Psalm 23, if you would turn there and stand. We're reading God's Word. Psalm 23, a Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Please be seated. I think I can say without fear of contradiction that the 23rd Psalm is the most beloved of the 150 Psalms in the Psalter. and possibly the best-loved and most well-known chapter in the entire Bible. The popularity of this psalm stems not only from its inspiring metaphors and moving poetry, but its message. A message of hope, protection, provision, peace, and comfort. Millions of people have memorized this psalm, even those who have learned few other scriptures. Ministers have used it to comfort people who are going through severe personal trials, suffering illness or injury, or in the final days of their life. Some have recited this psalm to comfort their souls before going into battle. For some, the words of this psalm have been the last they have uttered in this life. The great Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon called Psalm 23 the pearl of the psalms. Alexander McLaren said that the world could spare many a large book better than this sunny little psalm. It has dried many tears and supplied the mold into which many hearts have poured their peaceful faith. In the psalm, God is depicted as our shepherd. The literary picture painted here is not of God as a wrathful judge, or even as a sovereign king, but a gentle shepherd. who cares for the needs of his flock. Despite the claims many unbelievers lay to this psalm as they quote it at someone's bedside or recite it during difficult times to comfort themselves, the message is given exclusively to God's people. Not all people are the sheep of God's pasture, just as not all people are the children of God, and can claim that God is their Father. All people are God's creatures, but not all people are God's children. John wrote in John chapter 1, verses 11 and 12, He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. But to as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God, for those who believe in his name. You don't need the right to become something you already are. We are not all God's children. Only those who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation have been granted the right to become the children of God. The same is true here. Only those who believe belong to the sheepfold of God and have Him as their shepherd. Jesus said to the unbelieving Jews, you are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. Calvin said, God is a shepherd only to those touched with a sense of their own weakness and poverty. feel their need of His protection, and who willingly abide in His sheepfold and surrender themselves to be governed by Him. Before we move on to the outline of Psalm 23 and study its contents, and the contents we probably won't get to, let me remind you its place in the Psalter. Psalm 23 comes after Psalm 22. And your response? Well, duh. It's easy to overlook Psalm 23's place in the psalter and think that its place in the psalter is of little importance. But listen to Spurgeon. The position of this psalm is worthy of notice. It follows the 22nd, which is peculiarly the psalm of the cross. There are no green pastures, no still waters on the other side of the 22nd Psalm. It is only after we have read, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, that we come to the Lord is my shepherd. We must by experience know the value of the blood shedding and see the sword awakened against the shepherd before we shall be able truly to know the sweetness of the Good Shepherd's care. Jesus said, I am the Good Shepherd. That's Psalm 23. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. That is Psalm 22. Until you know Christ crucified, you cannot know him. as the good shepherd. The psalm breaks down into two parts. In verses one through four, we have the good shepherd. In verses five and six, we have the gracious host. Notice that in verses one through three, David is talking about the shepherd, and in verse four, he is talking to. The shepherd. In coming to Psalm 23, we come to a description of the shepherd of shepherds. As you study and meditate upon the Psalm, you will see how important the shepherd is to the sheep. It is the shepherd who does everything. He makes us lie down. He leads. He restores. He guides. He is with us. He banquets the table. He is the host. He anoints our head with oil, fills our cup to overflowing, and pursues us with goodness and love so that we dwell in his house forever. So what is left for us? To be content. and to follow the shepherd wherever he leads. Verse 1 states, The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. James Montgomery Boyce comments, The psalm is a masterpiece throughout. But if ever a psalm could stand almost on a single line, it is this one. And the line it can stand on is the first. In fact, it can stand on only one part of the line, the part which says, the Lord is my shepherd. We find shepherds and sheep throughout the scripture. The first shepherd mentioned in the Bible is mentioned in Genesis chapter 4. It is Abel, the second son of Adam and Eve. In Genesis 4, 2, we read now, Abel was a keeper of the sheep. The sons of Jacob, according to Genesis 46, were shepherds. And the two most noteworthy shepherds in the Old Testament