The Lord is My Shepherd

Psalm 23 KJV

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

2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

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

Who is the Lord? What does it say here first and foremost? It says that he is my shepherd. He is your shepherd.

2. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He makes me. He makes me. He makes me lie down. That’s His timing isn’t it? You’ve got to be on his time. He’s gonna put you on HIS SCHEDULE, not your schedule.

Well, Lord, they’ve got me working 5am. I gotta be out the door 4:15 the latest. The Lord might just flood the place out next week. I have to work out at the gym or I just don’t feel right, and I’ve been getting sick so much too. But it makes me feel good and I need to look good. Did he say to do all that? Did you clear it with him?

Lord, I need this money. I gotta do this work. I gotta go to my kids play. I gotta join the family on the trip or mom in law will start talking about me to everyone.

…… Hold on, just a minute…,

 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. That means there’s a tendency to want to walk around somewhere else. And there is a tendency for God to grab you and pick you up and put you down in green pastures. In the place set for you.

Tell them, He maketh me to spend time with Him…. They’ll be saying “he’s hearing voices from the Lord”. Call in a Code 5150.

No, call in Code 238, He maketh me…. You don’t understand. My God is my shepherd and he maketh me to lie down in the place he has set for me. I can’t go if he says I can’t go.

 He is the shepherd- you are… the sheep. You know what you call one sheep? What do you call one sheep?… “Sheep”. What do you call multiple sheep? “Sheep”. Okay, just checking.

Youre the lamb. You’re the sheep. Maybe you’re scary and you’re a big ol’ ram with big horns and nobody better taunt you. But you are under the leading of the Lord. Whoever you are, he will MAKE you lie down… he will maketh you lie down… where? In green pastures. He will nourish you. He will give you the best food to eat. And I’m not talking about Sizzler lemon chicken, or Olive Garden where when you’re there and you’re family, or Morton’s steak house medium rare. Where they can cook a rib eye, which- don’t even bother trying to cook a ribeye properly at home, you practically need a pizza oven- it’s never been done. Stick with a New York strip……

I’m talking about spiritual nourishment. Man cannot live by bread alone. God will MAKE you lie down in the place where you are growing in the healthiest way spiritually. Amen. He’s not gonna leave you in the desert. He’s not gonna leave you in the swamp, or lost at sea. I don’t believe that, I believe the word, and he’s gonna put you in green pastures. Beautiful green pastures. Doesn’t that tell us something? If we are pastored by our Lord, we will find our place and it’s a good place! Amen! When you come to church, and you have a good pastor, you will be in a good place. You won’t be able to deny that. The only time you deny that, is when you think there’s something better, but the Lord will make you lie down.

3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

What happened to your soul David? Did something happen? You walk around like you killed a giant for israel's glory and to your own glory, and then you plotted the murder of a guy who was a really good guy, a war hero, just so you could sleep with his wife. Then God’s number one prophet permanently stamps you as the worst guy of all time to your face. That’s not affecting just your mind or your feelings or your body. That affects your soul.

Anybody ever have something happen, whatever it was, however it went down… that stamped you to such a degree that it was final. There’s no exaggeration. There’s no having a little talk with Jesus, I’m talking about this is etched in history…. This is who I am now. What happened is who I am. What is that? That’s your soul friend. That is soul level destruction. Fortunately, Psalm 23 says that he restored my soul. Hey, if he can restore David’s soul, I believe he can restore your soul! It doesn’t matter what happened, God is a physician, he is a healer, he can raise the dead back to life, Jesus can fix deformities and any type of problem. He just needs you to turn to Him. He just needs you to turn to Him.

