Psalm 23:5-6 | All the Way Home

Uh hey yeah, for the last time in this series, many of you guys already have it, but go ahead and open up your Bibles to Psalm chapter 23.

Psalms 23 · chapter mention

That is where we're gonna be camped out our entire time this morning.

Psalm 23.

I hope that you've taken the challenge uh to start to memorize and actually have memorized uh Psalm 23.

Uh I was on vacation uh this past week, uh driving through uh the exhilarating landscape of Kansas and Nebraska and Iowa, 22 hours in total.

And so I found myself reciting uh Psalm 23.4 a lot.

Uh even though I drive through the darkest valley, I will fear no toddler, um, for you are with me.

You know, uh road trips, uh specifically with toddlers and babies there, not for the faint of heart, uh, but road trips are good for one thing, and that is for some impromptu concerts, okay?

Uh the 22 hours were filled with a lot of music, everything from uh George Strait, because you got to George Strait to Forrest Frank, the high school musical, kids bop, everything in between.

Uh that car was filled with some music, and uh, I was thinking about it with um the fact that we're going through the Psalms.

Like the Psalms in general, collectively, were the songbook for the people of God.

It was the music for God's people, and we know that songs in general are powerful.

Like music, it aids in thinking and it helps stir up feelings, right?

And we know this, like music helps us with thinking because rhythm and rhyme help us remember.

And so, even for my three-year-old son, uh, he has memorized Proverbs 3, 5, and 6.

Not because Britney and I are amazing parents, I hope that we are, uh, but it's more so because he has some songs that he sings in the car uh that he's memorized Proverbs 3, 5, and 6.

And so we'll just be walking around Target and he's just belting out, trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

The Target workers know us and they love us by now.

Um it helps him uh to remember some of these things.

And even for me, someone who man is constantly forgetting like really significant days, birthdays, uh, all those types of things, uh, music helps me to remember things.

And so, as someone who forgets these things, I can I can still say with certain confidence uh that Ella Langley's ex is choosing Texas.

Okay?

And uh I can tell or she could tell by the way that he was two-stepping around the room.

And it doesn't, you know, uh, and judging by the smile on his face, uh, she could tell uh that there was nothing she could do because it doesn't take a crystal ball to see.

The cowboys always find a way to leave, right?

Ella's fellas, come on.

Um music, it it doesn't just um help us remember data, even though that's good, but music it can also stir up some feelings, stir up some emotions uh within us.

And so that's why uh in my generation, not sure how old you are, don't guess my age, um, but in my generation, uh, when girls were broken up with by gods, what do they do?

As they went into the room and slammed the door, and they just put on a dell, right?

And they they set fire to the rain, you know, because it's one thing to say it, it's a whole nother thing to actually sing it, right?

Singing helps us to feel some feelings.

Music, again, it can inform your mind, but it also stirs up your heart.

And I start with that because this morning we are closing out uh our uh little short series looking at uh arguably the most famous, the most significant song, psalm, really in the uh entire book of Psalms, but really maybe even in the entire Bible.

And like all the other songs, this song uh is also meant to inform our minds about God, but also stir up our affections for God as well.

Because this Psalm, Psalm 23, like what we've been seeing over the past couple weeks, it was written by King David.

Most scholars are actually estimating that it's gonna be at the end of his life, and it's about this guy, the shepherd boy who became a king.

But it's also about this guy who he hid in caves.

He was on the run from enemies for so much of his life.

He had to bury children.

He sinned in really extreme ways, but he also experienced forgiveness, and he defeated giants, and he led the nation of Israel to these tremendous heights.

He was a man who experienced, by the end of his life, he got to experience the green pastures, but he also got to experience some dark dark valleys, and in the end he saw that he had a faithful shepherd in the midst of both.

And so for the last two weeks, we've seen David talk about the shepherd who has led him through uh these green pastures and quiet waters for his name's sake.

We also saw how he was leading David through the darkest valleys.

But what we know, and what I learned from my journey, is that every destination uh has an ending.

And David, in verses five and six, he's gonna show us the destination for Psalm 23.

Where was uh the shepherd trying to lead the sheep the entire time?

And that's what we're gonna see.

And in it, in verses five and six, we are going to see the shepherd's provision, the shepherd's pursuit, and ultimately the shepherd's promise.

