Father God, thank you again for bringing us here this morning. Thank you for an opportunity to study your word, especially this awesome psalm, Psalm 23. Father, we ask that you would open our eyes and give us ears to hear your word and that may go in and change our hearts and help us to be like Christ. It's in his name we pray, amen. All right, so Psalm 23 again as we're continuing on through our study using David Gibson's book, The Lord of Psalm 23. And what's interesting is this week we go to part two. I told you there were three parts we were going to study. And the first part was the sheep and the shepherd. And that focused on the shepherd's provision for his sheep. And we're going to start now going into part two, which is the traveler and the companion, is how we're naming it. And we're going to see that the shepherd helps us not to fear as he leads us. Now we're not going to completely get away from the sheep and shepherd view. We're going to see in verse 5 that the rod and the staff certainly continues to indicate that David continues this metaphor of a sheep and a shepherd. But our focus is going to shift to the shepherd as our companion. And we're gonna see like we're gonna get this idea of that from this this one part of the verse right after verse 4 That is for you are with me, and if you look at the Hebrew As well as ours you see it's almost that verse that that line for you are with me is located exactly in the center of our psalm and so while this verse is sung along a particular road of this psalm is sung along a particular road that the sheep are taking the emphasis is is not that they ever walk this path alone. And so it's another one of those comforts in this psalm that we're gonna see. So let's read the psalm again, and then we're gonna delve into basically how he leads, which is the title of what we're talking about. All right, so Psalm 23. 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 the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. And then we shift, this is what we're gonna be studying this morning. We're gonna be looking at this line. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. And here's our middle line, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. And then the third section here, you prepare a table for 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. So again we're going to be looking at the first part of verse 4 this morning and how he leads. And of course the first two words in that are even though, and we're going to get to what David's talking about as he shifts here. And what's interesting to note is the sheep in this verse, we're seeing the sheep are now moving. Before we were lying down, we were being restored, now the sheep are on the move. All right, and so what we're gonna see is kind of a theological surprise of how David moves from paths of righteousness to this valley. And so we see these two words, even though, which is signaling us that something ahead is gonna have this major theological surprise and shift for us, and it's gonna provide us with kind of a comfort of understanding. But the journey that we might expect, if you looked at verse three, versus where we actually end up in verse four is a little different. In our familiarity, if we rush over it, we kind of miss this surprising shift in theological terminology, so to speak. We're going to see a definite change from paths of righteousness that we would expect to follow on, and these green pastures and still waters, and all of a sudden we're in this valley. What's kind of interesting is Psalm 23 is a very popular psalm, not only in church settings, but also in the secular world. And so when we look at this, we see it read a lot in Christian and non-Christian funerals. And William Holiday has a quote that I want to read you. He's quoted by Gibson in here. They kind of explain Psalm 23 this, you know, why it is so popular among even secular settings, especially secular funerals. And he says this about Psalm 23 and why it's so popular among non-believers. He says this, Psalm 23 is short and therefore it's easily memorized. It is undemanding. It does not mention sin or suggest the appropriateness of participating in any ecclesiastical community. It simply seems to affirm that God accompanies the speaker and takes care of him or her. It is a psalm that can be used in public context, acceptable to both Jews and Christians, and giving no offense to anyone. When we look at that, we say, all right, well, what's the significance of that? And I think the problem is that you see that the psalm, if you just brush through it, it's easy to look at it and say it's not a big deal. I'm being taken care of. And so we would certainly say that it's true that God does accompany and take care of people in a general sense. And especially in our current culture of religious sentimentality, this is quite appealing to people. But as we look closer at the psalm, we're gonna be surprised to see how God accompanies the sheep as he moves them along the right path in verse three and leading us into verse four into the valley path. And so the theological surprise or shift in the psalm is this. And this is where a lot of the secular people kind of miss it when they kind of have this general feeling of how God cares for them. So for God's sheep, the good shepherd's path of righteousness sometimes includes the valley of the shadow of death. And so we're moving from this beginning where we're at green pastures, still waters, and paths of righteousness, and you think, wow, this is great, this is awesome. And then he says, even though, and you see David shifting here, and now he's talking about this path of the valley of the shadow of death. And so if we find ourselves in this valley of deep darkness, which all of us will eventually in our lives, or some of you already may have, what we want to understand and what David's trying to point to us is that the reason why we're there is because God's led us there. And this is kind of the shift that we see here. So if I find myself in that deep darkness, it's because he's led me there. So what we need to understand is the shepherd's still leading in