[advance to: Psalm 23 - part 2]
     Good morning and welcome to this edition of the Berean Break.  My name is George Sinkie and I am so glad to have you with me this morning.  As always I welcome any questions you have from the Bible or comments you have about this program.  Today we will begin looking into the book of Psalms at Psalm 23.  We will spend the next couple of weeks looking at what we can learn from the Shepherd’s Psalm.  There David writes, in Psalm 23:1-6,

  1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
  2 He makes me lie down in green pastures;  He leads me beside quiet waters.
  3 He restores my soul;  He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.
  4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for Thou art with me;  Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.
  5 Thou dost prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;  Thou hast anointed my head with oil;  My cup overflows.
  6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Before we look into this Psalm let’s go to God in prayer.

Great God in heaven, We thank You for this day in our lives, We praise You and Honor You with our lips.  But more than that we want to serve and glorify You with our lives.  Dear God, today as we look into Your word, Help us to learn Your will, And to apply Your will into our lives.  Bless us now in our study, Help us to understand and make You our shepherd.  And to follow Your leading.  In Jesus’ name !! AMEN !!

     As David sat to pen the words of the 23rd Psalm, the idea of a shepherd was familiar to him.  David had been a shepherd for his father’s sheep in the hills around Bethlehem.  He understood the close relationship between the shepherd and the sheep.  He also understood the great care and concern that the shepherd had for the sheep, and the respect for and dependence upon the shepherd that the sheep had. In this day and age, most of us do not understand what David was really saying about the Lord.  I grew up on a farm and we raised some sheep, but we raised sheep in an entirely different way than what they did in Biblical times.  Let’s look now at this Psalm of David.  Psalm 23:1 says,

  1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

David here is expressing who he wants to be his guide, protector, nourisher, sustainer, and who he will put his whole trust in.  Unlike when we raised sheep and just turned them out into the pasture and checked on them every couple of days, the shepherds David knew, lead their flock each day.  The shepherd was their with the flock day and night, to guide and protect that flock.  Jesus spoke of being the shepherd to His sheep in John 10:11-16

  11 I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
  12 He who is a hireling, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, beholds the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees, and the wolf snatches them, and scatters them.
  13 He flees because he is a hireling, and is not concerned about the sheep.
  14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My own, and My own know Me,
  15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
  16 And I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they shall hear My voice; and they shall become one flock with one shepherd.

The writer of Hebrews also writes about Jesus being the Shepherd of His sheep in Hebrews 13:20-21

  20 Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord,
  21 equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever.  Amen.

David, Jesus, and the Hebrews writers all point out another important concept of the Lord being the shepherd to a person.  David says, “I shall not want.”  Jesus in John 10 says the sheep, “shall hear My voice.”  And the Hebrews writer says that through Jesus, the great Shepherd, God equips with “every good thing to do His will.”  When a sheep in David’s day wanted something other than what the shepherd gave, it wandered off and it was then lost.  In the spiritual sense, the same thing happens when people want more than what the Lord gives.  When they go to man-made creeds and catechisms, they have wandered away from the Lord and are saying that the Lord is not a good enough shepherd we want this teaching, too.  A faithful and true sheep, like David will not want anything other than what the Lord provides.  The Bible and especially the New Testament provides every person today with everything God wanted us to have for life and godliness.  Did God provide the creeds and catechisms that so many follow today?  NO, they are given by men and therefore those who follow them cannot say with David, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”

     In the following verses David expands on this idea that the Lord is his shepherd.  Again David is writing from the experience and knowledge he has as a shepherd himself.  Let’s look at verse 2, Psalm 23:2

  2 He makes me lie down in green pastures;  He leads me beside quiet waters.

These two phrases show how God provides what we need.  Just as David would lead his father’s sheep to fresh green grass each day the Lord provides His followers with what they need to sustain themselves.  Note that David says “green pastures.”  The Lord does not provide us with just a parched and barren ground to scavenge and search for our own substance.  The idea of “lie down” shows that when we rely upon the Lord it is an easy life.  In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus offers this same kind of rest to those who will follow Him,

  28 Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
  29 Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.
  30 For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.

The ways of this world and the traditions of men burden people today just like they did when Jesus spoke these words and the invitation of Jesus is just as valid today as it was on the day He spoke it.
     I have heard it said that sheep will not drink from rapidly moving water and that is why David said that the Lord leads beside “quiet waters.”  Here again we see that the Lord provides what the sheep really needs.  When Jesus sat upon the mountain and said in Matthew 5:6

  6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

He was referring to much the same idea.  The only place to have our hunger and thirst truly satisfied is in the Lord.  When Jesus was tempted, by Satan, to turn stones into bread, He replied in Matthew 4:4

  4 It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’

Many have this hunger and thirst for righteousness, but they fill that void with man-made doctrines.  This is like a person who is hungry, even to the point of starving, can start to eat paper and they can eat paper until they are no longer hungry.  They can feel satisfied even to the point of being stuffed.  But have they really satisfied the body’s need for food?  NO, they have not.  Spiritually, a person may hunger and thirst for righteousness, and they can stuff themselves with man-made creeds and man-made catechisms and they can “feel” full and righteous, but they have not given their spirits the real nourishment that it needs, because the real nourishment that it needs comes only from the Lord and His word.

     David goes on in Psalm 23 and says in verse 3,

  3 He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.

When we, like David, allow the Lord to be our shepherd then He will guide us into what is good and righteous in His sight.  David spoke also of this way or “path” that the righteous live back in Psalm 1:1-6

  1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
  2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night.
  3 And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season, And its leaf does not wither;  And in whatever he does, he prospers.
  4 The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
  5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
  6 For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish.

Jesus also spoke of the “way” that we should go in John 14:6

  6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life;  no one comes to the Father, but through Me.”

Again we see that man-made creeds and catechisms do not harmonize with the twenty-third Psalm or with any of the will of God.

     Can we sincerely and honestly say with David,

  1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
  2 He makes me lie down in green pastures;  He leads me beside quiet waters.
  3 He restores my soul;  He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.

We can if we follow only His inspired word and avoid the other “shepherds” and teachings of this world.

[advance to: Psalm 23 - part 2]