The Peace of the Shepherd

Are you exhausted, anxious, or carrying burdens you were never meant to carry?

In Psalm 23, David reveals the source of true peace. Written after a lifetime of battles, betrayal, hardship, and loss, this familiar passage is more than comforting poetry. It's a battle-tested guide for finding rest, security, and confidence in God's care.

In this message, Pastor Matt Shackelford explores how Jesus, the Good Shepherd, provides for His people, walks with them through life's darkest valleys, and leads them safely home.

You'll Discover:

•  Why anxiety often grows when we try to shepherd ourselves 
•  What it means that "The Lord is my Shepherd" 
•  How God restores people who have fallen and can't get back up 
•  Why the valley is often where we learn to trust God most 
•  The difference between the absence of danger and the presence of the Shepherd 
•  How God's goodness and mercy follow believers throughout their lives 
•  Why Psalm 23 is ultimately a picture of the gospel 

No matter what valley you're facing, you do not walk through it alone. The Shepherd is with you. 

Scripture: Psalm 23

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Amen. Let's take our Bibles and let's open to Psalm 23. That's where we've been all week at Vacation Bible School. As you're turning there, I saw a very funny video my wife and I were just chuckling at a couple weeks ago. There was a video of a husband and wife and their journey through the airport and how different it was in his head versus her head. As they're walking through the airport, he is thinking all about the plans. He is worried, he is anxious, we've got to get to this gate. By this time, I've printed off the tickets. Here's the map of the airport. Here's everything I've got to do to lead my family faithfully through the airport. And it zooms in, and those are all the thoughts that he's thinking in his head. And in her mind, she's singing a song. She's singing, I've got a pocket of sunshine, you know, and she's just got no worries in the world. She's thinking, coffee? Is it time for coffee? She has absolutely no care in the world. And I laughed at that because that's exactly how Ashley and I are at the airport. She has no cares in the world. I have picked up every care, even some cares that don't belong to me. Will the plane make it on time? Will they cancel my flight? What will we do then? And that is a great picture of how so many of us live our lives. There are many of us that live our life that way. We have an anxious and stirred up, worried existence. And if we're being honest, most of us are more like the guy. We're stressed, we're anxious, we have all sorts of categories of anxiety. In fact, you might write these three words down. I think they sum up all of humanity. In one way or another, we are drained, we are disoriented, and we are dying. We are drained, we are disoriented, and we are often dying. Drained, we're tired. Some of us are so tired, so worked up, we can't eat, we can't sleep, we can't slow down. We're in our business, in our life, we're running on empty. We're drained. Others of us are disoriented. We don't know the decisions we need to make. We're confused. Maybe it's a health concern. And the doctor says you need to be on this medicine. Then you read the label of the medicine, and the medicine itself can help your condition, but it also causes cancer. And you're like, what do I do? I talked to a couple just the other day, and they said our job a year ago, it was really in question whether we would be employed. And we were confused and concerned and disoriented on what God's will was for our life. Then there's the dying. There are many who are facing the valley of the shadow of death. And that that death can take several forms. It can be a relational death, it can be a bitterness, an unforgiveness of the heart. It can be a situation where you don't have peace in a relationship. Maybe a prodigal son, a prodigal daughter, family that you no longer are in community with. It can be a marriage, it can be a dead career, it can be dead dreams, it can be all sorts of death that seeps into your life and steals your peace. And in all of us, in all of us, we long to know that we're safe. We long to know that someone has our back. This was funny. I was watching the videos of Vacation Bible School, and I was just reminded of all God did at Vacation Bible School. You know, we were hoping for around 350 to 400 kids. We ended up having 403 sign up for VBS. Isn't that great? Isn't that a praise the Lord? Yeah. Praise God. These are some of the pictures, and I was so thankful for all that the Lord did all this week. And every year it just seems like the Lord not only uh grows us in number, but just grows us in the quality of education, the quality of the gospel presentation, and God's just doing a great work in our young family ministry. I'm so thankful for this. This was my favorite picture that I took all week long, though. This was genius to me. I've never seen this before. Okay, so so usually we have all the kids kind of in their chairs. This year we got rid of the chairs and we set up animal pens. Now I'm not saying, I am not saying we treated your children like animals. I'm not saying that. But this was genius to me. I walked in and said, Whose idea was this? I love it because there's safety involved, right? It's like you know, only the parent can come and pick up their kid and sign them out. They can't sneak out of the side, and if they try to climb over, someone's gonna spot it. And