Where is the end destination?

And so, Proverbs or uh Psalm 23, verses 5 and 6, we're gonna start uh in verse 5.

Psalms 23:5

This is gonna be the shepherd's provision.

The shepherd's provision.

Psalm 23, it says this you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows.

Okay, all right.

I think because of how familiar this Psalm is, we don't realize honestly how odd this sounds.

Like if I was writing Psalm 23, I would have written this a little bit differently.

Okay, I would have written it somehow in the like David wrote it like you uh you prepare a table before me uh in the presence of my enemies.

If I was writing it, I would have wanted it to say, you prepare a table before me in your presence.

God, in your presence.

I I don't want none of this enemy nonsense, right?

And and think about, I mean, there's some debate at exactly what David was talking about here when he's talking about uh preparing a table and enemies.

Some people think that David's just continuing on this whole sheep and shepherd imagery.

And so the table uh would have actually been the table lands, like the the shepherd was actually preparing this area of a grassy field, uh getting rid of the enemies, plucking out any uh dangerous things in the field to make sure that the grass was gonna be smooth and good for grazing for the sheep.

Some people think that that is going to be the table that he prepared for David.

Other people are gonna say, no, no, no, the image, the imagery is shifting here.

The table is actually going to be David is looking back, and only as a king could, is imagining this feast of a table, and the enemies are going to be some of the political enemies and some of these uh people that are trying to come at David.

There's gonna be some differences about what this table and these enemies are, but in the end, I think it's actually the ambiguity is kind of helpful here because regardless of which picture David intended, the point is exactly the same is that God is preparing this table.

He is going to provide this provision for his people.

He wants to be close, intimacy at this table, regardless of the fact that there are enemies still around.

Okay, and that's why I think the ambiguity is a little bit helpful.

We don't exactly know what the enemies are, what the tables are, but for us, we know enemies are not just a thing for David's day.

Right, like we we still experience enemies today.

I mean, for some of us it's it's going to be cancer, right, and walking through that.

For others, it's going to be anxiety or temptation.

Uh for some of us it's just gonna be grief or the loss of a loved one or financial pressure or loneliness or a broken relationship.

But whatever your enemy is, that's why I love how it's vague here.

Whatever your enemy is, it doesn't stop the shepherd from actually setting the table and saying, Come close, I'm gonna provide for you.

Which I think is interesting.

Uh it seems like uh last week, man, Zach did such a good job talking about the valley.

And honestly, I'm reading through Psalm 23, and I'm like, okay, like I'm gonna make it through the valley, like what Zach said, I'm gonna make it through, and then once I make it to the end, everything should be good, no more darkness, no more pain, no more problems.

But that's not where David goes in this psalm.

He he doesn't just say it's all just sunshine and rainbows after.

Why?

Well, because life isn't like that.

Right?

Like sometimes life is unbelievably uh happy and things are going great, and other times it's unbelievably dark, and honestly, a lot of life is just fluctuating between those two poles.

And and I think, again, Zach did such a great job teaching on suffering last week, so I don't want to belabor this point, but here's what I what I I've seen is I've just been around some people who have been uh sort of disenfranchised to the idea of Christianity, and and when you ask them the story, it's just like, yeah, you know, I I tried the whole Jesus thing, I went to church, I tried the whole Christianity thing, it just wasn't for me.

You know, and and here here's really what they mean is in a lot of ways, is God didn't give them what they wanted.

Okay, or or the fight from sin, God didn't completely remove some of the temptations or some of the enemies that were surrounding the people, or they just feel like they could use God and he was like a genie in a bottle, meant to give them everything that they wanted.

And I'm just like, oh no, like what what version of the gospel did you receive?

Like, what did you say yes to?

You know, because like the the good news of the gospel is that it's not that if you say yes to Jesus and you give your life completely over to him, then everything's always gonna be great.

No, the good news of the gospel is that if you give your life over to Jesus, you get Jesus.

You get him.

And that regardless of whatever comes in your life, regardless of the enemies maybe that are still surrounding your life, regardless of what comes, we get him.

And he has promised us that he will be with us and that he's gonna use whatever circumstances we are in for his glory and for our good.

That's the promise of the gospel.

And that's why David can say, Hey, no matter the enemies in my life, I made it through the valley, enemies still present.

