“'The Lord is My Shepherd': Hope in God’s Care” (Psalm 23)” | 8/16/2020
Psalm 23| 8/16/20 | Will Duval
This morning, we’re continuing in week 2 of our new sermon series “Psalms of Hope”; last week we began with Psalm 13 - “How Long, O Lord” - and we acknowledged the hope we find in LAMENT, in our ability to CRY OUT to God in the midst of our pain, with our real, raw emotions and struggles, to APPEAL to him and know that he hears us and he cares, and even more than that, to be assured that we can TRUST him, because he is sovereign - He is totally in charge - he is GOOD - he has promised to work all things together, even our heartaches, ultimately, for our good - and he is FAITHFUL - our God always follows through on his promises.
And this morning, we’re going to behold even more of God’s goodness and his glory, in one of the most well-known and beloved chapters not just in the Psalms, but in all of the BIBLE.
Before I became a dad to my two beautiful, amazing kids, I was FIRST made a father by our much furrier, more unruly, canine child, Bentley. And I LOVED that dog…
I say “loved” in the past tense, not because she died; she’s still with us, unfortunately, I just don’t LOVE her anymore! Everybody told us: “Just wait til you have kids; you’ll kick her to the doghouse.” And I thought: NEVER! I LOVE this dog.
Last night, I let her out to use the bathroom, and she escaped her invisible fence, crossed the street, and was roaming through our coyote-infested woods for… I don’t know a half hour, 45 minutes, I wasn’t paying attention... and when she finally came back, I was just mad she’d kept me waiting up to go to bed.
But once upon a time, I would have been BESIDE myself. I would have waited outside WITH her, cheered her on when she did her business - “Good girl, Benner!” - SCREAMED when she tried to cross the street, CHASED AFTER her into the woods… because I LOVED her. When she was a puppy, we used to live near this GIANT horse pasture, and every evening after work, I’d walk her down there at sunset, let her off the leash, and watch her chase deer, swim in the creek... It was my favorite part of the day. Because she LOVED it. She was so FREE, so ALIVE, so HAPPY; and watching HER experience such joy would always bring a smile to my face.
Psalm 23 paints a picture for us of the kind of LOVING relationship our heavenly Father desires to have with you and me. It gives us a glimpse of the look on His face when HE watches YOU experience joy and blessing in this life; when he PROVIDES it for you, in his sovereign goodness. And King David, who penned these famous words, uses two metaphors here - a Shepherd with his sheep, in vv1-4, and then even more intimately, a father with his son, in vv5-6 - David employs both metaphors to drive home one central, glorious truth: that God CARES for us. God REALLY cares for us.
And as much as we intuitively LOVE Psalm 23 - we’re ALL inherently drawn to this beautiful promise that God cares for us like a good shepherd, like a loving father, because we were MADE for that promise, for that relationship with him, to find our hope ultimately and utterly in HIM - but at the same time, many of us will struggle to accept it this morning, for one of three reasons:
Some of us really religious folk, especially in the evangelical church world, have so reduced Christianity to a set of theological tenets that must be intellectually assented to, a statement of faith to sign off on, that we’ve lost sight of the fact that all along what God was REALLY after was a relationship with us. That Jesus didn’t DIE to fill our heads with knowledge; he DIED to fill our hearts with his love, his Spirit. This morning, we need more than information; we need transformation. We need a new way of relating to God and ourselves, and only JESUS can accomplish that for us.
Some of you will struggle this morning to identify as a sheep. When I explain the analogy in a moment, in point #1, you will bristle and take offense, because you don’t think you NEED a shepherd. God has not yet opened your eyes to your DESPERATE need for his care, his provision, his his peace, his guidance, his rescuing love. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep, and my sheep know me” (Jn 10:14), but some of you haven’t yet come to KNOW him AS your shepherd, because you can’t bring yourself to accept the fact that you are a NEEDY sheep. And THIRD...
Some of you will struggle to believe there’s a shepherd who would even put UP with you, much less LOVINGLY CARE for you. You know EXACTLY how unlovable you really are, and the idea that when you RUN, when you REBEL against him, there’s a God who loves you SO much, he would run across the street, in his PJs, through the neighbor’s backyard, into coyote-infested woods, in the dead of night, to chase AFTER you, to PURSUE you, that concept is TOTALLY foreign to you.
But friends, I want to show you this morning, and encourage you, give you HOPE, straight from God’s word, by showing you who you really are, who GOD really is, and yet how much he really CARES for you, not because of who you are, but BECAUSE of who HE is.
