"The Lord is my Shepherd" brought to life with David's Own Stories

Speaker: 
Andrew Fountain
Date: 
Sun, 2019-12-29
  • This is David’s best loved Psalm, but how did he come to write it?
  • We piece together stories from throughout his life that could have provided inspiration for each part of the song.
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Sermon Outline - “The Lord is my Shepherd” brought to life with David’s Own Stories

Video cover image: Free Photo by gueli54 at Needpix.com

Psalm 23 – A psalm of David

  1. The LORD is my shepherd,
          I lack nothing
  2. He takes me to lush pastures to lie down,
          he leads me to refreshing water.
  3. He restores my inner strength.
          He leads me down the right paths
                for the sake of his good name.

Psalm 23

  1. Even when I must walk through the darkest valley,
          I fear no danger,
    for you are with me;
          your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
  2. You prepare a feast before me
          in plain sight of my enemies.
    You refresh my head with oil;
          my cup is filled to the brim.
  3. Surely your goodness and faithfulness will pursue me all the days of my life,
          and I will live in the Lord’s house forever.
  • David was once a shepherd himself - fierce love for the sheep.

1. The LORD is my shepherd

  1. 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,
  2. I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. 1 Samuel 17
  • Relationship of value—the shepherd cares for the sheep because they are valued

2. Provision

  1. The LORD is my shepherd,
          I lack nothing
  2. He takes me to lush pastures to lie down,
          he leads me to refreshing water.
  • an unexpected feast in the wilderness
  • So Abigail quickly took two hundred loaves of bread, two containers of wine, five prepared sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred bunches of raisins, and two hundred lumps of pressed figs. She loaded them on donkeys [and brought them as a gift for David and his men] 1 Sam 25

3. Leading - on the very day Goliath came

  1. He restores my inner strength.
          He leads me down the right paths
                for the sake of his good name.
  • Jesse said to his son David, “Take your brothers this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread; go quickly to the camp to your brothers. 1 Sam 17:17
  • The one lie Satan wants to spread above all others is about God’s character
    • He can’t be trusted. He is not faithful. He will abandon us.
    • God’s “name”
  • David was passionate about this. That is why he wrote the songs

…for the sake of God’s good name...

  1. This very day the LORD will deliver you into my hand...
    Then all the land will realize that Israel has a God [1 Sam 17:46]

4. The darkest valley

  1. Even when I must walk through the darkest valley,
          I fear no danger,
    for you are with me;
          your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
  • His Son Absalom led a rebellion and wanted to kill him.
    • God worked some amazing provision for him
    • A surprise ally turned up out of the blue and turned the tide of the war
  • But also the darkness of his sin—adultery & murder
    • The shepherd’s rod & staff
  • To guide, pull back on track, but also to calm their nerves

5. You prepare a feast before me

  1. You prepare a feast before me
          in plain sight of my enemies.
    You refresh my head with oil;
          my cup is filled to the brim.

2 Samuel 16: David was on the run..

  1. When David had gone a short way beyond the summit, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth was there to meet him. He had a couple of donkeys that were saddled, and on them were two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred raisin cakes, a hundred baskets of summer fruit, and a container of wine.
  2. The king asked Ziba, “Why did you bring these things?” Ziba replied, “The donkeys are for the king’s family to ride on, the loaves of bread and the summer fruit are for the attendants to eat, and the wine is for those who get exhausted in the desert.”

6. Goodness and faithfulness forever

  1. Surely your goodness and faithfulness will pursue me all the days of my life,
          and I will live in the Lord’s house forever.
  • David wants to build a house for God, a Temple (2 Sam 7)
    • I will build a “house”, a royal line from you that will last for eternity.
    • Jesus came from the line of David, born in Bethlehem

Jesus is the Good Shepherd: John 10

  1. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
  2. The hired hand, who is not a shepherd and does not own sheep, sees the wolf coming and abandons the sheep and runs away. So the wolf attacks the sheep and scatters them.
  3. Because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep, he runs away.
  4. “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me —
  5. just as the Father knows me and I know the Father — and I lay down my life for the sheep.

Updated on 2019-12-29 by Andrew Fountain