Themes of the Bible: Peace (Psalm 23)

 

Themes of the Bible: Peace (Psalm 23)

If you remember the reading homework from last week, we’ll be in Psalm 23 today. For next week, we’ll be studying Psalm 51 together, but this week is Psalm 23, and for those of you who read it, you probably were surprised to see that it’s just 6 verses long. Since its just 6 short verses, we're going to be able to power through this chapter verse by verse. But first, let me tell you why I picked this chapter. Some folks in some of the places I’ve preached this series have asked me how I’m picking these chapters, or why I’m picking what I’m picking. Well, part of the methodology is to present these big chapters of the Bible, so if you're only going to read certain chapters of Scripture, which is a bad idea, read the whole story, these are the ones to read. So, I got some of those big foundational chapters, such as the 5 we studied from Genesis, and then I'll add some, like Esther, that’s just too good not to include, but the reason I picked this one is because it's exceedingly popular for maybe one reason: it's the funeral chapter.

Every funeral I've ever been to, I think at some point in time, the preacher will quote Psalm 23, “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil.” And we all know that 1 Corinthians 13 is the wedding chapter. Even atheist’s quote 1 Corinthians 13, “Love is patient, love is kind, and does not envy, it does not boast. . .” We all hear that when we go to weddings and Psalm 23 then, is the funeral chapter. So, since we're all going to hear this Psalm, probably at every funeral, this would be a good one to go through.

So, it made the list. Then, this week I start studying and reading this, and if you did, you probably came away with the same impression, that it is totally wrong to believe that Psalm 23 is the funeral chapter, because it has absolutely nothing to do with death. This makes sense because God has nothing to do with death, Christ has nothing to do with death, we don't know death. Jesus Himself said, “. . .everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die” (John 11:26). You and I don't have to know or experience the terror of death, at least not spiritual death. This whole chapter is about life, and it's about peace, and it's about rest. While everybody else is being leveled by death, we don't have that. That's what Psalm 23 is all about. I'm not saying it's wrong to quote it at funerals. It's really reassuring that we don't have to deal with this, as Christians, the way the world does, but God is full of life, he's all about life and that's what this chapter is. Look at that first verse. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”

Now, I understand that we don't have a lot of shepherds in our culture today, but keep in mind the authorship. God will choose human authors for particular reasons, and remember what David's job was. Yes, he became Israel’s king, but before he was king, he was a shepherd. David was a shepherd his entire life growing up. And so, he understands the relationship between the shepherd and the flock. He protects them and he cares for them. He understands that relationship. Now you cannot tell me that David just goes and lives the rest of his life and that it never dawns on him that he’s being protected. In the same way that he protected his sheep. He has to notice, that there is a shepherd who is watching over him, and that inspires those words that he writes in Psalm 23. Yes, we know that he had the great victory over Goliath. But we also know that he spent years running for his life, hiding in caves, as Saul, and even his own son was after him to kill him, and he was guided and protected through all of those years. David personifies somebody who knows feast and famine, good times, and bad times. Yet he trusted in the care and the protection of the shepherd, and that's what he's writing about in Psalm 23. And I think it's the first lesson that God has for us right there, and the opening words, “The Lord is my shepherd. . .” I think that's what he's trying to stress to us, and we should have the same confidence that David did and wrote about it.

I don't know if you've ever picked up on the parallel here, but Paul writes to the Philippians (4:11-12) and says, “Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity. . .” See the parallel with David’s life? ‘Whether I'm sitting on a throne or I'm being under siege by Absalom, or whether I'm defeating Goliath, or whether I'm hiding in a cave from Saul, I’m content. That's what Paul is saying in the New Testament.

Just to change directions, does anyone highlight passages or verses in their Bible? I don’t because I have really bad handwriting, but will sometimes on the computer program I use to prepare sermons. With a physical book, nobody really knows what passages you highlight in your own personal life, but when you have an electronic one, of course, Big Brother's always watching everything that you do. And so, Kindle, that's the Amazon version of online books, Kindle releases every year the most highlighted portion of their online Bible. Do you know what the most highlighted portion in Scripture is on the Kindle Bible? I would have never guessed, but this but it makes total sense.

It comes from the book of Philippians, and this is it, year after year. Chapter 4, verses 6-8, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” That is the most highlighted passage, year after year after year, in the Kindle online Bible and of course it is, how desperately you and I need this, the peace that passes all understanding, the peace that comes from God, from having a gentle shepherd.

