Psalm 23

Let's turn to Israel's ancient songbook and read one of the most famous of psalms, Psalm 23. Though a familiar passage to many, it has been bringing me fresh joy and encouragement in recent times, and I pray it will provide that for you this afternoon. I know that some of you could likely quote this psalm from memory.

I'll ask you still to read it with me. You could likely quote it from memory in the King James Version, and that's well ingrained in my mind as well, the beautiful words of the King James text. My deeper look into the Psalm of late has honestly helped me to really appreciate the rendering of the CSB, the Christian Standard Bible.

It's only slightly different. What we're going to do is we're going to read it in both. It's a short passage, so I'm going to read it in the King James, and then we'll read it again in the CSB.

Psalm 23, a psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.

He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth 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 thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

You may follow along or just listen. A psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd.

I have what I need. He lets me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters.

He renews my life. He leads me along the right paths for his name's sake, even when I go through the darkest valley. I fear no danger for you are with me.

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil.

My cup overflows. Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live. In my youth, I recall seeing advertisements for the Allstate Insurance Company.

I expect you're familiar with that here. I think they're an American company, likely. I'm sure you could still find these ads on YouTube.

Very often, those advertisements would involve an animated scene. So you'd have an animated house and an animated car and some animated people, and then interjected into that animation would be a set of human hands. Maybe we'd kind of pick up the person and set him in a safe place.

Or other scenes would be a car that looks like a real car, but then the camera would zoom out and it turns out to only be a model car, and the human hands would come down and pick up the model car. And invariably, those Allstate advertisements would conclude like this. A set of human hands open like this with much more beautiful fingernails than I have, and the hands would open and they'd say this.

You're in good hands with Allstate. You're in good hands with Allstate. Well, that slogan comes to my mind as I read Psalm 23, because Psalm 23 is teaching us that we are in good hands with the shepherd of Psalm 23.

We are in good hands with the Lord as our shepherd. Notice these three key confessions in the psalm. The end of verse number one, I shall not want or I have what I need.

Then the middle of verse four, I fear no danger. And then the end of verse six, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Precious and bold confessions.

I have what I need because the Lord is my shepherd. I fear no danger because you, Lord, are with me. I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever because the Lord is my host.

We are in good hands with the Lord of Psalm 23. We're going to go through Psalm 23 like this. The sufficiency, the sufficiency that the Lord is.

Secondly, the stations where the Lord leads. Thirdly, the security that the Lord provides. Fourthly, the spreading of a furnished table.

Verse number one, the sufficiency that the Lord is. The Lord is my shepherd. I have what I need.

That's what it means to not want. When we say I shall not want, we're saying that I'm not lacking anything. I have what I need.

And the reason that I have what I need is that the Lord is my shepherd. The creator, God, the king of the universe, almighty God, the Lord, the Lord is my shepherd. The reason that I have what I need is that the Lord God is my shepherd.

It's because of who the Lord is. Notice that the word Lord is in all capital letters. This again is his covenant name, the name Yahweh or Jehovah, the Lord, his personal covenant name.

It's how God revealed himself to Moses. Remember at the burning bush in Exodus chapter three. And Moses is being sent by the Lord to set his people free.

And Moses says, well, when I go talk to the people, whom will I tell them has sent me? And the Lord replies, I am who I am. The Lord is my name. I have always been.

I will always be. I'm burning in this bush, Moses. Look, I'm burning in this bush.

And yet the bush is not being consumed. Do you know why, Moses? Because I'm not dependent upon the fuel of this bush to light this fire. I don't need the fuel of this bush.

I am independent of it. I am self-sufficient. That's the the sat of God.

He is self-sufficient. He is independent. He is free from circumstances.

That's the Lord. And thankfully, the Lord. The self-sufficient God, thankfully, he is not a self-centered God.

So the mighty, independent, eternal God presents himself to us in this very tender and precious picture of tender care. The Lord is my shepherd. He is my Lord.

He is my God. He is my maker and he is my shepherd. We're in good hands with the shepherd of Psalm 23.

