time in life when we start to set the pattern of our own life, when we're and we we have to apply things in a private circle of our life. And there was a time too in our life when a young man got to be 20 years old.
And he really made decisions for himself. And again, he was establishing his own household and so on, and he needed that. Well, there was a time then of public service when the Lord was 30 years old. And so there are different phases in life, but in each case there has to be a direct relationship. It's not good enough to just say, well, the brethren say this or they do that over there. There has to be that relationship. The Lord is my shepherd. And what is particularly characteristic of Christianity is.
That is, are many of the sons of God. They are led by the Spirit of God, but we know the Lord is our shepherd.
Thank you that since we're Speaking of the shepherd, we need to think of ourselves as the sheep. And it's interesting in Scripture that it's only a true believer who's referred to as a sheep of the Lord. I say that because in Isaiah 53, that verse we often use in the Gospel, it doesn't say we are sheep there. We're like sheep. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.
Because what he's bringing before us there is what we are by were by nature, that is.
As sheep likes to go its own way, and don't we have to admit that the natural man likes nothing more than to go better than to go his own way? Sin is lawlessness as you get in first, John. It's doing our own will in independence of God. It's going our own way. And so we're like sheep in that way. But when we get saved, we become a sheep of the Lord Jesus. And John 10 takes this up so very beautifully. And there are many things connected with sheep.
And I don't know anything about the care of sheep. I'm a city boy at heart and I have no understanding of the actual care of sheep. I'm talking in a natural way a shepherd and a flock of sheep on the farm or on the ranch. But I would just say this about sheep that I believe one reason.
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Believer is like an area is taken up as a sheep is because sheep are one of the few animals that follow. You drive cattle, you herd pigs in the islands. At sunset we see the little boys coming down the mountains and they've got some goats or some pigs and they're hurting them. They're behind them and they've got a switch and they're talking to them and they're driving them. Well, most animals you drive sheep are one of the few animals that you lead.
And so we get it in our chapter. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness, and so on. And again in John 10, the Lord Jesus spoke of how His sheep follow. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. And they follow me, the Lord Jesus said.
And brethren, that's what He really wants in our lives. And if our hearts are attracted and attached to the Shepherd, it's not hard to follow where He leads. Where our hearts are, then our feet will follow. And so may we be so occupied with that Blessed One who goes before that we seek to follow. He doesn't want to have to drive His people. He wants them to follow out of a heart attracted to Himself.
He knows the Shepherd's voice.
And follows. But if he does get astray, and we have it in Luke 15, in Matthew 18, where the sheep has gone astray, then the shepherd seeks that sheep. We have a seeking God. He doesn't just say, well, he's gone his own way, I'll leave him alone. No, not at all. He comes after us and brings us back, doesn't He? We need shepherds probably more than anything else. Shepherds among God's people. You read Jeremiah 23 and you read Ezekiel.
34 I think, where God has a controversy with the shepherds, with the pastors.
A pastor means a shepherd and he has controversy with them and he, Jehovah says I am the shepherd. I will bring them into a place of blessing and minister to them and it's wonderful. I'm looking at Zechariah 13. I'll just read the verse seven awake, O Lord, O sword against my shepherd. Now the sound that we're looking at is the sheep is speaking and says the Lord is my shepherd. Now here, Jehovah God the Father.
Says my shepherd, I'm supplying to you, the one that supplies that shepherd is, is God the Father and he's your shepherd. And then it says, it says that he's going to die. Waco sword against my shepherd and noticed against the man that is my fellow. Now I'm reading the Old Testament. So even the Old Testament shows that this sheep that we're talking about in the 23rd Psalm was going to become a man, a man that is my fellow and he's one that was equal with God the Father. He's his fellow.
So we have the the truth of who He is, both on the divine side and also on the human side.
Very precious.
Yes, the shepherd. Yet Jehovah is that shepherdness. That's the Lord Jesus. You can. It's so beautiful. You can prove who he is even from the Old Testament.
To pin this 23rd song to the first thing you read of David is he keepeth the sheep and that lovely. When you read a Saul, he is lost that which was committed to him and that which was unclean. But when you read of David, he keepeth the sheep and the Lord passed him through circumstances to equip him to really pin these words. So the Spirit of God.
