Brian Durfee: Father, thank you for all of us who that you would reveal yourself tonight.
Brian Durfee: That we would have a real encounter with you, with who you are.
Brian Durfee: Lord, open our eyes.
Brian Durfee: Amen.
Brian Durfee: So we've been in this series called Revealed, in which we've been looking at the names of God and how they reveal God's nature as it really as it relates to us.
Brian Durfee: And tonight we're looking at specifically a Jehovah Rohi, God our shepherd.
Brian Durfee: This name comes from Psalm 23, and it's the only place that this word, this name, Jehovah Rohi, appears in the Bible.
Brian Durfee: Now you'll see the concept of God as shepherd throughout the Bible, but this specific name only appears as Psalm 23.
Brian Durfee: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
Brian Durfee: That phrase, the Lord is my shepherd, it's just two words.
Brian Durfee: The first two words of the passage, Yahweh Rohi.
Brian Durfee: And it literally means God my shepherd.
Brian Durfee: Now normally when we focus on when we focus when we start studying the names of God, quite often we focus on the second part of these hyphenated names that reveal who God is to us because we know the first part, Jehovah, it refers to God.
Brian Durfee: So God is God.
Brian Durfee: But tonight I want to take a look at both parts, Jehovah and Rohi, because both parts are important.
Brian Durfee: So as I started looking at this, and I was looking at the name Jehovah Rohi, and then I looked at an interlinear Bible so I could see what the Hebrew actually says.
Brian Durfee: Not that I can read Hebrew, but uh the interlinear gives you the English and the Hebrew together.
Brian Durfee: And by the way, anybody can do this over on Biblehub.com.
Brian Durfee: Um, I realized that Psalm 23 doesn't say Jehovah Rohi, it says Yahweh Rohi.
Brian Durfee: So why have I always heard people say Jehovah in these in these names of God?
Brian Durfee: And is there a difference between Yahweh and Jehovah?
Brian Durfee: And as I talk to people, it looks like everybody everybody had known except for me.
Brian Durfee: But actually, there's no difference.
Brian Durfee: And so to understand where we get the the name Jehovah, we have to go back to Exodus 3 when Moses met God at the Brain Bush.
Brian Durfee: But Moses asked God for his name.
Brian Durfee: God said, I am who I am.
Brian Durfee: Now in Hebrew, that's that's eyah.
Brian Durfee: Now I'm probably gonna massacre any kind of Hebrew, Hebrew language, but just go with me.
Brian Durfee: In Hebrew, that's ayeh from the verb that means to be.
Brian Durfee: It's the one who always is.
Brian Durfee: And later God told Israel, This is my name forever, Yahweh.
Brian Durfee: So it carries the same meaning as I am, the self-existent one, the ever-present one, the faithful one.
Brian Durfee: Now over time, Israel held that name, that name Yahweh, in such reverence that they stopped saying it out loud.
Brian Durfee: They started using Adonai, which means Lord, instead.
Brian Durfee: Centuries later, Jewish scribes called the Masoretes added vowel marks to preserve pronunciation.
Brian Durfee: And they combined the vowels of Adonai with the consonants of Yahweh.
Brian Durfee: And so then after that, Latin scholars, they they read it and transliterated it, and so they were they misread it as Jehovah instead of Yahweh.
Brian Durfee: So literally, Jehovah, Yahweh, and I am, all three of those refer to the same divine name.
Brian Durfee: Each one flows from the from the word meaning to be.
Brian Durfee: It's the name of the eternal, self-existent God who was, who is, and will always be.
Brian Durfee: So now that we know who Yahweh is, or at least we know God his name, then what who is Yahweh?
Brian Durfee: Because we have Yahweh Rahi.
Brian Durfee: Well, who is Yahweh?
Brian Durfee: This is how God introduces himself to Moses in Israel.
Brian Durfee: He uses he used three different phrases in Exodus.
Brian Durfee: He said when he was talking to Moses about this, and he says, I am who I am.
Brian Durfee: He says, I am has sent me to you.
Brian Durfee: And he says, The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.