Our shepherd is not fazed by the various winds that blow in our culture. He's not affected by peer pressure. He's not worried about trying to gain our approval.

He is who he is apart from us. That's the great thing about the Lord. He is who he is without us.

Now, I borrow that particular expression from David Gibson, whose book, The Lord of Psalm 23, has been a great help to me. And even in this particular message, he is, the Lord is who he is without us. And because of who he is, that's why I have what I need.

Verse one is a, that's a monumental confession. I was shocked to hear, I obviously don't know Hebrew very well, because verse one is only four Hebrew words in the original language of the Old Testament, but those four, how can you pack all that in four words, I don't know, but those four Hebrew words are like a fortress of trust and contentment. We perhaps don't have everything we want, but because the Lord is my shepherd, I have what I need.

Now, that means you can pause today with all the different stresses and burdens on your mind and all the different longings of your heart. You can say this with the psalmist, the Lord is my shepherd. I have what I need.

And and you can just pause and sort of take a deep breath and say, yes, thank you, Lord. Thanks for taking care of me. Thanks for giving me so much.

Thank you for the wonder of your grace that sees me spending a Saturday at a Bible conference. Thank you for working in my heart. Many of you could say thank you for a family who taught me the gospel.

Thank you for Christian friends who support me and encourage me and challenge me. Thank you for for food on my table. Thank you for providing for us so generously.

The Lord is my shepherd. I have what I need. Verse two gives us the picture of a very contented sheep.

He is he is lying down in green pastures. It is often not easy to get a sheep to lie down. But when the sheep knows that his every need is taken care of, that he's got the Lord as a shepherd, he knows it's safe to lie down the sheep lying on green pastures.

It's reminiscent of Mark, chapter six, when the Lord Jesus sees a crowd gathered and he looks at them with compassion and he sees them as sheep without a shepherd. Right. That's what he says.

That's a phrase that conveys that that they don't have anyone to lead them and he feels for them. And so he he steps to the plate and like a good shepherd, he feeds them with spiritual food. But like a good shepherd, he also wants to take care of their physical needs.

He wants to feed their bellies. Disciples get a little bit worked up about that and we don't we don't have enough food for all of these people. Then the shepherd speaks.

Remember what he says? He says, make all the people to sit down on the green grass. He lets us lie down in the green pastures and those people who were like sheep without a shepherd are now being shepherded by the ultimate shepherd and the shepherd gives them what they need more when more than what they need. That's the generosity of the Lord, our shepherd.

He's providing for us in versus number two and three. There are four verbs and the Lord is the one doing every one of them. He lets me lie down.

He leads me. He restores me. He leads me.

He's doing it all. All our needs are being met. We're in good hands with the Lord as our shepherd, the sufficiency that the Lord is.

Let's come now, though, to the stations to which the Lord leads us. Green pastures. Quiet waters.

Right paths. Someone has pointed out that God has wisely decorated his world in blues and greens. He gently bathes our eyes with soft, low intensity colors.

Many of us, maybe those of you who work outside a lot are preserved from this, but many of us spend most of our waking hours under artificial lighting, man-made environments instead of under God's blue skies and and on his green grass and by his blue, quiet waters. And yet when we get a day off, then we instinctively feel the need to find our way to God's world where we sense a more restful palette and see those lovely colors that God provides. So we want to go to the park or we want to go to the lake or I want to go to the ocean.

You maybe don't go to the ocean on your day off. I've never lived more than two hours from the ocean and that was only for a year. Most of the time within 45 minutes of the ocean and right now within a 20 minute walk of the saltwater harbor that leads to the ocean.

And I love to get down to the waterfront. Leslie likes it too because they have good ice cream there. We want to get to a place where we can relax a little bit.

I live right in the core of a city. I quite enjoy that actually. I hope you don't think less of me for that.

I love living in the city. But living in the city has also made me appreciate. Green spaces, the desire to get to a park or a lake or the water and the shepherd of Psalm 23 knows where to lead us to calm our souls.

