We turn to God's word now. Would you turn with me to Psalm 23. Psalm 23 found on page 581 in the Bibles that are provided for you. Again, this is God's holy and inspired word, dear saints, and that is why we pay careful attention to it when it is read. This is a Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And this ends the reading of God's word. Would you pray with me again? Our Father in heaven, thank you, Lord, for your word, and to thank you, our God, that you bless us with the word that is living and active, and that by your spirit, Lord, you would speak to us this night. Do that, our God. Speak to us through your word. Turn our hearts over unto you with your tender care, as we pray, asking in Jesus' name, amen. In an essay entitled, Sane Faith in the Insanity of Life, Professor David Powelson uses Psalm 23 in an interesting way to describe two ways of doing life. He suggests that there are two different ways of life according to Jesus. One, he says, You're connected to a God who's involved in your life. Psalm 23 is all about this. The Lord is my shepherd and his goodness and mercy surely follow me all the days of my life. The other way, you're pretty much on your own and disconnected. Let's call this the anti-psalm, he says. I'm on my own. and disappointment follows me all the days of my life. Pauluson's anti-psalm goes this way. I'm on my own. No one looks out for me or protects me. I experience a continual sense of need. Nothing's quite right. I'm always restless. I'm easily frustrated and often disappointed. It's a jungle. I feel overwhelmed. It's a desert. I'm thirsty. My soul feels broken, twisted, and stuck. I can't fix myself. I stumble down some dark paths. Still, I insist I want to do what I want, when I want, how I want. But life's confusing. Why don't things ever really work out? I'm haunted by emptiness and futility, shadows of death. I fear the big hurt and final loss. Death is waiting for me at the end of every road, but I'd rather not think about that. I spend my life protecting myself. Bad things can happen. I find no lasting comfort. I'm alone, facing everything that could hurt me. Are my friends really friends? Other people use me for their own needs? I can't really trust anyone. No one has my back. No one really is for me except me. and I'm so much all about me. Sometimes it's sickening. I belong to no one except myself. My cup is never quite full enough. I'm left empty. Disappointment follows me all the days of my life. Will I just be obliterated into nothingness? Will I be alone forever, homeless, free-falling into void? Sartre said, hell is other people. I have to add, Hell is also myself. It's a living death. And then I die. This anti-psalm, as Powlison calls it, tells what life feels like and looks like whenever God vanishes from sight. The anti-psalm captures the drivenness and pointlessness of life purposes. that are petty and self-defeating. It expresses the fears and silent despair because whatever you live for is not God. But the anti-psalm doesn't need to tell the final story. It only becomes your reality when you construct your reality from a lie. In reality, someone else is the center of the story. Nobody can make Jesus go away. The I am, was, is, and will be. whether or not people acknowledge. When you awaken, when you see who Jesus actually is, everything changes. You see the person whose care and ability you can trust. You experience his care. You see the person whose glory you are meant to worship. You love him who loves you. The real psalm, Powlison continues, captures what life feels like and looks like when Jesus Christ puts his hands on your shoulder. Psalm 23 again. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Now, can you feel, see, even hear and taste the difference between those two worlds? The psalm is sweet. It's not bitter. It's full, not empty. You aren't trying to grab the wind with your bare hands. Someone else takes you in his hands. You're not alone. Powlison adds that Jesus Christ actually plays two roles in this most tender psalm. First, he walked this himself. He is a man who looked to the Lord. He said these very words and means what he says. He entered our predicament. He walked the valley of the shadow of death. He faced every evil. He felt the threat of the anti-psalm of our soul's need to be restored. He looked to his father's care when he was cast down for us. into the darkest shadow of death. And God's goodness and mercy followed him and carried him. Life won. Second, Powlison says, Jesus is also this Lord to whom we look. He is the living shepherd to whom we call. He restores your soul. He leads you in paths of righteousness. Why? Because of who he is for his name's sake. You too can walk, Psalm 23. You can say these words and mean what you say. God's goodness and mercy is true and all the promises will come true. He delights to walk with you. And that's the end of a long quote. We live in a world full of people whose only life is the anti-Psalm. We live in