Psalm 23 - Sabbath Rest
Transcript
You remember when you were in school and you had a summer vacation, like a summer break, so that you could kind of feel the school year drawing to an end and it was getting warmer, and then you had like some of those half days, and then you had summer, and there was just nothing that had to happen. Do you remember that? Can you just think back for a second and remember that? And some of you are still in that. You're in school. You are in summer right now.
Isn't it nice? Doesn't it just feel good? You at some point kind of grow out of that. But do you remember any of those times where you would just say, I'm bored. Oh, I'm so bored. There's nothing to do here.
And some of you, you know, you grew up in this area, and some of you grew up in like podunk nowhere. And so whenever you would hear someone from around here say, there's nothing to do. It's like, you don't even know what nothing to do looks like. You hadn't even come close to smelling nothing to do. Like, I can tell you what nothing to do. Like, but you know, like there was those moments where you just were like, oh, everything is stupid.
I have nothing to do. I'm bored. Do you remember that? Some of you have maybe maybe you have kids that are in that age, and maybe they've been saying this to you consistently throughout this whole summer. And you're sick of that phrase. But I can tell you that at some point in some point in life, most of us traded in bored for busy.
At some point, we began to make the shift from I'm bored to I'm busy. I'm just busy. I just have I have too much going on. Like, I don't even think we use the phrase bored anymore. Like you might say a movie was boring, but that's like that's it. You don't you might say sermon was really boring.
You might say phrases like that. If you ever visited another church, you might say something like that. But but you you don't we don't use that phrase anymore. Like I don't I don't use the phrase bored anymore. Like if I have a moment to be bored, it's delightful. Like I just sit there times where it's like it's it's like there's there's like a it's kind of like a lunar eclipse.
There's like three minutes after the kid goes to sleep before I'm too tired to stay awake that I just sit and it's like, oh, this is nice. I have nothing to do for most of us, though. We've traded in bored for busy and we don't really know how to get out of that. We're we're we're beyond busy. We've become restless. We actually don't know how to rest.
We don't know how to stop even in our downtime and the few amounts of time during the day that we could have had downtime. We pull our phones out. Some of us, that's our alarm clock. So we wake up with a screen in our face and we go straight from alarm clock mode to checking news feeds and Facebook and Twitter and random videos online. And like that's the beginning of our day and it does not stop. We move straight from that into a hectic, frantic.
Rest of our day until in the evening, sometime we crash. Usually after staring at a screen again for some amount of time and go back to sleep. And then we we live this life on this cycle of exhaustion and restlessness. And we feel as if we're always behind and there's something we got to catch up to and something we got to fix and something we got to work on. And so as we kind of look together at the Psalms this summer, what we've said is this is Psalms, a life of worship. And what we're trying to to do is figure out how to allow the Psalms to train us and how to follow God in a in a joy filled way.
How to how to know what it looks like to follow him in the normal parts of life. And so today we're going to spend some time talking about rest. And before we go to the place where we'll we'll spend the majority of our day, I want to show you a few other quotes from the Psalms that I think help us see some of the issue that we face. This is Psalm 127 verses one and two. It says, unless the Lord builds the house, those who labor, those who build it, labor in vain, unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain.
Vain means useless. It's a waste of time. It is vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil for he that's God gives to his beloved sleep. Keep that up for just a minute. Anxious toil. I think for far too many of us is an action is a good description of what life feels like.
Too much of the time. That it's anxious toil that we have stress and anxiety and all of life feels like toil. It's not work. It's not creation. It's not making things better. It's not ever getting to a place where you go high and you get to sit back and be satisfied with your work.
No, it's anxious toil. It's every day is a grind. And then we go to sleep and then we get to do it again. The next day is going to be a grind and we're going to be tired. But but we'll tell ourselves it's just for a season.
It's just for this amount of time. Like eventually it's going to go away. Eventually this weekend I'll rest. Well, next weekend I'll rest. Well, you know, the summer's coming. Well, after summer's over, because there's so many things to do in the summer in the fall, I'm going to wrestle.
It's football season and there's just too much. And then eventually God graciously lets us die. But that's what life feels like sometimes. It's like I keep postponing rest. I keep saying it's a season, but it actually hasn't stopped being this season. And life feels like anxious toil.