No matter the enemies in my life, even when they are still there and still around, it doesn't stop my shepherd.

It doesn't stop my king from opening up the table and inviting me in and providing for me.

The table is set.

Okay, and you'll notice that shift that happens there when we reach verse five.

Like up until verse four, there was a lot of sheep and shepherd imagery here, but uh most commentators are going to point out the fact that there is a shift that happens going into verse five, where the shepherd all of a sudden becomes the host, and the sheep become these thankful and honored guests.

Okay, and that's a that's a big deal for us to realize and pay attention to because hospitality in general was a really big deal in that culture.

Okay, it's not like just the boys are coming over, throw some pizza rolls and Diet Coke on the counter, everything will be good.

No, hospitality, it's a big deal in this culture because what the host was doing when they committed to being a host, they were uh committing to two responsibilities primarily.

They were committing to your safety and they were committing to your satisfaction.

Okay, a host was committing to your safety and your satisfaction, and that's what David is seeing in his host in this psalm.

Is he saying, Man, my safety, I know I'm at the table, I can eat, I can freely dine with the king because he's got my enemies conquered.

I can't.

Like I'm a sheep.

David's not paying himself a compliment there, but he's like, Man, my shepherd, he's got the enemies.

My safety is intact.

But then, two, also my satisfaction.

My satisfaction, God's gonna meet me right where I'm at.

And that's why David he starts bringing up this idea of oil.

Okay, this isn't for the essential oil, folks, of our day.

That's not what David is getting at here.

When David brings up this idea of oil, see, uh, it was one thing to anoint yourself with oil uh in this day and age.

It meant that you were just coming out of a hard season of life and kind of trying to work your way towards gladness.

That's when you anoint yourself with oil.

When somebody else anoints your head with oil, what it signified is that you were a guest of honor.

And so when David is saying, You anoint my head with oil, it was a way of actually saying, God saying to David, Hey, you're welcome here.

I'm glad you're at this table.

You're welcome to stay at this table.

I want you to stay.

And so I don't know what that does for your heart, but for me, I mean, as someone who struggles to believe that God actually delights in me, like the bent in my heart is not to believe that.

So as someone who struggles to believe it, as someone who thinks that I can just honestly overwhelm and just disappoint God with all my failures and flaws, this text is saying, no, no, no.

For those who are in Christ, because of Jesus' righteousness being given to you, because of the work of the cross and the resurrection, you not only are you just someone who's pulling up a seat at the table, you're an honored guest.

Okay, you're welcomed at the table.

God wants you there.

That's intimacy.

You have you have uh meals with people that you are close to.

You are a guest of honor, but you aren't just a guest, you are a guest with what?

An overflowing cup.

David is saying, My cup overflows.

And it's a picture of David at this table with his chalice, and God is just continuously topping him off and saying, I'll provide every every need of yours, all the satisfaction you can want.

I got it right here for you at this table.

And so here's what you need to know.

I think this is so helpful for me, is that if you want to go on the fight against the sin in your life, whatever it feels like it's plaguing you right now, if you want to go on offense against your sin, by far, one of the best things that you can do in your fight against sin is just to enjoy God and all of his provisions every single day of your life.

It's to realize what God is offering you, and it's to thank him for that.

It's to sit with Jesus until you have tasted and seen that he is good.

Right?

Because the more that you enjoy God, the more difficult it will be to sin, right?

Like you can't really enjoy God and also really enjoy sin at the same time.

And so the more that we enjoy God, the more that we realize I am seated at his table, he is topping me off, my cup overflows, the more that you realize that, the less you're going to look for the things of the world, the small little things to actually try and satisfy your heart when your cup is already overflowing.

Right?

Only God can do that.

And so I think what's helpful here is that David, he's picturing these enemies, and we know that we we do also have a very real enemy as well.

And one of the things that uh Satan would love to capitalize on in general is perceived hungers, right?

Perceived needs in our life.

And so if you uh feel like this hunger uh for uh to feel enough in your life, if you hunger to feel enough, you're gonna work so hard, and you all of a sudden your identity is going to be what you can produce.

I'm going to work really hard so that people will think I'm valuable, right?

Or if or if you hunger for control, then man, maybe you start to manipulate some of your family and friends to get what you need, or maybe you just hunger to feel loved and to feel valued in that type of way.

