Legacy Series with Dr. Angel Martinez - "The Shepherd of the Sky" Psalm 23

Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.

You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.

Thank you for listening.

Welcome to this edition of the Legacy Series of our Chapter and First Podcast.

Chapter and First is a podcast that highlights the Bible teaching and preaching ministry of First Baptist Church.

We have been blessed to have incredible men of God as a part of our history.

And this legacy series of our podcast gives us a chance to go back and hear some of these godly men share incredibly powerful and impacting messages.

Today you're going to listen to a man named Angel Martinez.

Angel was a gifted, God-empowered evangelist, and he did evangelism meetings and rallies around the world and all over the United States.

In fact, as a high school kid at Briarcrest Baptist High School in the early 80s, when we had a spiritual emphasis week in revival, it was Angel Martinez who came and preached at our high school.

He preached to an untold number of souls, and only when we get to heaven will we find out how many people were saved under the evangelism ministry of Angel Martinez.

Angel was a longtime member at First Baptist Church and used this as his home base and was referred to as the staff evangelist.

And so we are so honored to be able to be a part of his ministry throughout the years, and we are blessed to be able to let you hear this message from Angel Martinez as a part of our legacy series.

From whose refreshing stream tired and weary pilgrims have quenched their thirst.

The 23rd Psalm has become a covert under whose protective ledge those who journey between the cradle and the grave have found reliable refuge in the hour of stress and storm.

The 23rd Psalm has become an ocean from which the land of sorrow and despair receives its dew and rain.

The scholars contend that David wrote the 23rd Psalm.

I believe I could have written it.

David just beat me to it.

Because the 23rd Psalm is the sincere expression of every person who knows the Lord.

And the reason why this psalm is so popular is because David took the word right out of our mouth.

He said what you and I would say as to what constitutes God's leadership on the level of everyday human experience.

The Lord is my shepherd.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters.

He restoreth my soul.

He leads me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

Thou art with me.

Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.

Thou anointest my head with oil.

My cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Notice how David begins the Psalm with a definition.

He defines God.

The Lord.

Shepherd.

In one sweeping statement, he affirms the transcendence of God, the fact that God is beyond us and all-powerful, and the eminence of God that he's among us and concerned.

The Lord is my shepherd.

The Lord, that's the might of God.

My shepherd, that's the mercy of God.

The Lord, that's the sovereignty of God.

My shepherd, that's the sympathy of God.

The Lord, that's the triumph of God.

My shepherd, that's the tenderness of God.

The Lord, that's God beyond us.

My shepherd, that's God among us.

You see, David is simply saying, the same God who made the universe can stoop and dry a tear.

David is saying, The Lord, my shepherd, the Lord will guide me, the Lord will direct me.

The Lord will forgive me.

The Lord will heal me.

The Lord will direct me in every situation.

I have one who knows everything, who is all powerful.

My shepherd.

The Lord.

The Lord who made the universe is my shepherd.

The Lord who gave the stars their celestial push and placed them in their orbit is my shepherd.

The same God who put a carpet of green grass upon the earth and nailed it down with beautiful flowers is my shepherd.

The same God who took the rainbow and wove it into a scarf and draped it around the shoulders of a dying storm is my shepherd.

The same God who in the dawning of a new day opens the door of the morning and floods the world with light and beauty is my shepherd.

The same God who at evening time pulls down the shade of night and shoots it through with sunset fire is my shepherd.

The Lord is my shepherd.

Now the next line says, I shall not want.

Dr.

Von Rott, a great German scholar, contends that the word should be translated.

With a God like that, I can face tomorrow.

With a God like that, I can face my problems and my failures.

With a God like that, I can face my sin and my sorrow.

With a God like that, I can feel face my fears and my tribulations.

The Lord is my shepherd.

You are invincible this morning if God is on your side, if you have received Him as your Savior and your guide and your companion.

Now the rest of the psalm becomes an exposition of the words I shall not want.

Four categories are described here.

David describes four categories of human problems that are resolved within the framework of God's personality.

