[0:00] The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
[0:11] 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.
[0:32] 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.
[0:52] Amen, and may God bless to us these readings of his own holy word. So I want us to look at this very well-known psalm, and I'm sure you have heard over the years many an address, many a sermon, discuss this psalm, and probably it's one that we've all, even as children, learned by heart.
[1:15] I suppose this psalm, Psalm 23, along with John 3, 16, for God so loved the world, are probably the two best-known parts of the Bible.
[1:29] And people even who aren't very familiar with the Scriptures because of how often, for instance, at a funeral service, Psalm 23 is so often sung, and people who are normal or regular churchgoers, they hear it.
[1:44] And when you hear something over and over, it's quite often that it becomes, goes in, becomes part. So this is one that we're all so familiar with. And again, as we know, the psalms are so enriching, and this psalm is one that it's hard, actually, to put any other psalm above it.
[2:08] We might all have our favorites, but this psalm really, in such a short psalm, kind of covers everything. And it is one of the most powerful pieces of Scripture that we have.
[2:23] And the imagery in it is really quite superb. And of course, we know that God, in His Word, is often using things from nature to illustrate spiritual truths.
[2:38] And so He should, because He is what we term nature. He is the God of nature. He is the God who has made this world and everything in it. And the Lord Jesus Himself was always using things from round and about to illustrate great truths, whether it was in the cornfields or fish or coins or trees or different things.
[3:01] He would be always pointing to something and saying, look at this, look at that, look at the birds, look at the ravens, look at the lilies, look at all. The different things He was pointing to, and He was applying spiritual truths through it.
[3:14] So we learn so much from, as we say, the very things of nature as God applies these things to us.
[3:26] And so it begins by telling us that the Lord is my shepherd. And again, we think in the Bible of how many of God's people actually were shepherds. Abel, the first martyr, Abel was a shepherd.
[3:40] Jacob was a shepherd. Isaac, his father, was a shepherd as well. Moses, remember, after he ran from the palace in Egypt, and for 40 years before he was called by God to lead Israel out of Egypt to the promised land, he spent 40 years as a shepherd as well.
[4:02] David, the man who wrote this psalm, he was a shepherd king. Long before ever he became the great king of Israel, he was a shepherd.
[4:15] In fact, people have said nobody but a shepherd could have actually written this psalm. Amos, the prophet, he was a shepherd. And of course, it's one of the illustrations that God gives of Himself all the way through from Genesis right through to Revelation of being the shepherd.
[4:35] Jesus was, and the Messiah was spoken of in terms of a shepherd. And Jesus claimed that when He came. But He says, I am the good shepherd.
[4:45] The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. So we have this running, this idea running all the way through that Jesus is the one who is the chief shepherd.
[4:57] In fact, we're told in the Scripture, He's a good shepherd, and that He's a great shepherd, and that He's the chief shepherd. He's a good shepherd who gives His life for the sheep. Jesus is the one who has come to seek and to save.
[5:11] You know, it's one of my favorite statements that the Lord has ever made, that He's come to seek and to save those who are lost. Because that's how we are by nature.
[5:24] We're lost. And it's an awful condition to be in when you're lost, where you just don't know where you are. You don't know how to get out of where you're at. And I'm sure we're all at one time or another maybe traveling somewhere, and we say, you know this, I'm actually lost now.
[5:41] And it might not be a bad sense of being lost. Sometimes in a city, you might just not have a clue how to get from one place to another. What is very disconcerting is if you're, supposing you were out in the moor, and a thick mist came down, and you really, it was so thick, you couldn't see hardly in front of you, and you had no idea which was north, south, east, or west, and which direction to go.
[6:11] And many a person has been badly lost and even fatally lost in these situations. It's an awful thing to be lost. Well, that's what Jesus has come to do.
[6:24] He's the heavenly search and rescue who has come to seek and to save those who are lost. And Jesus talked about having the sheep in the fold, but he said, other sheep I have who are not yet in.
[6:39] And that's what he's continuing to do. What he's doing tonight, he's searching in order to save. And tonight, if there's anybody here who has to say, well, I'm not yet saved, then Jesus is here, and he's offering salvation to you.
[6:58] He is the great Savior indeed. And so it's a wonderful thing to have the Good Shepherd, because we live in a very dangerous world, a very fragile world, a world that actually doesn't care in any shape or sense for the sheep that belong to the Lord Jesus.
