Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Psalm 23 | Date: March 17, 2024 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Introduction

Turn to the 23rd Psalm, Psalm 23. The Good Shepherd. Again, this is a Psalm of David, as are all the Psalms in this first book of the Psalms.

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. My cup overflows. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Let’s bow for prayer. Father, as we turn our attention now to this most familiar psalm, we pray that you will open our minds and our hearts to hear from you what you have here for us. This psalm of David is your word to us. Help us to learn more about our shepherd. And may we learn, like David, to rest contentedly in the providence and the care of our good shepherd. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

Some passages of scripture are so familiar that, very honestly, I’m afraid to preach on them. I told my wife yesterday that I’m a little bit apprehensive about preaching on Psalm 23. This is, after all, probably the best-known piece of literature in the entire world. It is the most loved of all the Psalms, and everybody is familiar with it, and because everyone loves it so much, they’re going to expect a sermon that does it justice, and I know that it’s not.

I remember some years ago sitting in a congregation when a famous preacher announced his text, and he was preaching from Psalm 23, and it was a very good sermon. Not a word of criticism about it, but I do remember at the end having the distinct impression that it didn’t do the psalm justice. And I told Kim yesterday that I’m just sure everyone is going to feel that way when we get through with this because it’s such a wonderfully loved psalm. There’s something about it because of its familiarity that makes me a little bit reticent to preach on it, but at the same time I have to say I’m eager to as well because, after all, there’s a reason why the psalm is so familiar and so well loved by so many.

We don’t know when the psalm was composed. He doesn’t tell us that in the superscript or in the body of the psalm itself. But without doubt here, David is using imagery from his own background and his experience as a shepherd keeping his father’s sheep. David’s ancestor, some 800 years before Jacob, spoke with similar imagery. In Genesis chapter 48, you remember when Jacob was blessing Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, he speaks of God in Genesis 48:15 as “the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long till this day.”

And here we have David doing the same. I assume as an adult; I think that’s a reasonable assumption. He didn’t write this as a young boy out on the field, but probably as an adult. And he’s reflecting on his life with what he calls here “the valley of the shadow of death” and “the presence of his enemies,” the dangers that all go along with that. And David, like Jacob, says in reflection that God has been my shepherd all the days of my life.

This is a psalm of trust, a psalm of confidence. You may remember the primary components of a lament psalm. In lament, we have the danger in the foreground and the lament or the complaining about it in the foreground. But somewhere in the psalm, there’ll be the strong statement of confidence in God that he will care for me and do all that he’s promised. Well, these psalms of trust are something of the flip side of that or the reverse of that. There’s danger, but it’s only in the background. You barely see it. He has a brief mention here of the valley of the shadow of death and the presence of my enemies, verse 4 and verse 5. But the psalm is given not to any reflection, really, on the enemies or any complaint or lament at all, but it’s just a robust expression of trust that God will protect me in every situation and he will keep me safe.

Psalm 23 then presents three distinct images or settings in which David has enjoyed the Lord’s care. In verses one to four, we have David in the pastures, and here the Lord is the shepherd and David is the sheep. God is leading his sheep, providing for them. Then when we get to verse 5, the image changes, and here David’s at a banqueting table. The Lord is the host who prepared a table for him, so he’s something like a wealthy sheik now in a tent, and he’s hosting the psalmist David as his guest. And then in verse 6, the imagery changes, or the setting changes again, and here he’s in the temple itself, the house of the Lord. And David is joyfully resting in the very presence of the Lord.

So verses 1 to 4, and then again in verse 5, we have two imaginative settings and scenes featuring the Lord as the shepherd, verses 1 to 4, and then as the host in verse 5. But then verse 6, we have not an imaginative scene, but a factual scene that states the theology and the message of the psalm. And here he leaves all the imagery behind, and the pasture land and the tent are just illustrative of dwelling in the very presence of God in the temple. So we’ll work our way through then these images and then the conclusion in verse 6.

Verses 1 To 4, The Pastures

This is a familiar scene, familiar imagery to anyone in the ancient Near East, a picture of a shepherd with his sheep in the field. And David pictures himself as the sheep. And the Lord is his shepherd, his covenant God who has entered into relationship with him through covenant and made great promises. He is the shepherd of David. And so David is saying to belong in covenant relationship to this God, it’s like being his sheep and he being our shepherd.

