Life with the Shepherd

What does it really mean to say, "The Lord is my Shepherd"?

Psalm 23 is one of the most well-known passages in the Bible, but it's far more than a comforting poem. It is a powerful reminder that when God becomes our Shepherd, everything changes. We no longer have to navigate life alone. He provides, leads, restores, protects, and walks with us through every season—even the darkest valleys.

In this message, we'll walk verse by verse through Psalm 23 and discover why understanding God as our Shepherd can transform the way we live, trust, and face life's challenges.

Whether you're feeling overwhelmed, searching for purpose, struggling with anxiety, or simply wanting to grow closer to God, I pray this teaching encourages your heart and strengthens your faith.

In this message you'll discover:
• Why "The Lord is my Shepherd" changes everything
• How God provides and restores our souls
• What it means to trust God in life's valleys
• How to find lasting peace in uncertain times
• Why God's goodness and mercy pursue us every day

If this message encourages you, I'd love for you to subscribe and join me as we learn how to renew our lives one step at a time through God's Word.

"The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want." — Psalm 23:1

Thank you for watching. May God bless you and remind you today that you are never walking alone.

#Psalm23 #TheLordIsMyShepherd #BibleStudy #ChristianFaith #Faith #Jesus #Hope #Peace #TrustGod #ChristianEncouragement #LifeWithMax #RenewYourLife

