(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai)
We turn once again this evening to Psalm 23. There are certain parts of God's Word which are so precious to the people of God that they're described as apples of gold in a picture of silver, and one such scripture is the 23rd Psalm. Three thousand years have passed since this well-known portion of scripture was first uttered.
In that time there have been many changes in this old world. Empires have risen and fallen. Great men have lived and died.
There have been marvellous inventions and wonderful discoveries. Many changes have taken place. But you know, despite all the changes, this particular psalm is as fresh today as ever it was.
In this space age of computer technology, the shepherd's psalm lives on in the cherished memories of the people of God. Even today, people of all ages are able to say, without referring to a Bible, 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.
This morning we focused our thoughts upon those two verses, the opening verses of the psalm. This evening we're going to examine the next three verses, verses three to five, and in the time that we have together I'd like to draw your attention to five things that we see in this portion of scripture. Before we look at those five things, however, I'd like just to remind you of what we have here.
We have a reminder that the Lord is the shepherd of his people. He is the great shepherd of the sheep, and we who are believers are the sheep of his pasture and the lambs of his flock. What we see as we go through this psalm is what the Lord, the shepherd, does and gives for and to his people.
If you look at verse three, the first thing we see there is restoration. This is what the Lord does for his people, he restores them. The psalmist says, he restoreth my soul.
Now when you restore something, you bring it back to its former place or condition. And the picture here is of a lost sheep being brought back to the fold. The picture here is of a wayward lamb being restored.
The psalmist puts himself in the position of the lamb and he says, with regard to the shepherd, he restoreth my soul. Now you know as well as I do that sheep have a tendency to get lost. Living on the Isle of Man, it's not unusual to see sheep where they should not be.
Sometimes you're driving along on the main road and all of a sudden you come across a couple of sheep. They shouldn't be there. You have no idea where they come from, but they've obviously got lost.
If sheep didn't get lost, they wouldn't need to be restored. Sometimes the Lord's people backslide. Prone to wander, Lord we feel it.
Prone to leave the God we love. Even though true believers are within the fold of Christ's church, we nevertheless do have a tendency to slip, to slide, to get ourselves lost. The thing is this, you see, although born-again believers have been renewed by the Spirit of God, there's still men and women of flesh.
The Bible says, we know from experience, that it's true. The flesh is weak. We have a tendency to go in the wrong direction.
We go astray. We backslide. What happens? Well, the good shepherd looks for his sheep in order that he might find them, rescue them, and restore them.
When you look back over your Christian life, as I do from time to time, we can see times of declension. I was interested and encouraged to hear that during the next three weeks you'll be giving special consideration to the subject of revival. This is what we need as an island.
This is what we need as a church. And this is what we need as individual people as well. There is a tendency to go downwards.
The tendency of man's nature is downwards. And we live in a time of declension. We go astray so easily.
But our God is a good God, and he restored our souls. Perverse and foolish, oft I strayed, but yet in love he sought me, and on his shoulders gently laid, and home rejoicing brought me. That's what the good shepherd does for the sheep of his pasture and the lambs of his flock.
He restores them. He restored my soul. And why? Well basically because he loves us.
Our God loves his people with an everlasting love. And he has determined never ever to let us go. That's why we read about the good shepherd who had a hundred sheep.
When he lost one he went into the fields and the valleys looking for that one wayward lamb that was lost. And he kept looking until he had found it. And if that sheep could speak after it had been found it would say he restored my soul.
Now we need to appreciate that although the Lord loves us, he does get angry with us when we go astray. Sometimes we have a rather lovesided conception of God. We see him as a lovey-dovey kind of character who doesn't mind what we do.
Well he does. He's opposed to sin. The God of the Bible is a holy God who abhors iniquity.
Sin is a stench in the nostrils of the Almighty. And when the Lord's people go astray, the Lord is displeased. The Lord is angry.
But you know his anger is tempered with tenderness. You think of a child who misbehaves very badly. The parent is angry and understandably so.
But that anger in no way detracts from the parent's love. The parent may say that was a very wicked thing that you did. But there's still love in the heart for the wayward child.
Now God who is the great shepherd of the sheep has a love in his heart for his people. And he says to his wayward ones, return unto me and I will heal your backsliding. Is there anyone sitting in this congregation tonight? You've made a profession of vital godliness in the past but you've slipped back.
You've begun to wonder. Well let me tell you something. Our God will abundantly pardon you.
If there is a willingness on your part to repent and return to him, then he will forgive you fully and freely. I urge you therefore to return to the shepherd and bishop of your souls. And you can rest in the assurance that he won't turn you away.
He doesn't do that. When people come to him in sincerity and in true repentance, he receives them. He receives them willingly and gladly.
Come unto me, he says, and I will give you rest. And so the first thing we see as we return to this psalm is restoration. He restored my soul.
If you look again at verse three, the next thing we see is righteousness. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness, for his name's sake.
Basically, the shepherd leads his sheep in straight paths. Sometimes, and you know as well as I do that this is true, sometimes when people go off at a tangent and do things that are contrary to God's will, they turn around and they say very piously, the Lord led me to do it. I don't know how many times I've heard that, but quite honestly, it makes my blood boil.
