Let's open our Bibles tonight to the book of Psalms chapter 23. I have deliberately kept my notes. I normally have front and back. I don't even have the front full. We have a lot of things to discuss later and so I will try to keep it short enough that we can be out by midnight at the very latest. Psalms 23, verse 1, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Father, we come again and we thank you that we have your word that we can stand on, that we can trust, that we can find courage and strength in all situations. And now, as we begin to look at this most precious of Psalms, help us to look at it and not forget it, but look at it and apply it to our heart and our life. We might appreciate you and what you have done and what you are doing more than ever before. In Jesus' name, amen. There's something about the Psalms that I have always enjoyed reading them. I love to read the Psalms. Some Psalms are easier to read than others. Some Psalms are easier to understand than others. But all of the Psalms if they're studied, can bring a tremendous blessing to us, regardless of our circumstances. I don't remember exactly. I know I was pastoring in Indiana. So that's been 45, 50 years ago. I decided to preach through the book of Psalms. And I got pretty far. I don't remember where I dropped off, but I got pretty far into the book of Psalms. And then God moved us, and I never got back to it, never started it again. I don't even know where all those notes are. But I know that I spent weeks sometimes on each chapter. And I'm going to spend probably at least two or three months just on this psalm itself. Some describe events in very specific details. And we will look at those if we get that far. Some are very general and apply to a wide range of different areas and different substances. I found this, and I really wished I knew where I had found it. I condensed it for the sake of time, but someone described the 23rd Psalm like this. It is just as new as when it was first written. It is as refreshing today as it was when David wrote it. It's a precious jewel, a rose among thorns, a lily in the valley, and a pearl of great price. It has given peace to those who are grieving, to those who have suffered defeat, and to those who have doubts. It has given joy to those in sorrow, It has given courage to those who are weak. It has strengthened prisoners, widows, and all people in times of loneliness. The dying have found comfort. The sick have found cheer. The needy have found help. and the weak have found strength, all in this one little book chapter. It's been used in thousands of sermons, and it's probably the most requested book chapter in a hospital, when I have made hospital visits, and would you like for me to read some scripture? Yes, please. What would you like? The vast majority of the time, it's can you read Psalms 23. I've held dozens and dozens and dozens of funerals. And when I ask, do they have a favorite passage of scripture, the vast majority of time, it's Psalms 23. Now, it's been used out of context, probably more than it's been used in context. But it's still a calming and soothing psalm, whether you read it in context or out, which we're going to give you the context. But whether you read it in context or out of context, it still gives courage and strength and comfort. I'm going to begin tonight, and we're not actually going to get into the actual psalm itself, because I want to give you the context of the chapter itself, and we've looked at it on Wednesday nights, and we've seen that God has a plan and purpose in everything. Every verse, every chapter is in a in exact order, particularly when we get to Psalm 22, 23, and 24. Those three flow from 22 right into 23, from 23 right into 24. They flow like a hand inside of a well-made glove. So let's look at its context tonight. And I'm going to be using most of chapter 22, so you can keep your fingers there. If you look at chapter 22, you'll find out from reading that it is what's called a messianic psalm. From the word messianic, you should be able to figure out that it deals with the Messiah. It deals with the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 1, it pictures Christ being forsaken by God on the cross. If these words sound familiar, they're quoted almost verbatim in the New Testament. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Anybody remember who said that and where they were when they said it? That was the Lord Jesus Christ as He hung on the cross. And as, you know, the weight of our sin began to press upon Him, Jesus Christ cried out, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? He knew why, but His manliness, the man side, still cried out as God turned His back on His own Son. In verses 7 and 8, we find almost another quote from the New Testament. All they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip. They shake their heads, saying, He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver him. Let Him deliver him, seeing He delighted in him. These are the words that were scoffed at Jesus as the crowd marched by. He's hanging on the tree. The crowd goes by and they see Jesus hanging on the cross and they ridicule him. They make fun of him. They hold him in derision as being less than God. If you're God, Come down! Verse 13 describes the physical pain that he suffered. They gaped upon me with their mouth as a ravening and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. picturing the Lord Jesus Christ as He hung on the cross. Now, I've had a few bones that were out of joint before. And I can tell you, if you've ever had a bone out of joint, It's not fun, is it? How many of you have had a bone, whether it's arm, leg, finger, you know, knee, whatever, that somehow was out of joint? Wow. Y'all have been really healthy. If you've ever had a joint or a bone out of joint, it hurts. it hurts really bad. All my bones were out of joint, not just one, but as they nailed him to the cross, stood the cross up, and it jolted into the hole, it would jolt, and literally, in this case, shake every bone in his body out of joint. You don't usually think of that when you think of the crucifixion. My heart is like wax. It is melted in the midst of my bowels. When the soldier pierced the spear into his side, what came forth? Blood and water. It's described right here. In verse 15, my strength is dried up like a potsherd and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws. I have a condition called Sjögren's syndrome. It's an autoimmune disease that mainly focuses on your eyes and your mouth. And it dries out your eyes, and it completely dries out my mouth. My mouth gets so dry that sometimes I can't hardly move my tongue because my tongue is so dry that it sticks to the side of my mouth. That's