And what the psalmist is saying here is unless God is at work with you, unless he's helping you watch the city, unless he's helping you build the house, all of your work is going to feel like that. And the assumption in the text that he's making here, the point he's making here is that if God is with you, then building the house, all of your labor won't be a waste of time. And if God is helping you watch the city, then watching the city will not be a waste of time. And that God will remove anxious toil and let you actually rest. I want to show you Psalm 46 verse 10 says, be still and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations and I will be exalted in the earth. So the God at this in this Psalm, it says, just sit still. Just sit for a second and know who I am. Just sit for a minute and know that I'm God. Rest in the fact that I am big and capable. And so what we're going to look at today, go ahead and grab your Bibles and go to Psalm 23.
It's going to be on page 261. If your Bible looks like this. That page number is wrong. That is not helpful. It's going to be 261 if your page looks like this. If your Bible looks like this.
And if you don't own a Bible, this is our gift to you. You can take this with you. What I did was I put the number of the Bible I was using, which is not this Bible. So just so you know, I'm pretty smart. Here's what we're looking at. We're going to read this Psalm.
It's a Psalm of David who was a king in Israel. And he's writing to tell us what God is like. What relating to God is like. What life with God is like. And here's here's our goal for the day. We're going to listen to David.
We're going to study what he says. And we're going to try to see what it looks like for us to have a life of rest, a life of peace as we follow God. Now, what I don't mean is laziness. What I don't mean is if you follow God, you don't have to have a job. If you've been around our church for a while, you probably know that we wouldn't say that we push for work and work is good. And we want you to be to be in a healthy way.
Busy, not busy, frantic, busy, but but creating and a part of God's good system. But so and honestly, not having a job does not remove the anxiety and the toil. So we've met, you know, people who are lazy and still restless. Still seem to be that the ability to rest is is gone from them. You know, people who work really hard and have enough money to go on two week vacations. But when they come back, it's not like they actually rested.
Their soul doesn't know how to. Maybe some of you have been on a week long vacation and you come back more exhausted. And it's because we don't know how to rest. But we also know people who have who are busy, who are at work, who are diligent and are at peace. And that's that's the picture we're going to get from David here is that there is a way to walk with God so that we actually are restful and at peace because of how big and how good he is. That we know how to be still and know that he is God.
That's what we're going to. That's our goal today. And our goal in some ways is fairly simple. We're trying to grow our faith this morning. We're trying to look at what the Bible says about God and actually have greater faith when we leave. Believe it a little more.
See, we're faith people. So we we take what's true about God and we believe it. And we're told that that goes to work on us. That goes to work in us. That that's the gospel is that we believe what Jesus has accomplished for us on the cross. And that that belief changes us that through faith God gives us grace.
And that's our goal this morning is to study what Psalm 23 says about God. And grow our faith. Actually, just for a little while this morning, begin to believe this a little more. And in some ways, it's like you ever you ever had a friend who started dating someone and you hadn't met who they were dating yet. Or maybe you had a sibling and they had had someone they were dating and you you got they described to you the person before you met them. And so they kind of told you what to look for.
They said, oh, they're so funny. They have a laugh that's infectious. And like, I don't know if you're like me, I'm like, I will see if I get infected. Like, it's just like they're telling you kind of here's what you need to expect. Or they'll say maybe if they're bringing you to meet their parents or something, they'll say, hey, before we go in, just so you know, this is something I had to always do with my friends. Just so you know, my dad's going to say intense, awkward things to you that he finds very funny.
OK, let's go in. Like I just that was about all I'd give you is like, just so you know, he probably doesn't mean it, but he might. Who knows? Let's go. He may make a joke that makes you uncomfortable. Just deal with it.
That's kind of what we're going to get to do today. We're going to get to see what David says. This is what the relationship's like. This is what he does, and we're going to start looking for it in our own lives. We're going to begin to, as we leave here today, going, OK, David said this is what you're like. Infect me.
Let me see it. Let me enjoy it. Let me partake in it. Psalm 23. We're going to read the whole Psalm, and then we're going to walk back through it. Our goal is to grow in our faith.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake.
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. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Look back at verse 1. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Okay, so the immediate picture that David gives us is that of a shepherd with sheep. And David is a king at this point, but he used to be a shepherd who had sheep. And so David's relating this to something he's very familiar with.
