I ask you to open your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 12, and then we will be looking for Old Testament reading in the book of Psalms 23. So please stand for the reading of God's Word. We'll be looking at Luke, chapter 12, verses 22 to 34. And then again, for our Old Testament reading, we'll be reading Psalm 23. So Luke 12, starting in verse 22. Then he said to his disciples, therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, nor about the body, what you will put on. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, and they neither gather storehouses nor barn, and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? And which of you, by worrying, can add one cubit to his stature? If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. And yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith? Do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink. nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your father knows that you need them. But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. Do not fear, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell what you have and give alms. Provide yourselves money bags that you do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Now looking in the Old Testament, Psalm 23, a familiar one to all of us, but one good to revisit. Hear God's word, Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want He makes me to lie down in green pastures, and he leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake. Yea, 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. Prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen. I thought long and hard about the prospect of a sermon on Psalm 23, probably the most familiar passage to everyone, Christian and non-Christian alike, barring only John 3.16. But as I thought about it, especially in light of recent events, it's a good place to be, a good thing to consider. And I've also realized that as we grow more and more familiar with something, sometimes our knowledge of it can be shrouded, can be covered, even in that familiarity. We think we know something until we go revisit it again. Those of you who have been married for some time, you may say that sometimes it's like you're getting to know your wife or your husband again and again and again and continually. So I hope that as we look at this very familiar passage, you will have open hearts and minds to seek for something not necessarily new, but a reminder of those good and treasurable things that we already know. My son Nate has just recently come through a stage in his life where he just realized what it means to go to bed in the dark. For most of his life he wasn't afraid of the dark when Katie or I would close the door and leave, but just recently he began to notice that the dark can be a little bit scary. And some of you children can probably give him a hearty amen when I say that. But it's been our practice to teach him, and hopefully eventually our new little one, Zach, we've been teaching him the Psalms. And the first one we taught him was this Psalm, Psalm 23. We were left with the decision, as we've been teaching him Psalms and dealing with this whole thing with him sleeping, that we could either leave the light on, which would typically distract him and keep him awake, or we'd have to turn the light off and help him deal with his fear. And one night, a couple of months ago, I was walking out of the room, and he says, Daddy, I don't need to be scared. The Lord is my shepherd. And that wasn't something completely new to him. I'd been teaching him that. But it was a connection that even my little two-year-old was able to make, this basic truth, this basic precious truth from Christianity that we don't need to be afraid. We have a God we can trust because he is our shepherd. And even in light of this past week, we have seen tremendous political upheaval. We've seen our embassies being attacked throughout the world. We've seen intense hatred toward America, not because America is America, but because they see America as a Christian nation. Ultimately, their aggression and their anger is against the cross, is against the Lord Jesus Christ and his kingdom. We have elections approaching in November. We have a lot going on in this world and you're left with the question of what to do in the midst of all this uncertainty. What this psalm tells you and pleads for you to do is to consider and to understand that the Lord is your shepherd. It asks you the question, do you really trust the Lord? David most likely penned this psalm in his older years as he sat and he reflected upon all the work that God had done in his life. God had taken him, 2 Samuel says, out of the sheepfolds, away from his flock in order to tend the flock of Israel, in order to be the shepherd of his people. And as some of you older saints probably know, the older you get, the more you understand that the basic, simple truths of Christianity are those which are most precious. Forgiveness, love, faith, and trust. And here David, as he has penned many psalms that are before this psalm, he's referred to God as his rock, he's referred to God as his shield, his strength, his deliverer, his redeemer. Here in Psalm 23 is the most intimate of names given to the Lord thus far. The Lord is my shepherd. So as we consider this psalm, it's my hope and prayer that we will see that the Lord, your shepherd, is the trustworthy source of all that his sheep need. The Lord as your shepherd is the trustworthy source of all that you need as you are his sheep. Verses 1 through 3 will consider that the Lord, our shepherd, is our tender and gracious provider. Look again at verse 1 as he begins, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me by still waters. The Lord first shows David and David acknowledges that the first thing that he receives is contentment. The Lord is our provider, provides contentment. He says at the beginning, I will not want, I shall not want, I shall not lack. There will be nothing that I need in my life that will