[7:21] So David begins by saying, the Lord is my shepherd. And it's a great note of assurance in David's voice, where he says, the Lord is my shepherd. Actually, the language is, the Lord continues.
[7:34] It's not just he's my shepherd today. This is, it's a continuous, the Lord is my shepherd today, tomorrow, and every day of my life. He is always my shepherd.
[7:45] That's what it means. The Lord, once the Lord becomes your shepherd, once the Lord becomes yours, he's always yours. And that's one of the wonderful things. And it's important that we have this sense of assurance, this sense of belonging, if we love the Lord Jesus Christ.
[8:03] And we do our greatest honor to Jesus when we doubt him, which we sometimes do. Because you see, it's a relationship of love. Christianity is a relationship of love.
[8:15] In many ways, it's sometimes, it's not what separates every religion, but it's a religion. It's based upon love. And you might say, well, is it not faith?
[8:29] Yes. But the scripture tells us that faith worketh by love. Because it began with love. It began with God's love in sending his son.
[8:40] It began in our own experience by Jesus setting his love upon us. And we receive by grace, you're saved through faith. Yes, the faith is that which lays hold upon and accepts and believes and receives in Jesus.
[8:57] But at the root of it all is love. So this is a relationship that is built on love. And it's very, it's a, in a sense, an awful thing.
[9:08] If you have a, say for instance, a husband and wife. If I thought for one moment with regard to my wife and my family, that they were questioning my love.
[9:18] that every day, does he really love me? I would find that very, very difficult in many ways to accept, to deal with.
[9:30] Because your wife and family are people you would give your life for. And yet far too often we, we doubt, we question the Lord. And I often think it must, it must be a, a sore thing in the heart of Jesus when he has done everything possible.
[9:48] He has loved, love is, love is seen by its action. It's all very well to say to somebody, I love you. But love is shown by what it does.
[10:00] And the love of Jesus is shown by what he did on the cross. He couldn't do more. He gave his life for you. And so it's, it's a great disservice, dishonor to the Lord when we question, does he really love me?
[10:18] Of course, sometimes we question his love to us because of the lack of love we have in our own heart to and for him. And that again is one of the sad things that sometimes happens.
[10:30] And we know that sometimes the unbelief that is part and partial of our life is how I'm sure so often we pray, Lord, help, I believe, but help my unbelief because we want to believe more.
[10:44] We want to, and of course, Satan again will come in and tempt us. And of course, we do go through dark times. Everybody does. We don't, our path isn't shining clear every day.
[10:59] The sense of God's presence and love isn't powerful every day. There are dark days. We've all been there. But that doesn't mean in any shape or form that God has changed his love for us.
[11:15] Just the very same as every day the sun is shining full. The sun is shining down on us every single day. Just sometimes we can't see it because of all the dark, heavy clouds that are about.
[11:28] The sun's still there. So it is sometimes in the Christian faith that the clouds of sin, the clouds of unbelief, sometimes even the clouds of dark providence come between us and the Lord.
[11:40] But his love is still there. His love is still to you. His love is still for you. It never, ever, ever changes. And so the wonderful thing is to have the Lord as our shepherd.
[11:53] And when we have the Lord as our shepherd, one of the things is we want to know him more and more. That's what happens in our relationship. You know husbands, wives, you know your partner far better now than you did the day you married.
[12:11] And it's the same for the Christian. You know the Lord far more than you did the day you started following. And you never reach a place where you say, you know this, I know everything I need to know.
[12:25] I don't need to know any more about the Lord. Was there ever a greater servant of the Lord that we find in the New Testament and the Apostle Paul? And when you read his writings, you'd say, my word, Paul, you knew the Lord like nobody else.
[12:42] You must have known just what, what does Paul say? That I might know him. That I might know him. In other words, I need to know more and more and more. And that's always an evidence, a mark of the Christian that they want to know more.
[12:58] Never satisfied with what they already know, what they've already experienced, all the different things that they've gone through. They want more. And you know, that's what part of glory will be.
[13:11] We'll be in the immediate presence of the Lord where we will come to see him in a way that we've never seen here. We see by faith here. We'll see by sight there. We will see in a way that is beyond our understanding where there will be no clouds to hinder.
[13:28] There will be no temptations to take us aside. Everything will be in perfect harmony. The whole environment will be conducive to our enjoyment of the Lord who will be continuing to shepherd us throughout eternity.
