Psalm 23 - The Lord Is My Shepherd
Tom Shrader begins a series on Psalm 23 by establishing the foundational truth that the Lord is our shepherd. He emphasizes that sheep are helpless, defenseless creatures who desperately need a shepherd's care, drawing parallels to our human condition and need for God's guidance. Shrader explains that this psalm is about living, not dying, and explores how crises in life draw us closer to intimate relationship with our sovereign God.
“Sheep don't go looking for the shepherd, it's the other way around.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Psalm 23
Recorded: September 17, 2015
Duration: 38 min
Themes: shepherding, guidance, dependence, protection, care, vulnerability, trust, relationship, feeling helpless, needing guidance, facing crisis, new believer, struggling with independence, seeking protection, experiencing loss, pastor
Scripture: Psalm 23, 1 Samuel 17:28, Genesis 48:15, Isaiah 40, Jeremiah 50, Ezekiel 34, Isaiah 53, John 10, Psalm 90:2
Theological Themes: pastoral care, divine providence, sovereignty, intimacy with god, biblical imagery, shepherd metaphor, covenant relationship, spiritual dependence
Full Transcript
We're going to spend four weeks on Psalm 23. If you're marginally familiar with the Bible, you memorize the 23rd Psalm. I had two occasions where it really came home to me.
Number one was my hero Larry Wright, who hated the way we used the 23rd Psalm. He loved the 23rd Psalm, but it would drive him nuts at a funeral to do the 23rd Psalm because the 23rd Psalm has nothing to do with dying and everything to do with living. I spent so much time with Larry, and one day he had a funeral in the morning and he hated to go into funerals. I'm the exact opposite - I really do enjoy those. He came in and he was all in a dither. I'm not even sure what a dither is, but he was in it and his little arms were going. I said, "Buddy, what's the problem?" He said, "If I go to another funeral and they read the 23rd Psalm, I'm going to puke." So when I did Larry's funeral, I began with "The Lord is my shepherd." And that was it.
The other time was when my father died. My dad passed away totally unexpectedly July 2nd. It'll be 10 years next year. I have three brothers - I'm the oldest of four. We went back and we were going to meet with the priest, and I was determined to stay out of this. Let's let this take its own course. We sat down with the priest and he said, "Here's what we're going to do. Does anybody have any input?" Perfect - I said nothing. He said, "Oftentimes a family member will speak. Would one of you like to speak?" My brother just started laughing and said, "Well, I think Tom will." I said, "I don't think so." The priest said, "Don't worry. There's no reason to be nervous." I said, "I'm thinking you're the one that ought to be nervous at this thing, not me."
We went from there to the funeral home. I don't do that - it gives me the heebie-jeebies, the whole deal. But we had to pick out a card. You know, you pick out a card that they pass out and they're blank on one side, pre-printed. They had an eagle flying and an ocean, and one was the 23rd Psalm. I said, "You know what? I don't care about any of this. Just for me, don't use that one because it's a great Psalm, but it doesn't fit for the dying theme. It's about living."
The Shepherd Imagery in David's Life
Psalm 23 is written by David. In 1 Samuel 17:28, we're told that David spent much of his youth tending a few sheep in the desert. It seems perhaps that time in the desert shaped an imagery that came back to him later as he began to write.
One author writes this: "One day as David was watching sheep, he had the idea that God is like a shepherd. He thought of the incessant care that sheep require. They're helpless, defenseless. He recalled their foolish straying from safe paths, their constant need for a guide. He thought of the time and the patience it took for them to trust him before they'd follow him. He remembered the times when he led them through danger and they huddled close to him. He pondered the fact that he must think and care, fight, guard, find pastures for his sheep. He remembered their bruises and scratches that he healed. He marveled at how frequently he had to rescue them from harm, yet not one of the sheep was aware of how well he was being watched." Really well said. Yes, it's very much like God. So this imagery is fresh to him.
Biblical Background of Shepherd Imagery
Jacob, also a shepherd, is the first one in the scripture to use the imagery in Genesis 48:15. He says, "God has been my shepherd all my life." Isaiah in Isaiah 40 writes this: "The sovereign Lord comes with power. His arms rule for Him. He tends His flock like a shepherd."
Jeremiah talks about a flock that's been ruined. Jeremiah 50: "My people have been lost like sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray."
