You can turn now in your copy of the scriptures to Psalm 23, the beloved, most famous passage in all the scriptures. And if you can imagine, that makes it a bit hard to preach. There are so many ways to preach Psalm 23. I once met a pastor when I was in seminary. He was recruiting for the Associate Reform Presbyterians. But he was telling us in a group that he preached 12 sermons on Psalm 23. He was trying to show the plethora of all the biblical themes that are just present laying there in the psalm. If there's lots of ways to preach it, you can imagine there's lots of opinions on it out there from every pastor, every church, every denomination, different ways, and it can be used, and how widespread it's used shows us its true beauty, perhaps. I'm going to try to resist the temptation to novelty and just preach how I know how to preach this song. And for as many people, even non-Christians who love this psalm and the comfort that they see in it, we're going to find that this psalm is beautiful. It makes us feel good. It's extremely hard to live out. It's hard to be a good sheep. We have a good shepherd. The Lord is our shepherd. It's hard to be a good sheep. But if you are his sheep, beloved, if you are his sheep, you must follow the good shepherd. We are called, if you are his sheep, follow the good shepherd. So this is the word of the Lord from 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 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, and 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 and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord stands forever. Let's ask for his blessing upon it this evening. Good shepherd, lead us. Lead us exactly where this psalm says you do take us. Into green pastures where we may feed upon your word and by still waters where your spirit restores our souls. Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight. Oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen. If you are his sheep, follow the good shepherd. And to follow him, you need to do three things. First, you must let him supply you. Second, you must let him lead you. And third, let him delight you. Let him supply, lead, and delight you. That is what it means to be a sheep among many in this case that we see in this psalm. So if you are his sheep, follow the good shepherd. You must follow the shepherd king of Israel, Jesus Christ. That's another thing that a lot of the world that loves this psalm doesn't think about. They don't think about who the good shepherd is. And Jesus says in John 10, I am the good shepherd. he lays down his life for the sheep. So in that way and among many ways, let this good shepherd supply you. We see first that he supplies us with nourishment. In verse one, it says, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. In other words, because he is our good shepherd, we shall have no lack. We will lack no good thing. Psalm 34, nine through 10 says, O fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack. The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. It's a good explanation of what it means that we shall not want. Because we know that we want many things. You know, I want a... I can't even say what I want. I haven't thought about it. But you may think I want fill in the blank. That may not be even a thing that you need. It might not be needful. It might not even be good for you. You could say, I want five cookies. Those aren't good for me. And I could probably go get them since Erica's in Florida, but do I need them? No. What do sheep need? Christopher Ash says, it's not about my desires, for I may have and do have misdirected yearnings, but it's about my needs for life and all its fullness. If Jesus promises life and life abundantly, also in John 10, we see that we shall have and we shall receive it from him. We shall have no lack of any good thing. And so David explains, what do sheep need? Says in verse 2, he makes me lie down in green pastures. This is the nourishment. He leaves me beside still waters. So what do sheep need? Sheep need food. Sheep need drink. Sheep need to have food that's not going to kill them. Sheep need to have water that they're not going to drown in because, you know, sheep aren't the brightest animals. And sheep will eat just about anything they find. You know, some animals are smarter than others. We know this. Some, we could say with, is it a, I can't remember the author, but some animals are more equal than others, perhaps. Orwell? Yeah, I couldn't remember. He did 1984 in Animal Farm. Some animals are smarter than others. Some are dumber than others. In this case, the sheep are among the dumber ones. If they see it, they eat it. You can go on Google, like, what do sheep eat? And you will find sheep herders that have, you know, their farming accounts that they, you know, they try to send out prescription a blog post to make a little money on the side, and they'll say, the hundred things a sheep can eat, the 86 things sheep should not eat and why. You can, and there's, there's multitudes and multitudes of these websites, search hits. And, you know, it's one thing cows pretty much, you know, they can eat some things that are dangerous, but they will generally stay in the things they like, but sheep just, they eat everything. You know, they kill themselves eating nuts they can't digest and they, you know, have a blockage in their stomach and in their colon. It's sheep are dumb. Jesus lays down his life for his sheep, that's us. But if we're sheep, what does that say about our spiritual senses? We may not be the brightest set. Even the smartest sheep at the end of the day is still a sheep. So what do we need? We need pasture. We need good food. Sheep can pretty much