[13:44] But throughout eternity, we will be coming to know more and more and more and more of. That is the beauty and the wonder of what it is to be following the Lord.
[13:57] So, the psalmist says, to have the Lord as our shepherd, we shall not want. And then in verse 2, he says, he makes me lie down in green pastures.
[14:08] He leads me beside still waters. It's a beautiful picture that we've given here. This idea of lying down.
[14:21] If you were a photographer, it's a picture you'd like to take. If you're an artist, it's a painting you would like to paint. Of this idea there, it's a picture of tranquility and peace and rest.
[14:37] He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. Now, you and I know the one thing that you really cannot do by force is to make sheep lie down.
[14:51] You have to do many things with sheep, but you have to do them largely by force. For instance, when you're, whether it's at a fank or whether you're dipping or whether you're giving your pills to the sheep or you're shearing them, the sheep will never trot up to you and sort of lie down, sort of giving the idea, well, it's time for a clip.
[15:22] You have to, you have to get the sheep, you have to drag the sheep, you have to turn the sheep over in order to shear the sheep. So that you, even if you get a sheep to, the only, supposing you say, dear, well, I'm going to get this sheep to lie down and you turn it over and you sit it and say, well, that's it.
[15:43] The moment you get up, the sheep will get up as well. How do you get a sheep to lie down? Well, I think this picture gives us the idea.
[15:54] He makes me lie down in green pastures. It's where you take the sheep into the field. There's this field full of luscious green grass. And the sheep have the freedom to roam and to eat.
[16:09] And sheep will eat and what do they do when they're satisfied? You'll find them lying down and they'll be there and they'll be chewing away, chewing, satisfied and happy content.
[16:25] That's a beautiful picture of the Christian. And that's what the Lord gives us. This is a feeding that the Lord gives us in His Word. That's indeed as we come to God's house, that's what we seek to do is to come in into the Word.
[16:41] And it's green. When the Lord gives us feeding, it's not sort of like there's a little bit of grass here and a little bit there and here and there. It's rich, rich, rich, luxurious feeding.
[16:53] And His Word is rich and powerful and plentiful. And it's something that we should saturate our minds with, is with His truth.
[17:04] Because it is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. It is more precious than gold. It is the Word that teaches us. There is nothing else comparable to the Word of God.
[17:20] You know if you're down, if you're going through a difficult time and you're struggling and the Word of God comes, or you're even just reading and God gives you the faith to lay hold upon a particular truth.
[17:36] That goes down deep into you and it lifts you up and you lay hold upon it. And at that moment with the psalmist you can say it is more precious than gold.
[17:46] It's sweeter than honey. That's exactly the impact that the Word has on your soul at these particular times. And so, that's what the Lord does.
[17:59] He gives us this Word to chew over. And every day we should meditate upon the truth. I don't think we give sufficient place to the importance of meditating upon God's Word.
[18:14] You see, we can read God's Word and it's important too. And we can read it out of duty. And again, I would say that's important. But, you know, reading out of duty we can sometimes read and somebody will say to you at the end, what were you reading today?
[18:32] And you have to say, you know, I really have to go back and read that again because I can't remember. I read it so quickly or else my mind was floating away. It didn't really go down deep.
[18:44] It didn't touch me. Well, that's not how we are to handle God's Word. When we come to God's Word, we've got to deal with this as rich food for our life, for our day.
[18:57] It's nourishment for our soul. Just, it's more important even than our daily food. We need our daily food. Of course we do. But we also need the spiritual food.
[19:09] And it's vital that we meditate. For instance, we get two or three verses and we say to the Lord, Lord, open my mind.
[19:21] May your Spirit just now open my mind to this truth. Help me to see new things, wonderful things out of your Word so that you're able to really lay hold upon this truth.
[19:34] And you know, when you allow your mind to be touched by the Lord in this way, the Word opens up, but it goes down deep. It impacts you in a real way.
[19:47] That's why Paul said that, was it, Timothy was saying, meditate upon these things that you're profiting. In other words, your growth will be seen by all.
[19:59] If you see a Christian who's really maturing and developing and growing, be assured, be persuaded. That person is much in the truth.
[20:10] That person is reflecting upon the truth a lot. That person is digging deep and meditating upon what God's Word says. Remember when Israel were ready to cross the Jordan, the Lord said to them that the book of the law was not to depart out of their mouth day or night and they were to meditate upon it day and night.
[20:34] And he says, if you do that, then your way will be prosperous and you will have good success. It's a key to life.
