Berean Break
February 19, 2017 broadcast
The Seeker of Truth will want to know...
about Psalm 23 -- The Great Shepherd (part 1 of 2)
by George Sinkie
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Good
morning and welcome to this edition of the Berean Break. My
name is George A. Sinkie and I am so glad to have you with
me this morning. If you as a seeker of truth have any questions,
we would welcome them. Today we will begin looking into
the book of Psalms at Psalm 23. We will spend the next
couple of weeks looking at what we can learn from the Shepherds
Psalm, because the Seeker of Truth Will Want To Know about
the Great Shepherd. In this Psalm David writes,
Psalm 23:1-6, The
Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie
down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He
restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness
For His names sake. Even though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for Thou art with
me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me. Thou dost prepare
a table before me in the presence of my enemies; Thou hast anointed
my head with oil; My cup overflows. Surely goodness and
lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I
will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Before we look into this Psalm
lets go to God in prayer:
Great God in heaven, We thank
You for this day in our lives, We praise You and Honor You with
our lips. But more than that we want to serve and glorify
You with our lives. Dear God, today as we look into Your
word, Help us to learn Your will, And to apply Your will into
our lives. Bless us now in our study, Help us to understand
and make You our shepherd. And to follow Your leading.
In Jesus name!! AMEN!!
As
David sat to pen the words of the 23rd Psalm, the idea of a shepherd
was familiar to him. David had been a shepherd for his
fathers sheep in the hills around Bethlehem. He understood
the close relationship between the shepherd and the sheep. He
also understood the great care and concern that the shepherd
had for the sheep, and the respect for and dependence upon the
shepherd that the sheep had.
In this day and age, most of us
do not understand what David was really saying about the Lord.
I grew up on a farm and we raised some sheep, but we raised
sheep in an entirely different way than what they did in Biblical
times.
Lets look now at this Psalm
of David. Psalm 23:1 says, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not
want.
David here is expressing who he
wants to be his guide, protector, nourisher, sustainer, and who
he will put his whole trust in. Unlike when we raised sheep
and just turned them out into the pasture and checked on them
every couple of days, the shepherds David knew, lead their flock
each day. The shepherd was there with the flock day and
night, to guide and protect that flock. Jesus spoke of
being the shepherd to His sheep in John 10:11-16 I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd
lays down His life for the sheep. He who is a hireling,
and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, beholds
the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees, and the wolf
snatches them, and scatters them. He flees because he is
a hireling, and is not concerned about the sheep. I
am the good shepherd; and I know My own, and My own know Me,
even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay
down My life for the sheep. And I have other sheep, which
are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they shall
hear My voice; and they shall become one flock with one shepherd.
As a side note here, because the
Seeker of Truth Will Want To Know, the Mormons use this
passage to teach error and to direct people away from the Word
of God. In John 10:16, where Jesus says, And I have other sheep, the Mormons take this and use
it to teach their false doctrine of Christ coming and appearing
to those who lived here on The North American continent. The
truth is, Jesus was speaking of the Gentiles and bringing Jews
and Gentiles into one flock, which He did through His death on
the Cross.
The writer of Hebrews also writes
about Jesus being the Shepherd of His sheep in Hebrews 13:20-21,
Now
the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd
of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even
Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will,
working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus
Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever.
Amen.
David, Jesus, and the Hebrews writers
all point out another important concept of the Lord being the
shepherd to a person. David says, I shall not want. Jesus in John 10 says the
sheep, shall
hear My voice.
And the Hebrews writer says that through Jesus, the great
Shepherd, God equips with every good thing to do His will. When a sheep in Davids
day wanted something other than what the shepherd gave, it wandered
off and it was then lost.
In the spiritual sense, the same
thing happens when people want more than what the Lord gives.
When they go to man-made creeds and catechisms, they have
wandered away from the Lord and are saying that the
Lord is not a good enough shepherd; we want this teaching, too.
A faithful and true sheep, like David will not want anything
other than what the Lord provides.
The Bible and especially the New
Testament provides every person today with everything God wanted
us to have for life and godliness. Did God provide the
creeds and catechisms that so many follow today? NO, they
are given by men and therefore those who follow them cannot say
with David, The
Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.
In the following verses David expands
on this idea that the Lord is his shepherd. Again David
is writing from the experience and knowledge he has as a shepherd
himself. Lets look at verse 2, Psalm 23:2, He makes me lie down
in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.
These two phrases show how God
provides what we need. Just as David would lead his fathers
sheep to fresh green grass each day, the Lord provides His followers
with what they need to sustain themselves. Note that David
says green
pastures. The
Lord does not provide us with just a parched and barren ground
to scavenge and search for our own substance.