The Lord, a shepherd.

Alright, number one, our sensual needs.

The key word is the word sensual, physical, the senses.

David said he makes me to lie down in green pastures.

That's the nutrition of the sheep.

He leaves me beside still waters.

And you know how water is very important for the human system.

He restores my soul.

The King James says soul.

The Hebrew is the word rua, which in the picture is in the in the Hebrew language is the picture of somebody breathing in, breathing out, breathing in, breathing out.

In other words, God is concerned about my physical existence.

God cares about the physical things in your life.

Don't get the idea because God is ethereal and spiritual and transcendent, that mundane situations are of no concern to him.

In Matthew 10, 30, Jesus said the very hairs on your head are numbered.

And whenever a sparrow dies, Jesus said, My heavenly Father attends the funeral of every sparrow.

He cares for you, the physical things in your life.

Green pasture, still waters.

He restores my soul.

You see, David himself was a shepherd, and he knew that the sheep required nutrition, they required fluids, and he's talking about physical and material things.

The Lord is my shepherd.

The Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want.

Number one, my sensual needs, my physical needs.

You remember in the famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talked about material things in the sixth chapter of Matthew in verse 25.

He preached a little sermon to his own disciples.

And he said, Take no thought.

Now that's the King James.

But the Greek is the word merimnau, which literally means, Don't worry, don't worry, saying, What shall we eat, what shall we drink, what shall we put on, what shall we wear?

And then to allay their anxieties, he alludes to two little objects.

In verse 26, a flying bird.

In verse 29, a motionless flower.

And Christ is saying, if God can take care of creatures, he can take care of children.

If God can take care of birds, he can take care of believers.

If God can take care of objects, he can take care of subjects.

You see.

And so in verse 26, he pointed to a little flying bird and said, Look, look at that bird.

Behold the fowls of the air.

They don't sow, they don't reap, they don't gather in the barns.

And yet your heavenly father feeds them.

You're more than they are.

They're creatures.

You're children.

If God takes care of birds, he'll take care of you.

You know how many birds we have, boys and girls and young people upon the earth.

A bird population, Dr.

Gaylord Simpson, a great biologist, contends in a book of bird on birds that of the 8,000 species, different kinds of birds, like blue jays and red birds and sparrows and cardinals and all that, of all the 8,000 species, right now, at any given moment, there are a hundred billion birds.

Not million, billion.

Now, if God can take care of those proliferate creatures, how many human beings do we have upon the earth?

Four billion.

The birds outnumber us 25 to 1.

There are 25 birds for every human being.

If God can take care of a hundred billion birds, how much more?

He can take care of four billion people who can sow and reap and gather into barns.

So if God can take care of birds, he can take care of us.

You know, I get a little amused of the ecologists who are concerned about the fact that in 2008 we're going to have eight billion human beings upon planet Earth.

What are we going to do for food?

What are we going to do for shelter?

What are we going to do for clothing?

Well, we already have a hundred billion birds.

And they're on welfare.

They live one day at a time.

Birds do.

Birds don't know where tomorrow's meals are coming from.

They have no banking system where they save for the next day.

They live one day at a time.

They don't work, birds, they don't pay income tax.

Don't ever say that income tax is for the birds.

Because that's what they're saying about us.

We're the ones who pay the income tax.

If God can take care of proliferate creatures, a hundred billion birds, how much more he'll take care of us?

And then he points to a flower.

Have you ever thanked God for mobility?

When was the last time you said, Lord, thank you for being able to move?

A little flower, as we say in botany, is sassel.

It cannot move, it spends its entire lifetime rooted in one place.

You know there are people today who are very sick in their in bed and who cannot get up, who would give a million dollars if they had it, to walk from the bed to the kitchen and back to the bed.

And yet, what some people would give a million dollars for, you and I have every morning on awakening.

Mobility.

But a flower is sassy, it cannot move.

A dog can roam in search for food, a bird can fly in search for food, a fish can swim in search for food, but a flower is motionless.

And God brings it room service, room service.

