Mothers Day: Psalm 23
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Happy Mothers Day to everyone
These days are wonderful and hard at the same time for so many
Some have lost moms or grieve never being able to be
As wonderful as this day is they remind many things aren’t the way they are supposed to be
Maybe you are here and are new to Christian things and wonder what it all has to do with days that are hard like today for so many
Maybe you have walked with the Lord for a long time and passages like today need new life breathed into them
Who ever you are I pray you would see the unmatched hope and beauty we have in our God
This is inspired by my grandmas words to me
a voice i don’t get to hear on mothers day anymore
But her words have stuck with me for a lifetime
I wasn’t always 6’3” 230 pounds
I was little once and scared to be away from my parents
Staying at my grandparents was hard at night
And every night my grandma would lay with me til i fell asleep and sing what a friend we have in Jesus and recite the 23rd Psalm to me
As I have gotten older her words ring more and more true and full of hope i long for
In the familiar of Psalm 23 is what we long for
And we get to see it today maybe new for the first time
We are going to see 3 things today
Who Is Your Shepherd, The Hero We Long For, and The Tenacity of Hope
Who Is Your Shepherd
Who Is Your Shepherd
The Lord is my shepherd;
I have what I need.
He lets me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside quiet waters.
He renews my life;
he leads me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
There are seasons of life when we feel our facade of orientation to the world become disorientation
In an instant a diagnosis, a call from your boss, a wayward child, and a million other things send life into disarray
Our games of hide and seek with our fragility are over
This is a community cry of resolve in the face of real life
When we are face to face with our fragility the voices we follow are exposed
Every one knows things aren’t how they are supposed to be
A million voices say they know the true way to what we long for
But here is the reality
Christine Hoover said “We must not forget that competing ideas are not equal competitors. There is truth and then there are many iterations of counterfeits to the truth.”
We all have a shepherd the question is - is yours the true shepherd or a counterfeit
The question is who is that voice to you?
Who is defining the good life to you....and how do they say to get there
There is only one voice that knows
It is as if this question is answered by God’s people in verse 1
Who is your shepherd?
The God of the Bible the author of the Gospel is My Shepherd
The Lord is my shepherd…so i have all I need…the Lord is my shepherd I lack nothing even when i dont see it
I trust the shepherd to lead me because he has done it before
The good shepherd can take the weight of our distress and lead us home..
And it is His tenacious work to show you he is what you long for
It is amazing in the book of John the very first words the author records Jesus speaks in John 1
He turns to those looking for hope and asks what do you long for
James Smith says This is the most incisive, piercing question Jesus can ask of us precisely because we are what we want. Our wants and longings and desires are at the core of our identity, the wellspring from which our actions and behavior flow.
And when we are honest on days like today when we long for life and hope and love that doesn’t end he asks a second quesiton
Will you come and see
Will you come and see that in Him the true shepherd alone can come through on the promise that in Him everything sad will come untrue
If you long for thriving in this life the true shepherd alone can give it
If the Lord is your shepherd He seeks out where the sheep can flourish
He is a tenacious shepherd who will not be stopped in getting His Sheep back to wholeness
“He makes me lie down seems to communicate force not love
The language means the love and work of the shepherd is never resting in seeking out an environment in which the sheep may thrive
The surrounding people of Israel had their own gods and promises of thriving and flourishing …so the psalmist is using the language of the day
One nation had a god named Marduk…an inscribed description says of this empty voice “the one “who provides grazing and drinking places”
Do you hear the same language of David?
In a world of counterfeit shepherds David makes the claim there is only one and HIs name is Jesus
This Psalm speaks to the truth that My Shepherd is the real voice i believe can get me home
It echos Exodus and God’s leading
Exodus 15:13 (CSB)
With your faithful love, you will lead the people
you have redeemed;
you will guide them to your holy dwelling
with your strength.