The enemy is going to throw so many things your way lust, compromise, pornography, all of these types of things, just to say, hey, God over here, maybe he's trying to fill up your cup, but I got something better for you.

And God is just saying, I've got everything that you need at this table.

Your cup can overflow when you're seated with me.

You see, our tendency is to run to the world looking for what we already freely have in Christ, and yet David is here, and he is seated at the table with enemies around, and regardless of his circumstances, he is praising God because he knows the Lord's provision.

He knows that God's going to provide for him.

And one last thing I think that we see here, but all the verbs in this verse, who do they belong to?

They belong to God, right?

Saying, You prepare a table before me, you anoint my head with oil.

My cup overflows, sure, but it's because you're the one who is filling it.

God is the one who is taking all of the action in Psalm 23.

God is the one who is initiating everything, all of the blessing is it is God who is coming.

And even if we just zoom out, see Psalm 23 as a collective, as a whole, there is absolutely zero to-dos, zero commands.

There's no list in Psalm 23 of what we need to do.

And it's because Psalm 23 isn't primarily about us becoming better sheep or sheep.

No, Psalm 23 is about us looking to a good and faithful shepherd to see how he provides for us.

But it's not just the shepherd's provision, but it's also the shepherd's pursuit.

Look down again at the verse.

It says this only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life.

All the days of my life.

Okay, I want you guys to notice something.

Uh, in verses one through three, what we saw uh two weeks ago is that the shepherd was going before us, right?

He was leading us in these paths, he was uh going before us in this type of way.

What we saw last week is that the shepherd not only does he go before us, but he's also with us to sustain us in the midst of some of the trials of our life.

And then what we see here at the end is that the shepherd is also coming from behind.

He is pursuing us.

And so I love it.

If you read Psalm 23, what we see is that the shepherd, he goes before us, he's beside us, and he is behind us, that God has got his people surrounded, that wherever you turn, you can't get away from the shepherd who loves you.

That no matter what you're going through in life, you can be confident, confident that God is up to something in your life.

And maybe you're seeing that God is going before you and He's preparing a way before you.

Maybe you're just in a season of difficulty right now, suffering, and you're just seeing, God, you just need to sustain me.

You need to be with me.

I'm done just talking uh about you.

I want to talk to you, I need you right now.

But then other times you're actually able to look back, like David, and see, actually, it was God who was behind me all the time, who is pursuing me with these different types of things.

And that's what David is so comforted by this.

Okay, I love how uh the ESV says it.

Uh it says, surely goodness and faithful love, right?

There's this there's this confidence.

There is this like eager expectation that God will do this.

It's not it's not maybe goodness, it's not potentially faithful love.

No, it is goodness and faithful love will pursue me.

And I think that uh even that idea of pursue is pretty fascinating.

Uh, we get it get to hang out with a lot of college students all the time, and one of the things that I'm I'm trying to coach our college dudes in is how to pursue a girl, right?

It's very intentional language, and so I'm like, no, you cannot just say, hey, do you want to hang out?

No, that's lame, okay?

Um hanging out, that word is lame.

But if you say, hey, I'm really interested in this girl, I'd like to pursue her with dating, with the intention of marriage, I'm like, let's go.

Come on, right?

It's very, it's a very intentional language, this pursue type of language.

And then how it's often used in the Bible, pursue, it's actually used a lot of uh armies pursuing after their enemies, chasing them down.

And I think, man, how fitting is that?

Again, especially if you think that David is writing us towards the end of his life.

I mean, David is a dude.

You go read first and second Samuel, you're gonna realize my dude was on the run a lot from his enemies.

Okay, from from Saul, from the Philistines, from Absalom.

He is on the run a ton.

He knows what it's like to be pursued by people who want to destroy him, and yet as he looks back towards the totality of his life, he can think and he's confident.

Yeah, some of those people may have been chasing me and pursuing me down, but there was something greater.

There was a greater thing that was actually pursuing me and in hot pursuit of me even more, and it's the goodness and the faithful love of God.

Okay, I've heard it said like this.

It's not a complete picture, but I still love the imagery, is that for every believer, it's like they have two lifelong bodyguards with them.

Where you have God's goodness on one side and God's faithful love on the other side.

And I just think that's awesome.

Okay, like David is a dude, again, first and second Samuel, you read his life, he has these things called the mighty men of David.

