There is indeed an important difference between knowing the Psalm and knowing the Shepherd. This morning I trust that as we take a few moments to look at this very familiar Psalm, its familiarity will not hinder us from the truth of God’s Word speaking to us today. It is a Psalm etched on many minds as well as on plaques. It has been called the Psalm of the Crook, referring to the shepherd’s staff used to protect and direct the sheep. This Psalm of the Crook lies between the Psalm of the Cross and the Psalm of the Crown. If Psalm 22 tells of the Good Shepherd, who gave His life for His sheep, describing the crucifixion of Christ, and if the 24^th tells of the Chief Shepherd, who is coming again to reign and rule, the 23^rd psalm tells of the Great Shepherd, who keeps His flock with unerring discernment and untiring devotion.

The first line of this Psalm, with only two words in Hebrew, describe our God’s might and mercy with such economy that we need to take a moment to soak in the power of this opening line. David sets out his thesis here which he expands in the following verses.

"The Lord," the name God assigns to Himself at the burning bush, summarizes the all-encompassing nature of our God. Lord, Jehovah, Yahweh is that simple declaration of the Creator’s self-existence, His unchanging nature. I Am That I Am tells us that He is sovereign, but not just a powerful being. The term in the Old Testament is used only in the context of the covenant. This is the name God uses with His people. It is personal; it is the family Name. While other children may call me Rev. Vogel, only Jenny, John, and Michael may call me Dad. So here David opens with the acknowledgement of God’s power, but also His personal provision.

But what follows jolts us. This Creator God, who made heaven and earth, who creates a Covenant with His people, is described in the earthly terms of a shepherd. But this Psalm is not just about provision in some distant sense. The pronouns in this Psalm drive home the personal nature of God’s provision. It is one thing to confess that the Lord is a shepherd, for by that you say something that is true. God indeed cares for and nurtures His own. But to add "my" shepherd, now it becomes even more powerful. This simple personal pronoun echoes through each verse, describing God’s specific affection. This is the heart of the Gospel, to be able to say not just God loves, but with confidence to say, "God loves me."

With this as the foundation, by first saying the promise-making and promise-keeping God focuses His guidance and concern on me, it should be no surprise that David next concludes: "I shall not be in want."

I have heard from several how this phrase caused confusion at some point, especially with the archaic vocabulary of the KJV. For some it reads: "The Lord is my shepherd... I don’t want that!" Of course that is not what is being said here. The word "want" means to lack or have a need. When the Maker of heaven and earth is your guide and provider, there is no reason you will ever do without. But each of knows of times when we’ve had needs and desires and they have not been fulfilled. What does David mean here that he will not be in want?

David then outlines the provision of the Good Shepherd.

He makes me lie down in green pastures: In a land marked by parched deserts and arid plains, this is the picture of a cool meadow. The sheep have a constant supply of nourishment.

He leads me beside quiet waters: This is literally "waters of rest." For those of us less agrarian types, picture a cabin in the woods along a pristine lake.

It is common in this Psalm to point out how stupid sheep really are and how, for that very reason, comparing us to sheep is so fitting. In light of that, it is so important for the shepherd to provide a watering hole for the sheep, for they, in their stupidity, will drink from any water they come across: polluted springs, putrid puddles, cesspools. In the same way you and I, in our foolishness, will often drink from places we think will refresh, but that are tainted by immorality, materialism and self-importance. We think our streams will refresh, our choices will satisfy, but in the end, they’ll make us sick. In our rushing about each and every day, we gobble down the dry weeds of the world’s philosophy; we munch on morsels of malnourished self-fulfillment. We think our grazing will make us strong, but we end up so weak.

The Gospel reminds us that our Good Shepherd knows that we need fresh, clean water. He leads me to springs of living water. "Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst," Jesus says. He leads me to Baptism and to the peaceful waters of His Word. Likewise we are fed on the Word and with the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper. Beyond what God provides for His children in Word and Sacraments, His tender care is showered on us in ways we can never count.

That which God provides, what you and I need most desperately, is rest. We think we need extra hands, more money, more things. But David, while living in another place and time, had needs like ours, for refreshment, restoration, rejuvenation.

But notice here the causative nature: "He makes me," "He leads me." God’s provision is to give us not what we want, but what we need. There are times when we need rest and we refuse to seek it. It comes in times of sickness or layoff; it comes when we least want it, but most need it

He has to make me lie down, or I wouldn't do it. Sometimes I get stubborn and refuse, too busy to rest and ruminate. Or I get distracted by something else. Or I go off on Sunday mornings to nibble on weeds instead of rich pasture. My Shepherd knows how bad that is for me, so He pokes and prods me back to where the pasture is green. Sometimes I get irritated with Him for that. He seems so insistent that I lie down and rest in His green pasture. I know He's concerned for me. The last thing any good shepherd wants is skinny, malnourished sheep.

