Please turn to Psalm 23 in your copy of God's Word, Psalm 23. We continue our series on familiar Psalms sung anew, and this morning we come to what is the most familiar Psalm in the Psalter, what Charles Spurgeon called the Pearl of the Psalms. As we come to the reading and preaching of God's word, let me pray for us. Lord, open our eyes that we might behold wonderful things in your word. And we ask this for Jesus' sake. Amen. Psalm 23, a Psalm of David. 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 name's sake. 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. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God endures forever. There is a moving story of a young shepherd boy in the Scottish Highlands in the 19th century. His parents died when he was very young, and so he was sent to live with his grandfather in the Highlands. His grandfather was a poor shepherd and couldn't afford to send him to school, and instead he trained him to be a shepherd boy. But he did teach him some basic pieces of knowledge, one of which was the opening line of Psalm 23. He taught him to memorize the opening line by linking each word to one of his fingers. The Lord is my shepherd. Five words for five fingers. Sometime later, the young boy was out tending the sheep in the mountains and a huge snow blizzard blew in and he did not return home. His anxious grandfather had to wait a whole day before he could go and find his grandson. When he eventually found him, sadly, he was frozen to death. But as the grandfather pushed the snow away from his grandson, he noticed that his grandson was holding his fourth finger. The Lord is my shepherd. Psalm 23 is one of the most personal Psalms in the whole Psalter. The words my and me and I occur 17 times in just six verses. This is where the sweetness of Psalm 23 lies, in the me's and the my's and the I's. Because the Lord is not just anyone's shepherd. He's not even our shepherd. No, the Lord is my shepherd. He's your shepherd. Psalm 23 is a deeply personal psalm. But I don't think that's the reason why Spurgeon called it the Pearl of the Psalms. The reason it's the pearl of the Psalms is not because it is personal, but because it's about the person of God. The Lord is my shepherd. Did you notice how the Lord bookends the Psalm, verse one? The Lord is my shepherd, verse six, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Psalm 23 begins and ends with the name of God, Yahweh, the Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. But when we read Psalm 23, we tend to skip over the Lord's name and focus on the shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. But the first named subject of Psalm 23 is the Lord. And when we consider what his name means, then we can understand why this is the pearl of the Psalms. Because boys and girls, just like your name means something, God's name means something. My children's names are meaningful to Jackie and me. Benjamin means son of my right hand. I'm actually left-handed, but the Hebrew for that sounded a bit weird. So we went with Benjamin. We named Layla before she had died and before we met her. It's Persian for dark or night. And interestingly, when she was stillborn, we saw she had a head of beautiful, dark hair. And she went home in the night. Zachary we named because it means the Lord has remembered. The Lord remembered him in his mother's womb and brought him into our family. And Hannah is Hebrew for grace because God graced us with another daughter. Boys and girls, your name means something, and it's the same with God's name, Yahweh. It means I am who I am. I will be who I will be. When God asks, when Moses asks God for his name, God says, my name is I am. My name is being, because God's name is I am. I am. God is, period. God is not dependent on anyone or anything for his existence. He is self-existent, self-sufficient, and that is his name. Simply and entirely, God is, I am. And that is who your shepherd is. And that is why we shall not want why we shall not lack for anything. The parallelism of verse one, the second line, relates to the first as to its consequence. The Lord is my shepherd, therefore I shall not want. This is what David is saying here. And this is why Psalm 23 could have ended at verse one. Because if the Lord is our shepherd, then we have everything we need. The Lord is my shepherd, therefore I shall not want." Now, let's close in prayer. But David doesn't close in prayer. He goes on for five verses. And in each verse, he unpacks what it means for the Lord to be our shepherd. He unpacks what it means for us not to want for anything. Here's the first thing. The Lord provides for all our needs. The Lord provides for all our needs, verse two. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. The green pastures relate to lush food. The still waters relate to refreshing drink, but also to rest. It's a picture of nourishment and refreshment, of being seated and rested. It's a picture of a shepherd in the hot, arid, dusty terrain of the open plains of the Middle East, finding some lush grass for his sheep to feed on, finding a pool of water in the shade for his thirsty sheep to have a drink and then lie down and rest. There is, of course, a temporality to the provision. The psalm will move from the green pastures to the dark paths, but it's still a picture of a shepherd providing for his sheep just what they need when they need it. It's a picture of timely refreshment and rest. God provides what we need just when we need it. as he prepares us for the valley experiences ahead. Jackie and I still to this day talk about a meal that was left at our door in the evening after we found out our daughter Layla had died. I had put Ben to bed, and I went outside to get something, and there was this meal on our front doorstep with a bottle of red wine. It had been cooked by two students at Cambridge University who had just started coming to our home Bible study the week before. We hardly knew them. But when they heard about what had happened, they cooked a meal and left it on our doorstep. We can't even remember their names. I think they were angels. Because the meal was one of the best meals we have ever had. Grief and sorrow make you feel physically hungry, and we were ravenous in our grief. And our shepherd knew what we needed when we needed it. And he provided it. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He provides for our needs. Second, he restores us to righteousness. He restores us to righteousness, verse three. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. The verse continues, the picture of the shepherd and the sheep, but now the sweet melody beside the still waters changes. because the sheep is starting to go astray, such that the shepherd needs to retrieve it from wandering. That's what the word restore presupposes here. The word is literally return. He causes my soul to return. The sheep is wayward, but the shepherd is watchful, bringing his sheep back to the right paths. Who of us can't relate to this? We've just sung it this morning. Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. But though we're prone to wonder, our God is prone to watch and retrieve when we do wonder. He knows our hearts, and He's ever watchful with His long staff, drawing us back into the right path, the paths of righteousness for His own namesake. Righteousness is what we were saved for. And so even when we slip and fall, even when we wander and stray as sheep do, our good shepherd is there drawing us back onto the right path. He works to restore our souls to righteousness because that is what we were saved for. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He provides for our needs. He restores us to righteousness. Number three, He comforts us in the face of any evil. He comforts us in the face of any evil. 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." The scenery has changed dramatically. Green pastures give way to dark paths and dangerous precipices. We move from still waters to slippery slopes as the sheep makes its way down into the deep, dark valley where wild animals lie in wait to pounce and devour. The description of the valley is that of the shadow of death. Just one word in the Hebrew and a quite rare word. Commentators don't really know how to translate it. Shadowy death, death darkness, deep darkness, deathly darkness. But whichever one we go with, we get the point, don't we? It's a dark valley that contains all the evils that can lead to death. I know some of you have been in that valley recently, distantly, and you still feel its evil. You still feel its deathly darkness. Last weekend, I was in Wyoming speaking at a conference for a graduate of Westminster. And over the course of the weekend, I met a pastor. And as we were chatting together, he told me that three months ago, his 13-year-old daughter was hit by a truck and killed. I thought to myself, I cannot even begin to imagine the darkness of this man's valley. His eyes just welling with tears as he's telling me this. I wrote to him this week and told him that I would be preaching on Psalm 23 and I shared with him a word play that produces a beautiful pastoral application. The word evil in verse four is spelt like and sounds like a word in verse one. The word evil, ra, it has two letters in Hebrew, a resh letter and an ayin. And two of the three letters of this word in verse one are resh and ayin. And that word in verse one is shepherd. And I said to this grieving father, for every ra, we have a Roeh. For every evil, we have a shepherd. I don't know what your Rah is, what evil or deathly darkness you've experienced in your life, a marital breakdown, the waywardness of an adult child, the death of a spouse or a loved one, Years or decades of infertility. The special needs of a child or a grandchild. The dementia of a parent or grandparent. The loneliness of singleness. The messy mystery of a miscarriage. The tragedy of the death of a child. The tragedy of a suicide in the family. a debilitating cycle of anxiety, a history of abuse, a sudden life-changing health diagnosis. I don't know what your rah is, but hear this comforting truth from Psalm 23 this morning. For every rah, there is a roeh. For every evil, there is a shepherd. And not just any shepherd, but the Lord, the God who is, I am, who I am. And therefore he is not distant, but present. The Lord our shepherd doesn't stand at the top of the valley, looking down through the valley to check that we're getting on all right on our own. Now, look what David says in verse four. I will fear no evil, no rah, for you are with me. You are with me. He's there in the valley with us. Alec Mateer puts it beautifully. The darker the shadow, the closer the Lord. The darker the shadow, the closer the Lord. Isn't that the testimony of every believer who's been through the fiery furnace, the deep waters, the dark valleys? Ask them what it was like. Naomi, Hannah, Ruth, Jacob, Moses, Job. Ask them what it was like. The Lord was with me. The Lord was with me. Did you notice how in verse four, David stops talking about the Lord, as he has been doing in verses one to three, and he starts talking to the Lord? For you are with me. The theologizing has stopped and the praying has started. David goes on to speak of the Lord being present with him in two images. The shepherd's rod and staff, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. The rod was a club. used by the shepherd to beat off and kill wild animals. The staff was a long stick with a hook on the end of it, used for guidance and to draw the sheep back away from dangerous places. This is how God comforts us by manifesting his presence with us. He protects us and he guides us. He comforts us in the face of any evil. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He provides for our needs. He restores us to righteousness. He comforts us in the face of any evil. Number four, He refreshes us in our battles. He refreshes us in our battles, verse five. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows." We tend to think that the metaphor that dominates Psalm 23 is that of the shepherd, that it's the only metaphor in the psalm. But verse five introduces us to a new metaphor. It's the metaphor of the host. We go from shepherd and sheep in verses one to four to host and guest in verses five and six. Psalm 23 is really about God the shepherd host. Which leads us to ask what exactly the connection is between a shepherd and a host, because David moves so seamlessly from one metaphor to the other. So what's the connection? Well, in the ancient Near East, shepherds and hosts had one thing in common. They were entirely and absolutely responsible for those in their care. Shepherds were entirely and absolutely responsible for their sheep. Guests were entirely and absolutely responsible. Sorry, hosts were entirely and absolutely responsible for their guests. Notice the active, intensive, causative language throughout the psalm. Verse two, he makes me lie down. He leads me beside still waters. Verse three, He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness. Verse five, He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Verse six, His goodness and steadfast love pursue me. Do you see the language? It's the language of active initiative, of strength, of leadership, of intentional care. It's the language of entire and absolute responsibility. And here in verse five, we see that in the image of a host serving a meal on a battlefield. The picture is quite surreal, isn't it? David is seated at a table on the battlefield and God comes and he spreads the tablecloth over the table. And then he anoints him with oil. And then he hands him a cup of red wine that is so full that it's spilling over. It's a picture of serene refreshment and abundant provision in the midst of fierce battle. And just as it was in the valley with God as his shepherd, David need not fear any evil. So now on the battlefield with God as his host, David need not fear any enemy because here is the Lord with him in the battle, whining and dining him. I think for us, this could be a timely meal with friends and family in the midst of a hard time. You know, when you enjoy fellowship with friends or family over a meal and you come away with your spirits lifted and feeling re-energized to go back into the battle. I still remember the meal at the church after Layla's burial. Nobody wanted to leave. There we were feasting in the midst of our enemy death. But more specifically, I think the meal here is really about being in church and feasting at the Lord's table. As we sojourn through this pilgrimage, fighting our enemies, The Lord hosts us in a house, a temporary building like this. He winds and dines us, refreshing us for the battle as we make our way to the celestial city above to dwell in His house forever. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He refreshes us in life's battles. He provides for our needs. He restores us to righteousness. He comforts us in the face of any evil. He refreshes us in our battles. And number five, He pursues us all the way home. He pursues us all the way home, verse six. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The word follow here is a bit of a soft translation. It's better rendered pursue. Now just think what pursues sheep in dark valleys. wild beasts. Think about what pursues David on a battlefield, fierce enemies. But look what will pursue David all his life ultimately, goodness and mercy. Spurgeon said that the goodness and mercy here are like two guardian angels following us through life and protecting us on the way to the celestial city. It's a beautiful picture, but it's not quite right. Goodness and mercy are not two angels of God. They're two attributes of God. And since God is his own attributes, then what David is saying here is that it is God who pursues us all the way home. God is goodness. God is mercy, steadfast love. And so it is God who is pursuing us. There's something even more profound here if we take notice of that little word that begins verse six, surely or only. Most English translations connect it to the verb follow or pursue, carrying an intensive sense. Goodness and mercy will surely follow us all the days of our life. That is certainly true. But it's better to see this word connected to goodness and mercy carrying a restrictive sense. Only goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives. Which means that there is something profound being said here by David. Because in verse four, we heard that we encounter evil in the valley, but we need not fear it. And now in verse six, we hear that only goodness and mercy will pursue us, even in the valley of deathly darkness. Which means that our encounters with evil, with the Ra, Our experiences of tragedy in deathly darkness are only ever God pursuing us with His goodness and steadfast love, leading us all the way home. Of course, that does not mean that the evil is not evil. It is evil. And death is always an enemy. but God uses it as part of His goodness and steadfast love toward us to lead us home. All God's ways with us, in all of His ways with us, God is only ever pursuing us with goodness and steadfast love. The morning in the hospital, when we found out that Leila had died. A great evil and deathly darkness descended upon us. Nine months in her mother's womb, there we could see her face perfectly on the ultrasound scan, and then the words, I'm sorry, there is no heartbeat. We could hear death's victory cry snatching our daughter away from us. And in that moment, the words of a hymn attributed to John Calvin came to me. It was the second verse of, I greet thee whom I sure Redeemer art. Thou art the King of mercy and of grace, reigning omnipotent in every place. In that moment, I knew that God was reigning omnipotent in every place. The Lord gives and the Lord takes. But was he the