Psalm 23: Promise to Proclamation

Well, maybe you heard the big news this week.

Several of you emailed me and texted me to make sure I knew it.

I mean, it's it is news, and it's it's actually quite sad news.

Um we're in Psalm 23.

We've been in Psalm 23.

Psalm 23 was introduced to me by this 90s rap artist.

It's not it's not funny.

He passed away this week.

That's not funny.

He was 59, he passed away on Wednesday.

Coolio passed away on Wednesday.

And y'all were ready.

I mean, the church was ready to let me know that Coolio passed away almost as if our study of Psalm 23 is centered around Coolio.

Um but for many of us, if you're 40-ish or young 40s, uh 10th grade, in my Toyota four-wheel drive truck, Gangsta's Paradise, even though I walked through the valley of the shadow of death.

I mean, it introduced me, it was my knowledge of Psalm 23.

So Coolio was 59, he passed away on Wednesday.

I read up on him a little bit this week.

He grew up in Compton.

He was plagued by addiction during his life.

He actually said that Christianity played a role in his recovery in early adulthood.

And so he gave us this gift of Psalm 23 that continues to enter people's lives through Gangsta's paradise.

Played on the way home from church for your family.

And he also gives us a gift today, in a way, because he reminds us that our lives are finite.

He reminds us that we have limited time, and yet we have this gift of Psalm 23.

And this gift keeps giving all the way until the very last phrase.

And we've been going phrase by phrase by phrase, letting this story unfold itself.

And so what we see in Psalm 23 is we see the sheep and the shepherd, and they start in the home ranch, those green pastures of still waters, and then they go through that dangerous valley, they're headed up to the high country, the table up in the high country where there's relief from the summer weather.

And then you think everything's going to be great.

They're at the high country, they're at the tables, they have provision, and then the flies start.

If you remember that, that's what hits the sheep up in the high country is the flies, and they need to be anointed by the shepherd.

They need the intimate care of the shepherd.

So there's this pattern in Psalm 23.

It's just kind of like over and over and over again, there is loyal love by a fully committed shepherd.

Over and over again.

And maybe you've seen that in your life.

That you received patience when you should not have received patience.

Or you're loved in your messiness and you are.

Or you're loved in your weariness and you are.

That loyal love.

So that Hebrew word is chasid.

Can we say that together?

Say it together.

Ready?

One, two, three.

Chesed.

You got to that chh-chhith.

You know that little that little noise there.

Hebrew scholars, we're Hebrew scholars.

We love Culio and Hebrew scholars all at the same time.

So here's point number one.

And it comes out of this idea of chissid.

You are followed by God's loyal love that never gives up on you.

That is what you are followed by.

Sam preached that so well last week.

And we gotta let the first part of verse 6 flow into the second part.

Chesed is perfectly loyal love that meets you where you are.

It's I'm for you and I'm with you and I'm not giving up on you.

I've read this quote before about Chid as theologian John Oswald.

Let's read it again.

Chasid speaks of a completely undeserved kindness and generosity done by a person who is in a position of power.

This was the Israelites' experience of God.

He revealed himself to them when they were not looking for him.

He kept his covenant with them long after their persistent breaking of it and had destroyed any reason for his continued keeping of it.

Unlike humans, this deity was not fickle, undependable, self-serving, and grasping.

Instead, he was faithful, true, upright, and generous.

Always.

So our passage today, at verse 6, Psalm 23.

Surely goodness and mercy, Hasid, follow me all the days of my life.

And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

So that word surely, last week, Sam taught us that it meant emphatic certainty.

Emphatic certainty.

So thinking about that and thinking about this word chissid, so that word mercy is the word chissid, meaning faithful, steadfast, loyal love.

And putting this together, we could say with emphatic certainty, goodness, and loyal love follow you all the days of your life.

I could end the sermon there.

You probably wish.

I would end the sermon there.

I'm not going to, but you wish it.

