Am I just another sheep to God or something more?
WATCH
Hearing the Shepherd, 3 of 4 from January 25, 2025
“When Jesus is our Shepherd He is bold with His generous grace.”
Psalm 23:5 by Michael Lockstampfor (@miklocks)
SUMMARY
This sermon continues our series on Psalm 23, focusing on verse 5. Pastor Michael explained that this verse represents a shift from the shepherd-sheep imagery to a host welcoming an honored guest into his tent, demonstrating that God sees us as more than just sheep—we are valued guests at His table. Even though enemies surround us, we can feast confidently because Jesus has defeated death and disarmed all spiritual powers, showing His bold and generous grace toward those who follow Him.
REFLECTION & DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
💬 Whose presence most occupies our attention?
💬 How are we embracing the honor Jesus extends to us?
💬 Where are the areas we resist Jesus’ grace?
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It is such a joy to sing together. Like, y' all sound great. And I don't say that to puff you up. I say that because, like, I can tell you're not singing to me. And so I just feel privileged to be able to hear your prayers and pray together with you, especially Morning.
We've been in a series for the last couple of weeks just going real, real slow through a psalm that we call. It's numbered Psalm 23. And it's A. It's a familiar psalm to many of us in the church, most of us in the church. And it's also relatively familiar to folks that don't come to church very often.
It's frequently used in funerals or if somebody's really, really sick. Folks that don't really know where to go in scripture or how to deal with it, like, they will take this psalm and kind of like use it in times of crises. And so what we've done as we're starting off the new year, with all of the pressures and stresses that come with transitions. If you're in a transition series, transition period. Words are hard if you're in a transition period or if you're just trying to keep up with everything that keeps coming.
Like, we started back at school and now we're like, immediately back in the rhythm. Like, here's just a moment. Here's a quiet oasis to sit by and to reflect. Not just what these verses have to teach us for when we're dying or when someone has died, but, like, what these verses are going to show us for how we live day to day. And I hope it's been helpful to you.
It's been encouraging to me and nourishing to me. And Pastor Oren and Lakeland was even texting in our pastor's chat last night. He's like, this has been so good. I just love what we've been doing. So it's been encouraging to me.
I'm hopeful that that has been helpful to you as well. And so, yeah, let's. As we continue on, let's just pause for a moment and pray one more time. It's our habit to pray the disciples prayer. This is when his disciples asked him, jesus, how should we pray?
This is what he taught him. And so It's. It's simple enough. The words are kind of simple, but, like, what's more important is that, like, these words reflect the attitude of our heart. And so let's just take a deep breath.
And let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Well, let's navigate together to Psalm 23. We'll read through it, just the whole thing together, before we focus in on just a couple of verse or one verse there in the middle. You may not need to read it at all because you've been working hard over the last couple of weeks to memorize it.
And if you need some help or assistance, I've got these little cards that'll help you to memorize it. As we were talking kind of last week at the end, it's hard to build a house while the hurricane is raging. And so if everything's kind of chill, now's a good time to spend some time memorizing Scripture. You may not need it today, but when the storm comes, you'll already have it built up and shored up. So.
Psalm 23, it's a Psalm of David.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil.
My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The Lord blesses the reading of his Word.
So we have spent some time together chewing on, digesting verses one through four. And as we've done, that, like, a really beautiful picture has developed, not just of. Like God up in heaven, creator of all things, sitting on a throne and decreeing orders and rules that you have to live by, and laying upon us heavy stones that we struggle to carry, which is, I think sometimes the way that we feel like God is. But instead what we have in this psalm, and I think what we have in God's character is a leader who cares intimately and deeply for those that he leads. Yes, he's a master and yes, he is a hard, like, well weathered leader.
It's not an easy life to be a shepherd, but he is somebody who cares personally for the sheep that he's tending and cares for their welfare. And so we've seen that he provides for everything that we need. He leads us to green pastures and then he makes us lie down because sometimes we don't know what's good for us. Like, we're like, I just got to keep going. I just got to keep going.
He's like, you actually just got to rest for a minute and eat the grass. Like, just rest. And he leads us beside like the waters of rest and refreshment. And he's caring for physically what we need in our souls. I don't know if you realize, like, there are things in our body that care for our souls.
And it can be really, really difficult to like feel loving towards people if you are physically super hungry. Right. And so I think we sometimes think that my body and my soul are like two different worlds. And I'm like, yeah, they're actually connected in you. Like, they inform each other.