But… “I just can’t shake it, people think of me a certain way”…

Well…. The good news is nowhere in the Bible does it say thou shalt make sure that everyone is happy with you and not judging you. Nope! It says he leads ME in righteousness… why? For HIS namesake. It’s about God. It’s about what He wants! If a man’s ways please the Lord!!! … he even makes peace with his enemies. He leads ME in righteousness not for my own benefit, but for his namesake! For his glorification! For the amplification of his name, and what that stands for! His name is great! He takes things that are challenging and hopeless and seemingly nothing… and makes them special and purposeful and beautiful. That is what He does! The devil wants the best and the brightest and the most beautiful and the biggest and the richest and the wittiest and on and on and on. The Lord conversely says, give me an epileptic kid who falls in the fire and nobody can figure out what to do. And the lord heals him. And the devil looks on and grits his teeth because he is once again reminded that the Lord has all power and all compassion, and all love, and the devil is just a user and an abuser, and doesn’t have that power. He does not have ALL Power. He is not right. Therefore he is not righteous.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Just look at everything going on in our world. I don’t need to tell you. There’s problems it seems like everywhere you look on the news, and it seems like the things we trusted can’t even be trusted anymore. A lot of us in a lot of places probably don’t feel like we can’t just walk too far down the street. But if you do, David says I can walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and not fear evil. The valley is a lonely place. Your full visibility is inhibited. There are things around jagged rocks and corners. There are weird sounds. Spooky animals rustling in the bushes. Weird snakes slithering around. Hot and cold winds, evil spirits perhaps around, and.... death. The bio-feedback of your own heart beating and your pulse and the reality of human mortality itself weighing on your mind. And yet.... David states: I will fear no evil. Thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. All these things are going through my head and my experience, but then I remember! You are with me. The Lord has a divine rod to hit the things that would attack David. The Lord has a shepherd’s staff to keep David in line. To guide him. In other words, my God knows how to defend for me and is putting me in the right place, so what have I to fear? He is monitoring the situation. He is there with me. It’s the reality I’m in that’s scary, but in Super-reality, the Lord is watching the whole thing. What have I to fear? What have you to fear? Amen!

5. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

You will anoint my head oh Lord.

The oil…. The oil is not just any oil. It is a special oil, made with special care. With direct specifications. It’s not just any oil, and the application of the oil is no ordinary application. The person to whom that oil is applied, when that oil is applied has become a special person. What it means is that you have been chosen and separated for God's personal selection. You are consecrated, you are sanctified into the Lord. You will anoint my head he says. This mind will be given unto the Lord. We have so many talented people into our midst, we have so many considerate and thoughtful people, we have people who are too good for this world as they say, and that’s because the Lord has created them. He has designated them, he is on their life. He can be on your life. He can be on my life. David says he is a Lord who annointest with oil, he WILL annoint your head with oil. Why the head? Well… because I don’t need my arm, or my elbow, or my back, so much as my head. It’s the highest in degree upon the body. God wants you to have a sound mind. He doesn’t want it to be paralyzed in fear. He wants you to be controlled by Himself, in a world trying to control our minds and our attention. The Lord will annoint my head… with oil. The Holy Ghost upon my mind, working in my mind. Leading my body, leading my steps. Doing His work. He will.

He maketh my cup to overflow… when God is your shepherd, when He is leading you, the spirit will overflow out of your body. You are the cup! How can your cup overflow? The Spirit of God will fill you and outpour from your body. Hallelujah.

You will Catch a spirit of prayer…

Going from feeling the obligation to pray, to wanting to pray.

To have a yearning. It can happen. Usually by the time you’ve tried everything else, you desire the Lord more.

Reading the scripture. Meditating on His word. It develops your spirit, and your spirit will grow and enlarge in you through the Holy Spirit, and it will desire the things of the spirit. The flesh will take a back seat, amen. We through the spirit…. Do put the flesh in the backseat. Hallelujah… it says mortify the deeds of the flesh. Oh Lord, don’t mortify my flesh just yet, but I need you to stop the deeds of the flesh. Shrivel them up. Dry it out. Mummify those deeds it does and hang it in a museum for me to remember. I need my body, if we’re gonna do anything here, but let the spirit drive this vessel. Let your Holy Spirit be the designated driver.

Offer your cup to the Lord.

Offer your cup to the Lord.

He is the Lord who shall overflow in your life.

Let the Lord overflow in my life.

Let Him overflow in our lives.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. When you’re in the fold, when you are being shepherded by the Father, He will give you the mercy you need. And you’re gonna need it! Goodness will follow you. You will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Not the house of the wicked. Not in some dive bar, or in some weird place with a bunch of scoffers and people devoid of the truth. No, but with God's people! Not with people who enjoin under strange gods or strange ideas!

You ever sit around a bunch of liberal non-believers when they have a get together? Isn’t it kind of sad? I’m not trying to be mean, but after coming to church and seeing the order and cooperation of Christians, you sort of become proud in and of itself of what church can do to humans. A good, Holy Spirit filled church. It can do wonders. It’s like we’re totally broken and don’t make any sense until we’re in church. I know I feel that way. Whether I’m home or away, my spirit is always with the church, like Paul says. I’m there in spirit.

He says I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Forever. It never ends! In heaven they will cry Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty! The house will always be filled with worship. It will always have the saints of God in there. It’s all about Him. Who we are as people is established when we recognize who He is. He is the shepherd, and we will not want anything else. We shall not want. We will be who he wants us to be, and to do what he wants us to do, and we will live a life that is good because of what He gives us.