PSALM 23 SERMON THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD

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Hi, today I will be sharing with you Psalm 23 Sermon. The Lord is my Shepherd. Before I start, let’s pray.

Dearest Heavenly Father, enable me to be able to preach well your word that others will understand Psalm 23 about you and your son Jesus Christ being our Shepherd in our lives. The significance meaning. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Please turn your Bible to Psalm 23. I will be reading from the NIV version.

Psalm 23 (NIV)

1 The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters,

3 he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley,I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Have you seen sheep before? How does the sheep walk? Is it in front of the shepherd or behind the shepherd? Is behind the shepherd they are following the shepherd. Now let’s look at what this Psalm 23 talks about on Shepherd and Sheep.

Psalm 23 was written by King David when he was King. Is unlikely to be written while he was running away from King Saul. He wrote it while he was King remembering the goodness of God in delivering him from evil. He used his experience as a shepherd to explain what the Lord has done as a shepherd for him a sheep.

Let’s look at verse 1 and 2, The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters. Earlier I talked about sheep following the shepherd. Sheep don’t go by itself to look for food. They don’t know the way to go. Sheep might get hurt, lost when they wonder off by themselves. They follow their shepherd to lead the way to green pasture for them to eat the grass, rest, lie down relax, sleep and drink water. During ancient time David, Moses time, they were shepherd looking after sheep in desert. Is difficult to look after sheep in desert, you don’t get to see land full of green grass. You need to walk, search on hard dry ground looking for little green grass growing among the rocks for the sheep to eat. Let’s take a look at a video showing you what this looks like.

We have seen how the shepherd brings the sheep to look for green pasture for them to eat. You can see that the sheep follows the shepherd obediently. They trust in him to provide for them. They lack nothing even in desert.

Are you in desert dry ground now? Dry in not having food on the table. Physical food and Spiritual food? You might be out of job worrying about having money to put food on the table, paying bills. You might be in a church with a pastor not providing good solid food spiritual food for you. You might be turning to your own means to reach what you want. Turning to people, other sources. What about God? Have you turn to Him? You need to turn to God and trust in Him daily for your provision. Just like David, even when he was escaping from King Saul, having wars. He lack nothing. The Lord is his shepherd and our shepherd. We lack nothing when we trust in Him and follow him to lead and guide the way.

In verse 2 on green pasture, there are a few meanings. Green pasture refers to a safe comfortable place. The greener side. The sheep only lie down when they are comfortable. Is difficult to force a sheep to lie down. It needs to be willing to lie down by itself. Beside this reason, when the sheep is now well, the shepherd will hold the sheep to look at it and give the sheep medication. Green pasture is a safe place to relax, eat and rest. Is a place the shepherd brings the sheep to, taking care of their needs and caring for them.

He leads the sheep to quiet water. Quiet water is different from sea storm. Is calm. No danger, no lost of lives in sea storm. Is a safe place and there is water to drink to replenish the body and soul. 

Have you found a green pasture and quiet water? A safe place. Are you in a storm now? In darkness? Feeling unhappy, sad over some matters? Do not fear. Turn your sorrows to God. Cry out to Him. Pray to him. He will lead you to quiet water, green pasture a safe place of refuge.

Verse 3 & 4 he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley,I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Sometimes sheep walk to a dangerous place and the shepherd use his staff to get the sheep move to a safe place. The staff is used to guide the people away from danger to safe place. Let’s look at example from Moses in the Bible. Moses & Israelies were being chased by the Egyptians Pharaoh army. Moses hold his staff up and told the people to walk through the red sea in dry ground which was opened for them to walk after Moses raise up the staff as commanded by God in Exodus 14:16. The staff is used as a guide for the people to lead the people away from danger to a safe place. It help the people to know where to go, saving their life.

The rod is used by the shepherd to hit the enemies, the predators of the sheep.

The shepherd looks after his sheep, he will search his lost sheep and bring the sheep back to the right path. He will fight with all his life to save his sheep. Jesus Christ had died at the Cross defeating death for his people. He saves his people with his sacrifice that we can have eternal life. He refreshes the soul, bringing comfort to us. We are assured that we are under his protection, even when in trouble, he will help us, save us. We have no fear as God is with us. We are his children. His sheep. He takes care of us.

Verse 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

What’s the meaning of this verse? In the past, host when they invite their guest to their house. They prepare a table with food and they anoint their guest with oil. Why the mention of prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies? This is to tell the enemies that David is under God’s protection. He is specially selected guest invited for the banquet. I have written another sermon on the banquet Food From God which you can watch, read and listen to understand further.  

Now, for the oil. What’s the significance? Sometimes you see sheep trying to scratch their body, knocking on fences. The reasons why they want to scratch is because there are flies, insects in them. Shepherd will put oil on sheep to prevent flies, insects from going to sheep nose to grow lava, eggs. When the flies, insects lay eggs in the sheep nose, they feel very uncomfortable. They will feel itchy and they will get disease and die. Some sheep who can’t stand the itch, suffering will attempt to kill itself and die. Shepherd being a good shepherd will not want their sheep to suffer. They will put oil on their sheep to kill parasites to prevent the spread of disease and prevent flies growing eggs in them. Another reason for putting oil is during mating season, ram often fight with other ram to get the female sheep. There are wounds from the fight. Shepherd will put oil on wounds of ram after they fight during mating season to cover their wounds to help in healing.

So with the oil for David and us, what this means is God anoint us with oil to protect us from danger, harm. We are under his protection. The anointing oil is also a representing that we are his sheep, we belong to him.

The last verse. Verse 6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

What is God goodness? Goodness is being accepted by God becoming God’s children. We are being taken care of, protected by Him. We are under His shield from enemies. He rescue us from danger. He is always with us never leaving us. He leads and guide us to the right path.  His love will always follow us in all the days of our lives. We will always with God the rest of our lives. We have eternal life with him. Another reason why David said I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever is because he is faithful and loyal to God. When he said this he was making a declaration that he will never leave God. He will always believe and trust in God. God will always be his God. He will worship God always. Neither death not life, no can separate him from God.

Are you a lost sheep? Will you be like David trusting in God and dwell in His house forever?

If you are willing to accept Jesus Christ as your shepherd, will you please follow me to say this prayer.

Dearest Jesus Christ,

Forgive me for straying away from you. Thank you for letting me know you know me and never leave me. You are the good shepherd who looks for me, takes care of me. Thank you for dying at the cross for my sins. Sacrificing your life for my life that I can have eternal life. I want to dwell with you, stay close with you, follow you the rest of my life. Please come into my life today. In your name I pray. Amen.

 

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