You Are With Me - Psalm 23
Psalm 23 (ESV)
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
3 He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.
4 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.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
Intro
Good morning again, and thank you for welcoming me back to preach. In case you missed our first time together, my name is Josh King. I have a wife, Caitlin, and two girls, Leah (8) and Ellie (6). I am on Young Life staff in the Blackstone Valley. We live there in Upton and we feel called to start Young Life there.
If you are not familiar with Young Life, we are a para-church organization that focuses on building relationships with students who don’t know Jesus or who have never been to church. Growing up in High School and going to college, I volunteered with Young Life right here in Norwood. And so this place and church are special to me.
This morning I get to preach on Psalm 23. Psalm 23 is one of the most famous prayers in the Bible. Reading and praying Psalm 23 is like watching your favorite movie for the 100th time or listening to your favorite music album for the 1,000th time. The more we pray this Psalm, the more we love this psalm, but more importantly, God draws close to us.
This psalm is one that we try to pass on to our children. I think of my oldest daughter Leah. Like many children her age, sometimes she has trouble falling asleep. And when this happens, sometimes we read Psalm 23 together. I remember the first time I read Psalm 23 to her. I said this is a very special prayer in the Bible. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people have read this and connected with God. So many people have felt God's comfort when they were feeling afraid or alone.
And this is my prayer this morning. Not that we are feeling afraid or alone, but that we sense God's presence with us. That we will be encouraged because we know that he is here with us.
Because the psalm is only six verses, let's go through each verse one line at a time. My hope is that we learn something new, feel our hearts stirred in a fresh way, or feel encouraged to live for God in a tangible way.
Before we dive in, let’s pray.
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
First, we have the name of the LORD. Different translations will handle the name of the Lord a little bit differently. But in the original Hebrew language, God's name was written here. In the original language we have his name: Yahweh. Just like I have a name, “Josh,” God has a name, “Yahweh.”
Over thousands and thousands of years, people who translate the Bible want to give God respect. And one way that they do this is by not actually writing God's name directly. In the Latin translation of the Bible, God's name is Jehovah. For many of our English translations instead of writing Yahweh they write LORD in all capitals. And this is what we have here. We are talking about the same God that revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush. And this is also our God too. His name is Yahweh.
And this is also David's God. King, David wrote this. Psalm, and David grew up as a Shepherd and then God called him to be the king of Israel. And so it is very easy to picture King David, praying and writing this beautiful psalm about God as a Shepherd and himself as a sheep.
Being a shepherd, David understood that sheep need the shepherd for everything. I am not an expert in farm animals or anything like that, but from researching for this sermon, I read about how other animals on the farm are a lot more independent. For example, if you have goats, they kind of just do their own thing, and they'll be fine.
Sheep, on the other hand, literally need their Shepherd for everything. They need the shepherd to lead them to find food and water. They need help birthing. They need help with injuries. Sheep actually aren't that smart. So they're going to get into trouble. A Shepherd who takes care of sheep is a busy Shepherd.
And so when David is talking about how we are sheep and God is the shepherd, it's a little humbling because He's saying that we're not that smart. We actually don't have our act together. We need God for absolutely everything.
But God provides. In the psalm, it says I shall not want. And this does not mean that we just get whatever we want. Sometimes our wants and needs get confused. For example, my daughter the other day said she needed ice cream for breakfast. And being a loving father, I had to explain to her that you might really want to have ice cream for breakfast, but you don't need it. Actually, it's not a good thing to have ice cream for breakfast. It’s not healthy.
How many times do we confuse our wants and our needs? And how often do we want something that's actually bad for us? But we are reminded in this Psalm that God will provide everything that we need and protect us from things that are bad for us, even if we don't know they are bad for us.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3a He restores my Soul.
I have never been to Israel, but from what I understand, it's actually a pretty dry and almost desert land. Shepherds back then had to really look for patches of grass and fresh water sources for their sheep.
