The Names of God Lesson 9 - Fairhaven Baptist Church

The Names of God

Lesson 9

Jehovah Rohi

Text: Psalm 23:1-6

Intro: As we have been traveling up through the Old Testament, we have looked at several names of God as given by people of the bible. Each time, there is a further illumination of the character, power, and person of God. This week in my studies, I came across a statement by Anselm, called His Ontological Argument. He simply states, that if a man thinks he understands God, then he has no understanding at all. What I mean by this, is what I have been saying for the last few weeks. God cannot be understand by simple names. But with each name there is a further illumination of who He is.

This is just as true here in the 23^rd Psalm, David coming to a greater understanding of who God is. And David is going to use something he knew very well. The idea of being a shepherd. I want to point out what other ideas David could have used, and had experience with, but chose not to use. He could have used the metaphor of a King,

a Father, a Warrior, He could have used a helper, a friend, he could have drew on many of his life experiences, but he chose to use the Idea of Shepherd.

This is also a name that is more than just a name, while most of the other names, we looked at the context of the passage, the history surrounding it to draw a conclusion, David takes the time to put in writing just what he means by calling God a Shepherd.

Background,
1. When Was This Psalm Written, and by who?
  1. The Gathering
    1. The “Bible” is a collection of books.
      - It is in a way a library that contains in it 66 other books.
        
        Each of the books of the bible is a stand alone book in a matter of speaking,
        
        but when we put them together we start to get a better picture of things.
      - In this collection we have books of history,
        
        these are books like the trilogy’s where one book ends then next starts, and by reading them through we get a better understanding of the historical events that lead to other things.
      - We have books of the Gospels,
        
        which are also books of history with the book of Acts.
        
        The unique aspect of the gospels is the history is the life of Christ, as written by 4 different writers
      - we have books that are simply letters (Epistles)
        
        these are just what it says, letters either to a person, or to a group.
      - We have books of Prophecy,
        
        such as the Revelation of Jesus Christ, history recorded in advance.
      - We also have books of wisdom,
        
        this is the type of book the Psalms is.
    2. Most books of the bible were written by one person, sometimes two, in order to put the conclusion on (Such as recording the death of Moses and the reaction of Israel in the last of the books of Moses)
      - But the Psalms is different, it is not a book as we know books, rather it is a collection of poems, songs, and writings.
        
        This is why it is not correct to say “turn to the 23^rd chapter of Psalm,
        
        that would be like saying in our song book turn to the 23^rd chapter and lets sing “__A Little Nearer Home___”
      - So the Psalms were written by people like David, Moses wrote some, Solomon, Asaph and his family, Korah, Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, in fact we know of at least these 7 writers, but there are what is called the “Orphaned Psalms” who we don’t know the writer, and this is about 50 of them.
    3. So the Psalms were written as early as the life of Moses, possibly earlier, and throughout the history of Israel in exile.
2. The Writing of the 23^rd Psalm,
  1. Who and When was the 23^rd Psalm written?
    1. We know David wrote it, but the time we cannot be certain,
      - some feel the psalm was written while David served as a shepherd,
      - but there are others that look at the evidence of the psalm it’s self and say it came later,
        
        Vs 5 he had enemies, vs 4 he faced death, in vs.3 he experienced rest and in vs. 5 he was blessed.
    2. The most common held belief of when it was written was:
      - while David was at Mahanaim wondering how the battle was between his forces and those of his son, Absalom, during the civil war caused by Absalom’s rebellion.
        
        This really makes you ponder the heart and depth of pain David must have been in during the writing.
The Meaning,
1. What it Means to Be A Shepherd,
  1. I Shall Not Want,
    1. I have heard people quote this in many different ways, “I Shall not want”
    2. What does David mean by this?
      - I Shall Not Want. Shall not be in want,
      - David goes on to say in the 32^nd Psalm Vs.25 “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. ”
      - Philippians 4:19 “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
    3. David knew the supplies he needed was provided by the Lord,
      - as a Shepherd, the sheep followed, it was the responsibility to provide.
  2. He Makes Me Lie Down,
    1. David is painting a picture of peace and trust here,
      - The sheep can lay down in the abundance of the Lord and rest without worry or concern of what might happen.
      - The idea of “green Pastures” is that of fresh, tender plants for nourishment, and pastures shows the abundance.
  3. He Leads Me,
    1. He leads me beside still waters,
      - once again the provision of God, Sheep like still waters,
      - the word leadeth here is, to carry, protect, sustain.
        