Here's a long quote from Ezekiel 34: "My sheep wander all over the mountains. They're scattered. No one searched for them. For this is what the sovereign Lord says: I will search for my sheep, look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he's with them, so I will look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they've scattered. I will tend them in a good pasture. There they will lie down in good grazing land and there they will feed in a rich pasture. I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Lord. I will search for the lost sheep and bring them back."
Listen to the words. It's God searching for you. Search, look, rescue, tend.
God Seeks His Sheep
I found myself with my red pen writing "key thought" several times. I wrote "key thought" by this: Sheep don't go looking for the shepherd - it's the other way around. It's the way it is with God.
I have an invitation to speak to a group in a month or so. It's a businessmen's thing and it's almost like Throwback Tuesday. It's a retro deal - the old testimony. Come and talk about life. One of the points always is that we think we're looking for God, but we're looking for a God that we've made in our own image. We're thinking we'll find happiness and satisfaction in whatever that is, and then that becomes God. If it's anything other than the one true God, it's a false God - it's an idol. But the shepherd looks for the sheep.
The background, and we don't know for sure, is that this psalm was written when David was in a time perhaps of running and hiding even from his family. Dave Roper writes this: "This is a psalm for people who like David are experiencing a major upheaval in their life. Perhaps you have children who are rebelling or a home in turmoil or a financial crisis."
One of those times when I don't feel like it's my job to fill in the blanks for you. You fill them in. I don't know where these stats come from, but I'm always big on, you gotta know who you're talking to. And the general rule of thumb is, in a group like this, seven out of 10 people are in some form of hurting or crisis. And that's just life.
Saturday, Sandy and I got up. I had coffee. She swam. I had breakfast. She ran. So she came back and we chatted, watched the first half of the Iowa game. And then I had to go to Tucson. I was teaching Sunday morning in Tucson.
Well, I don't know if you've been down there lately. What a dismal place that is. I mean, that place is unbelievable. I do not get it. And what's amazing is the people that live there love it. They keep asking, don't you love it? Isn't it cooler down here? Oh no, it's just awful.
But I did this message on kind of almost greatest hits. What you know trumps what you feel. Suffering pain. And I gave them my line. Remember, no matter how bad it gets, it can only last a lifetime. And the 23rd Psalm is kind of that. The 23rd Psalm is one of those that's written to remind us that there's a shepherd with an implication that we need this shepherd.
Making the Psalm Personal
So I want you to take that sheet and we're gonna do some stuff that really, honestly, I don't know that we've ever done in here. I want at the end of the day for you to walk out with this or write in your Bible. That's even better. But you may want to do it on the sheet first and then put it in your Bible so that the 23rd Psalm becomes a go-to for you continually.
So I want you to take that sheet and do this for me. Just circle the singular personal pronouns. So if you got a PhD from the U of A, that would be words like I and my and me. Just to help you out here. I want you to see, and it's right in the first line, and this is all the further we're gonna get today, is the first part of verse one, the Lord is my shepherd.
I want you to see from those circles how personal this is. I want you to see that the Lord isn't just a shepherd, the Lord is my shepherd. Now, that's not universal. That's not written to every man, woman, boy, girl that's living. That's written to those of us who know Jesus as our Lord and Savior, to those who are Christians. If you're a follower of Christ, the Lord is your Savior.
Breaking Down the Psalm
We're gonna work a little bit. You're gonna have to hang in there. We could say it this way. Because the Lord is my shepherd, and the way I laid this out in your copy, I want you to be able to write a word at the end of every phrase.
The Lord is my shepherd, that's relationship. I shall not want, that's supply. And as you get out and you reflect on this, you might find better words, that's okay.
Verse two, He makes me lie down in green pasture. Here's a great word, that's rest. He leads me beside quiet waters, that's refreshment. These are great words. If I think that I'm in the middle of some hurt or difficulty or pain, at whatever level it is, these are sweet words.
He restores my soul, that's healing. He guides me in the paths of righteousness, guidance. Why does He do this? For His namesake, there's purpose.
Verse four, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, it's not that I walk into and die, I'm walking through that. The word is testing. I fear no evil, protection. For you are with me, faithfulness. Your rod and staff, they comfort me, that's discipline. Now there was a shift there, there's a grammatical shift that's pretty interesting and we'll unpack it and come back to it in a minute in verse four.
