He Leadeth Me

Psalm 23 (be clear, not clever)

There is probably not a more well known passage of the Bible than our text this morning. Even for those who aren’t Christians or didn’t grow up in a Christian home, if you’ve spent more than five seconds in a Hobby Lobby you’ve come across this Psalm. You’ve seen the wall art possibly with a little lamb on it. We often hear it at death beds or funeral services to comfort those who are nearing death or their grieving families. But this passage is not just for the end of life, but is a beautiful picture of the whole of the Christian life. What we will see this morning is that Christ, the good shepherd, leads us through all of life. My goal this morning is to show us how Christ shepherds us in four parts. First he gives us rest, second he leads us to righteousness, next he defends us, and finally he fellowships with us. But to see this we need the help of the Holy Spirit, so let’s pray

-pray-

The first way in which Christ shepherds us is by caring for us. We see here that because He is shepherding us, we will not be in want. He is caring for us, interceding on our behalf as our Great High Priest, calling out to His Father for all of the things that we need. So often we find ourselves in need or perhaps even want. We want or need new jobs that help us pay the bills and put food on the family table. We need gas in the car. We need a more understanding boss. We need lower gas prices, healing from sickness. Some of you just need a minute to breathe. Some of us just need something to go our way. And we may be tempted to think that God is standing far off, unconcerned and disillusioned with our condition. But here we see that rather He supplies all of our needs. God is willing to condescend to us.

Shepherding is not this glorious job that is fitting for the Lord. It is the job that only those who are unable to do anything else go and do. It is not glamorous, it is not clean, it is often not profitable. and yet God is willing to stoop so low out of care for us. Calvin here says “Under the similitude of a shepherd, he commends the care which God, in his providence, had exercised towards him. His language implies that God had no less care of him than a shepherd has of the sheep who are committed to his charge. God, in the Scripture, frequently takes to himself the name, and puts on the character of a shepherd, and this is no mean token of his tender love towards us. As this is a lowly and homely manner of speaking, He who does not disdain to stoop so low for our sake, must bear a singularly strong affection towards us.”

He cares for us by making us lie down in green pastures and leading us beside the still waters. These verbs here are interesting to make me lie down and to lead me to still waters, they carry with them this idea that God forces us down, He will cause us to rest. He does this graciously. He gives us green pastures where we can graze and still safe waters where we can drink. The Lord takes care of his sheep. He brings us to a place where we can safely rest. He comforts and cares for us. He gives us rest.

There have been times, even here lately, that after a long day of work and just life that I lay down at night, it's the most amazing experience. The week we got married we got us a brand new king bed. It’s got the perfect comfort level. And Lindsey likes to keep the air on at night so that the bedrooms are very cold. So when my body hits the bed and my head hits the pillow, every time I lay down I say “Oh man I love this bed”. And the only thing better than getting to rest, is getting to get up whenever you want. Getting to sleep in and let your body just naturally wake up.

Or if you’re like me and you played football or any other kind of sport and you can take a water break. I grew up in Texarkana which means we had that soul crushing East Texas humidity. And the mornings weren’t so bad but in the afternoon the dirt would kick up and the air would sit heavy, and your tongue sticks to your mouth so tightly it’s like peanut butter, there is nothing you want more than to hear “go get some water”. This is the same care that Christ gives us. He provides what we need, and cares for us.

But not just this, he goes and brings us back to Himself. This is what is meant here by Him “restoring our souls''. The word for restore here is the same word often used for repent or to turn back. The Good Shepherd cares enough for His sheep that when they scatter or wander off and away He goes and gets them. He goes and restores us to Himself. He delights to bring us as our confession says “from a state of sin and misery, to a state of salvation.” There is no greater way in which He can care for us, but to die for us. He Himself says in John 10, I am the good shepherd, I lay down my life for the sheep'' But he continues to do this. When we wander away and lose ourselves in the wilderness, he does not begrudgingly save us. He does not gripe at us for once again needing His mercy. He goes again and again to restore us back to his green pastures and still waters. He goes again to care for us, loving us the same.

But second we see that Christ shepherds us by leading us in paths of righteousness. Notice here that we do not walk and tread these paths of righteousness alone. Christ does not bring us to his pastures and waters and then send us out in order to figure out how we must then live as his good sheep. I think so many times we forget this. We are fine with justification being an act of God’s free grace that He does totally of Himself. Yeah Jesus we need you to come and save us. But I think oftentimes we think that we’re just little holy wind up toys. That God just merely needs to breathe life into us and justify us, wind us up and let us find the path. We come to the Christian life as if we walk the paths alone; that we figure it out on our own. But we don’t graduate from grace. He does not send us out from Himself so that we can become more like Him. That just doesn’t make sense.

Rather He leads us in these paths. Which means two things I think for us. First is that our growth in the Christian life is dependent on God. Our confession calls it a “work of God’s free grace where renewing us totally after God’s image we are able to more and more die unto sin and live unto righteousness” That doesn’t happen without the working of God’s free grace. It is dependant on God’s working. And while this may seem a little scary, it’s actually the best news I have for you this morning. Because the second thing we should take away from this is that because the Lord leads us down these paths, He will bring us all the way. There are no shortened of the stick salvations. God does not justify us by faith without the assurance that we will persevere to the end. As the hymn says “All the Way my Savior leads me.” So then the response that we should have to Him leading us is “Sounds great! Let’s go!”