a world in which many, if not most, people are filled with nothing but fear, anxieties, and worry. Like all the great difficulties and trials in life, scripture affords an answer. And like Pauluson suggests, this psalm provides help. David says in Psalm 23 that there is a God-honoring way to respond to all sorts of trials in our lives. To live in such a way that you know you are connected to the God who cares. We should trust God as the good and faithful shepherd and rejoice in his grace. Now I must say that responding to God in this way will not necessarily solve all your problems. But God will provide confidence to you as you walk in this life. He'll provide confidence as to what he's doing in your life. He will convince you as he did David that it is he who is leading your life. He is the one who is in control of all of the details and all of the circumstances, all of the providences, what we might consider welcome and unwelcome. This is the confidence God wants you to have. This gracious confidence will lead to greater peace and knowledge that the gates of hell will not prevail against Christ's church. We know that in all these things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose, no matter what the trial would be. No matter what that might bring about by way of fears or anxieties, we are comforted, we are consoled, and we are calmed by these inspired words, particularly from Psalm 23. There is that central verse, dear saints, verse four, that comes back to us. For you are with me. God is with me. God is with us. It is covenantal, it is communion language, it is language that rings with Emmanuel, which is all sorts of full of promises. This evening, rather, yeah, it is evening, let's look at Psalm 23 as we do so in two parts. The Lord is our shepherd in verses one through four, and the Lord our host, verses five through six. Now firstly, we turn to the good care of the shepherd this evening. The good care of the shepherd who leads his flock into safety, not into danger, who guides his flock into righteous paths, not into folly. And secondly, we'll turn to the host who abundantly gives, whose house is ours forever. This is truly one of those beautiful and wonderful psalms. Now we say that and we say, but aren't they all? And yes, of course they all are, but we do have favorites, don't we? This is truly a beautiful and wonderful psalm to delight our souls and to be comforted by. We love this psalm. It's called the Pearl of the Psalms by Spurgeon. And the reason we love this psalm so much, at least I think so, the reason we love this psalm so much is because this psalm in our times of fear, anxiety, grief, or anguish is a psalm that comforts. It's a psalm that we are so thoroughly and just so thoroughly enjoy because I think it is a psalm that is about God and the God who acts. It is thoroughly God-centered. Not that all Psalms aren't God-centered, but some just strikingly more. It is God-centered and ultimately it is Christ the Shepherd-centered. This Psalm is about the God who acts on behalf of his people. Note the active language of this Psalm as we come to it. He makes, he leads, he restores, he guides, you prepare, you anoint, and then in verse six, to what end? So that we dwell. Our fears, our anxiety subside because it is all about the action of God that we can find rest in. It is all about the shepherd's good care of his sheep. It is God who makes, leads, restores, guides, prepares, and anoints so that we might dwell in his house. It is all about the God who acts. It's not about us per se. It's about the Lord, the shepherd host. And we take so much comfort, dear saints, don't we, from this psalm? I think because it has everything to do with that redemptive work of God and the progressive unfolding of his plan to save a people for himself. I wonder, is it the case that what we have before us in this little psalm is David's reflections upon the shepherd host's mighty works of redemption on behalf of his little flock? This psalm is the most sublime way. This psalm, in the most sublime way, draws us into its fold and into its context. Indeed, the very structure of this psalm embraces you as you sing through it. It embraces you, surrounding you with God's covenant name. You see that reference to the covenant name of God in both the first and last verses of the psalm, the two words, two very important words, right? They form those bookends that poetry and literary people talk about as an inclusio. They act as bookends bracketing you into the covenant context of this psalm, of the covenant name of God, as you read it, as you sing it, draws you into the saving activity of God within the psalm itself. Now in doing this, the psalm brings into view not only the Exodus, but also redemption in Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep. It's not just redemption, but also the consummate dwelling place of Israel, God's people, the eternal kingdom house of the Lord, glory forever and ever. That's where we go in this psalm. Perhaps