Psalm 23: He Restores My Soul | Associate Pastor: Matt Armstrong

Morning.

My name is Matt.

I'm the new associate pastor here at Redeemer.

I'm very excited to be here.

I'm excited to preach to you guys for the first time.

Maybe a little nervous, maybe not.

We'll see.

We'll see how it goes.

As Russ said, we've been walking through Psalm 23.

This Psalm is near and dear to my heart because even as a pastor, the Lord has been walking me and my family through a valley of the shadow of death.

And just a couple years ago, a few years ago, I was with someone in the hospital and wasn't exactly sure what to do.

So I said, well, I'm going to read Psalm 23.

And I felt awkward.

I was like, well, this is the cliche thing to do.

Read Psalm 23.

That's what everybody does in the hospital.

But just a few years later, this psalm has become living waters and green pastures to me because of the truth that it tells us about ourselves and more importantly about the Lord.

So today we're looking at verse 3a.

And to set the scene a little bit, studying for this sermon this morning, I was reminded in 2018 I took my first sabbatical as a pastor.

And as part of that sabbatical, we were able to go to the Highlands of Scotland, the most beautiful place I've ever been in the world.

As we drove from Edinburgh up to the Highland area, I told my wife, I feel like we're driving into heaven.

If we could uh find a way to retire there or just go back, I'm looking for the opportunity.

But as we were there, uh my family, my wife and our girls took a walking tour on this island of Oban we were on, and they saw uh you know beautiful rolling green lush hills, they saw stone fences and ancient ruins as they went, and of course they saw sheep, plenty of sheep.

And one of the things my girls were excited to tell me about this, uh what they learned, uh most surprising and somewhat funny, is that sheep can get into trouble when they inadvertently roll onto their backs.

Did you know sheep have trouble getting back on their feet when they roll on their backs?

Uh but it gets worse.

When a sheep uh gets stuck on their back, what shepherds call getting cast, uh the way their anatomy works, gas builds up in their body until their stomachs explode.

Isn't that funny?

I mean, it's terrible, it's tragic, but sheep can die from their farts.

You know, children and adult children of all ages find that infinitely hilarious.

Uh and I was reminded of that last week as I was studying for this sermon in uh one resource uh I was reading is called A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23.

Philip Keller used to be a shepherd and became a pastor and then wrote a bunch of books, and he reflects on Psalm 23.

And as he was writing about this verse, he he talked about this, about sheep getting cast and what happens to them.

It's it's literally life or death, a matter of time uh if a sheep gets stuck on its back.

And so shepherds live daily uh with anxiety and putting all their attention into keeping watch over their flock.

It's not just predators, it's not just falling into a hole in the ground, but it's literally them uh getting stuck on their backs.

And so shepherds are constantly keeping watch.

And when they lose track of a sheep, they will go in search of it to find it.

And he said, more often than not, they would find a sheep cast on their back.

And so they rush to right them, to restore them to their feet and get them on their way.

And so that leads us to our first point this morning that we live, just like sheep, in a dangerous world and are dependent upon the good shepherd.

I think this is an important place for us to start because I think as American Christians, I mean, maybe other Christians struggle with this, but this is the context I know.

We tend to live schizophrenic lives about ourselves, right?

It on one level, we know that we have confessed our sins, that we need a savior, and we have called out to Jesus.

His life, death, and resurrection make us spiritually alive.

And yet, on the other hand, we like to think, I like to think, that I can live this life in my own strength.

I don't like to admit my weaknesses, my failures, my needs to many people, let alone myself or to the Lord.

It's like a pastor friend of mine once said, he said, I kept waiting until I would mature enough in my faith that I didn't need to depend on Jesus every day.

There's sort of an irony in our own faith that we hope one day to get to a place where we're less dependent upon the Lord.

But in truth, this metaphor of us being like sheep is apt.

We are, in many ways, just as needy and helpless as the sheep that the good shepherd watches over.

And our weaknesses extend in a lot of different directions.

Sometimes we wander off on purpose, right?

We willfully look at a place that we know the Lord is not leading us.

And like Jonah, we say, I don't want to go there, I want to go over here.

It looks fun and exciting, it looks lush, the grass literally looks greener.

And so we go.

Um we think we see a shortcut to where the Lord may be leading us.

We we just want to pass through this little ravine and we get ourselves into trouble.

But just as often uh we get into trouble accidentally, inadvertently.

Philip Keller talks about in the book how just because of the geography or the topography, a sheep can lay down and get rolled over onto its back by no fault of its own.