And what he's saying is, I'm a sheep. He's the shepherd. He's going to take care of everything. That's his first sentence. That's his proposition. That's kind of his thesis statement that everything else is going to flow out of.
He says he's the shepherd. I'm the sheep. And he'll take care of everything. That's what he means when he says, I shall not want. We use the word want to mean I desire, I would like. So I want a cookie.
He's using it here to mean lack. So if I looked at you and said, I am want for a cookie, it does not mean I lack a cookie. That's not what I would be communicating. I would be saying I want a cookie. But he's saying lack.
What he's saying is, because the Lord is my shepherd, I'm not going to lack anything. He doesn't mean because the Lord is my shepherd, all of my desires will be met. It's not the way he's using the term want there. And here's why this is actually very freeing. David's point for the rest of this Psalm is that if the Lord is your shepherd, and we're told as Christians that Jesus is the chief shepherd, he's the good shepherd, who's laid his life down for the sheep, that we belong to him like sheep belong to a shepherd. So we get to come with David and say the same thing if we're Christians, is that the Lord is my shepherd.
And what David is saying is if he's your shepherd, you'll have everything you need. He will be in charge of what you get and he will give you what you need. You won't actually lack any of the good things that you need. Now, that may be hurtful to hear because at times it seems so evident that we are lacking. But it's actually encouraging to know that the shepherd is good and will provide.
He will give you what you need. He will not have you lack any good thing. That's what David is saying here. He's saying that I will get exactly what the shepherd wants me to have. That's the point he's making throughout the rest of the Psalm is that since he's my shepherd, I'll have what I need. Now, that means at times that we'll feel a desire for something.
David can't mean we'll always have our desires met, but he does mean that that God, our shepherd or for us, Christ, our shepherd will give us everything that we need. We will not be lacking because he's good. And that's that's our hope. That's our faith that we would believe that that we would trust him enough to know that whatever I have, whatever he's given me, whatever he's blessed me with, whatever he's withheld from me is because he's good and I can trust him. So let's keep reading.
He says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want or I won't have any lack. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake.
So he starts off. He says he makes me lie down in green pastures and he leads me beside still waters. And I just want to say this encouragement to some of you who feel like I have to work. I have to be busy. I have to be diligent. That's what God wants from me.
I have to be active or he'll be disappointed in me. The first thing David says is he's my shepherd. He makes me lie down. Some of you need to picture Jesus pushing you down and saying, just stay, just stay for a second. You're like, but I've got so much to do for you. And he's like, lay down and stay like me with my two-year-old.
If you get out of that bed again, like that, because I want him to sleep, it's good for him. So maybe Jesus has a better attitude than I do. But he makes us lie down. He gives us rest. That if you come to this morning, if you think God wants cheap labor out of you, and he's some sort of a cattle driver, that's not what David starts off with. David says, no, he makes me lie down.
He gives me rest. My grandmother is one of these people that she can't sit still. She's busy all the time. And she's a godly lady. She was a missionary in Nigeria. And there's a, in the New Testament, Jesus arguing with some Pharisees about the Sabbath, which was their day off when they weren't supposed to do any work.
And he says, if your ox falls in a ditch, don't you get it out? And so my grandmother, whenever she was doing work on the Sabbath, on her Sunday, when she was supposed to not be doing work, would say, the ox is in the ditch. Which meant the ox is in the ditch. I got to get to work. And at some point, as I got to know her, I started thinking, I think you're pushing the ox in the ditch. So you have something to do.
Like, I think you, your ox is always in the ditch. Like, drive your ox better. Build a fence. And some of us, that's the case. It's like, we always feel like we have to be active. We have to be working.
And I just want you to see this. Jesus, the good shepherd, makes us lie down. Makes us lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. I want you to see something else here. That David is saying that, like, he will provide.
I won't lack anything. He's going to give me green pastures. He's going to give me still waters. He's going to provide for my soul. He's going to provide for me. And I just want you to know that some of you who are feeling like, no, I'm lacking.
I am lacking right now. Trust. Trust that he is providing in ways maybe unseen, in ways maybe unlooked for. But that he will provide and that he does. And that you can continue to follow him. Verse 3, he restores my soul.