it's like, this is fantastic. I love this. And that's what it's like in each of our lives. There's something in all of us that I long to know that not only my family is safe, I long to know that everyone I love is safe. I long to know that I'm safe. I long to know that I have a shepherd that's surrounded me and pinning me in and guarding me in the best of those terms. Today that's what we're seeing in Psalm 23. In Psalm 23, we're introduced to the peace of the shepherd, that the shepherd changes everything. Now, there's so much here. Every time I've preached this passage, I've found something new. This week I've found something I've never seen before. I'll show you that later. But uh Luther called that, that's why he called it the little Bible. He said that this one chapter, this one psalm, these six verses, contain so much of the gospel, so much of the Bible. And really the problem at the beginning is we're going to have to overcome its familiarity. This is a very familiar passage. You've heard it at every funeral you've ever been to. And a lot of us have taken it as beautiful poetry, but but we failed to see that it's really a wartime manual for those who are under attack constantly. It's a manual of peace for those who have been terrorized. Some of you, because of your job, because of a relationship, because of life, you you're here today, you've been terrorized. And you need the truth that this manual, this wartime manual, has for you. I would argue that it's more actually about living than dying. In fact, the idea of dying only appears one time in these six verses. It's mostly about how to live the Christian life with peace. It's mostly, in fact, you can see that because if you just zoom back and you say, who's the author? Who wrote this? You're like, oh, this isn't a young man's story. Just this morning, my wife and I were getting ready for church. And we were talking about our kids and just how carefree they are through life. And how my wife was driving in the car one day, and the kids were just singing, you know, they were just singing in the car, not a care in the world. And like something happens in life. It's like the older you get, the cares and the worries of the world seem to kind of push that down, and you you lose your song. And unfortunately, that's that's true for you, that's true for me. This psalm wasn't written by a young, naive child. This isn't young shepherd boy David. This is old man David with a lifetime of pain. I mean, he has had a lifetime of blood and war and fighting giants and lions and the his own son trying to turn the kingdom against him, betrayal. He has dodged spears from Saul. This is a lifetime of pain. This is a lifetime of trouble. And at the end of it all, he can say, God has been my shepherd, and he provides for me. We've got to learn that lesson. We've got to understand the shepherding peace that God brings to our life. Let's stand in honor of God's word. The peace of the shepherd in Psalm 23, it says this 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. 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, surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord. Forever. What this passage shows us is the way to peace, and it's it's knowing the shepherd that comforts our chaos. That's what I want to try and teach you today. Are you here in chaos? Is your soul in turmoil within you? It's a relationship of peace with the shepherd that will comfort your chaos. Let me show you three simple movements in the sermon. This is where we're headed. We need to see his personal providing. Wherever you are, God's providing for you. You need to see his powerful presence. He's walking with you. And you walk through the valley. It doesn't say you camp out there, it's a walk through the valley. It's just a short visit through the valley. And then it ends in the house of the Lord with his permanent promises. And so today we are going to together regain the peace that God wants us to have. So may God bless his word and may God bless all of you. You may be seated. Three hopes for us today if you need God's peace. Number one, we need to receive the shepherd's personal providing. We need to receive the shepherd's personal providing. Notice with me the care of the shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. That's how it begins. And throughout this psalm, we see sheep imagery, and immediately we have a problem. What's our problem? Well, the problem is you and I, we don't live in an agricultural society anymore. This is, most of you, many of you are white-collar jobs, many of you work in cities, many of you did not grow up on the farm. And the most that you know about sheep is what I'm about to hold up. This is my daughter. She put this together. This is the extent of what most of you know about sheep. It's construction paper and cotton balls. All right? She made this. I love it because it has this little mohawk thing going on in the front, and it just makes me happy. Amen? But but here's the thing: this is pretty much all you know about sheep. So you don't even know what he's saying when he says these things. So let's walk through them. It's the neediness of the sheep. The problem is we don't know about sheep, but but we need to understand the neediness of the sheep. Sheep have terrible eyesight, they can't see, they have no claws, they have no protection, they have no self-provision. They will be let loose in a field, they will destroy a field, they'll overeat, they'll undereat, they'll drink from the wrong water source, they