[20:45] It's God's Word upon going down into it. And so we have this picture of this picture of tranquility, picture of satisfaction, satisfaction, and that's what God does with His people.
[20:59] Now you and I know that sheep are very easily frightened and a sheep that's frightened won't lie down. If you see there's a flock of sheep there and you come running over and jump over the fence, all the sheep round about you, they'll get up and they'll run.
[21:17] That's what they do. And you know, that's what we do naturally before God when we don't know Him. We run away from Him.
[21:28] It started in Eden and it's continued to this day on the run from God. That's what we term the default position, the natural position, running away from God.
[21:40] That's what Adam did at the very start till God in His mercy called him back to Himself. But that running has started. And people run away by denying God, by denying His existence or defying God or suppressing the truth, doing all these things to get rid of this.
[22:02] That's why Jesus came into the world. And when Jesus calls us and we hear His voice, that's what Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice.
[22:16] And you know, if it was the crofter or the farmer or the shepherd that went over the fence and the sheep know the voice, they would stop running because they recognize, oh, this is not a stranger.
[22:31] This is someone I know. And so, that's how it is now. Now, it's a big difference. The moment that you hear the voice of the shepherd, you stop running and you run to Him.
[22:45] In fact, it's a great picture of where you actually are tonight. Are you running to God or running away from? These are the two positions. We're either running to God or running away.
[22:58] And the wonderful thing is that for the Christian, when they do wrong, when we slip, when we fall, when we sin, instead of running away, we run to Him to confess.
[23:11] And we say, Lord, forgive me for what I've done. So, we have this beautiful picture here of the sheep. As we say, this rich, rich picture of satisfaction and peace.
[23:28] And then it tells us, He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Now, when we restore anything, we kind of put it back to the way it was.
[23:39] And people often restore furniture. They restore cars. When you're ill, you're restored, hopefully, to health and strength.
[23:53] But here it is talking more in spiritual terms. He restores my soul. Now, of course, normally we think of this in terms of wandering away.
[24:05] But not all restoration is because we're wandering away. Sometimes it's very simply that we're weak and the Lord restores us by giving us His strength.
[24:17] And there's lots of ways He restores. Sometimes He restores because we're worn out. Great picture of that with Elijah. Elijah was burnt out. The prophet of God was burnt out.
[24:28] God restored Elijah so that He was able to continue working for him. But often this restoration is because we have wandered away.
[24:40] And the thing is that key to restoration is repentance. And before we can be truly restored, we have to repent.
[24:52] And the sad thing is that just because we're not right with the Lord doesn't mean that we know we're not right with the Lord. Or sometimes we do know, but sometimes we don't.
[25:06] And I think a great illustration of that is with David. Remember when David sinned so grievously with Bathsheba, and then the worst of the lot of it was in order to try to cover his wrongdoing, he had Bathsheba's husband killed, Uriah.
[25:30] And remember, David was in a backslidden state at that time. God sent Nathan the prophet to David. And Nathan began by telling him a wee story.
[25:42] Remember, you remember it well about the two men who lived side by side. One was rich and had plenty of sheep, and there was another man, poor man beside, and he just had this kind of pet sheep.
[25:55] And a visitor came to the rich man. What did the rich man do? He nipped over the fence. He took the poor man's sheep, killed it, in order to provide food for the guest.
[26:07] David heard that story. He was outraged. And he was so angry, he said, that man will die. You see, David was so backslidden, he couldn't see that was himself.
[26:20] He couldn't see where he was. Oh, he knew he had done wrong, or he wouldn't have had Uriah killed. But he was in a backslidden condition in there. And he couldn't see.
[26:30] He was like the Pharisee. Couldn't see the wrong in his own life until Nathan said, you are that man. And the arrow of conviction from God went straight into David's heart.
[26:46] And that's where we have Psalm 51. Restore a right spirit within me. David was a broken man from there. And he was pleading before the Lord.
[26:58] But it took the arrow of conviction before he was able to discover. And you know, this is what the Lord does with us. It's the same with Peter after he denied Jesus.
[27:10] Denied him with oaths, with curses. And remember what Jesus did. He turned and he looked at Peter. And that look was more painful than a thousand words because it tells us that Peter went out and he wept bitterly.
[27:31] You see, the Lord loves us too much to leave us. If the Lord didn't care for us, he would just say, well, that's it. The Lord loves us too much to abandon us and to give us over.
