The Lordship Of Jesus Christ
Introduction
Unquestionably the Lord is the focus of the life of the psalmist David as these six verses reveal. Psalm twenty-three begins and ends with the Lord. This Psalm is a perennial source of strength to the believer.
I. A Threatening Appointment
When the psalmist writes, "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death . . ." (Psalm 23:4a) he refers to a threatening appointment we must keep. We are solemnly reminded in Hebrews 9:27 ". . . it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment." The writer to the Hebrews explains about "the power of death" and "the fear of death" (Hebrews 2:14-15). In the great "resurrection chapter," the apostle Paul refers to "the sting of death" (1 Corinthians 15:55-56).
Jeremiah E. Rankin translated the words of Edmund S. Lorenz from German to English: "Are you troubled at the thought of dying?
Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus.
For Christ's coming kingdom are you sighing? Tell it to Jesus alone."
II. A Threefold Affirmation
When Jesus Christ is Lord there is a threefold affirmation we can make: "I shall not want" (v. 1b)
David writes at another time "Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing" (Psalm 34:9-10).
"I will fear no evil" (v. 4b)
Paul writes Timothy, his son in the ministry, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7).
"I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever" (v. 6b).
Also David asks, "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?" (Psalm 139:7)
III. A Thrilling Assurance
"The Lord is my shepherd . . ." (v. 1a) expresses a thrilling assurance we should have.
The Lord Jesus makes the following statement: "Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy, I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep . . . I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and they known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice and there will be one flock and one shepherd.
Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father. . . My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one" (John 10:7-11, 14-18, 27-30).
Isaiah the prophet reminds us "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (53:6).
Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, ". . . all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God" (Romans 3:23); "the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23) and ". . . if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation . . . For whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:9-10,13).
The greatest truth in all of Scripture is the Lordship of Jesus Christ!