Our text this morning is the 23rd Psalm. Psalm 23. And once again, let us give our attention to God's holy and inspired word. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even 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 overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. May God bless the reading of his word. Let's go, Lord, in prayer. Our Lord and our God, how thankful we are for your word, how thankful we are that we're not left to our own wisdom, to our own devices, how we are to serve you in this life, how we are to glorify you in this life. We're so thankful that you've revealed yourself to us. And we're so thankful at the center of that word is Jesus Christ. He is the living word. He is the one in whom our hope is found. how thankful we are that he speaks to us through the word. We do pray, oh Lord, that our hearts and minds might turn away from the things of the world as we receive this word, that we might meditate upon you and upon your glory. In this we do pray in Christ's name, amen. On March 12th, 2021, I received a phone call. I was actually in a position much like this. I was moderating the Presbytery of Ohio meeting in Columbus. And I was told that there had just been an outbreak of COVID at the Orthodox Presbyterian Administrative Offices where I had just left. Well, 10 days later, my blood oxygen levels in the 70s, I entered into Abington, a hospital in Philadelphia. The diagnosis was severe. I had COVID and pneumonia in both lungs. I had a blood clot in my left lung, and I had a lung capacity of 30%. There was a heightened sense of the moment, but the Lord was merciful to me. In that dire situation, he put upon my heart to meditate upon this psalm, upon the 23rd psalm, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. This was the pillow to stay calm in the midst of the raging storm. And as I meditated upon that psalm, I knew that the Lord would either preserve me to serve him in this life or to take me to be with him in glory. And he continued to be merciful to me as the days passed, until I was able finally after about a week to set up in a chair, of course with still the IV and the air mask and the cardio sensors and every other wire you could ever imagine. But as I sat up in that chair, that's when I started to think about Psalm 23 and thought I would love to preach on this psalm. And so I stand before you praising the Lord for preserving me, but also for having the privilege of bringing this psalm to you this morning in regard to your encouragement in the faith. In regard to one other matter, I think this is one of the rare times in 30 years I have not wore a tie. It's because I had surgery on my hand, my right thumb, on Thursday. And little do you know how much you use your right thumb until you cannot use it. And for about 15 minutes this morning I tried to button my shirt and tie my tie and I just thought, I can't get it done, so I just thought, you know, I just need to own up to the fact that right now I'm unable to. Psalm 23 is about David, but Psalm 23 is also about the Lord who is the shepherd. And I think that combination is part of what draws us to this portion of God's word. It's on the one hand about our pilgrimage in this life, and on the other hand, it's about the one who cares and watches over us as we make this pilgrimage. For the 23rd Psalm testifies about the shepherd, the shepherd who loves us and protects us and leads us, who provides for us, not just any shepherd, but the Lord our shepherd. And so much is this the case, the Lord is my shepherd, that we have this declaration here at the opening of this psalm that we shall not want. And truly everything in this psalm flows from that opening verse and from understanding it and what's going on in that declaration. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. So it's important to get it right. So the first thing here is to understand that Psalm 23, the promise here is not tied to earthly things. Now don't misunderstand me because this Psalm and the word of God teaches that the Lord provides for our earthly needs. He blesses us so abundantly, but that's not primarily what this verse or this Psalm is about. It's not about the things of this world which are passing away. Listen to what the great Protestant reformer, Martin Luther, said about this opening verse. Luther said, the world glories and trusts in honor, power, riches, and the favor of men. Our psalm, however, glories in none of these, for they are all uncertain and perishable. The Lord is my shepherd speaks a sure, certain faith, which turns its back on everything temporal and transitory. You see what Luther's saying, and I think he's right, is that when you confess with David, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, you're directing your gaze to the Lord. You are confessing that he is your hope in this life and in the one to come. That he is with you no matter what happens, for good or for evil or sadness. He is the one that is with you. And knowing that, knowing that he is your shepherd is greater than any silver or gold. If you're experiencing physical hardship like I was, There's no greater comfort than to know the Lord is your shepherd. If you are experiencing or suffering economically, you're to know that you're not wanting. You might not have that money at that time, you have something greater. You have the Lord. You know, Luther's right here. This is directing us to that which the world doesn't understand. I mean, this is the opposite way of the world. The world thinks if you don't have your health, or if you don't have the relationships, or you don't have the job, or you don't have the economic resources, then life is terrible. But here's the life of faith. And the life of faith is one in which we know That if we're joined to the shepherd, then we're blessed. Whether we have health or do not have health, whether we have wealth or we do not have wealth, this is shepherd, which brings meaning to our