The Lord is my Shepherd

 

The Shepherd of whom the psalm speaks of is Jesus.  It was Jesus Himself who would later say, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.” So, when we say “the LORD is my shepherd” we are talking about the Lord of glory.  This is Emmanuel: God with us.  He is the “image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature” and the One by whom “all things were created.”  

So we have here a very capable Shepherd.   He is wise, He is strong, and with Him the Bible says there is nothing impossible.   But what comforts David isn’t only His strength or sovereignty or wisdom.  It is His character. We see repeatedly in Israel's history that they had shepherds (pastors and leaders) who utterly failed them.  But the promise of Ezekiel is that where men failed them the Lord Jesus wouldn’t. Men may not love them but God loved them; and being the Good Shepherd He had said that He would search them out and find them. He had said that He would bind them up, He would feed them, he would protect them, and He would be their shield and their exceeding great reward.

 

And, of course, He came as He promised. This, then, is the kind of Shepherd that we have: One altogether unlike these miserable shepherds who fed only themselves.  Jesus actually lay down His life for the sheep. He was (and is) so committed to them, so full of love and compassion for them that He would lay down His life for theirs. When you say "the Lord is my Shepherd" you are talking about a good Shepherd. He is not only a competent Shepherd and a diligent Shepherd and a faithful Shepherd. He is also a loving Shepherd. He loves His sheep. And so He seeks out the scattered and the lost and brings them back to Himself. He binds up the wounded, He feeds His people, and He leads them beside the still waters. He is with them and He comforts them.

There are three things that I would like to highlight in this psalm. 

First, David does not say the Lord is a Shepherd or the Lord is the Shepherd.  He says the Lord is my Shepherd. What a marvellous thing to be able to say!  "He is my Shepherd."  It’s so personal.  Do you know that is just what He says about us.  “You are mine”.   He is a shepherd and we are sheep - but we can actually say, by faith, that we are His sheep and He is our shepherd. When a wolf comes a hireling flees. He’s afraid. And these aren’t his sheep anyway, so he doesn’t have a vested interest in them.  He’s a hireling, and he runs. He doesn’t care for the sheep, but the Good Shepherd does.  That’s why He - unlike the hireling - doesn’t run, that’s why He doesn’t forsake us, and that’s why the Good Shepherd gives His life for His sheep... because He loves them.  And He loves with a love that God says passes knowledge. 

Let the wonder of those words to sink in: the Lord is my Shepherd.  The God of heaven and earth, the Creator of the ends of the earth, the One who takes up the isles as a little thing and counts the nation as a drop in a bucket, this great Redeemer who is mighty to save and unapproachable in the brightness of His majesty, this holy King who is good and faithful and kind is mine, and I am his.  This is why David says "I shall not want." 

Isn’t that what we hope for our children, that they shall want for nothing?  The question isn’t whether we are willing to provide for them and care for them. The question is whether we can. Here there is no question… Knowing nothing about the particulars of the coming days David can still say, "I shall not want." Its as if he is asking a rhetorical question: “How can I want when I have Him?  How can I truly lack anything when I have God?”   David knows that with a Shepherd like the Lord Jesus he shall be very well cared for.  Do you remember how Paul put it?  If God would give His Son for us how will He not with Him give us all things?  In other words, if He wouldn’t spare His own Son, surely He will not withhold anything truly good for us.   But David is also saying "having Him I have all. I have God for my Shepherd so I already have everything."

That is the great reality that explains the rest of this Psalm. Over and over again we read here about what the LORD will do. He makes me lie down, He leads me beside still waters, He restores my soul, and He leads me in the paths of righteousness.  None of that should come as a surprise because He is our Shepherd and we are His sheep.  

Do you know what it is about Him that allows the psalmist to speak in this way?  Again, I am not talking about His sovereignty, His providence, or His ability to look after you and protect you. I am talking about Him: the Shepherd himself - the beloved. Its because I have Him that I can say "I shall not want." Other things can be taken from me, but not Him.  And what the psalmist is saying in these words is simply this: He is enough. When the bride (in the Song of Solomon) was asked what it was about Him that was "more" than other beloveds she didn't back down and apologize for exaggerating. She had an answer. She said, “My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand." She went on and then ended with these words: "His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.”

Second, the valley of death.  Remember the context. "The LORD," David has said, "is my Shepherd." That hasn’t changed.  David may be in the valley of the shadow of death, but He still has God. This Friend of sinners is still His friend. He hasn’t gone anywhere. He hasn’t left David yet, and He's not about to leave him now. And so he says "I will fear no evil." Pain may come, suffering and loss and grief may come, but no evil. Do you understand the difference?  Not a hair of my head shall be touched apart from my Father’s will. The enemy cannot do any real harm to me. The Father may let him touch my body, but he cannot touch my soul. The Bible says that no one shall pluck me from His hand. The Father’s will, Jesus said, is that "of all that He hath given me I should lose nothing."