These are like the baddest, toughest dudes uh in the world.

Like they're like Navy SEAL type of guys, and yet David, I'm just imagining him looking at these guys like these guys are cool and all, but I got two better bodyguards always following after me.

I got God's goodness and God's faithful love with me wherever I go.

And so I just want to even flesh these out.

Goodness and faithful love, like how does that actually play out for us today?

Well, I love this idea of goodness because goodness it's the same word used back in Genesis 1 when God created the heavens and the earth.

If you read Genesis 1, um the author kind of slips into this poetic nature where God creates something and it's good.

God creates something and it's good.

God creates something and it's good, and it's the same word that is used here in Psalm 23.

That same word good, his goodness.

And so, in other words, the same God whose goodness overflowed into the canvas of creation is the God whose goodness is now pursuing after his people.

Right?

The goodness that filled the world with beauty and provision and life is also the same goodness chasing you down every day of your life.

And so you can be confident that, man, what whatever you're going through, whatever trials you are going through, God is pursuing you with his goodness.

And to some of us, man, I've been in seasons where that's a great comfort, right?

It's like, oh, God's goodness, yes, absolutely.

But to others of us, man, it could think like, okay, you keep saying God's goodness is coming after me.

Uh how far back is he?

Because I don't see this.

Right?

Like, like, I mean, it's easy, I think, for some of us to think about, you know, where we can actually see his goodness in the end, like, okay, well, I didn't get this job, but it actually set me up for this job.

Or, you know, this this struggle with infert infertility actually set us up for the blessing of adoption.

And how amazing is that?

Or actually, this diagnosis that I received over here, it gave me such a new perspective on life.

And I'm living life uh in abundance because of God and how this new perspective that He's given me.

A lot of times we can see that.

And and even for me, I'm thinking back to my time in college, and I'm like, Thank goodness God did not say yes to some of my prayers.

Right?

Like that would have just been an absolute disaster.

Okay, but but for other other times, I think there's chapters in our life where we're going through, and it's hard to see like tangible evidences of what God is actually doing.

Like this goodness.

And honestly, we may not see that on this side of eternity.

Or David, maybe it took him much of his life to actually see God's goodness in the midst.

That no matter how we spin it, it's hard to see, man, how is God good in this circumstance?

But David, again, a dude who walked through some of the deepest valleys in the world, what can he see when he looks back over his life is that actually in the end, I know God's goodness was pursuing after me.

But it's not just goodness, it's also this idea of faithful love.

Okay, now in faithful love, it's this word Hesed, and there's an author, Paul Miller, who wrote an entire book on this idea of Hesed type of love, and he explains that this Hesed love is a one-way type of love.

It's this combination of commitment and sacrifice.

And I love how he put it.

He said it's this love without an exit strategy.

Love without an exit strategy, binding yourself to this other object no matter their response.

It's a stubborn type of love.

And so David is looking back and he's like, man, this stubborn type of, I'm not gonna leave, there's no exit strategy for me.

Type of love is what God committed to when he started pursuing after me.

That this love, he's not gonna leave me, he's not gonna do anything.

I know I know that he is coming after me, and his love will not waver, it will not falter.

It is love without an exit strategy.

That type of love has been following me from the day that he saved me and rescued me.

And I can be confident in that every single day of my life.

And that's the last thing that I think we just gotta see in this psalm is that um the frequency of it.

Yeah, goodness and faithful love will pursue me what?

All the days of my life.

You see, I think for me, Jesus radically changed my life in college.

So it's been about uh eight, nine, ten years again, getting older, um, 30, goodness.

Um somebody called me uncle the other day.

I was like, gosh.

Uh okay, anyways.

Um but Jesus radically saved me uh in college ten years ago.

And even for me, walking 10 years, being being seeing the faithfulness of God, being overwhelmed by his love for me, and I can still get into like this good day, bad day syndrome.

I don't know if you've ever, you know, had this or this is like a propensity of your own heart, but for me, like if I'm if I'm getting in the Bible, I'm praying, I'm memorizing some verses, I'm patient with uh my three-year-old, and like my wife and I are doing well, like I can get to a point where, oh, God's goodness and faithful love, they are right here.

If they're bodyguards, they're close.

But then I'm thinking about the bad day syndrome.