Hope and Security
Verse five, you prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies. Big word here, there's hope. There's an old saying that people can live 40 days without food and three days without water and maybe three minutes without air, but not a second without hope. That I have to have hope.
Now I'm making a bigger comment. What you see in the world around us is gradually people losing hope. He said, I'm your hope, here you go.
You have anointed my head with oil. There's dedication, talk about that in a couple weeks. My cup overflows, abundance. Surely goodness and loving kindness follow me all the days of my life. There's blessing. Two more, end of verse six. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord, security.
The American Dream and Real Security
I have a show that for years has been one of my go-to shows. It's CBS Sunday Morning. It's the old Charles Kuralt show. Now it's Charles, I love that show. And I tape it every Sunday morning. I can't always see it. And every Sunday, there's at least one really good segment.
And there was one last week on the American dream. And that's a big topic for me, is I don't know what it is, I don't know. And so they're talking to a gal, a sociologist, and I'd never heard this before, but it plays into my whole worldview. She said, the American dream is security. You're in real tough shape.
Sandy and I, about three or four weeks ago, we went up the flag, had a great time, came back, had to cancel August trip. And so we had a lot of time to talk. And I said, you know, our financial planning is based on me, not on you.
Here's the problem I see, I'll try to explain that. I'm 15 years older than Sandy. My resting heart rate is about 220. Hers is 12. She just actuarially gonna live 25 or 30 years beyond me, just the way it is. And I feel this huge responsibility. She stepped aside, she's in her prime earning years and stepped out of the marketplace and six figures and all that stuff.
And our strategy is based so that our money doesn't run out before I die. But the flaw in that obviously is, I need to make sure she's taken care of. So we met with our financial guy and I said, here's our concerns. And he said, well, we have a very conservative portfolio. And that's based on preserving capital. I'm more concerned about preservation of capital than a return on capital. And he said,
well, why don't we change these percentages and be slightly more aggressive? I said, okay, I think that makes sense. I don't want to be crazy here. Don't want to start doing goofy things. He said, no, not at all. Got an email three or four days later, all the changes, everything's done. The next day, we experienced what experts call a market correction. I mean, the next day. And I don't follow it or I don't know and I don't know what it means. I'm just going, you can't figure this stuff out. This security is an illusion. He said, listen, here's where you're going to have security in me and me alone. And then the last thing is, and all this forever. The last part of earth six, eternity.
So we could probably quit right now. Maybe you wish we would. And you could walk out with a sheet of paper and have the guts of this lesson, okay? And the guts of the next six weeks. Because the Lord is your shepherd, you have relationship and supply and rest and healing, refreshment and guidance and purpose and protection and all of this stuff. That's what He's saying.
The Change from He to You
Now, I said there was a change in verse four. David begins by saying, He makes me lie down. He leads me, He guides me. In verse four, he changes from the He to You. John Piper offers this insight. I think the switch to the more intimate You precisely when he enters the valley of the shadow of death is a universal experience among God's people. Indeed, among all men in one form or another. The crises of life draw us closer to God.
We're more prone, this is so subtle but big. We're more prone to talk about God when we're in the green pasture, but to God when we enter the fearful ravine. It's that foxhole conversion. It's a difference that I experienced a billion times when Susan would get her test results. If we went in and the scans came back and they were clear, we would say, where are we going to go for lunch? But if they came back and every other time it was this, if they came back and said, the cancer is growing, all of a sudden we had a prayer meeting. Why didn't we have a prayer meeting all the time? Well, because I don't know.
Jesus Is All You Need
I've become super sensitive to the songs we sing in church. And I have to guard my heart because I get cynical in it. I can be at times cynical. So we're singing a song the other day, Jesus is all you need. Okay, here's what I know. You really don't know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have. Because as long as you got plan B, C, D, E, F, you're going to go there. It's easy to say, Jesus is all I need when I got a fallback position, when I got the retirement thing, when I still have a little expertise, when I still know the right people or have the right stuff, or I'm proud.
I think I said last week, I'm spending a ton of time with two groups of people, young people, 25 to 35, every one of them without exception tells me how tired they are and how busy they are. That's all, I'm so tired, I'm so tired, I'm so tired. Okay, and then all the old guys, every one of them starts with, I don't remember how to do that.