life. and he is the one who is ours. He is the one who loves us, and cares for us, and watches over us, and he brings to us a stability, a heavenly stability that the world does not know. He's the one, as David confesses, and we join in that confession, he is the one who makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters. Now, I grew up in eastern Ohio. And it always warms my heart to come visit you because I have to drive through some farms to get here. And it makes me think of Eastern Ohio. I grew up on top of my grandfather's farm. He raised cattle. He did not raise sheep. But my grandparents fought at times. In one summer when I was little, my grandmother, to really get under my grandfather's skin, raised some sheep and had them graze in his pasture. And so he would just, I can remember him yelling decades later now about how they were ruining his pasture for the cattle. So that's my only experience with sheep. But there is a wonderful book that I would recommend to you by J. Douglas McMillan called The Lord Our Shepherd. It's a wonderful book on the 23rd Psalm. And what makes this book so unique, McDonald was a, And Macmillan was a great reform preacher in Scotland in the last century. But what makes this book so unique is that from the age 12 to age 25, he was a shepherd, which meant at 2.30 in the morning, 3 in the morning, he'd get up and he would go out and be with the flock. And that's what he did. That's how he made his living. And at the age of 25, the Lord was working on his heart to become a preacher. But he writes this book about the 23rd Psalm, and he writes the book sharing insights of actually being a shepherd. And MacMillan says the first thing that you will learn as a shepherd of the sheep out in the field is that you can never get the sheep to be calm, to lie down because they know how vulnerable they are. They can't run away from their enemies. They can't hide. They can't fight. I mean, so they're always nervous. And they're dependent upon the shepherd to protect them. And that's the way it is with us in this life. There are so many things that rattle us. So many things that make us undone. So many things that we just have that sense that they're beyond us. Well, friends, you have a shepherd who cares for you and he wants to dispel that fear from your life. He wants you to know that he is with you. and he desires to give you peace, he desires to give you rest, to have you lie down in green pastures, to lead you beside still waters. The shepherd loves you that much. Now, Macmillan points out, on the one hand, the shepherd is always trying to make sure that the sheep are not rattled, but then on the other hand, what will happen is there will be a stray, there will be that, the sheep who, where did it go? What's happened? And what's happened is that they will go off and they will find what they think is the comfortable spot. And what happens is it's one of the most deadly things that can happen to the sheep in that they become cast. In other words, they're looking for the spot that's so soft. And so that's where they actually lie down. They go off the path and they lie down. But then it's so soft they cannot rise back up. And as they cannot get their legs up again, the blood stops circulating to their three stomachs, and it's one of the most deadly positions that you can be in. Well, not only are we so often rattled in this life, but we're sheep, and we stray. And we seek the soft option in this life apart from God's word. And as we seek in our own wisdom, that soft option, it becomes deadly. But we have a shepherd that restores us. He's one who seeks us out and he restores us. That's what the shepherd does. When we go off the path, the easier way, the broad path, he does not let us destroy ourselves. That's what the shepherd does. And then we're told in our text, he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Now, as I mentioned earlier, I don't have much experience with sheep, none, but I have a lot of experience with cattle. And cattle that seemingly were always getting out. And what you do with cattle is you herd them. You herd cattle from behind. Friends, the Lord, your shepherd, is not a cowboy. He does not herd you from behind. The Lord, your shepherd, goes in front of you. He is the one that is leading you. And this is the imagery taken from Palestine. You see, in Palestine, you didn't have fences. David didn't have fences. What you would do is that you would lead the sheep along the path, and the shepherd would be the one who goes in front. And he did this for two reasons. One was that he would be one who would protect them from his and their enemies. He was the one out front protecting them. But the other reason was that as you didn't have fences, you would have that field where they could graze, but you also had that field which were crops. And the shepherd was to make sure that the sheep did not go into the wrong place. And so he is the one who was leading the sheep. We're told that he leads me in paths of righteousness for his own namesake. And this is just so, so amazing what's being said here. He's not only going in front of the sheep, he's not only protecting, he's not only guiding, but he's staking his reputation on getting the flock to the desired end. The Lord our shepherd stakes his reputation on getting us to the desired end. He's the one leading us in this pilgrimage in the life, and he is the one who is doing this. It's just so amazing what this shepherd does, how much he's invested in the flock, how much he loves the flock. And again, this is why we turn so often to Psalm 23. It might be the most loved passage in the Bible, but that's also because it's the word of God and it's so rich and it speaks to our hearts. And just when we have this incredible imagery of what the shepherd does, the Psalm even becomes more personal if that is possible when we get to the fourth verse. Take a look at our text. In the first three verses, you have David declaring