And the scientists call it photosynthesis.

And young people, you've studied science, you've bumped into that term, where the green element, the chlorophyll element in the leaf of the plant, in the presence of sunlight, can take carbon dioxide from the air and water from the ground and produce food for itself, for the animal, and for the entire human race.

And sometimes we eat the fruit of the plant as we do in apples and oranges.

And sometimes we eat the leaf of the plant as we do in lettuce and cabbage.

And sometimes we eat the stem of the plant as we do in potatoes.

Did you ever realize when you eat a potato, you're eating stem?

It's an underground stem, but it's a stem.

And sometimes we eat the root of the plant as we do in carrots and turnips.

And sometimes we eat the seed of the plant as we do in beans and peas.

And so one plant we eat the seed, another we eat the leaf, another we eat the fruit, another we eat the stem, another we eat the root.

But you see, a little motionless flower becomes the pantry of the universe.

Can you imagine a little helpless, defenseless, motionless flower feeds the world.

And not only does the flower give us our food, the oxygen we breathe.

If you know your botany and your biology, you know that plants breathe like we do, but they do it in reverse.

We breathe in oxygen, exhale carbon dioxide.

They inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen.

And with a plant, we have what they call in science symbiosis.

They help us, we help them.

We give them the carbon dioxide, they return the oxygen we need.

So the flower provides the oxygen and the food.

So we eat the plant or the animal that ate the plant.

So a plant provides food for itself, for the animal, and for the entire human race.

And Christ is saying, look, if I can take care of a flower, a motionless plant, and feed the world with a little object that has no mobility, and a bird that flies and doesn't sow or reap or gather in the barns, if I can take care of their needs, how much more I can take care of you.

You see, our sensual needs.

Number one, green pastures, still waters, he restores my soul.

God is concerned about our physical problems.

Number two, not only our sensual needs, but our sorrow needs.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, thou art with me.

Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.

What a tremendous assertion that God is concerned with the hour of grief in your life and mine.

Some of you who listen to me in this room and over the air, your heart has been broken.

A loved one has passed away recently.

You've been to the cemetery.

Maybe you're listening to me in the hospital and you're very, very sick and very depressed.

Is God concerned with that moment of grief and despair?

David said, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, thou art with me.

And you know, God hasn't promised to eliminate troubles and difficulties from the journey of life, but he has promised his companionship.

David said, Thou art with me.

Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.

God didn't save the Hebrew children out of the fiery furnace.

He saved them in the fiery furnace.

He didn't save Daniel out of the lion's den.

He saved Daniel in the lion's den.

He didn't save David out of the valley of the shadow of death.

He saved David in the valley of the shadow of death.

Remember Romans 8 35, where Paul said, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

And then he calls the role of human problems, shall tribulation or distress or persecution or nakedness or peril or famine or sword.

And then he exclaims victoriously, Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

Notice the preposition.

In them.

He didn't say out of them were conquerors.

In them, we are more than conquerors.

Through him that loved us.

And remember that God will accept a broken heart if you bring him all of the pieces.

Let me repeat that.

God will accept a broken heart if you bring him all of the pieces.

And I don't care who you are, how rich you are, how wealthy you are, how smart you are, you're going to suffer.

We don't live too long upon this earth before the tears begin to rain.

And before the heart begins to break.

Johnson, the poet, said it beautifully.

Where did you come from?

Baby dear.

Out of the everywhere.

And into here.

Where did you get those eyes so blue?

In the sky?

As I came through?

Where did you get that tiny tear?

I found it, sir, when I got here.

Where did you get that little ear?

God spoke.

And it came out to hear.

You see the point.

Is affirming the fact that though we can carry a broken heart, we have the potential of fellowship with God.

Think of it.

David said, Thou art with me.

And notice how David changes the pronoun with reference to God and the Lord in the valley of the shadow of death.

A while ago he talks about God in the third person.

He does so and so.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures, he restores my soul, he does this and he does the other.

But when the dark hour descends and the heart is broken and the tears begin to come, thou.