verse four. It isn't as if we got lost and we ended up in the valley. What we need to understand that that word, those two words, even though are pointing to the fact that it is the shepherd that is actually leading us here. And so we see in verse five that our companion has a rod and a staff, which indicates he's still shepherding us, but look where we are. We're in the valley. So it's unwise for us to assume as many do that we have a shepherd who leads us to peace and tranquility, but has no say over how the sheep come to find themselves in the threatening valley. And so Being in the valley does not mean that we have left the paths of righteousness. We haven't left the right paths, which is a little surprising when you think about it. And this is, we're gonna be talking this morning about what this means, this valley, the shadow of death, and how it should be a comfort. Even though it's kind of scary to think about it, there's a comfort in this psalm that's pointing to the fact that you as sheep are not off the path of righteousness just because you find yourself in the valley of the shadow of death. And so, in fact, the right paths that the Lord leads us on are sometimes located in those valleys and in those deep darknesses. And so this is how our shepherd leads us. It's not this everything's perfect. You know, we don't subscribe to this idea that we have this prosperity gospel that the Lord is always going to be giving you everything for your happiness. Remember, what's he most concerned about? your holiness. And He's moving you in a particular way on these paths of righteousness, and sometimes He's leading us through that valley, and He's actually taking us right there for our own good. So we see that this, even though that David says in the beginning of this verse, he's indicating that he understands how the shepherd leads. He understands that there's times where he's going to be in that Valley and that's, it's going to be difficult. Uh, but he's not fearful cause the shepherds with him and he knows the shepherds, the one that took him there. So we're going to take a little, a little deeper dive into what this Valley of the shadow of death looks like. So let's take a look at this. So we are surprised at this shift in the psalm because we got to reckon with this terrible intensity of this image of the valley of death that dominates that verse with those green pastures and right paths. So let's take a look at this. So the word valley is pretty straightforward in its interpretation. It's the second part, the shadow of death, that we want to look at a little more detail. So when you get into these three words, it's used in other places in the Bible, and it describes a deep darkness. It's kind of like a place of no return. It describes death. We're moving away from light and warmth. It's indicating that we're moving away from that into this darkness. And it really is a perfect metaphor for death's encroachment on our lives. Death sends its shadow ahead of time. It always is there. And sometimes as believers, or as believers, we should realize that from birth, we're always in the presence of death. It's just that most of us That shadow hasn't gotten over us yet. And the sun is so high in our lives, so to speak, that we're not aware of death's shadow. The older I get, the more I'm aware of it. And you that are older than me probably feel the same way. It's like, wow, life is getting short, you know, when you start looking ahead. Do I have 50 more years? Nope. And so you're like, wow, I can remember the last 50 years. And I'm thinking, hmm, OK. So you have this idea that death is always kind of coming around. It's always there. As a matter of fact, we are always in the process of literally dying. And so God gives us this, I think, in a very particular way. And sometimes it might take a valley or the first sight of death's shadow, especially if you're young people, to remind us that we are always moving toward this appointment with death. and so So let's take a look at this in a little more Detail and we're gonna go all the way back to the garden and take a look at this shadow of death So we remember that God gave Adam his prohibition, right? He said you can eat of any tree in the garden But don't eat of the tree of knowledge of the good and evil and then he gives this warning or you will surely die That's in Genesis 2 17 But yet we know they didn't die They kept on living, right? It was like, okay, what did that mean? So let's take a look at this dying thing a little bit deeper. Um, what we need to really understand is when he said they were going to die, there was a spiritual death as well as a physical death. The spiritual death happens almost, it happened immediately, but the physical death didn't, but they were definitely because of their rebellion. It put them on a one way journey to an appointment with death. None of us escape it. The only way any of us are gonna escape it is if Jesus comes back while we're still living. All of us are going to go through this process of dying. And that's that one-way ticket because of sin that puts us there. And so I wanna read a Calvin quote that he talks about in this Genesis where he kinda has a really nice summary about this. He says, the miseries and evils both of soul and body with which man is beset so long as he is on the earth are a kind of entrance into death till death itself absorbs him. From the moment of Adam's fall, death begins to reign in him. So you can see that he's pointing back and saying, you know, they did indeed die. And it's always there with us, especially as we get older or we're in a valley, we feel its presence in a very palpable way. And I think David is recognizing that and trying to encourage us through it in this psalm. And so the thing that we also recognize in this prohibition is death comes and was introduced into the world by God himself. The curse of death in the world is God's curse, is what Gibson says. It's kind of like what Luther said about the devil. He said the devil's God's devil. So let's unpack that a little bit. What are they talking about here when we say it's God's curse and God's devil? What those guys are pointing