that he does this, he is the one who leads me, he restores, he leads. You see, David is talking about the shepherd here. But notice in verse four, things start to change in the pronouns. For you are with me. You start, and you prepare a table before me. Now in verse four, David starts talking to the shepherd. And again, you can see this by the change in the pronouns. In verses one through three, the pronouns are in the third person. But in verse four and following, the pronouns suddenly are in the second person also. I will fear no evil for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. So when you're going through the darkest of trials, and when I was laying on that hospital bed, there's a great comfort here that you can pray to the shepherd, that he is the one who hears you, that he is the one who is with you, to speak to him directly, to bring your petitions to him, to know that He is with you, you know, and also to see here that the Psalm is not saying that there's not going to be rough spots in our life. We live in a fallen world. What is assuring us, however, is that the Lord is with us as we go through these dark valleys, and we're not to despair for His rod and His staff. They comfort us. Now this is normally where I'd use my right hand to kind of show you all. I'll try to do it with my left here. If you were a shepherd, you don't go out with two sticks. You don't do that at all. No one does that on a farm. No one does that as a shepherd. You have one instrument, okay? And what you do with that one instrument can have multiple uses. and that's exactly what's going on here. So, on the one hand, the shepherd, if the sheep need to correct, if the sheep are going somewhere they should, it can be used as a rod to tap them to make sure that they go in the right direction. But let's say they're caught in a marsh or a creek. What you would do as a shepherd, the other end of that would have a little, you would make sure to get a piece of wood and you would make sure to have a little hook so that you could rescue them. And so that's what's going on here. The shepherd is the one, when we need that correction, there's that rod. When we need that rescuing, there is that staff. Again, this is what the shepherd does for us. He helps us in our time of need, he delivers us from trouble, he defends us from our enemies, and he does more than just defend us from our enemies, he also defies our enemies. Verse five, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. In the presence of his and our enemies, in the face of the evil one, he feeds us. And he feeds us so that we might flourish. And that, friends, is what he's doing right now. He is feeding us by his word and spirit. And what you are to know is that Satan cannot stop this. Satan cannot stop the word of God going forth. Jesus Christ is building his church. and there's nothing that Satan can do about it. The oil and the cup bring into view the Holy Spirit. It's the anointing and blessing of the Holy Spirit that preserves us. The Lord provides his spirit. You have an anointing that is not only sufficient but abundant, my cup overflows. So what you see here as you move into these dark valleys and as you're able to talk to the Lord, your shepherd, you have that which in verse four is temporary, but you have those blessings in verse five, which are permanent. And you have the promise that surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Now, I didn't know about J. Douglas MacMillan and his book until on day six or seven of my hospitalization, when I finally could even just barely look at a text, and a fellow minister in the OPC just said to me, know that the goodness and mercy of the Lord are following you in this life like two hounds. And he told me he got that from Macmillan's book, because that's what Macmillan says, and this resonates to a farm boy from Ohio. The mercy and goodness of the Lord are like two loyal dogs, hounds, that will follow you wherever you go. And that's what God has provided for us. His goodness and mercy, with the goal that we, as we make our way in this pilgrimage, that we should dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And that is the goal of our pilgrimage, to be with our God forever. What a song. What comfort. But if we're true to ourselves, if we have that honest assessment We have to ask, how is this possible? How are such blessings ours? Because we know how we act. We know how often we fail the Lord in what we do. We know that we deserve God's wrath because of our sin, but what we get rather is His goodness and mercy following us all the days of our life. How is this possible? How can such good news come to sinners such as you and me. Because when we read this song, if we're true to ourselves, we know every single day we're worried about the things that go on in this life, things that we don't have or things that we want. Every day we are going off the path that the Lord puts before us in this word and we're going off on our own ways. Every day we act as if God is not our Lord in how we treat others. And we look at the world around us and it enters into our hearts that he isn't in control. How can it be? that we are so blessed. Because when we read this psalm, we're reminded of the truthfulness of the prophet Isaiah when he declared, all us like sheep have gone astray, each of us have turned to his own way. That's the honest assessment of our hearts. And yet, this psalm declares to us that blessing is ours now and forevermore because of the shepherd. How is this possible? It is only possible, friends, because of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the one who stands at the center of this song. Jesus Christ is the shepherd in view here. Jesus Christ is the one who seeks us when we were lost in our sins. He is the one who binds up the brokenhearted and heals the sick. And that's because Jesus Christ is not only the shepherd, but Jesus Christ is the lamb that was slain. Isaiah the prophet, we