Psalm 23: 1
The Lord is My Shepherd 

Many professing Christians don't expect very much and see God's salvation as only a spiritual matter.  On the other hand are those well meaning Christians who think that the Christian DESERVES -- has a birthright to -- ease, happiness, prosperity and that everyone who does not experience these things hasn't claimed his birthright. Which of the two is the position of the Bible?

Now today I want to look only at the first verses that develop the shepherd metaphor.  It is the basically positive message of what God does for us.  Then the place of God in the valley-of-the shadow-of-death experiences in our life and finally the ultimate blessing of God in the heavenly kingdom.

Now think along 4 lines this morning.

I. FIRST, THE BASIC TRUTH ENUNCIATED

1. "The Lord is my shepherd.''  The basic idea is in the application of the metaphor. We are so used to it that we lose much of its effect. We call pastors, "pastors" -- shepherds the term means -- and forget the pastoral metaphor in it all.

Supposedly, David had a profound and lasting connection with the pastoral life of his youth and thought "Isn't that interesting that the Lord's supervision over my life is just like my supervision over the sheep back on the hillside many years ago?"

2. Now, how do you and I conceive of our relationship with the Lord?  There are numerous options in the Bible that are instructive and legitimate -- some are mere incidental metaphors and some like this one are primary.  Is this one adequate?  Is this one primary? (Is he really your shepherd? Or would you rather say "The Lord is my last resort when all else fails?''  Or, "The Lord is my 'co-pilot' ; or my 'advisor' ; or my 'bankroller'"?  Well, many of the inadequacies of how people sense their relationship to the Lord are exposed by this metaphor.

II. NOTICE THE METAPHORICAL WAY OF DEVELOPING AND QUALIFYING THIS TRUTH.

1. "I shall not want."  It is an assertion of freedom from want -- an assertion that is so easily parlayed into a health and wealth and success gospel.  The very notion is filled with problems ranging from the nature of what it means to "not want'' to the history of godly Biblical characters who "wanted" almost everything, as most people would describe want.  Is the Heavenly Father of the Bible merely an indulgent grandfather who gives his children every single thing they ask?  Or could this verse mean "I hope I shall not want'' or "I shall not want most of the time?"

2. The idea of the second verse helps to eliminate to some extent the problems of the absoluteness of this phrase: "He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters.''

It is hard for us to appreciate in that barren, barren land the sparse vegetation.  I lived there and traveled a good bit for a year and there may have been times when there was a little bit of green but it is basically all scrub grass.  But having enough and having abundance are relative terms that mean more or less to one person or another.

There is not a person in this room who does not have green pastures relative to the people of Zaire, Rwanda, Cuba and to, probably, the majority of people who have ever lived on the earth. God has certainly made you to lie down in green pastures by means of common grace in our culture and economy.  Green pastures!  The majority of people here have been led in green pastures!  Some more green than others but green nonetheless.  Green pastures!  And please don't you forget it!

3. And then he says "He leads me beside the still waters."  I'm told that this is not just a placid metaphor of a beautiful quit stream but that it is built on the idea that sheep can't drink out of troubled water.  In this it is a compliment to the "green pastures."  This shepherd will not fail to give you adequate drink but will give you untroubled waters -- the circumstances necessary to peaceful drinking.

Often in life, people have very green pastures with plenty to eat and enjoy themselves with but the environment is so tense and harsh that they can by no means live lives that are human.  The Lord does for the believer what the shepherd does for the sheep -- he leads them by the untroubled waters.

1. "He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake."

The phrase follows out with the metaphor of the sheep in its use of a path but it is "the paths of righteousness."  In the moral and legal term of "righteousness" it departs from the environs of sheep and real shepherds.

2. Righteousness in the O.T. is not distinguished from personal piety as it is often is in the N.T. , especially in the Pauline writings. In the N.T. righteousness often means the personal righteousness of Jesus Christ that is imputed to us when we take Christ as our savior.  As the gospel song says, "Dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.''  But in the O.T. it more often is a synonym for personal piety or what we call "holiness'' and the description character and attribute of God.

3. The effect of this is to say that the leading in "paths of righteousness'' is an over-arching description of the leading of the shepherd.  That leading of God which, by our standards is not "green pastures -- still-waters leading'' -- is still under the category of the righteousness of God and his righteous will for our lives and his kingdom.

4. The supposed goodness of the Lord to his children is never disconnected from the cost of discipleship.  Whenever God promises good to us, the good is always "good'' in terms of God's assessment of what is good.  It is always an ultimate good.  If you forget everything else I say today, remember this.  Whenever God promises good to us, the good is always "good'' in terms of God's assessment of what is good. It is always an ultimate good.  It is never the good that people often refer to when they speak of having a "good time'' or a "good life'' or "good luck."

If that were not so, we could imagine absolutely silly standards for God to come up to (as people frequently do.), such as your living to be 200, becoming a millionaire, never having a care in the world, and then expecting God to conform to them.  But indeed, he promises to lead us in paths of righteousness -- not paths of mere convenience, paths of decadent ease, or paths of dishonor to his name and hindrance to his work. But "paths of righteousness for his name's sake."

These paths of righteousness are both for the advancement of God's righteous purposes in the world and in eternity and for the ultimate godliness (righteousness, in this O.T. sense) and blessedness of the individual sheep who walks in them.

5. This is not much help to those outside of God's grace who want a God who is a good luck charm as you have in the pagan idea of God, but for those who are children of God and denizens of eternity (as the last verse of this Psalm asserts) it is a great and precious help in time of need, in the time of plenty, in time of anxiety and difficulty

IV. NOW, THINK FOR A FEW MINUTES ABOUT THE VALUE AND APPLICATION OF THE SHEPHERD METAPHOR.

1. In our presentation of the gospel as well as in our own perspective of who God is and what he does for the believer we do not want to be like cheap telephone salesmen, promising anything the customer wants instead of what the product is designed to provide to the purchaser.  Here we have a sober and reasoned statement of the Lord's care for and protection of the sheep.  Because it is applicable, realistic and consistent with God's Word it is a promise upon which to stand in building your faith even when people with utopian and fanciful standards are perverting the gospel into a health and wealth panacea for the difficulties of life.  However, we must make sure that we do not in reaction withdraw the great and wonderful promises of God's provision, lasting care and protection for his obedient children.

2. The first step in gaining the provision of the shepherd is the recognition the HE is the shepherd and not we ourselves.  It is scarcely realized even among God's sheep nowadays and among the vainly religious it is an outright, alien concept.  The shepherd knows what is best for the sheep.  The sheep follow him and hear his voice and are prepared to lay down in his green pastures, walk by his still waters.

Prayer comes in, not as a manipulation of God by the sheep (as it is often conceived of) but as a means to intuitively, sensitively, spiritually claim the benefits the shepherd has promised to provide.

Or is he your shepherd?  Can you and I wholeheartedly grasp the significance and comprehensiveness of this? "The Lord is my shepherd...''