Psalms 23:1 - Homiletics

Human experience and Divine inspiration.

"The Lord is my Shepherd." The few verses which compose this psalm would leave but a small blank on the page, if blotted out; but suppose all translations which have been made of them into all languages, all references to them in literature, all remembrance of them in human hearts, could be effaced, who can measure the blank, the void, the loss? To have written this short psalm is one of the highest honours ever put upon man. What libraries have these few lines survived? Yet they arc as fresh as if written yesterday. They make themselves at home in every language. They touch, inspire, comfort us. not as an echo from three thousand years ago, but as the voice of a living friend. The child, repeats them at his mother's knee; the scholar expends on them his choicest learning; the plain Christian loves them for their simplicity as much as for their beauty; the Church lifts them to heaven in the many-voiced chorus; they fall like music on the sick man's ear and heart; the dying Christian says, "That is my psalm" and cheers himself with its words of faith and courage as he enters the dark valley. Mere poetic beauty could not confer or explain this marvellous power. The secret of it is twofold. These words are the language

I. HUMAN EXPERIENCE . This is the utterance of weakness and of trust. In the Bible, as in the Person of our Saviour, the human and the Divine are found, not apart, but in closest union. God spake not merely by the lips or pens of the prophets, but by the men themselves ( 2 Peter 1:21 ). Were an angel to say, "The Lord is my Shepherd," this would bring no assurance to a frail, sinful human heart. A voice from heaven might declare, "The Lord is a Shepherd," or as promise, "The Lord is your Shepherd;" but only the voice of a brother man, weak and needy as ourselves, can speak this word, the key-note of the whole psalm, "my Shepherd." God could have given us a Bible written, like the tables of the Law, "with the finger of God;" but he has spoken through the minds and hearts and personal experience of men of like passions with ourselves, making their faith, penitence, sorrow, joy, prayer, thanksgiving, the mirror and pattern of our own. This is the voice of personal experience. David is better known to us than any Bible hero except St. Paul. This psalm leads back our thoughts to his youth; but it is no youthful composition—it bears the stamp of deep experience. The young shepherd might have sung of the famous past, or of the glorious future; but the veteran king, looking back to his youth, sees in it a meaning he could not have seen then, and a light shining all along his path.

II. INSPIRED WORDS . Sweet and deep as are these echoes from the depth of the past, they would never have reached us had they been no more than the words of a man, though a hero, a poet, a king; they arc the voice of God's Spirit in him. Hence, with that continuity which is one principal note of the inspiration of Scripture, we find this image taken up again and again, especially in five passages of signal importance—two in the Old Testament, three in the New.

1 . In Ezekiel 34:1-31 . God is seen as the Shepherd of his people—the nation and Church of Israel. Hence the similitude passes on to the New Testament. Christ is the chief Shepherd, who employs under-shepherds to feed his flock ( John 21:15-17 ; 1 Peter 5:2-4 ).

2 . In Isaiah 40:11 (as in the psalm) Christ's tender care of individuals, even the youngest, is represented.

3 and 4 . In Luke 15:3-7 and John 10:1-16 our Saviour appropriates this similitude to himself, as seeking and saving the lost, ruling and feeding each one who follows him, laying down his life for the flock, gathering "other sheep" into "one flock."

5 . In Revelation 7:16 , Revelation 7:17 we see the Divine Shepherd gathering his whole flock in the safety, rest, and joy of heaven.

CONCLUSION . Can you say, "The Lord is my Shepherd"? If not, the gospel has not yet fulfilled its mission in your heart and life. Observe, the warrant is not in yourself, but in your Saviour; not, "I am one of Christ's flock," but, "He is my Shepherd." If you can say this, then you may fearlessly cast all your care on him, and finish the verse, "I shall not want." ( 1 Peter 5:7 , Matthew 6:25 , Matthew 6:26 ).