all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned his own way, and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. That's what has happened. That is what has happened. Jesus Christ has laid down his life for us. He so loved the sheep that he laid down his life for us. Jesus Christ is the great shepherd. Jesus Christ is the seeking shepherd. We did not love him. He loved us and yet he sought us out in our sin. Jesus Christ is the seeking shepherd. Have you ever thought about that parable in the gospel of Luke where Jesus tells the disciples, which of you having a hundred sheep, if he's lost one of them does not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it. And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. You see, there's no halfway house when it comes to your salvation. Jesus Christ is the one who sought you out when you were lost. You were not seeking him out. He is the one who sought you out when you were lost. And what did he do? He laid down his life for you. That's what the good shepherd does. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He paid the price for your salvation. He is the one who has gone in front of you. He is the one who's defeated death and sin. And that because he died, even though we were the ones deserving of death. Jesus Christ then is the seeking shepherd that gathers his remnant flock. He is the good shepherd who bore our sins with a grand purpose. But Jesus Christ is also in scripture the great shepherd who takes up his life again. Hebrews chapter 13 declares that Jesus Christ is the great shepherd of the sheep, that by the blood of the eternal covenant. Do you remember that wonderful benediction at the end of Hebrews chapter 13, where it says again, the God of peace brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant. Do you know what the writer of Hebrews is doing there? He's just not pulling that out of the air. He has in mind Isaiah chapter 63. And he has in mind what the prophet is saying in Isaiah, in that 63rd chapter, about Moses. Moses was the great shepherd of the sheep in the Old Testament. He was the great shepherd who helped with the deliverance of people from Pharaoh and from Egypt. And the writer of Hebrews is saying, as good as a shepherd as Moses was, there's a better shepherd now in Jesus. But he's saying more than that. The writer of the Hebrews is also, I think, saying more than that. Because when you go back and you look at that passage in Isaiah chapter 63, what's the purpose of the exodus, at least one purpose according to that chapter? It's that the people of God might make the name of God glorious. Moses led them out of that captivity that they might make the name of God glorious. Jesus Christ, the great shepherd, has led us out of captivity to sin and death. He's a greater shepherd. This is a greater exit. Unto what end in this pilgrimage? It is to make the name of God glorious here on this earth. That's what we're called to. Jesus Christ is the seeking shepherd to sort us out when we were lost. Jesus Christ is the good shepherd who laid down his life that we might be saved. Jesus Christ is the great shepherd and he delivers us and he's with us that we might make the name of God glorious. And Jesus Christ is also the chief shepherd. 1 Peter 5, when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away. Friends, there is nothing in this life that our shepherd has not done for us, and he's not with us, and he's not leading us. He is with us at every point. We are so blessed. There's no one like Jesus. And Jesus says, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. That the Lord was my shepherd was my comfort lying in that hospital bed. Whether the doctors all above me, and they're wanting me to go on a ventilator, and things are looking so desperate. I heard them, but I kept on thinking about The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want. I wasn't thinking about my favorite sports team. I wasn't thinking about what needed fixed on my house. I was thinking about the Lord, my shepherd. And the doctors and the nurses would all tell me later, they said, wow, you know, your attitude was so good. and I would testify to them, try to witness them. I'm a Christian. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. I have a living hope. I'm so thankful that the Lord preserved me, but you know, part of what I wanted to express to you as we're joined together in faith through our Savior and joined together in that expression of Christ Church, which is the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, I am so thankful for our church. And this is what I mean. My hope was not tied to Jesus the good man, or Jesus the example, or Jesus the environmentalist, or Jesus the philosopher. My hope was tied directly to Jesus, the son of God who came into this life to die for my sins and rise again for my justification. And I've rejoiced I belong to a church that preaches that. That's our message to a dying world. That's our message to a world that doesn't understand how we live. that doesn't understand how we can say there's something greater than riches, silver and gold. There's something better than having the fanciest job or having the most popular or the most power. That there's something better in knowing and belonging to the shepherd, to Jesus Christ. So my prayer for you is that You would live out of your union with this shepherd in a way that makes his name glorious. And that you would follow after him knowing that he is the one who's loved you and he is the one who's leading you and that you would not stray then from his word. That you would not seek some other path. Because that's deadly. But to follow after him knowing that he is staking his whole reputation on getting you to being with himself in heaven above, where there you will be with him for all eternity, and you will feast with him, and you will know truly this is the one who is the shepherd and savior of our souls, amen.