I'm like, okay, woke up late, didn't get in the Bible, snapped at my kid again, my wife and I are in a funk, I'm not patient, everything's cloudy, I'm just not doing too well, and all of a sudden I can think, man, I I don't know if I don't know if the bodyguards are close.

I don't know if God's faithful love is really with me.

I don't know if his goodness is actually going to pursue after someone like me.

But what David understands is that he understands the heart of God and he absolutely destroys that type of mindset.

Because for David it was every single day.

It was every single day, and it wasn't dependent upon his performance, but upon God's goodness and his character.

And so for David, looking back on his life, God's goodness and his faithful love was following him on the day that David lost his best friend, on the day that his sons tried to steal the throne from him, on the day that he had to bury others of his kids, even after he committed murder, even after he committed adultery, are on the days where he defeated Goliath and did all these amazing things for Israel.

No matter what, every single day when he looks back at his life, he can think, man, the triumphs and the failures, the highs and the lows, God's goodness and this faithful love are pursuing me.

It is this intentional, aggressive, he's coming after me.

And he's not stopping.

And so for us, I want I want you to see God's goodness doesn't pursue you because your life is always good.

God's goodness pursues you because God is always good and he does not lie.

See, hundreds of years after David, another man experienced exactly what David was saying in this psalm.

Uh, Francis S.

Thompson, he studied medicine um at Owens College back in the 1800s, and he was excellent uh at essay writing.

He considered going into uh the priesthood, the ministry as well, but his dad wanted him to be a doctor, and so he he goes to school, he starts trying to become a doctor, but what he realized in school is that he actually liked writing and sports a whole lot more than medicine, which amen to that.

Um and he he liked he didn't he didn't enjoy medicine, and so um what he did was he got out and his dad was so mad at him that he he knew he needed to flee away uh from his dad, and so he tries to uh go and enlist in the military, uh, but they deny him.

He was he was too small, and so he just fled.

And with all of the expectation and pressure on him, he just bailed and he went to London and he tried to make it uh as a writer.

Because again, he he loved uh writing, he loved writing essays, all these things, but if you try to make it as a writer, like unless you're like J.K.

Rowling, that's a difficult life, you know, uh, and it and it's hard to do that.

And so he he had to take some odd jobs to to try and meet ends meet, and um, with some of these odd jobs, physically demanding jobs, all of a sudden he started to get some some physical pain, and uh and so he did sort of what you know some of the doctors told him, and he started to get on drugs, but uh one of the drugs that he ended up taking was opium.

And he didn't realize that you get addicted to opium, and so uh all of a sudden he he tries to go back to school to Oxford, uh, but they wouldn't take him.

Uh and and it wasn't because he wasn't brilliant, he was.

He was unbelievably smart, but it was because he was an addict at this time, and so he ran it out, he ran out of money, started living on the streets of London.

Uh he was homeless, addicted to opium, and he's spending nights outdoors next to the River Thames.

And yet, uh every now and then uh he would come across uh a loose piece of paper of some sort, and what he would do uh as this uh homeless addict, but he would find this loose piece of paper, and all of a sudden he would start just writing some poems, writing some essays, and sending them into the local newspaper.

And whenever the newspaper got them, they'd be like, oh my gosh.

Like this is a who is writing these types of things?

And and they didn't know that this guy was perishing and uh had so much disease and sickness with him.

And yet at the time, uh a prostitute came came and found him and uh started to help get him back on his feet.

He actually called her his savior in in some ways because it was like, oh, she helped me get back on the feet, and and then all of a sudden the church came and came alongside of him and nursed him back to health as he was slowly deteriorating, uh, but he would still continue to write some poetry.

And and one of the things that he ended up writing at the very end of his life is he wrote this poem called The Hound of Heaven.

The Hound of Heaven, because he realized that he wasn't the one pursuing God all this time, but God had been pursuing him all of his days.

That even when he ended up being homeless, even when he was an addict, all of these things in his life, he realized it's been God.

It's been Jesus, the one who's been pursuing me, even when I haven't been pursuing him.

And so he says this in the Hound of Heaven poem He said, I fled him down the nights and down the days, I fled him down the arches of the years.

But when he described God's pursuit, he said this, he said, But God with unhurried chase and unperturbed pace, deliberate speed, majestic instancy.

And what was he saying?

What was Francis saying?

