“JEHOVAH IS MY SHEPHERD”
R.Hutchinson1
This psalm, part of which I have read, is perhaps the best known passage in the Old Testament. I think everyone here has heard this psalm many, many times. It is a psalm of David; that means that it was a man who composed this psalm, “The Lord is my shepherd”. It is a man who is saying that; it is not just a verse in the Scriptures; it is a verse in the Scriptures; but it is a man who says, ‘The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want’—a remarkable thing that a man here upon the earth can speak with such certainty in his heart, ‘I shall not want’. I wonder if every one of us here today can say with the same certainty, “I shall not want”. Well, David could say that because he knew the Lord as his Shepherd. Now if you want to say that you will not want, the source is in the Lord, ‘The Lord is my shepherd’, and, as we all know, the Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New; and David found, and our sister found, that with the Lord there was no need to want, “I shall not want”—a wonderful thing to arrive at in the state of anyone’s soul, the absolute certainty that nothing is able to disturb their confidence in the One who is the Shepherd.
I wonder if we can all rest on the certainty of a verse like this. Our sister, whose body is present with us, was one who in the certainty of her own soul (like many, many here) knew the Lord as her Shepherd, One who would look after her, One who would care for her, for the simple reason that she knew that Jesus had died for her. She knew the Lord Jesus as her Saviour, she knew the Lord Jesus as her Redeemer, she knew the Lord Jesus had shed His blood for her, and she knew Him as her Shepherd. Therefore, whatever the vicissitudes of life, the Lord is sufficient.
So David goes on to say, “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures”. Things are pleasant, green pastures pleasant to the eye, pleasant for rest, for his confidence is still in Jehovah. “He leadeth me beside still waters”. How pleasant these experiences are!—the Lord Jesus just by us, making us to rest, and leading us by still waters. This is David, it was our sister, and many here today; is it your portion? Just ask yourself simply, Could you have written a psalm like this?
Then he says, “He restoreth my soul”. Various things come in; things are not always pleasant in life. Things have not always been pleasant for our sister; they are not always pleasant for any of us. But what do we do? “He restoreth my soul”. Get to the Lord about it! He will bring in something because He is the Shepherd. There is no need to want, “He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake”. There is a pathway to follow where the Lord leads, the path of righteousness, doing what is right in the sight of God, doing what is right in the sight of the Lord. That is the way to get the real benefit of knowing the Lord as your Shepherd.
But then he says, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil”. Could you walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil? Our sister walked through the valley of the shadow of death for months, and yet feared no evil, because the Lord was her Shepherd. She knew the Lord; she could walk
through that valley with the Lord at her side. “I will fear no evil: for thou art with me”. What a comfort, a tremendous comfort—to have the Lord Jesus by you as you walk through the valley of the shadow of death. The Lord Jesus went into death itself. He knew the rigours of death; our sister did not. Our sister never saw death, because the Lord Jesus saw it on her behalf. He went into it; He understood what death was. The death of the Lord Jesus was a death such as you and I, if we are Christians, will never have to face; even if death comes, we will never have to face it. He bore the penalty of sin; He bore the wrath of God; He bore the judgment of God upon sin in order that you and I, if we know the Lord as our Shepherd, can walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and “fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me”.
Wherever you go, He will walk alongside you with the rod and the staff. The Lord comforts, the Lord sustains; it is the Lord’s power in His shepherd character, in the greatness of His wonderful love; “Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me”. Have you drawn upon the comfort that the Lord Jesus can give you, or are you still troubled, are you still worried, are you still fearful? For David there was no worry, there was no fear, “Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me”. The Lord Jesus is a wonderful Comforter, He is a wonderful Shepherd, He is a wonderful Saviour. Our sister knew Him, our sister had walked with Him, our sister had loved Him. She had responded to Him, she could say, as David said—‘Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not want’.
The verse in Matthew says, “Blessed they that mourn, for they shall be comforted”. The Lord Jesus can draw near to us; He does draw near to us; we experience His drawing near to us, bringing His comfort. But what He said when He was going away was, ‘I will beg the Father, and he will give you another Comforter’ (John 14: 16). It is a wonderful thing that we can have the Lord Jesus as our Comforter, and our Shepherd and our strength and our stay, but before He went on high He spoke of ‘ another Comforter’, the Holy Spirit, another divine Person, sent here to comfort the saints. “Blessed they that mourn, for they shall be comforted”. The power and presence and possession of the Holy Spirit are to be a tremendous comfort and stay through all our days until the Lord Himself comes to take us where He Himself is, on high in the glory.
These are wonderful things, to think of God Himself, in the glory and greatness of His Person, putting Himself within reach of persons like you and me and our sister, so that we can come ourselves to the understanding of just what divine Persons will be to us. Even if we mourn now, because one has been taken away from us, “they shall be comforted”. Our brother and our sisters will know this comfort, because they have the Holy Spirit with them, that other Comforter, the One who is so ready to afford the service of comfort to those who mourn. It is wonderful to come into the range of divine operations, and to know something of the warmth and love of Jesus, and to know the power and presence and comfort of the Holy Spirit. May we all know it, for His name’s sake. Amen.
Word at the burial of Mrs Barbara Hughes, Chesterfield
19 March 1982