Would you stand with me, as you’re able, as we read God’s word together. I’d love to have us, once again, actually read out loud together, or perhaps RECITE - for those of you who have Psalm 23 committed to memory - no pressure; the words will be on the screen. :) I’d encourage you though, to spend time this week memorizing Psalm 23 - it’s VERY short, and well-worth your time and effort. Would you recite it with me:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
3 He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.
4 Even 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 overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.”
This is the word of the Lord... (LET’S PRAY...)
-
We find our hope this morning, in who God is FOR US. And as we begin to unpack ALL of His wonderful promises in these 6 short verses, we find 10 offices, 10 roles that God vows to play in our lives, if we will LET him. We’re going to cover the first FIVE, this morning, and we’ll save the second half for next Sunday, part 2.
#1 - The Lord is my Shepherd. (v1)
Now, before we even GET to the shepherd part, I want you to notice 3 things:
Notice the chapter BEGINS in v1 and ENDS - in v6 - with “the Lord”. That’s because God IS the beginning and the end, the alpha and omega; he is the source of ALL our hope.
Notice David uses the personal name for God here; any time you see the word “LORD” in all-caps in your Bible like that, it means the Hebrew author is using God’s personal name - Yahweh. Often, David simply addresses him as “God” - Elohim - that’s his title. It’s like the difference between you calling me “Pastor”, and calling me “Will”. There’s a place for that respect that’s conveyed by the title, but there’s ALSO a place, for those who are CLOSE enough, familiar enough, intimate enough, for addressing even God by his personal name.
How you address someone says a lot about your relationship WITH them, doesn’t it?
Jesus taught us to pray: “Our FATHER”, Abba, DAD; he desired and expected for us, his adopted sons and daughters, true intimacy, closeness, with God. What do your prayers say about your relationship with God? Is he intimate to you? Is he Personal?
Lastly, notice #3 - speaking of getting personal: is the Lord A shepherd, in v1? Is he OUR shepherd?
David says, “He’s MY shepherd”. He declares in Psalm 18: “I love you, Yahweh, my strength. Yahweh is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock… my shield… my salvation, my stronghold.” (vv1-2) He’s MINE!
So I ask you, friend: is God YOUR shepherd. I know he’s A shepherd. I’m confident he’s OUR shepherd, collectively as a church, here at West Hills; but can you say, personally, and confidently, that “He’s MY shepherd”?
What does it mean to call God our “shepherd”? Few of us today have ever even MET an actual shepherd, but David WAS one for years, before being anointed king. It’s one of the most common metaphors God uses to describe himself, and his relationship to us, in all of Scripture:
Jacob declared “God has been my shepherd all my life long” (Gen 48:15)
o Asaph recounts how God: “You led your people like a flock
by the hand of Moses and Aaron.” (Ps 77:20)
o And in response: “we your people, the sheep of your pasture,
will give thanks” (Ps 79:13)
o Because “he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.” (Ps 95:7)
There’s no use beating around the bush: Sheep are stupid and stubborn. Sheep require more meticulous, continual care than any other form of livestock.
Isaiah 53:6 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way”
o David recognizes this; he realized - Psalm 51 - that we are sinful from BIRTH - “prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love,” to stray from His flock. And so David BEGS God to “Save your people... Be their shepherd” (Ps 28.9)
o And here is God’s promise: “Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock...” (Ez 34:11-12)
O “I will gather the remnant of my flock... and I will bring them back to their fold... I will… care for them, and they shall fear no more...” (Jer 23.3-4)
The heart of the metaphor is this: as hard-headed and wayward as we often are as sheep, we have a Good Shepherd who is even MORE compassionate, even MORE caring, even MORE concerned with the well-being of his sheep.
o Here’s how Isaiah describes God: “He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom...” (Isa 40:11)
You won’t find a more tender, gentle, loving depiction of God in the Bible than that. THAT is how He cares for you, friend.
But a shepherd doesn’t just CARE, he #2 - PROVIDES - “God is Provider”, as well.
David says, “BECAUSE God is my caring shepherd, I shall not WANT.” Now, let’s pause right there. That’s quite a statement: “I shall not WANT”. Some of you will be tempted to stop listening and tune the rest of this out, write off the rest of the Bible’s promises, because you think: “That is DEMONSTRABLY false! I can PROVE that one wrong!”
I don’t think of myself as being super materialistic; I don’t need a lot of STUFF to make me happy (I’ve got BIGGER sins to battle than that...). But I shared with y’all a few weeks ago that I used to be really into cars, right? This past week I’m getting on 141 from my house to head up to church and I get passed by an Audi R8, a Lamborghini Diablo, a Ferrari F8 Tributo, and a McClaren 570S - that’s a 4 car, $1million caravan. And I’ll be honest, I drooled a little. I thought to myself: “I WANT to be in that club!”