And there's so many things that cause us anxiety and fear and discouragement and stress. So the Psalmist is giving us a picture here of a shepherd who knows how to calm our spirits. He knows how to lead us to green pastures, to quiet waters.

It's wise to follow this shepherd. He's a good shepherd. Following him is intended in this expression at the end of verse three as well.

He leads me along the paths of righteousness or the right paths. This is the idea still of following the Lord because that word for paths is a word for like wagon tracks or ruts that a cart has made in the soil. In other words, the point is that someone has been walking these paths already.

That's why there are ruts there. That's why there's tracks there, because someone has been walking in these paths ahead of us and that someone is the Lord himself. The Lord's paths are right paths.

The paths where the Lord leads us, we know that those are right paths. When we follow the Lord, when we follow his word, we are sure to be on the right path. Are you still following the Lord? I'd like you to give heed to this paragraph from David Gibson.

Are you walking down right paths right now, but unbeknownst to anyone else, you are thinking of leaving them? This quote's going to continue, but I just want to stop there. And I wonder if there's anybody in this room and you've been walking on right paths, but right now the person beside you and the friends in this conference, they don't know what's going on in your mind. Are you walking down right paths right now, but unbeknownst to anyone else, you are thinking of leaving them? There is no greener grass anywhere else than with Jesus and the words of his gospel.

But it may be that you have begun to think that the grass really is greener somewhere else, even though you know it is a pasture where Jesus does not dwell. And it may be that you haven't fully left the paths of righteousness yet, but you are flirting with that danger. You're just beginning to wonder.

And you know it's wrong objectively because you know the Lord isn't leading you down that path, but you also sense it subjectively. Because you sense that has opened up a little bit of distance between you and the Lord Jesus that didn't used to be there. Remember, he says, remember that two degrees of divergence this year could be two miles of divergence next year.

Take time, Gibson says. Take time to consider the road you are walking and who is leading you and where that path might end. Is it a path that the Lord is leading? Is it a right path? You see that the will of God that you hold in your hands right now, these are right paths.

This is how he invites us to follow him. My sheep, John chapter 10, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And there's so many voices out there.

There's so many people trying to influence you and the influencers have a path in mind for you and they have a different value system for you. And the Lord's calling you back. They're all clamoring to be the voice of reason.

But the way to stay on the right path is by hearing the voice of the shepherd. That means being with the church as the word of God is taught. That means in my own private time of listening for his direction in prayer and with the scriptures, it's vital for calibrating and recalibrating my understanding of what is right and pleasing to the Lord.

We need to regularly hear his voice. And if I'm not hearing the shepherd's voice, I'm putting my soul at great spiritual risk. Thankfully, we can be sure of this.

The shepherd always wants to lead us and to bring us back. He wants us to follow him. He's able to renew us and restore us when that's needed.

So notice another station to which the Lord leads. I've skipped over it, not only to green pastures and still waters and right paths, but back at the beginning of verse three, he renews my life. He restores my soul.

So Psalm 23 is not just a funeral song. This is a song to to take us and preserve us through the steps of life. The shepherd who went seeking that lost sheep of Luke 15 is the shepherd who seeks the straying, the wandering sheep of Matthew chapter 18.

And he wants to bring you back and restore you. And the God of salvation is a God of restoration. And the God who saved you, who called you through his gospel, is the God who still calls you and still wants you to be following him.

And it's OK for you to tell the Lord, listen, it's OK to be honest with God and to tell the Lord I wanted to follow you, Lord. But life's been hard. I wanted to stay close.

I didn't mean to stray, but I know I've wandered. Is there any way back for me? The Lord is a gracious shepherd. And I've been saying these words of verse three a lot to myself lately.

The Lord restores my soul. The God of salvation is the God of restoration. He's a good shepherd.

And you mean a lot to the shepherd. You mean a lot to this shepherd. You are extremely valuable and precious to him.

He bled for you. He carried your sins in his own body on the tree. He laid down his life to bring you into his flock.

So there's no way that he is just going to leave you to the wolves now. There was a there was a roaring lion on your track. And the Lord has snatched you from that.

And the Lord is not just going to leave you to the wolves, his concern for your spiritual health is so great, he doesn't he doesn't even leave you to a hired hand. Right. Notice that personal element in the psalm.

The Lord is my shepherd. Amazing. This great God who's overseeing how many millions and millions of Christians.

I can look to him and say, the Lord, the creator God, he's my shepherd. He loves me. He counts me as one of his own.

And my shepherd restores my soul. He leads us in the paths of righteousness. We are in good hands.

We are in good hands with this shepherd. Verse four leads us to a bit of a surprise. It begins with yay, though, or even when that's that's preparing us for the surprise, because here it is, the Lord who leads us by quiet waters and green pastures and in right paths.

He also leads us through dark valleys. The sufficiency that the Lord is, the stations in which he leads us, the security that the Lord provides. He leads us through dark valleys.

So the theology that says that if I follow the Lord, well, that life is going to be easy and I'm going to get a better job and I'm going to have perfect kids and the car is not going to need any repairs and the Lord is going to provide me a perfect spouse and I'm going to have great health to enjoy my grandkids to my old age, that that prosperity gospel takes a hit in verse number four. The theology that says that if you're a good Christian, you won't have suffering, you won't have dark valleys, that's not a biblical theology. Goodness and mercy will pursue me all of my days, but there will be dark valleys and the Lord who is in control when he's got me by the quiet waters is still in control when I'm in the dark valley.

Don't you assume that the valley is not God's valley? The Lord of the mountain is the Lord of the valley. Let's go through verse four like this. Life has dark valleys.

The Lord is with us in the valley. The Lord is armed to serve us in the valley. The King James says the valley of the shadow of death.

It could be that. This is, it's actually a very fascinating phrase to explore a little deeper. I don't think it, it has to be exclusively death itself.

It could include that, but it could also be a dark, deep trial. Something that may seem to us to be life threatening or causing us great anxiety and fear. Sometimes we feel like we're dying a thousand deaths while we live.

Sometimes the events of life scare us half to death, but we're still here. But they are dark valleys. So I picture a sheep who's been walking on the hillside and having some lovely green grass and now the shepherd calls him to follow and the shepherd is going to take him to some greater pasture.

But to get to that greater pasture, you've got to go through a deep gorge. And as you go down into the deep gorge, the sun is setting behind the hillside. And so now you're in the shadows.

You can't see very well. It's dark. The sheep knows this is this is where the jackals layers are.

And he hears the coyotes baying. And the sheep's frightened and the sheep is wondering, am I going to make it through this? Am I going to survive this or is this the end of my journey right here? He's scared. Doesn't know what lies ahead.

And that uncertainty causes fear. Life is like that at times. Maybe it's, maybe it's health issues and the uncertainty that that creates, the pain that comes with it, the weakness that you experience.

Maybe it's financial pressures and things have taken a turn for the worse and you say, can I afford this? Am I going to lose it all? Maybe it's relationship issues and you wonder if that relationship with a family member is ever going to be restored or maybe there's just some awkward, embarrassing relationships. Maybe there's been some disappointments and there's some shame and you just can't get past it. Maybe maybe it's depression and anxiety and panic and you feel like you're going to die or you feel like you'd rather die because everything seems so hopeless.

Life is like that at times for the Lord's people. It has dark valleys. So notice something I really appreciate in verse number four.

It doesn't say, yay, though I end up in the darkest valley. It says, no, I walk through the darkest valley. So the valley is not the final destination.

We're passing through a valley. It is part of the journey, but the final destination remains the house of the Lord. Verse number six, the Lord is my shepherd.

And when when he leads me through the darkest valley, it's not because he's lost his way. The Lord isn't lost. The Lord isn't confused.

He is the Lord, our shepherd, and he leads us through the darkest valley to the light on the other side. And he is with us in the valley. Isn't that a huge change here in verse number four? Because look back at verse number one.