Brian Durfee: Now this may sound a little bit redundant, you know, because I'm going to tell you the same thing, but I want you to think about it.
Brian Durfee: This is Israel's first encounter with God.
Brian Durfee: Okay, so Moses says, Who are you?
Brian Durfee: Who do I tell them?
Brian Durfee: And so God gives him these three these three names, really two, um, because I am, he uses twice, but he gives them two names to tell Israel who he is.
Brian Durfee: One is Eyeh, which means I am, the self-existent one.
Brian Durfee: God's being depends on nobody else.
Brian Durfee: And then Yahweh, he is the God of your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Brian Durfee: And the reference, even though they they probably weren't too sure about who this Yahweh was, they would recognize the reference back to the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Brian Durfee: Because they know their covenant.
Brian Durfee: And so God is saying, Hey, I'm the covenant faithful one.
Brian Durfee: I'm the one who is who he has always promised to be.
Brian Durfee: God has just declared his greatness and his faithfulness at the same time.
Brian Durfee: And so then, that's what so Moses goes and delivers that delivers that to the to Israel and says, This is who God is, but they still don't know their God.
Brian Durfee: So to prove who he is, God begins by demonstrating that he's greater than all the gods of Egypt through the ten plagues.
Brian Durfee: He exhibits he's greater than anything in nature by parting the Red Sea, and more powerful than one of the most powerful armies, the people who've oppressed them for years by decimating the entire Egyptian army as he parted the parted the Red Sea.
Brian Durfee: And he continues after that in the desert by raining down manna and bringing forth water out of the rock.
Brian Durfee: And we know the stories from the you know from the Exodus.
Brian Durfee: This is Jehovah.
Brian Durfee: This is Yahweh.
Brian Durfee: And through the years, God continued to reveal himself to Israel in different ways, and Israel gave him gave him different names.
Brian Durfee: And so the study we've been doing on Wednesday nights, it's allowing us to see some of those names and what they really mean.
Brian Durfee: And each name came about when a person or group encountered God and then saw him demonstrate his character in some way.
Brian Durfee: So, like with the previous with the previous uh sessions here in the series, we had Jehovah Jirah, the Lord will provide.
Brian Durfee: That comes from Genesis 22, when Abraham names the place where God provided the ram for Isaac's sacrifice.
Brian Durfee: We had Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals.
Brian Durfee: And that's from Exodus 15.
Brian Durfee: God reveals himself as the healer of Israel after bringing them out of Egypt.
Brian Durfee: And then we have Jehovah Nisi, the Lord is my banner.
Brian Durfee: And that comes from Exodus 17, where Moses builds an altar after uh after the victory over Amalek and names it to honor God's victory.
Brian Durfee: And then what we're talking about tonight is Jehovah Rohi, the Lord is my shepherd.
Brian Durfee: And that's from Psalms 23.
Brian Durfee: And you can almost imagine David sitting out on an evening looking up at the stars, and he's he's thinking about the different things that he does as a shepherd of sheep, and he starts realizing God's been doing the same thing with him.
Brian Durfee: And it leads him to declare the Lord as his shepherd, who provides, who guides, who protects him.
Brian Durfee: But I want to I want you to, all the all these different names, there's something in common with all with all of them.
Brian Durfee: They always begin with Jehovah.
Brian Durfee: They begin with Yahweh.
Brian Durfee: He is the great I am.
Brian Durfee: It's in his name.
Brian Durfee: He's the self, self-existent one, forever being, not bound by time or place.
Brian Durfee: And David talks about it in Psalm 90.
Brian Durfee: Before the mountains were born, or you were brought or you brought forth the whole world from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
Brian Durfee: His greatness is in his nature.
Brian Durfee: He's the eternal, majestic creator.
Brian Durfee: Every galaxy that burns with who knows how many suns was lit by his word.
Brian Durfee: He calls each star by name, and he knows your name, each one of us.
Brian Durfee: You know, Isaiah 40 26 says, Lift up your eyes on high and see.
Brian Durfee: Who created these?
Brian Durfee: He who brings out their hosts by number, calling them all by name.