Is that Jesus, he didn't just walk into the human story.

No, Jesus, he walked into my story.

And it's like he walked on the River Thames to come and save me.

The hound of heaven came after me.

That dog, that guy, he came after me.

The hound of heaven came after someone like me, this broken man, and he met me when I was most vulnerable, when I was most broken, and when I needed him the most, the hound of heaven came after me.

You see, Francis, he spent years running, but he discovered what David already knew is that you can't outrun a shepherd who has his people surrounded.

You can't outrun him.

And so, man, I'm I'm thankful for I've been reflecting a vacation this past week for some time off that's so good for the soul.

But I'll tell you what, never takes a day off, and that's God's goodness and his faithful love.

No matter how you came in here this morning, you can be confident that in Christ, his goodness and his faithful love is pursuing after you.

And that's why I'm so encouraged, is because God's goodness, I can be confident that it's chasing after me.

And how can I be confident that it will never run out?

It's because of his Hasid, his constant, his steadfast love.

It is an unbinding type of love.

He is bound to me, and he's coming after me, the hound of heaven, for someone like me, for someone like you.

And the last thing that I want us to see from this is the shepherd's promise.

Let's go down to verse six and see how this thing ends out.

David's ending this psalm, Psalm 23, like this.

And he says, What?

What's the promise?

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.

The backdrop for the entire psalm, this is what the psalm has been leading to the entire time, that not only does God host us now, not only does he create a table for us now, but he also will host us forever.

You see, it's one thing to invite somebody over for dinner once.

It's a whole nother thing to say, hey, why don't you come and move in at the same time?

And that's what God is doing here.

And I want you to notice, David doesn't say at the end of this Psalm, he's been talking about all these things.

He doesn't say, and I will dwell in the green pastures forever.

No, for David, it wasn't about the green pastures.

It was about the God of the pastures.

It was about the shepherd.

And he doesn't say, and I will feast at the table.

I'm sure the table was awesome, but he doesn't say, I'm going to feast at the table.

No, he doesn't just care about the table, he cares about the host.

He wants to be next to the host.

Right?

And that's why just a few chapters later in Psalm 27, David almost echoes this same idea where he says, One thing that I ask, and one thing that I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord forever, and gaze upon the beauty of his face and seek him in his temple.

That is what David ultimately wanted.

You see, the whole Psalm leads David, and it's supposed to lead us to see God as the fulfillment of all of the blessing and all of our longings, to experience an understanding like David.

Like I hope it's like us, not so much to love the green pastures, but to love the good shepherd.

Right?

Not so much to love the lavish banquet, but to actually love the generous host.

You see, Psalm 23, it isn't ultimately about a God who has a lot and provides, though that's true, it's just incomplete.

Psalm 23 is really about how everything that you ultimately need, all of your longings, all of the things in your heart is ultimately found in him.

And that's why every blessing in this Psalm ultimately points beyond itself.

And so I actually I want to read all of Psalm 23 again, just some observations about the blessing beyond the blessing.

Okay, Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd.

That's going to be a relationship with him.

I have what I need, that's supply.

He lets me lie down in green pastures, that's rest.

He leads me besides quiet waters, refreshment for me.

He renews my life, that's healing.

He leads me in paths of righteousness, that's guidance for his name's sake, that's purpose, right?

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, that's testing.

You are with me.

Faithfulness, your rod and your staff, that's going to be discipline and comfort.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, that's hope.

Right?

You anoint my head with oil, consecration.

My cup overflows, abundance, only goodness and faithful love will follow me, that's blessing, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.

That is security.

You see, every single blessing in the Psalm actually points to a greater blessing, and it's the shepherd himself.

The shepherd is the greater blessing.

That the destination of Psalm 23, it's not just for better pastures, though that's great.

It's not just for this amazing feast, it's not just uh for an overflowing table.

No, the destination is home.

That the shepherd has been leading his sheep home the entire time.

But it raises one final question for us is how can the shepherd, how can the shepherd ultimately know that the sheep will make it home?

How can we be confident as these sheep to be brought home?

How can we know that, like these wandering, rebellious, sinful sheep, how can we be confident that we can actually dwell in the house of the Lord forever?

Like David, he speaks again with this awesome certainty about him.

He's saying, I will.

Not I hope, not maybe.

