Who Do You Look To

Last week we began our series on The Good Shepherd where we are looking through the 23 Psalm, and as we started last week we began with the overall premise that not only is the Lord a shepherd, he is our shepherd. We have to personally accept Him as Our shepherd if we want all of the other things in the Psalm to be effective. Today we are going to continue on in the Psalm, but just as we did last week, I want to start off our service this morning and read all of the Psalm as a whole just to ensure that we get all of it together for context.

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.

As we discussed last week, David was a shepherd, he was king by the time we penned this Psalm, but David was at heart a shepherd, and this is a motif that he uses well in this Psalm. Psalm 23 paints a picture of a loving, caring, and concerned shepherd. Our Good Shepherd sustains our mind, body, and soul in the present and in the future. He guides us to rest (v. 2) and restoration (v. 3).

David Powlison created the tongue in cheek “Anti-psalm 23,” which says this:

I’m on my own.

No one looks out for me or protects me.

I experience a continual sense of need. Nothing’s quite right.

I’m always restless. I’m easily frustrated and often disappointed.

It’s a jungle — I feel overwhelmed. It’s a desert — I’m thirsty.

My soul feels broken, twisted, and stuck. I can’t fix myself.

I stumble down some dark paths.

Still, I insist: I want to do what I want, when I want, how I want.

But life’s confusing. Why don’t things ever really work out?

I’m haunted by emptiness and futility — shadows of death.

I fear the big hurt and final loss.

Death is waiting for me at the end of every road,

but I’d rather not think about that.

I spend my life protecting myself. Bad things can happen.

I find no lasting comfort.

I’m alone … facing everything that could hurt me.

Are my friends really friends?

Other people use me for their own ends.

I can’t really trust anyone. No one has my back.

No one is really for me — except me.

And I’m so much all about ME, sometimes it’s sickening.

I belong to no one except myself.

My cup is never quite full enough. I’m left empty.

Disappointment follows me all the days of my life.

Will I just be obliterated into nothingness?

Will I be alone forever, homeless, free-falling into void?

Sartre said, “Hell is other people.”

I have to add, “Hell is also myself.”

It’s a living death,

and then I die.

Who Do We Look To For our Success?

Sadly, we live in a world that lauds self-sufficiency, sometimes causing detrimental effects to our faith, and sometimes our health. In the United States, the idea of dependence on someone else or taking time for rest and physical restoration can seem foreign to people pursuing the American dream. Our modern society glorifies busyness as the means to success and wealth. It elevates productivity above rest. Some so called “self-made millionaires” insist that they—and everyone who aspires to be like them—must work twelve, fifteen, eighteen hours a day! While long hours might be a wise choice for the short term in launching a new business or out of necessity in times of financial struggle, it’s hardly a sustainable and healthy long-term goal.

Today, instead of aspiring to luxury vacations or materials, so often we aspire to busyness. While this might signal on social media or in certain social circles that we have arrived, the busyness takes its toll. Ask anyone trying to balance work, family, health, and a social life how they’re doing, and they will often say, “I’m tired.” Workers are burning out. “Being addicted to chronic busyness might feel good because of the adrenaline rush you get from the stress of all the activities, but it can be harmful to your health. The clinical staff at the Mayo Clinic warns, ‘The long-term activation of the stress-response system—and the subsequent overexposure to cortisol and other stress hormones—can disrupt almost all your body’s processes.’ Those stress hormones can increase your risk of health problems such as anxiety, depression, headaches, heart disease, sleep problems and even memory and concentration impairment. As a society, we need to stop glorifying being busy. We need to stop competing against each other for who is the busiest. Chronic busyness should not be a badge of honor or status symbol. It is a warning sign that things need to change”

In his letter to people who know Jesus, James alerted us to something about personal and interpersonal chaos.

James 3:16 ESV

For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.

Wherever you find “confusion and bad stuff” (James 3:16 paraphrase), you’ll find two underlying problems. First, “bad zeal” wants the wrong things too much. Second, “selfish ambition” organizes life around all-about-Me.

James is unblinking about what’s wrong, but he never gives the mess last say:

James 4:6 ESV

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

“God gives more grace” (4:6). More than what? His goodness is more than all that goes wrong inside us. Confusion and bad stuff is exactly what he goes to work on.

In the face of this hustle culture that glorifies personal reliance and busyness as the answer for how you are to succeed, Psalm 23 points us toward a Savior, a Shepherd that wants us to rely on Him.

Matthew 11:28 ESV

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

The Shepherd wants His children to come to him with the burden of providing, of having the answers, of succeeding, all this things the world tells us we are to be concerned with, and to trust Him and accept the rest that He provides.

Psalm 23 makes the believer take an important look at their life. God is calling each of us to slow down, rest, and be restored in him.