to is God is sovereign over his creation. There's nothing that goes on in his creation that he is not sovereignly over. And so even in this introduction of death into his creation, or the devil himself in this creation, it is God's doing. And so sometimes we kind of wrestle with this hardness of understanding that God is in control and there's still bad things that happen. And a lot of times you'll see atheists be like, I don't believe in God because there's bad things that happen in the world, so therefore there's no God. As if God is nothing but a grandfatherly, jolly Santa Claus in the sky, more interested in your happiness than your holiness. But God's not surprised by these things, and this is what we're gonna talk about in a second, this is what we call a big God theology. And so when we look at this idea of God's sovereignty, it should give us a confidence, especially when we're in these difficult times, when we're walking through that dark valley. If God is not in control, you should be terrified. But knowing that God is in control should give you confidence that it's his valley. He's the shepherd. He put me there. And then I can take confidence that whatever happens to me, even if I don't like it, he's doing for my good. And so we're going to unpack that a little bit more here. God's the one rule in the world. It's not the devil. It's not the evil that's in the world. He's in control perfectly. And we got to recognize to deny God's sovereignty is to really lose our hope. And it's also to damage the character of God. When we don't believe in God's sovereignty over all things, it puts us in that place of, well, then who is in charge? And then it also, it denies his power. He's the creator, we're the creation. He's in control. And this moves us to what I call this big God, or what a lot of people have called the big God theology. So the point of this discussion is not to bum you out over the fact that we're all gonna die. It's to actually give you some comfort when we look at what David's trying to impress upon us in Psalm 23. It's for us to absorb this assurance and comfort of knowing that You know, we're never going to experience death or its advanced shadow outside of God's decree. And he is a loving and caring father. And so even in the midst of this difficult situation we may find us in, whether we're actually truly moving to death or we're going through a hard spot in our lives, that the good shepherd is the guy that's in charge of this. Leland Rykins said this, he summarizes the psalm in this way, he says, our contentment comes from resting in the sufficiency of God's providence. So what he's pointing there is he understands that God is in control and that we need to be content in understanding that, even in the hard stuff, even in the shadow of the valley of death. And so we got to remember this, it's God's valley and he led us there. There's nothing, there's nothing weird about this. And when we look and say, well, I'm, I'm suddenly, um, I find myself in this bad situation. Now our actions may have helped put us there, but God has certainly made sure that he's in control of that as well. And so it's important to realize this valley is God's valley, but our good shepherd is the one who brought us there. So again, we have this confidence that knowing that God leads us to pain as purposely as he leads us to pleasure. And so in our own lives, if you think about it, especially those who have lost loved ones, you recognize that God's in control. You know, if we don't, if we don't have that idea and we don't look at it from the perspective of God is sovereign, we are going to lose hope. We're going to become very bitter. And we're going to end up like the most philosophical people who are not godly. We'll end up with one question alone. It was what Hemingway dealt with. You guys remember what happened to Mr. Hemingway? He was a hedonist. And what did he do? He lived for himself. And what did he do when he could no longer do the things that he wanted to do? He killed himself. And so the great philosophers say, if you have no God, the only question that you really have to answer is when you kill yourself. And so when we look at this sovereignty of God, that even when we're into difficult things, we can still take comfort that it is God's difficulty. It's his valley. He's the shepherd that got us there. He's the shepherd that's going to take us through it. And so, I think the Heidelberg Catechism has a really good summary here when we talk about the providence of God. And I want to read their question in their Catechism 27 and 28. So this is question 27. The question is, what do you understand by the providence of God? Listen to their answer. Providence is the almighty and ever-present power of God, by which he upholds with his hand heaven and earth and all creatures. And so rules them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty, all things in fact, come to us not by chance, but by his fatherly hand. Now you see these guys looking at that saying, man, I understand God's sovereignty. He's in control and they put it all right there. Then they go on to ask this question. How does the knowledge of God's creation and providence help us? And this is where David's going in Psalm 23 too. Listen to this answer. So this is, this is the question. How does the knowledge of God's creation and providence help us? Answer, we can be patient when things go against us, thankful when things go well, and for the future we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing will separate us from His love. All creatures are so completely in His hand that without His will they can neither move nor be moved. So that should give us great comfort, too, as you look at that and they say, not only is God in control of all these things and His providence is, it dictates everything in life that when we find ourselves in these good things, good times, give God thanks. When you're in the difficult times, have confidence that God is still walking with you and He's taking you through that valley. It's His valley. He's the one that led you there. He's the good shepherd that's gonna take you through it. And