The Lord is my shepherd, and then it's he lets me lie down and he leads me and he restores me and he leads me. But now in verse four, he says, you are with me. It's no longer the third person.

You are with me. You know what's happened, right? In the darkness of the valley, David has sensed his presence more keenly. The Lord has become more personal to him.

You are with me. It's like the Lord has been a few steps ahead of him saying, follow me, follow me, follow my steps. And now, now when things are dark and the sheep is pretty scared, now the shepherd comes and he holds him by his hand and he puts his arm around you and he says, I'm right here.

I'm with you. I'm with you in the valley. In the Hebrew text of Psalm 23, the words for you are with me are right in the center of Psalm 23.

Now the center is often where you find the emphasis in Hebrew thought. The center of the book of Jonah is salvation is of the Lord. That's the key of Jonah.

The center of the five Levitical offerings is the peace offering, the fellowship offering. That's the high point of those offerings where there's fellowship with God and men. Well, in Psalm 23, for you are with me, is right in the center of the song.

Twenty six Hebrew words before that phrase. Twenty six Hebrew words after that phrase. In the middle of this song, David's in the middle of a dark valley.

But the Lord is right there with him. I will fear no evil for you, Lord, are with me. Do you have a child who's sometimes scared of the dark? And even though they've gone to sleep in that bedroom one hundred and seventeen thousand times, well, no, that's too many for their life.

Even though they've gone to sleep in that bedroom hundreds of times, all of a sudden there's something lurking behind that closet door, some kind of big monster. And that sound that they've heard every night for the past few weeks now seems a bit stranger, a bit louder, and they can't get to sleep in that dark. And yet if mom or dad comes into that room and lies down on the bed beside them, it's not that I've it's not that I've gone and opened the closet and I haven't fought the monster, but just by lying down on that bed beside them within two minutes, he's asleep.

How does that happen? Because now there's a protector with him. That's all he needs to know. Just as long as you are with him, everything's going to be OK.

Security. So, young men and women, if you haven't yet, and some of you already have, I know. But if you haven't yet, you will go through some dark experiences in your life.

And I would love you to bring the words of Psalm 23 into that experience. And you can speak to the Lord, your shepherd, you are with me. You know, when you're going through the darkest valley, the Lord is your shepherd and he's with you.

I don't think David is saying that he's never scared, but in those fears, he takes those fears to the Lord and he knows that the Lord is with them to protect him. The Lord is an experienced shepherd. David sees all the tools that the shepherd possesses and he concludes, I am in good hands.

I will fear no evil. Life has dark valleys. The Lord is with us in the valley, but the Lord is armed to serve us in the valley.

He's got a rod and a staff. The rod was the shepherd's main weapon to fend off the enemies. Think of Psalm number two, how the king will smite the nations with a rod of iron.

Sometimes they would put iron or other heavy pieces in the end of that rod to give it extra weight and to make it a stronger weapon. Well, there's the Lord smiting the nations with a rod of iron. That's our Lord.

He's not a weakling, our Lord. He's flexing his muscles now in Psalm 23. He's enough for whatever the valley may throw at us.

He is big and strong and mighty. That's what that that's what that rod speaks of. And at the end of the day, the sheep would pass under that rod and he counts them one by one.

And so when the sheep see that rod, they think of protection of safety, security. He's got a staff. Sometimes my worst enemy is not out there.

It's right in here. Well, this is my worst enemy. And he uses his staff to bring me back and to correct me, his rod and his staff are taking care of every need that I have.

I am in good hands with the shepherd of Psalm 23. Let's come to verse five and six. And the imagery changes now at verse number five.

And instead of meandering through green pastures, now we're sitting at a table. Instead of looking at a rod and staff in the hand of the shepherd, we are holding an overflowing cup in our hand. We're thinking now about the spreading of a furnished table.

And it's not disconnected from the shepherd metaphor. Perhaps the link is this. It was the shepherd's responsibility to entirely care for every need of the sheep.