And so when we see David talking about green pastures and still waters, I don't think he's actually talking about one place in particular, but he's talking about the best place possible for a sheep. This place is almost an imaginary place. Almost like what heaven would be like for sheep. And this is in contrast to what the real world is like for them.
And looking at the original language, we have a deeper meaning built into the phrase still waters. In the original language, you can almost say restful waters.
When you're reading the Bible and you come across this word rest, it is a super important word. I say some words in the Bible are miles deep. It's like entering a cave. The entrance to the cave might just be a little crack into the Earth, but then soon discover the cavern goes on for miles and miles.
And again rest is one of these words. It's used several different times in the Bible, but one of the most important times it's used is on day 7 of creation in the book of Genesis. After God made the heavens and the Earth and all of the animals and human beings, he rested. It's not that he was tired but that he was not working. This day was set apart for God and for enjoying each other's presence. This is where we get the concept of heaven. This is why keeping the Sabbath was so important for the Jewish people. This idea of rest was so central to the meaning of life and the meaning of creation.
Instead of working, we can lay down, rest and be refreshed. And this is the posture we should take for prayer.
In preparing for this sermon, I ended up hearing this quote about prayer. I think it'll be really helpful. It's helped me in my prayer life already.
It's easy to put a lot of pressure on yourself to pray as much as possible. And don't get me wrong. It is important to pray and have spiritual disciplines. It's important to connect with God, read your Bible, and pray for others. But it's easy to think about prayer as an activity we do. It's easy to think that we need to get better at prayer. Almost like playing a sport or getting a grade on a report card. (Awe man! I got a D+ in prayer this week!)
But I came across this quote from a Christian poet. I am going to read it three times, because it is that good.
"Prayer is not an activity we get better at; it's a place we're invited to."
"Prayer is not an activity we get better at; it's a place we're invited to."
"Prayer is not an activity we get better at; it's a place we're invited to."
We should think of prayer like a visit to heaven. A place to be refreshed because we are spending time with God himself. Our relationship with Jesus has to be the driving force for our prayer life. We have to find a place to experience heaven on Earth, to experience the presence of Jesus.
A place with still waters.
3b He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
In this verse I want to focus on the paths of righteousness. Another way of saying this is that God will lead us along the right path.
There's kind of a double meaning here. It's not just about making the correct choice, but also making an ethically and morally good choice. Instead of choosing something evil, we choose good.
And this is a deeper topic which we don't have time to dive into, but when we have to make a choice in life, the correct choice is the morally good choice. As Christians, we are never called to choose the lesser of two evils.
Different situations can be complex, but putting God's priorities first enables us to walk down the path of righteousness. We run into trouble when we prioritize our own reputation over God's. Instead of asking, “What would God want me to do?”, we say, “What can we do to impress others?”
This verse does not say, “He leads me in paths of righteousness for our own namesake.” It is for his name's sake. The name and reputation of Yahweh, of the LORD.
Making the right choice might mean being a little less popular. It might mean enduring persecution, but it is important to resist this temptation to put others first over God. Life is not always easy, but God is the Good Shepherd. He loves us and cares for us. He will provide. His caring nature is just part of his character. It's just who he is.
He will take care of us even when we face incredible trials. And this leads us to verse 4.
4 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.
At this point in the poem, we come to the most important part.
In this verse, we are walking through the valley of the shadow of death. In Israel, there are these dry water beds that have been carved into the Earth, resulting in a really deep dark valley. And sometimes people would have to cross through this deep, dark valley. It was life-threatening. The valley is hot. The valley is dry. The valley is dangerous. There may even be robbers or thieves who would attack and leave people for dead.
But how does the sheep feel in this Valley? They feel unafraid and comforted. And why is this?
Looking at the original Hebrew, this is the exact center of the poem and the most important line in the whole poem.
The sheep is unafraid and comforted because the sheep is able to look right at the shepherd and say “You are with me.”
Slowing down and thinking about the words in the poem, we notice that the author shifts from talking about God, “The Lord is my shepherd.” to talking directly with God. He says, “You are with me.”