And this is where I'm honest with you, if there's one grave struggle that I have in my life, like how Paul had that thorn in his flesh that stayed with him his whole life. I know that unless God works some kind of miracle and delivers me from it, that I will always deal with worry and fear and discontentment and anxiousness over the silliest things and the stupidest things. Sometimes they're real, but a lot of times they're manufactured in my head. And for a lot of us, our thoughts can do terrible things in our minds. I know I'm not alone. There's so much to concern us. Spiritually, there are false teachers everywhere. What is it that we're supposed to believe? Who can we really trust and listen to? I know I'm testing this against Scripture, but so and so says Scripture says this and this other person is saying something else. We don't want our children to go down bad paths, and you turn on your television, their moral pitfalls wherever you turn. Financially, there's so much going on and the government is printing money like its confetti. Regardless of what it is, there's so much to concern us, and worry us, this fear and anxiety are debilitating.

So, in this passage of Scripture, you and I are called to remember who the shepherd is. Look at the theme of this chapter, Psalm 23, it's reflected in the New Testament. Jesus says, in essence, ‘I am that Good Shepherd, the one that David wrote about, that's me, I'm the good shepherd.’ “The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep” and the writer of Hebrews says, “Now may the God of peace, through the blood of the eternal covenant, brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing His will.” See, Jesus isn't just the Good Shepherd. He's the great shepherd, and he isn't just the Great Shepherd, Peter says, “when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away. . .” Over and over the New Testament is echoing back those words of David from Psalm 23. You know what a shepherd is. Well, he’s a good shepherd. He isn't just the Good Shepherd, he's the Great Shepherd, he's not just the Great Shepherd. He is the shepherd of all shepherds, the chief shepherd, and he's watching over you. He's guiding you and he's protecting you and this will be his role throughout eternity. It doesn't end when you stop breathing on this earth, not according to Revelation 7:17, “for the lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd. He will lead them to springs of living water.” Psalm 23, verse 2, “He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.”

This Shepherd will continue his care and provision throughout eternity, and notice whose promise this belongs to. David is writing in the personal sense, but notice who's promised this. I'm going to read through it, and I want you to keep track of personal pronouns. I, my and me. [Read Psalm 23].  How many? 17 times in six verses. This is a personal promise to those who know Christ Jesus.

There should be a difference between us and the rest of the world, because we have this promise that the world does not. Remember Matthew 25. Jesus says you can divide the world into two groups. He used the animals to describe them. Verse 33, “He'll put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.” Okay. Which group do you want to be a part of? It's the group that has the shepherd, the sheep have the shepherd. That’s actually one of the things people like about raising goats, that they can get by a little better without supervision and protection. Sheep have a shepherd. It’s in the name: shepherd, sheep-herd. That's what it's all about, He is the Great Shepherd. This brings us a contentment that is foreign to the world. I have a great shepherd that I know is watching over me, and that needs to be reflected in my life.

Alright, look at verse two, “He makes me lie down in green pastures, and He leads me beside quiet waters.” Alright context helps here. Folks living in lush areas won’t understand this as easily as us. With our experience with drought, we’re starting to understand the climate that David is writing from. David lives in the arid landscapes of the Middle East, where shepherds would have to lead their flocks to water. Wells, oasis, rivers are all important landmarks, even recorded in Scripture, because there weren’t many of them, and because knowing where they are and getting to them can be the difference between life and death. I bet most people in our county wouldn’t know where to find water if the tap ran dry. I know a few natural springs that are always flowing, and I could lead you to them if you needed water and there was nothing else to drink. And that's what Psalm 23 is telling us. That we follow Him, He will make you lay down in those pastures, and he will lead us right beside those quiet waters, and not leave us ill-equipped to fend for ourselves.  

And the notice in verse three, where it says that he wants to take us. Verse 3, “He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his namesake.” God's desire, and what makes God the most proud of us, like we saw with Job is when he was an instrument of the glory of God. Same thing with Esther, two weeks ago, she was an instrument that brought glory to God. That's what he wants of us, his sons and daughters to put his glory on display, to the world. Romans 8:29 tells us that, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son. . .” He wants you to be more like His Son, that is the path that He will lead you in, if you will follow Him.