And then just reminds me of what 1 John says, that I'm writing these things to you so that you may know that you have salvation.

Man, I just I want us to know.

I want us to know like John, I want us to know like David, how can we know?

And it's because Psalm 23 just happens to be, Zach pointed this out last week, right after Psalm 22.

And how does Psalm 22 start?

Is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

The words that Jesus would cry on the cross, it becomes what we can look to as a final promise to man, the shepherd is going to lead us home because the shepherd ended up taking the cup of wrath so that we could have the cup of abundance.

Right?

The shepherd ended up being slain so that the sheep could be brought home.

The only reason that the Lord can be your shepherd is because the shepherd was slain like a lamb upon the cross.

That is our hope, that is our confidence.

The shepherd was forsaken so that his sheep never would be.

Okay, and so uh as we wrap up um this psalm, um, heard a story this week that I think kind of encapsulates all of Psalm 23 uh for us, and I hope that it encourages you.

Um heard a story about there was uh this party um going on.

A lot of people, a lot of big names were at this party, but there was also a uh retired missionary uh that was at uh this party going on, and one of the things that the host of this party ended up doing was he just put a microphone at this party and saying, Hey, we're just come up.

If you want to do any sort of entertainment for the people, just feel free to speak into the microphone, karaoke, whatever.

And we saw this famous person come up to the microphone uh at one point, and he's like, I'm going to quote Psalm 23 for you guys.

And with this like booming type of voice, he just starts uh echoing out like the Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need.

And by the end, everyone in the audience was just clapping.

They were like, that was amazing.

And then a little bit later on, this uh retired missionary also comes up to the mic and and he also says, Hey, I also want to quote Psalm 23 from memory, and and with this deep, passionate voice, he also begins, The Lord is my shepherd.

I have all that I need.

And there wasn't a dry eye in the house, apparently.

Everyone's just weeping.

And somebody goes up uh to the actor afterwards and they were like, Hey, when when you quoted Psalm 23, everyone was just clapping.

They were like, This is amazing.

But when that guy quoted Psalm 23, everyone was crying.

What was the difference there?

And the actor said, Well, you see, I I know Psalm 23, but that guy, he knows the shepherd.

He knows the shepherd.

And guys, that's what Psalm 23 is.

It's David, he knows his shepherd.

He's been with the shepherd through the green pastures, he's been with the shepherd through the dark valleys.

He was with the shepherd at the table.

He knows that the goodness and the faithful love of the shepherd will be following him all the days of his life, and that's why he can confidently say, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live forever.

Because the greatest blessing of Psalm 23, it isn't that heaven, it isn't that the house of the Lord will be amazing, though it will be.

No, the greatest blessing of Psalm 23 is that the shepherd is going to be there with us, and we will spend eternity with him.

And so my hope for us is that after these three weeks, it's not just that we know Psalm 23 a little bit better.

I hope you do.

But my hope is that after going through Psalm 23 for these three weeks, is that you know the shepherd better.

And that just like a song, it not only informs your mind, but it also stirs up your heart to know that we have a good shepherd like that, to know us uh us like sheep.

Though we have wandered away, my my heart is prone to wander, Lord.

I feel it.

But we have a good shepherd who's gonna lead us home.

The destination has always been home.

The journey can be long, the journey can be good, but ultimately my eyes are locked on heaven because I have a good shepherd waiting for me there.

And so, to that end, let me pray for us.

Lord, I'm thankful.

For Psalm 23, I'm thankful that for nearly 3,000 years it has encouraged so many people.

That you've been faithful.

You're not just a faithful shepherd for David, but you're faithful to me.

You're faithful to people in the room.

And so, Lord, I do feel myself wanting to be like David, not just looking for the green pastures of life, but wanting to be with the good shepherd.

Not just hoping that someone could hold me up and sustain me in the midst of the darkness and the chaos of life, but to know that you are with me, no matter what I go through.

And then Lord, I want my eyes to be fixed on heaven, and I want it to be true of what David says.

That one thing I ask, one thing I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.

Would that be true of us?

Would you get our eyes to see not just the blessing of what you can provide, but actually just the blessing of you?

Knowing that the dice may roll, but you're the one who ends up where they fall.

You determine it, Lord.

So whatever, whatever may be cast for us, Lord, I pray that we can look to the shepherd who's faithful and who's good to us.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.