Now, when we read this psalm, we tend to turn our attention immediately to the pastoral imagery of the pasture. And we look at what the sheep in a pasture look like, what the shepherd looks like, and then we extend that imagery to see what it symbolizes and what message it has for us in that. And we need to do all of that, and we will get to that, but that has to come second. What comes first in the psalm is the first line, and that’s what we must understand first. And take our time to understand the importance of that leading line: “The Lord is my shepherd.”

And so the first note of importance in the psalm is not what the shepherd does. The first note of importance in the psalm is who the shepherd is. And that’s what makes the difference. And once we’ve said this, as we will see, we’ve said it all.

Now, at the risk of being pedantic, I want to take our time here and not be too tedious, I hope, but take our time with this first statement: “The Lord is my shepherd.” When you see the word Lord, particularly when you see the word God, these are titles; they are not names. God is a title that reflects God’s transcendence and God’s almightiness and his power and his sovereignty and his rule. The word Lord, again, is a title. It refers primarily to God’s sovereign rule. He’s a master, the master of all.

Now, when you see, as we have here in verse one, L-O-R-D in all caps, that’s a signal to you that this is the divine name, Yahweh. And that’s to signal for us, we who don’t read Hebrew, we see, “Okay, behind this is the divine name Yahweh,” and the English translators traditionally have taken it and spelled it “Lord” and given us that title, but putting it all uppercase signals, “Okay, this is the divine name behind that.” And behind the divine name, Yahweh, it’s related to the verb “to be.” And so, God is “I AM.” That is his name.

In fact, we know that exactly from Exodus chapter 3. You remember when Moses saw the burning bush? It was a spectacular event. The bush was on fire, but the bush was not consumed. And he said, “I have to go see this thing.” And he goes up there and he meets in the presence of God, and he has this conversation with God where God has come to commission Moses to go bring his people out of Egypt and to take them into freedom. And Moses wasn’t exactly willing at the first, you remember, and he thinks of a couple of excuses, but he says in that conversation, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them…” This is Exodus 3, verses 11 and following. God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.'” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The Lord (notice all caps), the Lord Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever. And thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.”

So in God’s own mouth, his name, which we have in all caps, L-O-R-D, God says his name is “I AM.” And Yahweh is related to the verb “to be” or “I AM.” Well, that’s his name then. And the significance of that is that God then is the one who is. He’s self-existing. He’s unlike any of us. There’s God and there’s everything else, and everything else is what he made. He, on the other hand, exists of himself. This is the familiar doctrine I’ve told you before. The older term is aseity. God exists from himself. He’s independent. He’s self-existent.

And that means that he has no needs. He’s not dependent on anyone. You and I are dependent on all kinds of things: food, shelter, clothing, and all kinds. He’s not depending on anything. He exists of himself. And that was symbolized in that episode with Moses. The bush was burning, but it was not consumed. The fire was its own source. It didn’t need anything to burn. He is self-existing and independent.

Now, when we put the word LORD, or Yahweh, in the word LORD, even with all caps, we’ve lost all of that meaning in translation. The new Legacy Standard Bible, which is an update of the New American Standard Bible, the translators have been quite happy to announce that they have, instead of writing capital L-O-R-D, they have written in the word Yahweh. Well, that’s a step in the right direction, but that still leaves it untranslated. And for us English readers, what does Yahweh mean? And what we need to keep in mind is that when we see that with all caps, L-O-R-D, that’s “I AM.”

Bruce Waltke in all of his commentaries and everything he writes, he gives his own translations of the Hebrew, and he’s trying to correct the trend. I don’t think he’ll ever succeed, but he’s trying to correct the trend, and every time he comes across Yahweh, he writes, “I AM.” And so, verse one: “I AM is my shepherd.”

Now, what’s significant about that is that God is the one who is in need of nothing. He’s self-existent. He’s independent. He exists of himself and for himself. He is who he is just by virtue of being himself. And he’s independent of anything else. And when you see, then, “Lord” in all caps, think: “I AM, the God who is self-existing and independent.”

Now, this is not like us at all. Someone asks you, “Who are you? What is your name?” Well, you start with the categories. Well, I give your name, but I’m Fred. I’m a male human being. I’m an American. I live in the state of Pennsylvania. I have a wonderful congregation that lets me be their pastor. You get all these categories and you bring it down, and none of that pertains to God. Who are you? “I AM.” There’s no category to put it in. He is who he is. He’s self-existing and he’s self-sufficient in every way.

And in fact, if you ask God where he lives, he’ll tell you. We have it in Isaiah chapter 57: “The Holy One, high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity,” whatever that means. I can almost, almost get what it means to be eternal, but this idea of “inhabiting eternity,” it’s always puzzled me. Well, here we have God, who is self-existent, self-sufficient in every way. He is himself. “I AM WHO I AM.”

So David begins the psalm then with this wonderful affirmation: “I AM is my shepherd.” No wonder the next line is, “I lack nothing.” On the Hebrew here, we have actually for verse one just four words. The Hebrew translates into more words than that for us. There are no connectors, there are no conjunctions, no particles putting it together, just “the Lord, my shepherd.” But clearly the logical flow is obvious. “I AM is my shepherd, therefore I shall not want,” or “I lack nothing.” Or if you like, “Because the Lord I AM is my shepherd, I lack nothing.”

And without doubt, as I’ve mentioned, this imagery stems from David’s younger years being spent shepherding his father’s flock. He cared for his flock. He provided food, shelter, provision, protection, guidance, and all of that. And we don’t know the exact setting that David has in mind when he writes this concerning himself. But there’s some element of danger. He tells us that in verse four, “the valley of the shadow of death,” and verse five, “his enemies.” And he begins, “I AM is my shepherd. I lack nothing.” So David, whatever the circumstance you’re in, David, do you need anything? And on one level, you might say, “Well, of course I need something. I’m a dependent creature. I need food, I need shelter, I need clothing, I need protection, I need guidance.” But David’s answer is, “No, I AM is my shepherd. I don’t need anything. I have everything I need.”

Now we should point out that verse 1 then is not to be abused as though it’s preaching some kind of prosperity gospel—that if God is your shepherd, then you’ll have all the money that you ever wanted, and you’ll have all the nice things like some preachers are doing today. It always struck me how that message works only in places like America. This is not a prosperity gospel, but he is simply recognizing the surpassing value of living under God’s care.

In fact, assuming again that David writes this as an adult, think of what lies behind him when he writes it. He’s had these awful years of danger. He’s passed through the valley of the shadow of death many times. He’s on the run from Saul for how long? He had to be on the run from his own son, Absalom, who’d had a coup and was rebelling against him and seeking to kill him. He had disasters in his own house, his own home. And here, with all of that in the background, he writes, “I AM is my shepherd, and I have never lacked any good thing.”

Well then, verses two to six, you’ll see then, are just an expansion of verse one. Verse one, “I AM is my shepherd, I lack nothing.” Verses 2 to 6 then simply expand on that. Verses 2 through 5 give specific illustrations of what it’s like—how the shepherd provides for his sheep, or how he hosts them at a big table (verse 5) and provides them with so much. Or verse 6, we have the summary of it all. But all throughout, David is just describing what it is like to live under the care of I AM.

Verse two: the shepherd provides nourishment and food. “He makes me lie down in green pastures.” I think golf course grass, lush and rich, only longer. That’s the kind of grass he’s talking about. But notice, “He makes me lie down in green pastures.” Now, I don’t have any experience firsthand with sheep at all. I have seen them a few times, been nearby and watched, and I’ve seen many on the screen on television or on the computer and seen a little bit. In my own observations, sheep don’t normally lie down in the grass. They’re up walking around and they’re grazing, right? Why would they be lying down? It’s part of the imagery here. They’re well-fed sheep. They’ve had enough. And so they lie down in these green pastures with food all around them. They’ve had enough. We’ll see a reflection of that when we get to verse 5. So under the shepherd’s care, these sheep are fat and happy, well-fed, and they’re content.

Rest of verse 2: the shepherd provides rest and refreshment. “He leads me beside still waters.” These are waters of rest. They’re calm streams where they can go up and safely drink and then rest by, and they’re refreshed.

Verse 3: he provides restoration. “He restores my soul.” Now this word, “restore,” is a word that’s used all the time in the Bible, but in the Old Testament often in the context of repentance. It means to return. “He returns my soul.” That word is often used in the context of repentance. That’s what repentance is. It’s returning. It’s coming back. The Lord restores my soul. The idea, I think, is that this is a kind of a confession on David’s part. “He restores my soul,” that is, when I fall.

