Psalm 23 - Enjoying Rest and Renewal

The Trinity Dip

I love Trinity, FL. That is not a phrase you would have heard ever come out of my mouth 20 years ago.

For years it was a path through on the way to God’s country. Gainesville, FL. Go Gators.

But 11 years ago, my increible wife, found our house in Trinity, FL. And now I get it.

But truly, we have fallen in love. Two months after moving in, they announced they were building a Publix outside of our neighborhood. A little bit later, a Starbucks. A little bit later, Aldi. And two weeks ago they opened a Chipotle. We are living under the blessing.

I have no complaints. Except for 1 6x6 patch of road between Tamarind Blvd and Little road, just past the Starkey Gap Trail. Every day, I drive over this 6 inch indentation in the road. Every day, I watch the car in front of me bounce, followed by me and then the car behind me.

After bottoming out nearly daily for months, a construction crew arrived. Praise the Lord, Trinity is taking another step toward perfection. The cones went up the crews worked all day. The next morning as I’m beginning to brace, I see the construction results:

DIP Sign

That was the solution.

“Careful: DIP.” “In case you were wondering, that is a dip.” “What was that?!?!? Can’t you read? It very obviously said DIP.”

If you are waiting for the world to solve your problem… You may just get a sign when you need a solution.

Age of Exhaustion

According to a 2025 study from Censuswide: 2/3 of working Americans say they are burnt-out.

Including 81 percent of 18-24 year olds and 83 percent of 25-34 year olds.

The average American 5 hours 1 minute on their phone daily

Non-work screen time is up to 7 hours and 2 minutes

for teens it’s over 8

South Africa it’s over 9 hours a day

Which means if you work full-time at 40 hours a week, you have a second full-time job on screens.

What’s the common greeting socially?

“Hey, how are you? Tired”

Hey, how’s the family? Busy”

We are so busy we just finished Maycember. Our calendars are so busy that we are naming busy months after other busy months.

Anxiety is through the roof. It has gotten so severe that the federal government and the Surgeon General’s office recently had to issue an official, sweeping public health warning. And they didn't just warn us about social media. They warned us about the entire 'digital ecosystem'—the constant pings, the workplace apps, the chatbots, the infinite scroll.

Think about the language the tech world uses. They design apps for 'engagement.' But the medical world is looking at our lives and saying, 'No, that's not engagement. That's an addiction that is starving you of sleep, peace, and real life.' The world built an ecosystem designed to keep you perpetually 'on.' And it is demanding a toll your soul was never meant to pay. THAT’S YOUR SIGN.

THAT’S YOUR SIGN

Today we are visiting a possibly familiar Psalm. The danger in familiar verses is that we may believe that because we have heard it, it doesn’t have anything for us. Because we’ve heard it, it has finished it’s work in us. You’re in a different place than the last time you heard it. So today, we are going to look into a familiar passage that is full of solutions. If we are willing to open our hearts to what God wants to speak to us today. Let’s pray.

PRAY

God, may this message speak your truth. Jesus, may this message reveal your the life that you died for. Holy Spirit, lead us into the way everlasting. We love you, amen.

PSALM 23

Psalm 23 ESV

A Psalm of David. 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 shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Exegesis

If you’re around me for any amount of time, I will probably bring up, my favorite author Henri Nouwen and will give you his book, Life of the Beloved. Outside of the Bible it is the single most transformational book I have ever read. If you want a copy, I will give you one today in the lobby or find your campus pastor. For real.

Nouwen once said of Psalm 23, that it is a “revolutionary weapon against despair.”

And I think he’s right. I’d like us to take this passage and see where we can find rest for our weary souls. Where we can find a weapon against the despair that comes daily.

This passage is a psalm of King David. You remember David? The shepherd boy turned King. The man after God’s own heart. Who was passed over by his own father. Whose best friend died in battle while his best friends dad spent the later part of this life trying to kill him. His marriages were a mess. He had an affair. He ordered the death of his mistress’ husband. He makes me tired just recapping SOME of his story. But its what I love about God. He uses imperfect people to tell his perfect story. So today, if you feel unusable by God, take heart in today’s Psalm.