And so they live, just as we do, uh, in constant need.

We live in a world full of dangers, right?

Uh those things that pursue us to our detriment.

The scriptures say that the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for God's creatures to devour.

But also we live in a world where gravity and geography can be a danger, and uh we find ourselves in need.

And so we do well to acknowledge that we, like sheep, live in constant need and dependency upon our good shepherd.

Well, that leads us to our second point, because just as quickly as we admit and confess our need of the good shepherd, we also need to hear the good news of the shepherd's heart towards us.

The second point is the good news for helpless sheep, the revelation of the heart of our good shepherd.

What does the shepherd feel towards us as his sheep, those who are so easily cast?

Philip Keller writes this.

He said, Many people have the idea that when a child of God falls, when she is frustrated and helpless in a spiritual dilemma, God becomes disgusted, fed up, and even furious with her.

But he says, this simply isn't so.

Can you relate to what he says?

I remember early in uh planting the church I led down in East Atlanta, I had a coach, and we would meet on a monthly basis.

And during a particularly difficult time, my coach looked at me and he said, uh, what do you think God feels to you towards you right now?

And without missing a beat, I said, disappointed.

Right?

Even as a pastor leading God's people, I know, all pastors know, that feeling that, that suspicion that maybe God is just a little bit disappointed, unhappy, or furious with us, because we fall short of our own standards.

We we long to be perfect, we long to be self-sufficient, we long not to suffer.

And yet, as Philip Keller points out, uh, that is not God's heart towards us.

He continues one of the great revelations of the heart of God given to us by Christ is that He Himself is our shepherd.

He has the same sensations of anxiety, concern, and compassion for cast men and women as I had for cast sheep.

And this idea, though it's often foreign to us and hard for us to hold on to, is throughout the scriptures.

Listen to what Psalm 103 says.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love for those who fear him.

As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion for those who fear him, for he knows our frame, and he remembers that we are dust.

This is an incredible truth.

That the Lord is not surprised by our weakness.

He's not surprised by our sin.

He's not surprised or angry at us when we find ourselves like cast sheep helpless on our backs.

In fact, as the author Dane Ortland writes powerfully in his book Gentle and Lowly, rather than being disappointed or angry with us in our weakness or even in our sin, it's right in that place that Jesus, our good shepherd, has compassion for us.

Not like us, when we're hurt or harmed by another person, we we step back, we close off our hearts in self-protection, and and that makes sense.

But as the Lord says in Psalm 103, his ways are not our ways.

And so because he has chosen to put his love on us when we find ourselves in a place of weakness, what we find is that his heart for us is full and grows.

And like a good shepherd, he rushes to us to restore us on our feet and help us along our way.

He truly is the good shepherd, whose eyes are constantly scanning the horizon, keeping watch over us, his flock, for that when we fall, he comes to restore us every time.

Beloved, let us embrace the honesty that the scriptures lead us to.

What we recite every week here at Redeemer, that we are more broken and sinful than we care to admit, but we are also more loved and forgiven that we could have ever dreamed.

Amen?

Amen.

And all this leads us to our sec our our final, third, and final point.

How actually does the Lord restore us?

I think there are many ways, but I've I've come up with three in good sermon structure.

Uh how does the Lord restore us his sheep?

Well, first I think through physical and spiritual rest, right?

This is our favorite way that the Lord restores us.

Um and in the scriptures and in life, God invites us because of who he is, because of our relationship with him, he invites us to rest.

To take time both physically and spiritually, to put away our toil, to cease from striving, and simply to rest.

To rest our bodies, to rest our minds, and to rest our souls.

And we see this in the incredible gift of the Sabbath.

Uh, at the in the very uh warp and woof of creation, God rested on the seventh day.

And he said, I've done this as a model for you.

I've given you a rhythm, my people, of work and rest.

And though we don't observe the Sabbath as Israel did as a law, he taught us this incredibly important rhythm that we work unto the Lord and we rest unto the Lord because of our relationship with him.

We can rest because he is at work.

We can cease from striving to provide for ourselves and our family because he never ceases to provide or to protect his flock.

Now, a few years ago, uh during another particularly difficult season of ministry, my wife made me go on a five-day silent retreat.

Uh she went with me, so that was nice.

She didn't make me do it on my own.

But on the five-hour drive to Memphis, where the silent retreat was, I was terrified and was wondering what torture I had gotten myself into, going to sit by myself in silence for five days.

But four silent retreats later, uh, this practice has become almost a non-negotiable in my life.

And uh every spring and every fall, my wife and I go to a silent retreat, and it has become uh the greatest experience of restoration with the Lord.

To be alone with him in silence and in solitude is uh has become an incredible experience of how the Lord restores me through physical and spiritual rest.

But that's not the only way the Lord restores us, thankfully.

Uh the second way the Lord restores us is through suffering.

And this is the one we don't care for.

And yet, throughout the scriptures, again, we are shown how the Lord in his wisdom, kindness, and love actually uses the suffering we experience in this life as a way to restore us.

Now, again, Philip Keller in his book A Shepherd looks at Psalm 23, he describes this in a regular pattern he uh every shepherd goes through with his sheep.

He says one of the ways sheep make themselves more vulnerable to getting cast and stuck on their backs is when their wool grows too long.

And you can imagine this happening if you saw a sheep, as their wool grows, it gets heavier and thicker, and it's easier to absorb the mud and the muck and the debris, the stuff they roll around in and experience in the pastures.

And as it gets heavier, uh obviously it becomes harder for them to get up.

And this this growing fleece becomes a danger, literally a life and death danger to them.

And so the remedy is the unpleasant experience for the sheep when the shepherd takes the sheep aside and shears off this heavy and yet warm and comforting blanket of wool on them.

And Keller suggests that this is a great metaphor for how the Lord uses suffering in the life of his people to bring restoration.

Over time, we take the good things that the Lord has given us and we take them from gifts and we make them ultimate things, things that we must have.

This is what Scripture calls idols, right?

These good things that the Lord has given us become things that we must have, and often they become more important to us than the Lord.

They become these warm, thick blankets that we find comfort in.

And yet the Lord sees that they have become dangers for us.

When we are not paying attention, when we're not careful, they can become stumbling blocks to us.

And the Good Shepherd loves us enough not to leave us as we are, but to take us aside and take us through that unpleasant process of shearing off that wool and freeing us and making us lighter and in less danger.

The author of the book of Hebrews calls this process discipline and likens it to a good parent disciplining their child.

And he writes, For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained up by it.

Now, those who have walked with the Lord for any amount of time, we can attest to this truth, can't we?

That suffering is not something we would choose.

And often when we've walked through the valley of the shadow of death, we would not uh care to walk through it again.

But if we're honest, we know that those are the times when we find ourselves closest to the Lord.

It's through those seasons of trial and suffering and pain and confusion that the Lord realizes, he opens our eyes to the idols that we have made of good things, how we cling to them rather than to him.

And our relationship with the Lord can deepen even as we let go of those false gods and false comforts.

And we return once again to our good shepherd, the only one who can truly give us rest and sustenance and peace.

He truly is the good shepherd who produces in us the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

All right, finally, the Lord restores us through his constant presence.

One commentator uh on this uh psalm pointed out that one of God's greatest gifts, one of the greatest things the Lord, if not the greatest thing, the Lord can give us is simply himself and his presence.

And we see this in the whole of Psalm 23.

At the beginning of the Psalm, the Lord is in front of us as our shepherd.

He leads us beside still waters.

At the end of the psalm, he is behind us.

Verse 6, we're told that goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life.

But right in the middle of the psalm, as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, where is the Lord?

He's next to us.

We're told, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.

As Russ pointed out last week and over multiple weeks, um, the imagery of the nourishing green pastures and the still and peaceful waters really point us and are fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ.

He is the bread of life and he is the source of living waters.

How does the Lord restore us, beloved?

By giving us Himself.

He is our food, He is our drink, He is our rest, and He is our restoration.

So let us go to Him.

Let us remember, confess, and acknowledge that we live in a dangerous world and we need to live in dependence upon the Good Shepherd.

At the same time, we celebrate and rejoice in his heart towards us, which is love, care, compassion, and restoration.

And finally, we uh we are comforted and restored by the fact that he is always with us.

This is what Jesus told his disciples at the end of his ministry before he ascended into heaven.

He said, Behold, I am with you always, even to the very end of the age.

The Lord who loves you, who who leads you as a good shepherd, is with you always.

And so let's run to him.

And as his sheep, let us hear his voice and follow him, even as he restores us himself, making us able to do just that.

Let's pray.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Lord Jesus Christ, you are our good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep.

We rejoice in who you are, and we are so thankful to be called your sheep.

Father, let us remember this perspective throughout this week.

Feed us, Holy Spirit, with your presence, and we rejoice in our good shepherd, Jesus Christ.

Amen.