are constantly distracted, they are silly, they are foolish, their wool. Even their wool is life-threatening. It just grows and grows and grows. And without a shepherd to trim it, what happens is it picks up dirt, it picks up twigs, they get weighed down, they die, they can't even go to the bathroom, they can't even eliminate waste, and they'll get sick and die because of their wool. They die without a shepherd. They are absolutely unintimidating. Whenever you go to bed at night, someone maybe once told you you can't sleep, what do you do? Count what? Yeah. Why? Because they're absolutely unintimidating. They're not frightening. No one says, Count scorpions. Nobody says, come on, count snakes. Like it, like if a if a truckload of wild animals crashes outside of central church. I love this illustration. We're locking the doors, we're we're we're staying inside. But you find out it's sheep. You're taking your five-year-old to go pet, right? Like that it changes everything. There's nothing intimidating about a sheep. And what does God call us in this passage? Sheep. Bad eyesight, can't find water, distracted. Tim Chalys tells the story of a shepherd who watched in horror as his flock, they just kind of followed each other, and it was like lemmings. They all just went off a cliff. Every one of them just died, just following the one in front of it. They have terrible eyesight, they can't see, they follow bad leaders. That's the relationship of the sheep to one another. And it's a good lesson. You and I can't thrive without a shepherd. See, that's the initial problem that you and I are facing this morning. Many of you are trying to do life without a shepherd. You are trying to do it your way. You're trying to do it on your own, your own power, your own authority, your own ability, and it's not working. You don't get up in the morning in dependency on the Lord. You don't get up in the morning seeking his will for your life. You don't read your Bible, you don't pray. And I think you could trace back all of the problems to the fact that you're trying to do life on your own. And the Bible says, not that you're able, the Bible shows your inability for life on your own. Notice with me, how does the shepherd provide? We need to know that. Well, notice the first five words. The Lord is my shepherd. The word Lord here in the Hebrew is this is a big word, you don't have to remember it. It's the tetragrammaton. Uh, in other words, it's the four-letter word for Yahweh. Yahweh. What he's essentially saying is, my shepherd is Yahweh. It's almost a brag. It's like other people have other shepherds, but but Yahweh, who never sleeps, who never slumbers, and really this is a knock against the other gods, the other false gods of the world. My God is not the sleepy God of Baal. This is not the the half-care of the God Marduk, all these other capricious gods, right? My God, my shepherd is Yahweh. Yahweh is the shepherd. And notice it's personal. Notice that personal word, my. You see, he's not everyone's shepherd. Not everyone has the shepherding of the Lord. This is not universal. This is for those who are in relationship to the shepherd. There are many who do not know him. In fact, one of the things that keeps me up late at night, one of the things that I struggle with, is that there will even be people in this very room who hear those terrible words from the Lord, depart from me, I never knew you. There will be some who hear those words, maybe some in this room. You see, the dependency of having this shepherd is a personal relationship with the shepherd. And if you don't have that today, it's through Christ, it's through Jesus Christ that you can gain that shepherding power. And by the way, all of this psalm should actually serve you this morning. It should serve you in this sense to tell you how good life could be under the care of Jesus Christ. It should be this call. It should be this loving, tempt, tempting action, like come, sit under the shepherd, be shepherded by Jesus. It would change your life. Now notice with me together how the shepherd provides for us. He's my shepherd. Now, in verse 2, how does he provide more? It's the shepherd that comforts your mind, puts you at rest. You see, there are times in the field where the sheep can overeat a field. There are times when the sheep need to just sit and do what's called chewing the cud. It's where they regurgitate from one of their stomachs and they actually grow the fattest when they chew the cud, when they sit and they just rest. There have been times in my life, there have been times in ministry where I have felt the desire to just give up and quit. And my wife looks at me and she just says, Go to bed. Chuck Swindah was in chapel one time and uh he said, I wrote out my resignation three or four times, never turned it in. And he said, I had a wise friend come to me and just say, just get some rest. Go to sleep. It's that way in ministry, it's that way for everybody. Elijah, what did God do for Elijah after his great victory against the prophets of all? Jezebel's coming after him. What did God do? Go to bed. You see, there are moments where God says, You're not thinking rationally, you're not thinking clearly. Sometimes you can lay down, but sometimes you have to be laid down. He lays me down. He puts me down, he forces me to take a break. And for some of you, that's what God does at strategic moments of your life. He has to take the sheep and lay them down. I'll never forget whenever our elders at my previous church in Ohio, we were meeting late into the night. Our church was growing and we had problems. It's Acts 6 all over again. With growth comes complications. I say it this way, like in my house, there's a lot of activity. We have four kids, all right? And so our uh table in the dining room is absolutely a disaster. I mean, it's got like scuffs on it. It's got like where the varnish has been rubbed off and someone's taken their fork and like ground it into the table. You know what I'm talking about? Does anybody else have that table at your house? And it's just like there's crayon over here, and it's just like, oh my goodness, uh, we gotta get this thing cleaned up before we have guests again. But it's like where there's activity, right, there's a mess. Where there, say it this way, where there's life, there's gonna be a mess. So in my church in Ohio, we were just having life. I mean, a lot of young families were coming, people, the church was was growing in number, and uh there was just mess after mess after mess, and our elders got into the habit weekly of meeting until midnight. And I got to the point where I just said, guys, I'm leaving at 9 o'clock. I'm out of here. All right, I'm going home. No, Pastor, what are we gonna do? We've got to solve this issue, we've got to solve this issue. Well, the Lord is going to have to solve it for us because I need to go home and be with my wife and my family. The Lord's gonna have to fix this. He's gonna have to work while we're sleeping. And friends, that's that actually became the answer for us. We started trusting the Lord more to solve our problems. And I would say what a church leadership has to do, you have to do also. Like in your family, in your life, you are going to have to learn to trust the Lord that He is working while you take a day off. He is working while you are sleeping. He is at work for you in your rest. And so you can lay your head on the pillow knowing that God is working. And if God is for you, who can be against you? You know that he is working for you. This passage reminds us to rest and it warns us that if we don't get rest, it's diminishing returns. There was a guy named Robert Murray McShane, you've probably heard that name. He was a young pastor in the UK, and he was in his 30s, and he had the habit of preaching and preaching and preaching and going and going and going. And what happened is he worked himself to death. At age 30, he starts having health problems, and he dies in his 30s. And here's what he said: He said, God gave me a message and God gave me a horse. And I killed the horse. He said, I didn't take care of my body. I worked myself into oblivion. And friends, that's that's the danger for all of us. You see, when you know the shepherd, you know that he's actually working for you while you're resting, so you can take a day off. So you can take some rest. That's what that's what the knowledge of the shepherd produces in each of our lives. Notice in verse 2, he leads me beside still waters. This is beautiful. Uh again, sheep have such poor eyesight when they go to the water, they don't know if it's good water or bad water. They don't know if it's still water or dangerous water. They don't know what whether it's clean water or whether it's got parasites and it's just a mud puddle. But it's the shepherd who, and I love this. Picture it like this. How big is drinking water a part of your daily life? That's just part of daily life. Every single day we wake up, we get a drink of water. When you go to bed, you put a glass of water on your nightstand. This is just the simplest activity. And yet it shows us that in the simplest activity of all, drinking. God is even in those details, leading you to good water, leading you in places of safety. He's in the daily grind of your job. He restores my soul. I love this. In verse 3, this picture of you have to understand. Let's go back to the sheep, all right? Let's remember the sheep imagery. What is he talking about where it says he restores my soul? Let me show you this picture. This is what happens to a sheep. There can be this valley, and for some reason it loses its footing, and it's just it's turned upside down in the valley. And what happens is the fat, the fur, the weight, it keeps it on its back, and it can't get its feet back under it, underneath it. That's the picture of this psalm. The restoring of the soul is the shepherd who sees this. He sees that the weight is pressing on the sheep, and he walks over to the sheep, lifts it. Sometimes it will have lost its feeling in its arms and its legs. And what will happen is he'll have to sit there and kind of massage the feeling back into the legs. And he'll slowly get the sheep back up and right sized. That's the imagery. And so what we're seeing here is that our God is a God who restores. And this is such a powerful thought for us today. If you have fallen into sin, if you have fallen into despair, if you have fallen into depression, if you have fallen into exhaustion, if you have fallen into debilitating sin, pornography, lusts of the flesh, lies to your employer, bitterness towards a person, unforgiveness in a relationship, you have fallen and you cannot get up on your own. The good news of the gospel, the good news of the shepherd is that he lifts you from your shame. How does he do it? Two ways. Write these down. He does it through his word. He does it through his word. Psalm 19, verse 7. The law of the Lord is perfect. What? Reviving the soul. One of the main ways that God helps you overcome sin in your life. Overcome