What we need the most is for our very souls to be restored. That is what His feeding does. It is not the things we think we need, the creature-comforts, which are necessary. But to be made new by God’s transforming power is what God promises and delivers.

The vocabulary here of restoring the soul of the sheep gives us the first glimmer that David is not just talking about sheep-herding. The next phrase points this out even more. The good shepherd does not just lead the sheep down the right path, but paths of righteousness. There is a moral character here which transcends the mundane world of bleating lambs.

The restoration which God provides is necessary because you and I are constantly straying. We need to be brought back by the firm arm of one who watches over us. We are by nature alienated, twisted from the norm and it is God who restores. The word used here, shub, means to cause one to return, to bring about restoration. This is what God does in each of His children.

Verse 3 moves from the simple feeding to the restoration of our very soul. The Shepherd gives us good things, but the greatest good is the righteousness of Christ described in verse 3. In the context of watching over sheep, the shepherd would often have to bring back those wandering from the herd. He would restore them the fold. He would be sure they went where they were supposed to go. This restoration is exactly what Christ has done for us. The righteousness we may claim is not our own, but declared to be ours by Christ. Isaiah 53 reminds us of our need to be brought back. How we all are like sheep gone astray, everyone to his own way, but the Lord has laid on Christ our iniquity. Even though we reject God’s goodness by thought, word and deed, God in His grace restores us.

When God restores, He causes us to do that which He commands. He is the one who enables us to do that which is right. God’s guidance in the life of a believer is more than just a matter of leading us in the "right path;" it involves His leading us in "paths of righteousness." What a wonderful word of comfort for those who seem to think that God’s will is some kind of mystery, known only to the few who are so fortunate to find it. One of the assurances the psalmist has is confidence that he will never lack the leading of God in his life. We can be confident of God’s leading in our lives when the Lord is our Shepherd, for the shepherd always leads his flock.

In verse 4 David moves from the tranquility of lush meadows and babbling brooks, to the terrors of death. But more surprising than the transition itself is how much more personal God is to David in anxious times. Having just described how this tender Shepherd guides His sheep along the right paths, he then describes what that right path looks like. It is not what we expect. We imagine God’s guidance to be only through the easy times, but David sees that this promise-keeping God guides us through times of deep gloom. There are times when the right path for us is the valley.

In ancient Palestine, for the shepherd to provide the lush grasses and pure waters, it would be necessary to guide the flock through rocky ravines which held dangers of cliffs and predators.

The "valley of the shadow of death" is a Hebrew phrase, "deep gloom," which includes the dismay of death, but also the periodic times of despair and depression which we face from time to time. David understood that even when all around was in turmoil, there was no reason to fear calamity since God was present to protect.

What I find amazing here is the confidence David has of God’s presence in the face of death. Notice how David sees God in even more intimate terms. He moves from talking about God to talking to God. Before, he speaks of God as "he" but when times are toughest, he ceases telling us about God but opens a door into his prayer life. God is now "you." God is not a guide off in the distance, but now is close by his side.

What Psalm 23 paints as a picture, Paul outlines as fact in Romans 8. In the face of any hardship we can imagine, God’s guiding presence can never be ignored. There is nothing which will ever harm us; no evil will destroy us, even if that evil means death. David does not minimize the terror; he does not ignore death or evil. But God always has the last word.

Why is David so confident? It is not just that he has a companion with him in tough times, but that the one who is with him is armed. If I were to go into a dangerous situation, I would have little confidence in my own abilities. What would help is to take Dean and a few of his black belt friends. Even better, Dean, his friends and a 9mm Glock. David is comforted because the Shepherd is equipped for danger.

The means of comfort are the simple tools of the shepherd: the rod and staff. The rod was a cudgel worn on the belt to beat off vicious animals. The staff was for crowd control as it would corral the sheep or prod them to move when they were lazy.

I am certainly comforted when God beats on my enemies, but David sees comfort when the Lord controls and guides us, too. The rod and staff are used against the two greatest enemies we have to face. The rod is for the enemy without, Satan, who is working through the world system to destroy us. Jesus said, "He is a liar and a murderer." He's out to devour us, and so the Lord uses the club on him. But the other enemy is me, the enemy within. In the immortal words of Pogo, "We have met the enemy, and he is us." The Shepherd's staff is used to chasten, and to subdue the enemy within. But the confidence He gives is that I have nothing to fear, either from the enemy without, or from the enemy within. This is the discipline of God, which Hebrews 12 tells us.

But David does not end with protection and discipline. He shifts his imagery from that of the good shepherd to that of the good host. Some have mistakenly tried to explain the images in verses 5-6 in terms of shepherding, but they picture instead the pleasure God has on His children. As comforting as it is to know that God will protect us, He transcends the celestial cop, seeing to it no harm comes and concludes with an expression of God’s pleasure lavished on us in the banquet hall of heaven.