this is why we're drawn to it. When we fear, when we grieve, when our souls worry and our minds wander into anxiety. Perhaps we're comforted by these words because it draws us within it. It takes hold of us. It pulls us in, drawing us not only within the saving acts of God, but within the shepherd host himself, that we would commune with God himself. Verse one has an all-encompassing scope. The Lord, Yahweh, is my shepherd. David is using the language of the covenant and in using the language of the covenant, he is setting forth the theme of the entire psalm. Covenant is communion with God. That I am the Lord's and that he is mine. Union and communion with God. That I belong to the flock of the great shepherd and therefore we declare confidently with David, I shall not want This psalm is all about covenant communion with God. This is exactly what David is expressing because of what the great shepherd has done for David. He knows personally the Lord's covenantal provisions, which draws David into this intimate trust in God's care for him. And therefore, it relieves his heart. In other words, David sets forth the all-encompassing provision of our shepherd, the one who leads and the one who guides and hosts us in his house all the way into our eternal rest. And so could it be that the shepherd metaphor that continues in verse 2 reflects upon Israel's exodus from Egypt? that David reflects upon the great shepherd's strength as he guided his people to their holy habitation, or better yet, as it's put in Exodus 15, to their holy pasture. Or could it be that in verse 3, is there not a reference to God's guiding hand as he led Israel out of Egypt for his namesake? Psalm 106 verse 8 records for us that God saved Israel from Egypt for His name's sake, leading them in the paths of righteousness. Or could it be in verse 4 that there is the valley of the shadow of death or the valley of deep darkness as it says in our footnotes in the Bibles. Isn't this a reference to the journey through the wilderness following the exodus as Jeremiah describes it in chapter 2 verse 6. The valley of deep darkness or the valley of the shadow of death. Now what I'm suggesting to you, if you haven't heard this line of reasoning through Psalm 23 before, what I'm suggesting is that David is so thoroughly covenantal and God-centered that even his daily activities as a shepherd and the life of a shepherd bring about reflections on what God has done. It brings about reflections upon the redeeming grace of God through the Exodus and how he cared for his people in the wilderness. And it's that reflection of God's saving hand as a shepherd that stirs the soul from fear to confidence. Or as David Gibson writes, Psalm 23 verse 4, We are in the metaphorical world of the Exodus where the life of faith is conceptualized as a journey from Exodus to the land of promise through a world of pain. David alludes to and sings of God's redeeming mercy. The shepherd host led his flock from bondage, restoring their souls to a lush habitation. Even though Israel was still encompassed by threat and even by the shadows of death, the shepherd remained faithful to his flock and cared for them with his rod and staff. He comforted them in their trials and he was their refuge. And tell me, is there any refuge greater than this great shepherd? But what shall we say of verses five and six? Here the language changes. But the reference still seems to be the Exodus. Now it's the host who gives beyond measure to his guests. The table of verse five may very well refer to the rebellion of the Israelites in the wilderness recorded in Exodus 16. Psalm 78, 19 describes that rebellious scene when Israel spoke against God saying, can God prepare a table in the wilderness? And we know of God's provision to his guests, that God gave them abundantly all their needs, even though they complained against him. Again, Gibson writes, David is telling Exodus-shaped stories about God's covenant faithfulness. and constant provision to his rebellious and wayward people. When the Lord rescues and redeems, his sheep rebel. When he provides and feeds, his sheep grumble and doubt. This psalm is David's own expression of going against the wilderness grain. It is his affectionate love for his shepherd host, confessing that, contrary to natural tendency of the selfish sheep, David is learning that God can in fact be trusted. But not only did the shepherd host provide beyond measure for his people and for their needs, he also brought them into the promised dwelling place. He led them safely into the Lord's house forever, doesn't he? And with that notice, the movement in this psalm Note how the change in metaphor brings us from the nomadic life of the shepherd to the established house of God. How the God who makes, leads, and guides becomes a God who provides, anoints, and establishes. Notice how we witness the movement from transient things like the wilderness journey to things everlasting, permanent, and established like the promised