THe word for dwelling literally means Pasture…His place of thriving for HIs people
It is rest and renewal...
rest from trying to save yourself
rest from fear
rest I know personally and didn’t know I longed for for 30 years
The destination isn’t just promised but the way to the flourishing we long for is safe
Psalm 121 captures this better than anywhere else
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to slip;
your Protector will not slumber.
He does it for his name sake
As a cosmic display to all the world looking for the same thing
For His name sake he proves He alone is Faithful
thriving sheep show off the shepherd
And in Him he comes through on His promise that your pain has an expiration date in this life because he is leading you home
And it shows he is the hero every heart longs for
The Hero We Long For
The Hero We Long For
Even when I go through the darkest valley,
I fear no danger,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff—they comfort me.
What image comes to mind when you picture Jesus
My first images of Jesus were a docile guy with good hair sun shining behind him
Calm and ttranquil almost weak
Verse 4 should change how we see the real Jesus
We should picture a warrior dressed for battle
A background of a conquered battle field
Your shepherd is a warrior ready for a fight
Picture the hero you long for
Your shepherd has a rod and that is what we long for
J. L. Porter met shepherds in the same part of the world that david wrote this Psalm from
Here’s Porter’s description:
The shepherds themselves had none of that peaceful and placid aspect which is generally associated with pastoral life and habits. They looked like warriors marching to the battlefield—a long gun slung from the shoulder, a dagger and heavy pistols in the belt, a light battle-axe or iron-headed club in the hand. Such were the equipments; and their fierce flashing eyes and scowling countenances showed but too plainly that they were prepared to use their weapons at any moment.
Another author shakes our view of the shepherd of the familiar Psalm
Jesus Christ, our Shepherd, is no weakling. Our Shepherd is a warrior, as shepherds had to be. No one can snatch his sheep out of his hand . The muscles of his arm are flexed to defend his flock; he doesn’t carry a club for nothing. He is obviously enough for whatever the valley throws at us.
He is not weak
He is not in a war with an equal
He has no match and will use his Rod to fight off the greatest fears we face
Our shepherd is heavily armed. This is why we need not fear the darkest of valleys.
a “rod” isn’t the same thing as a walking stick
it is the shepherd’s primary offensive weapon for protecting the flock from enemies,
The instrument itself is about two and a half feet long with a mace-like end into which the heavy pieces of iron are often embedded. It becomes a formidable weapon
IN the words of the day…your shepherd is a beast
the shepherd’s rod wasn’t only used for fighting
This is the shepherd’s way of personally checking his sheep are all present and accounted for.
One author writes: “The sheep (in the flock of God) can see the shepherd’s rod and remember that it is an ‘alarm system’ used to assure everyone’s safety. If any sheep is lost, the shepherd will be alerted during the ‘evening count.’”
As John 10 promises he will never lose one that is his
The rod helps us to know, that having the Lord “with” us “is not merely a feeling.
It doesn’t signify mere presence but also action. . . .
This presence expresses itself by aggressive action to defeat enemies and protect
Defeating enemies and protecting sheep: both are present in the shepherding work of the Lord Jesus for us
Your shepherd is the hero you long for
Our shepherd is heavily armed. This is why we need not fear the darkest of valleys.
How do we know?
He has entered the darkest valley and defeated its king
The valley of the shadow of death is only a shadow for those who are his because it wasn’t for Him
He took the worst the valley could do
Descended into its depths and conquered death with His own
He died for His sheep so that even in our dying we will truly live
David Gibson says: So let the rod in Jesus’s hand also put strength into your failing heart; for, remember, he’s leading you through the valley, and on the other side is the house of the Lord where we’ll dwell forever. We should always remember how the Bible ends: on the other side of it all, the Lamb wins. The Lamb wins because he’s also a Lion. We should never mistake the tenderness of our shepherd for weakness or his care for us for carelessness about all that threatens us.
He will not put the rod down until we are all through our darkest valley
He will not rest from leading you until he wipes every tear from your eye
Revelation 21:4 is where he is leading those who are his
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.