And sometimes you can grow habits in your body that will shape your soul. And so as God is providing for what we need, he's caring for our soul. He's leading us from the front, singing and leading with his voice over us on the right paths, the good paths that we ought to go on. But oftentimes in a broken world, the right paths, the good paths, the reliable paths, lead us right up to the edge of danger. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil.
And our fear is not because we're super great, like we're ninja sheep. We can kill any danger that comes our way. Our hope and our confidence to not be afraid is because our shepherd is with us. He's well equipped and he's always ready to defend. And so we have confidence in his presence.
And so I don't know if you want to go back and you're like, I don't understand what you were talking about. We've got those sermons, they're on their podcast on our website. They're in the app. There's some blog summary things like that you can review if you want those emailed. Sign up for the Gazette, email, all that kind of stuff.
But today we're going to zero in on verse five. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. There's kind of a shift there. Did you feel it?
Like, there's kind of like, okay, how did we go from green pastures to now a table setting? Okay, there's something that's happening now. I've been studying and preaching the Word long enough to know that every time you make a declarative statement about what the Bible says, there's going to be five or six people who disagree with whatever it is that you say. So we've come to the part of the psalm where people, like, actually like to debate and fight about what is actually going on here. Have we completely changed to a different metaphor?
Is this part of the same measure? Like, is the shepherd now going out and grabbing the sheep out of the field and bringing them in and putting them at his table and, like, feeding them there? Which is kind of a goofy picture. Like, that's. I don't know.
Like, sheep, I guess, are fine, but I don't want them in my house. Like, I don't have any experience with that. I don't know if anybody else has experience with just having sheep in their home without their consent. I'm looking at the Gagnons. I got you.
So we would not want a sheep in our house. Right. And so I don't. Like, there's something in me that's just like. I don't think.
I think there is a shift here. But what is the shift? Like, are we now just talking about a completely different picture? Like, have we left the shepherd field and now we're just sitting somewhere else? And I'm not sure that I can give.
Like, here's the hard and fast. This is gonna cancel every argument about it, but there's stuff in here that leads me to think that we actually are within the same imagery. But something has changed. Okay, there's a really riddle. There's a.
Words are hard. There's a subtle shift that happened in verse four that I didn't talk about last week because I don't know that it would have been helpful last week. But as we're looking at this verse, in verse five, you prepare a table before me. There was a shift that happened because we started in the third person. The Lord is my shepherd.
The Lord, third person. And then he makes me lie down. So now we're in second person. He makes me lie down. He leads me.
He restores my soul. He leads me. For his name's sake, we're in the second person. But then it goes to first person. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil, for you are with me.
He started the psalm. I need to tell you guys about my shepherd. Let me tell you. The Lord is my shepherd, and this is what he does for me. And as he begins to consider all of the ways that God has loved and cared and cherished and walked with him, he can't keep talking to the audience.
He now addresses his shepherd. For even though I'm walking through the valley of the shadow of death, I do not fear, for you are with me. His attention has shifted from, let me tell you about God to God. I gotta tell you about you. Like, you are with me.
Your rod and your staff, they're a comfort to me. Your guidance and your protection and your discipline. Like, Lord, you are so, so good. And. And as he, like, gets to the end of, like, okay, I've told everybody, and now I'm talking to you.
Now I'm kind of looking my shepherd in the eye, and, like, the whole sheep thing just doesn't fit anymore because I'm not a sheep.
His love for me, his covenant love, is not as though, like, the shepherd ultimately will sell the sheep and allow the sheep to be slaughtered. And. And it comes to the end where he doesn't care for me like a sheep. He cares for me like, I'm better than a sheep. And so I think the shift here is not, like, were we talking about a shepherd, and now we're talking about somebody different.
I think the shift is I saw myself as a sheep, and as I look at my shepherd, I realize I am more valuable and more cared for than the sheep. And so the shift goes between a shepherd who is at work among his flocks to a shepherd who is at home with an honored guest.
Is there a difference? And I'm not talking about character stuff. You ought to be the same person, wherever you are. You ought to do the right thing, no matter who's watching. But you carry yourself different at work than you do when you're at home.
Right. And there's nothing wrong with that as long as, like, your character is consistent throughout. And so we have a shift here from a shepherd at work to a shepherd who has finished his work, now is at home, and has invited an honored guest. The shepherd hasn't changed, but who he's interacting with has changed. Because I started by telling folks about him, and I started talking to him and.
And now, like, I'm at his table.
The imagery, all of this psalm is actually, although we find it helpful. It is not to help us understand ourselves, although we do. The imagery is to help us understand the character of our shepherd, which is more nuanced than we would initially, like, want to give ourselves credit for.
