“The Lord Is My Shepherd” (Psalm 23:1-6)

Psalm 23

“The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.” 

Probably the 23rd psalm is the most-beloved, most-sung, most-prayed, and most-studied poem in the Book of Psalms. And the image of this psalm is very personal: The Lord is my shepherd. Recently, this psalm of David personally did speak to me. Last two weeks were a dream for my family and me. It was a time of family reunion in 10 years. After Joyce and I had sent them off, we felt left behind. We felt so empty. It was so hard to even get back to normal life. But it was God’s word that sustained us. In particular, this psalm preserved our lives. It gave us strength, comfort, and even joy. So this morning I wanted to share that message with you.

“The Lord” 

The psalm begins with the word: “The Lord.” Who is the Lord? Here David is not talking about an abstract God who is distant. But he is talking about the personal God who sees us, hears us, and cares for us (cf. Ex 3:7-8). He is talking about the God we can know, we can talk to, we can feel, we can touch. Ultimately, the Lord refers to Jesus Christ. The Lord God is fully revealed in Jesus. Hebrews 1:1-3 says, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son… He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (ESV). Jesus Christ is the Lord!

“My Shepherd” 

David says, “The Lord is my shepherd.” In John 10 Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd.” Unlike a hired hand, the good shepherd protects, guides, cares for, and even lays down his life for the sheep. In fact, Christ the good shepherd became a lamb, a sheep just like us. He didn’t have to, but he chose to be that way. He entered into our experience of life – suffering, loss, sorrow, temptation, and brokenness – and has seen life from the perspective of a sheep. He was vulnerable just like us. He was hungry and weary just like us. He was tempted in every respect just like us. Why did he do that? He did this, so that we may become his sheep. We all like sheep have gone astray and were headed for the slaughter house and we didn’t know it. But, Jesus Christ, the Shepherd and the Lamb, saved us. He saved us from the slaughter house. He stepped into the line we were in, threw His body in front of ours, and he was slaughtered instead of us. He loves us this much.[1] John the Baptist declared, “Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) As a sacrificial lamb, he took up our weaknesses and pains. He carried our griefs and sorrows. He died in our place. But not only that, he also was raised from the dead and sat at the right hand of God. The Lamb slain is now in the center of the throne. And people from all nations praise, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Rev 5:13) This Lamb of God in power, Jesus Christ, is now our shepherd. The Lord Jesus is my shepherd! 

I Will Follow (2-3) 
When Jesus is our shepherd, we would then naturally say this: I shall not want. Here we find the life of trust, the life of contentment no matter what. But what does it look like to live such a life exactly? The author David unpacks this in the following verses in three ways. First of all, he says, “Because the Lord is my shepherd, I will follow him.” 

“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.” 

Wherever he leads me, I will follow him. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). In Palestine today, we see that Bedouin shepherds bring their flocks home from the various pastures they have grazed during the day. Often those flocks will end up at the same watering hole around dusk, so that they get all mixed up together—eight or nine small flocks turning into a convention of thirsty sheep. Their shepherds do not worry about the mix-up, however. When it is time to go home, each one issues his or her own distinctive call—a special trill or whistle, or a particular tune on a particular reed pipe, and that shepherd's sheep withdraw from the crowd to follow their shepherd home. They know their shepherd's voice, and it is the only one they will follow.[2]

When we follow our shepherd, we find a life of contentment, peace, and rest. How can a husband and a wife become one? It’s impossible. How can parents and children become one? It’s impossible. But there is a way! When each of us hears the shepherd’s voice and follows him, we become one. Recently, I had that amazing experience. To be honest, before Joyce’s

family came, I was concerned. I didn’t feel comfortable to live with them for two weeks because I didn’t know them. I was concerned about what to eat, where to take them, how to plan a budget. At first it was not easy. To please each other didn’t work. But then, we all resolved to just hear the shepherd’s voice and follow him. And we experienced the miracle of unity. We became one family at the end. As we departed from each other, we all felt a great sense of loss. But our Great Shepherd said that even though we were physically going to different directions (USA and Korea), we were actually heading to the same direction as long as we follow him. Because Jesus is my shepherd, I will follow him.

I Will Not Fear (4-5) 

Secondly, David says, “Because the Lord is my shepherd, I will not fear.”

“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.” 

The Lord is present in the green pastures. But the Lord is also present in the darkest valley. It is suggested that David wrote Psalm 3 and 4 when he fled from Absalom his own son. What a heartbreaking tragedy! But David says, “I will not afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around” (3:6). And he continues, “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in

safety” (4:8). As we go through the darkest valley, all kinds of dark bitter experiences in life, our shepherd Jesus is with us. He abides with us to comfort us, sustain us, encourage us in the valley of depression, serious illness, rejection, separation, death of loved one, even the experience of death itself. One pastor lost his oldest daughter to a sudden death when she was 34. He said, “You never get over it. And you don’t want to. And through it all, one promise was most important: God is with us.” I will not fear, I will not worry, I will not be anxious, for you are with me. 

I Will Abide (6)
Thirdly, David says, “Because the Lord is my shepherd, I will abide in him.”

“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.” 

The point of the 23rd psalm is that the destination of the paths of righteousness, the destination of the valley of the shadow of death, the destination of the end of the days of my life is none other than God’s very self. God is the psalmist’s destination.[3] David did abide in the Lord, wherever he was. Whether he was a shepherd boy, whether he was standing before Goliath, whether he was hiding in the wildness from Saul and Absalom, whether he was a king, he always did abide in the Lord.

Jesus said, “Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.” (John 15:4, NRSV) Jesus is the Vine, and we are the branches. Abiding means believing,

trusting, resting, receiving, connecting to Jesus. Wherever we are, we are never lost, when we abide in Jesus, for his pursuing goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives and we will make it home safely. We only need to remember these words and hold fast them: The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.

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[1] Wanye Monbleau, “Our Shepherd Became A Lamb for Us,” https://www.lovinggrace.org/single-post/2015/07/23/Our-Shepherd-Became-A-Lamb-For-Us
[2] Barbara Brown Taylor in The Preaching Life (Cowley, 1993), p. 147; https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2013/june/5061713.html
[3] deClaisse-Walford, The Book of Psalms (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 2014), Kindle Edition 5368 of 32717.