Pastor Mike Impact Ministries

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake." Before we can truly say that “The LORD is my Shepherd”, we must be able to genuinely say, “The LORD is my Savior!” Remember the previous chapter, Psalm 22 is all about the “Good Shepherd” Who...

Whenever you see all the letters in the word LORD capitalized in the Bible it always is our English translation for the Hebrew word, “Yahweh” or “Jehovah”. Who is the Lord God of Israel. Jehovah is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. In John 10 when Jesus said, “I Am the Good Shepherd”, He was saying, I Am Jehovah Rohi. Before we can fully understand and claim that “The LORD is my Shepherd” we...

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake. 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. You prepare a table before me in the presence...

My Shepherd Keep Me Psalm 23 “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake. 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. You prepare a tab...

I have stood by the bed of hundreds of dear people at the hospital or in their home, ministering to them and their family in their time of sickness, and often as they are passing into eternity. I would quote Psalm 23 and watch as the Lord would fill the room with His presence and comfort that comes from this wonderful passage that assures us of His loving care and His promise to be with us as we w...

The most familiar and read passage in all the Bible has to be the 23rdPsalm. Over the 48 years of being a pastor, I have preached well over 1,000 funerals and almost at every one of them, I’ve been asked to read the 23rdPsalm. Since the time it was written by David, about three thousand years ago, it has brought comfort and encouragement to millions of people in their time of great need. Remember...

“The poor shall eat and be satisfied; Those who seek Him will praise the LORD. Let your heart live forever!" Today we will finish our study on Psalm 22. Remember when we started looking at Psalm 22, we said that Psalms 22, 23, and 24 form a trilogy on Christ the Shepherd. In Psalm 22, the Good Shepherd dies for the sheep (John 10:1-18).  In Psalm 23, the Great Shepherd lives for the sheep and...

The first 21 verses of Psalm 22 give us a powerful prophecy of the Good Shepherd suffering for the sheep! In those verses we can clearly see the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual suffering of Jesus as He hung on the cross, and during the last three hours of darkness He experience His own Father forsaking Him as the wrath of God was poured out on Him for our sins! The suffering and death o...

“But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people. All those who see Me ridicule Me; They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, "He trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!" David is writing this Psalm and he is personally crying out to the Lord for help in a very desperate time in his life. But at the same time, we...

There is no chapter in the whole Bible that gives us a picture of the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross like Psalm 22.  I don’t think we can ever in our finite minds fully comprehend and understand the suffering that Christ endured while on the Cross. This chapter helps us to get a glimpse of the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual agony of Christ during the six hours tha...

Yesterday, I failed to mention the inscription that goes with this Psalm. The title is: “To the Chief Musician. Set to the ‘Deer of the Dawn.’ A Psalm of David.” We are not sure when or what conditions David was under when he wrote this Psalm. It appears that David meant for this Psalm to be given to the “Master Musician” who led a special choir of Israel and sung to a popular tune of his day call...

“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning? O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent. But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them. They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were...

Remember Psalm 21 is a sequel to Psalm 20. These two Psalms are companion Psalms. Psalm 20 is a prayer before the battle. Psalm 21 is a praise after the battle. Both were written by David as we learn from the inscription and title. David and his people had prayed for specific blessings and God had granted them. In the first seven verses David and the people look back over past victories and delive...

“The king shall have joy in Your strength, O LORD; And in Your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! You have given him his heart's desire, And have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah For You meet him with the blessings of goodness; You set a crown of pure gold upon his head. He asked life from You, and You gave it to him-- Length of days forever and ever. His glory is great in Your sal...

Psalm 20:6-9 “Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven With the saving strength of His right hand. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the LORD our God. They have bowed down and fallen; But we have risen and stand upright. Save, LORD! May the King answer us when we call.” In the first five verses the people prayed...

Today, on Thanksgiving Day, we are going to jump ahead to Psalm 100. It is interesting to note that this is the only Psalm that has the title “A Psalm of Thanksgiving”. It is thought that David is the writer of this Psalm even though we don’t have his name in the title. Some believe that Psalm 100 is the doxology to the previous Psalms of 93 to 99 that prophetically proclaim that Jehovah is King....

Psalm 20:1-5 “May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble; May the name of the God of Jacob defend you; May He send you help from the sanctuary, And strengthen you out of Zion; May He remember all your offerings, And accept your burnt sacrifice. Selah May He grant you according to your heart's desire, And fulfill all your purpose. We will rejoice in your salvation, And in the name of our God we...

David’s entire life involved conflict. When he was a shepherd, he was fighting with lions and bears. As a teenager or young adult, he fights a giant named Goliath. He becomes a commander in Saul’s army and leads men into battles day after day. When he flees from Saul for ten years he daily is in danger of losing his life hiding in caves and in the wilderness. Now David is king of Israel with an es...

The brief title of Psalm 20 tells us that this Psalm was written by King David and was given to the “Chief Musician” to be sung by the choir of Israel. Over the years I have often used this Psalm to encourage people to pray and believe that the Lord will answer their plea for help in the times of their troubles. I’ve signed many notes and letters with Psalm 20:4-5 after my name. “ May He grant you...

David looked up and saw the sun, the moon and the stars and he proclaimed, “There is a God and the heavens declare His glory” (vv. 1-6). David looked into the Word and experienced the living influence and impact on his life and came to the conclusion that it was better than the finest gold or the sweetest food (vv. 7-11). David then looked within his heart and knew there was a deep-rooted problem...

These five verses (vv. 7-11) in Psalm 19, put together one of the best descriptions of the various aspects of God’s Word and how it can and will impact our daily living if take the time to expose our minds and hearts to it and if we will humbly obey it! Today, we will pick up in verse 8 from where we left off yesterday. “The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart” (v. 8). These are th...

Let me repeat what we have said for the last couple of days about Psalm 19. God not only gives us a revelation as to His power and presence in the world through His creation, He has given us a written revelation of Who He is through the Bible, His Holy Word. And of course, the greatest revelation of God’s love, grace and truth is found in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible is the written Wo...

God not only gives us a revelation as to His power and presence in the world through His creation, He has given us a written revelation of Who He is through the Bible, His Holy Word. And of course, the greatest revelation of God’s love, grace and truth is found in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible is the written Word and Jesus is the Living Word (John 1:1-4). Through creation, the Bible an...

The God Who created us wants us to know Him and have a personal relationship with Him. Psalm 19 is one of the best passages in the Bible that helps to find and know that there is a God, but it also teaches us how we can experience Him as our personal LORD. In the first six verses, David tells us how creation speaks and tells us there is a God of glory. This is what we call general revelation. Then...

The well-known Christian writer C. S. Lewis said this about Psalm 19: "I take this Psalm to be the greatest poem in The Psalms and one of the greatest lyrics in the world." The church lectionary assigns this psalm to be read on Christmas Day, when the "Sun of Righteousness" came into the world (Mal. 4:2) and the "Living Word" was laid in the manger (John 1:14). The emphasis in the psalm is on God'...