Listen, then, to the psalmist reason: He’s in the valley of the shadow of death, but why isn’t he afraid?  Because, He says, you are with me.  He knows, greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world.  But again its more than protection. David knows he's not going to be forsaken.  One day Jesus will.   He will go to Calvary and be forsaken. And because He will be forsaken the believer never will.  Think for a moment about that wonderful reality. I will never be alone! I may be in shadow of death but the LORD is still my shepherd. So even here - in this dark valley - I cannot want for anything that is good for me because He is with me.  He will comfort me, and He will keep me.

We all know that instinct to protect those we love; and yet we watch them leave our homes and we feel that now they are no longer in our hands. In truth they never were. But His dear lambs are in His hands. He is never far from His sheep. And He neither slumbers no sleeps. He is our keeper and our shade upon our right hand. This is a great comfort for me, that the Lord is the Shepherd of the Sheep. He will go before His sheep and He will come behind them. He is with them always so that they will never know an hour when they cannot say “thou art with me.”

But then, third, look at what is coming.  "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever." Every Christian can say that. Looking ahead to tomorrow do you get the sense that there are no guarantees?  We don’t know what tomorrow holds. But - O how wonderful to know that goodness and mercy will follow me! It as though we are being chased all the days of our life by the goodness and mercy of God.

Notice David doesn’t say "prosperity" shall follow me all the days of my life.  He doesn’t expect to be spared pain and loss and suffering. What He does expect is that he shall never be without God’s goodness toward him and never without His mercy. What a marvellous truth that is! 

As sinners we stand in need of grace and mercy more than anything else; and David is saying that’s one thing that I shall always have. God will never cease to deal with me in mercy: and He will always be good to me.

The Bible admits that there are times when He seems to hide His face as He chastises those He loves, but He never forgets His promises, and He never ceases to be good to His sheep.  Isaiah 54 says “the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, says the LORD that has mercy on you."

Do you see then what this means for you?  Some things shall not always be there in your life. Some good things true of your life today will not be always true. But God will always be for you, and being for you He will never cease to be good to you. We won’t always understand what He allows because His ways are higher than our own, and His perspective is eternal. But we have His precious word for it.  He is the One who sent His Son for us, He is the One who chose to adopt us as His own, which means that we can trust Him when He says to us that He loves us and that His compassions for us will never fail.  He is the very best of Fathers and the very best of friends.

Understand what gives David his confidence…. It isn’t David. It is this good Shepherd who, he says, is my Shepherd.  I am His and He is mine.

This then brings David to the end of this psalm. He has told us what is true of this life, but now he looks ahead to glory.  Here was a man who desired a better country and notice the man’s certainty: "I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

Remember that this is a man who has loved the temple, and he has loved it because it is there that he has been allowed to meet with God. It is there too that he has been able - by faith - to gaze on His beauty. But now he speaks of his home in glory where he shall be forever with his God.  And he’s so sure. He says, I will dwell there.

This, of course, was a great part of God’s design.  Sin brought in death, but Christ came to defeat death.  He came to bring home a people for Himself; which is why He pleaded with the Father for us. In the garden He had told the Father that He wanted us to be with Him in glory. It was there that He seemed to remind the Father, “Father - this is your will, that of all which you have given me I should lose nothing.”  And He is risen just as He said. The work is finished... so that we can say, “O death where is thy sting?  O grave where is thy victory?”

Death hasn’t been take from us, but it’s sting has... That, Christian, is your hope, and its not because of what you have done. It is wholly because of what Jesus has done.  If you believe on Jesus, if you can say of Him, "I know that my Redeemer lives" than you can say with the psalmist "I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever."  He is my Shepherd and He will always be my Shepherd.

Remember that (by faith) Jesus Christ is your Shepherd and being your shepherd He will always be your shepherd. Like David you have found that one of the wonders of being a Christian is the joy of being able to talk to Him. You have learned that you can meet with Him, that you can tell Him your sorrows, and you have found that the Holy Spirit who dwells within you is a great comforter. Since that first day when "heaven came down and glory filled" your "soul" you have known something wonderful: that this great God is yours. You know - though you cannot tell why - that He loves you with a love that passes knowledge. You know by His own testimony that your very name is engraved upon the palms of His hand, that He went to Calvary for you and so will bring you home to heaven.

Now - if you can say all that here think of what you will be able to say on that coming wonderful day when instead of seeing through a glass darkly you are able to look on the face of your Redeemer.

What a wonderful thing it shall be to dwell in the house of the LORD forever, to be with our faithful God forever! How wonderful to be with our Saviour forever! How happy we shall be to find ourselves surrounded by those we have loved and to hear their voices mixed with ours once again singing His praise.  

"When all my labors and trials are o’er,
And I am safe on that beautiful shore,
Just to be near the dear Lord I adore,
Will through the ages be glory for me.

When, by the gift of His infinite grace,
I am accorded in heaven a place,
Just to be there and to look on His face,
Will through the ages be glory for me.

Friends will be there I have loved long ago;
Joy like a river around me will flow;
Yet just a smile from my Savior, I know,
Will through the ages be glory for me

Refrain:
Oh, that will be glory for me,
Glory for me, glory for me,
When by His grace I shall look on His face,
That will be glory, be glory for me."