survive on just grass. It's a very small thing that they need, but they'll eat anything. So what do we need? God's sheep more than just the food of his word. How do we grow in our faith? We gotta eat. And we're not just eating anything and everything out there. the food of the word of God, the word himself who is the bread come down from heaven. If he is the word, he is the word that we are to consume for growth and for our health. In the still waters, think about the spirit and the spiritual or the symbolic connection the spirit has with water that Jesus uses. So what do we need as Christians? What is the good shepherd leading us to but his word and his spirit? Those two things together, word working through spirit, spirit reminding us things of the word, presenting to us the things of the word. That is how we grow. Jesus tells us in John 6, do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him, God the Father has set his seal. This sounds like a good shepherd leading into green pastures and beside still waters. So he supplies us with nourishment. We shall not want, we will have no lack as we stay beside him into the pastures and waters to which he leads us. So he supplies us with nourishment, he also supplies us with refreshment. The beginning of verse three says, he restores my soul. He restores my soul with the means that he has provided, he restores us. You know, so if you, If you run a marathon, after you run a marathon, you can't just go eat anything. Well, I guess you can if you run one marathon a year or maybe two, you go pig out whatever you want. But if you're a top world-class marathon runner, you're not gonna go do that. You're going to still have the right things because what your body needs as a marathon runner is the restoration of your body. You still have to hit all of your macros, in other words. We need refreshment. We need repentance. The word for he restores is also the same word the Old Testament uses for returning. And that word returning often has the connotation of repentance. So as we are being restored, most likely it means that it's in the context of repentance. Because as sheep, we tend to wander away. Even while we're eating food, we could be eating and then going elsewhere away from the shepherd. We must return to be restored and to be refreshed. Sheep are notable wanderers. There's plenty of videos, if you want to go look for them, of shepherds in various, usually European environments, going to great lengths to pull sheep out of crazy situations. In one, a sheep got stuck in an underground hole. And they had to shove the shepherd in there. They were holding him by the feet. And then he gave a signal to his foot. They pulled him out with a full sheep. And you wonder how in the world did that sheep get in there? And so we find ourselves in situations, either in the heart, speech, or actions, where we say, how in the world did I get myself into this? Yet he pulls us out and restores us. Psalm 116 says, gracious is the Lord and righteous. Our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple. When I was brought low, he saved me. So return, O my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. Gracious is the Lord. Gracious is this good shepherd. You know, if a sheep is dumb enough for long enough, I'm sure even the best worldly shepherd gets frustrated. Maybe they think about selling the sheep or maybe selling it to the kebab shop. Who knows? But not our shepherds. He's a good shepherd. He is gracious and kind and constantly is working to restore us when we go sideways or away even. So sheep, what's your intake? Are you intaking the word of God? Are you drinking of the spirit of God? Practical questions we have to ask ourselves. Are you finding those opportunities to spend, in other words, to spend time in the word, to spend time in prayer, and to use the means that God has provided? If we do not have enough of those things, like the runner who needs his macros, protein, carbs, you name it, fats, we don't have enough of those things, we're not going to grow as we ought, or the growth will be stunted. So with that question, we also ask ourselves the question, what else are you eating? I'll tell you what. I've been on a few visits to a few of your houses and places where I've sat down or even some nursing homes and the TV is on. Now there's nothing wrong with TV. You're not going to hear me say that TV is evil. I'm not going to do that here. But I often see in some places that when I go there, the news is on. It's okay to watch the news, but I know this from experience with my grandma and my grandfather when he was alive, they would have Fox News on for about eight hours until sports came on finally. That's a lot of news. That's a lot of tragedy and fear. That cycle, you're being sucked into it. I hate to tell you it. It's one thing to watch news for a little while, but we have to be careful. Not saying don't watch the news. Again, don't hear me say that. But we have to be careful about what we're intaking and for how long. So that includes, of course, movies, books, scrolling through TikTok, kids. Scrolling through Facebook, older adults, we have to be cautious that what we are seeing are the things that are things that are not harmful to our souls and are not going to stunt the growth from the word of the intake of the word of God that we are getting. So we must be cautious. We must be reflective to take stock of what we are consuming as it were. Because if we do wander and we do consume whatever we want, maybe we have the word of God here, but we're also consuming things that we know we probably shouldn't be looking at, or definitely know we shouldn't be looking at, thinking about endemic problems in our culture, not just