Psalm 23 can be divided into 3 movements of God. God as our Shepherd. God as our Companion. God as our Host. As we walk through I want you to note where you see God now in your life and where you want to see Him. We will have some time at the end to reflect on it.

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.

Nouwen once suggested that if you wanted to grow in your walk with Christ, you could just repeat this phrase for 30 minutes a day and your life would change. Some translations say “I have all that I need.”

What if we believed that. The Lord is in charge and therefore I need nothing. God, if I have you, that is everything. Could our exhaustion come from striving to get things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like. Thank you, Dave Ramsey.

1 John 2:15–17 ESV

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

1 Timothy 6:6–7 ESV

But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.

Could you go a day without buying something? Could you go a week? What could be more rebellious in a consumer culture than to not buy anything.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

Some of us run so hard that this verse makes sense. Either God is going to have to make you lie down or your life is just going to crash. May I suggest, that this may be a control issue that we need to release. Does that God of the universe have to make you rest?

Psalm 121:1–4 ESV

I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

God doesn’t rest so that you can.

I was talking with Pastor Matthew once, and I was expressing something about, “Jesus sacrificed his whole life.” And Pastor Matthew wisely said: “You’re not Jesus.”

Some of you need to take a nap. Some of you need to say no to something in the coming week month.

God does not need us, but he chooses to use us. He definitely doesnt need the exhausted version of us.

He leads my by quiet waters

Psalm 46:10 ESV

“Be still, and know that I am God.

Some of us are afraid of what we’ll hear in the quiet. Not zombies or voices (we have professionals for that).

rapha - let go of your grip. Do you remember the last time you sat in silence. No sound, no movement. No A/C.

The prophet Elijah encounters the Lord not through the rushing wind, the earthquake or the fire, but

1 Kings 19:12 “And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.”

He restores my soul.

You can’t spell restore without rest. But you can spell sore.

You can’t spell restoration without rest. But you can spell arroint.

Ezekiel 36:26–27 ESV

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

There are some of you today who need restoration. The world has been cruel. It has been gut punch after gut punch and you need restoration. Not just a pause, but renewal.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake

We saw that this week. Through 300 people who took a week of their time to go down the path of righteousness for his name’s sake. In Tampa as it is in Heaven.

So maybe this week, you need to keep that stake in the ground that RIOT doesn’t have to be an event, it can be the start of following the paths of righteousness.

<RIOT STORY>

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

This has also been referred to as the valley of deep sorrow.

This isn't just a verse for a funeral. It’s a verse for the valley of deep sorrow. It's the valley of a marriage that has gone completely cold and silent. It's the valley of a chronic medical diagnosis you have to manage while working full-time. It's the valley of looking at your bank account and realizing you are drowning, but you still have to put on a smile for your kids.

For you are with me, your rod and staff comfort me.

Sheep have bad eyesight, short memories. They have a lot of external enemies , but they’re primary one is themselves. That’s why they need a shepherd

Unlike many other herd animals, domesticated sheep have largely had their fighting instincts bred out of them. When threatened, they freeze or run. They do not possess the aggression or size to fight back against predators like wolves or coyotes.

They Do Not Show Pain: As prey animals, sheep evolved to hide signs of suffering. Showing vulnerability in the wild is fatal, so even when they are sick or injured, they pretend everything is fine. This makes it incredibly difficult for shepherds to detect illnesses before they become severe.

Rod - protection and support

Protect from predators

Guide and direct

The sheep forget there is a shepherd and can’t see him. He’s still there and gently guiding them.

Staff - Pick you up and move you

“Best of all, God is with us.” - John Wesley

Do you need to be reminded that God is here?

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil.

These are signs of victory in the face of opposition.

It means the presence of the enemy and evil and real and it matters not to the Victory of God.

The presence of the enemy is not the absence of God. It is reality.

Romans 8:31 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”

1 Corinthians 15:57 “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

My cup overflows

This is the part that I always subconsciously skipped.

I go victory to goodness, but I miss the how.

When you live with an empty cup, you aren't pouring into your family—you are scraping the bottom of the barrel. And when you scrape the bottom, all people get from you is friction, noise, and metal-on-metal exhaustion. Your kids get the leftovers of your patience. Your spouse gets the leftovers of your energy. God doesn't want you to serve out of your leftovers.

If we take the time to rest. God can fill our cup and then some. And that is what we serve out of. Not the leftovers. It will never run dry.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all of the days of my life.

Doesn’t that sound awesome?

My grandmother was the ultimate southern lady from East Tennessee. Single mom of three, school teacher and volunteer of the century for Piney Flats UMC. One of her quintessential phrases was: “My Goodness Gracious.” Right behind “bless your heart.”

One summer, my brother and I took a road trip (pre-GPS) up the east coast of the US. One of our stops was going to be for a few days in East Tennessee.

And every 100 miles or so, we would update my Mamanette and give her our updated location. No matter where we were or how fast we were going, she would always say, 'My goodness gracious you are making incredible time.' We were her only grandkids and could do no wrong.

I didn’t know until recently that 'My goodness gracious' is a substitution for 'My God.' Meaning, many times a day, my grandmother was honoring her Creator. His goodness. His grace.

But here is the beautiful thing: just like my grandmother was constantly tracking our progress, watching over our journey with eyes of love, David says God is doing the exact same thing for you. Except God takes it a step further.

When David writes 'surely goodness and mercy shall follow me,' the Hebrew word he uses for follow is radaph. It isn’t a passive following, like a shadow. It means to pursue, to chase, to hunt down. My grandmother lovingly tracked us from a distance, but David is saying that God’s goodness and massive grace are actively hunting you down. You can't outrun it. You can't out-drive it. It is pursuing you all the days of your life.

And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Did you notice what you have to do to dwell in the house of the Lord, forever?

Did you see a metric, a task list, a performance review score minimum?

To dwell with God:

You accept his victory and anointing

Acknowledge his presence

Follow his path

Rest

John 14:23 “Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

Progression

Did you notice some of the characterstics of God?

God, the Good Shepherd verses 1-3

God, our Companion in verses 4-5

God, our host verse 6

Did you see the points of view David uses?

He starts with The Lord

Then he shifts to You

So no matter how near or far you feel God is today. He is here.

Application

So the Trinity Dip sign was not the end. After months of acknowledgment a new construction crew showed up.

Same routine, full day of work. Next day, I drive toward the DIP and I see the result of their work.

DIP AHEAD sign

So now the sign has a sign. That’s our solution.

So we’re going to redeem this today. DIP. Don’t Ignore Problems. If you are tired, just saying it doesn’t fix it. If you are weary, ignoring it won’t make it go away.

Don’t Ignore Problems.

"So what do we do with our exhaustion? The world tells you to label it. It gives you a diagnosis, or tells you to schedule a vacation you're too tired to plan anyway. The world gives you a sign when you need a solution.

But David points us to a Shepherd who looks at your packed calendar, your soaring anxiety, your secondary full-time screen job, and says: 'I am not asking you to do more for me. I want to make you lie down.'

Remember that word from earlier? Rapha. It means to drop your grip. To stop white-knuckling the steering wheel of your life.

Some of you came in here today and you are holding on so tight to your kids, your business, your finances, and your reputation that your hands are cramping. And you are utterly exhausted from trying to be the shepherd of your own life. You've been bottoming out on the same dip in the road every single day, waiting for the world to fix it.

[Drop the volume of your voice here]

What if, just for the next two minutes, you let go? What if you look at the Creator of the universe, the one who never slumbers or sleeps so that you can, and you say: 'The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.' > We are going to put Psalm 23 on the screens, line by line. I don’t want you to study it. I don’t want you to take notes on it. I want you to breathe it in. If you are walking through the dark valley, look at the line that says 'You are with me.' If you are starving for peace, look at the 'still waters.' > Let the Shepherd host you at His table for a moment. Open your hands on your lap, drop your grip, and let Him restore your soul