Pastor's Blog

Sand Mountain Sermonettes No. 5

Psalm 23

Sand Mountain Sermonettes No. 5

A Grandfather’s Most Precious Gift

One of the most precious gifts my grandfather gave me as a young boy was a small wall plaque made from a plaster mold and hand-painted in accents of royal blue, red, green, and yellow depicting King David the Shepherd Boy. It shows a youthful David seated on a rock with harp in hand, flowers growing beside him and a sheep resting on the ground at his side. Also written on the plaque are the first five words of Psalm 23: The Lord is My Shepherd.

If you walk in my office today you will see this plaque positioned on a wall next to my desk; as you would have in any office I have called my own during my past thirty-one years of ministry. The wonderful thing about this piece is in its revelation into the heart of my loving Christian grandfather and his love for me. I am sure he meant for its words to follow me throughout my life, wherever God would lead me.

The first five words of the Psalm virtually every educated mind in the English-speaking world has heard form the foundation for the rest of the Psalm. Let’s highlight the first four words centering around the word, “Lord.” “THE Lord is my shepherd.” There is no other Lord. He has no peer! “The Lord IS my shepherd.” David does not use the past or the future tense here, but the present. The Lord is with his children and his church this very moment to meet our present needs according to His divine plan. “The Lord is MY shepherd.” David was writing this psalm as an old man looking back on his youthful days as a shepherd on the hills outside Jerusalem. Throughout his life, the Lord had not been “a” shepherd, but David’s personal Shepherd. “The Lord is my SHEPHERD.” David knew the Lord lead His people as the good, caring, and protective shepherd leads his sheep. God calls you to follow Him.

Is the Lord YOUR shepherd? If not, He wants to be.

Pastor Louie