with men, but with women as well, with pornography, we're going to get sick. We're going to get sick. And the good shepherd is going to have to become a good veterinarian. And that might hurt. And he'll do it. We're going to find out why in the next section, but he will do it. Watch your intake. Be circumspect about it. See that in all these things, Jesus is not being restrictive. He's a good provider, a good supplier, because he is our good shepherd. And if we are his sheep, we must follow him. First, because he supplies us, and second, we must let him lead us. Now that seems obvious. If you were to follow the Good Shepherd, of course he's going to lead you. But consider, if you will, the backseat driver. Do we know a backseat driver or two even here? People who are not driving, but they tend to give orders like they are driving. Eric, both Erica and I are backseat drivers when we're not in the driver's seat. So that makes for fun driving sometimes. We have, we've controlled ourselves, learned to control ourselves more and more as marriage has gone on. But we have to be careful that we are not backseat drivers to the good shepherd. You must let him lead us. We don't need to give him advice about where to go. So we let him lead us in the good way. Verse three says, he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. So these paths, they're more, the idea, the word in the Psalm and the Hebrew that makes you want to think of is actually like a wagon track. if you will. So if you have roads that are often traveled, this would be a road with defined ruts, whether it's wet or it's dry, that are so born into the ground that they're just there. And you know, hey, why go off the track? The wagon track has me going here. And so he says, basically, there are wagon tracks of righteousness. They are what some saints in the past have called old paths, old, well-worn, righteous paths that the saints have walked down for centuries and millennia. Even before the time of, well, I guess this is David, so definitely before the time of Christ. Maybe David's looking back even to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. And Samuel, as he says that. To come off the wagon track is dangerous. Think about the Oregon Trail. You know, the Oregon Trail started off very dangerous when the first settlers were heading across the high plains and through the mountains, but over time it became less dangerous as the decades wore on, especially right before the railroads, because they were very defined wagon tracks. And the later you left for Oregon or Washington or Northern California, the deeper they were, and you said, the dumber you were if you left them. Why would I go that way? The wagon tracks say go this way. And that is the way that Christ, as a good shepherd, is leading us. And he's not leading us to make himself, just make himself look good, or even to make us look good. It says that we are led in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. His name, Yahweh, the covenant God. the name upon which he makes promises to us, promises to save, to send his son and to save and to love us with an everlasting love. So he does it all for his name's sake. Not because we're good or we're worth saving, but because he is Yahweh. That is why we are saved. So we let him lead us. We don't need to backseat drive as he does it. But we're gonna see that sometimes those wagon tracks may go down into a valley, into a hard way. The path of righteousness may go through the valley of the shadow of death, because that's where the tracks lead. That's where, in his faithfulness, in his covenant to us, he is leading us through valleys of shadow of death. Why would he do such a thing? Psalm 119, 75 tells us, it says, I know, O Lord, that your rules are righteous and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. Hear that again. I know, O Lord, that your rules are righteous and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. We read this, these verses of the Jacks. How on earth, and we also ask the same question, how on earth is God faithful to me when he afflicts me? How could he? Sometimes we think when we go through those valleys of shadow of death. As Matthew says, as he's sometimes crying when we give him instruction, but that's not fun. I know it's not fun, but it's the right thing to do. It's the best thing for us. In a few verses earlier, the psalmist says, it was good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. It was good for me to be afflicted. But in faithfulness, he leads us through this valley. Because it is scary. You know, it is beyond our strength to go through it on our own. And that's why he's leading us into it. But at the same time, David says this, he says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. He may be afraid. Fear is a natural part of being around danger. But he will fear no evil. He will not fear the ability of Satan to harm him. And he says, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Why will David not ultimately fear for his safety? You will not fear because of Emmanuel. Emmanuel meaning God with us. If Emmanuel will go through the valley with you, you will be safe. And it's not just any valley, it's the valley of the shadow of death. The worst kind of valley that you could possibly go through. Throw your worst trials, your worst fears. Those are your valleys of shadow of death and the whole time Christ is with you. You do not have to be afraid. You can fear, but ultimately fear the Lord more and know that you are safe with him. The rod of the shepherd was the tool they use to punish sheep. Sometimes they need to break their legs and then carry them. We've talked about that, but also to fight off predators. As they go