HE & me

It’s been a couple of summers, but here we are, back in the Psalms. It’s “Psummer in the Psalms”. All told, between a few of us here, we’ve preached 34 individual psalms so far.

Some of them were scattered psalms. But then, a few summers ago, we started at Psalm 1 and preached consecutively through the summer. And then we did it the next summer.

The last time we were in the psalms, we stopped at Psalm 22. It works out well; I get to preach Psalm 23 this morning. I’ve been so excited to preach this.

What a joy this psalm is!

Dollars to donuts, if you know any of the psalms by heart, it’s this one.

This morning, I want us to listen to this psalm anew and think about it with fresh eyes.

If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to Psalm 23. Stay seated and follow along as my good friend, Keith Green, takes us through Psalm 23.

[VIDEO: Keith Green “The Lord is My Shepherd”]

I love that song. It helps me really feel this psalm. Plus, it doesn’t get any better than Keith Green. And if you disagree with that, you’re wrong and I’ll be praying for you.

The likelihood that you are familiar with this particular psalm is pretty good. It’s been read and memorized, shared at funerals and gravesides, and it has been of comfort to many throughout their lives.

There’s no psalm quite like it, really. One would think it’d be hard to pick a favorite psalm for the masses, but it seems like this psalm is it.

For whatever reason, people ask for the 23rd Psalm to be read instead of the 107th or the 46th.

People memorize Psalm 23 for more reasons than that it’s only 6 verses; if people wanted a short Psalm, they’d memorize Psalm 117.

There’s something about this psalm—Psalm 23—that makes it stand out in a book crowded with 150 psalms. Each psalm, each song, is equally inspired, equally poetic, equally beautiful.

But there’s something about Psalm 23.

Why do we gravitate toward and love this psalm so much? I’m not sure if I can put my finger on it exactly, but as I was studying this very familiar psalm, I decided something about it.

I think we love this psalm because it’s so immensely personal. There’s an intimacy about Psalm 23, a deeply personal feeling in these words (possibly more so than any other psalm).

We just spent a while in 1 Samuel studying the life of David. We don’t know for sure at what point in David’s life he wrote this song of praise, but we know (and we’ll see) what David was feeling about the Lord.

David had a personal relationship with the Lord. He related to the Lord on a personal level, even as he walked through the valley of the shadow of death.

David wrote this psalm, sang this psalm, directed this psalm to the LORD.

This is big. I’ve pointed this out before, but it bears repeating here.

Look at your Bible. Look at the word LORD in verses 1 and 6. What’s up with that word—LORD?

Right! It’s in all capital letters. Capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D.

I love the opening line of Psalm 23—The LORD is my shepherd— I love it. It so meaningful and moving. I’ll say it sometimes just to remind myself that He is.

But we have to be careful that we don’t miss the fullness of what David is saying. He says, “The LORD is my shepherd.”

This is the way our English translations of the Bible translate and designate the name of God.

Whenever you see LORD (all caps), this is the personal, covenant name of God. This is Yahweh, YHWH, Jehovah.

We can lose something with the translation “the LORD” for the simple reason that “Lord” is a title, not a name, and it conveys more distance than intimacy; more distance than the personal connection that David is communicating.

What David is doing here at the outset of Psalm 23 is this: David is calling God by His “first” name, as it were. David is addressing the personal God whose name is Yahweh.

Yahweh is my shepherd.

So far in the psalms, if you take a glance back at the first 22 psalms (something I did this week just to make sure I wasn’t stretching this point)—if you look back you’ll see this is the most personal psalm yet.

In the psalms before Psalm 23, David and the other psalmists, refer to the Lord as their shield, refuge, fortress, and rock. They speak to Him as their king, as God Most High, deliverer, savior.

But here—Psalm 23—David pulls out a different image to communicate who this God is.

A king is separate from His people, enthroned, majestic, etc. God Most High is a very important image, but it makes Him more than a little removed from little, ol’ me.

But shepherd…well, that’s different. The King rules over His people. God Most High commands angel armies and reigns supreme.

But the shepherd lives with His flock and is everything to it: guide, physician, and protector.

This is a picture of the personal, covenant God who has a deep and personal relationship with His people. This is what David is getting at.

Thanks to the opening line, we know what David is saying. The essence of what he’s writing and singing and praying and praising is this:

The Lord (the covenant, personal God, Yahweh) is my shepherd (the One who lives with me, cares about me, protects me, provides for me, guides me).

David is singing (and urging us to sing) about the personal God.

Psalm 23:1–3 NIV

1 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

The Personal God is With Me

Not only is God personal (LORD and shepherd), but notice the pronouns in verses 1-3.