land. And notice how that same movement is akin to our own experience and our own understanding of our lives. We as exiles and sojourners and pilgrims on a wilderness journey moving from redemption to glory. Transient in this world but longing for that established place of permanent residence like Israel moving from exodus to promised land. That is how we find ourselves identifying with David here. We're on the same journey and it's all about the destination, isn't it? Yet there is a difference, of course, that must not be forgotten or must not be misunderstood. As interesting as all of these similarities are for us, a new day of surety and confidence has certainly come in Jesus Christ like no other. Because God has come and the shepherd has come himself. And we know that Jesus is the good shepherd who has done a mighty work of, in fact, the mightiest of works. He laid down his life for the sheep. And he says, I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep in John 10. He's truly the shepherd who makes and leads, restores and guides. He's truly the host who provides. For his provision is not mere bread and water, manna from the sky or water from the rock. His provision is the bread of heaven, a fount of living water. And he has accomplished redemption. He is the true restoration of your souls. He alone provides true comfort to Israel, true consolation to his people. He provides kingdom everlasting comfort. It's because this shepherd has walked through the valley of the shadow of death, through the valley of deep darkness, that we may fear no evil. because we're united to him who's been raised up from that valley of darkness, whose head was anointed with oil, and who today dwells in the house of the Lord forevermore. And here, he will remain until he returns to finally lift us up unto himself into an eternal consummate communion with us as people. The shepherd lifts up his flock from the valley and places you to the top of the unseen Mount Zion. And there today you dwell in the presence of the almighty host of heaven. And if I remember correctly, you feasted this morning on the Lord's Supper. What will you do with Psalm 23? Will you give thanks? Will you put off your fears and rejoice that our shepherd's name is Jesus who leads us to our heavenly home? Jesus said in Luke 12, 32, fear not little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. It's his good pleasure. He delights to give you these things. And John wrote in Revelation 7, for the lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed you and shall lead you into living fountains of waters. And God shall wipe away all tears from your eyes. As we close this evening, before we sing Psalm 23, I want to read to you another paraphrase of this psalm from a different author. The Lord Jesus is my shepherd. I lack nothing in Christo. By him, I go in and out and am saved and find pasture. The Lord Jesus makes me lie down beside streams of living water. He restores my soul. He goes before me leading me in straight paths and I follow. Though I walk in death's dark shadow, the Lord Jesus is the light and life of the world. No evil do I fear, for the evil of my fears he has borne. Emmanuel has borne them in my place. He gathers me about his table, his overflowing, super abundant table. And all the days of my life, this good shepherd draws me into his house, his everlasting house, his heavenly places house. So that where my shepherd dwells, I do dwell. And I shall dwell forever and ever and ever. You must admit in the end, this psalm is about communion with our God Jesus Christ forever. And that because He has set His love upon you. He has set His love upon you not only in words, dear saints, but in actions. He has communicated His love to you and for you, His desire, God's desire, His good pleasure to be with you. Know His love. Feel His love. and share his love as he made his love for you plain when he gave his son, the lamb of God, the great shepherd of the sheep, when he gave his son over to the power of death so that death would have no power over you. Your tears will be turned to joy and may your joy shine forth for all the world to see that today You too have entered the house, the heavenly house of God. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you, Lord, for this psalm, a particularly delightful psalm that has grown to be a psalm that we go to you, O Lord, all sorts of times of trial, very often in grief, in the midst of death and mourning. We pray our God in heaven for your blessings to speak to us through these words, that Jesus, Lord, would be that shepherd who tenderly cares for us and provides for us. According to your rich promises, fill us, O God, we ask, that we would know that you are with us. that we would know your blessings, O God, how you care and uphold us with your right hand, that we might know, O Lord, the house of the Lord forever, and our hope would be set on Jesus to bring us there. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen.