THE LORD is MY shepherd
I never cease to be amazed how there is always more to see and learn from the Bible, however much I may think I know it.
I do not know how many times I have read Psalm 23 but it must be hundreds of times. I have preached it at funerals, I have taught it in Bible studies, I have quoted it in my lectures many times but this last Sunday I was in London with my wife and we attended All Souls Church, Langham Place right next door to the BBC. It was our first time there and we enjoyed the service very much - and guess what the text of the day was – yes, Psalm 23.
It was not what the preacher said about it, although that was very good, but while it was being read I suddenly started to think about it in a way I had not done before. I began to think about David himself and when and why he wrote this Psalm.
You may think this is very obvious - but David wrote Psalm 23 out of his own experience, so it is rooted in the PAST, but he also talks in the PRESENT “The LORD IS my shepherd” and it also looks forward to the FUTURE “I WILL dwell.” When I began to look at the Psalm from David’s experience it opened up in a fresh way to me and I would like to share that with you if I may.
We all know that as a very young man David was a shepherd and it is obvious in the first 4 verses that he is writing out of his own experience – he describes the work of a shepherd so perfectly and then he turns that around and says “The LORD is MY shepherd.” He knew what it was to be a young shepherd boy during those long lonely days and nights when he was vulnerable and needed help and he had discovered that he had a shepherd who was looking after HIM, just like he looked after his sheep.
David had experienced the LORD as his shepherd taking care of his needs in the PAST - and this gave him confidence for the FUTURE: “I SHALL not want”
In the PRESENT David is experiencing…
REST – “He makes me lie down in green pastures…
REFRESHMENT – “He leads me beside still waters…
RENEWAL – “He restores my soul…
RIGHT LIVING – “He leads me in the paths of righteousness.”
And then it all suddenly changes…
From this idyllic pastoral landscape where everything is lovely and peaceful all of a sudden the scenery changes to a rocky ravine which almost seems to close in over him - “the valley of the shadow of death” where wild animals could jump out and attack him and his sheep at any moment.
That’s real life – we do have many pleasant, relatively easy days and then all of a sudden for no apparent reason everything changes and goes dark. As an eastern shepherd leading his sheep to find new pastures in the wilderness this must have happened on numerous occasions to David - but out of that experience he could confidently say in the future tense: “I will fear no evil” – why? - because he knew that his Shepherd had protected him before and would be with him in any situation that he found himself in the future.
That is a great comfort to my wife and I because suddenly a few weeks ago the scenery changed and we started to go through a dark valley indeed but the LORD is with us – and there’s no one who can look after us better than Jesus. He goes through the valley of the shadows with us and He is carrying a rod – to defend us from our enemies and a staff (v4) to pull us out of dangerous situations and lead us on in triumph (2 Corinthians 2:14).
Then the scene changes again and David has a banqueting table before him with cups running over and a head anointed with oil. To be honest, I’ve always had a bit of a problem with this – the Psalm starts off with that pastoral scene and then it suddenly becomes something totally different and seemingly unrelated to sheep and shepherds.
This is where my fresh insight came in. Remember this Psalm comes out of David’s personal experience? Well he was a shepherd as a boy – but as a man that shepherd of sheep became a shepherd of people – a very sophisticated shepherd – a king.
I believe that the second part of the psalm is written in the present tense by David as the king of Israel possibly in the early years when he was king firstly of Judah and then of all Israel in Hebron (2 Samuel 2:4).
He is now seated at a banqueting table - like kings always did and already he is rejoicing at the way in which the Lord has exalted him above his enemies (v5). Very interestingly we see in 2 Samuel 3:20 how David prepared a banquet for Abner (his former enemy) who had been the captain of King Saul’s army and who came to make David king of all Israel.
This Psalm is based on David’s experience. He had seen how the LORD had helped him when he was a boy and now he has seen how the LORD has helped him as a man. This again gives him confidence – “Surely” – for the future: “goodness and mercy SHALL follow me all the days of my life.”
Notice it says “ALL the days” –- whether those days to come are happy days when everything is fine and cups are running over, or dark days with many reasons to fear, we can depend on the goodness and mercy of the LORD who is our Shepherd - to be with us and bring us safely through them.
This is not wishful thinking it’s the reality of David’s experience.
In the first part of Psalm 23 David is sharing with us his personal experience of being a shepherd boy. Then in the second part, David as the king with all the pressures of state upon his shoulders is celebrating how the LORD has brought him through in triumph.
He had gained great confidence from the fact that that whatever situation he found himself in, his Shepherd had been with him in the good times and the bad times and therefore would be with him all the days of his life until the ultimate reward was gained – “I will dwell in the house of the Lord – FOREVER.”
The preacher at that church in London ended with this benediction from Hebrews 13:19 which I thought was perfect:
Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that GREAT SHEPHERD of the sheep
- equip YOU with everything good for doing His will, and may He work in us what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever.
Amen!