Walking With God # 9: He will Lead me Home, Psalm 23

Introduction: Hi, my name is Jeremy, & I am a HOMEBODY. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’d hop on a plane tomorrow if it meant taking a trip. But if you want me to go to Walmart, that’s alright. I don’t need anything that bad. Picking up is better than going in. Take out - that’s better than eating out. The older I get the more I like being at home.

Over the course of my life, I’ve lived in 19 different places that I called home, and the place where I live now is only temporary. We’re renting, but at some point, we will buy a house, and I’ll call that place HOME. Right now, we’re sort of halfway looking- going to open houses, checking out properties, & discovering new parts of the city.We’re pre-approved, so if the right house comes along, we are ready to make an offer. We also have a realtor, & when we get really serious about a house, we’ll be relying on her to do some things we can’t do on our own- see a house when it’s not open, help us make an offer, negotiate the deal, & walk us through the buying process. We’re expecting Leslie to lead us home.

That’s exactly what David, the writer of Psalm 23 was expecting the LORD to do for him, when he wrote- 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. 4Yea, 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. 5You 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.

The 23rd Psalm is a psalm of confidence, showing a close relationship between the psalmist & God. David calls the LORD his shepherd, which means that he believes God is taking care of him- feeding, leading, & loving him, i.e., tending to his needs like a shepherd tends to his flock.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd. John 10:11, Iam the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep... 14, Iam the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own… 27, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

David had confidence that the LORD his shepherd, would feed him, lead him, & love him, & ultimately bring him into His eternal dwelling place. When the Lord Jesus Christ is our shepherd, we can have the same confidence. He will lead us home. How will He do it?

1. He leads us with His PROVISION, 1-3.

David was a shepherd, and the metaphor of the LORD as his shepherd hit close to home. He knew what it was to care for a flock, & he knew that when it came to the Lord’s care, he was never in want. Want- to be lacking, or inadequate. With God as his shepherd, David never had lack. Psalm 37:25, Ihave been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread.

Vs. 2, God took care of his physical needs- pictured here as green pastures & still waters. Makes me to lie down- to cause to recline, implying rest. That the rest occurs in a green pasture, or grass-filled place emphasizes the idea of nourishment or abundance. I don’t know about you, but when I am really full, I’m ready to lie down & take a rest. Leading beside still waters (calm, quiet)emphasizes more deeply the idea of rest. A loud, running stream might frighten a sheep, but quiet flowing water would be soothing.

Rest is one of our greatest needs- in the same category as air, food, water, shelter, & clothing. Rest is a gift from God & fundamentally linked to faith in God. To truly rest & recharge, we must trust that when we lie down at night or let go of things that are out of our control, God IS in control & He will provide. God is the shepherd who never sleeps nor slumbers, so that we can rest & recharge.

Vs. 3, God took care of his spiritual needs- restore his soul. Restores- to turn back; bring back into its original existence, use, function, or position.

ILL: My in-laws bought a 1920s Craftsmen style house- they toured the house, saw that it had good bones, a lot of potential, & put in an offer. Between the time that they saw the house & bought the house, the owners had painted the wood floors brown. These were the original wood plank, tongue & groove floors from the 1920s; so, my father-in-law restored them- stripped off the paint, sanded down the wear, & re-stained them to a beautiful new finish.

That’s what’s wrong with us- our souls have been walked on, scratched up, & beaten down.A fresh coat of paint is not the answer. We need a complete restoration & only God can do that. He leads us in paths of righteousness. Paths- a wagon track, firm path. At our last house, we have a path beaten down from the sun room through the backyard into the pasture where we feed the goats. You can see the way- it’s a rut.

For God to lead us in a rut of righteousness is a blessed path to be in. When someone is in a rut, we usually mean it as a bad thing, but God is in a rut & that’s a good thing- He never changes. Deuteronomy 32:4, He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.