My, I, He, me, He, me, He, my, He, me. This is immensely personal.

This is a song—a true song—about the Lord Yahweh and David. It’s equally true for us who belong to Him.

It’s “He & me”. What the Lord Yahweh does is of direct benefit to me.

Look at all the Lord does here for David (and for us).

(Verse 2) He makes me lie down and He leads me beside the quiet waters.

(Verse 3) He restores/refreshes my soul and guides me along the right paths.

(Verse 5) He prepares a table before me and He anoints my head with oil.

God is not some distant deity. Contrary to what so many people have thought throughout history, God didn’t wind the clock of time and then step back and watch, uncaring, as the world burned.

God is entirely different than the conception some people have. He is with us, as a shepherd is with his sheep. He’s there, doing everything for the sheep of His pasture. He is intimately involved in the details of our lives.

We are sheep. He is our shepherd.

This metaphor of the Lord Yahweh as shepherd extends throughout the Bible.

Jacob blessed his son, Joseph, recounting how the Lord had shepherded him:

Genesis 48:15 NIV

15 Then he blessed Joseph and said, “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,

David will write in another psalm:

Psalm 28:9 NIV

9 Save your people and bless your inheritance; be their shepherd and carry them forever.

And we know, Jesus is the Good Shepherd who says:

John 10:11 NIV

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

From the days of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, to Moses and the wandering Israelites, to King David and the One who came from his line to sit on his throne forever: Jesus, ever-present with His people—the Lord Yahweh is the personal God who is ever and always with His people, the sheep of His pasture.

The Lord Yahweh is my shepherd. He is your shepherd, and it’s deeply personal.

The Personal God is With Me for His Name’s sake

Why is it the Lord Yahweh—the Personal God—does all this? Making His sheep lie down, leading His sheep, restoring/refreshing His sheep, guiding His sheep? Why does the Lord Yahweh prepare a table before for His guest and anoint his head with oil?

It’s there in verse 3.

Psalm 23:3 (NIV)

3 he refreshes my soul.

He guides me along the right paths

for his name’s sake.

The shepherd does all of this for His name’s sake, that is, on account of His name.

The LORD Yahweh, the shepherd here, has a reputation He must maintain; He must show He is everything a shepherd should be.—that He knows how to refresh His flock and knows where to lead His sheep.

“Some have pointed out, a hot, dry summer in Israel could test a shepherd’s mettle, for finding pasture and water at such a time was no small trick. Or winter could be a challenge…when snow covered the ground during a Lebanon winter, the shepherds could be all day up in the trees, cutting down branches so that the sheep could feed on the green leaves and tender twigs.” - W.M. Thomson, The Land and the Book, 1:303.

How a shepherd supplies the day-to-day needs of the sheep says a lot about the shepherd.

How the LORD Yahweh operates, what He does for us, He ultimately does for His name’s sake.

The LORD tells the prophet Ezekiel to let the people know what He’s up to:

Ezekiel 36:22–23 NIV

22 “Therefore say to the Israelites, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. 23 I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.

Ezekiel 36:32 NIV

32 I want you to know that I am not doing this for your sake, declares the Sovereign Lord. Be ashamed and disgraced for your conduct, people of Israel!

Selfish as we are, this kind of talk tends to rub us the wrong way. And yet, this is thoroughly Yahweh. David has no problem saying that the LORD Yahweh guides him along the right paths for His name’s sake.

It’s not for us, though we benefit from what He does.

It’s for His glory and His renown and His reputation. This is ultimate: His glory, His name, His reputation.

No one who looks at Yahweh’s sheep can say that Yahweh is a poor shepherd. How the LORD cares for His sheep, how the LORD cares for us is communicating a strong message.

He gives us what we need. Sometimes, He has to make us lie down. It is He who guides us and restores us and leads us. He protects us.

He does all this for His name’s sake. That He would be glorified.

Psalm 23:4–5 NIV

4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, 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 overflows.

The Personal God is With Me for His Name’s sake, Through Good and Bad,

David expressly states that if any trouble should come his way, he can lean on the LORD. No matter what comes, David is safe and secure. He’s hemmed-in on all sides.

Those who belong as sheep to this shepherd are safely under His protection, even when exposed to dangers and afflictions, they realize the shepherd’s got them, that the shepherd’s watching over them, protecting and defending them.

David says, relating this to the LORD Yahweh, I will fear no evil, for you, Yahweh, are with me.

I, the one prone to fear and susceptible to evil, yield myself to You (Yahweh) who is present, the one who comforts.

This is my story. I’m betting this is a little bit your story, too (maybe a lotta bit your story).

We are prone to fear; are are easily consumed by our fears, to the point of forgetting whose we are.

[VIDEO CLIP]

We sometimes run headlong into danger or evil, the Shepherd searches for us, finds us, rescues us, brings us back into the fold, and then we do it all over again.

But, in the good and even in the bad, in the ups and especially in the downs, on the hills and when we find ourselves in the valleys—the really dark valleys, the valleys that lie in the shadow of death—the LORD Yahweh is present and He’s with us.

Fellow sheep, please hear me: none of this, none of the bad or the dark or the low places phase Him. Not even a little.

The darkness in which we find ourselves is not dark to Him.

He created the valleys and the mountaintops, and we are never out of His reach or His protection.

Indeed, we are safe in His hand (no one, nothing, not one thing can or ever will be able to snatch His sheep from Him).

Our Shepherd wields both rod and staff, to defend and protect. And that’s of immense comfort.

The rod (a cudgel, a club worn at the belt) and a staff (to walk with and to round up the flock) were the shepherd’s weapon and his tool. One for defense and protection. The other for control.

No matter what you come up against, no matter what you might face, you Christian, you defenseless little sheep, understand and rest.

Understand you have a defender, ever-present.

And rest (take a deep breath), knowing you are safe and secure in Him.

Beyond all this, beyond merely surviving, is triumph. There’s a well-set table and festive oil and an overflowing cup. This is a picture of assurance even while feeling pressure (in the presence of my enemies).

The Lord Yaweh, the Host preparing the table, is providing nourishment and sustenance in abundance for His guest.

The opening line of the psalm comes to mind: I shall not want. In the LORD Yahweh, there is abundance and plenty, even while our enemies sit and wait for us.

David wraps up his masterpiece with some of the most moving words in any song.

Psalm 23:6 NIV

6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

The Personal God is With Me for His Name’s Sake, Through Good and Bad, Forever and Ever!

Here lies the assurance David has in God’s ever-pursuing covenant love and goodness as well as in the promise of an eternal home.

The goodness and love of the LORD Yahweh do far more than “follow” David. It’s more like pursue.

Or as Eugene Peterson translates it: chase after.

Dallas Willard got in the habit of saying, “The goodness and love of the Lord will dog my tracks all the days of my life, and then some.”

This is a common verb. It’s used 14 times in 1 Samuel, since that book is fresh on our minds.

Saul pursuing David, chasing David, dogging David’s tracks.

It’s used of Pharaoh pursuing Israel, and several other places where the enemies are following close behind.

Here, David puts a fun little spin on the word. He says what will pursue him, what’s chasing him isn’t his enemy, but rather the goodness (tov) and love (hesed) of the LORD Yahweh.

The covenant God—Yahweh—chases and pursues David with covenant love and goodness—hesed and tov.

The lovingkindness of the the covenant LORD is what chases after David. It’s that never-stopping, never-giving-up, always and forever love the LORD promises to His people.

It impossible to outrun, futile to even try. You’re never going to shake it. You can’t ditch that kind of love, not even if you double back and speed around the corner and hide in a dark alley. There’s nothing that can separate us from His kind of love.

Romans 8:38–39 NIV

38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

David knows the love of His LORD will never give up or give in. He is as assured, as certain, as firmly convinced of this truth as any other truth: he will dwell in God’s house forever.

All the days of my life is one thing. That’s a glorious truth. But add forever (lit. length of days) or, more fully, for all time to come to all the days of my life, and we’ve really got something.

It’s not just that the LORD Yahweh, the personal God is with David for now, for as long as he draws breath here, but from now stretching into eternity.

There’s never a moment the Lord’s not there. The Shepherd guides us safely to everlasting life. And the LORD Yahweh invites us in to the place He has prepared for us, to be with Him forever and ever.

The Personal God is With Me for His Name’s Sake, Through Good and Bad, Forever and Ever!

Now one can look back over the journey.

The grassy pastures may be the normal, everyday place;

the valley of the shadow of death, the fearful place;

in front of the enemies, the dangerous place;

and the house of the LORD Yahweh, the abiding place.

And Jesus, the Good Shepherd, leads us in, and to, them all.

He doesn’t just walk alongside us like some silly footprints poem. He carries us on His shoulders like the lost little lamb.

He leaves the 99 sheep safely where they are to find the 1 who is lost and in danger.

He guides us to the home He’s given us access to, by His body and His blood.

He has defeated every enemy, every would-be attacker, and has prepared a table before us.

We have in Him all things, and abundant at that.

ONLY IF the LORD Jesus is your Shepherd can you truly say, “I will never lack anything—in ordinary times, in fearful times, in dangerous times, or at the last time.”

The LORD Jesus is my shepherd. I shall not want.