not be there. This word here is used in Psalm 34 when it says that young lions suffer lack, but those who trust in the Lord shall never see want. Those who trust in the Lord shall never see one. And in Jeremiah, interestingly, he says that those people, those rebellious people of Israel who had been worshiping and giving homage to the queen of heaven and idol, never knew what it was like not to have lack. What David is talking about here is that because the Lord is his shepherd, he knows that everything he needs for life and for godliness, everything he could ever desire as one of God's sheep will be given to him. He's content. And what is contentment? Contentment is a rare thing in our day, especially in our country. Contentment, the negative aspect, is that there's an absence. One who is content, there is an absence of the striving and the pursuing of all the things of this life. There's no need to be constantly running on the treadmill of this life, seeking after the things that will perish. But positively, then, there's a quiet and restful satisfaction. There's a quiet and restful satisfaction, but there is a reason that this is stated here, that David says, I shall not want here. This is an interesting order to this. He goes on in this psalm to talk about the things that God has done for him. He leads him, he guides him, he prepares for him, he protects him, he blesses him with his presence. But the first thing he says is not that I shall not want because of all that God does for me. He says he has contentment he shall not want because of who God is to me. He blesses God first for who he is, for the relationship that he has with him, the relationship of shepherd and sheep. And so he begins there, not from what he receives, but from who God is. So God provides contentment. The Lord also provides care. You look in verse 2, it says, He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. You see here, the purpose isn't so much grass and water. Although if you were a sheep, that's all you could ever desire. The purpose here is that God, the Lord, the shepherd, leads David, leads his sheep to these things. He brings him to this place of rich abundance. He brings him in the midst of this desert world, in the midst of the hot Middle East. This shepherd is guiding and leading him to this place of grassy abundance, rest, and quiet It was difficult in that day to find good shepherds. The problem was shepherds had a lot of freedom, a lot of leeway. They would have to take the flock and go away from the master's place for some time, finding good pasture. And a bad shepherd would not seek those things out. A bad shepherd wouldn't strive, he wouldn't work hard to take care of the sheep. What we see is that the character of the Lord here is that he is seeking and leading us to places of abundance. And also, as you see in the imagery with the water, not necessarily still waters, but really waters of rest, a place of rest. Everything that we could need as His sheep, abundance and rest He gives us. He provides us with that care. In Psalm 95, it talks about how the rebellious people of Israel would not enter into the Lord's rest. Rest is a blessing. Just as much as the abundance of being fed from God's hand is a blessing, so also is the rest that He gives us. And even as we speak, we're enjoying that rest that's been purchased for us. We're enjoying as we're remembering and celebrating the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and we're being able to rest and buy up the good things that He has given for us. It's a difficulty. It's a struggle in our day to rest and really step back from the world. I would encourage us today to make sure that you guard your Lord's days. Guard them. Keep them. Not so much as running away from things that you shouldn't do, but a focused pursuit on the things that you should do. And I would in particular say to all of you and us who are in school, from the youngest to the oldest of us, that you would set aside that work, that you would set it aside and be able to relax and focus upon your Lord and your God. Rest is a good thing that he has given us, and you can see that it comes from the heart of God as your shepherd. So he provides contentment, he provides care, but thirdly, he provides, and almost most importantly, for our growth in grace. Look at verse three, he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. When the scriptures talk to us as sheep, We often look at that as a cute picture, as something that's interesting. Sheep are so cute and cuddly and innocent, but they're actually very dumb. They're dumb animals. They're defenseless. They have no way of protecting themselves. They need the shepherd. They're easily bullied, easily manipulated. And so we need a Lord, we need a shepherd who is one who is in the business of restoring, one who is in the business of bringing back and correcting. And here he says, David says, he restores my soul. He had lived this, David had. He had fallen into great sin in his life. He had done many things. And in his psalm of repentance, he wrote, He prayed and cried out to God, restore to me the joy of my salvation. Bring back to me that great life that I once knew. Fellowship with you. Our God as our shepherd is a restoring God. You wander, but he will bring you back. And he doesn't just bring you back and leave you. He doesn't correct you gruffly and leave you on the way. But then he guides you and he leads you. And he says that I will lead you in paths of righteousness. After bringing us back, he puts us on the right path, but then he guides us to the right end. The right path to the right end. What's the purpose? What's the purpose of all this? Have you ever thought? Anis Zaka preached in chapel this past week, and he says that he would think in the morning, sitting and asking, why me? Why has God set his love upon me? And I ask you, why you? Why does God lead you in the right paths? Why does God restore your soul? Why does God restore you when you sin? Why does he bring me back into the right path? For