Brian Durfee: Not only that, it his nature is entirely holy and pure.
Brian Durfee: You know, in Isaiah 6, when Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, with the angels crying out, Holy, holy, holy, the whole earth is full of his glory.
Brian Durfee: Isaiah didn't speak, he just kind of crumbled.
Brian Durfee: Holiness is not just this moral perfection, it's the blazing purity of God's being.
Brian Durfee: It's who he is.
Brian Durfee: His greatness is found in his power and his sovereignty.
Brian Durfee: When Job demanded answers after all the things he'd been through, God gave him a tour of creation.
Brian Durfee: God answered him, said, Well, where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Brian Durfee: Tell me if you understand that.
Brian Durfee: It's in Job 38, if you want to look it up.
Brian Durfee: Job realized that the one who rules the lightning doesn't have to answer to man.
Brian Durfee: His greatness is in his covenant faithfulness.
Brian Durfee: The God who measures the universe by the span of his hand stoops to bind himself to dust because his love endures forever.
Brian Durfee: Deuteronomy 7, he says to Israel, Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.
Brian Durfee: And then David echoes it in Psalm 103 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children.
Brian Durfee: And that's what he's saying to us.
Brian Durfee: This is our Jehovah, this is our Yahweh, this is our I am.
Brian Durfee: And it's even found in the revelation of Jesus.
Brian Durfee: The eternal I am stepped into his creation.
Brian Durfee: The God who thundered on Sinai walks among us in grace and truth.
Brian Durfee: The same voice that said, Let there be light, said to the blind man, See.
Brian Durfee: Think about that.
Brian Durfee: Isaiah 40, 25 says, To whom then will you compare me that I should be like him?
Brian Durfee: And says the Holy One.
Brian Durfee: We have this high and exalted God, this self-existent, perfect, pure, and holy, eternal, majestic creator, who is all powerful and completely sovereign, and he allows us to know him in Jesus because he's faithful and full of patient, loving kindness towards us.
Brian Durfee: That's our Jehovah.
Brian Durfee: He is ours not because we claim him, but because he came to us.
Brian Durfee: When we look at Jehovah Jirah, Jehovah Raphah, Jehovah Nisi, Jehovah Rohi, or any of the other names by which he's known, it always begins with Jehovah, Yahweh, the great I Am.
Brian Durfee: That's the first part.
Brian Durfee: And we look at when we look at the part second part of any name of God, we have to remember that it's not just a nice description, it's one facet of our great and mighty God.
Brian Durfee: So now, after beholding Jehovah and all his majesty, the self-existent, all powerful I am, we now see him stoop low as Jehovah Rohi, my shepherd.
Brian Durfee: The infinite God becomes intimately present.
Brian Durfee: And there are so many different ways we can look at Psalm 23.
Brian Durfee: So how about we just start by reading it?
Brian Durfee: A Psalm of David, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not lack.
Brian Durfee: He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul, he leads me a paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Brian Durfee: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you're with me.
Brian Durfee: Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
Brian Durfee: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
Brian Durfee: You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows.
Brian Durfee: Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Brian Durfee: Our great transcendent God cares for every aspect of our lives, and that's the idea of the shepherd.
Brian Durfee: So very quickly, I just want to run through what the shepherd does for us.
Brian Durfee: Because the shepherd here in Psalm 23 is reflected over in the New Testament too.
Brian Durfee: Yahweh, my shepherd, I will not lack.
Brian Durfee: Jesus says in John 10, I am the good shepherd.
Brian Durfee: The good shepherd lays his life down for the sheep.
Brian Durfee: He gives us rest, and he provides for our basic needs like food.
Brian Durfee: We see that in lie down in green pastures.
Brian Durfee: Matthew 11 28 says, Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Brian Durfee: But then in Matthew 6 2 33, when he's talking about worrying about what we'll eat and what what clothes we'll have, he says, But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be taken care of.
Brian Durfee: All these things will be added to you.
Brian Durfee: The next phrase he leaves us beside still waters, which is a place of refreshment and safety and peace.