Psalm 23:3 ESV

He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Instead of pursuing paths of achievement or wealth, can we allow God to lead us in paths of righteousness (v. 3) for the sake of the Lord? This doesn’t mean that we will never grow weary or that our work, family, or personal responsibilities are unrighteous. God can and does work in and through our everyday lives. However, the focus and pace of our lives need to be influenced by the leadership of the God who sustains us, gives us rest, and restores our souls. Our pursuits need to fall in the appropriate line of priority after our pursuit of God. It only makes sense that the shepherd knows his sheep and what they need. He is able to provide for those needs, when we allow him.

Who Do We Look to for Rest

David was not a perfect person, nor was his life one of ease and comfort. Even after being anointed as God’s chosen king, he faced incredible hardship, and his path to kingship was fraught with tension and struggle. David was banished from Saul’s court (1 Samuel 18:13). He was given a wife “as a snare,” but instead his wife loved him (1 Samuel 18:21–28). David was on the run because Saul wanted to kill him (1 Samuel 19; 21; 23). He had to live off the land (1 Samuel 25). All of this happened before he even became king! David was likely well acquainted with weariness, but he was also well acquainted with the Shepherd.

It seems that “the tender care of the shepherd described in the previous verse had its effect. David’s soul was restored by the figurative green pastures and still waters the shepherd brought to him”. By the time David wrote Psalm 23, his soul had been restored by the shepherd over and over again.

When we grow weary, when the struggles of this world—some out of our control and some directly related to our sin—come our way, we must return to the shepherd’s green pastures and still waters again and again. God is our sustainer.

Charles Spurgeon commented on this passage, saying that “when the soul grows sorrowful he revives it; when it is sinful he sanctifies it; when it is weak he strengthens it. ‘He’ does it. His ministers could not do it if he did not. His Word would not avail by itself. ‘He restoreth my soul.’ Are any of us low in grace? Do we feel that our spirituality is at its lowest ebb? He who turns the ebb into the flood can soon restore our soul. Pray to him, then, for the blessing—‘Restore thou me, thou Shepherd of my soul!’”

For many of us, the idea that we have to return to God again and again flies directly in the face of our pride and self-sufficiency. We imagine a God who is tired of hearing from us, tired of picking us up and dusting us off and sending us back out, tired of forgiving us, tired of dealing with us. But that isn’t the nature of God.

God sees what’s operating on the inside, as well as what’s oozing out for all to see. He sizes it up for what it is, and then helps us to understand life the same way he does.

These patterns of inner motivation are what the Bible calls your “heart.” We generate substitutes for God. The false masters are “little gods” that become I GOTTA HAVE THAT! Our blind, misplaced devotion enslaves us. We express our submission to little gods by destructive lifestyles, by our emotions, thoughts, words, and choices that the Bible calls foolish. God wants us to see our hearts the way he sees us. Inside and out, this is exactly what Jesus came to forgive and aims to transform.

Jesus died to overthrow the dictatorship of the flesh. Jesus died so that you won’t die clinging tight to your idols. Jesus died so you won’t waste your life massaging and refining self-preoccupation. Jesus lives to become your true Master!

Here’s the whole message in a sound bite:

2 Corinthians 5:15 ESV

and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

From Jesus’ point of view, there are two fundamentally different ways of doing life. One way, you’re connected to a God who’s involved in your life. Psalm 23 is all about this: “The Lord is my shepherd … and his goodness and mercy surely follow me all the days of my life.” The other way, you’re pretty much on your own and disconnected.

The anti-psalm tells what life feels like and looks like whenever God vanishes from sight. The anti-psalm captures the driven-ness and pointlessness of life-purposes that are petty and self-defeating. It expresses the fears and silent despair that cannot find a voice because there’s no one to really talk to.

Something bad gets last say when whatever you live for is not God.

And when you’re caught up in the anti-psalm, it doesn’t help that so often you’re labeled a “disorder,” a “syndrome” or a “case.” The problem is much more serious: The disorder is “my life.” The syndrome is “I’m on my own.” The case is “Who am I and what am I living for?” when too clearly I am the center of my story.

But the anti-psalm doesn’t need to tell the final story. It only becomes your reality when you construct your reality from a lie. In reality, someone else is the center of the story. Nobody can make Jesus go away. The I AM was, is and will be, whether or not people acknowledge that.

When you awaken, when you see who Jesus actually is, everything changes. You see the Person whose care and ability you can trust. You experience His care. You see the Person whose glory you are meant to worship. You love Him who loves you. The real Psalm 23 captures what life feels like and looks like when Jesus Christ puts his hand on your shoulder.

The question today remains Who Do you Look To? We can look to ourselves for rest and comfort and success, and all of the others things that we strive for in life, or we can look to the Shepherd. As we saw today in both the Psalm and the anti-psalm, only one of those choices will lead to fulfillment and peace.