Still waters
Intro
√ The Shepherd Psalms
So called because they describe the ministry of Jesus to those who trust in Him.
Psalm 22 - The Good Shepherd Who lays down His life
for the sheep.
John
Psalm 23 - The Great Shepherd Who lives and cares
for the sheep.
Heb.
Heb. 13:21 make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Psalm 24 - The Chief Shepherd Who returns in glory
for the sheep.
1Pet. 5:4* and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.
Still waters
Psa. 23:2b "He leads me beside the still waters."
Concerning the Great Shepherd's provision, David declares that God brings him to the place of satisfaction in life.
The illustration is that of the shepherd who leads his sheep to the place where their thirst can be met.
Ex. Sheep like all animals need water to live.
The body weight of sheep (like people) is about 70% water! Water is found in every cell of their body and is essential to life.
One of the jobs of the shepherd is to seek out fresh supplies of good water where it is safe for the sheep to drink.
√ Observations from a shepherd's perspective
Phillip Keller:
If the shepherd does not provide a good source of water then the sheep will begin to search for it on their own - often drinking from dirty, stagnate & polluted water.
The result is that they become sick from the many parasites that live in the polluted water.
What the sheep thought would bring life…
…in the end only brings sickness and death!
Alfonso:
"Sheep will never drink from a rushing stream because they are disturbed by its noise. Subsequently, the shepherd will create a little area of "still waters" by damming off the stream with wood debris and small rocks after which the sheep would come and drink peacefully of the stilled waters formed for them by the all-providing hands of their shepherd."
Ap. The spiritual application is found in the fact that the human soul has been created with a deep need for the Spirit of God.
As cells need water to function properly, so the human soul must be infused with the Spirit of the Living God to experience true satisfaction in life.
David's boast here in vs. 2 is that God - His Great Shepherd - leads him to the place where his spiritual thirst can be satisfied!
Where he can drink deeply of the water of God's Spirit.
Ex. To drink spiritually
Simply means to take God into your life through a relationship with Him. We drink of His Spirit when we spend time with Him in…
Prayer
His Word
Worship
…it's then that He infuses our soul with His Spirit and brings satisfaction and significance to our lives!
√ Broken cisterns
However, the sad truth is that separate from Jesus, people, like sheep, will try and satisfy their spiritual thirst by drinking at the wells of the world.
Jer. 2:13 “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns--broken cisterns that can hold no water.
√ The broken cistern of relationships
Some people try and meet their spiritual thirst through human relationships.
John 4:9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
John 4:10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
John 4:11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?
John 4:12 “Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”
John 4:13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,
John 4:14 “but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
John 4:15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
John 4:16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
John 4:17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’
John 4:18 “for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”
Jesus laid his finger upon the deepest need in this gal's life.
She was seeking to fill her spiritual thirst for God through relationships, trying to find the acceptance and love she so desperately needed.
Yet, as always happens - she found that no man could satisfy her soul. No human relationship could meet the spiritual need in her life.
So, she moved from one relationship to another.
Ap. Spiritual thirst can not be satisfied through the relationships of the flesh.
√ The broken cistern of religion
Other people try and satisfy their spiritual thirst through religious experience.
John 7:37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
John 7:38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
John 7:39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
The setting - the feast of Tabernacles
7 days long
Solemn procession each day - priests would leave the Temple with a golden pitcher - go to the spring of Gihon where they would fill the pitcher - return to the Temple and pour the water out on the altar.
Ex. The religious ritual a picture, a reminder of how God met the thirst of the people when they wandered in the wilderness (the Rock).
It's in this setting that Jesus stands up after a week of pouring water on the altar and says…
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink."
That is, if anyone was still spiritually thirsty - left unsatisfied by ritual and the vain religious traditions of Man…
…Jesus promised that anyone who desired could find everlasting satisfaction in Him!
Ap. Religion can never replace a relationship with God!
The further we get from Jesus the more ritual we add! The sad history of the Christian Church is that the further we get from Jesus the more religion we add to our worship!
Religion doesn't do anything for me - I've been spoiled forever by the love of Jesus.
Ex. Driving simulators
Once you've tasted what it's like to drive a real car - who would ever want to go back!
Ap. Just as our physical body needs water for life…
…our soul needs the Spirit of God to experience true life - a life of satisfaction and contentment.
However, if people do not have a good supply of clean water they begin to search for something to satisfy their spiritual thirst - something to fill the void in their soul.
Ex. The woman at the well, False religion, vain pursuits of people to fill that spiritual void with pleasure, material goods, or fame.
The tragedy is that none of those things satisfy!
Whatever people try and fill that void with they find that it always falls short of their expectations.
The high never lasts long enough, the relationship doesn't work out the way it was fantasized, the money gotten by illegal means didn't fix the problem one hoped it would.
Why?
The soul can not be satisfied with anything but the Spirit of God!
Ex. Cheap fuel and my little Datsun 510
√ Christian - don't fall for substitutes!
In the spiritual market place today we find people running to and fro seeking to quench their spiritual thirst with all sorts of substitutes.
Ex. From one "revival to the next wave of the spirit"
The sad result is that these people are never satisfied because what they find in these so-called "moves of the Spirit" that it is only a move of human emotion!
So much of what is passed off as "Christian" experience today is nothing more than emotion stirred up by charismatic speakers.
These people seek after and feed on "experience" rather than Jesus and they find that as soon as they leave the meeting, or the revival, that they no longer have any satisfaction in their soul.
Ap. Come to the still waters
True Spiritual water is found only in a relationship with Jesus, which is cultivated by time alone with Him - in His Word, in worship, and in prayer.
Like water, it may not seem that exciting - but like water you'll find that nothing else quenches your spiritual thirst and brings satisfaction and significance to your life.
Don't accept substitutes!