what purpose? It's for his name's sake. God works all of these things out for His namesake, and it's amazing how often, as you're reading through the Scriptures, that that simple and broad principle of the first question of the Catechism comes out. We live, we're created, our chief end is to glorify God, to enjoy Him forever. And here again, He's saying, listen, my sheep, I restore you. I bring you back to live a life of godliness and holiness, not for your sake, not for your end, but for my name's sake, for His glory, for our good. God is zealous. The Lord is zealous for His own glory. And if we could grasp this, if we could understand how zealous God is and how much he loves his glory and how much he loves to see his children walking in that way for his namesake, it would change our lives. You don't exist for yourself. Children, you don't exist for yourselves. Parents, you don't exist for yourselves. You exist for one another. You exist to build up the body of Christ and you exist ultimately to glorify God as he is enthroned in heaven. And Isaiah, the Lord says, for my name's sake, I will defer my anger. And for my praise, I will restrain it from you, so that I do not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver. I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I will do it. For how should my name be profaned? And I will not give my glory to another. The Lord is our provider. As our shepherd, he is our tender and gracious provider, giving us the things that we need and leading us in the right path to the right end. But secondly, the Lord as our shepherd is our firm protector. There's a very imbalanced perspective of God in this world. There are some who think of God as this squishy, careless, immoral, or amoral, I should say, entity, where he doesn't care about right and wrong. And there are some who project God as being this harsh and terrible dictator. But neither is right. Here we see in perfect balance the perfection of God's character. Not only is He able to be your tender and gracious guide and provider, but He is your firm and fierce protector. Look in verse 4 and 5. He says, Yea, 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. Our protection in the Lord, the protection that we enjoy from Him, comes firmly and squarely from his presence. I would have you notice first, though, that as David leaves off in Psalm, in verse three, he says, you lead me in paths of righteousness for your namesake. Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Yes, though I walk through death's dark shadow, the valley of deep shadow. Do you see that this valley of deep shadow is not divorced from the path of righteousness? It is there that God will often lead his people. He is present with his people in affliction. And it's often in affliction. It's often when we are in that valley of dark shadow. It's often when we are in our lowest points and our darkest points that it's then that we realize most poignantly, most clearly that the Lord is with us and he is there. And you see that the blessing here primarily is the presence. Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for, because, the reason I am not afraid is because you are with me. This is the simple phrase, you are with me, that is the sum total of all of the gospel and covenant blessings of the scriptures. The whole story of the scripture is written to show us how God is bringing a people back to himself. After Adam and Eve sinned and they were cast out of the garden, God guarded the way back to himself with an angel with a flaming sword. The people of Israel couldn't approach him on the mountain, only Moses could. The people of Israel couldn't approach him in the tabernacle or the temple, only the high priest once a year could. And yet God dwelt with His people, but at a distance. And now we enjoy a fuller presence. We enjoy Him being with us. We must understand that this is a covenant and rich blessing. And also, I would encourage you to think about this in your prayers. In our prayer meetings, I hear often this said, Lord, thank you for so-and-so. Be with them as they travel. Be with them as he goes through this. Be with him or her as she is recovering from illness. And we say that, and it rolls off our tongue very quickly and easily. But think about it. When we pray, when we ask the God of holiness, the God who is the creator of the world, the Lord God Almighty to be with someone, what are we asking? We're asking holiness to dwell with sinfulness. We're asking the infinite God to dwell with finite man. This is a tremendous request, but one that he is delighted to grant. And so the next time you pray and you ask God to make his presence known to someone, remember that what you're asking is a glorious thing, not one to be thought of cheaply. Yet in the midst of this, there is a great benefit to God's presence. And David says, when I'm here, because you're with me, I will not fear. When I was a child in Canada and then in Colorado, these thunderstorms would often roll in in the afternoons, and they terrified me. Children, have you ever been scared of a thunderstorm or something? What's your first reaction? What do you do? After I got done hiding under a table or something like that, I would often run to my parents, run to mom or run to dad. But why is it? What can mom or dad do to protect you from a fierce thunderstorm, from an earthquake or something like that? What can they do? They can't do much, but there's something comforting about their presence. But remember that your God, your Lord, your shepherd, It's more powerful than any storm. It's more powerful than any force. It's more powerful than any army that man can put together. And thus, because of that, you shall not fear. But there are a lot of people who do fear, a lot of people who live in fear of what may happen tomorrow, in fear of how they're going to make ends meet, in fear of how you'll provide for your family, in fear of what's going to happen after November. We do not have to fear, Christian, you do not have to fear, because the Lord