It's easy to envision the shepherd leading at a distance, and then being right there alongside the sheep.
“You are with me.”
It's in those deepest darkest valleys that we realize that God is right there next to us. It's in those threatening scary moments that we change from talking about God to talking with God. We realize that he is right there alongside of us. He is protecting us. He is our King. He's our Shepherd.
It all comes down to the presence of God. Experiencing heaven on Earth.
Blood Clot
I want to share a quick story about my own journey. And going through a dark valley and the power of presence.
A few months after my wife Caitlin and I were married. I ended up developing a blood clot in my arm. Kind of rare for a 26-year-old. But I ended up having several surgeries and several complications. I wound up at Mass General Hospital just outside the ICU for over 2 weeks.
Because of my injury, I was out of work. And my wife just finished nursing school, but didn't have a job yet. We were really testing out our vows. “For better or worse, for richer or poorer.”
I kept getting worse and we kept getting poorer.
I remember feeling so alone in that hospital bed. I'm not sure if you have ever gone through medical challenges, but sitting in that bed feels like a deep dark valley of death.
Everyday when I was at the hospital Caitlin visited me. This was so important.
When she wasn't there. I was just alone in my bed. But when she would walk through the door and just sit with me… it made a world of difference. Even though we didn't have any money and I kept having these medical challenges, I wasn't afraid because I knew Caitlin was with me. Her presence made a difference. That’s the power of presence.
And this is exactly what is happening in this verse. The sheep is not afraid because the shepherd is alongside them.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
And here in verse 5, I believe that the poet shifts scenes from green pastures to a banquet table. Instead of sheep eating grass and drinking water from a peaceful stream, we have a table where we eat food and a cup that we drink from. And this banquet is in front of the author’s enemies.
I think of two stories when I read this.
The first is from when I was in third grade. We moved around a lot, but at that time we had a relatively big house with a huge front porch. One of my favorite things to do was sit on the front porch while a thunderstorm passed through. It was such a neat feeling to feel safe, but also realize the power of the storm. And to know that the storm can't reach me because I am safe on the porch.
I think the same thing is going on here. David is safe and secure even in the face of his enemies because God is with him. God is protecting him. God is that roof from that porch.
(22:30) And the second story is from when I was in college. We would go and visit one of our friends who was a waiter at a local restaurant. The restaurant is still here. It's the Chateau restaurant right on Route 1. Back when we did Young Life here in Norwood, our friend Craig got a job as a waiter there. And so we all decided to go out to eat that night and have Craig be our waiter.
I have a confession to make. I love soda. I love a good Coca-Cola. And I love going to a restaurant and getting a Coke with my meal.
So that night we're at the Chateau and I order a Coke, but then Craig leans over and says, “I'm not really supposed to tell you, but we actually don't offer free refills.”
I'm not sure if that is still the policy, but that night I was kind of bummed. I couldn't afford to get a refill. Just going out to dinner was a lot for me.
I remember drinking my one Coke and trying to savor it as much as possible. And being a little sad when it was all gone.
But according to this verse, we have free refills! We can get as much as we want! Our cup is overflowing. There is no concern about how much it costs. Our host is taking care of everything. He is providing for us.
6 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 verse has another word that is miles deep. The word that is translated mercy here is a word that is used about 250 times in the Old Testament. And it is translated in many different ways. It can be translated steadfast love, favor, loyalty, loyal love, goodness, or kindness. This word is so meaningful and complex translators have a hard time translating it. I think of a diamond with many different facets, all sparkling in the light.
This word is actually in the Ten Commandments. In the 2nd commandment we are instructed not to have any idols. Also in the 2nd commandment is where God promises to show his “steadfast love to thousands of [generations]” (2nd Commandment, Ex. 20:6).
The idea here is that God chases after us. He pursues us. He seeks after us. When David was writing this Psalm he was so used to his enemies chasing after him in order to kill him. But he has such comfort to know that God is now the one chasing after him.
