Northwest Christian Church Podcasts

Have you ever eaten at a really, really nice restaurant? One of those 5-star places with multiple waiters who take care of every need even before you know you need it? It’s quite an impressive experience! In verse 5 of Psalm 23, the language David uses is similar to that type of experience. He talks about sitting down at a table with the Lord and in that picture, we see so much about who God is and how He sees us!

When most people think of shepherds, they think of something like a Precious Moments figurine. They envision placid, kind, gentle-looking young people dressed in pastel blue, carrying a question mark-shaped walking stick. It’s a very sweet picture, but it’s wildly inaccurate! In the hands of an ancient shepherd, they carried a rod and a staff. Instruments of protection and correction, guidance and provision. Psalm 23 uses this language to teach us something powerful about the Lord.

Have you ever seen the Tom Hanks movie “Cast Away?” it’s a fascinating look at what happens to a person when they are completely, utterly alone. There is a Harvard study that says loneliness is not just unfortunate, it’s actually deadly! It’s as deadly as smoking or alcoholism. So, when we get to Psalm 23:4 the promise that “God is WITH us,” no matter what, is more than just a heartwarming platitude. It’s life and death!

Have you ever seen the movie The Princess Bride? There’s this iconic line in that movie where the main character says “Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.” None of us want pain in this life, especially if we’re believers. We want everything to be puppy dogs and rainbows but that’s not real life, is it? What if, when those tough things happen, we saw it not as punishment but as refinement? What if God intentionally takes us through hard things as a way to shepherd us? What might the lesson be?

We are all called to ministry. We all have gifts and talents and we are to use those gifts and talents to serve others. Some are called to lead others as they minister and are used by God to help shepherd the flock. Every once in a while, God calls some above and beyond. Not just to shepherd, but to earn their living from the work of shepherding the flock of God. Today we ordain Matt McGrew to full-time Gospel ministry as one of God’s chosen shepherds.

I think it’s easy to say that humans are busier now than we’ve ever been. Even with all the modern conveniences that promise to help us have more time, we seem to have less time than ever. Psalm 23 promises us something different. It promises rest and peace and freedom but to find it, we must walk the path laid out for us by Christ and that’s a choice we have to make!

As we continue to unpack Psalm 23, there’s this crazy thing that David says in verse 1. It goes like this – “The Lord is my shepherd, I SHALL NOT WANT.” Really? You shall not want? Everyone wants all the time! Is David just a superhero Christian or is there something else God is trying to teach us in this famous passage?

The term “shepherd” is one we use all the time but, because of our modern, high-tech worldview, we may not always understand all the nuances of what that term means. When David wrote Psalm 23, people understood all the layers of meaning of what a shepherd did. As we dig in more on what this term shepherd means and then we look at Psalm 23:1 where God offers to be that shepherd, well, consider your mind blown!

There are some passages of scripture that are really hard to preach on. Sometimes that is because the language and theology are tricky. Sometimes it’s because they are SO familiar, we don’t think there is much we can learn from them. As the saying goes, “familiarity breeds contempt.” Psalm 23 is like that. It is so familiar that we can miss its power. As we begin our new series, hopefully you will see that there is so much more to this psalm than meets the eye and it points to something so much greater than many of us could have imagined!

Paul stands in chains, yet he’s the only free man in the room. Agrippa sits on a throne, yet he trembles under truth. In Acts 26, the light that transformed Paul now confronts a king and exposes the danger of being near the Kingdom, but never entering it. This message will press on the heart, break through hesitation, and call every listener from “almost persuaded” to fully surrendered. This isn’t a moment to admire the truth. It’s a moment to respond to it.