Now, if you're anything like me, anything like me, you feel like you're followed by all sorts of things other than loyal love.

You feel like you're followed by all sorts of messes.

It's like the bike ride I had home from Jimmy Hagar's house in the fifth grade.

I don't know how it happened, but his parents let us watch Friday the 13th, one Friday night.

I was in the fifth grade.

I had never seen a movie like that before in my life.

I don't handle dark things well.

I don't watch stranger things too dark.

I don't watch anything dark.

Like, just can't do it.

Fifth grade, even worse.

I was under the blanket, under the couch, faking bathroom breaks.

By the time the movie ended, it was 9:30.

It was dark out, and I had to ride my bike home.

And so I head down Edwards Court.

I take a ride on Shannon Way.

I round that curve right where the dirt bike jumps were.

And that curve was the darkest.

That was the darkest.

We all knew that curve was the darkest.

Because if you had to ride your bike home at night, you always rode really fast through that curve.

And I knew Jason was behind me.

Knew it.

I could feel it with his mask and his axe.

Do you remember what he looked like?

This is what he looked like.

So this is this is what it what I felt was chasing me, was following me, right?

Maybe you remember, we don't have to keep it up there much longer.

But maybe you remember a bike ride home like that.

Or or just a walk home.

Or the first three quarters of the Georgia game last night.

Felt like Jason.

We've we've felt that, right?

Like we have these questions that sort of like chase us and harass us.

Am I enough?

Do I really have what it takes?

Will I ever feel pure?

Will I ever be whole?

Will I always be sad?

Will I always be lonely?

Will I always be disappointed?

Will I always be tired?

If people knew me, would they love me?

If God knew me, like really knew me, like if I actually would he love me?

Then the doozy in all this to me, for me, is is if he does love me, does he actually delight in me?

Or is he just sort of obligated to love me?

And last week Sam just showered us with Psalm 23, 6A, that emphatic promise.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

Think about the construct of this verse.

We have a part A and a part B.

Part A flows into part B.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

So what we have in six days, we have an emphatic promise, the promise given to you, this loyal love, out of it comes a joyful proclamation.

That's the Christian life, right there.

Promise into proclamation.

Any proclamation we have, anything that we have about our life or behavior, anything like that, it comes out of what's already been promised to us.

The love that's already given to us, apart from any reaction or response.

You are forever welcomed and loved and forgiven and righteous in Christ.

That's the emphatic promise.

Now, out of that secure promise comes a joyful proclamation.

A desire to walk with him, a forever home with him.

What a promise, what a proclamation we get to make.

Point number two is this to dwell with God is to rest in the faithful presence of God with you.

That's true now, and it's true in our heavenly home.

The word dwell is the word Yeshab, meaning to remain, sit, abide.

Two weeks ago, I went out of town for a few days with my ministry cohort group, and we like to hike together and hang out together, and we taught theology and church and leadership structures, and we, you know, share all of our great opinions that are so great, and we complain a lot, which we're getting better at as we get older.

And so we do this and we laugh a lot, and we do this for a few days, and we're together.

And after three days sitting in the airport, I was ready to come home.

I was excited to come home, I was ready to sit on my back porch.

I was ready to have my remote control, not the out-of-town remote control.

We all know about the out-of-town remote control.

You're always a little confused the whole time.

I was ready to sleep in my bed with my pillows, my box fan running, right?

But really, I was eager to be at home, not because all those material things that make up a home, but also because, obviously, the people that are there.

The presence.

So I don't really miss a what as much as I miss a who.

You miss your people.

You miss your friends.

If you're single or you live alone, you miss your friends, you miss your family.

You miss presence.

Home always becomes more than to dwell in the house of God is to rest and behold the faithful presence of God to you.

He is for you.

Philippians 3, 20 says, But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

So Christ and our heavenly home, that's our true belonging, without question and without conditions.

So point number three is this to dwell with God is to behold his goodness and limitless love to us.

