Southside Baptist Church JC
2025_09_07
  • Praise Him! Praise Him!

      • Proverbs 16:3ESV

  • Great and Mighty

  • The Good Shepherd

    Psalm 23 ESV
    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 will 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.
    ***Play video “Sheep Gets Stuck”***
    The best event at the rodeo has got to be Mutton Bustin’. Who doesn’t love little kids riding sheep like they are bucking broncos? What is interesting is how to get the sheep to run like crazy. As if a small child clinging to their backs was not enough. Bulls buck because of a leather strap wrapped around their waste. Broncos buck because the cowboy is spurring them in the shoulders. But a sheep runs to go be with another sheep. Normally a cowboy stands at the center of the ring holding a sheep. When the gate opens, the sheep with the kid on its back see the other sheep and runs to stand near it. Sheep are odd animals, they are weak and fragile, they are needy and nervous, and they are problematic and difficult - that is exactly how the Bible describes us. Later in
    Psalm 100:3
    “Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”
    The good news is that God knows what we need and desires to be that for us. Later in the New Testament, in
    John 10:11
    “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” , Jesus will tell his followers, “I am the good shepherd.” But before Jesus said those words, we had Psalm 23, a psalm of praise to God for the way in which he shepherds his people. As we look closer at this Psalm, look for the way it describes attributes of God we can rely on when we are feeling our most sheepish.
    Verse 1-3a:
    The Good Shepherd Provides
    Because God is a good shepherd He will make sure we have what we need. We will not experience lack. We will not lack nourishment (green pastures). We will not lack rest (He leads me beside quiet waters). We will not lack restoration (He restores my soul). He does this because He knows our nature and knows our needs. Jesus will say something similar to his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount in
    Matthew 6:31-33
    “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” “31 So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.
    And again, in the next chapter,
    Matthew 7:11
    “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him.”
    We can be free from anxiety because we have a good shepherd who knows our needs and knows how to take care of us.
    Verse 3b:
    The Good Shepherd Leads
    The Good shepherd does not just feed the sheep, He leads them where they need to go. We are never lost - we are never alone. At times the path we are on may be hard or look scary. But we can draw confidence in the fact that He goes before us (He guides me) and He goes with us (for you are with me). These truths are repeated through the Bible. In
    Hebrews 4:15
    “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” ,
    Jesus is compared to a high priest who can help us because he went through everything we must go through. Because of that, He can come to the aid of those who seek him. In
    Hebrews 13:5
    “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
    Verse 4:
    The Good Shepherd Protects
    Slow and tasty, sheep are easy targets for predators. It is therefore important that the shepherd protect his sheep. In we learn that David became proficient with a sling by defending his father’s sheep from lions and bears. In the same way, the good shepherd protects His sheep. The Psalmist refers to two instruments of protection: “Your rod and Your staff they comfort me.” The rod was a bat used to ward off attackers. The staff was a typical shepherd crook used to round up sheep, and discipline unruly ones. God promises to protect us from outside attacks and from ourselves. When he disciplines us, which He occasionally must do, He does so out of a desire to protect us from harming ourselves or others. Hebrews 12:7, 11 says: 7 Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? 11 No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
    1 Samuel 17:34–37
    “But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!”
    Verse 5-6:
    The Good Shepherd Blesses
    The final series of images in this Psalm drop the shepherd metaphor but continue the theme of a God who acts like a shepherd. The final verses paint the picture of a God who does more than protect or feed, he blesses. Maybe the shepherd image is dropped because in real life shepherds nourish, guide, and protect sheep so that they can sheer and eat them. No shepherd really tries to bless his sheep. But our good shepherd does.
    Verse 5a - He blesses us with victory: (He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies) This is a victory celebration. Paul says in Romans 8:37 that in Christ we are “more than conquerors.” The resurrection of Jesus is proof that evil will not have the last word. As Revelation 1:18 says, Jesus has “the keys of death and Hades.” Death is swallowed up in life.
    Verse 5b - He blesses us with honor: (You have anointed my head with oil) Anointing with oil was a symbol of respect. Just as we saw in Psalm 8 how God bestows glory on us, here too we see God bestowing honor on us. We may act like sheep, but we are not “just” sheep to him. God is not constantly rubbing our noses in our inadequacies or failures. He treats us like the father treats the prodigal son in the parable in
    Luke 15:22–24
    “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.”
    We are not our weakness or our failure. We are who God says we are. And he crowns us with honor and anoints our heads with oil.
    Verse 6 - He blesses us with devotion: The Psalm concludes with the promise that God will never abandon us. (mercy and lovingkindness will follow) Both words refer to the loyalty and devotion God has for His children. Even when they forsake He does not forsake them. He is, as the English Poet Frances Thompson once called him, the great “Hound of Heaven” pursuing us even when we flee from Him. God’s devotion will follow us all the days of our lives. He will never give up pursuing us. Our sin and selfishness cannot exhaust God’s mercy or weary His devotion.
    APPLICATION
    1. Knowing Leads to Trusting: None of us follow perfectly. As Isaiah 53:6 says, “We all went astray like sheep, we all have turned to our own way.” We do this because we think we know what will make us happy. And once we wander off course and get lost, we think that we will be in trouble so we stay gone longer than we want. But the more we know about the character of the Good Shepherd, the more we will trust Him. Trust that His ways are best. Trust that He loves us. Trust that even when we wander, He wants us to come home. [ 17 ]
    2. Trusting Leads to Following: The more we trust, the better we will follow. Following is another word for obedience. In the words of the old hymn, “trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, than to trust and obey.”
    3. Following Leads to Knowing: The more we follow the Good Shepherd, the more we will know about Him. And the cycle will keep repeating itself. The more we know and trust and follow, the easier it will be to know, trust and follow. This three-step process goes by a single word - “faith.”

      • Psalm 23ESV

      • Matthew 6:31–33ESV

      • 1 Samuel 17:34–37ESV

      • Luke 15:22–24ESV

  • Hymn of Adoration
Southside Baptist Church JC
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