Sermon Series: The Lord is My Shepherd
Note: I want us to notice this morning a Personal Possession.
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Note: We don’t know when David wrote this wonderful Psalm.
Note: Some have suggested that he wrote Psalm 23 as an old man approaching the end of life’s journey.
Note: Considering all that God had accomplished in his life.
Note: It feels like it’s pouring from one who learned a lot of hard lessons and has experienced the discipline and devotion of the Shepherd.
Note: Others suggest David wrote this psalm as a youth. Out in the Judean hills, with His father’s flock surrounding him, his harp in His hand, and this excellent thought in his mind.
Note: The Lord He is My Shepherd.
Note: This Psalm is divided into three parts. At the end of the day, it’s a Psalm or song about trusting God. It’s trusting God to take care of our frailty, take care of our foes, and trust God with our future.
A Christian man after His mother had passed away. Walked into her bedroom, and there he found her open Bible. The Bible was open to Psalm 23.
Though the pages were tattered and discolored from use. He noticed an outline scribbled on the margin. Along the side of this psalm she had written: The secret to a happy life; a happy death and a happy eternity.
Note: But where does it all begin?
Note: It begins with a personal possession.
Note: It’s more than the Lord is a Shepherd; for David, it went far deeper than that.
Note: There is so much to unpack in these five words.
I. A Powerful Shepherd
Note: David was a good shepherd. He cared for His flock and did all that was needed to protect His Father’s sheep.
Note: But David realized at that moment that He had a shepherd that was watching over Him; who was far greater and wiser than Him.
The life of a good shepherd was not an easy one! Besides the difficult task of keeping watch over many sheep, the shepherd was also responsible for finding proper water and adequate nourishment for sheep that were very afraid of nearly everything by their nature!
Then there were issues of disease, exposure to the elements, robbers to contend with, and wild animals who would devour the sheep if given a chance. There was even the issue of dealing with hirelings who, when danger presented itself, simply ran away to preserve their own life rather than the sheep; to them, it was only a job.
Taken from In the Care of the Good Shepherd – Iain D Campbell
Note: But it was more than a JOB for David.
Note: He truly invested in being a good shepherd.
Note: But David understood that a greater shepherd was watching over His life.
Note: It was the Lord.
Note: The Lord is genuinely The Good Shepherd.
Note: Jesus said in,
John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”
Note: Jesus said in,
John 10:14 “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.”
Note: The writer of Hebrews described the Lord as the Great Shepherd.
Hebrews 13:20 “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant”
Note: The Lord is the Great Shepherd of the sheep.
Note: Peter said that one day, the Chief Shepherd shall appear.
A Pastor is an under-shepherd. People will say to me, Pastor Burns or Pastor. Pastor means shepherd.
Note: A Pastor is to feed the flock which is among them.
Note: One day, the chief Shepherd will appear and reward their Faithfulness and labor.
1 Peter 5:4 “And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.”
Note: The Lord is the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd, and the Chief Shepherd of the Sheep.
Note: But why should we be confident in the Shepherd’s care?
A. He Is The Self-Existing One
Note: The LORD is my Shepherd
Jehovah God. He is our Sovereign Shepherd.
Note: It’s in all CAPS in My Bible; it’s the most sacred name for deity that the Jews had.
Note: It means Self-Existing one.
Note: The One who never had a beginning.
Note: The One who never has an ending.
The Lord is speaking to Pharisees in John 8:58.
They said to the Lord, you’re not greater than Abraham. In John 8:56, Jesus said that Abraham rejoiced to see His Day. Abraham saw in His Son Issac the beginning of God’s fulfillment.
They responded to Jesus by saying how did you see Abraham or how do you know so much about him, you’re not even 50 years old. Jesus said, before Abraham was, I AM.
The Jews actually knew what Jesus had just said. He spoke of His deity – that He is God. They picked up stones and were going to kill Him.
Note: The Lord, the Great, awesome, covenant-keeping God, the self-existing one, the Great I AM – “The LORD”
B. He Is The All-Powerful One
The LORD is the creator of all things.
Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
Colossians 1:16 “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him”
Note: When David looked around at all there was, the WORLD around Him, the stars, the mountains, the rivers – He knew Who made all of it.
Psalm 8 “O LORD our Lord, How excellent is thy name in all the earth. Who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength Because of thine enemies, That thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained.”
Psalm 19 “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech. And night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, Where their voice is not heard.”
Someone once said, “The Lord, the One who made the world and everything that is in it, the One who lit the taper of the sun and put the stars in their places—that’s my Shepherd.
The One who threw a carpet of green grass upon the earth and tacked it down with flowers, the One who scooped up the valleys and piled up the hills, the One who took the song of the seraph and robed it with feathers and gave it to the nightingale, the One who took the rainbow and wove it into a scarf and threw it about the shoulders of a dying storm—that’s my Shepherd. At evening time, He pulls down the shade of the night and shoots it through with sunset fire—that’s my Shepherd.” Angel Martinez
The Lord, He is the All-Powerful God. Who Made All things. He is the One that rules the universe.
Note: He is a Powerful Shepherd, and He is my Shepherd.
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