As we're reflecting on his leadership, we come to the limit of what can be expressed. If I continue to just be a sheep, I got to get out of the field. I'm welcome to the table. You're like, okay, what are we talking about here? Because you guys may have met a shepherd, you may have, like, kept sheep, but the Bedouin shepherds have a different kind of culture.
And so I just want to talk to you about a shepherd at home. Okay. Now, I'm not an expert, but this is what I've gathered. Okay. When you think of a shepherd at home, you should not think of a house.
You should think of a tent. Like, well, we were already camping. Like, shepherds go out and they camp with the sheep. They sleep out in the door. We already talked about that.
But when they get home, they're at their tent and you're like, well, that sounds kind of like a bummer. Like, I use a tent to go camping to kind of pretend I'm homeless for a couple of days till I can go home. Right?
What's a tent? Like, that's not. That doesn't sound restful to me. That sounds like extra cooking. Right.
But for the shepherd at home, like, your category for tent is different. Okay. This is a Bedouin shepherd in modern day in African deserts. So this is Sahara style Bedouin shepherd tent. And I show this to you just for scale.
You see the people there, right? This is bigger than like the tent you bought at Walmart. Even if you bought the 15 person tent, like, I had to, like, this is bigger than that. Okay. There were four Persian rugs across the front of that.
Yeah, that's. That's a big old tent. Okay. But this is Sahara. And so I had to go on Google and I found some people who have, like, taken vacation photos.
And so I don't know these people, but I stole their vacation photos because they put them on the Internet. So be careful what you put on the Internet. But the model that the Bedouins in Israel use is more like this. It's more square and a little bit wider like that. So it's a tent, but it is a tent of tents.
Okay. And so when you go inside, like, there's always mats down. You're not just sitting on the floor, there's always mats. But, like, this is home. For the shepherd, he leads the flock, and he may have some pens for the flock outside.
But when he. Like this, this is a big thing to move. It can move, but you're probably not going to want to move it every week, right? And you're definitely not going to move it every day as you're trekking along following sheep, because that's a lot to carry, right? You're going to need something to pull that.
Okay, so you set this up, and this is like home base. Home base can move, but it's an event when you got to move home base. And so the shepherd has gone off, he's done his work with the sheep. Now he's coming home, and he has set. Set his table like the work is finished, the paychecks come in.
And I have brought an honored guest home with me. Now, I've been talking about my professor. His name's Dr. John Davis. And I have remembered all of his stories because he conveniently wrote a book for us. And so as he's spending time with the Bedouin shepherds and learning their ways, he tells a story about, like, coming home into the shepherd's home and where this image clicked for him.
His name is Mohammed Yassin is the name of the shepherd. So the excitement and the dark eyes of Mohammed Yassin's two boys, along with the frenzied activity around the large black tent, were clear evidence that this night would be special. So he spent the week out with the fields with the shepherd, and now he's come to the shepherd's home. Muhammad and I had spent an enlightening and profitable week in the rugged hills of Judah with his flowers, flock of sheep and goats. The experiences of our journey included moments of great anxiety as well as periods of the greatest serenity and rest.
Even though our travels were profitable, it was very evident that Mohammed was glad to be back home. In my travels in various parts of the world, I've encountered all types of hospitality, but none that quite equaled the warmth and completeness offered by the Bedouin Arabs that roam in the wilderness of the encampment around Mohammed's tent included seven other tents, all belonging to various brothers or near relatives. Each family was involved in special preparations for the evening feast. Time and time again, Muhammad reminded me that I was now a brother in the family and that I should receive the appropriate honor. So I wandered around the tents, watching both men and women at work, and was intrigued by the great efficiency involved in the preparation of the food.
Nothing was wasted, and the greatest utilizations was Made of even the most insignificant objects. And he goes on to tell the story. Because he's a hunter. They're like, going to dress the goat. And he's like, well, can I try?
Because he knows how to dress a deer and things like that. He's, let me try. And they're like, oh, my gosh, the American knows how to do things. So he says. Only casually did I note the fact that every part of the animal was kept by the ladies.
And later that evening, I discovered that very little of the goat is discarded for any reason. As the sun began to set, the men of the encampment gathered around Muhammad's tent, and we all sat around in a large circle on a beautiful oriental rug with surrounding pillows. Conversation centered on the experiences of the past week, along with the plans of the family to move their settlement to a more suitable grazing area. And in a short time, the ladies had finished preparations of the food. A large platter of rice, eggplant, and pieces of goat meat were placed in the middle of our group and looked delicious.