People do something that they want to do, and then they blame God for it. They say, oh, it was the Lord who led me to do it. Well, the truth is that God always leads his people in the way of holiness.
He never leads us off at a tangent. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness, says the psalmist. This is reasonable and right, because without righteousness, without holiness, no man can see the Lord.
Think about it. When we walk in obedience to God's command, it is a sure sign that we are following the good shepherd. Let me say that again.
When we walk in obedience to God's command, it's a sure sign that we are following the good shepherd. You see, he leads in the paths of righteousness. A typical sheep doesn't make a straight track for itself.
If you are observant and you've watched these rather unusual animals, you'll know that they're all over the place. A typical sheep doesn't make a straight track for itself. If you see a flock of sheep walking in a straight line to an obvious location, then you can be sure of one thing.
The shepherd is either leading them or driving them. The tendency of sheep is to go in all sorts of directions. The tendency of man's nature is downward.
Now, when I say this, I'm not just referring to the ungodly or the unchurched or whatever you want to call them. I'm referring to those who name the name of Christ as well. And the bottom line is that there is a natural tendency in each one of us to go in the wrong direction.
It's very easy to do the wrong thing. It's much harder to do that which is right. Left to ourselves, without the shepherd, we would most certainly go the wrong way.
So what we've got to learn to do is to follow the Lord fully. In the Old Testament, we read about a character called Caelan. He was one of the honourable spies who went to suss out the land of promise.
And one of the things that we read about concerning Caelan is that he followed the Lord fully. My friend, if you follow the Lord fully, you will walk in the path of righteousness because this is where the good shepherd leads. Sometimes when people talk as though it didn't really matter how they lived.
There doesn't seem to be very much emphasis placed today on how we live our lives. Folks seem to adopt the attitude that it doesn't matter how you live, so long as you've said yes to Jesus. Well, my friend, if you've said yes to Jesus, if you have trusted him with your life, then your life will change.
And if there is no change in your lifestyle, then it's a sure and certain sign that you've never repented of your sin and trustfully submitted to the Lord Jesus Christ. How do you know who the real Christians are? Well, the real Christians walk in the way of holiness. He that does righteousness is born of God.
Where does the good shepherd lead? In paths of righteousness. So, as we look at this psalm and as we've examined verse three in particular, we've seen two things, restoration and righteousness. Let's move on and we'll look at something else.
When we come into verse four, we see reassurance. Reassurance. Now, if you're on your own, in an unpleasant place, how do you feel? You feel ill at ease.
I'm sure most of you have been somewhere decidedly unpleasant. And if you've been on your own, you've felt particularly uncomfortable. However, if there is somebody there with you, somebody in whom you have confidence, then you feel so much better.
And the thing is, the good shepherd is with us at all times, in all circumstances. 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.
Sheep, as again you know, are very timid creatures. And you can imagine what they're like when they go into dark valleys. In these valleys, there are wild animals, wild beasts lurking, creatures that are a threat to the sheep.
And understandably, in the dark valleys, the sheep are frightened. They're frightened because of the wild beasts that lurk there. However, the presence of the shepherd gives reassurance.
The presence of the shepherd, there in the valley, gives a measure of comfort to those frightened creatures. The shepherd has a staff in his hand, and he uses this to ward off predators. This reminds us of the fact that God is there for us.
As we go through life, sometimes it's far from easy. There is opposition to face. There are problems to grapple with.
There are relationships that are a strain. Yes, there are things that frighten us. But the truth is that God is with us, and he will never leave us, nor will he ever forsake us.
He is there for us. Sometimes, a caring friend will say, if you're in trouble, you can turn to me. I won't let you down.
I'll be there for you. Sometimes, folk who make these statements mean well, but they let us down at the end of the day. Thankfully, our God will never let us down.
He is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in time of trouble, and he's always there for us. And the sheep are led through the valley. The shepherd is there, and the presence of the shepherd gives reassurance to the sheep.
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. Death is mentioned there.
And the truth is that death is the king of terrors and the terror of kings. However, the Lord is with us, and that means to say, we actually need have no fear of death. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.
So see it Spurgeon, this verse has been a pillow, a dying pillow to thousands of saints of God. They have laid their heads down upon it, and they've passed into glory with calmness and assurance and confidence. End of quote.
These are very reassuring words that we have before us. The Lord is with us. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.
And so we've got three things thus far. Restoration, righteousness, and reassurance. The fourth thing we say is resuscitation.
The good shepherd provides sustenance for his sheep. When the sheep have been on the move for a while, they need to be resuscitated. So the shepherd looks after that.
Verse five, thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Tremendous words those actually. They're reminders of how the shepherd looks after the needs of the sheep.
I must admit that when I was reading around this subject earlier on, I was rather disappointed at what I read in some of the commentaries. I would suggest that some of the commentators hadn't done their homework when they were writing their books. You see, some of them in explaining this verse have departed from the shepherd and the sheep and painted a picture of an oriental banquet, which is all very good, but it's not really what the psalm is all about.