And that’s why it’s followed up with, “He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” He’s a wandering sheep. Now again, I don’t know anything about sheep firsthand, but I’m told by one who has had some experience with the sheep—not again shepherding himself, but acquaintance with those who are shepherds—he says the one thing you hear very often when you’re with a shepherd, or if you’re nearby a shepherd looking over a sheep, the one thing you hear very often is, “Stupid sheep, get back here.” Sheep wander. It’s part of their nature. And that’s what David, I think, is playing off of here—that they’re straying. And when he says, “When I have strayed, God has never just let me go. I’ve always found that he restores me and brings me back.” That is to say, God is more full of grace than I am of sin. And every time I’ve strayed, he has brought me back. He restores my soul.

The rest of verse 3: he doesn’t just bring me back, he provides guidance. “He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” God may, in fact, lead me in ways and paths that are dangerous, but he will always lead me in paths that are right. We have echoes of this in the Gospels. We saw it recently in Sunday School in Mark’s Gospel. Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 6, records this saying as well, where the Lord Jesus who is, of course, the good shepherd—and we’ll see more of that in a moment. But Jesus, when he saw the great crowd, had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. That is, they’re ignorant, they’re prone to wander, they’ll believe anything you bring up, any next religious idea, they’ll gravitate to it, say, “Yeah, that’s right, yeah, that’s right.” They’re like sheep without a shepherd. And so Matthew adds (this is Matthew 6:34), he began to teach them many things, shepherding his sheep by teaching and giving them guidance.

And this he does, verse 3: “He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” Not for their sake, not for our sake, first of all. He does it for his name’s sake. That is, he leads and he keeps close watch over his sheep, not just because it’s required of him, not just because it’s his duty, but he does this for his own honor. One lost sheep straying off too far, one lost sheep getting away would tarnish his reputation as a good shepherd. And so he holds his responsibility in high regard, and for his own name’s sake, he keeps them, and he leads them in paths of righteousness. He won’t lose even one.

And then verse 4: the shepherd provides protection. “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.” So now, it’s later in the day, and the shepherd leads his sheep back home for the night, and along the way there are cliffs and crags and dark valleys of some kind. The “valley of the shadow of death” is the way we have it in our version, the ESV. You’ll notice the ESV note in the margin; it gives a translation alternative: “the valley of deep darkness.” Valley of Dark Shadows, I think the NIV translates it “Darkest Valley.” The idea is that of danger. Danger’s around through this way. There’s danger lurking behind every corner. And he leads them through, and the shepherd leads his sheep through these areas, but they are not afraid, and he tells us why: because the shepherd has his rod—his club. It’s a short-handled rod with a striking knob on the end. So he may take them through some dark ravines where there may be wolves or coyotes hiding, and that wolf won’t get the sheep. He’ll see to that. And so the sheep are not afraid. They’re content.

I think it’s a good time to point out that Psalm 23 has become a familiar psalm partly because it is used almost all the time in funeral settings. And it’s well-suited for that. Verse 6—we will get to that. But what’s important to notice here is the psalm itself is not about dying. It’s about living. And it’s about living in the presence of danger and passing through these valleys of the shadow of death and these deep, dark valleys where all these dangers lurk. That’s what the psalm is about.

In fact, Sinclair Ferguson has an interesting observation here. He said once that the depiction of Psalm 23 that we find in children’s books may be entirely misleading because you have in children’s books quite often scenes of the carefree shepherd boy in an idyllic world where there are no dangers and everything’s happy and fine. And it would be a naive thing entirely, not only to think that that was what life was actually like out there in the fields, but it would be a naive thing entirely to think that living under God’s care would entail no dangers. The sheep, verse 4, are walking through the valley of the shadow of death.

You might see behind this something of what we saw in one of the earliest scenes of David’s life in the Old Testament, 1 Samuel 17. It’s the David and Goliath incident, you remember? And David is a young boy at the time and he wants to go fight Goliath and King Saul says, “You’re just a kid, you can’t do this.” And you remember David has to kind of stand up for himself. He says, “No, wait, wait, wait a minute. I’ve been out there in a field. I’ve killed a lion. I’ve killed a bear.” And so you get a picture of him with a big club and knocking that bear in the head or that lion, maybe a knife. You’re a rough guy. And so he let him fight Goliath. Well, that’s what life was like out there. And because that’s the scene of Psalm 23, Augustine, the fifth-century theologian, labeled Psalm 23 the martyr’s hymn. And I think it captures it much better. It’s in the context of danger that David sees himself, and yet he is safe and he’s content and he’s satisfied under the shepherd’s care.

