Turn if you would to Psalm twenty three. Psalm twenty three. Look at verse one. Let's read it says The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters, he restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Lord God, please add the blessing to the ring of your word. Help me not to get in the way. Help me to say exactly the words you want me to say. And I pray for the prayers of these people and for this preaching and for this preacher that you give us fruit for our labors. Visible fruit. Help us to be encouraged. In Jesus' name, amen. And you may be seated. The Psalms, the whole book of Psalms depicts God in a few different uh shows tells us that God is our shield, God is our rock, God is our king, God is our judge, God is our refuge, God is our fortress, God is our avenger, God is our creator, God is our deliverer, God is our healer, God is our protector, God is our provider, God is our redeemer. That ought to be enough to make a prisbe Lutheran chap. But on top of all that, he says, God is my shepherd. A tender picture of God. A special, loving, caring picture of God. David knew what it was to be a hero for the sheep. He was a shepherd himself. No wonder he wrote such a beautiful poem here. I found some notes in my old Bible. This one right here. This I'm using my original preaching Bible that I this used to be brown, and I had it recovered, and I don't use it anymore. And the very reason a minute ago, I saw one of the pages are coming out, and I don't want to get to where I can't use it anymore. But I I was I opened this up to use it this morning and I found some old notes, a simple outline that I had written. I don't know where I got it. Probably listen, there's nothing new under the sun, and uh, but uh a simple outline of this psalm. Although it's not the outline I'm gonna be using today, it is a great summation of the shepherd psalm. I want to share it with you. This psalm says three things the shepherd lives for me, the shepherd dies for me, and the shepherd is coming back for me. I should have preached that, brother Fred. Now, I've got good news for you. The sermon I'm preaching for you today only has two points, but 50 subpoints each. It's gonna be good. My outline today has two main points of how this psalm reveals the character of the great shepherd. This is good. Here we go. Number one, the Lord is a personal shepherd. The Lord is a personal shepherd. He did not say the Lord is a shepherd, he did not say the Lord is the shepherd. He said the Lord is my shepherd. My shepherd. God is not a distant deity, he's a present God. God is not an ethereal essence, God is an intimate individual who is brokenhearted when you are brokenhearted, who is angry with you when you have done wrong, who is happy with you at all times, who loves you at all times, who keeps you at all times. God is personally interested and invested in you. And if you don't believe that, let me quote what I did Friday night at the closing. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. God is to be known. God didn't start at all and then step back and just see how it played out. No, my friend, God directs everything that happens. And he is with you. He is, number one, our sustainer. Because the Bible says, this Psalm says, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. That is, he feeds us. Number one, it's a comfort to it's better than sleeping on the dirt, I guess, and the sand or the rocks. It's it's better to lay down on grass. But the reason they would lead them through grass is for feeding of the sheep. He sustains us by food. And he leads me beside still waters. He provides for us our sustenance of drinking. Sheep will not drink from rushing water. You may have heard that and know that, but sheep will not drink from rushing water. It scares them, and they're very easily scared. And it is said that shepherds in the old days used to, and still today probably, I don't know, but they would lead the sheep through pastures, and then when it was time for them, they were needing something to drink. If the only place there was a babbling brook that was running, that the sheep would be scared to come up to, that the shepherd would lead them to it, lay across the stream and let it pool up beside his body, so it'd be calm water for them to drink by. Now listen to me. Are you listening? Is the Lord your shepherd? Is he your shepherd? And if not, what are you gonna do about it? How can you know? How can you know if the Lord is your shepherd? Are there's a few things, there's a few signs. Are you walking in paths of righteousness? Now, again, you gotta understand. I'm not saying that I didn't say in the paths of perfection. None of us can do that. We still have this old stinking flesh, but you're walking the best you can. Your desire is to stay right in the middle of the paths of righteousness. The Lord is not your shepherd because you walk in righteousness, you walk in righteousness because the Lord is your shepherd, and that is where he's leading you. And then, number two, now you listen to me. This is this is preaching. You you think the Psalm 23 is all sweet and kind and nice. You got to consider this when you consider Psalm 23. Do you follow the shepherd? Are you following the shepherd? John 10, 26 says, But you do not believe because you are not of my sheep. As I said to you, my sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. Jesus, speaking to some people who were claiming he is Lord, said, Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things I tell you to do? And what he was saying is, I'm not your Lord. You you you you can't say that I'm Lord and then disobey me at every turn. A sheep will follow the shepherd, they know his voice, and they will follow him. John 10 is wonderful. You ought to go read that afterwards about sheep and Jesus being our shepherd. The Lord, number two. I'm already to my second point here. The Lord is a present shepherd. The Lord is a personal shepherd, and the Lord is a present. Thou art with me. That ought to be enough, shouldn't it? That ought to be enough, Brother Freddie. He's with us. Well, if he's with us, I don't have anything to worry about. But we do. Why in the world? Why am I so thick? He's with me. He's with me when I'm sad, he's with me when