TOPIC:‌“The Sheep's Shepherd”

                  by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap

 

TEXT:‌Psalms 23:1-6

 

‌‌“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want” (v. 1).

 

‌I want to begin my message with something I read many years ago by another pastor who was speaking on the 23rd Psalm. “At an evening gathering a gifted orator was asked to recite. He selected the 23rd Psalm. With expression, diction, beauty and all the accomplishments of his profession he eloquently and dramatically recited this famous Psalm. The guests vigorously clapped their hands and gave him a lengthy applause. He had done well. It was the masterly work of an artist.”

 

‌“Later that evening an elderly Christian Pastor was asked to say a few words. He was a man of God, a spiritual giant, a man filled with the Spirit of God. Strange as it may seem he stood and recited the 23rd Psalm. When he had finished there was hardly a dry eye in the audience. All present had been melted to tears. There was no clapping of hands. There was no applauding. There was a death-like silence over the entire audience. The audience had been strangely and deeply moved. God had spoken through His Word by His servant. After a few moments the orator broke the silence with this comment: “I know the 23rd Psalm. The Pastor knows the Shepherd.”

 

‌Beloved friend, that's the point I want you to catch in this message. It is one thing to know the Psalm, but it is quite another thing to know the Shepherd. Countless millions of people around the world know the words, but I fear very few really know the Shepherd of whom the Psalmist writes. The word “Lord” in verse 1 is the word “Jehovah.” The Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Lord Jesus Christ of the New Testament. Christ is pictured as a Shepherd and all true believers are said to be His sheep.

 

‌Thus the Christian may make the 23rd Psalm his very own. This Psalm is often called, “The Shepherd Psalm.” It speaks of the Lord as our Shepherd and we are the sheep of His fold. But it is also the language of a sheep as he talks about his Shepherd. It is the testimony of a believer witnessing to what the Lord means to him. This is a sheep's Psalm. Let us think of it in that capacity for this message. Four things stand out regarding our relationship to the Shepherd.

 

I.

 

‌First of all, our relationship to the Shepherd is a PERSONAL thing. We read in verse 1: “The Lord is my shepherd.” In this little Psalm of six verses there are seventeen personal pronouns. The word “my” is used seven times alone. This is a testimony to the fact that our relationship to the Shepherd is a personal thing. Not only is He A Shepherd, not only . . .