God provides us with rest & righteousness through Jesus Christ. Matthew 11:28, Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 2 Corinthians 5:21, For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 

Jesus is our Good Shepherd who gives us rest & leads us in the paths of righteousness. That is the path that will lead us home to live with Him. The LORD is our Shepherd; He leads us with His provision.

2. He leads us with His PROTECTION, 4-5

This Psalm is written from the standpoint of a sheep. David knew what it was to be a shepherd, but he also knew what it was to be a sheep. By all accounts, sheep are pretty dumb & really cannot survive on their own.

Sheep have no hope of green pastures, still waters, or right paths without him, so when he moves them to another pasture, they follow him. Imagine this- two pastures separated by a valley: a long, dark valley with rocky crags on either side.Shadow of death- darkness of gloom, deep shadow cast by a great object. There’s no telling what kind of dangers or troubles are lurking within the valley. All of us are going to walk through darkness and gloom, & the natural response is fear.

The confidence of the psalmist is “I will fear no evil,” not because of the absence of evil (harm) but because of the presence of the Shepherd.The shepherd has a rod & a staff; these are tools of his trade. Rod was a long thin stick of wood or metal that was used to guide sheep, & they would pass under to be counted. It is a symbol of divine care.

The Shepherd’s staff is primarily an aid for walking, the crook is useful for keeping sheep in line, pulling them out of thickets or crevices. In the hands of the shepherd, the rod & staff give COMFORT.

In vs. 5, there is a shift of metaphors. To this point, the psalmist has depicted God as a shepherd, now He is a host. You don’t have to stretch the Shepherd motif too far to see the connection. Having led the flock through a valley of unseen dangers, now on the other side of it they begin to feed, while the predators are looking on. But even if you do switch to the host motif, there’s some great imagery here.

In the ancient near east, hospitality was more than a meal, it was a moral imperative. Besides the preparation of a meal there was the expectation of protection. As long as you were a guest, your safety was assured despite the presence of enemies. It was customary to anoint the heads of guests with oil. Oil symbolizes gladness, & the overflowing cup symbolizes abundance. Let’s call this JOY.

Who does the Christian have as a source of Comfort & Joy? The Holy Spirit is the Christian’s source of COMFORT & JOY. Romans 14:17, the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Jesus told His disciples that He would ask the Father to give them another Comforter (the Holy Spirit) “that He may abide with you forever” (John 14:16).

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus, the invisible presence of the Lord WITH us, & IN us to convict, teach, & seal us. When we trust in Jesus, we are “sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14).

God’s protection over His people is felt by the comfort & joy we receive from His presence, the Holy Spirit of promise.

3. He leads us with His PROMISE, 6.

Surely- a word of confidence, yea, indeed. ILL: Indeed- I need Indeed, Indeed you do; Surely goodness & mercy will follow me, Surely it will. The sure promise is based on the confidence he has in God’s provision and protection, or vice-versa, he has confidence in God’s provision & protection because he has God’s promise.

The promise harkens back to the Lord’s revelation of Himself, His covenant attributes. Exodus 34:6, And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.

Goodness- (tov)good, pleasant, valuable; Mercy- (hesed) God’s loyal love, a function of His nature because God is love (1 John 4:8). Follow- pursue, run after.

David’s confidence is in a person, not a promise. He is sure that goodness & mercy will pursue him because that’s who God is- He is Good, He is Merciful, and He runs down His people. At some point David knows that the goodness & mercy of God will one day catch up with him, and he will dwell in the Lord’s house forever.

When you look back over the psalm, you realize that this place always was his destination. Psalm 23 really is a picture of God before us (lead), God beside us (protect), & God behind us (pursue). Psalm 139:5-6, You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it.

This world is not our home. Hebrews 13:14, For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. 2 Corinthians 5:1, For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. We’re merely renting here & we are relying upon the Lord Jesus to lead us home.

Jesus said, John 14:3-4, And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, & the Life, no one comes to God except through Him. Jesus is the Good Shepherd, & He will lead us, Home.