is with you and the Lord is your shepherd. But God is present with his people, he is present And he exercises his presence, and he protects them by ruling and defending them. If you look at the second half of verse four, he says, for you're with me, and your rod and your staff, they comfort me. These two weapons, as it were, these two instruments that God has, the rod for destroying his enemies, the rod for correcting and guiding his sheep and his people. You see, God is fierce against the enemies of his people, but God is gentle and firm. Do you ever push against the rod of God as it's extended to you? The shepherd's crook as it's reached out to you to pull you back? Do you kick against that? Remember that when God's rod is applied to you, often in the way of an elder coming to you and exhorting you about sin, or a friend coming and pointing to you a fault, or a parent coming to you and trying to correct you, The rod of God, the rod of that discipline, is intended for your protection, not for you to kick against. You kick against the rod of God. So we see the blessing of His presence and the protection, but you see it results in something as well. God's protective presence results in our peace. Look at verse 5. He says, You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil and my cup runs over. No one sits down and eats in the presence of their enemies. I read a story about a soldier in Vietnam, and they fought for some 30 hours in a row. And one of the hardest things that they had to deal with was that they weren't able to eat. They weren't able to take time in their foxhole to get down and cram down some of the horrible food that the army would give them. They didn't have time to sleep. What fool would sit and eat in the presence of his enemies? It's the fool that God has said, I will protect you. I am here. He brings us to the table. He lavishes us with gifts. He gives us the things that we need. He anoints us then with that oil of gladness. We're honored guests at his table. He welcomes us with joy and he fills our cup to overflowing. All of this happening in the presence of the Lord before the enemies that are helpless to do anything against him. And this cup is full to overflowing. In Psalm 66, it talks about how God will bring his people through affliction and destruction. He says, the psalmist here says, you have caused men to ride over our heads. We went through fire and through water, but you brought us out to rich fulfillment. And that word, rich fulfillment, or your Bibles may say rich abundance, it's the same word here for overflowing. The picture is that you have a cup that has a full portion. The cup is often a picture of someone's lot, someone's condition, and experience, the experience that God gives them in this life. And our cup is full, and it flows over. It's one of rich abundance. But I would remind you that the reason your cup is full, the reason your cup is full is because Jesus' cup is emptied. Jesus took the wrath of God in His cup and He drank it to the dregs. He emptied it. He bore it. He bore it in his person, and he did it so that your cup could be full. He came not to destroy, not to steal as thieves do, but he came to give life and to give it abundantly, and so your cup runs over in its presence. Our shepherd is a glorious shepherd. He is our provider, our firm protector, and lastly, the Lord our shepherd is also our faithful preserver. He is our faithful preserver. You see, he prefers though, he preserves his people, as you'll see in verse six, he preserves his people by pursuing them. Verse six says, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. God's pursuit of his people is sure. It won't be turned. And it's his goodness, the goodness of his person that follows after you, his covenant mercy, his faithfulness that will pursue you. He lavishes these good things, and it comes after you all your days. And this pursuit is relentless. When I was in high school, there was a girl who had a crush on me for some reason, and I sought to avoid her at all costs. I didn't want to see her. I sought to avoid her in the hallways, but she continued to come after me. And I hated it. I wanted to escape from it. Do you do that with the pursuing, relentless love of God? Does the overwhelming power of His passion make you step back? Do you resist it? You see, this word here for follow, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me is used often in the scriptures in the Old Testament as one of military pursuit. It's the word used when Abraham gathered his men together and pursued those wicked kings that abducted Lot. It's the word used when Joshua and his armies would pursue the enemies of God and destroy them. The pursuit of God. is a glorious thing, and it's a comforting thing, because as we talked about earlier, he's restoring. When you go off the path, he will pursue you and bring you back, and so it's comforting. But on the other hand, I offer you a caution, because just as I avoided pursuing passion of one person, if you continually push aside the pursuing passion of the Lord, if you despise it, if you don't treasure it, if you don't value it, It may turn out that you're not a sheep at all, but actually a goat, one not worth pursuing by the good shepherd. I ask you, what do you do with that pursuing love of God, the faithfulness of God as it comes after you? Does it make you uncomfortable? Do you seek to avoid it? Do you turn and embrace it and love it? He pursues his people. But then he also preserves his people to an everlasting hope. The last part of verse six says, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. David was not allowed to build the temple. David was a man of blood. And so Nathan via the Lord through Nathan said, you're not going to build my house. One from your loins will build your house. David had the tabernacle, but David knew. But the tabernacle wasn't the end. He knew that wasn't really the true dwelling place of God. That wasn't where he was going to dwell forever. The Levites, although they ministered in