Brian Durfee: You know, sheep are cautious animals.
Brian Durfee: They have poor depth perception, and so when there's fast or noisy moving water, it looks dangerous to them, and they can't judge how deep it is, and the movement really can make them feel very disoriented.
Brian Durfee: Not only that, wool is pretty heavy when it gets wet.
Brian Durfee: And so if they fall in, they're going to drown pretty quickly.
Brian Durfee: And the shepherds in ancient times knew this, so they often dug small trenches or channels that would divert the stream into a calm pool, and they'd wait until that settled down, and then they'd let their sheep drink.
Brian Durfee: You know, we go through a lot of storms in our lives, circumstances that are hard that we can't figure out, that we've got to deal with.
Brian Durfee: And uh, and how do we deal with that?
Brian Durfee: Well, our shepherd is the one that provides a source of st of calm and stillness where we can receive for him from him.
Brian Durfee: And it's in that place that he restores our soul.
Brian Durfee: He also gives us guidance, he leads us in paths of righteousness.
Brian Durfee: And I love Proverbs 16:9.
Brian Durfee: The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.
Brian Durfee: That means I can't mess things up.
Brian Durfee: Well, I can, but he's going to get me back on track.
Brian Durfee: He's faithful to bring us right back into step with him, um, into paths of righteousness.
Brian Durfee: He gives us peace in the valley.
Brian Durfee: And but David says, I will fear no evil.
Brian Durfee: In the darkest of times, we can have peace.
Brian Durfee: It may not be it may not feel very peaceful, but as we look at him and focus on him until nothing else matters, it's there that we realize our peace because he is with us.
Brian Durfee: And that's a key thing.
Brian Durfee: He is with us.
Brian Durfee: Psalm Philippians 4, 5 through 7.
Brian Durfee: Most people start that passage, don't be anxious for anything.
Brian Durfee: But actually, it starts the phrase before: the Lord is at hand, the Lord's here, the Lord's with us.
Brian Durfee: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything about prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
Brian Durfee: And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Brian Durfee: The reason our hearts and minds are guarded, and we have peace which passes all understanding, is because our Savior is with us.
Brian Durfee: And we know that he hears us when we stop being anxious in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let our requests be made known to him.
Brian Durfee: And Isaiah 26, 3 kind of sums it up.
Brian Durfee: You keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.
Brian Durfee: So he gives us his very presence.
Brian Durfee: You know, that David just says, For you are with me.
Brian Durfee: But that's that phrase, you are with me, carries so much.
Brian Durfee: All through the scripture, God says that he goes with us or he'll never leave us.
Brian Durfee: He's he's here with us.
Brian Durfee: He said it to Jacob in Genesis, to Moses in Exodus, to Israel in Deuteronomy, to Joshua in Joshua, and to Solomon in 1 Chronicles.
Brian Durfee: In John 14, Jesus says that he will not leave us as orphans, but makes his home with us.
Brian Durfee: And there's loads more through scripture, which includes a pretty overt one in Matthew 28, 20, where he says, I'm with you always to the end of the age.
Brian Durfee: But you know, he's not just here while we're here on earth.
Brian Durfee: Um, and I'm getting ahead of myself.
Brian Durfee: He also brings comfort in the midst of dark circumstances.
Brian Durfee: Your rod and your staff comfort me.
Brian Durfee: The rod the shepherd carries is for protection and occasionally for correction.
Brian Durfee: But you know, it's kind of comforting knowing that nothing is going to touch me unless Jesus allows it.
Brian Durfee: He's got a big old rod up there, and that's not for beating people down, it's for beating the enemy off.
Brian Durfee: And the staff that he has, the rod, why would it bring comfort?
Brian Durfee: Because it guides, he uses it to guide the sheep.
Brian Durfee: He pulls them from danger and rescues them.
Brian Durfee: And something else I learned is often the shepherds would walk with their staff out so the sheep the sheep could could see it, and it reminded them that he's with them.
Brian Durfee: So then the next couple of phrases all fit together.
Brian Durfee: He nourishes us, he prepares a table before us, he anoints our head with oil.