Let that strengthen you if today is hard
Your pain in this life has an expiration date because your hero has defeated our valleys and promises on that day we won’t even remember the names of what has made us cry
That is the hope we have
And the hope he gives is more tenacious then our fears
The Tenacity of Hope
The Tenacity of Hope
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
as long as I live.
Have you ever been sucked into an infomercial?
We all have
And we know that moment when they hit us with the “But wait theres more”
As if what we have seen isn’t enough David is telling us “But wait there’s more”
As if Revelation 21 isn’t enough there is a promise that says there’s more
We ask in the face of what has given tears and grief can God do anything about it
We ask if He is bigger then funerals and a world that isn’t how its supposed to be
Especially in those seasons where people seem so big and God is so small
The Psalms say that isn’t new
They spoke against God, saying,
“Is God able to provide food in the wilderness?
In the wilderness of a world that isn’t how its supposed to be God are you really able to win?
Verse 5 is the resounding answer of His tenacity in your life to win the war
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Yes he can and he will
The hero we need has used his rod and won the war
Paul says this is what Christ won when he conquered our greatest valley 2000 years ago on Easter Morning
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in Christ’s triumphal procession and through us spreads the aroma of the knowledge of him in every place.
Cancer will be a captive
Lonliness will be a captive
Regret will be a captive
Fear will be a captive
Defeated and watching the procession of victory our King leads us in
They will watch us win and enjoy forever the treasure our King bound the strong man and took back as His own
This would have been a vivid image that struck with so much power
Rome was an unstoppable military force
When they won a war they would bring in a parade the conquered kings and armies and parade them to show Romes might and victory
This Psalm says you will sit whole and full as what has hurt us is led before us as a defeated army
Can God win when the pain and sin seems so big?
David says hold fast
the day is coming when all that isnt how its supposed to be will be paraded as a defeated army before us as we feast in glory
And he shows his tenacity for us to remember on the days we question like Psalm 78
Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
as long as I live.
Look at that word
It will tenaciously Pursue me
Verse 6 is what we need when days bring more tears then laughter more fear then joy more amazing moments that seem to pass too fast
He will not rest until he gets you home to the place of Revelation 21
He will pursue you with a relentless grace
We miss the tenacity in the familiar of a Psalm we have heard a hundred times
The Book of Psalms Psalm 23: You Are with Me
this domesticated language fails to communicate the tenacity of God’s purpose that the term denotes. Normally in the psalms, it is the enemies who pursue the psalmist in order to inflict bodily harm (cf. 7:5; 31:15; 35:3; 71:11; 109:16, etc.). Here, the divine attributes of goodness (ṭôḇ) and hesed are pictured as incarnate forces, which will not rest until they have tracked down and provided a safe harbor for the endangered psalmist
Do you feel the force of who he is
His love for you is a force of nature
His grace and faithfullness to never leave you or forsake you is an unstoppable force
And it is all poured out all the days of your life for you
Do you feel the force of the warrior saviors never stopping pursuit to get you home
If you have made Him your shepherd your pain has an expiration date
If you repent and believe you don’t just to talk about the bad you use the bad to get to the good
To speak of sin by itself, to speak of it apart from the realities of creation and grace, is to forget the resolve of God. God wants you whole and will pay any price to get it back. Human sin is stubborn, but not as stubborn as the grace of God and not half so persistent, not half so ready to suffer to win its way
Our regrets and scars and mistakes may seem tenacious in reminding us we aren’t whole
But they aren’t nearly as tenacious as the God who set his face like flint to save you
Sin is stubborn but not as stubborn as God’s resolve to make you whole and new
This is all yours if he is your shepherd
what you long for is only found in the company of the true Shepherd
One author says The gifts of God—vitality, love, forgiveness, courage against evil, joy at our depths, and everything else that flows from the work of Christ—may be found only in the company of God.
If you have never made Him your shepherd you can today
Lets pray