Chose David.
As it were to pen these words in Psalm 23. So lovely to speak of the shepherd.
I said that when he begins the Psalm, he does it with a conscious sense of his own relationship as a sheep to his shepherd. He had been a shepherd himself and he had sheep, and he knew that they knew him and he knew them and so on. And so he begins his, I'm going to call it a meditation with respect to himself and his shepherd, but to me it's very lovely that part way through the meditation in verse 4.
He changes from talking about him to talking to him, and so in the middle of the verse he says, Thou art with me.
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He's not saying about the shepherd anymore, but it's a conscious speaking to the Shepherd of his own heart. And I believe that's the desire of the Spirit of God here this afternoon with each one of us, as we, as you were, hear things about the shepherd and our relationship to the shepherd that there will be at some point, if you will, some sense of conscious relationship with us.
With himself, it's said that it's the purpose of ministry is to bring us into the presence of God.
And so the purpose of the Spirit of God in that way this afternoon is, is to bring us together in such a way that we're not just thinking about the Lord.
But we're thinking consciously of him directly, if you will, not just words.
But the thought of himself, so that we say in our hearts, Lord, thou art my shepherd, when was the last time?
You took a walk with the Lord Jesus and talked to Him.
Personally and listen to him talk to you.
We should, Mr. Darby writes in his writings, so we should never be satisfied with anything less than that.
This little expression in the first verse I shall not want is a simple little expression for very simple words in themselves, and yet we ought not to pass over them because they speak volumes to our heart. I shall not want. Now again, we want to be very careful in making these applications, because when we say the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. That doesn't mean that we're going to be provided with all the mercies and comforts at all times.
That we enjoy. I have been in parts of the world where our brethren are actually starving. They don't have the necessary food even for themselves and for their family. They subsist and eke out an existence from day-to-day. You say has this verse failed? Has God's promise failed? No, but in Christianity what we, and this is the way we apply this expression is that when we have a personal relationship with the shepherd.
Then the heart is satisfied. It's a question of what's inward, not outward. Because as we've often been reminded, and our brother Neil brought it before us at the beginning of the meeting, it's in Christianity. We may be poor as far as this world's goods go, but usually are. Often those who are in those circumstances are rich in faith. Their souls are satisfied. And I want to say this carefully, we don't ever want to despise the mercies.
That God gives us. I'm thankful for this facility this afternoon where we can in climate control and sit in peace and enjoy the word of God. At the end of this meeting, a brother is going to stand up and give thanks for the food that we're going to partake of for the evening meal. We don't want to despise those mercies, but I would say this, that sometimes an abundance of the temporal robs us of an enjoyment of what is really eternal and what really.
Satisfies the soul. It doesn't need to.
But often it gets in the way, and we don't enjoy what we have in Christ and in the Shepherd in the way that we should. If you'll allow me just to tell a little story for the sake of the boys and girls, I know it's a simple story, but I've read it a number of times and enjoyed it myself. In connection with this expression, I shall not want stories told of a little boy who went off to Sunday School, and at the end of the Sunday School term the teacher decided that she would.
Invite the parents in and that the boys and girls would sing some gospel choruses. They'd recite some of the gospel verses and scriptures that they had learned during the year and so on, just to get the gospel to the parents. And so this evening was arranged and each boy and girl was schooled very carefully in what they were going to say and do. And some were going to reach the site portions of the Word of God, others were going to sing and so on. I think there was going to be a little gospel message too.
But there was one little boy who was very small, and the teacher had carefully schooled him to stand up in front of the parents and say the first verse of Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Well, the evening came, and when the little boy stood up and looked into the faces of the parents, it just seemed like a sea of faces to him. And he got what we would call stage fright, I suppose. And so he took a deep breath and he said.
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The Lord is my shepherd. He just couldn't seem to remember the rest of the verse and.
So after some hesitation, he started again. The Lord is my shepherd. The rest of the verse just wouldn't come. Finally, in desperation, he said, the Lord is my shepherd, what more can I want? And he sat down and really, without knowing it, he really gave the essence of what this expression means. Brethren, what more could we want when we have a shepherd who gave his life for us?