In verse 4 again, he tells us plainly the reason that he’s content in any danger. Look at verse 4 again. In fact, this line, “for you are with me,” is the exact center line of the poem. That’s a regular feature in Hebrew poetry. You don’t see it in every psalm, but quite often this is the feature. We’ll see it in other times as well. And the poet works it in there that way so that attention is drawn to the center line—that this is what he’s wanting to stress. This is the message of the psalm. “I AM is with me, and that’s why I don’t fear.”

And in fact, this expression, “with me” or “with you,” is something that’s very familiar in the Old Testament and it’s even in the New Testament as well. It has to do with God’s promised presence to his covenant people. It usually assumes some opposition, some kind of danger, a life in a fallen and a satanic world, and God makes his promise to his people, “I am with you.” Let me give you some samples. In Genesis 26, God says to Isaac, “I will be with you.” Genesis 31, he says the same to Jacob, “I will be with you.” In Genesis 39, Joseph prospers in Egypt because “the Lord was with him.” In Exodus chapter 3, God sends Moses to Egypt and he assures him, “I will be with you.” In Deuteronomy 31, Israel is about to go into the land that God has promised and they are told, “Remember the Lord your God will be with you.” He says the same to Joshua in Joshua 1: “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” We find it in Judges 6, the angel of the Lord says to Gideon as he goes after the Midianites, “The Lord is with you.” God’s promise to all of his people in Isaiah chapter 43: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.”

Over and again, we see this and it speaks of God’s comforting presence and his enabling presence, specifically in the presence of danger. And that’s why it shows up again in the Great Commission. God gives the assignment to the disciples, the apostles, gives the assignment for the church throughout the church age: “Go make disciples of all the nations… And I am with you always to the end of the world.”

And David is saying here, then, “The Lord is my shepherd. Not only does he lead me, he is with me. And therefore, I will fear no evil.” He has both his rod and his staff in hand to ward off any danger and to corral me back in when it is needed.

So verses one to four then present the picture of the pastures. God as the shepherd and David as his sheep.

Verse 5, The Banqueting Table

Verse five, the imagery changes. “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows.” So here in the presence of his enemies, he sits at a banqueting table. Mixed imagery. Interesting. I think maybe some of the background might be provided for us in 2 Samuel chapter 17. You might remember David in that passage is on the run from Absalom, his son; he’s running for his life. And we read, “Shobi the son of Nahash… and Machir the son of Ammiel… and Barzillai the Gileadite…” And then he lists a bunch of others. “They brought beds, basins, earthen vessels, wheat, barley, flour, parched grain, beans, lentils, honey, and curds, and sheep and cheese from the herd for David and the people with him to eat. For they said the people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness.”

That may be the background that David is thinking of: God spreading a table before him in the presence of his enemies. In any case, David is no longer the sheep in the pasture lying content out in the fields, but now he’s a guest in a large tent, and God is presented as the host—some wealthy sheik who’s lavishing him with all kinds of kindness. And remarkably, David says, “I feast in the presence of my enemies.” It’s fascinating imagery. It’s like I have perfumed oil poured over my head. That was something that was quite the refreshment in that day, particularly in an arid climate like that with the dry skin problems and all. He’s got a cup of wine in his hand and he finally says to the host, “No, no, no, no, no more, I’ve got enough, my cup overflows.” And all of that in the presence of his enemies.

Feasting in the presence of his enemies. And I think that’s an experience that the world just knows nothing about. You’ve heard me before speak of what I call the Christian enigma. Christian facing death, bereavement, enemies of whatever kind, opposition, disappointment, loss, and somehow there’s a joy with the presence of God. I always think of Acts chapter 16: Paul and Silas in prison, the death sentence, singing. The world doesn’t get like that, just doesn’t get it. But here David says, “I’m in the presence of my enemies and I’m having a party.”

So the imagery in verse 5 is similar to that of verses 1 to 4. It’s to the same point, but it’s escalated just a little bit. Now he has this lavish supply of food, he’s an honored guest, and the enemies are looking on helplessly. That, David says, is life in God’s care.