It is not really necessary to change the figure at all. You see, in some circumstances, Palestinian shepherds actually prepared a table for the sheep. When food was scarce, they put fodder on the table for the benefit of their flock.
Douglas Macmillan, who incidentally was a shepherd before he entered the Christian ministry, talks about the ground being infested with pests. And he says if the shepherd just put the food on the ground, the sheep would feed not only on the food, but on the bacteria as well. So the oriental shepherd would sometimes use little raised tables as a means of protecting the sheep.
Now prepare us the table before me in the presence of mine enemies. The sheep has a lot of enemies. The sheep, as you know, is easy prey if it isn't looked after.
There are many wild animals and even wild birds ready to attack the sheep, but they don't attack while the shepherd is looking after his flock. And what the shepherd does in addition to warding off the wild beasts that may attack his flock, in addition to that, he prepares a table. In the presence of the enemies, the the sheep partake of what the shepherd provides.
They get resuscitated in the midst of their enemies. Our God provides for us. We were talking this morning about drinking from the still waters of God's Word.
And I would suggest that we continue along that same line and think about feasting upon the Word of God. The Bible makes it very clear that the Word of the Lord is food for the soul. We have the sincere milk of the Word and we have the meat of the Word.
The scriptures have been provided for us to feast upon. Our God, the great shepherd, has given us his Word in his providence. That Word has been preserved for us today and it is our responsibility to come to it and to draw from it.
God didn't give us Bibles for the good of his health. He gave us Bibles so that we may draw from the scriptures and grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's appreciate what God has provided and how he is truly interested in our resuscitation.
Now prepare us to table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Well we've got four things and we're going to look at five so there's just one more thing to look at. We've considered restoration and righteousness.
We've considered reassurance and resuscitation. In closing I'd like you to think with me about this matter of repleteness. Repleteness speaks of a super abundant fullness.
We have Mr. Barclay for his dinner on Sundays on a regular basis and quite often when he's tucked into his meal, Renie will say to him, have you had enough? And his answer is always the same, I feel replete. And by that he means that he has been plentifully supplied. And when the good shepherd provides for his sheep he provides plenty.
There is plenty of supply for the sheep of God's pasture and the lambs of his flock. We don't just have a sufficiency, we have an abundance. Well this fullness have we all received and grace upon grace.
Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Think about it. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over.
This expression speaks of an abundance which is the portion of the people of God. You say but what's it got to do with sheep? I'll tell you. Good shepherds even today sometimes anoint the horns and heads of the sheep in order to keep the flies away.
Sometimes they anoint their sheep with oil because those sheep have been foraging around in in thorny places and have cut their heads. I'm sure some of you have seen sheep with cut heads. Well the good shepherd cares for his sheep and he ministers to their needs.
In addition to anointing their heads with oil sometimes it's not beneath the dignity of a faithful shepherd to carry a drinking vessel from which to refresh the poor creature. And how much is contained in the vessel? Well it's full to overflowing. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over.
God has given to us out of his fullness. He has provided us with an abundance, an unlimited supply. It's difficult to comprehend this but it but it's true.
We receive from him grace upon grace. Imagine going down to the seashore. Some of you did that on new year's day.
Imagine going down to the seashore and watching the waves come in. A wave comes in and washes over your feet but that doesn't exhaust the ocean by any manner of means. Behind it there is another wave and then there's another and then there's another.
And God's fullness is like that. There's an unlimited supply. We receive of that fullness and grace upon grace.
The early apostles drew from Christ. The reformers and christian martyrs drew from Christ. We at the beginning of the 21st century draw from Christ.
And there's still a fullness for others to benefit from. Yes we have a repleteness because of because of Christ.
These are very beautiful words we have before us. 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. What do we have here? What do we see here? Restoration, he restoreth my soul. Righteousness, he leadeth me in paths of righteousness. Reassurance, when I am in the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Resuscitation, a table is prepared before me in the presence of my enemies. Repletness, my head is anointed with oil, my cup runneth over. This is what God The Great Shepherd has done for us.
Now, here is the question for you who know Christ as your saviour. What have you done for him?
We are responsible people as Christians. We have a responsibility to promote his cause and to let his will be known to others. We have a responsibility to let our light shine out before men so they can see our good works and glorify God on the day of visitation. The Lord has done so much for us, he sent his own son to die on the cross. What have you done for him? Oh, you say, there are people better equipped than me. There are people more talented than me, and that may well be true. But that is not the point. The pint is that you as an individual have a responsibility, as have I. May God give us the grace to show how indebted we are to him by living lives of holiness, lives of righteousness, lives which show forth the beaty of Christ.
Is there anybody here who is not a Christian? Well, let me tell you straight from the shoulder, that the Lord is not your shepherd. If you are not a Christian, The Lord is not your shepherd. He is The Shepherd only to those who trust. He is The Shepherd only to those who have repented of sin. You say, What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and salvation will come to your house today, and if you do believe, then I can tell you on the basis of God's word, knowing that The Lord is your shepherd. May God bless his word to all of our hearts. Amen.
And now unto him who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own precious blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto thee O Father, to him be the glory forever, Amen.