Physical Limitations and Teaching
Somebody asked me the other day, how I was doing physically, and I said, you know, every day is hard. And then they asked this, nobody asks this, how's it affecting your teaching? I said, well, that's kind of interesting. It's affecting it in two ways. One I know for sure, the other's subjective. The subjective one is, I think my teaching is better than it's ever been. So for those of you that are here for the first time, you might be wondering, how bad was it? Okay, I got that. I'm all right with that. But I think there's an insight, I think there's an insight and a depth that wasn't there. Now that may be a self-absorbed, arrogant comment. But the one thing I know is, I'm not as sharp as I was. The words don't come out as smooth.
And it's funny, because I've had this deal with God. When my hands went, I thought, well gosh, it can't get any worse than this. I got my grandson opening my water for me. Sandy and I went out with some friends to eat. And the food came, and I'm looking at it. And I've been very, very, I'm not a good dining out person. We haven't had a good meal out in so long. And so the guy said, is there something wrong with the food? And I said, well, Sandy, I need you to cut my meat. You know, and that's all right, it's kind of cute.
But I thought, well, at least I got my hands, and I can't get much worse. Then my feet went. And I got this thing going, okay God, don't take my speech. That's all I got. I can't write, I don't think, but I know what's going to happen, I know it. That's going to go, okay? And I'm really relying on Jesus. I'm really not, I'm relying on this stuff. We'll figure it out. But He's saying, no, you know what? You're still relying on the speech too much. When are you going to trust me? Because I'm your shepherd.
God's Pursuit of Our Dependence
Listen to this, this is an awesome sentence. Our discomfort is God's doing. He hounds us, He hems us in, He thwarts our dreams. He foils our best laid plans. He frustrates our hope. He's waiting until we know that nothing else will ease our pain. Nothing will make life worth living except His presence. He wants you dependent upon Him, not on yourself.
Sarah called the other night, and Sarah has four girls, and Gracie's the oldest. Gracie's eight, she's never spoken, she's autistic. There's a whole series of challenges with that. Reagan is six, Brooklyn is four, and McKinley is two. That's a lot. And then Sarah's the one who was diagnosed with breast cancer in June and had all the surgery, so she's recovering from the surgery. And she's got a couple other things she does, and her plate is very full.
And she called, and I said, hello, and she said, Daddy. My girls don't call me Daddy, they call me Tom. And the only time they call me Daddy is when something's going on. She said, Daddy, I need some advice. All right, come to the right place. And I said, what's it on? And she said, well, parenting. And I said, well, you might not be at the right place. And I said, you know, you
ought to call your sister. And she said, well, I did, and she said to call you. So I wasn't even her first choice on the parent. And she laid it out, and I just said, sweetie, you're doing the right thing. Here's the deal, parenting is really hard. It's just a hard deal. And this is not a big deal, and you're on top of it, and you've got it now. You just got to hang in there.
But our strategy, I said, let me remind you what our child-rearing strategy was, was to make you independent of us and dependent upon God, independent of your mom and me. And it was one of those moments where she's saying, I so wish I could talk to mom about this. I said, well, honey, you can't. And dad, what you gave me, I kind of knew, and you're doing the best you can.
He pushed us. Why would He do that? Is He some sort of sadistic, malicious God who just wants to punish you? And this is all a big, giant game to Him? No. He loves you so that we know the testing of our faith produces endurance. That's how I grow.
The Obvious Truth We Easily Overlook
I want to make a point that is so obvious that it could easily be overlooked. But if we overlook it, we miss the depth of this song. And it's this. If He's the shepherd, we're what? Sheep. And you're going, jeez, I don't need to write that down. But you don't. I don't care whether you write it down or not, but you need to get it to understand the depth of this.
Now, let me confess up front, I don't know one thing about sheep. I'm from Iowa, which is interesting because everybody assumes that you know everything there is about hogs and corn. And I don't know anything about this.
When I came down here in 1975, I got a job at Motorola. And at the time, those of you that are veterans down here, you will remember Motorola was the largest employer in the state. They employed 55,000 people. That's interesting, isn't it? They're essentially gone now. And at Motorola, it was a company run by a group of engineers. But they had a market. You could only buy Motorola products. Don't think consumer. Don't think radios and transistors and TVs. Think two-way communication. So if you're watching 1 Adam 12, and they show that squawk box, it's going to say Motorola. Motorola owned the market. And so you had to buy from them.
