Shepherd Lessons For A Modern Morning

Start your morning with five minutes of calm, courage, and clarity as we explore the 23rd Psalm through the lived story of David—an overlooked shepherd who learned trust in the pasture, on the battlefield, and under pressure on the run. We revisit his path from youngest brother to king to uncover why his words still carry weight: they’re not idealized poetry, they’re a field-tested testimony. By hearing the Psalm in a fresh translation, we slow down and notice what we often miss—friendship with God, steady guidance, and protection that holds even when enemies are near.

Chapters

• 0:05 Welcome And Daily Five-Minute Focus
• 0:22 David’s Early Story And Calling
• 1:26 Why David’s Psalms Feel Personal
• 2:06 Seeing God As Shepherd
• 2:52 The 23rd Psalm Read Aloud
• 4:15 David’s Testimony And Our Trust
• 5:03 Closing And Daily Invitation

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:05

Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with Danny Mack. I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great five-minute start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back, relax, and let me help you start your day right. The twenty third Psalm is one of the most famous and well known Psalms written by David while he was king of Israel. But his rise to being king had not been an easy one. When he was a shepherd boy at fifteen, he was the youngest of eight brothers, and when God had called Samuel to go to the household to anoint the next king of Israel, David was the afterthought. The other seven were brought forward first, and David was, oh yeah, there's David out in the field. And when Samuel saw David, he knew he was the man that God wanted to be king. At sixteen years old he went to visit his brothers on the battlefield as they were facing off against the Philistines. But none of the men of Israel, including King Saul, would fight the Philistine champion Goliath. It took David, at sixteen years of age, to defeat this giant. David was able to do that because of the lessons he had learned while tending his father's sheep, how he'd had to kill the lion and the bear that tried to attack the sheep, how he'd learned to use his sling, and how he had learned to be confident in who God was. At the age of thirty, David became king of Israel, and at age thirty-five he wrote the twenty third Psalm. David's psalms are rather unique. They are personal on a level that really is not seen in many other portions of scripture. Instead of we and they and those kinds of terms, he used the term I and you, and many of the psalms are his conversations with God about what's going on in his life. The good, the bad, the ugly. He laid it all out there before God and he wrote it all down in complete honesty. These were stories from his heart. They were his testimony, and they are honest. Sometimes they are brutally honest. When we come to the twenty third Psalm, David had been king for about five years, and he was thinking about the time when he was much younger and God had been with him out in the field looking after the sheep. He recalled what he had done and how God had led him to look after those sheep that were under his charge, and he began to see how God does the same thing for him and for Israel. He began to recognize the goodness of God and the care of God and the love of God and the grace of God, how God fights our battles for us, how God is always with us to protect us, how he will never leave us, and he will make sure that we are being fed and taken care of at all times. Most of us have read the twenty third Psalm and know it either from the King James Version or the New International Version or one of the a little bit older versions. But this morning I just want to read it to you from the Passion Translation. It simply gives it in a little bit different way, and a way that when you listen to it, maybe you will find some encouragement in a way that you haven't heard before. The Lord is my best friend and my shepherd. I will always have more than enough. He offers a resting place for me in his luxurious love. His tracks take me to an oasis of peace, the quiet brook of bliss. That's where he restores and revives my life. He opens before me pathways to God's pleasure, and leads me along in his footsteps of righteousness, so that I can bring honor to his name. Lord, even when your path takes me through the valley of deepest darkness, fear will never conquer me, for you already have. You remain close to me and lead me through it all the way. Your authority is my strength and my peace. The comfort of your love takes away my fear. I'll never be lonely, for you are near. You become my delicious feast even when my enemies dare to fight. You anoint me with the fragrance of your Holy Spirit. You give me all I can drink of you until my heart overflows. So why would I fear the future? For your goodness and love pursue me all the days of my life, and then afterward, when my life is through, I'll return to your glorious presence to be forever with you. This is David's testimony about how God worked in his life, what David saw God do from the moment that he was a young boy out in the field as a shepherd, right up through defeating Goliath and going to work in the palace with Saul, running away from Saul as Saul tried to kill him, and then fighting against Saul's armies, having to run and hide and live in the hills as Saul's armies pursued him, trying to kill him, and finally getting to the place where he was king of Israel. All along the way David had seen God's hand and said, You are my shepherd, I will trust you. You will lead me, I will trust you. And God will do the same thing for us. If we trust him and listen to him, he will lead and guide and protect us, and he will never leave us on our own. Have a great day, my friends. We'll talk again tomorrow. Thank you for listening today. And I invite you to join me Monday to Friday right here on Starting Right with Denny Mack.