        Have you ever thrown a stick into a creek, and watched it flow down?
        
        The current of the water carried it, with no effort of it’s own the stick ended up down stream.
        
        And where is this flowing leading going, to a place of still water.
  4. He Restores Me,
    1. David then says, as a result of this, “He restores my Soul”
      - to restore is to bring back to the starting place.
        
        Think of it this way, if a man exerts a lot of energy to preform work, and then goes and relaxes, eats, drinks, replenishes, and rests, the next day, he is at the beginning ready to begin again.
      - My Soul,? What does David mean by his soul?
        
        We know what we mean bu soul, that other part of who we are, that everlasting part.
        
        David understood about that everlasting part as well, he spoke about it concerning his child that went to heaven, But this is not what I think he is speaking.
        
        The word “soul” is ghost, wind, breath,
        
        we have went through this in the past, how do you describe “air”?
        
        Atoms in motion? But they had no understanding of that, so what is air?
        
        It is an invisible force that produces results.
        
        David was saying, God is returning him to a beginning when he was fresh, and full of power.
    2. Now, I want to draw a line in the Psalm here,
      - the first two carry the idea of what happens after a, journey, a fight, a long day,
      - the next few verses are about preparation for the next.
        
        Think about it, He has made me to rest, eat, and drink, he has restored me. Now, He is leading me, in righteous, walking past death, dealing with enemies…
  5. He Guides Me,
    1. the first “leadeth” is Nahal, to flow, carry.
    2. The second “leadeth” is nachah, to guide, bring, govern,
      - the first one is God doing the work, the second is God showing, but the individual must make the effort to follow.
      - And where does Gos want us to follow? Into righteousness.
        
        THIS IS IMPORTANT, this is the first step in the preparation of tomorrow.
        
        Before we face an enemy, or death, we should strive to live in righteousness.
    3. For His Name Sake, Shem, “literally as a mark or memorial”
  6. He Takes Away Fear,
    1. the valley of the shadow of death, is a c lift on the one side and a drop off on the other side.
      - Yet because of following the Lord, there is not fear.
        
        Fear here is simply bad. I won’t fear anything bad happening.
  7. He Comforts Me
    1. the staff and the rod are used for discipline and direction.
      - We tend to think of discipline as harsh. But in truth, it helps us.
      - Rules, can be comfort, I read about a bunch of kids with baseball equipment. And no rules….
  8. He Anoints Me and He Blesses Me,
    1. I want to put these two together
    2. in the presence of the enemy, God nurturers us, anoints or has a place for us, and blesses to the point that our cup is over running.
    3. So much that it is as if two individuals are following us, one is goodness, God’s abundant blessings on our life, and the other is Mercy, God withholding from us the things we should suffer.
    4. And when asked, David said, you know who is following me, Goodness and Mercy.
  9. He Has A Home For Me,
    1. this is an unconditional promise,
    2. the House of the Lord is, His home, His Family, His presence,
    3. for how long? For Ever.
  10. So to recap:
    1. He gives me all I need,
    2. He gives me Peace,
    3. He nurtures me
    4. He restores me, and prepares me,
    5. He guides me
    6. He removes fear
    7. He Disciplines and Directs me,
    8. He Abundantly Blesses me in the presence of my enemies,
    9. He Makes Me Part of His Family
    10. He Promises this is a state of “For Ever,”
Application:
1. Is God Our Shepherd?
  1. Jesus is the Good Shepherd,
    1. John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”
    2. John 10:14 “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.”
      - Jesus made this statement about Himself,
      - He is our shepherd, and Look at the added difference between the Psalm of David and the words of Christ,
      - Jesus adds, He lays down his life for the sheep.
      - I Samuel 17:34&35 “And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: 35 And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.”
        
        David knew about the willingness of a Shepherd to lay down His life.
  2. Do We trust on God to be our Shepherd?
    1. To Restore and Refresh us,
    2. To Prepare, and Provide for us.
    3. To Bless, and to Accept us into His Family?