That is so encouraging to me. For two reasons. One, David's soul needed to be restored. I think we can fall in the trap of believing that if I follow Jesus, I'll never need soul restoration. I'll always be fine. That's not what David says.
David says, no, no, no. He's good. So he goes to work on me when I'm not fine at all. When my soul needs work, he restores it. That there are times in life when our soul needs restoration. It needs love.
It needs health. He needs to be mending us. And secondly, that we get to run to him. That he's the only one who can restore it. And we get to trust him that he will do this. It's like when my wife and I, at times our marriage has not been the funnest marriage to be in.
We weren't just laughing the whole time and skipping along rainbows. And it's like that where I knew in those moments when our marriage is really hard and we don't really like each other. And our house is not a joyous place filled with potpourri and giggling. Like it just wasn't nice. I knew the only way to fix it was not to draw away from her, but to draw close to her. The only way to mend our marriage was for us to continue to be in each other's face and each other's space and grinding against each other.
So that, so that, so that, hopefully we can edit that before it makes it to the internet. It's not bad advice, you guys. I'm just saying it's not what I meant. All right. So that we were knocking off all the rough places in each other's souls so that we would grow.
I'm going to repeat that last sentence as we regain our focus collectively. So that we were knocking off all the rough places in our souls so that we would grow together. That when, when we were hurting to draw near to each other was the best way for this to, to be mended. And that's the same thing he's saying here, that, that when his soul needs restoration, he doesn't run from God. He runs to him. He rests with him, that he draws near him.
He knows the only way for this to get fixed is to be next to God. Lord help us. All right. So I think the question for us as we come out of this section is what do you think you're missing out on? What is it that you consistently feel you are lacking? And do you believe that he's actually good enough that he knows that?
And he doesn't believe you're lacking and that he will provide what you need. He keeps going. He says he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. And I just want to say that he ultimately fulfills that for us who are Christians in the cross. That he leads us through paths of righteousness for his namesake, which means that he, he gets the glory from us being good, from us walking in righteousness.
And what we're told in the new Testament is that he was righteous for us, that he took our sin on himself, that he died for our sin and gave us his righteousness. And so that we are made right with God for his name. That it's actually Jesus that gets all the glory from the church being made righteous. Every once in a while, people will say things like, I don't like the church. Everybody in the church is messed up. I'm like, yes.
Isn't Jesus good? That he invites messed up people like that's, that's our church. We're the first people to raise our hands and say, I am a hot mess and I need Jesus. That's it. He makes us righteous for his glory. That is actually how messed up we are and how broken we are and how sinful we are and how far away from if all of us got together because of how good we were.
Who gets the glory? Whose name is lifted up? Ours. Because of how good we are. But when we gather together as people who can barely get along with each other.
Who have sin at work in our lives that we're fighting against, but we're trusting that Jesus is good and that he saves sinners. You know who gets the glory in whose name? Jesus is. That's what he's saying. He ultimately fulfills that for us that he brings us into righteousness for his name, for his glory, that Jesus gets all the glory as he works righteousness out in our lives. Verse four.
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. Then he goes on in verse five. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows.
It's interesting. In verses one through three, he says he. He does this. He does this. He does this. He hits verse four and he says you.
He says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you. And I think here's why. When life is good. When we're in the pasture by the still water, having our souls restored, we can talk about God. We can praise him. We can lift him up.
We can say, here's what he's like. And we actually get to enjoy all the good gifts he's given us in a way that that points us to him. We get to look at the green pastures. We get to look at the the the goodness of life. And we get to point to and say, this is how good he is. This is how glorious he is.
But when we're in the valley of the shadow of death, we start talking to God. We start praying. It's less of a place of praise and more of a place of prayer. That we begin to call out to him. And I want to show you something that I think is that I'm very encouraged by, because what we're looking at is David is showing us this is what life with God is like. That it's better off with him in charge that we're more free.
That's one of the things I think David's really trying to show us here is that true freedom and true rest and true hope comes not from our own autonomy, our own sovereignty, our being our own boss. But it actually comes from being utterly dependent on a good shepherd. Because that's what sheep are. They're dependent on a shepherd. And if the shepherd's good, then life is good. And if the shepherd's bad, life is bad.