that's kind of what David's pointing at. And so, Gibson has a quote too that I think is worth reading in this same thing. He says this about this idea of the big God theology. It's the God we meet in every part of the Bible story from beginning to end. Adam and Eve fall into sin in the book of Genesis and it did not take God by surprise or leave him unexpectedly considering his options. He did not send Jesus into the world as plan B, because he came as a lamb slain before the foundation of the world. And he's quoting Revelation and Ephesians and 1 Peter there. And then he goes on to say this, this is the God of Amos 3.6 where the prophet says, does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has done it? And so you can see that these theologians are pointing correctly and pointing to a truth in the scripture of this big God theology that is going forward, that God is in control. And so we're gonna see this, the providence of God, he mentioned it here, when you look at Jesus and his life, this was not a plan B. God's providence shows this in his life. So let's take a look at this. So Jesus walked in this valley path in his sacrificial death on the cross. We see the shadow of death was encompassed his life even before he was born. Remember in Matthew, you have the angel who is saying this, she shall bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins. So the angel is pointing to the fact that this is going to happen, he's going to save his people from their sins. You know, and we can see from Ephesians, these other things, that from the beginning of time, beginning of time before creation, God has selected His people, had His plan ready to go with Christ, and this is Him saying, yes, I understand their sin, I understand that it's going to wreck the creation, but I have a plan for that. I'm sovereign. I'm the one that did it, as God is clearly pointing to us. And you see it in Jesus' own life. He says he's going to save his people from their sins. How? By getting on the cross and dying for us. And so his death displays this really stunning truth about how God is leading us. If you look at Acts 23, there's two things that are said here. One is that his death is a work of lawless men, but yet at the same time it was according to this definite plan of God. So listen to what it says. And of course this is Peter in his sermon right after the resurrection of Christ. He says this, He says, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. So he's talking about this idea that he was delivered up. Why? How? Through a definite plan and foreknowledge of God. But then he goes on to say, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. So you have God's sovereignty over the big picture of what's happening in this redemptive plan, but at the same time, Peter's saying, there were men that were responsible for this. They were lawless and they killed Christ. But in the midst of that, you see that God had a definite plan, excuse me, and foreknowledge that was given by God the Father. And so this is the supreme example of how God often leads his children. Gibson says this, he says, the shepherd who leads was led out to die by sinful men. This path to death was God's road to a world of unimaginable good. You know, we look at the horror of Christ's death, perfectly innocent, perfectly sinless man puts on the cross, All that, and you're like, well, this is terrible. And yet, what do we see? We see salvation coming out of that. And so, you know, you see the story of Joseph, where he echoes this truth in Genesis 50, 20. He says it probably better than all of us, and he says, he's talking to his brothers, and he says, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. So again, we see this idea that God is in control over all of this. The sheep are never walking alone if you're one of the shepherd's sheep. So there's one other point I want to make and then we'll close. So let's look at this also when David is talking to us, not only about the valley itself, but what are we doing in this valley? We're walking through it. All right, so our valleys are not our destination. Even in death, it's not our destination. When we die, it's not over, especially for Christians, or in particular Christians. We know we're going someplace. And so Jesus' life example is this. Look at it. He was incarnate. He's humiliated. He dies on the cross and yet he is resurrected. He is crowned the king and he's now in glory. So you can see he's walked through this valley already and he's our shepherd. He's the one leading us. And so we too are gonna experience suffering and then glory. As believers, this is our hope. As Paul says, when people die, we don't grieve as those who don't have hope. What's he talking about? He's talking about the fact that when believers die, they're going to be with Christ. It is a good thing. As he himself said, if you kill me, I'm going to be with Jesus. No big deal. This is good. If you leave me here, I'm going to talk about Jesus all the time. And so he understood this very clearly, as we see all through the scripture, that the idea of this, we're being led to heaven. We're walking our path with the Good Shepherd, and we're going to experience that same suffering But then we obviously go to glory. So when we look at it, David's saying to us, look, Jesus is not lost ahead of us as he leads. He knows the way through the valley because he's been through it. And he also knows the way out of it. That's why David doesn't say I live in the valley or I'm left in the valley. He says, I'm walking through it. And he's been because Christ has been there before us. And so we are never left in the valley. We're walking through it. So even in the worst times of our lives, we can be confident that that valley belongs to God. He's walking with us. He is the shepherd leading us there. He's leading us through it, even if it means at the end of that valley we die, because that's not where we're left. So let's conclude. We all experience some kind of fear in our life, especially the fear of death. There's no one that doesn't fear death. But as Christians, we shouldn't fear it like the pagans or the secularists do. We