Today we are going to look at psalm 23 and what is in the heart of the psalmist when he says the Lord is my Shepherd.  What is it that the psalmist sees about the Lord being his shepherd that causes him to say he lacks nothing. 

When I realized psalm 23 was a continuation of psalm 22, and was still describing Jesus on the cross.  It confounded me because I thought how is it that Jesus says he lacks nothing and his cup runs over as he is naked and nailed to a tree.

Everyone agrees that psalm 22 is a prophetic psalm about Jesus on the cross.  But, then we turn the page and get to psalm 23 and we somehow think its no longer talking about Jesus on the cross.  We turn the page, we see chapter 23 and now we think its talking about a different situation in a completely different place and time.  

The same Jesus that is being described on the cross in psalm 22 is still being described in psalm 23.  The same Jesus that is talking on the cross about what he is experiencing in psalm 22 is still talking in psalm 23.  

He’s still in the midst of the death of the cross in psalm 23.  He says to the Father “you prepare a table for me in the midst of my enemies”.  What enemies?  The bulls of bashan he said compassed him about in psalm 22, mocking him and gaping upon him with their mouths like a roaring lion.  

He says to the Father your rod and your staff they comfort me.  Jesus needed comfort from the death of the cross.  When Jesus said ‘I thirst on the cross’.  He was thirsting after the comfort of the Father.  The Roman centurion offered Jesus wine mingled with myrr to comfort him from the pain of the cross but Jesus spit it out because He thirsted for the kind of comfort that only the God of all comfort can give.  

Psalm 22 and 23 are revealing the heart of Jesus as he is on the cross.  Paul says in Romans 8 the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of the Son, intercedes in our hearts with groanings that cannot be uttered when we encounter tribulation.  Psalm 22 and 23 give us eyes to see into the heart of Jesus as he is on the cross so we can have intimacy with the groanings of the Holy Spirit in his heart, and through that have intimacy with the faith that was in the Son of God’s heart while he was in the midst of the cross.  

When Paul said he lived by the faith of the son of God it means he was intimate with the faith that was in the heart of Jesus as Jesus was hanging on the cross.  Paul says I was crucified with Christ.  I was there with him, even in him.  I saw what was in his heart as he was crucified.  I am intimate with the faith that was in his heart as he was crucified.  

In Philippians Paul talks about having fellowship with the sufferings of Christ and how through him being intimate with the faith in Jesus’ heart as he hung on the cross his life was animated with the very life of Christ.  The apostle Paul was conformed to the faith of the Son of God through fellowshipping with what was in the heart of Jesus as he was nailed to the cross.

One of the most powerful things in my life with God is when I saw psalm 23 was describing the heart of Jesus on the cross.  It gave me intimacy with the faith that was in Jesus’ heart as he was on the cross.  I began to know what the apostle Paul meant when he spoke of having fellowship with the sufferings of Christ.  I was intimate with the heart of Christ as he was nailed to the cross, and my life in this world began to be shaped by the faith of the Son of God.  

So Jesus in the midst of having been stripped naked and nailed to a cross says he was put to rest.  He says the storm that was swirling around him because of the cross was made still in his heart.  He says fear was far removed from him.  He says he lacks nothing, and that his cup runs over.   This guy Jesus in the midst of hanging naked on a tree talks about being filled with abundance.  

Listen, when I saw psalm 23 was about Jesus on the cross, and I saw what was in Jesus’ heart on the cross.  I asked God how is it possible that this was the conversation in Jesus’ heart.  How could Jesus say he lacks nothing and his cup runs over as he is nailed to a tree? 

Jesus looked like a lamb being led away for the slaughter.  He looked like he was alone without a shepherd to care for his life. 

Isaiah 53 says Jesus was as a lamb being led away to the slaughter.  As a sheep is dumb before its shearers.  Jesus opened not his mouth.  

To be a lamb led away for the slaughter means to be without a shepherd.  The only way a lamb could be led away for a slaughter is if they are without a shepherd.  But we know Jesus wasnt without a shepherd.  If you read the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, which was written in 300 BC, Isaiah 53 goes on to say it pleased God to cleanse Jesus from the wound of death that was upon him at the cross.  The reason Jesus didn’t open his mouth to defend himself is because he knew the Father was the Shepherd of His life.  