Now, is Psalm 23:1 promising us that if we follow God, we’ll never have an unmet desire ever again in our lives? No. The Hebrew word for “want” here doesn’t mean “desire”; it means “lack”. I’ll never LACK anything. And specifically, anything that God deems GOOD for me.
-Ps 84:11 says “No good thing does the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly.” God KNOWS a Lamborghini wouldn’t be good for me. It wouldn’t do good things to my heart.
-Philippians 4:19, "My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."
Now, that’s pretty easy for me to accept with the Ferrari - God knows I don’t NEED it - but what about when you lose your job? What about when you get evicted from your apartment? How about those of you who have been praying and trying for kids for YEARS… those of you who have been praying and waiting on a HUSBAND, a WIFE, a companion, for years? Do you have the FAITH to trust, that if God has not yet provided - that child, that spouse, that job - that it must not be GOOD for you, at least not right now? Do you believe his timing, and his WILL, is always perfect? Will you choose to TRUST in His promise, that “no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly”, and will you keep WALKING uprightly, by faith, even when you don’t understand what he’s doing, why he’s holding out?
Friends, that is HARD. But THAT is REAL faith. And we can TRUST God to provide, because he really is a good, loving, faithful Shepherd. I can’t PROVE that to you. You have to come to KNOW him as such, to EXPERIENCE him as the good, caring shepherd. But don’t forget last week’s message: “Our future hope is rooted in God’s past faithfulness.” If he’s gotten you this far; why would he stop now? Philippians 1:6 - “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Don’t be surprised, by the way, if God hasn’t provided YET; What’s his deadline? “The day of Jesus Christ” - when Christ returns in glory, or you see him face to face in the life to come. THAT’s when God has promised to complete his good work in you. That means there will be times, like David last week, when you’ll cry out: “How LONG, O Lord!” And his answer is STILL: “Not long”. “The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed” (Rom 8:18). And the good news is, He has promised to SUSTAIN you, to provide for you, everything that you need along the way, until that day.
So, you and I have a decision to make. 2 choices: we can BELIEVE that promise, and trust God to provide our every need. Or we can live a life of constant discontentment that perpetually says, “I’ll be happy when ________ .” And what fills in the blank is always changing, isn’t it? It’s a moving target. Because as soon as you GET the promotion, you want a raise to go with it. As soon as you GET the husband, you want kids to go with him.
And NOTHING will kill a sheep’s joy faster than the endless search for greener pastures. If no matter WHERE he leads you, no matter HOW green the pasture and HOW still the water, if the grass is always greener in someone else’s pasture, you will be a miserable sheep, and you’ll convince yourself he’s a pretty lousy shepherd.
But if you will trust God to be your good and caring shepherd, you can say like David in Psalm 37 - “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (v4) You want to have ALL your wants and desires and hopes and dreams in this life fulfilled? Set them on THE LORD, “delight yourself in THE LORD”, and he WILL give you your desires, because your desire will be for HIM, and he wants relationship with YOU just as bad as YOU want it! In fact, he wants it worse. He died to make it possible.
#3 - The Lord is my PEACE . v2: “He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.” This is a continuation of point #2 - God provides - because to a sheep, “green pastures” mean WHAT? FOOD! Still waters mean quenched thirst, after miles of trekking through the hot, middle Eastern desert. But it’s MORE than just provision too; these are PEACEFUL images, aren’t they? “He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.” I’ve gotta be careful which VOICE I use when I’m reciting it, or some of you will try and get an early jump on your Sunday naps.
When I was a kid, I went through a phase where I had trouble falling asleep at night, and I would listen to these cassette tapes of this woman speaking in a really soft voice, trying to coax me to sleep; she could have well used Psalm 23: “Imagine you’re in the middle of a luscious, green pasture. You lie down; feel every muscle in your body relax. You hear the gentle trickle of a quiet stream nearby…” That’s the image David’s going for.
And the point is: God brings us PEACE.
Paul prays in 2 Thess 3:16 “may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way.”
Isaiah 26:3 “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”
And we hear in the NT, that God is himself, our peace.
1 Cor 14:33 “Our God is… a God of peace”
Ephesians 2:14 says of Jesus, “he himself is our peace”
He assured his disciples in John 16:33, “in me you have peace.”
Because John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
Jesus says, “I’m not sure if you noticed, but the world these days doesn’t have a lot of PEACE to offer you.” Have you turned on the news lately? Checked your social media feed? If you thought there was a shortage of P.P.E., of personal protective equipment, that’s NOTHING compared to the shortage of PEACE these days!
