Psalm 23 Week 2

Announcements

Huge shoutout to our teams that served over the last couple of weeks

Teams that served at Etowah Valley Humane Society and Good Neighbor Homeless Shelter last week

A team that served Key Autism Center yesterday as they prepared for their open house next week.

Our party at the Park that was scheduled for July 26 has been postponed

Recap

We are in a series on Psalm 23

Last week we talked about the weight carried in David’s usage of the full name of God (Yahweh)

We also discussed the fact that He associated God’s authority with His affection

He makes me to lie down in green pastures - rest in todays provision

He leads me beside still waters - the small things are still God’s handiwork.

He restores my soul - He calls me to repentance.

____________

Psalm 23 NKJV

A Psalm of David. 1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. 4 Yea, 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 runs over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.

Last week I preached to you about Green Pastures…today I want to preach on Dark Valleys | Let’s Pray.

_________ The story of Jordan’s Go Kart

We had to simply ride in the yard until someone took a four wheeler and rode through the woods

We couldn’t go nearly as far until someone charted a course ahead of us and made a way for us to travel the same path.

__________

He leads me in paths of righteousness

Psalms 23 continues; He leads me in PATHS of righteousness.

Paths = ma-gal = wagon tracks or wagon ruts.

These are paths that have been charted by someone else.

I can’t chart my own path…

______

THE ERROR OF RELATAVISM.

Relatavism gives me the right to define right.

We are not charting our own course.

We do not get to define what is and is not right.

Proverbs 14:12 NKJV

12 There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.

I cannot expect to chart my own path and end at God’s purpose.

He leads me in paths that have already been charted.

He has already shown me the way to live.

_________ Jesus is our example

He leads me in the wagon tracks that he has already set out for me.

I simply have to study Jesus in order to come to understand who God has called me to be.

Ephesians 5:1 NKJV

1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.

___________ Living an accurate life

Scripture refers to Jesus as “Jesus Christ the righteous.”; well what does “righteousness” mean?

Righteousness simply means living a life of accuracy.

We speak in terms of right and wrong, but scripture lays out a dichotomy of on target and off target.

Sin by it’s very definition is simply missing the mark.

God help me to not be satisfied to simply live a life that isn’t grossly immoral…help me to hunger for the wagon tracks of accuracy that is following after Jesus.

__________

It’s not all good times in the wagon wheel lifestyle

It would be nice to think that walking in the wheel tracks of accurate living means that nothing bad ever happens…

But this is a false sense of Godly promise.

We are not promised a life of joy and happiness.

Sometimes walking in the wagon tracks of accuracy lead you to places of deep darkness.

__________ The Valley is as Holy as the Pasture

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

A better translation is even when I walk through the “DARKEST VALLEY.”

As God ordained and productive as the green pastures are

As God ordained and productive as the still waters are

So too are the seasons in which we feel the damp coldness of the dark valley.

___________ Are you afraid of the dark?

A lot of us are scared of the dark.

We’re scared of the dark because we have falsely attributed the deed of darkness to the devil.

________ David’s Dark Insight

Psalm 18:4–6 NKJV

4 The pangs of death surrounded me, And the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. 5 The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me. 6 In my distress I called upon the Lord, And cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, And my cry came before Him, even to His ears.

David writes this Psalm as he reminisces a dark season.

He is recounting one of the many times that he faced an attack of a very real enemy.

These are one of the moments in his life wherein he was led in his accurate living into a place of deep darkness.

________ We like to identify with David in the fact that He was anointed to be a Psalmist…anointed to slay a giant…anointed to lead a nation…

Anointed to have a spear thrown at you

Anointed to have a son rebel against you

Anointed to have unspeakable incestual sin in your kids.

David was a man after God’s own heart…but he did not live a life that was without struggle.

David shows us a beautiful reality about God…that he is not absent in the darkness…

__________

Psalm 18:11 NKJV

11 He made darkness His secret place; His canopy around Him was dark waters And thick clouds of the skies.

The seasons of struggle have one beautiful byproduct…

You find a place in the Lord that is not accessible in seasons of triumph.

We can’t know Him as our healer if we never face affliction

We can’t now Him as our deliverer if we never face bondage

We can’t know Him as our provider if we never face lack

The darkness is not a sentence…it is an invitation to another level!

__________ We don’t have to be afraid in seasons of darkness and death.

This is not because the evil is not real

This is not because the evil is not substantial

The promise of Psalm 23 does not belittle the evil or negate the reality of it’s negative effects.

It simply points our attention to a superlative reality that the evil of the darkness pales in comparison to the promise of His presence.

__________ The rod and the staff are indicating the two fold activity of our shepherd in the valley of darkness and death.

(1) His rod protects us

We are increasingly vulnerable during the night.

Crime rates are pretty much the same between night and daytime

But the types of crime that are higher at night are crimes that involve an attacker and a victim

Murder, rape, assault, robbery

When we are in dark seasons we are extremely vulnerable to attack.

Depression is not limited to darkness but it is prevalent in darkness

Lust is not limited to darkness but it is prevalent in darkness

Cynicism is not limited to darkness but it is prevalent in darkness.

The rod protects us in seasons where attacks we can’t even see are imminent.

__________ (2) His Staff Corrects Us

The staff keeps us from going off track when we are in seasons of darkness.

Don’t make decisions that will effect the light in the dark.

When we are emotional we should be motionless.

Seasons of darkness are the best seasons to simply “be still and know he is God.”

METROPOLIS, TEXAS

We didn’t make rash decisions or quick moves…we simply waited on the Lord

_________ Comforted by Repentance

The rod and the staff “comfort me”

nhm = to make sorry, console oneself, repent.

The rod that protects me and the staff that corrects me cause me to repent.

Sometimes we are in valleys of our own making

Sometimes we make the valley worse by our response.

Often I am in need of repentance for either the actions that got me in the valley or the actions I take in the valley.

HARD TIMES ARE THE GREATEST TOOLS OF MATURATION IN THE KINGDOM!

The call to repentance is one of the greatest gifts our shepherd can offer us.