Brian Durfee: He welcomes us in, he consecrates us, and he and he refreshes us.
Brian Durfee: In ancient times, anointing with oil had several meanings.
Brian Durfee: One, it was an act actually it was actually an act of hospitality.
Brian Durfee: Second, it was used to consecrate someone, to set them apart for a divine purpose.
Brian Durfee: But third, it was also used for healing and refreshing with sheep.
Brian Durfee: The sheep had these pesky flies that would be around their head, they'd fly up their nostrils, pretty gross.
Brian Durfee: But they would they could actually they could actually kill the sheep.
Brian Durfee: They're a real threat.
Brian Durfee: But the shepherd would anoint their head with oil, which would keep the flies off.
Brian Durfee: Our Savior anoints anoints us with oil.
Brian Durfee: And then he says, My cup overflows.
Brian Durfee: Or you could rephrase that, he gives me more than I can ask or imagine.
Brian Durfee: In Ephesians 1:7 to 8, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.
Brian Durfee: And then catch this, which he lavished upon us.
Brian Durfee: So every time I read that word lavished upon us, that phrase, I think of a uh football coach who the team has just won the game and they come running up behind him with the big Gatorade and they dump it over him, and you see this thing.
Brian Durfee: But I but then I think of that, and then I think, well, what about Niagara Falls?
Brian Durfee: He he has just stuck me at the bottom of Niagara Falls of His grace, and he just lavishes it.
Brian Durfee: He dumps this, dumps all that grace on us, on me.
Brian Durfee: And then Ephesians 3.20 says, Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly all than than we can let me read this again.
Brian Durfee: Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we can ask or think, according to the power at work within us.
Brian Durfee: Who is that power working within us?
Brian Durfee: It's the Holy Spirit.
Brian Durfee: Who is the Holy Spirit?
Brian Durfee: He's Yahweh, Jehovah, I am.
Brian Durfee: He is with me.
Brian Durfee: This whole theme of Jesus with me, we uh I've got to keep going.
Brian Durfee: His loving kindness is always with us because you know, David's got this whole crescendo happening in Psalm 23.
Brian Durfee: He gets to the end of it and says, Surely love goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.
Brian Durfee: And one of those words is hesed, which Mark has a whole sermon about, or just about.
Brian Durfee: Um it means loving kindness.
Brian Durfee: That's the closest word we've got in English to understand what that means.
Brian Durfee: You know, Romans 8, 38 and 39, I think, I think Paul tried to capture that idea.
Brian Durfee: He said, I'm for I'm sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor death, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Brian Durfee: Surely goodness and mercy will follow us, because it's all based on Him.
Brian Durfee: And then He provides for our future.
Brian Durfee: It's not just about this world, but David David says, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Brian Durfee: You know, in John 10, 27 and 28, Jesus said, My sh my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they will follow me, and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
Brian Durfee: And then in John 14, he says, And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
Brian Durfee: So tonight, when you think about Jehovah Rohi, I want you to remember this.
Brian Durfee: The shepherd who holds your heart is the same Lord who holds the stars.
Brian Durfee: This is our God, both Jehovah and Rohi, God my shepherd, awesome and intimate.
Brian Durfee: The same God who spoke galaxies into being is the one who leaves you beside still waters.
Brian Durfee: The voice that thundered on Sinai is the same voice that calls you by name.
Brian Durfee: The hand that set the stars in place is the hand that lifts you up when you fall.
Brian Durfee: The infinite I am, Jehovah, Almighty Creator, stoops low to be Rohi, your shepherd.
Brian Durfee: His greatness means he can, and his love means he will.
Brian Durfee: Every star in the sky declares his power, but Psalm twenty-three shows his heart.
Brian Durfee: He is both the God who reigns above all, and the shepherd who walks beside you.
Brian Durfee: His majesty protects you, his mercy restores you, the Almighty has made himself your companion.
Brian Durfee: The one who is awesome beyond comprehension is also the one who knows your name, calls you his own, and walks every single valley with you.
Brian Durfee: And that's why we can say with confidence The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not lack.