[27:42] When we've gone wrong and when we've gone off the road and off the track, he loves us too much. And so his great aim is to bring us back.
[27:53] And so, when we repent, he's restoring us and bringing us back so that he leads us on the paths of righteousness. It's a wonderful thing. If you're being led on the paths of righteousness, it means you're going in the right direction.
[28:09] You're going in the right way. And how important that is for us as we journey through life. And you know, when we go on the paths of righteousness, we are to follow the shepherd.
[28:21] And the closer you follow, the better. Don't follow Jesus. Remember there was a time, it tells us about Peter, that he followed afar off. Far off.
[28:33] You're still following good. Far off, not good. The further you are in following Jesus, the more you allow to get in between yourself and Jesus.
[28:44] And the denial didn't follow far on from that. It tells us it was when Jesus was taken that Peter followed at a distance far off.
[28:59] And that's, Satan of course was doing his worst at that particular time. And so, it's wonderful to be on the right path. And he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
[29:12] It's all for his glory, all for his sake that we're being led. And then it tells us in verse 4, even though I walk, and very briefly, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you're with me.
[29:27] You rod and your staff, they comfort me. Now you and I know that life is so much a roller coaster. It's up and down. There are good times and there are bad times.
[29:38] Times of light and times of darkness. darkness. Maybe for some, it's a time of darkness even tonight. But you know the wonderful thing is that the Lord, if the Lord is your shepherd, he's with you in it.
[29:52] And the picture here that we're given here is that it is even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. And of course, death is this awful thing, this enemy.
[30:05] It's the last enemy. It's that that we naturally recoil from. Because as God made us originally, we weren't made to die. Death came with the fall.
[30:15] In the day that thou eatest, you will surely die. Death is the result. Wages of sin is death. Death is affecting the whole human race till the very end of time, until the Lord returns.
[30:31] But here we see that there is a comfort even in death. death. Because if the shepherd is ours, he doesn't abandon us or leave us.
[30:41] He's there with us all the time. And you notice it says, even though I walk through, you don't stop. Death isn't the end. Death is not the stopping point.
[30:54] Death is only a second. Somebody said, what's death? But parting breath. death, the actual moment of death is just a second. You're walking through. And it's a shadow of death.
[31:08] And in order for there to be a shadow, there has to be light. When there's total darkness, there's no shadows. It's only when there's light around that you can have a shadow.
[31:20] And so there's the light. The Lord doesn't leave his people in death and darkness. Even into it, right down into it.
[31:31] The Spurgeon used to say, the shadow of a dog can't bite. And the shadow of a sword can't kill. And the shadow of death cannot destroy us.
[31:42] Because you see, for the believer, the sting of death has been removed. Now, we naturally recoil. Now, I'm not a great fan of snakes or serpents.
[31:57] And I would hate to be in a room, locked in a room that is full of snakes. But if I was told that the sting had been taken out, that all of these snakes, although they were once poisonous, they're no longer poisonous.
[32:17] That would be a comfort. But I would still, I wouldn't feel very comfortable. Because I just, it's one of these things, I don't particularly like snakes. And in a sense, that's how it is for the Christian in death.
[32:33] We don't welcome death. We don't embrace death as such. We recoil from it. But we don't need to fear it. Because the sting, the sting has been removed.
[32:45] That's the wonderful thing. I went, and then the psalmist says, I will fear no evil, even down into death. I don't fear any evil.
[32:56] For you're with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Rod and the staff, it's often looked on as the one and the same thing. And that's what the shepherd uses in different ways for you and for me at different experiences.
[33:11] You know yourself with a, sometimes if you have a shepherd's crook, you would use it to prod. And maybe you're taking the sheep, you're trying to get them into a pen.
[33:22] Or you're trying to get them forward in like for the dipping. And you're maybe having to prod them or push them. And sometimes it's like that. The Lord has to prod us and push us as well.
[33:32] Particularly in times of service. We've all got to remember, every Christian is a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. We tend to often think of the servant as somebody in the role of a preacher.
[33:45] But every Christian is in service to the King. And we all have a part to play, a role to play, whatever it is. And it isn't angels from heaven that the Lord sent to do His work here on earth, but us.
[34:00] And wherever we're put and whatever situation, you do whatever the Lord enables you and equips you to do. But sometimes we have to be pushed by Him into it.