The idea of lie down
shows that when we rely upon the Lord it is an easy life. One
thing that makes this life easy is that we have everything we
need for doctrine in the Bible. In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus
offers this same kind of rest to those who will follow Him, Come to Me, all who are
weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My
yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble
in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My
yoke is easy, and My load is light.
¹
The ways of this world and the
traditions of men burden people today just like they did when
Jesus spoke these words and the invitation of Jesus is just as
valid today as it was on the day He spoke it.
I have heard it said that sheep
will not drink from rapidly moving water and that is why David
said that the Lord leads beside quiet waters.
Here again we see that the Lord provides what the sheep
really needs. When Jesus sat upon the mountain and said
in Matthew 5:6, Blessed
are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall
be satisfied.
He was referring to much the same idea.
The only place to have our hunger and thirst truly satisfied
is in the Lord. When Jesus was tempted, by Satan, to turn
stones into bread, He replied in Matthew 4:4, It is written, Man
shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds
out of the mouth of God.
²
Many have this hunger and thirst
for righteousness, but they fill that void with man-made doctrines.
This is like a person who is hungry, even to the point
of starving, can start to eat paper and they can eat paper until
they are no longer hungry. They can feel satisfied even
to the point of being stuffed. But have they really satisfied
the bodys need for food? NO they have not. Spiritually,
a person may hunger and thirst for righteousness, and they can
stuff themselves with man-made creeds and man-made catechisms
and they can feel full and righteous, but they have
not given their spirits the real nourishment that it needs, because
the real nourishment that it needs comes only from the Lord and
His word.
David goes on in Psalm 23 and says
in verse 3, He
restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness
For His names sake.
When we, like David, allow the
Lord to be our shepherd then He will guide us into what is good
and righteous in His sight. David spoke also of this way
or path that the righteous live back in
Psalm 1:1-6. How
blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law
he meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree
firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in
its season, And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he
does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, But they are
like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked
will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of
the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked will perish.
Jesus also spoke of the way that we should go in John 14:6,
Jesus
said to him, I
am the way,
and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but
through Me.
Again we see that man-made creeds
and catechisms do not harmonize with the twenty-third Psalm or
with any of the will of God.
Can we sincerely and honestly say
with David, The
Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie
down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He
restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness
For His names sake.?
We can if we follow only His inspired
word and avoid the other shepherds and teachings
of this world.
If you are a Seeker of Truth,
then write down these passages and check them out. The
Good Shepherd wants us to hear His Word, so we can have faith
(Romans 10:17). Then based on that faith, we need
to repent (Acts 2:38). And based on that faith,
we need to confess like the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:37).
And based on that faith, we need to be immersed in water
for the forgiveness of our sins (Mark 16:15-16, Acts 22:16).
Then we need to continue to be faithful or we are in a
worse condition than if we had never known Gods will (2
Peter 2:20- 22).
Now as a Seeker of Truth
check these passages out and humble yourself to Gods will.
This Berean Break is brought to
you, in love, by the pre-denominational and non-denominational
church of Christ that meets at 1600 East First Avenue in Mitchell
SD. You are welcome to meet with us at 10:00 Sunday
mornings for our assembly followed by a time of Bible Study,
also on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 for an additional time to
study Gods Word. If you have a comment or a
sincere Bible question, please call or text me at 605-770-5555. We
want to remind you of the non-denominational TV program, KNOW
YOUR BIBLE on KDLT-TV at 9:00 on Sunday mornings. This
is George A. Sinkie for the Lords church, here in
Mitchell, good-bye for now. Remember that we care
about you and may God bless you as you do His will.
¹ EGW editors
footnote: Easy
and light in the sense of doable;
most certainly can be done, NOT in the
sense requires absolutely no effort or attention whatsoever.
While some of Gods instructions may occasionally
require more effort or attention to detail on our part than other
of His instructions, they are truthfully still possible to do
God believes we can do what He calls the the right thing and
do it completely to His satisfaction. On one hand, obeying
selfish desires and wrongful man-made traditions deceptively
leads people to dispair (Isaiah 59:2-15a). On the
other hand, obeying the words of Christ and the good traditions
founded upon Christs words truthfully leads people to hope
(Isaiah 59:1, 15b-21). It is impossible to gain
meaningful satisfaction through disobeying God
and so sin
is hard. It is possible to gain meaningful satisfaction
through obeying God
and so Christs written word is
easy. The choice is up to us (Acts 5:27-32). (back to place in article)
²
EGW editors footnote: Jesus is quoting
from Deuteronomy 8:3, He humbled you and let you be hungry,
and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers
know, that He might make you understand that man does not
live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds
out of the mouth of the LORD.
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