David says, “not with MY shepherd”. He’s the PRINCE of peace. He beckons us, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you [WHAT?] rest.” (Mt 11:28) Green pastures. Still waters. That’s what God’s offering you this morning.
Now, he doesn’t promise life’s always gonna be a bed of roses. All giggles and rainbows; no, we’re gonna talk NEXT week about the valley of the shadow of DEATH. The same loving Shepherd who leads us in cozy green pastures at OTHER times leads us into darkest valleys. Jesus never promised his followers a life of comfort; actually, just the opposite. He said, “In the world you will have tribulation.” Trouble. Hardship. But then he said, “But take heart; I have overcome the world.”” (Jn 16:33) And that means even when we WALK through the valleys, we don’t have to fear, because WHY? “YOU ARE WITH ME”. The prince of peace is WITH us. And he himself is our peace.
#4 - The Lord is my RESTORER. V3: “He restores my soul.”
Proverbs 18:14 says, "A man's spirit will endure sickness, but a broken spirit who can bear?" That’s SO true, isn’t it? My sort-of-adopted grandparents from childhood, recently BOTH contracted COVID. Both in their late-80s. Papaw was in much worse health than Nanny to begin with. He ended up passing away last week; she’s recovered now, physically, but I will tell you: all the way through, I’ve been praying a lot more for HER than for HIM. Why? Because a broken body is one thing, but a broken SPIRIT...? Who can bear?! Papaw went out smiling - he knew where he was going; he finally got to go home! But Nanny? To know that she had to press on, left behind to endure this broken mess of a world of ours, for another 5, 10 years without her husband of 65 years?! No thank you.
There’s only one cure for a broken spirit, friends: Psalm 147:3 “The Lord… heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
Now, don’t forget the metaphor at hand - the sheep. The Hebrew word for “soul” here can also just mean “life”. The Lord restores, he RETURNS the sheep’s LIFE.
Skip Heitzig explains that: “One of the common problems that sheep have is being ‘cast’. This is a sheep who wanders from the fold, lies down in a comfortable place, a little depression in the ground, and turns over a little too much. He tries to shift and gets stuck on his back. And the sheep cannot get back up on its feet. Gases build up in its abdomen, cutting off its circulation, and the sheep will die unless the shepherd finds it and RESTORES it, picks it up, and brings it back to the fold.”
Maybe some of you here this morning, if you’re honest, have become cast sheep. Listen: some of you have a broken spirit for reasons TOTALLY outside your control. You recently lost your own loved one. You are exhausted trying to single parent and work and now basically home-school through COVID. You suffer from a chemical imbalance that results in clinical depression. There are lots of reasons for crushed spirits these days. But OTHERS of us, if we’re honest, have done it to OURSELVES. We’re cast sheep: we’ve strayed from the “paths of righteousness” our good shepherd has been trying to lead us in, we’ve found our OWN little pastures instead - a spot that LOOKS nice, FEELS good, for awhile - before you realize there’s a depression in the ground. But by then you’ve gotten comfortable, kicked your legs up and settled in. And now you find yourself in a giant RUT that you can’t seem to get out of. And the side effects of your sinful wandering - the gases - are starting to build up. And you’re gonna be in REAL trouble here soon if you don’t CALL OUT for the Shepherd, the only One who can pick you up, set your soul, your life RIGHT again, and lead you back to the path of LIFE. Restore your SOUL.
And by the way: how does God DO it? Psalm 19:7 - “The law of the Lord is perfect,[c]
reviving the soul” He does it through his WORD, friends. God’s WORD is perfect, and it alone has the power to bring dead souls to life.
#5 - The Lord is my GUIDE. V3: “He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.”
Is anyone tired of making decisions these days? Decision fatigue is a REAL thing, people. Is it safe to take the kids with me to the grocery store? Is it any SAFER to drop them off at my crazy sister’s, who thinks COVID is all just a government conspiracy? In-person school, or virtual? Wait, now it’s ALL virtual?! Okay - private school or homeschool? Do I need to wear a mask in this group? What about THAT group?
Wouldn’t it be SO NICE, if just ONE decision was EASY. Can I just encourage you this morning, in this world filled with THOUSANDS of little, unsettling decisions, THOUSANDS of tiny, diverging roads you have to choose between every single day, that the biggest decision you and I will face today - “who am I gonna FOLLOW?” - can be, should be, the EASIEST choice you ever have to make: follow JESUS. He says, ““I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” THAT’s the path you want to be on, friends. HE is the path of righteousness you don’t want to stray from.