[34:12] And again, you think of the crook. If you have a shepherd's crook, sometimes you use it, particularly with a lamb, you put it around its neck to pull it back to your shelf. And again, the Lord has sat, He takes us.
[34:24] But the staff, you think of leaning on. And you know, so often we need the support. We need the help. The picture is given of the believer coming up in the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved.
[34:37] And of course, that's exactly how it is for us as well. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil.
[34:47] My cup overflows. Verse 1, it tells us, I shall not want. By verse 5, we see that the blessings are overflowing. It's too much.
[34:59] That's what's happening. You anoint my head with oil. That's what will happen to kings and to priests. And that's what we are as well. It's amazing. We're labelled as kings and priests when we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ.
[35:14] You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You know, we are surrounded by enemies. But that doesn't kill the joy, the blessings that we receive from the Lord.
[35:29] There's a lot we could say. Time is going. Finally, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Goodness and mercy.
[35:42] Somebody has said goodness is dealing with our needs and mercy with our sins. See what it says? Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
[35:54] Could you think of anything greater to follow you all the days of your life? If you're given the choice, if you're on the one hand given the choice of saying, right, you can have all the fame and all the fortune and all the wealth of the world but nothing else with it or you can have God's goodness and mercy.
[36:17] You would take God's goodness and mercy because these things without God's goodness and mercy there wouldn't be blessing in it but with God's goodness and mercy then everything makes sense.
[36:28] And it's interesting the word here where it says God's surely goodness and mercy shall follow me. This word follow doesn't mean the idea of just sort of ambling along.
[36:44] It's pursuing with intent. And it's like the Lord is saying I am chasing you to catch up with you to bestow my goodness and mercy upon you every single day.
[36:58] Isn't that wonderful? And even in the dark times and times sometimes our world doesn't make sense God is still chasing after us following us with his goodness and with his mercy.
[37:13] Every day all days all the days of my life right to the very end right down into death's dark veil and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
[37:28] You know we often say there's no place like home. Well that'll be so true of our eternal home. No place like home. And if you're a believer tonight you're able to say that you know there's that's the best news ever that I'm going to dwell and when we dwell it's got the idea of abiding.
[37:51] In this world we're just passing through. It's a restless place. And yes we have our stopping places and places we call home and we give thanks for them.
[38:02] But everything is it's a transitory it's just we're on the move. But there's the place of eternal abiding. In the presence of Christ with them forever.
[38:17] Is that the focus? Is that your view tonight? Is that what you say? You know this that's that's what I really look forward to. Or do you say that actually doesn't mean much to me.
[38:32] Well that'll explain exactly where you are. If this means everything to you. If this verse is the heartbeat of your life then you're in a good place.
[38:45] If it doesn't mean anything to you then please remember that the good shepherd is here inviting you even again tonight so that you will come into the security and the safety safety and everlasting support and strength of him shepherding you every day.
[39:04] Let us pray. Lord our God we give thanks that you are the good shepherd. The good shepherd who gave us life for the sheep. We give thanks that throughout every day of our life you promise to shepherd us.
[39:17] You promise to follow us with your goodness and mercy. And the word tells us that throughout an endless eternity you continue to shepherd us. Oh what a wonder what a joy what a privilege.
[39:30] Take us all home safely tonight we pray. Part us with your blessing and forgive us every sin in Jesus name we ask it. Amen. We're going to conclude singing in this psalm the 23rd psalm it's from the Scottish Psalter sing the whole psalm Psalm 23 from the Scottish Psalter The Lord's my shepherd I'll not want he makes me down to lie in pastures green he leadeth me the quiet waters by my soul he doth restore again and me to walk doth make within the paths of righteousness even for his own name's sake down to the last verse goodness and mercy all my life shall surely follow me and in God's house forevermore my dwelling place shall be Psalm 23 Lord's my shepherd the Lord's the Lord's the Lord's my shepherd
[40:36] I'll not want he makes me down to lie in pastures green he leadeth me the quiet waters by my soul he doth restore again and me to hold death may within the paths of righteousness even for his own name's death may yet though my hope may death come and yet will
[42:00] I hear not hell for love you may have been me and my rock and stop me bow for still my day horn cat With the Lord the Lord and the might of hope overflows.
[43:06] Goodness and mercy of my life shall surely follow me.
[43:25] And in those eyes forevermore my dwelling place shall be.
[43:47] Now may the grace, mercy, and peace of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit rest and abide upon each one of you now and forevermore. Amen. Amen.