Who's caring for us and providing for us every hour of every day? Who's going to be there in that day of glory as we had before us? If this is the one that's really satisfying our heart? Not again, that we despise outward or temporal mercies. But those things aren't going to have the same significance as they do otherwise. And what is really going to satisfy our hearts, brethren, is more of the Shepherd that cares for us.
And so I say with the little boy, the Lord is my shepherd. What more could I want?
Contrast.
And verse 17.
And this again is David speaking.
Now the first we just we're looking at in Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. We understand that means I will not need. It's not the not a matter of we're not wanting in the sense of needings of desiring something, but in the sense of needing something. And so we say the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not need anything. But here in Psalm 40, verse 17.
David says, But I am poor and needy.
Now why the difference?
Well, I think it's because.
In Psalm 23, David is looking at the Lord and he finds all his resources there. He says I don't need anything more. But in Psalm 40, verse 17, David is looking at himself, by them, at the direction of the Spirit of God, and he sees what he is in himself. And then he says I'm needy and we need this too. We need this side because the Lord reveals his sufficiency to us.
As we recognize our need of it.
I like what?
I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me.
God has his eye on David, and He delights to bring into David's life that which David needs.
He gives him his portion according to the wisdom.
And the power and the love of God.
There is rejoicing, shall we say, in in the knowledge that I'm needy, The Lord thinketh on me.
Yet the Lord thinketh upon me so God hasn't forgotten. He knows, He loves, He cares nothing. This truth condemned, He gives the very best to those who leave the choice with him.
You make it lie down in green pastures.
You know, Mr. Lundeen had some good advice when you said when young people would tell him they had trouble reading the Word of God, he said read it, read it and you'll develop an appetite for it. And that's more than going to Bible studies because you may hop from verse to verse all over the Bible and get little Nuggets from here and there. And there's a place for that. But there is no substitute for reading the Word of God. And I was glad her brother Don jumped ahead where he said he's about in the Psalm from talking about the Lord to talking to the Lord.
Because the Lord can't speak to us and there can be no proper intercourse or conversation between ourselves and the Lord unless we've been fed with the Word of God. They often meet Christians and they said, the Lord told me this and the Lord told me that, and the Lord told me this. And if you test those statements by the word of God, you find that these so-called directions from the Lord are absolutely contrary to the word of God. So he makes us to lie down in green pastures and then he leads us by the still waters. And I, I was thinking of that in connection with the refreshment of the soul.
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Is that sheep cannot drink in troubled waters.
And a brother made this comment, never bring anything into the assembly controversy into the assembly that is not necessary but to maintain the glory of the Lord. We bring up all kinds of issues. People get taken up with issues, but he leadeth me beside the still waters. And in connection with this, sometimes we come very dry in our souls in this expression that was brought out. The Lord thinketh on me. When you get down to pray and you say I just can't pray. We've all felt that way. I don't know what to pray.
And beside myself, I feel dry, I can't pray, I'm not enjoying the word. Just enjoy the fact that the Lord is praying for you and just enjoy the fact that there's a man in the glory thinking about you. Enjoy his love. Say, well, I have nothing to say to the Lord, I don't know what to say. But just enjoy the fact that He is praying for you, that He is thinking about you, and that He loves you and will be refreshed in our souls and will start to, instead of telling the Lord what we want, we'll start to hear what the Lord has to say to us.
And that is how we restore our soul. The Lord David Peter got away from the Lord because he was always saying not so Lord, not so Lord. He always knew what the Lord should be doing or shouldn't be doing. And we get away from the Lord that way, but he restores our soul when we start to listen to the Lord and instead of telling the Lord what he should be doing. So we need to then focus.
What the Lord is for us and for Him, what he's doing for us rather than what we're doing for Him. Because I think we can get pretty discouraged if we start thinking about.
Ourselves and what we're doing for the Lord. I mean, I think we should all be abounding in the work of the Lord, but I think we feel too, how we're unprofitable service.
But if we think about the Lord and focus on Him in all that He is for us.
It's so wonderful and I think, am I not right in thinking that when the Lord says.