Though we should also notice that He does this for His namesake. Not because we’ve earned it, but because He leads us there anyway. Not because we’re good, rather because He is good. What we see is that when God does something for his own namesake; He does it. Not because of who we are- but rather because of who God is. Christ shepherds us by leading us in these paths of righteousness.

Third, Christ shepherds us by defending us. David writes in verse 4, “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.” This is the part we all know. And it is perhaps the part we so often fear. This is not just literal death or being on the edge of dying. The better understanding is the deepest darkest place. It is what we so often refer to as “rock bottom” It is the worst possible scenario that you can imagine. It is the loss of a job and you not knowing how the bills will get paid. It is the doctor calling you back and the options are limited. It is sometimes the death of a parent, a sibling, a spouse, or a friend. It is all of the bad things we could ever imagine.

We don’t want to walk that path. And maybe we come to this part and we believe that this deepest dark valley is as if we’ve gotten off the wrong exit. That maybe we took a wrong turn somewhere. But the text does not allow that. Rather what we see is that the part of walking the path of righteousness is walking through the valley. This is intense, because what I’m telling you is that all of these hard moments, all of the pain and heartache, all of the uncertainty was not the place where God stopped leading you. Rather it is the exact place you were supposed to be. Which means in the days or months or years of grief and hardship and pain, when we cry out to God in our anger, sadness, or fear, He is not silent. He is not too far away that He does not care for us. Rather we fear no evil because God is with us. The language here, the word “with” is actually to stand or to go before. We must know that the Christian life carries us through these valleys of darkness- but Christ goes before us, so we take heart.

But David goes on to say that the rod and staff of the Lord are a comfort to him. Now oftentimes the way this gets applied and preached is that the rod is for our discipline and the staff is for our rescue. That when we are in the deep valleys God will discipline us with the rod, even sometimes breaking our legs so that we learn to stay near Him and not to wander off. And that while it may seem momentarily painful for God to discipline us, the rod and staff are an odd but necessary comfort. And maybe that is the case.

But if I’m really being honest- the discipline of God doesn’t bring me comfort. The Good Shepherd loves His sheep, he is patient with them, He goes and gets them. But he also defends them. You will remember David when talking about Goliath tells the story fo the bear and the lion. The rod was a club and was used not so much for discipline but for protection. It’s not for the shepherd to crack the legs of the sheep. Jesus himself tells us that the hired hand who doesn't own the sheep sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep to flee. That one who doesn’t care for his sheep leaves them to be scattered by wolves.

What we can also see from Leviticus 27, that “passing under the rod” of the shepherd was the way in which he acknowledged which sheep are his. Jesus again in John 10 says “The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers''

So then my point is this. That the rod and staff of the Good Shepherd is not his discipline. It is not about Jesus coming over to us when we wander and snapping our legs so that we limp and learn to stay near. The rod is a comfort for us because with it the Lord is declaring us as His. He is claiming us and putting His name on us. Our confession and the scripture speaks about adoption- I think this is what is in mind here. That God puts His name on us and calls us His. This is a comfort for us because if we are His, we are His forever. As Christ again says in John 10, nobody will pluck us out of his hand.The rod also is for defending us. It’s not to beat us into submission, but it comforts me because Christ uses it to defend me from wolves and bears. He subdues us to Himself, rules and defends us.

We see finally the fourth way in which Christ shepherds us, that is that He fellowships with us. David speaks of the table prepared for us in the presence of our enemies. The Lord welcomes us in to fellowship. He brings us in, counts us as friends at his banquet table. He dines with us. And maybe I’m just a strong sacramentalist, but I strongly believe that we can draw a clear line from this to the Lord’s Supper. That when we come to the table we’re saying a lot of things and God is saying a lot o things to us; but one of the strongest things He is declaring to us every time we eat His body and drink His blood is “You are welcome here. This is Christ for you.” It is the declaration that you are united to Christ by faith alone and that He delights in you. This is what we are to understand when David speaks of his head being anointed with oil- the best guest, the honored guest is anointed with oil as a sign to all of those present that the host has given them a great honor.

The conclusion to this psalm is the summary of the Christian life, how we should look and see the Lord’s shepherding work. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me and I will dwell in the House of the Lord. First, the word for mercy here is actually chesed, which is this Hebrew word we struggle to translate very well. It isn’t just love or mercy, rather it is this unending, unchanging, covenant love. It is this strong affection. It is God’s unending covenant faithfulness to us. Also, the word follow here isn’t maybe what we think of when we hear follow. It is to hunt down, to pursue and chase. So then if we were to read this literally it is, “Surely the goodness and unchanging covenant love of God will chase me down and pursue me forever. He will never cease in being good to us. He will never leave us. He will never stop leading us. He fellowships with us and delights in us, to the point that Christ is more than willing to die for us. He makes us part of His house forever.

So then to close I would like to read this psalm again, a bit slowly so