That's what it means to dwell with him.

Because we're beholding that.

And we're gifted to do that now, and we're gifted to have a heavenly home, to do that in forever.

Psalm 23 places this idea of dwelling with God at the end of the sheep's journey.

He's telling us the ultimate purpose of the shepherd is to dwell with us, and the ultimate purpose of us is to dwell with the shepherd.

Psalm 27, verse 4, another of David's.

Psalms 27:4

One thing I asked of the Lord that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

Now, what does that mean for you and Marietta in 2022?

Well, we all want something to behold.

We all want to be held by something, and nothing quite works.

We try, we have tried, you are trying, I'm trying.

But God Himself is different.

Limitless love, loyal love, Hasid into our limited ability to get it all together.

Now that's a beauty to be held by.

That's something sustainable, secure enough to hold our fragile hearts.

And we get to abide there to allow our hearts and identities to dwell in that lavish welcome and validation that we are finally found by something worthy enough, with enough love to hold us.

Point number four, last point, four-point sermon.

You got an extra one.

God's heart is to dwell with you, not condemn you or distance you.

That's God's heart.

In the Old Testament, the temple in Jerusalem stood as a symbol of God's desire to dwell with his people.

In that courtyard of the temple, there would be a bloodied altar.

People making sacrifices as they entered.

To say, I don't have my act together.

There needs to be a sacrifice, a purification of sin.

Now we know Christ is the final sacrifice.

So God provided this Himself, so we don't have to keep sacrificing.

We don't have to sacrifice ourselves over and over again, which we're so very good at doing, as if it merits some sort of welcome or love.

Hebrews 12, verse 2, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:2

We are orphans who became children because of the Father's love for us.

Now we've noticed it a couple times in Psalm 23 that David never places the care or health of the sheep on the burden of the sheep.

It's one of those things you could read Psalm 23 over and over again to sort of like bypass that fact.

It's just embedded in the nature of the Psalm.

It's the shepherd.

It's the shepherd.

It's his guidance and his care and his steadfast love that's sustaining the sheep.

So here's what that means.

Revolutionary, if you've never heard it, your relationship with God is not centered on your love for him.

It's on his love for you.

And that is freeing, and that is healing, and that is empowering.

So your faith doesn't have to be do more and try harder, but it's surrender more and gaze more.

David keeps going in Psalm 36, 7 and 8.

How precious is your steadfast love, O God.

The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.

So knowing the word steadfast love is the word chassid.

Again, here, David uses it again.

We could say this: how precious is your loyal love.

We take refuge in your care.

And then verse 8, you give them drink from the river of your delights.

The word delights is built from the same root word as the word Eden.

The paradise we once enjoyed with God at our creation, that pure joy, pure fellowship with the divine, this is our meta-narrative.

It's your story.

That your life's end is your new beginning in pure delight.

That's our heavenly home.

Can you imagine a place where there's no weariness or sadness, where those questions that follow you, like Jason, they go away.

They're healed.

Can you imagine all the disappointment and pain and anxiety becoming whole?

Can you imagine not being tired or lonely or your mistakes not plaguing you?

The story ends not with you adding it up, the story ends with God redeeming everything.

All the sadness.

And all that remains is joy and peace.

God Himself for us to behold.

Let's close by reading what David has to say in Psalm 136 and then revisit our verse for today.

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His Hasid.

Steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of gods for his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the Lord of Lords for his steadfast love endures forever.

Psalm 23, 6.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Let's pray together.

God, would you help us even more today to receive this emphatic promise that we are followed, grounded in your goodness to us, your mercy to us that is secured in the gift of Christ.

Help us even more to dwell in your presence.

That you have promised to us as we are surrendered to you.

And you promise to be for us and never leave us.

Help us to sit more, abide more, dwell more, gaze more, behold more.

Help us to trust that you are enough for us and all the mess that follows us.

And that ultimately we are followed by your goodness and your mercy.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.