David says I shall not want. It does refer to our needs. We know Paul said my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
But it does not also have to do with satisfying the desire of our souls.
I shall not want you know. He satisfies the longing soul, and he feels the hungry soul with goodness.
As we contemplate the love of this shepherd in giving his life for us.
Our hearts ought to rejoice in His love.
And satisfies our desires too. Doesn't have to. I think of another place. Psalm 37 Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
So needs and desires are met deep.
It's helpful because.
Just because we know the Lord Jesus as our Savior doesn't necessarily mean we don't have an empty, aching heart. You know, there are many believers in this world today who have empty, aching hearts. It's not that their eternal destiny isn't secure. They're safe in the hand of God and the Lord Jesus, and He's their Good Shepherd in that way. But I believe that our hearts are only fully satisfied.
In the measure in which we are feeding and drinking, in what he has provided for us.
And I was thinking it might be good to raise the question for each of our souls this afternoon, where are we feeding and where are we drinking? We're either feeding in the pastures of this world and from its springs that don't satisfy and fill our souls, or we are feeding from what he has, has and is supplying. Now let's just take up that that question, where are we feeding?
Are we feeding on the husks of this world?
You know, I realize it's hard even to drive down the freeway anymore without seeing something to feed our lusts, something to feed the flesh. You stand in the checkout counter and you try to keep your eyes away from that which feeds the flesh, feeds our lusts. And there's plenty of that on every hand, whether you go to school, whether you operate in your own neighborhood, whether you go to work, whatever sphere you operate in from day-to-day.
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There's plenty to feed the old, the flesh, but the question is, are we feeding in the green pastures that he has supplied? And what are those pastures? Well, I would suggest that a field or pasture in Scripture often speaks to us of personal communion. Now it's through the Word of God that we enjoy the person of Christ. But I think of Isaac, He went out into the field at eventide.
To meditate. When the day was done and responsibilities were over, Isaac went out into the field to meditate. Do we go out into the field to the green pastures when we have a few free moments or at the end of the day to meditate? I will go in and out and find pasture. Let's find our food there. But it's interesting, this expression in our Psalm. He maketh me. I want you to notice that.
He doesn't leave me there. He wants to, but sometimes he has to make me now. He leads me beside the Stillwater. He leads in the paths of righteousness. But isn't it interesting that when it comes to personal communion and feeding on himself, sometimes he has to lay his hand?
And make us I remember calling a brother one time, a brother who was active in the Lord's work and the Lord's service and had been used much of the Lord and the Lord had set him aside with health problems. And I knew when I called this brother, he was just pacing the floor on the phone and.
Not really content with his lot of having to slow down in his service for Christ. And I said to this brother, I said, you know, you and I are both of the temperament where we're driven. We like to be busy.
We like to fill a day and a schedule with lots of activity. But I said, and I said I haven't, can't say I've learned it from my own soul, but I said it does say in Psalm 23, He maketh me. And if I don't take that time to feed in the green pastures, if I don't take that time for personal communion and the development of that relationship with the Shepherd so that my soul will be satisfied. Sometimes I believe, brethren, He has to put His hand on us.
And he has to make us lie down. He has to set us aside, perhaps from our service or whatever it might be, so that we take that time. Well, if he does, don't shave under it, but learn to appreciate it and use that time for a deepening of the green pasture.
Said come ye yourselves apart and rest awhile. We need that a clean animal.
Was characterized by two things. It ruminated, that is, that it chewed the cot. It didn't just eat meditation, meditation and it had a cloven hook. It walked a separate pathway.
Separation. You know, it's interesting. I learned something interesting about a rabbit. A rabbit looks like it's ruminating, like it's chewing the cut, but it's eating its own excrement.
Pretty vile thing. And that relates to what our brother Jim said about what we're feeding on. And so there are animals that appear to walk a separate pathway. The pig eats as a cloven hoof that eats everything. Same thing as a cow, but it's not a ruminant. And so it's meditation that we need. It's not just reading, but it's considering the word of God.
I just say this, we talk often get ourselves occupied. He said he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. And we're in a very self-centered society and we're always looking to solve our problems. But he leads us in such a way for his name's sake that we might be a testimony and in the paths of righteousness and when we're doing what is right, what is honest, what is good is for the Lord's namesake. It might cost us something.