through that valley, you know, where, you know, mountain lions like to hang out. They like to hang out right above where people are walking or pray. They may attack, but he's got a rod. He's going to beat his face in for your sake. Graphic imagery, but being a shepherd in, you know, Southern Judea, no joke. David fighting lions and bears. You bet he was using that rod. And so does our God. A rod and a staff, a staff to guide when we take precarious steps in this valley and our foot's about to slip a quick rod to move us back on course as we travel through this valley. Matthew Henry has a great long, it's a long quote, but it's great. I'll try to summarize parts and read parts. So he says this, one word, it sounds terrible. It's death. But there are four words with it that lessen the terror. It is but the shadow of death. There is no substantial evil in it. The shadow of a serpent will not sting, nor the shadow of a sword kill. Pausing there, think about if you've read Pilgrim's Progress, when Christian has to walk by lions that are roaring, but then he discovers that the lions are chained. and they cannot touch him. Back to Matthew Henry, he said, it is the valley of the shadow, deep indeed, dark and dirty, but the valleys are fruitful. And so is death itself fruitful of comforts to God's people. Third, it is but a walk in this valley, a gentle, pleasant walk. The saints take a walk to another world as cheerfully as they would take their leave of this. And fourthly, it is a walk through it. They shall not be lost in it, but get safe to the mountain of spices on the other side. It is a valley, it is of the shadow of death, but ultimately it is temporary. It does not get the final say. And we are, and again, we are born through this valley with our good shepherd. Let us not fear evil for evil has been dealt with by the good shepherd once and for all on his cross. So the question becomes, we've touched on it, but will we follow the good shepherd when the path is not to our liking? And we see two ways, it might not be to our liking first, Do we find perhaps that the wagon tracks of righteousness are boring to us, or they're not going where we want to go, or there's diversions off of them? Will we still follow the wagon tracks of righteousness, this program of sanctification we're on, being made holy before we step into the presence of Christ? Will we follow that, or will we entertain ourselves, indulge ourselves with diversions? or be resistant to the change that God would have us go through? We have to ask ourselves those questions and we have to see that the answer in this case is submission. Staying on that path, whether it's boring to us or it seems to be restricting our freedom or it's just not what we wanted out of life. Submission to the good shepherd because the good shepherd knows best. We're also saying that the world would avoid the hard path this valley, the shadow of death at all costs. But they avoid it because they cannot, like we talked about this morning, their horizons do not see past death. They cannot see what is beyond it and they fear it. They try to work against it at all costs. But for us, as we go through the valley of the shadow of death, we know what's beyond it. We don't have to be afraid. The question you have to ask yourself is this, would you rather be in the valley of the shadow of death with the good shepherd or be on the high grassy plain without him? I would rather be in the Valley of the Shadow of Death with the Good Shepherd, because I don't have to fear evil when I'm with him. On the other hand, if I'm wandering on the high, fruitful plain, I still may fall off a cliff. And when I am bleeding, bleating with a T, like a little sheep, who will come to rescue me if I'm not with my Good Shepherd? Nobody. It is better to be with the shepherd no matter where he would lead you. It is better to be ridden with sickness and let the Lord's hand be holding you the entire time than to have good health and prosperity where there is no shepherd and no shepherd to be heard of and no praise of him. Pick, choose wisely. And if you are a sheep, you must follow the good shepherd. Let him supply you, let him lead you, and finally let him delight you. Once you go through the valley, we see that we find a table. And in fact, maybe this table is in that valley. For he says, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. So possibly in the valley, you anoint my head with oil and my cup overflows. We see the good shepherd provides great bounty, great blessings, abundance where there is nakedness. clothing, or I guess clothing where there is nakedness, abundance where there is famine. For even in the presence of your enemies, can you praise God and enjoy Him? Enjoy all the benefits He gives. Think about Paul and Silas in prison. They're in a bad situation. They'd gotten, I think they'd gotten beaten. They'd gotten imprisoned, and Paul is a Roman citizen unjustly. What is Paul and Silas' response? It's to sing Psalms, to praise their God anyway. They were having a feast. The greatest feast in Philippi that night, a feast in the presence of their enemies, and such a feast that even the jailer wanted in after he was told the way of salvation. It is a bounty that our enemies know not, enemies of God. And there's never too much given. If we are in Christ, it's not gonna be one of those things where we're scared the good times are gonna end. I remember having that feeling in college, or I'm having a great time with my friends. I think one particular one, we were floating on a lake. It was just one of those things where all the stress is leaving your body, except the fear in the back of your mind as a senior that these days are going away. These good times do