king of mercy and of grace in that moment? That was the question. Was he good? Was he steadfast love? Have you ever asked that question in your encounter with the Ra, with evil, in your experience of the valley of deathly darkness? Have you ever asked that question? Is God good? Is He loving? It's okay to ask the question. I was led to the answer in the fourth verse of that hymn. Thou hast the true and perfect gentleness. No harshness hast thou, and no bitterness. Make us to taste the sweet grace found in thee, and ever stay in thy sweet unity. Because of our daughter, Layla, we have never longed for heaven more." That was God's grace to us. That was His goodness to us. Brothers and sisters, in all His ways with us, God is never harsh. He is never bitter. He is only ever perfectly gentle and good and loving. I know that's not easy to hear. It's not a truth that you come to quickly. It has taken Jackie and I many years to accept it. But we have seen that it is indeed true. In all His ways with us, God is good and He only ever does good. God is love and He only ever does love. It's a bit like the moon. Boys and girls, you know when you look up at the night sky, you don't often see the whole moon, do you? Sometimes it's a crescent moon or a half moon or a gibbous moon, a three-quarters moon. But what shape is the moon always? The moon is always round, even when you can't see all of it. And God is always good. He is always steadfast love, even when we can't see all of it. Even in the dark valley of evil and death, He is pursuing us with goodness and steadfast love, leading us all the way home. And that's where we're heading. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Psalm 27 verse four, David writes, one thing have I asked of the Lord that I will seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. Brothers and sisters, that is what life is all about. That's where we're heading. As C.S. Lewis would say, we're just down here playing in the shadow lands while we wait for our real home in the heavenly lands. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He pursues us all the way home. He provides for our needs. He restores us to righteousness. He comforts us in the face of any evil. He refreshes us in our battles. And He pursues us all the way home. In closing, I want to look again briefly at verse four, for you are with me. It's the 10th line of 20 lines of poetry in this Psalm. It's the heart of the Psalm, and the question is, how is God with us in this Psalm? Well, David has made that clear. He is with us as a shepherd and a host. Psalm 23 is an Emmanuel Psalm. We might even say it is an Emmanuel incarnate Sam because God comes to us in this Sam in the form of two human figures, a shepherd and a host. God comes to us in this Sam in the form of a man. God comes to us in this Sam in Jesus Christ, the good shepherd, the servant host, We see this in the Gospels. Remember when Jesus hosted a banquet in the countryside for 5,000 people? Do you remember how he described the people like sheep without a shepherd? He was in a boat, and there he was watching these people walking across the hillside dressed in white. What would they look like? They looked like sheep without a shepherd. Why were they without the shepherd? Because the shepherd was in the boat. And he got out of the boat. And we read that he made them sit down in green grass. And then he fed them with more food than they needed. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters Here was God, the shepherd host incarnate. But he didn't just feed crowds as a shepherd host. He also laid down his life for his sheep. He also died for his guests. In John 10, Jesus described himself as the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep in the presence of wolves. In John 13, Jesus hosted a meal, and then He got down on His knees and washed the feet of His guests as the servant host. And then the next day, as a shepherd host, He encountered a great evil. He entered a valley of deathly darkness. And in that valley of pitch darkness, He did not say, "'For you are with me,' Rather, he cried as a man in deathly darkness, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? In the pitch darkness, Jesus cried a cry of abandonment. In battle with his enemies, he said, I thirst. His cup did not overflow. As our shepherd host, he hung alone, ashamed, thirsty in the pitch darkness so that his sheep, his guests would never be alone, ashamed or thirsty in the pitch darkness of hell. And this is why he really can restore our souls. This is why we don't need to fear any evil. This is why we really will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Because Jesus, our shepherd host, experienced the evil and darkness and death of God's wrath on our behalf. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. It's what that little Scottish shepherd boy knew the night he faced the evil of that snow blizzard as the deathly darkness descended upon him. That little boy never returned home to his grandfather's house because that night, Jesus came, picked him up like a shepherd would pick up his little lamb, and he took him home. to His heavenly Father's house. And that's what Jesus will do for each one of us one day as death approaches. If our faith is in Him, He will come as our shepherd, and He will pick us up, and He will take us home. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Father, as wayward, hungry, lost sheep, we pray that you would use this morning to draw us back to yourself. Prone to wonder, Lord, we feel it. Prone to leave the God we love. Please Father, draw us back to yourself and in the midst of the valley of deathly darkness where we do encounter evil at times, would you remind us that you are indeed our great good shepherd who is with us in that valley. and that only goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life until you bring us to that celestial city to dwell in your house forevermore. Amen.