should take comfort from this psalm in particular, because you see David saying he's walking. He's walking through a deep valley of horror. Yeah, you know, as a kid, you remember when you were kind of scared when you had to go somewhere? What did you do? You ran away from it. And we still do that today. When we're fearful, we run away from it. And here you have David saying, I'm walking through this valley. And you're like, well, what kind of person walks through a deep darkness or a horror of a scary thing? Only a person who has no fear of it. And so we're gonna see this next week when we start talking about the shepherd, what he's got in his hands, as he protects us in those things. But this lack of fear is because the shepherd's with us, right? Our joy comes from knowing that we're passing through that valley. It's not our final destination. We can take hope in it. And we don't have fear in it, or we shouldn't. You know, fear not, for I'm with you, right? And so we see this following Jesus' path gives us hope and confidence when we're stuck in those bad valleys. When we're in those horrible places where you're like, man, it can't get worse than this. This is where we need to drop to our knees and remember Psalm 23. Remember the promises that God has made to us. Remember that he is the one that's leading us and it's his valley. You're not in some surprise place. He didn't just forget about you. He actually led you there. And so our shepherd leads us on the path to righteousness that sometimes go through the valley, shadow of death. This is really how he leads, and that's the surprising part of this. But we don't fear. Why? Because he's with us. He knows where he's going. Let me read Gibson one more time, and I'll close this out. Actually, I want to read Spurgeon and then Gibson. So we'll get into these. So Spurgeon says this, kind of echoing what I'm saying here. He answers this question of what kind of person simply walks through deepest darkness. Spurgeon comments this, he says, he's quoting the psalm at first, he says, And then he says this, as if the believer did not quicken his pace when he came to die, but still calmly walked with God. To walk indicates the steady advance of a soul which knows its road, knows its end, and resolves to follow the path, feels quite safe, and is therefore perfectly calm and composed. And so you see this among saints that pass away. If you watch a seasoned Christian pass away, you'll see a confidence in them that will take your breath away. If you've ever experienced that with someone and you've seen how a saint dies and the confidence they have going, knowing that where they're going is not a fearful place, but it's a good place because there's shepherds leading us there, you'll see this kind of example. Spurgeon went on to say, many a saint has reaped more joy and knowledge when he came to die than he ever knew when he lived. Gibson goes on to write this, and this is the conclusion. He says, Psalm 23 is showing us that this safety of the sheep is all-encompassing. We are safe because we know the path we are on is the shepherd's path. This road is simply how he is leading us. And because we are his, we can walk and not run. All right, any questions or thoughts? It's like a sermon, nobody talks. There's a lot of stuff to think about, isn't it? But I hope you're good. I was just sitting here thinking how often You talk about big God concept. I'll often maybe pit that against Santa Claus up in the sky. And you know, the more I think about it, my issue is, or our issue is calling people. It's not that we want God to be Santa Claus. Even Santa Claus, if we thought he was omniscient, may give us things that we didn't know we need. Our issue is we forget we're sheep. And, you know, I want to be in control. I really want a genie. I really want somebody who I rub the lamp and I can tell him what I want and he'll do exactly what I think I need, right? So, I mean, I just saw so much of your lesson was about control. We just forget who's in control, who our lives end. We want to, we just don't think we're sheep. I think we know what's best. It's very humbling. It's such a great analogy when you think about Christ saying, I'm the good shepherd. He's indicating not only about himself, protection, comfort, care, but he also is pointing to who we are. We're the sheep in his fold, right? We're in his flock. And when we forget that, we get ourselves, like he said, in trouble. We want that genie. We want that, you do what I want. Well, that's not how it works. But we can take comfort in that it doesn't work that way, because if it did, it would be terrifying. And so we, again, when we look at this psalm, it should bring us that great comfort that David is really pointing to, that that word, even though, you see how he shifts, you know, the path of righteousness, you're like, ooh, green pastures, still waters, that's awesome. And then he goes, yeah, but even though, yea, you know, it says in the old, in the King James Version, I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall not fear for you are with me. And then we're gonna get into this thing about his staff and his rod. next week. But good stuff, great encouragement we see in David for us as God's sheep as we follow him confidently because he is a good shepherd. Let me close this in prayer. Father God, thank you for being the good shepherd. Thank you for leading us on the path of righteousness. And we do recognize that sometimes this path goes through difficult places. And Father, we're thankful that we can take comfort that you're the good shepherd. that your rod and staff do indeed comfort us, that you're with us, and that we will have no fear because we know where we're going. And Father, we're grateful that so many saints have gone before us and shown us the proper way to look at this valley of shadow of death. And Father, we pray that it would affect our lives and give us confidence and hope, even in the midst of whatever we're struggling with. And Father, help us to be thankful in the good times, and help us to be confident and hopeful in the valleys of death. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.