not end. And once we're through the valley, we're going to a place where they never, they start and never stop. He delights us with His bounty. He also delights us with His promise. Lastly, surely in goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. We are delighted with all that He has promised us. This goodness and this mercy, not just following us, this is one of those famous verbs that people say, that's translated not good enough in English and all these scholars want to change it. And they have good reason to think that. This word follow is actually better, would be better as pursues. But pursue is like a military chasing a beaten enemy, a retreating enemy. Think about the Philistines running all the way back to Gath after David kills Goliath. That is what Israel's army did. They pursued them. It's the same word. But it is that it's not pursuing us to hunt us down and kill us. God, having goodness and mercy, pursuing us out of love. Like a lover chasing his beloved because she's sad. And the lover going after her. almost romantically, goodness and mercy, pursuing us in a hot pursuit all the days in our life, not something we deserve one bit. Martin Bootser, reformer, says this, he says, people pursue happiness, blessing, but blessing pursues the saints. It's overflowing upon us where the reaper catches up with the sower just because of the overabundance of all that God has promised, His delight that He gives to us. Are we delighting in Him? Are we delighting in being part of the family, being brought into the household of God, never to leave it? Both spiritually now and physically later, we'll be part of the family. The love for children never ends, no matter how old children get, no matter how far children wander. Parents pursue their children in love and they find them. Goodness and mercy all the days of our life, all the way chasing us into the house of God, a good and a precious promise. Our catechism asks the question, what is the chief end of man? A man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Glorifying God is one thing. It's a difficult thing. It's a weighty thing. But, beloved, are you enjoying Him? Is He delighting you with His love? Church is not just a required thing that we do, or even our relationships with Christ are not just required things that we have to go through in order to get to the end state and to be out of the hot place. They're ultimately about Jesus Christ and enjoying him, delighting in him, receiving that love as the beloved. What do we most delight in? What is the beat of our heart? And if Christ is not ultimately that beat, I know none of us delight in Christ perfectly, but if he is not at the end of the day, the ultimate thing in which we seek delight, we're seeking for delight in the wrong places. We're wandering, we're not being, or wandering off the path, even. So it's a good diagnostic question. Am I delighting in Christ? Or to even ask yourself the question, how may I delight in Christ? What in the text that I'm reading or in my prayers, how am I delighting in the Lord? As you are praying in your own private prayer closets, I would pray that as you, maybe you can pray through the Lord's Prayer or pray through ACTS, the Acts, that your adoration, the A, would increase and increase and increase as your delight for Christ and the whole delight in the Trinity would increase as well. If you are his sheep, follow the good shepherd. Let him supply you, lead you, and let him delight you. And if those things are deficient, we have to go back to first principles. We see those in John 10. Again, I am the good shepherd, Jesus says. I know my own and my own know me. Just as the father knows me and I know the father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice. So there'll be one flock, one shepherd. And for this reason, the father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. The Good Shepherd laid his life down for the sheep so that he could sanctify the path, that the valleys would have no power over us, that we would instead live as he lives. He lays his life down, he takes up again so that we would have new life as sheep, that we would no longer walk as feral sheep, no longer walk with the goats, but to walk in his paths and delight in him and love him and see the bounty poured out upon us and the good supply he gives. We always must go back to the cross because on the cross, the good shepherd did his best shepherding. And that's what we see in John 10. Jesus does the ultimate shepherding act, which is to die and then to live for us. And so he does live and so he does live to guide you and to love you. So if you sense that you have wandered or even that you're prone to wander, as our song says, Lord, I feel it prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, Lord. Take it and seal it, seal it for thy courts above. Amen. Let's pray. Good shepherd, you lead us well. Lord Jesus, I pray that we would ever return to the cross, that we'd seek to be near it and we would see that the greenest grass grows under it. Lord, I pray that we would drink from the fountain that you have opened up, the fountain of eternal life, that we drink deeply of the Spirit, and that by the Spirit we would see you more clearly day by day as we go down that righteous path. So Lord, I know that you will never abandon us, but Lord, I pray that we would know it, and by knowing it, we would better feel it, and that we would have confidence in the day of trial, and confidence in the day of death, that the faith that you have given us would not just be merely a feeling, but would educate our feeling and educate the mind and the heart. So Lord, lead us and lead us ultimately to you. We ask all these things in Jesus name, amen.