You may go to work and suffer a demotion or be laughed at because you take a stand for the Lord, but you're being LED in the path of righteousness. But you're bearing testimony to the Lorde name. People will know that without you saying anything, will know that you're doing it for the Lord. But often we say, well, what is it in it for me? But he often leads us in a path for His namesake.
00:50:06
I noticed the margin in my Bible were being pastures.
Has.
Pastures of tender grass.
To me, that's a beautiful thought because we know if we sit down to a meal.
And we find that everything is coarse and tough. It's hard to chew. We're not too interested in eating that meal. But if things are tender and good, how we do enjoy it. And I believe that God gives to us.
That which is tender and good. He gives us food that is convenient for us and He doesn't want us to choke on it, but He wants us to enjoy what He has for us and He ministers to us on our level. He gives us what we need and the word in some.
34 and verse eight O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. The Lord is good, God is good.
How wonderful to have a God who knows our needs and will provide them and cause us to rejoice.
When you go to a Funeral Home, they have this song stamped on the little visitation card that you get there. And we think of this verse when a person is in dying. Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, but it's good to remember that we are all now in the valley of the shadow of death.
And we don't need to fear evil. I was struck coming home from brother Bill Wright's funeral that I stopped and saw man at the gas station. He had a daughter that was a dentist and a son that was a Doctor Who was not an intelligent man. But he said to me, he said, Osama bin Laden's done it for me. I'll never set foot on a plane again. Man's hearts are feeling them for fear. And we are in the valley of the shadow of death. And maybe the young people see a bright and a beautiful world before them.
But everything in this world bears death stamp, and we need to appreciate that fact that if you're six years old or four years old, you're and you know the Lord Jesus Christ is in your Savior, you're walking through the valley of the shadow of death. And we have nothing to fear as believers except to forget about the Lord.
His death is ours. That's right. You don't have to fear death.
That just ushers us into the Lord's presence, doesn't it? It's the door of entrance.
They passed from the land of the living into the land of the dying, into the land of the living.
I'd like to just go back to a comment that was made by a couple of brothers in connection with the Lord. As the shepherd feeding us with not doesn't feed us all with the same food. He realizes there are lambs and there are sheep and so on, and his individual care. And I'd like to just say something that ought to exercise any who take the responsibility in the local assembly or even on a broader sphere for the spiritual well-being and oversight of the people of God.
Those who seek to shepherd the people of God because a shepherd, as we've said already.
Seeks to discern the individual needs of the sheep, and that's what a shepherd amongst God's people seeks to discern to the individual needs. They don't deal with all the sheep the same. They don't deal with those who are young in the faith the way they deal with those who are mature.
And so I think it's a good exercise for everyone of us, really. But for those particularly who have that responsibility, it's good to recognize that God-given responsibility. Paul spoke to the Ephesians and said that the Holy Ghost had made them overseers. There are those that the Lord raises up as shepherds in the assembly, but they don't, they're not to rule with the rod. They're not to do it for their own gain, not for filthy lucre sake or to get something for themselves.
But to do it for the flock of God and for their well-being. So it exercises my soul. Brethren, I don't say I always discern how to deal with individual shape, but it is an exercise that ought to touch each of our hearts.
Statement. I believe it was made by my brother Norman Berry.
00:55:02
And I didn't forget it, he said that.
Good pasture.
Does more to keep the flock together than good fencing.
I think we know what he was driving at. Sometimes we tend to introduce rules and regulations and we fight and devour the sheep as it were, to try to get things the way we want them to be. But really I think if there is this ministry that you're speaking about, Brother Jim, and feeding the flock of God with that food, which they can appreciate.
And enjoy.
This, I believe, will help to keep the flock together.
Together, that's good pasture. If it's law, that's not good passion. And that's the difference, isn't it, between what you had in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, it was a fold. It wasn't enclosure, it was a fence. It was rules and regulations. The law was given, the Mosaic Law was given, and so there were these regulations set down.
