TUESDAY 21st
Psalm 23
I wonder going back to what I suggested on Sunday morning about listing seven of the Psalms, how many put Psalm 23 down? It is possibly one of the most well known and used Psalms and possibly most used portion of Scripture alongside ‘The Lord’s Prayer.’
And yet the reality is that so many who have used it whether at a wedding, funeral etc. do not actually know the Lord, let alone know him as their Shepherd. See it is a nice psalm, it speaks of nice things, but to know it’s benefits we need to know in a personal way the Shepherd it is referring to.
Can we truly say today that we know the Shepherd so that we can say ‘The LORD is my Shepherd?’
What are the benefits of knowing this Shepherd?
To list them:
We will not want
We lie in green pastures
We are led by still waters
Our soul is restored
We are led in the paths of righteousness
When we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will not fear evil
The Shepherd is with us
His rod and staff comfort us
There is a table prepared before us in the presence of our enemies
Our head is anointed with oil
Goodness and mercy follow us – all the days of our life
We will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
The Psalm covers our pilgrimage as we walk with the Shepherd through life from our getting to know him as our Saviour, that is, our walk with him in the present, and his being with us as we pass through death and into eternity.
In Johns gospel, Jesus says that he is a Shepherd, he uses another word to describe what kind of Shepherd he is – ‘I am the GOOD Shepherd. (John 10:11) In the epistles he is also described as the Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4) and as the Great Shepherd. (Hebrews 13:12).
If the LORD is the Shepherd then it also means that we who claim to belong to the Shepherd must be sheep, and not just any sheep but HIS sheep. In Isaiah 53:6 we read ‘All we like sheep have gone astray’ but 2 Peter 2:25 says ‘For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.’ In Psalm 100, one of the songs the Children of Israel sang includes the line, ‘We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture’ thank God because the Good Shepherd came to seek and to save the lost we can now also declare that we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. ‘I was lost, but Jesus found me, Found the sheep that went astray, threw His loving arms around me, drew me back into His way.’
We are familiar with the parable of the lost sheep, (Luke 15:1-7) that parable speaks of where we all were, lost, until Jesus came looking for us and found us and saved us. Perhaps there may be someone reading this today and you are still lost, you are still like a sheep that has gone astray, today you can come in repentance and know forgiveness of sin and be brought into the fold of the Good Shepherd. It was after hearing the parable of the Good Shepherd being preached one Sunday evening that I came to give my life to Jesus.
In deciding what to bring from this Psalm I decided upon v4 ‘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.’
There are as we noted in the devotion on Sunday 19th April, many blessings attached to knowing Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. This verse, Psalm 23:4 speaks of one of the most comforting blessings that come from knowing the Lord as our Shepherd. To summarize it ‘when we are faced with death be it our own or that of someone who is close to us, we do not need to fear any evil, we do not need to be afraid, and two reasons,
1) Because the Shepherd who hung on the cross for us, the Shepherd who came looking for us, the Shepherd who is walking with us every day will still be with us as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. He made a promise that I will never leave you, even unto the end of the age and he is a promise keeper he will never leave us not even in the dark valley of death.
2) Because the Shepherd who is going to walk through that valley with us, has already been through it himself, and the good news is that by going through the valley of death himself, he conquered it, he destroyed its power. And here is some exciting news, in the book of Revelation we read that John the Apostle saw the risen Christ, our Shepherd, and as he looked upon him, it says, ‘he fell as if he was dead,’ but the Shepherd touched him and gave him some brilliant and exciting news; ‘Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive for evermore.’ Now if Jesus had stopped there that itself would be awesome, but he didn’t stop there, he continued with more amazing news that should bring us comfort and a realisation that we do not need to fear death. What did he say? ‘AND I HAVE THE KEYS OF DEATH AND HADES.’ (Revelation 1) What does this mean for us?
It means that the keyholder of death will have those keys with him as we walk through the valley, therefore we need not fear because he also has the power to grant eternal life to all who have believed on his name. I like to picture walking through the valley of the shadow of death and Jesus is walking with me and every time a door appears with death written upon it, he rattles it and says to me, ‘look it’s locked and I’ve got the key’ and when we get to the other end there is a door that says ‘life’ and he opens it and he takes me through it and into his eternal presence.
When it comes to the valley of the shadow of death it is something we have no choice over, one day we will all have to walk through it, but be encouraged as I have often said we may fear the way that we will die, its natural as we don’t want to suffer or go through pain, but we don’t need to fear death itself, this is why this Psalm is such a comfort to the believer.
Sadly, many are dying at this time, we often hear that many are having to die alone, and we need to pray that in their final moments that men and women will cry out to God for mercy and salvation.
I have a Shepherd, One I love so well;
how He has blessed me tongue can never tell;
on the Cross He suffered, shed His blood and died,
that I might ever in His love confide.
Following Jesus, ever day by day,
nothing can harm me when He leads the way;
darkness or sunshine, whate’er befall,
Jesus, the Shepherd, is my All in All.
Pastures abundant doth His hand provide,
still waters flowing ever at my side,
goodness and mercy follow on my track,
with such a Shepherd nothing can I lack.
When I would wander from the path astray,
then He will draw me back into the way;
in the darkest valley I need fear no ill,
for He, my Shepherd, will be with me still.
When labour’s ended and the journey done,
then He will lead me safely to my home;
there I shall dwell in rapture sure and sweet,
with all the loved ones gathered round His feet
Leonard Weaver CCLI 788682