Sermon #5 – The Lord Is My Shepherd (Sermon Series On Psalm 23) The Shadow of Death

Note: We looked at a personal possession, a plentiful provision, a precise place, a perfect pathway, and now today a present protection.

Sermon Series: The Lord is My Shepherd

• My Shepherd Sermon Five Outline
• My Shepherd Sermon Five Slides

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 name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a 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 for ever.”

Note: As we have learned so far in Psalm 23.

Note: David has been talking about what God is to him, and what He does for Him.

Note: David is encouraged and lifted up by the presence of the shepherd in His life.

Note: His soul has been restored to follow in the right path.

Note: That path may be beside still waters or by the green pastures.

Note: But God was leading and feeding him.

Note: As we move into verse 4, this psalm strikes a different note.

Note: David has spent the last three verses speaking about his experiences.

Note: Where God leads and How God feeds.

Note: The restoration that he experienced in His life.

Note: But in verse 4, he steps into the unknown.

Note: He talks about an event that could come to pass (situations that loom over the horizon), but he didn’t know when.

Note: He’s still walking down that pathway of life (he’s still on the path of righteousness), and one day, a dark cloud would overshadow him. In that moment he would fear no evil.

Note: He’s spent much time speaking of pleasant things. But this isn’t quiet as pleasant.

There is a teaching out there, that promises pleasant pastures forever.

But the Bible never makes that promise.

Note: There are wonderful pleasant things in the Christian life.

Note: But the tune of the Christian song, also has low notes as well.

Note: There are times when we are driven to “wits end corner”

Note: David understood that,

Psalm 88:6–9 “Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, In darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, And thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah. Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me; Thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth. Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: Lord, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.”

Note: The book of psalms are filled with low moments of life

Note: It’s also important to note that in verse 4, David has stopped talking about the Shepherd, and now he is talking to the shepherd.

Note: He leads me. He restores me. He feeds me. I shall not want.

Note: But as he faces this dark cloud. He says – You (The Shepherd) are with me.

Note: If God was with David.

Note: He will also be with us.

I. The  Valley

Note: It is called the valley of the shadow of death.

Note: It’s interesting that David first came to popularity in a valley where he faced off against Goliath.

Note: By Definition, A valley is located between two hills.

Note: This Psalm highlights some high points in David’s life.

Note: The beginning of the Psalm where he claims the Lord as his shepherd, and the ending when he is in the house of the Lord forever.

Note: In between is a valley.

Note: Between blessings here and glory beyond runs the valley of the shadow of death.

Note: As a shepherd in the rugged terrain of Judah. David understood the dangers to the sheep in the valley.

George Adam Smith, an experienced traveller and geographer of the Holy Land, wrote that on the boundless Eastern pastures, so different from the narrow meadows and dyked hillsides with which we are familiar, the shepherd is indispensable.

I do not remember ever to have seen in the East a flock of sheep without a shepherd.

In such a landscape as Judea, where a day’s pasture is thinly scattered over an unfenced tract of country, covered with delusive paths, still frequented by wild beasts, and rolling off into the desert, the man and his character are indispensable.

Note: At these times, the skill and care of a shepherd are absolutely vital.

Note: The shadow of death appears 20 times in the OT. It speaks of the darkest valley.

Note: But what makes this valley so difficult.

Note: It’s death.

Note: The threat of death is always present as we travel through life’s way.

Isaiah 9:2 “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.”

Notice the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 1:9,

2 Corinthians 1:9 “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead”

Note: Paul’s pathway was filled with the treat of death.

Note: But life itself is actually a death sentence. One day we will all die.