But it did nothing for the heart that wasn't touched by God himself. But in Christianity, it's a person. It's the shepherd. We follow the shepherd. And the closer we follow the shepherd, the closer we are to one another. And so if we're following the shepherd and your I'm following the shepherd, you're following the shepherd, there's a closeness, there's a fellowship that we can enjoy. The further away we get from the shepherd, the further away we get from one another. I'd like to just say this too, about what Wally mentioned earlier.
About the pasture, you remember when the Lord Jesus fed the multitude, it says that it was a desert place. And then there's a beautiful little comment made. And there was much grass in the place. Not beautiful. You don't think of a desert place as having much grass, but there was much grass. And as a result, He made them to sit down, and then he fed them with the loaves and the fishes. And brethren, we are in a spiritual wilderness. We're in a spiritual desert.
I believe the thought in a wilderness or desert in Scripture is that there's nothing to sustain life. As we said earlier, there's nothing to sustain the new man here in this world. Plenty to feed the flesh and our lusts, but nothing to sustain the new man. But isn't it beautiful and precious to realize that even in this spiritual desert and wilderness that we find ourselves in this afternoon, there is much grass in the place? Why? Because He has provided that food and for us.
Then in the reading meetings locally at home and there was much grass in the place and I just sat there and said oh this is precious, this is precious. And saw visitor was there and said do you always have good readings, meetings like that? I said, yeah, we do.
That's very precious.
It's nice to see in connection with verse 4 where he says thou art with me. Like to turn again to Hebrews chapter 13 where we have that same sense of it in the New Testament in Hebrews chapter 13.
And verse five it says.
Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have. For he has said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
Tremendous thing to enjoy in the soul, the fact that the Lord the Shepherd says I'm going to be with you.
He himself at the cross experienced what it was to be absolutely alone and forsaken.
And in one this instance, as it were, it's a promise he makes to us. He says you're on the journey, too.
But you will never have to experience what I went through. I promise you I will go with you. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. And it's a tremendous thing that David appreciated that and his delight that he had in his own soul, that he said thou art with me. Moses had something of the same feeling when.
01:00:04
The children of Israel were at the.
Border of the desert if you will. And the whole they were had failed.
And the question of carrying them through the desert to the promised land was before them. And Moses says to the Lord, well, if you won't go with us, carry us not up. Hence there's somewhere Moses is saying, the Lord, Lord, if you're not going to go with us, I'm not going, I'm not going to take this people there. And the Lord responds, and he said, I'll be with you. And he was in the, in the.
Tabernacle, that was His presence among them and with them, and He was with them the whole way. And so we too can rest in the enjoyment that of His promise to us. As He says, I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you. It's very precious that our failures are brought out in the word. Take, for instance, when the disciples were talking among themselves. Who should be the greatest?
And the Lord says, what were you talking about along the way? He knew, of course, what they were talking about. And he sets children before them and says, if he don't become his little children, you can't enter the Kingdom of God. And the other instance comes to mind is in the on the in the ship. When the waves were about to overturn the ship, the Lord was asleep. He was right there with them and yet they were afraid that they were going to sink. Now we don't see him like they did, but he's right there with us the same way. And he says, how is it that she have no faith? He stands up and says, peace be still. And the troubles that how many times I've prayed.
Lord, when there's trouble in a meeting, Lord, stand up and say, peace be still, peace be still. He can do that. He can bring that down. And it's wonderful when we when we lean upon him and turn to him and ask Him to help us in our feebleness and our great need.
Always have a conscious sense of the Lord's presence with us. We get away. We allow things that that come between US and the Lord.
But I just want to re echo what Don and Chuck have said, because even when we don't appreciate or have a conscious sense that he's with us, the promise stands. I will never leave the nor for safety. Now let me just give you a couple of examples from Scripture of what we're saying. First of all, from the Old Testament when Jonah, who was a prophet of God and was really one of the Lord's own, when he got a Commission to go to Nineveh.
And to preach against the guilty city, it says he rose up to flee from the presence of the Lord. But you know, if you didn't read on, you might find that in contradiction to the verse that's been read and quoted in the book of Hebrews. But as you read the story, well, it's true. And I'll put it this way. Jonah got far away from the Lord. But the Lord didn't leave Jonah. And as you read down the 1St, as you find that the Lord was right there with Jonah, Jonah fled from the presence of the Lord.