were the great lawgiver Moses, and the great king of Israel, David. Moses spent his first 40 years in Pharaoh's palace and the next 40 years tending sheep. During those years as a shepherd, God was preparing Moses to return to Egypt and shepherd his people out of Egypt's bondage, through the wilderness, and into the promised land. David, the great king of Israel and writer of this psalm, spent his childhood years tending his father's sheep. In the times of the Old Testament, shepherding was a common and important occupation. But there is also this idea of shepherding as a metaphor for the covenant people of God being shepherded by gods, under shepherds and by God himself. The shepherds of Israel were their kings, their judges, and their rulers. Eventually, the idea of shepherding is applied to God. God is the shepherd, and his covenant people are his flock, the sheep of his pasture. In Psalm 80, verse 1, the psalmist invokes God in this manner. Give ear, O shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock. There's also Isaiah 40, 11. He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs with his arms and carry them in his bosom and gently lead those who are with Yom. God is a tender shepherd and he is a diligent shepherd as we read in Ezekiel 34, 11 and John 10. Jesus calls himself the good shepherd who knows his own sheep by name. And to know is to love. The sheep are loved by the good shepherd. Peter writes, for you are like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. And calls Jesus the chief shepherd. God is the good shepherd who cares for his sheep because he loves them. And sheep need constant care. And when you apply that metaphor to yourself and think of yourself as one of God's sheep, you shouldn't be thinking too highly of yourself because sheep are stupid. Sheep are defenseless. Sheep are needy. Sheep are easily frightened. They are skittish. They easily wander off from the sheepfold. Sheep need a shepherd if they are going to survive and thrive. Without a shepherd's care, they will perish. And as sheep need a shepherd, so we, God's sheep, need God to shepherd us. Because how stupid are we? Pretty stupid, much of the time. How defenseless are we when it comes to facing the enemy of our souls? The one who goes around as a roaring lion, seeking someone whom he might devour. How easily frightened and anxious do we become, how skittish we are, and how we sing with our hearts prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. We remember that parable Jesus told about the shepherd who had a sheepfold that numbered 101 sheep wandered away. And what did this shepherd do? He left the 99 to go and retrieve the one. Obviously, the best of all shepherds is the Lord. The word Lord is the English translation of the great Old Testament personal covenant name for God, first disclosed to Moses at the burning bush, as we remembered again this morning. That name is repeated more than 4,000 times on the pages of Scripture. The name literally means I am who I am. It is the inexhaustible name, like it's bare, Chiefly, it refers to God's timelessness on the one hand and his self-sufficiency on the other. Self-sufficiency means that God needs nothing. Nice to know since we need everything. He needs no wisdom from anyone else. He has all wisdom in himself. Therefore, he is able to guide us to still waters. He needs no power For He is all powerful and He is with us in His power and His might as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. He does not need to be helped, aided, or served, nor is He accountable to anyone. The answer is to Himself. Timeless means that God is always the same in His eternal attributes, the same yesterday, today, and forever. The one who is our shepherd is the great I Am. He is always on the job, 24-7, fair weather or foul. The Lord neither slumbers nor sleeps. He never gets distracted. He never is called away. He is always present to come to the aid of his sheep. It is not only the first half of the first verse that is important, the second half is important as well. I shall not want. That is, I shall lack nothing. Everything I need, the shepherd is able to supply, and not only able, but also willing. If I lack something I might desire, it is because the wise shepherd has determined that I either don't need it or that I don't need it at this time. He will not withhold from me those things that I truly need. And what are some of those things? That in the care of the good shepherd, we shall not lack there listed in the rest of this glorious psalm. And we'll study that in the next week or two, Lord willing. But as we come to the table this afternoon, I think we need to keep in mind what Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, and that is that Psalm 23 follows Psalm But there's the cross and the suffering of the Good Shepherd on that cross for the sheep. And then there's the delight to be able to call that One who suffered for us, our Shepherd, and be able to say personally to me, and this is my experience, But the Lord is my shepherd, and I shall not want. We shall not want for salvation. The Good Shepherd has laid down His life for the sheep. And that is what we come to celebrate this afternoon. And everything that you and I truly need, our Good Shepherd, will supply.