this, I've fallen and I can't give up, get up. I need to be restored, is that when you're put on your back, he gives you the Bible. He restores your soul. He revives your soul through the word of God that calls you out of sin into great delight, into the enjoyment of God. Number two, he uses his people. And I would even argue that when he uses his people, his people are speaking the Bible. So again, it's the Bible again, but it's through people. In Galatians chapter 6, verse 1, if someone is caught in a transgression, if someone is fallen and they can't get up, you who are spiritual, in other words, you who are filled with the Holy Spirit, you who have the Spirit inside of you, should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. God uses his word and God uses his people to lift up his people and restore them. And so this is a good word to all of us. If you have fallen and you can't get up, good news. God offers you restoration this morning. You can be restored. You can get back on track. And the Lord is here today to use his word, to use his people, to lift you from your addiction, to lift you from your heart idol, to lift you from your sin. And death is not your future because of the shepherd. He is a providing shepherd. Now, before we move on to point two, this does bring up a legitimate question. Can I really trust him to lead my life? Can I really trust the Lord's shepherding power in my life? How do I know that I can trust him? Because if I'm honest, I am very, by nature, I'm very suspicious of leaders. Probably came because I did ministry early on out in California and I watched a lot of our government out there. I'm very suspicious. There's this rail out in California they've been working on it for 30-something years and it has gone nowhere. You guys know what's happened in 30 years? What progress has been made in 30 years? Let me just give you a list. China's entire infrastructure has been built in 30 years. All their rail system got completed. Dubai was built largely in the past 30 years. Timothy Chalamet's entire existence happened over the last 30 years. The internet happened over the last 30 years. Oh, and by the way, the iPhone 1 through 17 happened over the last 30 years. So forgive me, but I have a little bit of suspicion from some leaders. How do I know that God is going to be not the kind of leader that is untrustworthy? But how do I know that he is actually going to complete what he has promised to complete for me? Notice with me this passage. What makes God's leadership so trustworthy? It's his motivation. See, one of the things we do to this psalm is we make it all about us. It's about me. God, you must really love me. I mean, look how committed to you to I uh look how committed you are to me. He's my shepherd. He leads me, he prepares me. Look at all the good things he does for me. This is actually not about us at all. Why does he do the leading? Why does he do the feeding? Why does he do the protecting? Look at verse 3. For his name's sake. That's the answer. That's what makes him trustworthy. He moves and he shepherds you so well. Why? It's for his own glory. This is throughout the entire Bible. That is the theme of the Bible. It is the glory of God. Isaiah 43. Why did he create us? For his glory. Isaiah chapter 49, God calls Israel not because they're the greatest nation, not because they're the most uh righteous nation. He calls them why? Because he's great, not because they're great. They're nobody. They were this little nobody tribe. And he calls them. In Ezekiel 20, God spares them when he should have destroyed them. Why did he spare them? For his glory's sake? For the sake of his name? In Ezekiel 36, God restores them after exile. He sends them into exile to the Babylonians, to the Assyrians. And why does he restore them after extra after their exile? So that his name may be proclaimed. In Romans chapter 9, he even uses the tools of the world like Pharaoh, and he raises up a Pharaoh. Why does he raise up Pharaoh to be an antagonist against Israel? Everything he does is for the glory of his name. And so we can go ahead and sum up every problem in your life, every enemy that you face, every emotional hardship that you will be confronted by, every difficulty. God has raised it up for one purpose that he might be glorified. And as he leads you, as he provides for you, as he meets your needs, as he comforts you and gives you rest, it brings glory to his name. And that's why you can trust him. Point number two. Point number two. We need to receive his personal providing. That he is the God of provision. That the shepherd will provide. Number two, we need to rest in the shepherd's powerful presence. We need to rest in the shepherd's powerful presence. I got a kick out of this. VBS was over, and the parents were walking around, and I saw a kid kind of come out of the hallway, and they didn't want to go down this dark hallway with black lights, and it was, it was the valley of the shadow of death. Why don't you want to go in? It's scary. And there will be those moments where you look at some valleys in your life and you say, I'm afraid. He doesn't force you to stay in the valley. But he moves you. He walks with you through the valley. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, again, sheep are in constant danger, no claws, no teeth, no protective defense strategy, lots of perils. There will be those moments in life. But I want you to notice this as you read this verse, it's not just a danger. It's not just the shadow of death. It's not just pain. This is an even though danger. You might even underline those two words. This is an even though danger. Even though, this is not saying there won't be problems in life. One of our speakers at the fall conference is Costi Hinn. He is actually speaking against the prosperity gospel. The prosperity gospel which says if you just come to Jesus, you'll never have any problems in this life. You'll be healthy and wealthy and prosperous. You'll have a coat on your back, you'll have rings on your fingers, everything will go well. No, friends, this life is filled with peril. It's filled with trouble. But this is a shepherding that transcends all that trouble. This is an even though walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Even though there are enemies, even though there are pains, and I want you to notice what it does for us. This is really important. Notice the shift in pronouns. This may be the most profound thing in the entire psalm, and it's very subtle. In the first couple of verses, first few verses, the psalmist is saying things about the shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is, the Lord is, the Lord is. Now it's a prayer. He was talking about the shepherd. Now he's praying to the shepherd. As I walk, what's true? You're with me. Your rod, your staff, they comfort me. You see, it's in the hard moments of your life that the sheep learns to draw near to the shepherd. I was talking to somebody yesterday. I share this with you. They felt like, you know what? We were in a season where we didn't know if we'd have a job. I've never heard anyone say it was in the easy times that I learned the most about the Lord. But but what do people always say? They always say it was in the hardest, most stressful season that I learned the most about the Lord, that I drew nearer to the Lord, and he grew me. And his rod led me. In fact, notice the text, his rod and his staff comfort me. Now, one of those is protective. There's a rod there to beat away the enemies and the club. There's a staff to lead, to uproot poisonous plants, to even have a hook on it to pull the head of one along. It's his leading and his protection. It's both. But don't miss the other piece. I even think there's an element of discipline there. The psalmist, yes, even sees divine discipline as from the Lord. In fact, you've probably seen this very famous picture. It's the shepherd, and it's got the shepherd with uh he's holding, he's holding the sheep over his neck and he's carrying him everywhere he goes. And you might notice that in most of these pictures, there's always like this leg dangling low. What is that? Well, when a sheep is constantly running away, that shepherd will take the rod and he'll just crack. He'll just snap that leg. Not like a really ugly break, but just enough to just crack the bone so that the sheep won't run away anymore. And what happens is he carries that sheep pasture to pasture, and the sheep can't walk. And so he's always near the shepherd. And what happens is over time the sheep learns to love the presence of the shepherd. And as that bone mends, the sheep starts always being near the shepherd. It trains him to love the shepherd. And so he's saying, look, are there moments in your life where you're saying, I'm under the discipline of God? I've been there. Have you been there? Where you're just feeling like, oh, I'm under God's discipline. I didn't have the right attitude at that job. I didn't have the right conduct. I didn't do something right with my family, and now I'm paying the price. I feel the weight of God's discipline. David is even saying, in those moments, too, it's not just the outside attacks, but the boneheaded decisions you've made. Even that. His rod and his staff, they comfort me. They comfort me. He's protecting me from myself. That's so powerful. See, the valley of the shadow of death is where you get to know the shepherd, where you're drawn near. Now look at verse five. What you'll learn about the shepherd the nearer you get to him is that he's always working to disarm the danger. He's always working for your good. In verse 5, we see his work. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Whoa! Is this a change? Has the metaphor shifted from the are we are we in a house now? Is this table? What's the table? I think this is still farmland. I think it's still the same metaphor. I think this is pasture land. That's the table. But notice what he's doing. He's anointing, he's preparing. He's overflowing a cup. I think this is the picture of a shepherd, and he goes before the sheep and he goes through the field. He surveys the field for enemies. If he sees a poisonous plant, he'll take his rod, he'll uproot that plant so it doesn't hurt the sheep. If he sees snake holes, what he'll do is he'll put oil around the hole because snakes won't come out of that hole because they don't want oil on their skin. They avoid it at all costs. He'll even take that same oil and that he'll anoint the head because it's not covered with fur, and flies and mosquitoes and attacking bugs will get on the face of the sheep. And what he's saying is, with dangers all around, there are dangers in every direction, but it's the shepherd, it's the shepherd who disarms their sting. We have this problem at my house. We have mosquitoes just all over the place and flies. Oh, the flies. I can't stand it. And it drives me absolutely crazy. I got hit by a mosquito just the other day. It probably took a pint of blood. Does that sound right? It was um it was significant because when you slapped, oh, that was that was a lot. And um, but it's like we live in the South. We live in an area with bugs big enough to carry you away, right? And so here's the thing: this isn't saying that you will have no dangers in this world. What it's saying is that the shepherd makes it so that he disarms their sting. And the greatest picture I know of that was the cross of Jesus Christ. So much so that we can say, where, O death, is your sting. Because Jesus died on the cross, he disarmed the fear of death, he disarmed the sting of death, he disarmed all that we fear to face from childhood until today. That is the power of the shepherd. He is a providing shepherd. Our shepherd provides for us and meets our needs. He is a present shepherd. He is near and he is taking away the sting of the enemy. Let me just sum it up like this for point number two. Comfort isn't the absence of danger, it's the presence of the shepherd. And so the question is are you staying near to the shepherd as you walk through your valley? Are you reading his word? Are you praying? Are you getting to know him in ways that you can only learn through the valley of the shadow of death? Draw near to him. Draw near to him. Final point. He is a providing shepherd. We've seen his personal provision. He is a present shepherd. We've seen his powerful presence. Lastly, we need to rejoice at the shepherd's permanent promises, and that's where verse 6 ends for us today. In verse 6, we learn that there are promises for you and me. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. My dog, my little dog Winston. We love our little dog. All right? Here's the thing about Winston: if you come over to my house, he follows my wife every room. Ashley's in this room. Winston is close by. This would have been a great name for our dog, goodness and mercy. He just follows. Charles Spurgeon said, the Christian life has two great bodyguards following you around everywhere you go, named Goodness and Mercy. In fact, I was, there's a couple things in this passage. I've again I've preached this passage before. But I saw new things this week that I've never seen. One of the things that I saw was this idea of verse six in goodness and mercy. In fact, if you have an ESV Bible at the very bottom, you'll see a little note there. In mind, it's number one on the second page here, but it says, only goodness and mercy. Like you could translate it that way. All you know in your life is goodness and mercy. That's it. When you have the shepherd in your life, every bad thing will be turned for good in your Christlieness, for God's glory, in your closeness to the Lord, or for whatever the circumstance is, only goodness and mercy. That's all you know. That's it. The second thing I saw in this passage is equally important, and it's also in a footnote. In the bottom of your ESV Bible, it says that, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord. That's an amazing thought altogether, but it's intensified by the footnote. It says it could be translated, or I shall return to the house of the Lord. Pastor, why does that matter? Why does it matter that it's it's it could be return and not dwell? This is so important. Couple of thoughts. I think redemptively it matters. I mean, what happened? Why is it that our bodies are messed up and we die? Why is it that all of this world has gone wrong in every sphere of life, in the family, in every pocket of life? The world is messed up. Why? Because in the beginning, God created Adam and Eve. They were in the garden together, and the serpent came in, deceived the woman, and the woman gave to the man, and together they fell into immorality, they fell into sin, and the cloud storms came, and the thistles grew, and life was messed up, and now we die. And now we face cancer and disease and pain and suffering. It's paradise loss, man. But because of the shepherd. But because of the shepherd, you have left the house of the Lord, but because of the shepherd, you return. And you can come back to a restored relationship. And you started in the pen and you went to the pig pen and you went your own way, and because of the shepherd, he has put you back on the paths of righteousness. I skipped over that. Jennifer, can we bring up that slide, the paths of righteousness? He brings us back to paths of righteousness. Now, what is that? Well, in Israel and all over the Middle East, there's these lines. Today we're having an informational meeting about Israel and about Egypt, but all over these hills, there are these lines, and what are the lines? How did they get there? These over time are they're paths, they're sheep paths, they're goat paths. They carve them into the mountain and transform the hills forever. Because of the shepherd, there's a return for you to paths of righteousness, to paths that lead to the house of the Lord. He picks us up and he puts us back on the path. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Friends, have you fallen and you can't get up? Have you fallen down? Have you fallen into sin? Have you fallen into stupidity? Have you fallen in love? Life, the shepherd himself offers a return, and he will draw near to you. He will be your closest ally, your closest friend. Don't give in to the addiction that dominates you. Don't give in to the addiction of lust, of pornography. You don't have to live that way. Don't give in to the addiction of anger, of bitterness, of unforgiveness. If you have fallen down, the shepherd loves to come to fallen sheep and he will lift them up. He will massage your legs to get them moving again. He will put you back on that path of righteousness and you will dwell with God. This is so powerful. What do I do with this sermon? There's three I will statements and we're done. Notice in verse in the first section, it says in It says throughout this Psalm that there are three I will statements. Verse 4, it says, I will, I shall fear no evil. Some of you are afraid. But if you know the presence of God, He takes away the sting of the enemy. You need to remind yourself today that as you go through your valley, it's just a walk through the valley. You're not staying there, you're not camping, but you're walking and you're not walking alone. The Lord is with you. It also says, I shall not want. Today you need to dethrone worry by reminding yourself that you don't provide for yourself, that every good thing in your life comes from God. Contentment doesn't come from what you have, but contentment comes from who has you. It's the Lord that has you. You need to be like David. You need to brag about having this kind of shepherd. You need to be responsive in your pain. And lastly, in verse 6, it says, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. You and I need to lift up our eyes to the promises. That one day there's a return for you, and there's a return for me. And we need to live with confidence all the days of our life. You see, the reason I love this psalm, as we conclude today, as the team comes out, the reason that I love this psalm is yes, it gives us confidence for our living. But it's so powerful as it reminds us of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the Bible says all of us have fallen short of the glory of God. All of us have been turned upside down by sin. But God sent Jesus to be the good shepherd. God sent Jesus to live a life that you could never live. And how do I know he will provide for us? Well, in Romans, over in chapter 5, verse 8, it says that God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, while we were cast down, while sin had defeated us and put us on our back, God sent Jesus. And he loved us by sending his son to die for us. And Jesus has that offer for any who would believe in him, for any who would come into a relationship with him. You can have everlasting life today. Heads bowed, eyes closed. The question today is: do you know this shepherd? Are you resting in this shepherd? If you do not know this shepherd, he offers a relationship with you today. Pastor, how do I get that? How do I become a Christian? I make it really simple. There's good news, bad news, good news. The good news is spectacular. There is a God. A God who created all creation, all good things. Bad news. You've sinned, you've fallen short of the glory of God. You have broken the relationship that we once had. And that broken relationship results in death and enemies. Good news. God sent his son to be a shepherd to restore you. There is a restoration. You can be restored. You can return to the house of the Lord, but it is in one name. It is at the name of Jesus Christ. It is in one person. It is not Muhammad. It is not in some guru on a mountaintop. It is in the name of Jesus Christ alone. When you put your faith in him and you enter into a relationship of faith, hope, and love, putting all your weight on Jesus Christ, saying, He has done it all for me. I couldn't get up. There was no work for me to do. My little feet were in the air kicking, and there was nothing to get me up. But Christ has done it all. And the moment that you believe in him, you'll have the gift of everlasting life. Let's pray. Father, I pray for my friends. I know there are two audiences here today. There are some who need to believe the gospel, who need to trust in this wonderful shepherd who leads us and feeds us and provides for us and cares for us in our fallenness. Father, there are many here who need to trust in Him for the first time. And I pray, Lord, that right now they would cry out to you in their hearts and they would believe in Jesus. That they would enter into a relationship with this shepherd who walks with us through the valleys of life. It's not that we won't have valleys, it's just Christians have a shepherd to walk with them through the valley. My Father, for others in this room, there are some who are defeated, downheartened. Father, there are some who are hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. There are some who have left the trail. And they're not drinking at the fresh waters. They're not enjoying the care of the shepherd. And Father, there is a return. And we're reminded of that today, Lord, that there is a return for your people, and we will return to the house of the Lord forever. And so, Father, may those who are far off, may those who are worried, may those who are distracted from your care, may it be returned today. Lord, may we find ways practically this week to experience that return, to submit to your care, to sit under your word, to be with your people among the flock. I mean, that whole idea of shepherding, that's a flock experience, Lord. You want us among your people. You want us in a church, you want us growing together. That's a corporate experience. And so, Father, whatever the application, may we take next steps today. Not because we're awesome, but because you're awesome. Because it's all for the fame of your name. We love you. We thank you. We ask, Lord, that these truths would change us from the inside out in Jesus' name. And all God's people say it together. Amen.