Verse 6, The Summary

And then finally we get to the summary in verse 6. David looks ahead to the rest of his life, and in fact to eternity, and he says, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

Goodness and mercy. Goodness and steadfast love. Mercy there is that word that pops up so often in the Psalter, speaking of God’s loyal love to his people. Goodness—that’s God’s favor. Goodness and steadfast love “follow me all the days of my life.” A steadfast love, translated here, “mercy.” It’s a fascinating word in the Old Testament. It’s a very important terminology throughout the Old Testament. It comes to fulfillment in a fascinating way in Jesus in the New Testament. It speaks of God’s faithful, loyal love. We don’t have an exact English equivalent to this word, but it captures the ideas both of God’s love and affection, but also of God’s loyalty, his commitment. Often it’s coupled with his faithfulness and steadfast love, which is almost redundant because built into the idea of this steadfast love is the idea of faithfulness. He’s committed to his people, but he’s committed out of affection.

And consistently in the Old Testament, this word is used in relationship of a stronger partner and a weaker partner. And the weaker partner relies on the strength of the stronger partner to help. And so when the weaker partner has opposition or trouble of whatever kind or danger, he appeals to the stronger partner and the stronger partner out of affection and out of loyalty helps. And so David says God’s goodness and mercy, his steadfast love, “follow me all the days of my life.”

Now I have to tell you something here about translation. It says, “goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” And I have to tell you, David is not saying that goodness and mercy, God’s goodness and steadfast love, will follow you all the days of your life. That’s not what he’s saying. King James translators translated this word “follow,” and it seems all the English translations since have followed as well and translated it that way as well. But this word, translated “follow” here, virtually everywhere else in the Old Testament does not mean to follow, trailing along behind. It means to pursue.

I spent some time this morning looking through the Hebrew concordance and every occurrence of this word in the Old Testament. It means to pursue, pursue, pursue. Give you some samples: in Genesis 14, we have, you remember when Lot was taken captive and Abraham got together his servants and chased after those petty kings? He chased after them; he pursued them. That’s the word that’s used there. In Exodus chapter 14, we find Pharaoh, not just following the Israelites as they left; he pursued them. He wanted to overtake them. In Joshua chapter 2, we have the Israelites and Joshua going after Jericho and the walls fall and the residents of Jericho all run and we have the Israelites pursuing after them. Same word used. We have it in 1 Samuel 17 after David defeats Goliath. The Israelites pursue the Philistines. Same word. And we have the same in the Psalter. David talks about his enemies pursuing him and pursuing him and pursuing. Same word all the time.

Finally, now more recently, the Christian Standard Bible has translated it that way: “Goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life.” David is not saying merely that God’s goodness and his steadfast love will follow along behind us. He is saying that God’s goodness and steadfast love will chase us, it will pursue us, it will hunt us down all the days of our life. Now that’s something quite different. It speaks of the Lord’s relentless commitment to do his people good. He’s always in pursuit of his people. David says here, “What I’ve found is that God is relentlessly determined to do me good and that all the days of my life.” He’ll never let up. He’ll never let go. What I have found is that God is more faithful to me than I have ever been to him. And even when I stray, he chases me down. He pursues me with his favor and his steadfast love.

The last part of verse six, David looks further ahead: “I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” The house of the Lord, of course, is the temple, the place of God’s presence. Gerald Wilson, highly respected commentator, and many others as well, have wondered here if there is a connection here to the house of the Lord as a city of refuge. It’s not explicit here, but I do think they’re onto something. I think it’s involved.

Moses’ law, as you remember, provided that there be cities of refuge. When a man was fleeing vengeance from a family member after an accidental death that he had caused, that person can run for refuge to some appointed cities throughout Israel, and there they could be safe, and there could be a trial and discover if it was indeed not a premeditated murder—it was an accidental death—he could live there safely till the death of the high priest, and then he could go back home. Now Jerusalem is not mentioned as a city of refuge. The house of the Lord is not mentioned anywhere explicitly as a city of refuge. But there are some implicit suggestions that it was in fact; particularly the horns of the altar were a place of refuge.

And I’ll give you some examples. Exodus 21:14: if someone guilty of deliberate murder sought asylum inappropriately, the authorities could—and here it is—”take him away from my altar and put him to death.” So you get a picture there of someone who had committed murder and out of desperation he runs to the altar and he’s hanging on for safety there and the authorities say, “No, this is premeditated murder, you’re there wrong.” But you see the point is that it was recognized as a place of refuge. We have the same in 1 Kings 1, when Adonijah feared Solomon, so he arose and went and took hold of the horns of the altar. 1 Kings 2, after Joab’s murder, the murder of Abner, he sought asylum by seizing the horns of the altar in the Jerusalem temple. And even here in the Psalter, Psalm 36, verses 7 and 8, David writes of the picture of the Ark of the Covenant with the cherubim over, and they take refuge over it. Now, that was inaccessible, so it’s a metonymy. It’s a metaphorical reference to taking refuge in the temple.

I think that idea is involved here. So verse 5, he’s safe while enemies are looking on helplessly. And here he says, “Forever I’ll take refuge in the house of the Lord in God’s presence.” So I think that’s involved. But the imagery, I think, is intended to convey more than that, more than just safety. In verses 5 and 6, David is the honored guest. He’s got this lavish abundance of goodness and mercy. Safety, but it’s not just safety; it’s safety with the idea of delight and abundance of provision.

And the changing imagery is not the only shift that David makes in this psalm. There’s a shift you’ll notice in the audience as well. It’s so subtle you can barely notice it. Verses 1 to 3, David is addressing the congregation, talking about the shepherd. In verse 5, David is addressing God directly: “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemy.” But that shift was already made in verse 4. He’s still talking about the pasture and God as a shepherd, but he’s changed the audience: “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I’ll fear no evil for you are with me, your rod, your staff, they comfort me.” So verse 4 is something of a transition verse from 1 to 3 into verse 5.

In verses 1 to 3, he’s talking to the congregation. Verse 5, he turns to address God. In verse 4, in between, there’s a transition to that. But then we come to verse 6, there’s a shift again, and now he’s addressing the congregation again: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

The house of the Lord, of course, is the temple. It’s the place of God’s presence. But when David adds the word “forever,” then suddenly we see the temple evidently as a copy of the heavenly temple, which is what the old temple was. And David sees it as that, and he’s looking beyond this life to the next, to the eternal presence of the king and of his shepherd. So again, there’s an escalation and a heightening of things. Living under God’s care is like, verses 1 to 4, a sheep in lush pasture. Verse 5, it gets better than that; it’s like being a guest in a wealthy sheik’s tent. And then verse 6—well, it’s better than any of that, actually. It’s better to be in God’s very presence forever. And here the metaphors give way to the reality: eternity in the presence of his shepherd king. That is David’s ultimate hope and ours.

This is a psalm then of trust, a psalm of confidence, trust in God’s providence through all of life. Now we should, before we close, recall the royal orientation of the Psalter. This is the psalm of David, the king, living under the care of this God who appointed him. And we’ve seen that in the psalms it points ahead to the greater Davidic king who would come. And in his state of humiliation, Jesus learned what it was to be led by the Father and to live under his care as his shepherd. We have a hint of that in John 16, where Jesus says, “Behold, the hour is coming. Indeed, it has come when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.”

And if we look at it that way, Psalm 23 is a wonderful picture of our Lord and his earthly life. The Lord led him in paths of righteousness and the Lord Jesus trusted his father’s care supremely. Without any doubt, Jesus sang Psalm 23, just as we have done this morning. And he expressed his own confidence in God and his leading and his provision. And I think in words of the book of Hebrews, this is what lies in the background. This is how Jesus learned to be a sympathetic high priest, living under God’s care, as we do.

I think all that is right, but certainly Psalm 23 is for us, and it’s not just about Jesus. Well, it’s about Jesus, but it’s about Jesus in a different way. This psalm is for us because the Lord Jesus Christ is not just one of God’s sheep. The Lord Jesus is the good shepherd. And this psalm does indeed speak for us: Jesus the shepherd and we his sheep.

I wish we had time to go to it now. I was mentioning with Pastor Greg this morning before the message, before the service. Look at Psalm 23, and with all of this in your mind from Psalm 23, make the connections—maybe it’s this afternoon—open up John chapter 10, where Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd,” and see the connections that are made. Not so much verbal, but conceptual. There’re so many of them.

Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. The Father has a people that he’s going to save, and he’s given them to me, and these are my sheep. And I know them, every one of them. And I will protect them at any cost. I lay down my life for the sheep. I’m not like the hired hand who sees the wolf coming and decides he’s not making enough money for this and runs away. I lay down my life for the sheep. I see the danger of divine judgment coming to them and I step between them and it and I take it myself. And I won’t leave them to flounder on their own. I won’t leave it to them to find their way to me. I’ll call them all each by name. And they’ll come, because they know my voice. And they will come. And they will go in and out and find lush, abundant pasture. And I won’t leave any of them on their own to go astray. I’m relentlessly determined to do them good all the days of their life. My favor, my goodness, and my steadfast love will pursue them everywhere they go. And in fact,” he says, “I will not lose one of them. My own honor’s at stake in this. I take full responsibility for them myself. It wouldn’t reflect well on me if I lost any of my sheep. I’ll keep them all. And in fact,” he says, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold all over the world, and I’ll bring them in as well. And eventually all of them will be together in my presence, and there’ll be one flock and one shepherd.”

It is surely no coincidence that Psalm 22 was placed before Psalm 23. If we are to enjoy the safety of the Good Shepherd’s care, the Good Shepherd himself must go the way of the cross. I think imagery from here could be found in Isaiah chapter 53 as well. Verse 6: “We are the sheep who went astray, every one of us to his own way, and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all,” bringing his sheep in through his death. It is by the shepherd’s death in our place that he provides the rich pasture of eternal life.

The New Testament writers pick up on this imagery as well. Hebrews 13:20: Jesus is the “great shepherd of the sheep.” 1 Peter 2:25: He’s the “shepherd and overseer of your souls.” 1 Peter 5:4: He’s the “chief shepherd” for whose appearance we all eagerly wait. Revelation 2: the Lord Jesus will use his shepherd’s rod to defeat his enemies—imagery picked up from Psalm 2 as well. And then I think most importantly, Revelation chapter 7. There we have a wonderful picture of the saints who have come out of the Great Tribulation, and verse 15 of Revelation 7 says they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore. The sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat, for the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

That is to say, Psalm 23:6: “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

So Psalm 23 is about Jesus, but not so much Jesus as the sheep, but Jesus as the shepherd. It’s a psalm of trust, an expression of confidence, a confidence that belongs only to us who belong to him, a confidence that the men and women of the world, I think, just have no clue to see. And the psalm does not try to trick us into thinking that living under God’s care, there’ll never be danger. But it is leading us to think that under this shepherd’s care, I am safe no matter what.

Think of the experiences of David again, who wrote the psalm, and all that he’s been through. This is his testimony. I’ve been through deeper waters than most, but with I AM as my shepherd, I lack nothing.

I have a pastor friend named Mark Webb. Some of you may have heard of him. He’s a gifted songwriter as well as a gifted preacher. He used to live out west years ago, and years ago he was hiking out in the mountains of Wyoming and he and his friends came across this man sitting on the top of a cliff. He had a rifle in his hand, a power scope, and down below in the valley were sheep. And so he’s a shepherd, and they couldn’t communicate with him well. I think he’s from the Near East, and they tried to communicate as well as they could, though they spoke different languages.

But he said it was fascinating. He said, “You know, you watch down at those sheep, and a wolf or anything come by didn’t have a chance. That rifle with that scope, sheep were just fine.” And they tried conversing with him for some time. They went on their way. They came back later in the day, and they got there just in time to see the shepherd there, bringing his sheep and corralling them down to make bed at night. And he said the shepherd let out some kind of a yell. He said it was just really something. He let out a yell of some kind, and those sheep came and gathered around him, and they made a camp, and there they were for the night.

And Mark, being the gifted songwriter he is, went home and wrote a song about it. Illustrates Psalm 23 so well:

High above a commanding rock sits a lonely man with gun in hand and eyes that scan a savage land. Down below graze a flock of sheep, caring not what foes they meet, for just one bleat brings help from above.

And then this chorus: High above I have a shepherd and I’m his sheep. Over my defenseless soul, a watchful eye he keeps. I’ll not fear those howls I hear from devils that taunt. For the Lord, he is my shepherd and I shall not want.

Second stanza: Darkness falls and the shepherd calls and his sheep come round. They trace his steps down to the camp where they bed down. Distant cries through the night they hear, but they sleep with the shepherd near, a place where even sheep need not fear.

And then the chorus again: High above, I have a shepherd, and I’m his sheep. Over my defenseless soul, a watchful eye he keeps. I’ll not fear those howls I hear from devils that taunt, for the Lord, he is my shepherd, and I shall not want.

Amen. Let’s pray. Our Father, we thank you for giving us the Lord Jesus as our shepherd. Forgive us for our failures to trust. May we recall all of these promises that you’ve given to us and all the richness that we have in Him. We pray in His name. Amen.