I'm glad, he's with me when I'm mad, he's with me when I'm bad. He's gonna be with us, and he's gonna be with me when I die, too. Thou art with me. In verses one through three, he speaks in the third person. Have you ever noticed this about the 23rd Psalm? In verses one through three, he speaks in the third person. He makes me to lie down, he leads me besides the water, he restores me, my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. But starting in verse 4, he forgets about you and him and us, and he turns to the shepherd and begins to speak in the second person. Thou art with me. I don't know. That thrilled me right there. Thou art with me. Maybe because of the excitement of the message, he turns to speak to the more beloved audience. Or maybe because of the subject matter is the time of death. Maybe he's thinking and getting close to that time where he's going to be crossing over old Jordan. And instead of putting his eyes on himself and on others and thinking about what others need and what he needs, he turns and talks to the shepherd himself. Oh, how much closer the child wants to get to his father when the paths grow darker? Isn't it? Number one, or A in your outline, in his presence there is peace. He's going through this valley, but notice he's not running through it. He's walking. Not getting in a hurry. Not getting how many of y'all have been scared? You've been in your house at night when it's dark, and maybe you heard you heard something. Maybe the freezer drops some ice, but you forget about your ice maker, and you know, and you're walking through there, and that thing drops, and you go. None of that. No, he ain't sprinting, he ain't running and jumping into bed, he's walking. Why? Because he trusts the shepherd. Thou art with me, so I can walk. I can enjoy this coolness in this valley. There's no need for rush or retreat when you are with King Jesus the shepherd. Number two, he says, Walk, but then he says, through the valley. Now notice he didn't say in the valley, he said through it. He didn't say, This is what you'd pray if you got in if you were in the valley and you were down cast. I'm in the valley, I'm in the valley. No, you're not. You're going through the valley. You're going through it. Spurgeon said, Death is not the house but the porch, not the goal, but the passage to it. Let it storms break on the mountain. In the valley is where the cool waters flows. In the valley is where the grass and the flower grows. The path is smoothest through the valley. So enjoy it. Understand that it is not something to be feared. A valley is not something to be negative. If the shepherd is with you. And I want to tell you, I don't care what in the world your heart is telling you right now, I don't care what your mind is telling you right now, if you know Jesus, if you have called on the name of the Lord, He is with you. I don't care if all the people of the world are turning against you. I don't care if the church condemns you. I don't care if your boss is going to fire you. I'm telling you, the shepherd is never leaving your side. You know the old, the old uh illustration I give about the old couple driving down the road in their old truck, and they look over at a young couple, someone like Aiden and Lily. And that girl is all snuggled up against him, and he's driving. He's got his arm around her. An old man's sitting behind the wheel, and the woman is sitting, his old wife is sitting on the other side. And she said, Remember when we used to be like that? And he looked at her and said, I hadn't moved. Now, if there's a distance between you and the shepherd, he hadn't moved. But I want to tell you, that distance is just perception. It is just guilt. I remember as a kid, I'd done something wrong. I was enjoying, I don't know what I was doing, uh, burning something, throwing rocks at some. I don't know what I was doing, but I was doing something I knew my mother would have whooped me if she knew. Well, then after I got finished, the thought happened. What if mama finds out? And I tried to stay in the backyard to the very last minute until she called. And you know how to easy try? I want to tell you something. It never did. Those bad things I did never separated me from the fact that I was the son of Stanley and Peggy Owen. And certainly, and by the way, they're human. And God is divine and his word is true. And if he said, I will never leave you nor forsake you, my friend, that's better. That's more sure than money in the bank. That's not a good illustration, is it? Shadow of death. Throw a walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Spurgeon said, the shadow of a dog cannot bite. I wish I was like Spurgeon. The shadow of a dog cannot bite, the shadow of a sword cannot kill, the shadow of death cannot destroy us. Remember, this is me. That's all the Spurgeon. Remember that after coming through the shadow, we come into the marvelous light. Number two, or B, in his presence there is protection. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Now, two things that the rod and staff do. Number one, they fight off the animals that would kill the sheep. They fight off the predators. And sometimes when a sheep gets in a precarious place, that's why the hook. We had a shepherd running around here all week. What was his name? Collie. Yes. Collie looked a lot like uh Collier over here. Uh anyway, but he uh he had a had like that staff up there, that guy's got. Well, the reason they had that is so he could hook it around the sheep's front legs if he fell off of a cliff or something, he couldn't get to him, and he could pull the sheep back to himself. The other end was for whipping the fire out of him when he kept going astray. That's right. They say that even some sheep, that what they would do if they kept going astray and going astray, they'd break their legs and carry them around their shoulders till the legs healed. I don't know about that. I don't know if that's what is in mind here. All I know is this is God has a rod and a staff, and if we need discipline, he chastens those whom he loves. If we need help, he reaches down his hand for me. And if we need protected from the enemy, God is always there. The rod to defend from the wild animals. Why should I fear the