why I keep a bottle of water here. As Jesus hung on the cross, His tongue was so dried out that it cleaved to His draws. You don't usually think about that when we think of the crucifixion. Dogs have compassed me. The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. Here's a verse, verse 17, that most people have not thought of. I may tell all my bones, they look and stare upon me. They had beaten him so badly, his skin had been beaten and torn apart that his bones stuck out through his skin. Verse 18 tells of the parting of his garments, which was accomplished by the Roman soldiers. You can't really appreciate, and this is why the order is so important, you really can't appreciate the 23rd Psalm until you see Jesus in the 22nd Psalm. You can't appreciate the Lord is my shepherd until you have seen Christ as the suffering sacrifice. So many people like to say, the Lord is my shepherd, and they've never really even seen Him suffering for our sins. Well, let's notice the time when David wrote the 23rd Psalm. Nobody knows a hundred percent. There are two main ideas. I tend to go with the first one, or at least very close to it. The first idea is that this was written when Absalom had revolted and rebelled against his dad. Absalom had driven David out of Jerusalem. Absalom had come in taken over Jerusalem, taken over David's throne, had set himself on his dad's throne and declared himself to be the king of Israel. If you recall when that happened, David was forced to flee Jerusalem. He took his army and like a a dog with its tail between its legs. He had to flee Jerusalem and leave everything behind. It was a dark time for David. It was a very difficult time for David. It was a time of great sorrow and shame. David's own son had rebelled against him. And yet, if that was when it was written, in all of the shame, in all of the rejection by his son and even by some of his closest friends, David was able to find strength. Now, if it wasn't Absalom, then it was certainly an occasion very similar to that. The other idea is that David is now very old. He's about ready to die, and he's looking back over his life. And as he looks back over his life, he remembers all the dangers he's been through. And he remembers how that through every danger, God delivered him. God provided for him. God watched over him. And so some think that he was remembering his life as he approaches death, and he's praising God for all of his blessings. You know, I find that Getting old is not what I thought it would be. We ate out today and I was getting out of my car and this other gentleman and his wife were getting in their car. And I spoke to them, how are you folks today? And he began talking back. He said, well, I'm going home and I'm going to get my nap. I've got a full belly. I'm going home and get my nap now. He said, I got up this morning, had my prayer time, had my Bible study time, and then we went to church, and then we came to eat, and now I'm going home. And I said, We old people, I said, you know, we need our naps a lot more than we used to. He said, how old do you think I am? And I looked at him and I said, you're probably around 75, 76. He said, I'm 88. And I thought, Wow, I wish I looked that good at 88. I wish I looked that good now. But as we talked, as we get older, we tend to look back a lot more than we did when we were 20, 30, and 40. We begin to look back and see just how good God has been to us, how God has watched over us, how God has protected us against all kinds of problems. I remember when one of our members fell off a tractor and broke several ribs. I'm sure you remember that. We break a lot easier than we used to. And we don't heal quite as fast as we used to. And we have more time to stop because, you know, I used to run, when we were in Texas, I'd get up, I'd run five miles every morning, six days a week. Now I can't run from my house to the mailbox. I can barely run from my recliner to the kitchen. And so we have more time to reflect and think back at the life that we have lived. Perhaps that is when David wrote this. And he looked back over a little shepherd boy, keeping his dad's sheep, remembering when God delivered the lion and the bear into his hands. Remembering when Saul tried to kill him on several occasions. Remembering when the Philistines made war against him and how that God delivered him. Remembering when Saul chased him all over the country, trying to kill him, and David was forced to flee and hide in caves and all kinds of things. Well, whichever of those cases it was, David wrote some of the greatest words that have ever been written. Now, I do want to cover one more real quick thing tonight. If you have your Bible still open to Psalms 23, I want you to notice just before verse 1. It says, A Psalm of David. Now, those four words, and you'll find these, you know, in chapter 22, to the chief musician, and talks about it in chapter 21, you know, to the chief musician. If you go back to chapter 18, you know, it tells when specifically the events of that chapter happen. But in this chapter, all it says is a psalm of David. Some of them tell us, like chapter 18, tell us specifically when David wrote it. But all the Bible told us, and those words are not inspired, but they are historically found to be very dependable and very true historically. But as we read a psalm of David, we will look at some of the things that David endured. I've mentioned a few. But whatever, whenever, wherever, however, this was a psalm summing up the life of David. So we're going to look at it as a summary. Whether it was Absalom, whether it was Saul, whether it was the Philistines, whether it was when he was old, we're going to look at it as a summary of the life of David. And I've already read ahead. In fact, I've got into a discussion several years ago with a good friend of mine, pastor, over the historical context of Psalm 23. So I had to do some research to be able to defend my position with him. But as we read it and get into it, And I'll tell you, I'm going to be looking almost at every word to begin with. I'll give you this much. THE LORD. Not A LORD. THE LORD. THE LORD. All capital. The LORD IS. Not WAS. Not SHOULD BE. MAY BE. The Lord is my, it's personal, and the Lord is mine. So I'm going to do every verse, at least as far as I've gone. We're going to look at every word and see why every word is important and why every word has a special meaning behind it. Even such things as plural versus singular. Very important difference. There's a world of difference between when David speaks in a singular form and when he speaks in a plural form. When he uses I versus they. Every word has a specific meaning. And Lord willing, we will start looking at those next Sunday night. Father, we come.