I noticed that none began to reach for the food. They appeared to be waiting for additional service. Eventually, a young man did make an appearance with a separate platter. It had a modest amount of rice and chopped eggplant, but on the top was the head of a goat, clearly less attractive than it had been earlier in the day. This part of the animal, along with the other portions, was considered a delicacy and was reserved for the special guest, namely me.
He writes. He said, let it be noted I'm a genuine fan of wild and domestic meats of all kinds. In hunting, fishing, trapping in my woods, My stomach has been treated to a wide variety of good and bad dishes. But I'll have to admit that the sight of this boiled goat's head on the pile of rice was a clear culinary challenge to my stomach. Also distressing was the fact that we were more than 50 miles away from the nearest supply of alka seltzer.
I read that because he tells it better than me. I wish you guys could spend some time with Dr. Davis. Like, that's the picture. Like, we've gone out, we've done the work. Now we're coming home, and I'm coming home with an honored guest.
He prepares a table before me. He sets the table. He welcomes me into his tent. And when a shepherd welcomes you into his tent, did you hear what he said to Dr. Davis? You're now a brother, and brothers require appropriate honor.
You are going to sit and eat with my family. My family is working hard to make sure that you have appropriate honor. We welcome you. We want to honor you. Now, the way that I give you honor may not be the way that you wish to receive honor, and yet it's honor nonetheless.
You prepare a table before me.
There's times where I think we come to God and we come with our needs and our wants and our to dos. And if we're not careful, we can treat God kind of like a cosmic vending machine. We say, lord, I'm real tired. Can you just help me sleep? I need those green grasses.
I need those still waters. I need you to protect me from these dangers. But I think this shift, you prepare a table before me invites us to consider that Yahweh is more than what he provides for you.
God is more than what he can give you. God is more than what he can bless you with. Jesus is more than GPS for your life. Jesus is more than a security system from demons and other dangers like Yahweh is more than what he provides. For you to try to consider the character of the shepherd who we love, we actually have to elevate ourselves beyond just being sheep in the poetry.
The shift is not that the shepherd has changed, but that we have been changed by walking with him from sheep, which he works with, to honored guests, whom he delights in honoring.
And it's not because we're special, because don't forget, we started as goats.
He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Listen, I think we've shifted from sheep. And so in the presence of my enemies, like, my first guess is, like, I'm picturing wolves, like, ravenous wolves. Wolves gathered around, like. And there's sheep just kind of eating at the table, right?
And there's sheep with a fork. I don't know how that works. But they're eating at the table while the wolves are looking on like, ah, right. Like, he prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies. But, like, we've shifted.
We're not sheep. Like, we're honored guests. And so where are the enemies? What is happening? Dr. Davis tells a story that there was a warring tribe.
There was another tribe of shepherds that had tried to. To kidnap a flock. And so they had had to do battle the week before to kind of protect their family. And they had won kind of decisively. But there were a couple of brothers that were still mad that they had gotten beaten.
And so while they sit down to eat, they suddenly start hearing gunshots going off. And Dr. Davis is like, oh, no, there's people coming with guns. And the shepherd's like, no, no, no, they're already defeated.
They're not going to touch us here.
Like, they can make all the noise they want to outside. They're not coming in. We're going to eat and we're going to enjoy what I've prepared for you.
Having led us on the right paths through the valley of deep and deadly darkness where death has cast its long, cold shadow, we see that our shepherd has not just avoided that which would destroy us, he has vanquished it.
This is the good news. This is why we do what we do. It is not that Jesus saves us from bad stuff by kind of making sure that we stay away from it. It's that he guides us in the way that we ought to go, and he crushes the enemies that they have no power to come to the table. We read together from First Corinthians, chapter 15.
In fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. Well, I was scared of the valley of the shadow of death, but in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He has not just wandered away from the shadow. He has looked death face to face, eye to eye, and says, you're done. I'm leaving.
You have no power over me. You are finished. In fact. In fact, this is not an opinion. I don't know if that matters to you.
It matters to me that Scripture says, in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. Cool. I'm happy for him. No. The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
His victory over death opens a pathway that more may follow behind. If he is raised, then I too can walk into death and follow him out. The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man came also the resurrection from the dead.
For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive, but each in his own order. Christ, the first fruits. Then at his coming, those who belong to Christ. And then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and every power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
He disarmed. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put all things in subjection under his feet. He sets a table before me and in the presence of my enemies. I don't want it.