And what David's saying is that real freedom and real joy comes from being dependent, not not autonomous, not sovereign over ourselves. To be under the king and not our own king. That's where real freedom comes. So David says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you are with me and your rod and your staff, they comfort me. So David just got done in verse three says he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of shadow of death, it seems as if he's really tying those together in a way that is saying there are times where God leads us through the valley of the shadow of death. The good shepherd is actually walking with us through that. And I heard John Piper talking about this. And he said he spent some time thinking, why would God do that? What is the point of a shepherd taking sheep through the valley of the shadow of death? And he said the only answer he could come up with is there was something better on the other side of that valley.
That he had a place he had to get to that the only way to really get there was through the valley. And I'm inclined to agree with him. So he's saying that God does lead us and there are times where it seems dark and scary and painful. But here's what David says. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, even though fear would be all around me, even though hope would be lost, even though I would have no way to get myself through this, he says, I will fear no evil for you are with me. See, in verses one through three, David is talking about the comfort is the pasture.
The comfort is the water. And Jesus led him there. But the good stuff was the pasture. The good stuff was the water. Like he's enjoying this and he's just saying, you're great because you brought me here. It's like when somebody cooks a meal and you compliment the meal and you're kind of rolling that up and compliment to them, like in praise to them.
So my wife cooks something. I go, girl, this chicken. Like she knows I'm saying good Job with the chicken. And she takes it as a compliment to her. She's not like, why are you complimenting the chicken? Say something about me.
It's like, no, she gets it. That's what David is doing in verses one through three. He's saying the green grass, the pastures are good. He doesn't have anything to say is good. In verses four and five. What he has to say is in the middle of everything else being terrible, you're still good.
You comfort me. I won't fear anything because you're here. What he says is I can't see anything good. I don't see anything that I can look at and say thank you for right now. I can't. I'm sure there's stuff, but I can't see it.
Sometimes it bothers me. And I may be wrong about this when people are really hurting and it's like, well, you should find something to be thankful for. It's like just maybe not. What? That's really hard right now. I can't see anything to be thankful for.
But David says, you don't have to. He's good. Let him comfort you. Let the fact that he's still there be good. And I love what he says. He says, you.
I will fear no evil for you are with me. So he says, what's good is here is you. That's it. I got nothing else. You're good. And he says, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
So a rod and a staff were shepherd's tools. A rod could be this long or as long as a staff. At the end of it, it had a knot. Some of them have little spikes. Some of them are just a knot. The rod was for hitting things.
Not the sheep. Bears, wolves. The rod was for outsiders. The staff was for the sheep. And that's the one you're used to that has a little crook. It looks like a candy cane.
Your nativity scene has it. That was for the sheep. And this is beautiful because you know what's terrifying about being in the valley of the shadow of death? There's two things absolutely terrifying about those moments in our lives. Specifically for Christians. For the sheep that belong to Jesus.
One is that what's in the valley is going to get you. That you're going to be attacked. You're going to be harmed. That you're not going to make it out because this assailed you. And secondly, that because you're in the valley of shadow, you're going to bolt and leave the shepherd. That's actually the thing I'm most afraid of.
Is that when I get in the valley, I'm going to cease to see that he's good and I'm just going to run. I'm just going to run away. And what he says is both your rod and your staff comfort me. One is to hook around my neck and keep me close to you. And one of them is for everything that comes in this valley and tries to get me. And here's what's so encouraging about this.
So this is David writing this. David was a shepherd. He used to write songs. Tend sheep. So he was kind of arty.
He wrote poems and songs. And he was a shepherd. And he comes to one of the main stories about him that you maybe have heard about is David and Goliath. This is the same David we're talking about. Goliath was a giant. He was defying the armies of Israel.
And David comes and he goes and talks to the king Saul. And he basically says, hey, I'll go kill Goliath for you. And the king's like, because he's just kind of a young guy and he's not in the army. Like he tends sheep. The king's like, this is probably not the best plan. But this is the first guy who said, I'll kill Goliath for you.
So Saul's going to hear him out. Because all the other guys were like, I think Goliath was going to kill all of us. And this was the first kid who was like, I'll kill him for you. And so Saul was like, well, let's talk. Tell me your plan. So Saul's talking to him and he says, you're just a boy.