Verse 4, which is probably the most popular. “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.” Let’s look at that first one. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. . .” and this is why it's quoted in funerals, because the word death is there, I guess. But did you notice what we do, what those who were followers of Jesus do. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we do not dwell in the valley of the shadow of death, we are not overcome by it, we don't get stuck there, we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. The sheep of this great shepherd do not dwell in the land of death, we do not know or experience the terror that death brings because our Shepherd leads us through that area and protects us as we go on.

Did you pick up on anything else, right there in verse four, “I will fear no evil for you are with me.” Did anybody pick up on something that all of a sudden changed in this. Did you notice that in this verse, David stopped talking about the shepherd and he starts talking to the shepherd.

Might be a little on conjecture here, but it seems that after passing through these difficult moments, when the shepherd is leading you, will draw you into more intimacy with the Father, with the shepherd. Now David is addressing him specifically in a personal way. People like you and I can be given extraordinary confidence, this kind of confidence when they know the shepherd. Look at what David said, even though death is all around me, You are with me. And that's all I need.

Then continuing, the why, because your rod and your staff comfort me. This rod was used by the shepherds to fend off any predators and attackers that came to attack the sheep. The rod was never used on the sheep, thankfully, and David defended his sheep against the lions and against the bears and all of that using his shepherd's rod. Then you have the shepherd staff. That’s what we see all the time at Christmas, it’s the wooden thing with the hook on it, that thing that we always see in the nativity scenes. That's going to guide the sheep where they're supposed to go, and it's going to pull them back when the sheep gets too close to the ledge, he reaches out the staff and that little hook grabs them around their little sheep neck and pulls him back. I mean it startles them, being corrected like that, but it doesn't hurt them.

So far, for me, this Psalm has been exceedingly comforting. And then I get to verse five. And I'll be honest with you. Verse 5 has always kind of been weird to me. “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil my cup overflows.” First of all, we don't really anoint heads these days anymore. I've seen it done before in churches, I’ve never done it or had it done to me personally, and I'm the guy whenever something like that is going on, I'm sitting there thinking to myself, “does anybody else think that this is weird.” I know that there's a lot of spiritual value in it but it's not something we do ordinarily, so the thought of just dumping oil on somebody is a little weird to me, and why in the world would I eat in front of my enemies. Take me to someplace safe and comfortable, and let me eat not in the presence of my enemies. When the enemies are coming at me I'm not just going to sit and eat, that's very weird to think about. It's weird imagery that the author is using but maybe that's the point. Maybe there's a point there to be seen at a time that you and I should be most anxious, the presence of our enemies. What are we being told by our shepherd is that the time when the enemies are stalking us, he's saying, ‘sit and relax and eat. It's fine. I've got this, the rod in my hand will protect you.’ That's what the shepherd says to the sheep, they're eating in the pasture and there's wolves and bears and lions and tigers all around them, and he's saying to them, ‘it's fine. I got the rod, just eat sheep.’ That's kind of the point, there's so much peace, to be found, when you are led by the Great Shepherd.

And everything else in this passage all builds to verse 6. “Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell on the house of the Lord forever.”

Two things to notice about this, the first one. “Surely your goodness will follow me all the days of my life.” Don't think about this as like you're pulling something behind you, and it's following you. Don't think that way. The Hebrew word for “follow” here is a very active term, the best way for me to describe it to you is that it means pursue or chase. Like, goodness and mercy are going to chase me and pursue me. The other time that this word is used in a different context that we've talked about just a few weeks ago, is when the Egyptian chariots under Pharaoh's leadership were chasing down the Israelites at the Red Sea. That's the exact same term that David is using to describe what goodness and mercy will do. As followers of the Great Shepherd goodness and mercy will be pursuing us through our entire lives.

And then this, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. This is the money line for me, that line right there. We are cared for, here, yes, and that's wonderful, but the greatest blessing is still to come. It’s a blessing we can't even comprehend and understand. You follow the shepherd where he leads, you stick close to his side, you know that he is utterly trustworthy, and remember that the provision that you are getting now, it is simply foreshadowing, a far greater provision that is coming. Revelation 21:3-4, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain or tormented minds for the old order of things has passed away. That's what we're waiting for. And this rest, which is going to last for eternity, holds a blessing and a goodness that we're told we can't even conceive.

There are plenty of paths to follow in this life, millions of them. And there are plenty of ideas that you can embrace, and there are plenty of places that you can turn your eyes. But if what you're after, are any of those things that I just mentioned that come from following the Good Shepherd, there is only one place, one path, one idea, one person that you can turn your eyes to and be guaranteed those things.

Let’s pray.