As my last illustration this morning, I just wanted to read a story to you. My leader read this story to me when talking about God's love for us. And it really encouraged my heart. The story is based upon actual events, but may be seen as more of a modern-day parable than a news story. Even so, it captures God's heart for us.
Are You Going to Help Me? (27:00)
In 1989 an 8.2 earthquake almost flattened Armenia, killing over 30,000 people in less than four minutes.
In the midst of utter devastation and chaos, a father left his wife securely at home and rushed to the school where his son was supposed to be, only to discover that the building was as flat as a pancake.
After the initial shock, he remembered the promise he had made to his son: “No matter what, I’ll always be there for you!” And tears began to fill his eyes. As he looked at the pile of debris that once was the school, it looked hopeless, but he kept remembering his commitment to his son.
He began to concentrate on where he walked his son to class at school each morning. Remembering his son’s classroom would be in the back right corner of the building, he rushed there and started digging through the rubble.
As he was digging, other forlorn parents arrived, clutching their hearts, saying: “My son!” “My daughter!” Other well-meaning parents tried to pull him off what was left of the school saying: “It’s too late!” “They’re dead!” “You can’t help!” “Go home!” “Come on, face reality, there’s nothing you can do!” “You’re just going to make things worse!”
To each parent he responded with one line: “Are you going to help me now?”
And then he proceeded to dig for his son, stone by stone. The fire chief showed up and tried to pull him off the school’s debris, saying “Fires are breaking out, explosions are happening everywhere. You’re in danger. We’ll take care of it. Go home.” To which this loving, caring father responded, “Are you going to help me now?”
The police came and said, “You’re angry, distraught and it’s over. You’re endangering others. Go home. We’ll handle it!” To which he replied, “Are you going to help me now?” No one helped. Courageously he proceeded alone because he needed to know for himself: “Is my boy alive or is he dead?”
He dug for eight hours... 12 hours... 24 hours... 36 hours... then, in the 38th hour, he pulled back a boulder and heard his son’s voice. He screamed his son’s name, “ARMAND!” He heard back, “Dad! It’s me, Dad! I told the other kids not to worry. I told them that if you were alive, you’d save me and when you saved me, they’d be saved. You promised, ‘No matter what, I’ll always be there for you!’ You did it, Dad!”
“What’s going on in there? How is it?” the father asked.
“There are 14 of us left out of 33, Dad. We’re scared, hungry, thirsty and thankful you’re here. When the building collapsed, it made a wedge, like a triangle, and it saved us.”
“Come on out, boy!”
“No, Dad! Let the other kids out first, because I know you’ll get me! No matter what, I know you’ll be there for me!”
We have a God that pursues us. He saves us. He loves us. He is there with us. He doesn’t give up on us. We don't just talk about him. We talk to him. He is real, and he is right there next to you. He's there in the green pastures and the darkest valley. We don't have to be afraid.
Closing
And in closing this morning, I just want to encourage you to share this amazing love with others.
Even before Pastor John asked me to preach on Psalm 23, I was thinking about how Jesus is the Good Shepherd. His sheep know his voice, and he lays down his life for his sheep. These are amazing truths.
But another amazing truth is found in Luke chapter 15. The Good Shepherd chases after the one sheep who got away. There's this idea of that steadfast love of God again. He leaves the 99 sheep and pursues the one who is lost.
As the Good Shepherd leaves the flock and is pursuing the one, you can almost hear him saying, “Are you going to help me now?”
God doesn't need our help, but the Bible calls us co-laborers with him. He chooses to invite us to take part in his saving grace to the whole world, one sheep at a time. We don't save people, Jesus does. We get to be a part of his plan. We get to experience Jesus in a fresh way when we share him with others.
I just want to leave you with this encouragement.
I would encourage you all this morning to ask God for one person to pray for who is a lost sheep. Pray that God gives you the ability to build a real relationship with this person, share the gospel with them, and invite them into this church family. This is powerful for so many reasons, but it's powerful because you get to experience Jesus in a deeper way as you share him with others. Because you answered him when he asked you, “Are you going to help me now?”
Let’s pray.
