Psalm 23 A sermon continued

For the month of September, I am using a sermon that I wrote on the 23rd Psalm. It is a different kind of sermon for me, because I am doing something that my Homiletics teacher, the late Dr. Poovy said not to do, that is bringing the exegesis into the pulpit. He always said to proclaim the gospel, but keep the exegesis in the study. However, with this sermon, I found that the exegesis brings the Psalm alive for the preacher and the congregation.

Since I am limited to around 400 to 500 words for an article, I am going to spread this sermon over 4 weeks.

"Psalm 23--A life of faith"

Week 3

So he thinks and writes:

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me,

In the same way this poet saw the hand of God as a shepherd leading him through the trouble spots of his life.

I would like you "to imagine yourself looking out over a landscape of thousands and thousands of people. People who seem happy, playing, dancing, laughing and celebrating. As you focus in on their faces, they look just like you, you even see friends, neighbors, relatives and one who looks exactly like you. As you continue to watch these people, you notice that some don't move as free as others. You see they are linked by invisible chains, to huge weights. Weights of resentment, or bitterness, or unforgiveness, or self-control, or loneliness, or deep guilt, or a broken spirit or unfaithfulness, or mistrust, or petty complaints, or worry, or gossip or wanting to be number one, or pride, or weights of knowing what is best for everyone, or self-righteousness or religious bigotry, or weights of piety or weights of illness, grief, chronic sickness, or old age, etc.

You see all these weights, some huge, some medium size, some small but everyone you see is chained to some kind of weight. Some carry their weights with ease, disguising the fact they have to carry a weight, others are struggling, it affects their lives the way they move, dance, interact with others.

You look around and you see the one who looks like you, you see the weights or weights attached, they say...........

Everyone is smiling, even the one who looks like you, but you can see their burdens, you can see their struggles, you can see how their lives, their every move is affected by the weights they carry. You long to free them, you long to find some way to release them from

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic