Psalm 23: The Committed Love of God | Student Pastor: Sam Rapp

Well, good morning.

My name is Sam.

I'm a student pastor here.

I've been serving here at Redeemer for about two, two and a half years.

You might be thinking, this kid looks 16, and I get that a lot.

And so I'm surprisingly on staff here with my face, my baby face.

But um here we are.

So thanks for coming.

I'm excited to dive into this word with y'all this morning.

Uh over the past couple weeks, we've been going phrase by phrase through Psalm 23.

We've been going at it really slowly.

Um and one thing we've seen is that, as many of you all know, it is maybe the most famous psalm poem and even chapter of the Bible that anybody knows.

I mean, a lot of us have coffee mugs with it on and many other things.

And you might be wondering, we're still in Psalm 23?

Uh yes, uh, we're almost there.

But one thing I will say, one thing I have personally been so encouraged by and reminded of is that the Word of God is an inexhaustible will.

Every word, phrase, and verse has a level of depth that on this side of heaven we'll never reach.

And that's that's incredible.

The reason is because every word, phrase, and letter is inspired and given to us by the living God of the universe, and therefore our minds cannot even comprehend the depth and beauty and riches that are in this verse.

So we could truly be in Psalm 23 until we all pass away and we'd still never get to the bottom of it.

Because that's how rich and wise our God is.

There's a lot here for us this morning, so I'm just going to pray and then we'll dive in.

Father, we ask that in your goodness and mercy you would open our eyes to your word this morning.

Father, this word is not just a newspaper, it's not just any other book, but Lord, this is the inspired word come from you.

Uh you, Lord, have spoken this word through this man David to be for us something of encouragement, of comfort, of consolation, even of lament.

Uh so, Father, I pray that by your spirit you would quicken us and awaken us to hear what you have for us, Lord.

Apart from your spirit, we can never understand this in its fullness.

And so, Father, I pray that you would send your spirit in this moment, uh, not to see uh me, but to see the beauty of Jesus through this passage.

And Father, we ask all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So we find ourselves today in verse 6, specifically 6a of the 23rd Psalm.

So far, we've wandered through this poetic uh comfort from David, and we've seen a couple themes.

Uh number one, we find rest and peace for our weary souls from the consolation of the shepherd.

The guidance, the presence of our shepherd, that is what ultimately comforts and sustains our hearts.

Also, we're led to places of rest by this Good Shepherd, peace, but also we're led sometimes through valleys by our Good Shepherd.

This verse that we read, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, is one so well known that the great poet, artist Leon Ivey Jr., aka Coolio, opens up his anthem of 1995, Gangsta's Paradise, right?

As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

Russ mentioned that song already, and though it is silly, there is a real point here.

All of us, Christian or non-Christian, endure hardship, endure suffering, disruptions.

But David could find encouragement and peace here even in the valley.

Why?

Certainly it wasn't because David was crushing it.

Remember, David?

The same David that not long after writing this psalm committed adultery, got Bathsheba pregnant, and then had her husband murdered, right?

This same David is secure in this valley.

Not because he's crushing it, but because God is there.

And where God is, we believe is the fullness of peace.

Where God is, there is fullness of joy, fullness of security.

And David says, For you are with me.

David finally lands at verse 6, for we are this morning, and says, This surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

Now, in the original language, this was written in in Hebrew.

This is seven words.

Seven words in Hebrew.

And here's my argument for us.

This is the whole point of this morning.

It's kind of long.

But my type Airs, this is for you.

These seven words of Psalm 23, 6, sum up the entire covenantal love of God.

And knowing this love of God that never gives up on his people blesses his people with an assurance that nothing else in this world can offer.

I'm going to read that one more time since it's long.

These seven words in the Hebrew sum up the entire covenantal love of God.

And us knowing this love of God that never gives up on his people, blesses his people with an assurance that nothing else in this world can offer.

This covenantal love is one that relentlessly chases after his people, that fights for the cause of his people, that separates seas for his people, that goes to the extent of sending his son to be murdered on a cross for his people.

So, Christian, do you feel assured of your faith this morning?

Do you wonder if God is pleased with you?

Do you wonder if he looks on you with delight?

Maybe do you doubt that this morning?

Do you believe that he actually rejoices over you with song?

Do you wonder if maybe you're really a Christian?

Have you really found that assurance yet?

Through Christ Christian, you are spotless.

Even if you might not feel secure in your faith, know that you are secure because God is far more committed to you than you are to him.

So point number one this morning, based out of Psalm 23, 6a.

We have eternal assurance of our faith because of the attentive, watchful care of the Good Shepherd.

We have eternal assurance because of the attentive, watchful care of the Good Shepherd.

This opening word here in verse 6, surely, that we hear all the time, it does not simply signify a high percent chance.

I've watched too many Georgia football games to know that a high percent chance is simply not good enough.

But what I do love about the ESPN app is whenever I'm watching a game, whether it's Braves, Georgia, Falcons, whatever, there's this little ESPN line that they have in the app that shows the percent chance of the team based on the circumstances of the game.

And it changes in real time.

There's this one game, every time I see this chart that comes to my mind.

And it happened on February 5th, 2017.

Luke Bryan sang the national anthem.

And Lady Gaga did the halftime show.

That has nothing to do with the point of this, but I just think that's funny.

So the game was Super Bowl 51.

All right, some of us in this room have real wounds from this night, so I'm gonna spare us as much as possible.

The Falcons came out hot.

Came out hot.

We're crushing it, got up to the infamous 28-3 lead, right?

A number that Matt Ryan actually can't escape.

He just got a football, and on that football, 2-8-3, it's a side note.

We got up to 28-3 with six minutes and four seconds to go in the third quarter.

At this point, the ESPN win probability said that the Falcons had a 99.8% chance of winning this game.

I was watching this game with some friends in Birmingham when I was at Samford, and they were like, like, Sam, dude, the Falcons have this in the bag.

In the bag.

And I was like, no, they don't.

I was like, I've been there.

I've watched too many Georgia football games, Falcons games, and Braves games to know that we ain't got it in the bag.

Right?

The win probability percentage is based on past statistics, right?

They they look back at other games that look like that game and therefore come to the conclusion of the percentage.

So here's what's true.

Since 2001, whenever there was an NFL game between two teams, and the score and time looked similar to this.

Maybe not exactly 28 to 3, maybe not exactly six minutes and four seconds, but it looks similar.

The teams that were in the lead, like the Falcons, won all 190 games in a row.

Since 2001, 190 in oh.

No one since 2001 had lost a game with this kind of lead.

So check out this graph uh that I pulled up from the win percentage.

So for my non-sports people, okay, the top half is the Patriots logo, bottom half is the Falcons logo, that red line is the win percentage of each team.

So as it's going down, Falcons, as it's going up, up Patriots.

Right?

So as I look at this graph and as I think about 99.8, right, you see it right to the right of end third right there after halftime.

That lowest point, 99.8%.

Whenever I see 99.8%, my heart has been trained to see the point oh two, right?

That's what I've been trained to see.

So David here is not giving us a 99.8% chance.

It's an emphatic pronouncement, one that is full of confidence.

So, what does that mean for us this morning, Christian?

Your faith is not built on chance.

Your faith is not built on chance.

This pronouncement does not come out of either a self-righteous confidence from David.

It's coming out of the security he feels because he knows that his good shepherd is far more committed to him than he is to his good shepherd.

His good shepherd will, with attentive and watchful care, walk closely and intimately with him, even when David, when we wander.

We believe that every single part of the Bible, in some way or another, ultimately points us to Jesus.

So, because of that, we know that the Good Shepherd of Psalm 23 has been perfectly fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

In John 10, Jesus gives one of his famous seven I am statements.

And in this, Jesus is showing these Jewish people that he is not just another good teacher.

He's not just another good religious leader.

He's not going to end up like Muhammad leading a good religion of works.

He is God in the flesh, not created, has always been and will always be.

That's the kind of stuff that got him crucified.

So in John 10, he's telling these people that Jesus is the good shepherd.

Not a good shepherd, the good shepherd.

Thus fulfilling Psalm 23 perfectly.

In verses 3 and 4 of John 10, Jesus says this to him the gatekeeper opens.

The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

You see the intimacy here.

This is not a distant friendship.

The shepherd has intimate knowledge of his sheep, personal knowledge, to the point of knowing their name.

And the sheep have intimate knowledge of their shepherds, so much so that they recognize his voice compared to other potential harmful shepherds.

Now here's the point.

If David can write with such a confidence in a pre-cross world, how much more so do we, living in the shadow of the resurrection of Jesus, have assurance that our good shepherd will actively and attentively care for us?

Point number two.

We have eternal assurance because God can only ever be perfectly good.

We have eternal assurance because God can only ever be perfectly good.

In our lives, if you've been around the block, you know, we constantly experience change.

Could be a job transition, a divorce, a new church, a new city, death.

We see it so clearly in our relationships interpersonally with each other.

One week, everything seems great in your marriage, right?

Like y'all are in y'all are in tune with each other, everything's going great.

And in your friendships, everything seems to be going well one week with your relationship with your parents, right?

And then all of a sudden, it switches, right?

The next week that they maybe are being weird, they don't want to talk to you.

You might not want to talk to them.

Perhaps something happened.

Maybe you're upset at them, maybe they upset you, and maybe it's for a real reason.

But we see it all around us.

Our relationships are so complicated and easily disturbed because at the end of the day, we are pretty fragile people, whether or not we want to uh say we are.

We are honestly pretty easily bothered.

We are easily irritated, fairly easily offended.

Anyone else ever been in a really good mood and then stub your toe?

Right?

Like that's the kind of switch, right?

Anyone else been in a really bad mood and then get a great phone call?

Like you see our hearts just ebb and flow so quickly.

There is a vital thing about God that we need to understand.

God cannot change, nor does he have the potential to change.

He will always be 100% good, 100% wise, loving, just, eternal, patient.

If he had, if God had the potential to grow or diminish in any of these ways, he would simply not be God.

In James's letter in the New Testament, James, the brother of Jesus, writes this James 1.17.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

God will never change.

What that means is that his affection for you in Christ can also never change.

He will never betray you.

He will never sin against you.

Isn't that awesome?

Christian, you are secure with your standing before him, not because of how well you are holding it together, but because he is always perfectly good to you, and that can never change and will never change.

Point number three.

And this is maybe the most important point, because nothing else in this sermon would matter if this were not true.

Point number three.

We have eternal assurance because Christ has walked through the ultimate valley of the shadow of death for us.

We have eternal assurance because Jesus Christ walks through the ultimate valley of the shadow of death for us.

So thinking back to John 10, Jesus referencing, Psalm 23, referencing this theme of the Good Shepherd.

He tells the people exactly the length that the Good Shepherd goes to for his people.

John 10, 10 and 11.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy Jesus.

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

I am the Good Shepherd.

Again, not a Good Shepherd.

I am the Good Shepherd.

And what does the Good Shepherd do?

The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

This is what separates Christianity from every other belief system in the world.

God is not up in heaven as an angry puppet master demanding perfection from you.

Rather, in an all-encompassing act of mercy, he came down to our level.

Went from being the center of praise of heaven and all of its glory to being born a baby.

So much so, needing a woman to wipe his bottom.

Like that's the humiliation that the King of glory came down and stepped into.

This word in Psalm 23 that's translated as mercy is the Hebrew word Hesed.

And this word Hesed means a lot more than just mercy.

If you could sum up the entire covenantal, relentless, pursuing love of God into one word, I think this would be it.

This word, Hesed, is the theme of the whole Bible.

From Genesis to Revelation, the people of God running away from their creator, and God in relentless, aggressive pursuit, chases after them.

He is so committed to us, in fact, that he, the creator God of the universe, who upholds the universe by the word of his power, was nailed to a cross so that we might have right relationship with him.

This goodness, this mercy, which could be mean pardoning of sin, paying of debt, this is what follows the believer forever, with no uncertainty, no chance.

I want us to close our time today with some self-reflecting together.

There's this author named David Pallison, who passed away just a couple years ago, but he did a really interesting and creative thing with Psalm 23.

He wrote what he called an anti-Psalm.

And in doing this, he had one goal.

This is what it looks like and feels like to live life as your own God, to live life as your own shepherd.

Now, as we dissected through this series, none of us comes close, even as Christians, to being perfectly resting and growing in the grace of Jesus.

None of us are, even close.

Even as followers of Christ, we are still prone to running after our own gods, to running away from Him, especially when we feel doubt or we've just sinned.

We are so prone to run from Him.

So as I read this anti-Psalm, my goal is not for us, again, to grovel in guilt, as we've said, but rather to reflect.

Is there anything in this that resonates?

Anything that maybe convicts?

But again, I want to encourage you and affirm you, Christian, you are free.

I want to remind you of that.

So here is David Pallison's anti-salm of Psalm 23.

I'm on my own.

No one looks out for me or protects me.

I experience a continual sense of need.

Nothing's quite right.

I'm always restless.

I'm easily frustrated and often disappointed.

It's a jungle.

I feel overwhelmed.

It's a desert, I'm thirsty.

My soul feels broken, twisted, and stuck.

I can't fix myself.

I stumble down dark paths.

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

But life's confusing.

Why don't things ever really work out?

I'm haunted by emptiness and futility, the shadows of death.

I fear the big hurt, the final loss.

Death is waiting for me at the end of every road, but I'd rather not think about that.

I spend my life protecting myself.

Bad things can happen.

I find no lasting comfort.

I'm alone, facing everything that could hurt me.

Are my friends really friends?

Other people use me for their own ends.

I can't really trust anyone.

No one has my back.

No one is really for me except me.

And I'm so much about me, sometimes it's sickening.

I belong to no one except myself.

My cup is never quite full enough.

I'm left empty.

Disappointment follows me all the days of my life.

Will I just be obliterated into nothingness?

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

Sarter said, hell is other people.

I have to add, hell is also myself.

It's a living death, and then I die.

This is perhaps what it looks like and feels like to live life apart from the Good Shepherd.

A life without meaning.

A life with no eternal security.

A life that's ultimately built on sand.

Non-Christian or Christian.

Perhaps this is how you feel this morning.

Perhaps you feel the loneliness, the worthlessness, the overarching, what's the point, luring over your head.

But here's my invitation for you, Christian and non-Christian, you do not have to clean yourself up to come before this holy God.

Run into the arms of this good shepherd who chases after you, knowing the true freedom and joy and peace that is waiting for you there.

But Christian, this story does not end with the anti-Psalm.

Since Christ was obedient unto death, even death on a cross, all of your past sin, present sin, and future sin was nailed to him on that cross.

You had a debt you could never pay.

You had a guilty sentence that no smooth-talking lawyer could get you out of.

And the good news is none of us could ever pick ourselves up by our bootstraps and get it all together.

Christ had to die.

Not for the righteous, he says, but for the sinner.

That our sin would be placed on him.

And it's as he was murdered, descended to hell, conquered Satan and evil forever, then rising from the grave victorious, gave us perfection so that now, in the presence of this holy God, he doesn't see only us anymore.

The old person has died.

We live in union with Christ so much so that when we stand before our holy God one day, he will see Christ in us.

He will see a spotless new creation.

This is why we get to listen to him.

This is why Christian, we are not hearers only of the word, but we're hearers and doers because he has counted us righteous.

We obey what he says because we know that in his word is the actual only pathway to life, even when it's hard and not desirable.

That's the promise of the Good Shepherd, who laid down his life for us.

Now, with these things in mind, let's close by reading Psalm 23 again, reflecting on the grace that permeates it throughout.

And notice how different it is than the anti-Psalm.

So Psalm 23, 1 through 6.

The Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want, I need 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.

Why?

For you are with me.

Your rod and your staff, they come for me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil.

My cup overflows.

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

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

Christian, you are secure forever.

You are assured forever.

You need not doubt whether your good shepherd is holding on to you.

For surely goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life.

And we will ultimately dwell with God in Christ forever.

Let's pray together.

Father, your word is a steadfast anchor, never changing, never failing, never altering.

But for 2,000 years have upheld the courage and confidence of the church across all cultures and nations.

Father, this morning we come to you, we come into this room with a lot of baggage, a lot of pain, a lot of tears, a lot of doubt, a lot of sin, a lot of anxiety.

So, Father, I pray that you would step into these places with us.

Lord, we don't need to clean ourselves up.

We don't need to come into this room and pretend like we have it all together.

And Father, you meet us in those places.

And so I pray for the downcast, for the doubting, for the insecure, that you would help them feel secure, not in them, but Father, in you, the only good shepherd.

Father, I pray that as we receive communion and as we think about what you've done for us, Jesus, that we would be rested and comforted in the assurance that you will never leave us or forsake us.

God, thank you for this.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.