You see, in the preceding verses, he talks about God.

But in the valley of the shadow of death, he talks to him.

Oh, the proximity of God in the dark hour.

You know, you'll never.

I've I've learned more theology, more about God when my heart has been hurt, when sorrows have come than I've ever learned from reading books on theology or reasoning about the person of God.

Thou art with me.

Thou art with me.

And my dear friend, I don't care who you are this morning, if you're walking in darkness, you have the potential for having fellowship with God.

The sorrow needs.

They're going to come.

Not only the essential and the sorrow number three, the social.

Now the picture changes.

Here we have a party going on.

Thou preparest a table, and the Hebrew word for table is the word for banquet.

Thou preparest an eight-course dinner.

That's what it means in Hebrew.

In the presence of mine enemies.

Thou anointest my head with oil, and my cup runs over.

Does God care about good times?

What we do for amusement?

What we do for fun.

Oh, so many of God's people destroy their influence.

And they destroy their rapport with God and cancel a deeper spiritual walk because they have not learned how to make Christ Lord in the area of the social life.

We have a great German scholar named Mo Winkel, who's done some beautiful work on the book of Psalms in the Hebrew, and he contends that these three figures, the banquet and anointing my head with oil and my cup runs over, were customs of David's day, social customs.

You know, when David's day is in our day, still the best way to entertain people is to feed them, to have them for a meal.

Now you may take them to a movie or take them to a football game, but nothing beats the fellowship around the table.

And David said, God invites me to a meal, God invites me to a banquet.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.

Thou anointest my head with oil.

The word oil, by the way, here is the word perfume.

And Dr.

Moe Winkle says that back in David's day, everybody kept a big jar of perfume by the front door.

And when somebody special came to see you, knocked on your door, you opened the door, and there stands a loved one or a friend who's very dear to your heart.

You would immediately immerse your hands in the expensive perfume and anoint the head of the incoming guest, and by so doing, singularize his visit and say to him, You're somebody special.

Today, when special people come to see us, we hug them, we kiss them.

But back in David's day, they perfumed the special guest.

Now, had you been living back in David's day and the next door neighbor came to visit, you wouldn't perfume her.

She came every day, three and four times a day.

To borrow something, to have a cup of coffee, to gossip about a neighbor.

In fact, you'd have been glad to perfume her on the way out.

See?

Thank God she's leaving instead of glad she came.

But David said, God meets me at the front door and perfumes.

He anoints my head with oil and my cup runs over.

Dr.

Movinkel said back in David's day, if you were a tourist, traveling, and you got hungry, you could stop at anybody's house, knock on the door, and say, I'm passing through, I'm a stranger, but I'm hungry.

May I eat with you?

And the folks were obligated to invite you in the home and make room for you at their table and feed you.

But they were not obligated to keep you after the meal unless they chose to do so.

And do you know how they would invite you?

They would not verbalize it, they would not say it aloud, they would not say it audibly.

If they liked you, if during the meal you impressed them with your personality and your conversation, and they wanted you to stay over after the meal, they would overflow your cup.

And when you saw the overflowing cup being conversant with that custom, you would say thank you.

But if they didn't like you, if they did not like you, they were equally courteous.

They would not say it aloud, they would just place your cup by your plate half full.

And when you saw the half-filled cup, you knew what that meant.

It meant, buddy, when you get your dessert, hit the road.

We don't care to keep you beyond the obligation.

But David said, My cup runs over.

You see, this is God's way of saying, I'm concerned about your social life.

Young people, men and women.

How you amuse yourself is very important in the sight of God.

And God has made provision.

God has fun, God believes in laughter, God believes in rejoicing.

In fact, all the way through the New Testament, the word rejoice, rejoice, rejoice, that your joy may be full.

But the right kind of enjoyment, the kind that doesn't destroy your health, the kind that doesn't destroy your character, the kind that doesn't destroy your home, the kind of amusements that won't destroy your soul.

Number four.

Our sensual needs, our sorrow needs, our social needs.