wolf, the bear, the lion, the dragon, the devil, my shepherd, is greater than all. Greater is he that's in me than he that is in the world. And his staff, when a sheep falls off of a cliff. I've already explained that. I got ahead of myself there. His rod and a staff. This is his presence. In his presence there is protection. See, in his presence there is provision. Verse 5. In verse 5, God is pictured as a welcoming host. You prepare a table. The life of the righteous has purpose as opposed to the wicked. Psalm 37, 23 says, The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delights in his ways. I'm going to tell you, God does not cause us to stand sin or to choose wrong things, but I'm telling you, he knew they were going to happen. He could have kept you from it if he wanted to. But those things happen. He lets you do it for a purpose and a plan. I don't know what it is. We'll find out. But everything, what's the verse? Romans 8 28. All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. He has anointed my head. This is a picture we have this deal of, you know, we have a picture of anointing that the you know the preacher puts a little olive oil on his finger and puts some on your head and prays for you, or whatever we see the some of the other churches they will anoint, put a cross, you know, and that kind of stuff. And and uh I tell you what, I remember one day, and I didn't realize this practice of Ash Wednesday. This is a Catholic thing. And uh I went into this store, and everybody in there had black crosses or plus signs on their head. I thought it was the plague. I didn't know what was going on. Mark of the beast, I didn't know what in the world. That's legalistic cog wash. But that that's the way they anoint. I'm gonna tell you something. That's nothing. Let me let me ask you something. A hundred years ago, what do you think they used for deodorant? Brother Fred, what'd they use for deodorant a hundred years ago? I mean, you think about it. I mean, what'd they do? What'd they do 150, 50, 1,000, 2,000 years ago? You didn't have deodorant. And you'd go days and you didn't have hot water. You go days sometimes without being able to take a proper good bath out in the cold stream. I'm telling you, people stunk to high heaven back then. Well, what if you had a big dinner and you wanted to be nice? Well, you got everybody got as clean as they could before they come, and just in case, when you come through the door, they would pour oil over you. And it wasn't olive oil, it was uh it was flour, uh not flower, uh flowers, rose, lilies, whatever. My brother-in-law went to Egypt and they found oils in the Egyptian tombs, oils that had been there for thousands of years, and it was still in the bottles. It had not gone away because it didn't have alcohol, it was just oil. And it sat there for thousands of years and they opened up and and smelled and they recreated, and he had several bottles, beautifully smelling. And we had a lady come one of us to pray over her and uh anoint us with anointing her head with oil. And I had my ideas about all that stuff. I mean, I'll anoint you with I'll slather you down, whatever. You want, but uh, but whatever. But we use that oil on that lady's head, but they would pour it on your head. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Y'all have always you've heard this, what this means, to let them know that they were welcome. If you were welcome in the house, they would pour your cup until it just spilled over, which meant we're glad you're here. But if they poured it and they stopped about a millimeter before the top, it meant it's time for you to go home. And he said, In your presence, God, my cup runneth over. In his presence, lastly, there is permanence. Surely goodness. This takes care of our steps. Surely mercy or loving kindness is what that word means, takes care of our stumbles. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Goodness takes care of our steps. Mercy takes care of our stumbles, and the house of the Lord forever takes care of our future. Our future. In 1572, as John Knox, the great reformer, lay dying and friends gathered round his bed, one of them begged that if all was well when he was crossing the river of death, he would give them a sign. And this poem was written of that occasion. That occasion. John Knox, the great man of God, the preacher, the Bible translator, lay dying, and this was recorded about his death. Grim in his deep death anguish, the stern old champion lay, and the locks upon his pillow were floating thin and gray, and visionless and voiceless with quick and labored breath, he waited for his exit through life's dark portal death. Hast thou the hope of glory? They bowed to catch the thrill that through some languid token might be responsive still. Nor watched they long nor waited for some obscure reply. He raised a clay cold finger and pointed to the sky. Thus the death angel found him, what time his bow he bent to give the struggling spirit its last enfranchisement. Thus the angel left him. What time earth's bonds were riven, the cold, stark, stiffening finger still pointing up to heaven. Wow. The man who married Christian I, his daddy was ninety-something years old, he and he got cancer and was laid dying. And he said, he woke up and he looked at Troy and he said, Look at all those Easter lilies. Look at all those flowers. And he began to sing when the roll is called up yonder. I'm telling you, the Lord is my shepherd. And if he weren't, I would be out. I would be, I would be eaten by the wolves. I'd be gone. But he keeps me. He's my personal savior and shepherd. My favorite one of my favorite verses is in Luke. And it says, Fear not, little flock. He's our shepherd. Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's, he's our father. It is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. He's our king. And he's gladly that. And he saves. And if you don't know Jesus as your shepherd today, you can know him today. You call out upon his name by faith, believing he is the shepherd, believing he is the king, believing he is your father, believing he has died for your sin, and trusting in that, turning from sin and self, and turn to him by faith, and he will be your shepherd, and you will be his sheep.