Like he's been trained in military things his whole life. This is 1 Samuel 17, by the way, that I'm paraphrasing. David says, I've tended sheep. And when a bear came or a lion came and took one of the lambs, I would follow it. I would strike it and get the lamb out of its mouth. And then he says, and if it came at me, I would grab it by its beard and kill it.
I've killed bears and lions and I'm going to do the same thing to Goliath. He'll be like one of them. Isn't that, I could just imagine Saul being like, all right, let's go. And he's following him out and people are like, you're actually going to let him fight. He said, he said he's going to grab Goliath by his beard and hit him in the head with a stick. I'm going to watch this.
He said, that's what he's going to do. I want to see it. That's what David's saying is he had a rod. He would go to a bear. He would hit it and he would give that bear a chance to back up. David was being nice to the bear.
He's like, you give me the lamb. You can go. But he's like, if that bear bowed up to me, I killed it. Did the same thing with bears and lions. Next time I go to the zoo, I'm looking at him and I'm picturing David jumping on him, grabbing him by their beard and hitting them with a stick. What David says in this Psalm is when I'm in the valley and it's dark and death looms over us, I'm going to remember that you're the scariest thing in the valley and that if a lion comes or a bear comes, they need to be afraid.
David's like, I'm going to do my best to get their attention and go, you're going to want to go home. That's what David's saying is that in the valley, when it is dark, when it is dismal, I'm going to trust that you're going to keep me close to you. Your staff is a comfort to me and I'm going to trust that in your other hand is a rod and this whatever is in the valley will not win. That you are the biggest, most fearful thing in the valley. That's our hope as we trust Jesus. Not that we'll never enter the valley of the shadow of death.
Not that it will never loom over us. Not that there will never be a time in our life when we cannot name a good thing. We don't know where grass is. We can't remember the last time we sat by still water. We're not promised that. We're promised that when we go in there, there will be the most fearful being in all of creation that rules over creation.
He will be with us and be a comfort to us to both keep us and to guard us. That's the hope that David says he has as he walks with God. Verse 5. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. That is a crazy sentence.
Because when you actually get to sit at a table and enjoy a nice meal, that's when life's going pretty well. Like you don't even get to do that in the morning. And you're grabbing like a drink and a Nutri-Grain bar and hitting the door. Like you don't even have enemies there. You just, the alarm clock, like you lost to it that morning. Like what David is saying is, in the presence of my enemies, I'll be surrounded, but I'm going to still get to sit down and enjoy a meal that you've prepared for me.
That in the middle of all the things that should rob us of all joy and all comfort and all peace, God sets a table and says, have a seat. That his supply lines aren't cut off and that he can continue to fill us up. That's what David's saying. The way I see this so clearly in my own life is with my sin. So that at times I feel like I'm surrounded by my enemies and that's what my sin is.
That it's actively at work to destroy my soul, to rob me of joy, to keep me from having a good relationship with God and good relationship with others around me. That my sin and at times I feel so accused by it. Look at who you are. Look at what you do. Look at what you're thinking. Look at what you're, like it's overwhelming and it feels like it's hemming me in.
And all I can see is my sin. And then in the cross Jesus sets a table, says have a seat. I'm actually going to show my power and my glory and my magnificence and my rule over sin as you sit and enjoy life, surrounded by what should destroy you but that I've set you free from. The thing that should rob you of all joy, I'm going to stand next to you as a guard and you're going to actually get to enjoy. Because he forgives us in the middle of our sin and it does not destroy us. He says you anoint my head with oil.
My cup overflows. I think there's potential for two pictures here when he says you anoint my head with oil. That was something they would do as kind of a custom when they would share meals together and when they would come in, it was a way that you could smell nicer and it was a way to honor guests. And so he may just be simply saying you honor me as a guest. Like you prepare a table for me, you honor me as a guest and my cup overflows, meaning I'm more than provided for. But specifically because this is David writing this Psalm, we're told of the time that David was anointed with oil to be the king of Israel.
And so David may be trying to draw everybody's mind to, you set me aside for a purpose. I think so often one of the things that robs us of the ability to rest, that makes life anxious toil is this feeling like I have to find my purpose and I have to achieve my purpose in order to have value. David says, no, that's in the shepherd's hands too. That he has a purpose for you, that the shepherd decides what the sheep get to do, that he anoints your head with oil and he sets you aside for his purposes and his glory and his name. And you can trust him in that too. So that the amount of anxiety we wrap around, is my life going to be worth it?