the temple, they knew that that wasn't where they were going to spend all of their days. David knew that the pursuing love of God, his shepherd-like character as he came after him, would lead him. Be his rear guard all the way through this life and bring him to the true promised land. Bring him to that true city whose builder and maker is God. And that's what the Lord does for you. That's what he does for us, is that he leads us and guides us through the barrenness of this world, leading us to the next. It's a glorious thing. And there's a beautiful picture of the fulfillment of this, as John sees it in the book of Revelation. The saints are entering their rest and John is talking to this angel and he shows him a group of people. He says this, listen, therefore they are before the throne of God and they serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore. The sun shall not strike them nor any heat. For the lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to the living fountains of waters and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Psalm 23 fulfilled by the shepherd, the good shepherd being the lamb. the shepherd laying down his life as the sacrificial lamb for his people, to bring them to himself, to guide them into that place where they can drink the everlasting, the living water. This is our end. So we see the good character of God, the Lord, our shepherd. There are three things I want you to consider. First, do you ever fall into that category of worrier, or one who is anxious, or one who is fearful? Do you worry about things incessantly? Are you always anxious? Anxious of where the next bit of income is going to come from? Anxious about what's going to happen? Anxious about the political world? Worrisome? Fearful? Are you afraid of death? You don't need to be afraid of death. And that anxiety that you may deal with, It's often looked at as tolerable, something that we just do. But there's a command in the New Testament that tells us otherwise. It says to be anxious for nothing, but instead we ought to pray. Many of us know that passage, but there's interesting before that command, it's a great statement where it says, let your gentleness be known to all men. Why? The Lord is at hand. The presence of the Lord The knowledge of His character and His grace in your life ought to keep you from anxiety and keep you from worry. Those of you in seminary, those of you who are without jobs, those of you who are scraping to get things by, myself included, this is a call to all of us not to worry, not to live our lives in anxiety, burdened and shackled by those things, but to trust, to know that the Lord will give you the good things that you need because He's your shepherd. I also exhort all of you preparing for the ministry, all of you who are fathers and mothers, those who lead people. You look at this psalm and you see the reflection that it is of the character of God. This is the kind of man that God would have in his ministry, that the Lord would have working in his flock. There's a great reward for that, a shepherd-hearted man going into the pastorate, a shepherd-hearted father caring for his children, leading them to these things, the shepherd-hearted mother nurturing her children. But in particular, I'd look, I'd call you men who are preparing for the ministry. There is a great reward, as Peter says in 1 Peter 5, where he says, to shepherd the flock of God so that when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of life that does not fade away. But I also caution you that there is, there is a special place in hell for false shepherds, for those who would creep into the flock and use God's people for their own gain, to lead them astray, to steal from them. If you don't believe me, read Exodus or Ezekiel 34, where these shepherds were abusing the flock. using them for their own gain, letting them get skinny and fat while terrorizing them in other places, running from them. This is the heart that God would have you have as you lead His people, either in the church or fathers and mothers in your family. This is a reflection of the heart of God. But then the last thing I would have you consider is as we talked about the sheep, We talked about what a sheep is like, the aptitude of a sheep. They're not very smart animals. They're not independent animals. Sheep are solely dependent upon the Lord. There's no such thing as a self-sufficient sheep. There's no such thing as a sheep that trusts in himself. Do you trust in yourself? I'd consider, or I'd encourage you to look again through this psalm and look at all the words that are used. There's not a single plural pronoun used. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me by still water. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord. Is the Lord your shepherd? Do you push against him, seeking to sustain yourself, trusting in yourself? Or have you embraced him fully and lovingly and trustingly given yourself to him as your faithful shepherd? David did this. He knew what it meant. I call you to do the same because it is then that we are led in the path of righteousness, then that we live a life for God's namesake. For our Lord is our shepherd and our glorious King. Amen. Let's pray. Father, it's a simple, and familiar truth. But as we consider the precious words of this psalm, the beautiful window that it is into your character, that you who are holy and righteous above all things, that you would care to shepherd your people, shepherd us, people who are prone to wandering, prone to going astray, prone to despising your pursuing love. Father, we thank you that you are a good and patient shepherd. I pray for the fathers and the mothers that leave their children that they would care for them as such. I pray for those here preparing for the ministry that they would seek to have hearts that are after this chief shepherd, our Lord. Thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, the good shepherd who laid his life down for the sheep. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.