I don't want it. I want him to set a table before me in the presence of Paradise. I want the enemies to be gone. I want him to be quiet. I want them not to bother me.
I don't want to remember that they happened. I want peace. Let's go back to the pastures. Let's do that. That sounds.
And God in his wisdom says, listen, I'll show my care and love and demonstrate my character for you. That I will set a table before you in the presence of the enemies, like they still exist, they still surround, they still gnash their teeth. They're still threatening you. And yet we will eat together.
God has not yet all that's broken in the world.
Evil is a real problem. And we don't feast with Jesus and put our hope in Jesus because we're just going to pretend like the bad things don't exist. We feast with Jesus because we trust his character and that ultimately that will be put away.
He writes in Colossians, chapter two. I have slides for these if you want to read them. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, with Jesus having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside by nailing it to the cross. And then he disarmed the rulers and the authorities, the spiritual powers that would oppose and destroy you.
He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. In Christ, the enemy is defeated. He just hasn't quit yet.
And when Jesus is our shepherd, he's bold with his generous grace.
I don't think he has anything to prove, but I think he's going to prove it.
There was an enemy who said, God, I can do your job better than you. I can be a better God than you. And God says, you don't even know what you're talking about.
You think you know what it's like to be. You think I just sit up here on this golden throne and Israel decrees and that's not what I do. That's not who I am. I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep by name.
I lead them out to pasture. I care for everything that they need. It's a hard life camping with sheep. And that's what I do. You think you can be God, but you don't know how to love like I love.
And so I'm going to take these sheep, I'm going to care for them, I'm going to put them on their purpose. I'm going to work with them. And then I'm going to blow your Minds. Because I'm going to take these sheep, I'm going to make them special. I'm going to make them an honored guest at my table.
And I'm going to make all of your enemies watch while we eat unafraid.
Whose presence occupies our attention the most?
Whose presence occupies our attention the most? Are we most concerned with the presence of our enemies and all of the threats and all of the spewing and all of the accusations and all of the undermining? Or are we most occupied with the presence of our shepherd, who leads us and cares for us, nourishes us, provides for us, protects us, who has defeated the enemies?
When we follow Jesus direction, he handles all the danger.
And when Jesus is our shepherd, we lack nothing that we truly need.
And when Jesus is our shepherd, he's bold with his generous grace.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows.
If, as some will say, we are still sheep, then the picture and the image here of anointing the head with oil is like first aid. It's like caring for a sheep that's been wounded or is being bothered by pests or something like that. Some kind of an ointment to, like, help bugs get off or help it help a wound to heal or something like that. But you know already that I don't think that we are sheep anymore. I think the image has changed.
And so what is happening here? If we're humans, then we are now dining with our shepherd at home in his tent. And we are here, honored guest, lavished with perfumed spice and oil. This is something that's different for us. If we get invited over to kind of a nice dinner, what are you gonna do?
You're gonna take a shower. Appreciate you. Thank you so much. You're gonna dress nicely, right, ladies? What's involved?
How do you get ready? You got to fix your hair, Do some makeup maybe, right? But you do all that before you go.
But you're going to go to somebody else's house, right? So you're going to go and be a guest with somebody else. Like, you're going to get yourself ready, right? So the hospitality here is a host who has gone out and grabbed you off the road and brought you you in, and you did not have time to take a shower, and you did not have time to do your hair. You did not have time to do your makeup.
And so he is providing makeup for you. He anoints my head with oil.
You know how in the summer, it gets hot and, like, super duper dry. Well, it doesn't get dry here in the winter, it gets dry in the summer, it gets hot, and the winter gets dry here. Well, for there, it's hot and dry all the time. Hot and dry. And the water is scarce.
And so what that means is you actually don't bathe very often. And when you do, it's like sponge baths. And so what you do is, like, daily maintenance is you actually put oil on your skin to keep it from drying out and cracking. Like, that's. That's how.
And so I'm sorry, I just got to tell you, it's a little bit gross for us, but it's what they do. And so your daily maintenance is you scrape the oil from yesterday off, and then you rub some fresh oil in. Like, that's what you do, Right? And so he's anointed my head with oil is a picture of, like, I am getting you ready to be the honored guest. I'm not just preparing my food like, I am.
I'm involved in anointing you. I'm anointing my head with oil. And then we sit down at the table, and I've anointed you, and we're having this conversation, and I say, would you like some more? And, you know, you're anointing. Polite guess.