So I went down and got a job with Motorola, a decent job. And so the guy looked at my resume. He said, I see you're from Iowa. Our products are really used in agribusiness, so I'm going to put you in agribusiness. And at the time, like out where I live at Elliott McQueen and all, that was all farmland. And my job was to call on farmers, ranchers.
Meeting Dwayne Dobson
So I wasn't into cold calling too much. So I figured, this is smart. Why don't I get my best customers, meet them, and try to add on to their system? It seems like the least resistance and about all I really was willing to do. And so I get the file, and the first name I come to is Dwayne Dobson. So think Dobson Road, Dobson Ranch, Dobson.
So I'm talking to a friend, and I said, hey, do you know Dwayne Dobson? He said, he's a great guy. You'll love him. I said, all right. So I called him up. I said, Dwayne, I'm Tom Schrader. I'm the new Motorola guy. I see that you got a phone. Now in those days, just to remind you, remind some of you, inform others, you had a box about this size that went in your trunk. And then you ran cable up to a headset, and a mobile phone cost $3,000. And if you picked it up, and you got a dial tone, and you dialed a number, it was $2 for the first minute, and $1 for every minute afterwards. So I thought, I'm gonna hit a home run.
So I called Dobson, and I said, hey, I'm the new Motorola guy. I'd love to meet you. He said, great. Why don't you come out? And I said, well, what works for you? And he said, well, why don't you come out to the ranch house? And I said, all right. Why don't we meet for breakfast? And he said, great. Why don't you come out? We'll meet tomorrow at four o'clock. And I said, well, why don't I meet you at eight for lunch? I said, I don't do that.
And if you go down to Ocotillo and all that stuff there, that was all part of that ranch. He had a bunch of sheep. Well, I don't know anything about it. I didn't learn anything about it. But I've read a lot about sheep.
The Reality About Sheep
Here's what I know about sheep. Number one, they are dumb. You'll never see a sheep trainer. You're never gonna go to the circus and see a sheep act. They got lions, and tigers, and bears, and alligators, and bats, and eagles, and falcons. But sheep are dumb.
Number two, they're defenseless. No claws, no fangs, can't run. You got the Chicago bears and the Seattle Seahawks. You don't have the Denver sheep. They don't throw fear into anybody.
Number three, they are dirty. There was a picture the other day, some of you had to see it, of the sheep that had been lost. I forget how long, like four years. And this thing, it was just gross. This thing waddling at you.
Number four, they're stubborn. They do their own thing their own way. And number five, therefore, they get lost. They're prone to wander. Isaiah 53, we like sheep have all gone astray. Turn to our own way.
And six, there's a mob mentality. One sheep starts to run, and it starts a whole stampede. One sheep is spooked. They'll literally starve just feet away from food. Water that's there, that's running, they won't get in it.
The Rich Imagery of Our Need
So see how rich that imagery gets? And this is not meant to hurt your self-esteem. I don't care about that. You are a dumb, dirty, defenseless, mob mentality, fearful, stubborn person. You need a shepherd.
One author writes this. The Lord. Who's the Lord? What's His character? Does He have adequate credentials to be my shepherd, my manager? See, that's what it says. The Lord is my shepherd. Not the shepherd. Not a shepherd. My shepherd. And if He does have this, how do I come under His control?
Now, for most of us, this is especially true in our day and age. For most of us, we have a distorted view
of God. So here's what we say: our theology doesn't ascend high enough or descend low enough. In other words, we have too exalted a view of man. A guy by the name of Steve Brown wrote a book called "What Was I Thinking?" He was talking about things that he learned from years in ministry. One of the chapters, maybe chapter eight, is titled "People Are Worse Than I Thought." People are so bad and so evil and so despicable and so selfish. Our theology doesn't descend low enough, and it doesn't ascend high enough.
So God becomes the big guy upstairs. "God must be wearing Dodger blue today. This is the year God is wearing Cubby blue this year. This is the year. It's right there. You can feel it. I don't know how this is going to get screwed up, but I know it is. But this is the year." It's not that. When the Jews would not even say the word Yahweh, if they were to write it, the scribe would go and bathe before he'd write the word. And then whatever instrument he used to write the word Yahweh, he then burnt the instrument.