1st Peter says that when Jesus was suffering on the cross he looked to the shepherd and the bishop of his life.  The shepherd and bishop of his life is the Father.  

What Jesus needed on the cross was a shepherd.  He needed someone to shepherd his life.  He was in need of someone to care for his life. 

On the cross Jesus saw he was not a lamb that has been left for the slaughter .... the Father is my Shepherd i lack nothing.  

Jesus saw that because the Father was the Shepherd of His life, his life was cared for.  He saw there was someone his life was precious too; he saw there was someone that when they looked at his life they saw it as a treasure.  He saw there was someone to whom his life was so precious they would not allow harm to come to it.  

When Jesus saw it was God himself who was shepherding his life, and he saw the ability God has to care for his life in a manner that would exalt him to the place where death can’t touch his life, he was put to rest and the storm of the cross was made still in his heart.

Explain Shepherd

The Hebrew idea of a shepherd is deeply connected with companionship and affection.  It means to be the ‘lover of the flock”.  The shepherd was not just thought of as a responsible overseer, but a caring father figure, who tends to his flock out of a deep sense of love.  

Isaiah 40:11 says the shepherd “gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart”.   

A shepherd loves the lives of the sheep.  They think of the lives of the sheep above their own lives.  A shepherd.  A real shepherd that is.  A good shepherd dedicates their lives to the care of the sheep, and keeping the sheep from any harm that could come to them. 

They are completely immersed in the care of the sheep.  Every imagination of their heart is of the sheep and caring for their lives.  

A good Shepherd would rather die themselves than allow harm to come to their sheep.  They don’t just tend to the sheep.  They lay down their lives for the care of the sheep. They take such great care of the sheep they would not even allow a blemish or a spot to come upon the sheep.  They care for the sheep in such a way that the sheep do not even suffer a scrape much less a broken limb.  

When a lamb is born they can get to thrashing about and can injure themselves with a cut or a scrape or even break a limb.  In ancient Israel many times the shepherds would swaddle the lambs as they were born to keep them from injury.  In the same way a shepherd swaddles their lambs with their own lives to keep them from harm.  

Really what we need is to be able to see we have someone with us who is shepherding our lives like that.  We need to see that God is with us to care for our lives in such a way that no harm can come to them.  

We want more than anything to know our life is cared for.  We want to know the care that is needed for our lives to flourish is settled and unable to be uprooted.  Most everything we do and everything our thoughts are filled with can be traced back to a desire for our lives to be cared for in a way that keeps us from harm and allows us to flourish.  We live in the world all the time looking at our lives and judging whether the things that can nurture our lives and keep them from harm are present with us.  

The tribulation in the world tries to goad us into thinking the care our lives need is up in the air.  The peril, the sword; the famines, the pestilences ..... they try to goad us into thinking we are lambs being led away to the slaughter.   They try and goad us into thinking we are without a shepherd; that we are alone in the poor heartless little world with no one with us shepherding our lives, or caring for us, or keeping us from harm.

But, we are not sheep being led away for a slaughter.  We are not without someone to shepherd our lives.  God is the shepherd and Bishop of our lives.  His rod and His staff they comfort us.

A shepherds rod is like a policeman’s club.  It is often made of oak wood and has a knob on the end of it.  Into this knob nails are sometimes driven so as to make a better weapon.  It is used as protection to keep the sheep from wild animals that seek to harm the sheep.  

Christ is the rod of God.  He is the rod and the staff God uses to comfort us from the death and the lack in the world.  

The apostle Paul says Christ condemns the things in the world that tell us our lives aren’t being cared for.  As the world is telling us our lives are not being cared for properly, that we are without someone to shepherd them.  We see what God has done in Christ to hide our lives in Himself.  We see our lives hid in Christ.  And it condemns the word in the world.  It tells us we are not lambs being led away to the slaughter, God is shepherding our lives.

We see Christ and we see God left no stone unturned in the caring of our lives.  He pitched us within and without with His very life.  He sealed us with the Spirit of His immortality.  He hedged our lives about with the Spirit of His life.  His care for our lives is so much that when we see it we lie down in the tender green grass.  It stills our hearts from the storms of this world that are swirling around us.  It feeds us with the nutrients of life in the midst of an earth that is shadowed by death.  It removes fear far from our hearts.  We see what God has done to care for our lives in conquering sin and death in the flesh of Jesus, and that puts us to rest and fills our hearts with abundance.