But the Lord was right there and eventually woke Jonah up and had him go under those waters and then brought him back up, worked in his soul that he prayed in the fish's belly, brought him back up, and eventually used him in the salvation of that whole city of Nineveh. Imagine man preached in Nineveh, A failing servant who ran from the Lord eventually preached in Nineveh and the whole city got saved. But I just pointed out Jonah fled from the Lord, but the Lord didn't leave him, although he was not conscious at the beginning.
Because of his self will of the presence of the Lord. A New Testament example. When the two on the way to Emmaus were going from Jerusalem in discouragement, they ought not to have been leaving Jerusalem with discouraged hearts. And when the Lord Jesus spoke with them, they didn't understand who it was that was speaking to them along the road. But I love what it says. Jesus himself drew near and went with them.
There he was right with them, and he eventually again worked in their souls so that they eventually realized who it was that was with them.
And they returned to Jerusalem and there was great joy and so on. So I just point that out if there's someone here.
And you say, I just haven't enjoyed the presence of the Lord. I just haven't enjoyed the being with the Shepherd. Oh, he restores your soul. It's not that He's left you. He's there. The hindrance is never on his part. Brethren, if we don't enjoy His presence, it's not his fault. It's my fault. It's our fault. We've allowed something. I just want to say to cap my remarks, if you have allowed something to come between you and the Shepherd, get before him and confess it. Get into his, consciously into his presence.
01:05:21
And enjoy the fact that He's with us every moment of every day. With that, I want to read a few verses in the 139th Psalm.
Verse 7. Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I send up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, that we hold our heart there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand bleed me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yeah, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike to thee. What a beautiful sound that is. We can't get away from God, and it's foolish to try. And who wants to try? We want to live our life in His presence. In his presence Now God sees me, sees everything we do, and knows every thought we have.
Hagar was laughing. Oh, it saw her. We usually apply that perhaps in the gospel and perhaps to our children to keep them from taking a cookie from the cookie jar or sneaking something they shouldn't, and that's okay. But in its, in its context, there in Genesis, Hagar was thankful. And would we want to Chuck, get away from the presence of the Lord? Would we want to be cast out of his sight? Not for one moment.
That's where comfort comes from. The rod may speak of correction.
And an uncorrected child is an unhappy child that you see little children around and they're happy and you know that they're corrected. And you see children that are running around doing what they want and they're unhappy, discontent. Whether they're in the meeting or in the grocery store or on the plane. There are children that are not corrected. And the staff speaks of guidance perhaps, but you've got to give the little darling everything he wants.
And so they comfort me and so that is what that is what will lead to the comfort. But it is it was good advice.
And these are practical things. Thy rod it is.
I was told don't discipline your children with your hand. Use an instrument. And we have to realize that it is an instrument. God may use an unpleasant instrument to discipline us, but it is in His hand. It is His rod. The Lord used the Chaldeans and He took up the issue to discipline His children, Israel as his rod in his hand. And they went far beyond what the Lord directed them to do. And He's going to take that issue up with them, but it is in His hand. And so if we see that.
If I feel the Lord is being particularly hard on me, there's a verse in Scripture to the forward. I will show myself forward.
That means to the unwilling, I will show myself unwilling. And if I get stubborn and I think, boy, the Lord is being stubborn with me, there's a reason.
But the comfort comes from realizing that what happens, it is thy rod and thy staff that speaks of guidance to guide us along. They maybe keeps us from not, it's not to whack us with the staff, but maybe just to keep us going off and something happens that we want to do and something comes in and limits our our activities. They they're a comfort to us. I'd like to just say I, I failed in my life in this very much, but it still needs to be said.
The most effective discipline is when it's administered and then finished. Take the child up in your arms and love them. Let them know that you're doing it for their good and need and you love them and not repel them. They need to be disciplined, yes, but.
No M246.
Call every.
Storm.
The greatest quiet.
01:10:00
Hours.
We dream.
Psalm 79, verse 13.
So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture.
Will give thee thanks forever. We will show forth thy praise to all generations.
Thank you.