J. Albrecht…Easter 2…April 19^th, 2026…Psalm 23…The Risen Jesus Cares For Your Soul

¹ The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. ² He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. ³ He restores my soul;

He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. ⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. ⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, Amen.

INJ the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep and rose again to be our Shepherd forevermore. DFR:

Every year, we have a service called Good Shepherd Sunday. The particular Sunday might vary, but it is always after Easter. There is a good reason for that. If you look at the cover of your bulletin, you’ll notice the passage on the image is not one of our Scripture readings for the day. The reason this image was selected was because it connects the heart of Good Shepherd Sunday with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. When you look at Psalm 23, the resurrection might not be the first thing that comes to your mind, but Hebrews shows us that Psalm 23 really is built on the hope of the resurrection! Why could David have such confidence in the Lord as his Shepherd? Because Jesus lives. David, a full thousand years before Christ was born, had peace knowing that his Savior would die to pay for his sin, and rise again, triumphant.”

This morning, we will see how the Risen Jesus Cares for Your Soul: 1. As your Shepherd 2. As your Leader. 3. As your King. Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, my Maker and Redeemer, Amen.

Psalm 23 can be divided neatly into three stanzas – which was reflected in the bulletin. Each section follows the same poetic style: A striking metaphor followed by a comforting reality.

¹ The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. ² He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. ³ He restores my soul;

It is hard to find a more comforting in all of Scripture than: The LORD is my shepherd. This little word “Shepherd” differs from many of the names of God we have in the Bible. God our Lord, King, Creator, the Almighty, etc. These names a glorious and majestic and ascribe to God the highest glory. But Shepherd is more personal, it has a friendly and comforting tone to it, much like when God is called ‘Father’.

And why is it that we find Shepherd so comforting? We all know that we are sheep. A sheep must live completely in its shepherd’s care. Without the shepherd’s help, protection, and care; it is doomed to perish for everything becomes its enemy. Here in Washington, you can find green pastures everywhere, but in Israel, that is not the case. It is mountainous, rocky, and many places barren. There are predators who lurk around every corner. The sheep, who are timid and wandering creatures, have a survivability on its own of 0. But so long as the shepherd is there to lead it and protect it, the sheep no longer has any care. It is afraid of none for the shepherd is there to defend – it is wanting nothing.

The reality, then, that David draws from this metaphor is, I shall not want. The verb here literally means, “to diminish, to have a deficiency.” Therefore, with the LORD as my Shepherd, I will lack nothing. Nothing in my life is deficient because I am dependent on my Shepherd for all. David tells us exactly what it means to not want. ² He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.

The idea here is to lie down, stretch out on all fours, and fall satisfied in a pasture so lush and green, that we are fully satisfied. The water, an ever-constant stream of life preserving freshness is beside. What David means by these is the Word of God. Under the heavenly Shepherd the soul, nourished and refreshed by the Gospel, rests content, happy, satisfied. The Church Father Augustine said, “ Our soul is troubled until is rests in God.” How true it is. Hunger and thirst, pain and sorrow, stress and distress all would upend this rest. But they are all pictured as gone. It is true we still face times of hunger and thirst and all these things. Yet, your Shepherd is always with you and:

He restores my soul. The reality of how this complete spiritual rest is possible. The LORD revives the soul – in the midst of drought and in the heat of affliction and tribulation, God gives you to taste the powers of life. It’s passages like Ephesians 2, But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)… The LORD gives life back to the weary soul in the Scriptures. He restores you by His grace, and it is not “in progress”, but already complete and remains complete because your restoration is empowered by Jesus’ resurrection. The Risen Jesus cares for you soul as your Shepherd. He satisfies your soul in His precious Word.

He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.

As I mentioned earlier, sheep love to wander. David was no exception. These are not the words of a youth who has yet to experience the thralls of life and does so with unrealistic joy. These are the words of a warrior who experienced the highs and lows; who climbed the mountain tops and fell to the lowest valley. For David, the Lord lead and he followed. That is, David followed the Lord’s direction in life. That doesn’t mean he never wandered away from the paths of righteousness. He did…often. But the word leads, also has the idea of bringing back. The LORD brought him back to the path that is right, good, safe.

This leading the LORD does For His name’s sake. Here is the reality. When we talk about God’s name – it is something He has revealed to us about Himself. It is something we can rely on, for it is always true and unvarying. You cannot call the LORD one thing today and something else tomorrow. What does the LORD reveal about Himself? His saving purposes. His grace, love, and forgiveness for the sake of Christ. The LORD leads and David gladly follows. Like David, you and I might wander off the right way, we might go head-first into sin. But the LORD is gracious and returns us to His path of righteousness for His saving purpose.

⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me

Here, an extreme case of the LORD’s leading and David’s following. The shadow of death refers to actual death, but also any depressing and dreadful experience which outcome is swarming with gloomy uncertainty. We shouldn’t think of death here as a mere shadow and no real reason to be afraid. Nor should we assume that of the evil we might face. There truly is a reason to be afraid, for death and evil is a dreadful power which threatens to overwhelm us unless stopped by a stronger power.

Life will often be like descending into a dark valley – we meet danger, gloom, pain, sorrow, and the nearness of death. What is terrifying about this dark valley is that we cannot see what is around the corner. We do not know what is coming next. As we pass from one valley to another, we do so completely helpless. And the danger lurking around the corner – sin, death, hell, and the devil, know this and are opportunists.

And yet, David says, I will fear no evil. Alone, he would not only have to fear, but that fear would be realized, he would perish. But he says this, not as a fool who is unaware of what he is actually facing, but as a believer who knows and trusts in Him that goes before. David knows he does not walk alone, but that the LORD, by His presence, removes the cause of any legitimate fear. By His power, the LORD guides, keeps, defends, and protects David.

There is more to the LORD’s presence that still’s David’s fear. That is the rod. With the rod is God’s almighty power to break, crush, even smite all hostile powers. Every enemy that David faces, the LORD has triumphed over. It is the theme of Easter, is it not? By Jesus’ death He overcome death; and as He leads us through death into eternal life, our final enemy shall be shattered to nothing.

And there’s more – the LORD’s staff. Know this, that as you walk on through various valleys in life, the LORD is going the same way. David might stumble, get lost, or miss the right path. But the One who walks by his side gently guides him where he needs to be. The LORD knows the way. His staff can guide you there. It is by His will that we go through the bitter and painful experiences of life and finally pass through temporal death. Not because He wants to see us suffer, but to remind us that our goal lies beyond the valley we pass through. Soon, as David has, you will reach the heights where no shadow can ever fall. They comfort me, means “to make one breathe easier.” Breathe easy knowing The Risen Jesus Cares for Your Soul as Your Leader who extinguishes all your fears.

⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

Finally, the Risen Lord Cares for Your Soul as Your King. The King is the one who throws a lavish banquet. In Aeneid, the legend arose of the Greek army trying to take the city of Tory. For ten years they were in an unsuccessful siege. With their enemy encamped around them, the Trojans could feast in peace knowing their enemy could not get them. It wasn’t until the Greeks devised the Trojan Horse that the city fell. Much in the same way does God prepare a banquet for you to enjoy. Your enemies, sin, death, hell, the devil, and this world all hound about trying to snatch you away from the table of the King, but to no avail. No attention needs to be paid to them, for they are impotent to take you away.

You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. Here the feast begins. Notice who David says is serving – it is the LORD. All throughout the Psalm it has been the LORD acting. Now here, God the one preparing the banquet feast for you, honoring you with oil, overflowing your cup with wine. Two images to depict feasting with delight and with abundance. Where can we find a reality to fit this description other than the services here in the LORD’s house, where Word and Sacrament are lavishly dispensed. At these services the food for the soul which the LORD has provided is set before us. The LORD invites you to eat and drink of His bounty – His grace and forgiveness so that spiritually our hearts are satisfied.

⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.

Up to this point, David’s focus has been on his life so far, with all its drudgery and struggles. The LORD fills our needs, guides our paths, and sustains us with His bounty. Now, David’s focus is in the future. The rest of his life and eternity are taken care of. David doesn’t know what trials he has yet to go through, and yet he has a certainty about his future. As he has seen the LORD has done for him now, he knows that goodness and mercy shall follow him always. Goodness – the sum of all good things awaiting David. Mercy, better translated here as “grace” – the sum of the LORD’s favors awaiting David.

What a blessed future that is to have – knowing that goodness and mercy chase after us and overtake us! This shall be for all the days of your life, not one excepted. Until you and I dwell in the house of the LORD forever – that heavenly home that will permit no fear, sorrow, or pain; the glory of which will not pass away, but will be our dwelling place with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit forever. This life under Jesus’ care is as one of His well cared for flock, as a traveler under His care, even in greatest danger, and as a guest of His banquet – all that finally means that you shall returned to the LORD’s own house, heaven, to abide there forever. Amen.