He says, no, I've pushed that onto Jesus. Trust the shepherd to give you value and purpose. He says, my cup overflows. That God provides more than enough. So I think our question here that we ought to ask as we try to walk in this.
See, at first in verses 1 through 3, we need to ask, what is it that we think we're lacking? In verse 3, maybe we need to ask what it is we believe would restore our soul. What is it that we run to in those moments when we should tie ourselves to the shepherd? In verse 3, where he says, he leads me in paths of righteousness, maybe we ought to ask, what is it we believe actually makes us good? And is it Jesus? Are we resting in him?
Verse 4, he says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and he goes through there, what is it that we're afraid of? And what are we trusting to save us? All these things rob us of peace and of joy. Where he says, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows.
Maybe we ought to ask, what is it that we think gives us purpose and value? And do we have to consistently keep that up in order to be okay? Are we robbed of rest and robbed of joy because we can't let any relationship begin to seem even like it started to fall apart because we need people to love us to be okay? Is that where our value and our purpose comes from? Do we have to work unending hours in order to make enough money to have value and purpose? And we rob ourselves of joy because we won't trust that ultimately he holds all of that.
Verse 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. David begins in verse 1, with the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He says, this is kind of how it's going to work. He's the shepherd, I'll be okay. And then he ends with this like proclamation of faith over the rest of his life. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.
If you met a person and they looked at you and with genuine sincerity said, I will be happy my entire life. You'd be like, that's bold. I'm like, I'm proud of you. I hope that works out. But you don't know.
Maybe you wouldn't tell them. I'd probably tell them. I'd be like, well, we'll see. I don't know why I'd be rooting against their happiness, but I'd just be my natural reaction. They looked at you and said, all good things will come to me forever. He'd be like, boy, you sound like a fortune cookie.
David says this. And he got to write it down and it got to stay in the Bible. How does he get to say that? He gets to say that because of what he said in verse 1, which is the Lord is my shepherd, I won't lack anything. David gets to end with this bold statement of faith over the rest of his life that goodness and mercy will follow me and I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And the reason he gets to say that is not because of what he's going to do, but because of who he belongs to.
That as Christians in Christ, we get to say the same thing. I want to read from John. This is Jesus speaking, so I just want you to sit and listen. This is what Jesus says about himself. I think this is helpful. John 10.
I'm the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. And I come that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees. And the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he's a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. But I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father and I lay my life down for the sheep.
You see, we get to stand next to David and without blinking, without hesitating, say, surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. If we belong to Jesus, he's laid his life down for us. He knows his sheep. He loves his sheep. He doesn't flee from our sin. He doesn't flee from our wickedness.
But he dies in order to redeem us. And we belong to him. That's who we have as a shepherd. And that we get to read Psalm 23 and believe it. That we won't lack anything. That he will provide.
That he will restore our souls, even though there will be times where it needs to be restored. There will be times when we can't see anything good but him, but he's still good. And that goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life. You can rest. You can stop. You can trust.
He is good. He does love you. He does care for you. That you belong to him and he knows you and you know his voice. For all of us who've placed faith in Christ, that is true for us. And maybe, maybe we all need to read Psalm 23 every day for the next month until it seeps into us that this is real and this is who he is and this is what he's like.
That he begins to restore our souls even from these pages. When we read Psalms and pray them. That he begins to work in us that we would remember that this is who he is and this is what he's done and this is the hope that we have. But you can rest and you can trust because he is good and he does love you. He's not going to lose you. He holds a rod and a staff.
Goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life and you will if you belong to Jesus, dwell in his house forever. The band is going to come back up as we finish out this morning. We're going to spend in our community groups this week, we're actually going to talk about how. Practically, how do we make time? How do we rest? But today I just wanted us to try as we could to grow our faith that we could believe that we actually can.
That we believe why we can make time. Why we can rest because of how good he is. You see, freedom and rest come from dependence, not autonomy. That we get to trust that he handles this, that he will provide, that he is good, that we don't have to labor and toil in order to make things okay for ourselves. So as a church, we're about to take communion.
Communion. And communion is simply, we have bread, we use grape juice.