Now David closes by talking about our spiritual needs.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

I majored in philosophy at Bailey University, and one of my favorites was a Frenchman named Henry Bergson.

He died in 1942, but he wrote some beautiful things about life.

And in one of his books called Time and Matter, he says, man has basically two spiritual problems.

One is T-I-M-E, between the cradle and the grave, and the other one is eternity.

Now, how does God take care of time?

David tells us, goodness and mercy.

Surely goodness and mercy, listen, shall follow me all the days of my life.

In other words, between now and the cemetery, between now and the funeral, all the days of my life.

Goodness and mercy.

Oh, I wish I had time to stay there for a while.

The goodness of God, the mercy of God.

Those two things.

You know, F.

B.

Meyer, the great old Scotch Presbyterian preacher, had a sermon on the 23rd Psalm, and he contended that every shepherd back in David's day had two dogs, and those two dogs were trained to protect the flock from the rear.

As the shepherd went out in front, the Lord is my shepherd.

And uh, you see the two dogs, and he said, Now I've got the shepherd out there, the Lord, out there leading me.

But before I close the psalm, I need two dogs in here, and he calls them goodness and mercy.

And they follow me.

See, they're in position, they follow me all the days of my life, and that's exactly what God wants to do to you.

And I want to stand here after being a preacher for almost 50 years and say to you, and some of you who are here heard me 40 years ago when I came to this city for the first time as a youngster preaching.

I want to say to you that goodness and mercy has been God's treatment of this person, and he'll do it to you.

You say, No sorrows, no tragedies, no heartaches, many of them, but he takes them and works them together for his good.

Always.

And he teaches me some things about them that I would never learn otherwise.

But what about eternity?

David said, I go home.

I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

See the word forever?

A while ago, all the days of my life, that's time.

Forever, that's eternity.

So you see, Christians don't die.

They go home.

Don't tell people since last I saw you I lost my mother.

You never lose anybody who goes to heaven.

I have a father in heaven and a brother in heaven.

I don't tell people I lost them.

I know where they are.

You haven't lost anyone who goes to heaven.

They're more yours in heaven than they ever were down here.

So Christians don't die, they go home.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

My sensual needs, physical, he'll provide green pastures, nutrition, still waters, he'll restore my life.

Sorrow needs, he'll walk with me in the valley of the shadow of death.

My social needs, he will anoint my head with oil, he'll fix me a banquet, and he'll overflow my cup.

My spiritual needs in time, goodness and mercy in eternity.

I go home.

Why do we have to beg people to accept something like that?

It seems to me every boy and girl, every young person, every man and woman in this congregation would say, I need somebody just like that.

The road of life is tough and rough, and I cannot resolve it with my own resources.

I need a shepherd.

I need a savior.

And even at night when you cannot sleep, and you roll and toss, if you're a Christian, you don't have to count sheep to go to sleep.

Just talk to the shepherd.

The Lord is my shepherd.

Would you bow for just a moment?

Every head bowed.

There are many of you in this audience who need to be saved.

Many of you who have never accepted Christ as your personal savior, and you've been thinking about it.

Many who listen to me over the air have not received Christ, and you need to say, Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.

And beginning this moment, I receive you as my personal savior.

If you're here in this room, in a moment we're going to sing the invitation song.

Brother, could we sing Savior like a shepherd lead us?

Let the choir just sing it.

Much we need, thy tender care, the invitation.

And sing it slowly and beautifully.

And I want because it matches the sermon.

And our pastors are going to be standing here to receive you as you come.

And I wish that every man and woman and boy and girl and young person in this congregation who needs to accept Christ as your Savior would leave your seat and come forward and say, The best I know how.

Some of you have been saved already in the homes.

People have witnessed to you, you need to come and make your public profession of your faith.

There are Baptists and church members in this congregation who need to make this your church home.

And you've been thinking about it.

Why don't you come?

Maybe you want to come and just rededicate your life and say, Pastor, I want to let God have his way in a more complete fashion in my life.

We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.

Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.

Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.

Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith First Baptist Church.