No, no, no. I'm good. And then he takes the pitcher and just starts pouring and says, you say when, and you say, when? And he just keeps pouring. Have you ever had a grandma like that?
You want some? No, Grandma. Okay. Oh, that's enough. All right.
Jesse's grandma, like, wouldn't even ask. She's like, here you go. You want more? Like, I didn't think I did, but now I. I guess I'm going to eat all of this. I lick the plate, he anoints my head with oil, and my cup overflows.
He's not just giving us. Like, he's not just, like, I resent that. I have company over. So I'm just going to do the bare minimum of what I need to do to entertain you until you can leave. He is pleased to fill our cup to overflowing.
And again, let me remind you, it's not because you're that great.
It's because it's the God that he is.
Because Mercy is canceling debts that we owe, and we owe a debt, right? And if you're in debt, it would be really, really nice to cancel the debt and get back to zero. Like, I just want to get back to zero, please. And so can you cancel my debt? And God looks at people who have debts, and his mercy cancels our debt and say, you no longer owe me anything.
And it is his grace which then turns around and bestows on us riches that we could never earn. He cancels our debts and then gives us his bank account.
If we are in Christ. He's not only forgiven your sin and canceled your debts and everything that you owed, and he has said, I consider you to be righteous the way that Christ is righteous. Your goodness is his goodness. When I look at him or when I look at you, I see him. It's not just mercy, although mercy, oh, we need it.
But it is grace that lavishes oil and fills our cup to overflowing.
And God cares for us that way. God cares for kind of everybody. Like this psalm is a comfort to people who are religious and people who are not religious. There's something about the beauty in the poetry that we're like, yeah, there's something about this just feels good, right? But notice where we started.
Yahweh know who we're talking about? Yahweh, the Lord is my shepherd. And this king of Israel, who, who writes this, knows that more important than being a leader of the flock is being a member of the Lord's flock.
And so while the Lord is shepherd in a general sense over all that happens in creation, he is my shepherd in a very special sense. That exchange that I talked about of canceling your debts and receiving the riches of the righteousness of Christ is a special grace, and we must opt in to Jesus special grace.
It's not something that all of us just get.
Jesus invites us to the table, But you've got to come.
You have to come into the shepherd's tent.
You have to let him bring you.
You have to trust his cooking, whether it looks like what you thought you were going to eat or not.
You have to sit together with his family, And you have to let him Mark you as his, as he anoints you with a special honor. He does the work, he sets the table, he invites you to the table. And my friends, there is more in Christ than anything that you think you need, But you must opt in to Jesus special grace.
If you're like, yeah, I like, I like this psalm makes me feel good. Like, great, that's awesome. I want you to know this psalm. But more than that, I want you to know the shepherd and I want you to belong to him.
How are we embracing the honor that Jesus extends to us? Do we let him.
Or do we take his invitation and say, you know what? I think I'm good over here with these tufts of grass that I found.
How are we embracing the honor that Jesus extends to us? And if I'm asking that question, there's a kind of a backside of that question. Where are the areas that we resist Jesus grace? Say, lord, I'll take your mercy, but I don't. That grace is too much.
You can't give me that. I'm not worthy to accept that honor.
Not because you're worthy, but because he is good. Because when Jesus is our shepherd, friends, he's bold with his generous grace.
Let's pray together.
Lord, I just pray that if there's anything that I've said that's been a distraction or my own opinion that those things would be quickly forgotten. But God, where your word has been declared, would you hook it into our hearts? Would we not be able to walk away from it without it tearing us apart? Would you let your truth sink deep into us? Would you wash us and cleanse us by your word?
And so, Lord, if there is somebody who's hearing my voice right now that says, I don't know that the Lord's my shepherd, I don't know that I have his mercy, and I don't know that I have his grace, Lord, I pray that you would draw their heart to you now, That they would look at you and say, jesus, I know I haven't earned it, but you say you're rich towards me like that.
Would you forgive me of my sin and cancel my debts? Would you lavish your grace upon me that I could be called your child, your honored guest and a citizen of your kingdom?
And I pray, Lord, that you would give folks the courage to ask you that today and the faith to believe that you are doing it.
For those of us who followed you for a long time, who are weary of the road, Lord, Would you remind us of just how awesome you are, how your grace, which extends to your enemies, just shows off how glorious and mighty and majestic you are, that there's nothing that happens without your permission.
Would you remind us of how safe we are with you and would you help us to value you more beyond what you bless us with?
It's not something we can do by ourselves. Would you shape us? It's in Jesus name we ask.