But here’s the thing: TWO things, actually - 1) You can’t find the path on your own; you have to be led TO it, and led IN it. Jesus said, “No one knows God unless I choose to REVEAL him to you” (Mt 11:27). Therefore, you better PRAY, like King David in Psalm 25: “Make me know thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths, lead me in thy truth and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation” (vv4-5). And #2) Choosing Jesus may be the easiest, best, most obvious choice you will ever make, but STAYING on the path is another story; Jesus said, “the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Mt 7:13-14). Why? Cuz we’re stupid, stubborn, wandering sheep. It’s HARD for us to stay on the ‘straight and narrow’. We need a guide. We are utterly LOST without one.
Here’s the good news this morning, friends. Not only has Jesus made the path of righteousness CLEAR to us, he is the way. Not only has he invited us, called us, chosen us and led us TO the path. Not only does he promise to SUSTAIN us, to be our constant guide and companion on the difficult path that leads to life, so that we never have to walk alone; “I am WITH you.” But here’s the best news of all: Jesus has gone BEFORE you and walked the path of righteousness that you and I COULDN’T. The Bible says, “No one is righteous; no not one” (Rom 3:10); if you are counting on your OWN righteousness, your own ability to stay on the narrow path, you are in trouble. Instead, God devised a better plan: “God sent his own Son… for sin… in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled” (Rom 8:3-4). Jesus paid God the perfect obedience that you and I never could. And then in his LOVE, while we were yet SINNERS, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8). To trade his righteousness for our unrighteousness. So that we might be called sons and daughters of God.
That’s the GOSPEL friends. JESUS is the good news. And every single LINE of this beautiful Psalm points us ahead 1,000 years to its ULTIMATE fulfillment in the person of JESUS.
-HE is our loving SHEPHERD - he says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (Jn 10:11) That - Isa 53:6 - THOUGH we “all like sheep have gone astray,” God laid on HIM the iniquity of us all. That 1 Peter 2:25 - while we “were straying like sheep,” JESUS has “now returned us to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls.” He’s the kind of shepherd who leaves the 99 to chase across the street, into the woods, after the 1, after YOU.
-Jesus is a faithful Provider - he is himself our provision; he says, “I am the Bread of LIFE. Whoever comes to me shall never hunger again, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst… If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.” (John 6:35, 51)
-Jesus is our PEACE - Ephesians 2: “he himself is our peace… he reconciles us to God… through the cross, killing the hostility.” (vv14-16) You and I have NO peace with God, outside of Jesus. Outside of his atoning sacrifice, to appease God’s righteous wrath against sin, we rightfully stand condemned in our trespasses. But Jesus’ cross KILLS that hostility, and reconciles us to God. Romans 5:1 “since we have been justified by faith, we now have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
-And in that way, Jesus is ALSO the RESTORER of our souls.
-He is our GUIDE. He shows the way, the ONLY way, back to the Father. And he doesn’t just SHOW us, he MAKES the way possible.
And WHY DOES HE DO IT? This is the last, but maybe most IMPORTANT point of all, friends - Jesus DOES it, “For his name’s sake”. Yes, Jesus loves us, but his gracious leading and shepherding care over our lives is not first and FOREMOST for our sake; it is PRIMARILY for HIS name’s sake. Our God is PASSIONATE about his OWN glory, and that’s a good thing, because HE is the center of the universe, not us. HE is the one that all of creation and history are pointing to, not us. But here’s why it’s so good FOR us: If God shepherds us for HIS name’s sake, that means that when we inevitably screw up, and fall short, and stray from the path, we don’t have to worry that he might give up on us, because his love for you wasn’t dependent on anything IN you in the first place; his love for you comes from who HE is!
W.S. Plumer says it this way: “That which moves God to save his people is found in him, not in them” (W.S. Plumer, Psalms, 312) I recently heard a pastor define agape, biblical, unconditional love, GOD’S love, in that way: “A loves B NOT because of something in B, but because of something in A.” That’s good news for sinners like you and me, friends. That God’s love for us isn’t tied to anything in us, but to his own, unchanging, wholly Good, compassionate, Fatherly CARE for us.
So the only question left now is: are you FOLLOWING him? Is he YOUR shepherd?
You know the difference between a shepherd and a rancher? Ranchers drive their cattle from behind. Shepherds lead sheep from ahead. Jesus won’t DRIVE you, friends. He isn’t interested in HERDING you, against your will. He INVITES you, this morning, he WELCOME you: “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Will you follow? Let’s pray.