Well, in the ancient Mideast, that was precisely the expectation of a host for his guest to take care of every single need. So at the beginning, the shepherd is leading and he's letting us lie down and he's restoring us. Well, now you've got the host providing for us with everything we need, he says.

You prepare a table for me. You anoint my head and we're holding a cup that you have filled to overflowing. We're in good hands with the shepherd and we are in we are in a good place with the Lord as our host.

It's a great thing to be saved. We are debtors to mercy. Wonderful to belong to the Lord because he is a very generous Lord.

He spreads a table for us. In the East, a man's reputation would not hinge on the amount of possessions that he possessed, but on the table that he could spread. Not so much on what he owned, but on what he could provide so that the measure of a man's stature was the generosity of his hospitality.

I've mentioned that book by David Gibson that is so helpful. On the whole, it's a very encouraging and comforting book. He did have a line in there that was really challenging me.

He said this, I can guarantee that the people you rub shoulders with every day will have an impression of you as either tight or generous. That probed my heart a little bit. The people that you rub shoulders with every day will form an impression of you as either tight or generous.

Well, I can say as someone who travels a lot among the Lord's people and lives by the gospel, I can honestly say that the generosity of the Lord's people at times, it just astounds me. It astounds me. And we appreciate the hospitality of saints here in Iowa.

We appreciate the long-standing care of the saints here in Iowa as well. And of course, when you do that, you're following the example of God himself. And if generosity is a measure of a man's stature, when we came to the Lord, we came to the right house.

He prepares a table. He anoints us with oil. This is not the word for anointing kings or priests.

This is a word for providing hospitality. You are perfuming your guests. You're taking care of them.

And he puts an overflowing cup of blessing in our hands. You see, sometimes some of you might think, there are likely some of you here in this audience who think something like this at times. You think, I probably don't mean very much to the Lord.

I've got no great fantastic spiritual gift. And I've messed up so many times. And I've wandered away at times.

And I don't come from a long heritage of connections with the Lord's people. I'm just a nobody. Well, look at how the Lord provides for you.

He spreads a beautiful table for you. You mean a lot to the shepherd. He's a good shepherd.

He's a good host. And he's a good God. And goodness and mercy follow us.

Notice this change from the King James. Goodness and mercy will follow me. Goodness and mercy will pursue me.

Only goodness and mercy will pursue me. Pursue is a good word. It's an intense word.

This is a word used for when people were pursuing their enemies to death. This is the Lord as the hound of heaven. And he's pursuing us not to bite at our ankles, but to reveal himself in goodness and mercy.

Not just surely goodness and mercy, not just the intensity of it, but the exclusivity of it. Only goodness and mercy. It's like David is looking back over his shoulder and he's reflecting on some of those dark valleys.

And as he looks back in retrospect, in retrospect, he can see that goodness and mercy have characterized God's dealings with him all through his life. And sometimes that becomes most obvious in retrospect. I have only passed through a little bit of hardship compared to many of you, but I would say the same.

It is in retrospect that we see how good that was for us and how good the Lord was to us in it. Last weekend in Halifax, Sandy Higgins said to us, there are trials that we go through that we would never, ever want to go through again, but we wouldn't trade their experience for a million dollars. There are trials that we go through that you would never convince me to go through again.

And yet the experience that they gained us, the revelation of God's goodness in it, we wouldn't trade it for a million dollars. Dark valleys will bring the tears of sorrow, but you learn that God is with you and that God is good. And how often the Lord's people who have suffered so much speak to us so much about the goodness of God.

They have the joy of the Lord within them. Only goodness and mercy will pursue me. We are in good hands with the host of Psalm 23.

And one day we will not only be in the safety of his arms, we will also be knowing the dwelling of his house. So your exodus is not, your exodus is not an aimless wandering through the deserts of life. There is a purpose in it.

There's a destination to which the Lord is bringing you. It's like you could say you're right on the Father's porch and you know that you're heading in the Lord's house. And until then, we are in good hands with the Lord as our shepherd.

May the Lord encourage and bless you all.