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Thank you for tuning in. My name is Max Marcou, and I just got done speaking at my church on Psalm 23. I titled it Life with the Shepherd. And let's get right into it and I'll explain it. So, Psalm 23 in the Old Testament, the Lord is my shepherd. I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows. He leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. David is the one writing this. David was a shepherd boy. He later became king, but he understands that the sheep need a shepherd. And right now, as he's writing this, he's saying, God, you are my shepherd. Such a beautiful picture. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect me and comfort me. You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil, my cup overflows with blessings. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever. Well, I, like anyone who reads this, uh, is trying to get uh some something that I can uh connect with for today and for today's life and for whatever you're going through. I hope that you get something out of this. So I broke it down into a bunch of small points and we'll reference each part of the psalm here. Now, David, again, he is very familiar with leading animals and protecting them, guiding them, making sure that they are they are good. And I became a Christian and realized that God is my good shepherd and he does help me in practical ways. And if it's practical, it sure does take a lot of the confusion out of life and helps us to align with truth so that when something else is trying to lead us, that is the wrong voice, uh, or just the wrong voice on the inside. Some people are uh kind of controlled by fear or money or pleasure or a public opinion, whatever it may be. I want to always default back to that the Lord is my shepherd. I encourage you to consider that for your own life. Sure, we I gotta get up and go to work tomorrow and deal with just the regular stuff of life and all the things that many of you can relate to. There's real stuff that we have to deal with. But the timeless truth of us seeing that we can benefit greatly by having a life with the shepherd, I think that's something to consider. So I encourage you to at least consider what I'm sharing here. So now I'm gonna break it down to a bunch of small points. Number one, the shepherd provides. The Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need. Sometimes envy can uh sneak up on us, and we could wish that we had this or that, you know, different house, different car, a house, a car. You know, really, I mean, I've been there. Um, money for you know, a night out or a vacation when you see other people doing that and you just don't have the resource, a relationship that you want, whatever it may be. Having the Lord as my shepherd doesn't mean that I don't want to succeed and have good things. No, no. I just mean that the Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need, is a is a place where I can come to and say, it's okay. I may not have everything I want right now, but I have all that I need. And that is I have a relationship with God, and He is going to be there to help me. We'll keep going, and you'll see more and more why. Number two, the shepherd gives rest. He makes me lie down in green pastures. I know for me, when I'm exhausted, that's when I'm at my worst, meaning I don't make the best decisions, I uh don't have the most patience, and I you know can be in danger of having a bad attitude. So I have to get rest. Sometimes I'll be like, you know what? If I I worked all day and I have to work in in the evening too, if I can just sneak in a half hour nap, sometimes it's a complete game changer. So getting some rest, it can be uh something that's so you know practical. And some of you may say, Max, that sounds real nice, but I don't have time for that. Hey, I hear you plenty of times. I have not had time for that either. But realizing that God will eventually be able to help us to navigate our schedule so that we can get some rest is something that I don't want to lose hope in. Number three, the shepherd restores. He leads me beside peaceful streams, he renews my strength. Um, two things there. Sheep, they don't like to be around a rushing river. They get nervous. Peaceful stream, that's a good place. That's where they can get good uh you know, a drink of water and they can also relax. If you've ever been out in nature, you if you hang out with me, you know I love to get out in the woods and gang along the Charles River. Uh, out in like Wellesley or Dover, just west of Boston, where I typically go to do my nature photography. As soon as I get down there by the peaceful river, I just feel the tenseness in my body just release. I swear if I had a blood pressure machine out there, my blood pressure would be lower. Why? It's just something about being out there around the peaceful waterways. And um, he renews my strength. I don't uh have a whole lot of time off, but I do try to make little bits of time to just get out there on a break. And I don't I don't go into the wilderness with headphones on, although I obviously love music. If you're listening to this, I'm in my studio here with all kinds of all the fun toys, all the instruments. Um, but I love the sound of nature and connecting with God through a simple little prayer to saying, God, thank you for this, thank you for this time, thank you for all that you've provided. Um, having an attitude of thanks and being out there in nature, it totally renews my strength. Number four, the shepherd leads. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. I used to do whatever I wanted to do. And I think that's how a lot of people live their lives. They it's whatever they feel. The problem with that is that uh you may feel uh the wrong kind of feels. And when I connect with the shepherd God, I want to know where is he leading me? And it's not about where I go uh that, you know, according to my own will, I want to go on the paths and make the decisions based upon what I believe God is guiding me to do in the best interest of everyone, in love, in kindness, in gentleness, and being somebody that is self-controlled. So he guides me along the right paths, bringing honor to his name. I had a bad reputation when I was young. So when I became a pastor, and even if I never became a pastor, um, just I started to conduct myself with a lot more kindness, a lot more patience. And my attitude was better. And people would ask me, well, what happened? You changed. You're not the same kind of person you were when you were younger. Well, that brings honor to God, God. And that's an opportunity for me to just share my simple testimony. It's not that I ever push uh God or the Bible uh onto anyone. I just want to live a life that I feel is is honoring God with my life. And if people want to know about that, I am happy to share, but I'll never be pushy. Around here in New England, people do not like uh pushy people. Number five, the shepherd walks with us through valleys. Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. What's a dark valley that you have been through or are going through? Well, there's lots of things in our life that can feel challenging, dark, scary. And knowing that God is there for us can certainly help us to just manage our emotions and push forward. Because if you're in a dark valley, if you're in a dark place, a bad season of your life, we we got to keep pressing forward so we don't stay there. And having that idea that the shepherd walks with us through the valleys, then you don't feel alone. And I am a broken record. I am a broken record on certain things when it comes to uh what I believe really, really works. And that is not to be religious, but to have a personal relationship with God. If you and I are friends and we hang out, uh we get to know each other. And a relationship with God is hanging out with God. I love a good study Bible, spending time, especially in the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and really getting to know not just what Jesus did, not just what would Jesus do if he was me today, although that's really good. But I want to know the heart of Jesus. And when I spend time with him in the stories, over and over, not to be read once and done, but over and over, I start to see my life, hopefully, representing that kind of way of life, living like Jesus. What would Jesus do? Well, that's what I should do. All right, let's keep going. Then, let's see. The shepherd protects your rod and staff, protect and comfort me. Picture David, shepherd boy, and he's got one of those big rods with the hook on the top, and uh a sheep falls into a stream and it can't get up the bank, and maybe it's in danger of drowning. David could take that that hook on his his shepherd's cane and hook it around the neck, the neck or the leg, whatever, and bring that sheep up to safety. So that hook is to protect. Then there's the other end. There's the other end. I'm gonna imagine if I was a shepherd, I'm pretty sure in biblical times, the end of their shepherd staff was was pointed. Because let's say a wolf is coming to attack the one of the sheep. David the shepherd boy could poke that and say, hey, not happening on my watch. These are my sheep, and you you're gonna have to find lunch somewhere else. So the idea is that God is there to help save us from ourselves. Sometimes we slip and fall, but he's also there to say, Hey, don't don't don't try to harm my child. You and I can be uh children of God. It's a choice because if we don't connect with him because of we're just we don't make time for him, uh, then we may feel very distant. But I think the reality is, especially as I've been with people on their deathbeds, they all feel a connection to God at some point, especially when things are forced to slow down. So why wait is my point when you can reap the benefits of having God as our shepherd at every stage of your life. So you know, I love it when young people like teenagers in high school get a hold of this concept, because then they start to make better decisions and they don't waste a ton of time. And oh, that's a story for another day, but something to think about. All right, uh, the shepherd pursues. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life. That's a biblical truth that we see all through the scriptures, and it's important to remind ourselves that God, He has unfailing love. Break that down. Unfailing love for you. It's still it's just like a relationship with somebody here on the earth. We can reject that or run away from that, or we can embrace that. Unfailing love that will produce pursue me all the days of my life. I love just thinking about this truth over our lives. Last one, the shepherd brings us home. I will live in the house of the Lord forever. One day, life will be done here, and I'm not worried about what's happening uh with me and my soul after life on the earth here. And unfortunately, if you are gripped by fear of of death and the end of life, it can rob you of life. I've seen many people um just robbed, meaning like they're just terrified of that day and they think about it all the time instead of enjoying today. We don't know about tomorrow. So why worry about tomorrow? We're gonna live the best we can to be healthy, both physically, emotionally, spiritually, so that we don't have to worry about that. When I hang around guys in their 90s, and thankfully I've had some really close friends in their 90s, um, they know that they they don't have a whole lot of years left. Mathematically, they they're not stupid. They understand the stats. They've already outlived the average person. And they're not scared of death. And I remember just listening to some of them, and they were so full of just life and not worried about you know the afterlife because they knew that they had a place in heaven all scheduled and booked for them because they had invited God into their life and they had a tight relationship with them, with God. Them and God had a tight relationship, and it's just beautiful. Now, I'll finish up. John chapter 10. So now we're in the New Testament. Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for his sheep. And you can do a whole study, and we'll do it sometime soon, on what Jesus really did for us in sacrificing his life. But he's saying, I am the good shepherd. So when you read the Gospels and you're reading about Jesus and how he's lived through the scriptures and shown up for people that many would say didn't deserve his time or a miracle from him. And you see how much love and grace he gives to them, boy, it'll it changed me, I'll say that. Last scripture, John chapter 10, verse 27 through 28. Jesus says, My sheep listen to my voice, I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. I'm so grateful that you tuned in to this show. Because when I got the beautiful revelation that God is there for me as a good shepherd, my life changed. And because my life changed, I was able to conduct myself in ways that prior to that I wasn't capable of. I needed a higher power in my life. I needed all the things that we just read about in Psalm 23, and I'm so grateful that's available for you. And I do encourage you to read Psalm 23 over and over and allow it to sink in, not just to your head, but to your heart. And when you have the shepherd, God, in your life, you will have provision, you will have uh a peace that really just sometimes doesn't make sense. Others will be having the same kind of situational factors, same kind of day as you, and they'll be living in fear and you'll be in peace. It's amazing. You'll have direction when others are just wandering, wasting time. You'll have hope, and I'm just believing that if you take a little time to get into studying the Bible for yourself, praying and talking with God, listening to God through the scriptures and through just sitting out in nature by the river. Maybe I'll see you out there. I believe that uh your life is gonna improve. So I'm gonna say a little prayer and thank you again for for listening to this. Heavenly Father, thank you for being the shepherd. Thank you that you know each of us by name. Help us, Lord, to get to know you better and that we would follow you and learn from you. Help us, Lord, that we would be intentional about our time and we wouldn't allow the days just to to start and end without taking moments to to connect with you. I pray, Lord, for anyone who's been suffering with big challenges, that this psalm would be something that they could refer to over and over again until they get through that dark valley and on to uh a better season. I pray that you'd be with them each day in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you so much for tuning in. My name is Max Marcou. And if you want any more information, you can go to elevationchapel.org. If you're ever in the Boston area, we're about 20 minutes west of Boston in Newton and stop by. I'd love to meet you. I really hope that Psalm 23 becomes something that you refer to often, even if it's just a on a coffee break, just to kind of recalibrate yourself and give yourself a reminder that life with the shepherd is it's pretty cool. All right, everybody. Hope you have a good rest of your day.