The Great I AM
God's definition is the one. It's the I AM. Let me read to you what I think is Max Lucado. He's talking about Yahweh as the unchanging God. He's also an uncaused God: "Though He creates, God was never created. Though He makes, He was never made. Though He causes, He was never caused. 'Before the mountains were born or you brought forth on the earth of the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.'" Psalm 90:2—great writing.
You and I are governed. This is a great thought: The weather determines what we wear. The terrain tells us how to travel. Gravity dictates our speed. Health determines our strength. We may challenge these forces and alter them slightly, but we never remove them. God, our shepherd, doesn't check the weather—He makes it. He doesn't defy gravity—He creates it. He isn't affected by health—He has no body. He's spirit.
Since He has no body, He has no limitations. The psalmist David asked, "Where can I go to get away from your spirit? Where can I run from you? If I go to heaven, you're there. If I lie down in the grave, you're there." Unchanging, uncaused, ungoverned. These are only a fraction of God's qualities, but aren't they enough to give you a glimpse of your Father? Don't we need this kind of shepherd? Don't we need an unchanging shepherd?
The Vastness of Our Shepherd
The Lord is my shepherd. This idea is meant to be awesome. I was the other day getting ready to teach, so I got my phone and I asked Siri, "How many galaxies are there in the universe?" The answer I got varied, but went from 170 billion to 500 billion. Now, having done this for 30 years, I know that right now, some of you can't wait to get up here to talk to me about galaxies. How many there are? I don't care. If you've got something you want to tell me, put it in a PDF that's easily deleted, because I'm not going to dialogue with you, and I don't give a rip about it. I couldn't care less. I don't care if it's 100 or 170 billion.
The point is, it's a big universe that He created, and there's no maverick molecule in it that's outside of His jurisdiction and sovereignty. Therefore, I'm back to square one, verse one: the Lord is your shepherd, and He can be trusted. And because the Lord is your shepherd, all of these other things are true.
Jesus says it this way in John 10: "I am the good shepherd, and my sheep hear my voice, and they follow me, and no one will snatch them out of my hands." That's the condition. That's what I want you to take out of here today: how big God is, how massive He is, and how much He loves you.
In His Hands
When I was a little boy, we had two television stations, CBS and NBC. We didn't have ABC yet. And every night, Sunday night at seven, we had Ed Sullivan. He had all the little stuff—in retrospect, kind of cool. But he had a gal that came on there that was one of His favorites, and she would sing a song. At the time, we mimicked the song, though I didn't have a clue, really, what it meant, but I do now. It was this: "He's got the whole world in His hands." Mahalia Jackson. "You and me, brother, in His hands. You and me, sister, in His hands. The little bitty baby in His hands."
He's got—here we go, and we are way beyond little bitty babies in here, but you need to probably hear this—He's got you in His hand. It's going to be okay. Doesn't mean it isn't going to be ugly. Doesn't mean there isn't going to be tough times. Doesn't mean that the test isn't going to come back bad. Doesn't mean every deal's going to close. Doesn't mean there won't be market corrections. Doesn't mean there won't be broken relationships. Doesn't mean that.
It just means, in the midst of that, the shepherd has control of you, so you can rest and take a breath and refresh. Why? It's going to be all right. Not because of you. You're a dumb, defenseless, stupid, stubborn sheep. But because of Him. He's the shepherd who's in control—the Great Shepherd.
Moving Forward
That's a long introduction, but I just found myself getting carried away putting it together just to emphasize that and to get that point and to get that imagery. So we're going to hammer this out over the next four or five weeks. We won't take any more than a verse or two. You can start tonight to go to Psalm 23 and go, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." What does that mean? If you wanted to get down and dirty, which I doubt you do, you'd make a list of the things you really want, and you'd begin to know that those that are legitimate wants and needs, He's going to provide somehow. We'll look at that next week.
Father, thank You for that awesome truth. I hear it over and over again, and I just pray that You get it deep in my mind and that I get it and understand it. Father, thank You for Your love, Your protection, Your guidance. Thank You for restoring and refreshing. Thank You for all You do. Thank You for loving us. We pray that to You in Christ's name.
I would be happy to help you edit this sermon transcript, but it appears that only the closing "name, amen" was included. Could you please provide the full transcript for Psalm 23:1 - The Lord Is My Shepherd, Part 6 of 6? I'll then clean and format it according to your specifications while preserving all of Tom's ideas, arguments, scripture references, and illustrations.