“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?​” ​Psalm 27:1

Psalm 27

The book “Fearless” is a tear-jerking, true story about a U.S. Navy SEAL named Adam Brown who gave his life in the fight to free the world from tyrannical Taliban terrorists in Eastern Afghanistan. This New York Times best-seller brilliantly describes Adam’s road to SEAL Team Six qualification and his personal battle to overcome cocaine addiction and become one of the truly greatest freedom fighters in United States military history.

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“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. ” Psalm 23:1-3 

Psalm 23

 

In perhaps the most widely-known poem of all time, David combines his childhood background of life as a shepherd and his soulful connection with God, the central focus of his life.

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“When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.​” ​John 10:4

Psalm 24

 

When David asked, “Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place?” (Psalm 24:3), there is a very good chance that he was reflecting upon the passage of the Torah , which he had surely memorized, where Moses had climbed Horeb, “the mountain of God”, and encountered God in the “burning bush”. It was here that Moses talked to God. It was here that God spoke to Moses. It was here on the holy mountain where God’s voice spoke to Moses and said, Reverence, respect, fear, awe…you can ​feel​ the emotions consuming Moses as he heard God’s clear and certain voice.

3500 years later and halfway around the world, we can hardly get our minds around the magnitude of this moment when God spoke to Moses and proclaimed, “​I AM WHO I AM”​​ .

So, God asks you and I today through this Psalm of David, “Who can approach God and converse today? Who can hear from God ​clearly​? Who can communicate with God and hear His voice without static and interruption?” No sooner did David ask this gravitas question than he had answered it himself… “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood and has not sworn deceitfully” (Psalm 24:4).

“This is holy ground.” Come to God in reverence and awe. Keep your hands clean. Keep your mind clean. Keep your heart clean. Keep your vocabulary clean. The Shepherd who gave you His sacrificial blood to make you clean also gave you His Holy Spirit to empower you to follow Him and live that way. The closer a lamb is to his shepherd, the easier it is to follow him.

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“For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me; they pierced my hands and my feet ” (Psalm 22:16).

Psalm 22

 

Eight hundred years before the cruel and brutal Assyrians and Romans began to sentence men to the historical crucifixion where metal nails would be driven into a man’s hands and feet to impale him to a Cross until he had cried out his exhaustive scream of pain and anguish, David prophesied the death of our Shepherd in graphic detail.

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“The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You support my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me ” (Psalm 16:5 & 6) .

Being a native Texan, I can laugh at the jest about our Texas tendency to dream excessively!

In a similar satirical manner, Dr. Seuss tells a story about “Yertle the Turtle” who wanted to see and own the world by stacking up all the turtles in his happy little pond so he could stand on their backs and see the world that he believed he had the right to rule. With very little care for the pain he was causing the turtles upon which he made his stand, “Yertle the Turtle” demanded that all turtles climb upon each others’ backs to give his self-made throne a world-wide view of all he believed he had dominion over. That is until a turtle named “Mack”, at the bottom of the stack, burped which caused the entire stack to come tumbling down and plummeted Yertle the Turtle to the floor of the muddy pond below.

1. Psalm16:1&2 -“ Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You. I said to theLord,‘You are my Lord; I have no good besides You.’ ”
   What does it mean to you to say, “I have no good besides You”?
2.  Philippians4:11&12 – “Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.
   Like Yertle the Turtle and Texans in the satires, what are the dangers and pitfalls of greed?
3. Describe the virtue of contentment by a lamb who “grazes in the pasture” of Jesus our Shepherd?
4.  Psalm23:1 -“ The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. ”
   If Jesus is our Shepherd, is He enough to you?
5. Why should Jesus’ provision of grace be sufficient for you?
6. Honestly describe how your heart seeks after more,even when you already have Jesus’ provision granted to you.
7. Philippians4:5-7 -“ Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus .” Why does greed lead to anxiety?
8. Psalm16:11 -“ You will make known to me the path of life;in Your presence is fullness of joy;in Your right hand there are pleasures forever .”
   What is David trying to communicate to you in this passage?
9. How would your life be different if Jesus was truly enough for you?

John13:15 – “For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.”

From today’s scripture, how does THE Shepherd inspire you to shepherd your flock?

“You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever ” (Psalm 16:11).

 

Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication

“For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness; the upright will behold His face ” (Psalm 11:7) .

Psalm 11

For 3500 years, the Hebrew nation sacrificed only unblemished lambs on the day of Passover celebration. Is it any wonder that when The Lamb was being sacrificed for the sins of all mankind, He too would be found “not guilty” and worthy of the ultimate sacrifice for our salvation?

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