Since we began this sermon series six weeks ago:
• A homicide bomber killed 84 people in an attack in Kabul, Afghanistan.
• 84 people were killed and over 300 others injured in Nice, France when a terrorist deliberately drove a cargo truck into a crowd.
• An 84-year-old French priest was beheaded by an ISIS knifeman.
• Here in the United States, nearly 2 dozen police officers have been killed in the line of duty.
• Both political parties in this country held tumultuous conventions and both nominated deeply flawed candidates who are both facing numerous investigations and lawsuits and who have the highest unfavorable ratings for any Presidential candidates ever.
And that’s just a small sampling of some major event that have happened in our world and in our country over the past six weeks. So in some ways, much has changed in our world, but on the other hand, the thing that has not changed is that if we look around at the world around us, there are many legitimate reasons for us to worry and be anxious. The other thing that has not changed is God’s antidote for our worry and anxiety. Here’s how we summarized that antidote when we began six weeks ago:
If Jesus is my Shepherd
I have everything I need
This morning, as we conclude this series, we’ll see that David brings Psalm 23 full circle and that he closes this beloved Psalm by saying the same thing in a slightly different way. Let’s look at that last verse:
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.
(Psalm 23:6 ESV)
Here is the main idea in David’s closing verse:
If I pursue the Shepherd
goodness and mercy will pursue me
Before we look at some practical steps we can take to make sure that we pursue the Shepherd so that goodness and mercy will pursue us, let’s take a moment to define some of the terms that David uses here.
Let’s begin with the word “follow”. In English, that word can have kind of a passage connotation, but the word David uses here means to pursue closely. The word is pictured perfectly by the cars on a roller coaster. If you’re on a roller coaster and you’re not in the first car, you sure hope that your car follows the one on front of it and doesn’t get separated from it. So that is why I have chosen to use the word “pursue” rather than just “follow” when talking about both our pursuit of God and goodness and mercy pursuing us.
The second word we need to define is “goodness”. That word describes things that are good, kind, beautiful, pleasant and agreeable. It might be helpful to think of it in terms of God’s blessings.
The word translated “mercy” is often translated “steadfast love” in the ESV translation. It is often associated with God’s forgiveness in which He withholds that which we deserve as a result of our sin.
It might be helpful to think of those ideas in these terms: Goodness supplies all my needs and mercy blots out all my failures and sins.
Now that is certainly the kind of life I want to experience, don’t you? To not just have God’s goodness and mercy available to me, but actually pursuing me. How great is that!
So how do I live like that? By pursuing the Shepherd in every area of my life. Let’s look at three practical ways we can do that.
HOW TO PURSUE THE SHEPHERD IN EVERY AREA OF MY LIFE
1. Pursue the Shepherd for who He is and not what He can give me
As I mentioned at the very beginning of this sermon series, Psalm 23 is a staple of many funerals and memorial services and that is probably because of the last line of the Psalm:
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.
On the surface, that seems like David is speaking of eternal life in the presence of God after his life here on earth is done. And while that is certainly possible, I am convinced that a closer look at that phrase will reveal that David is applying to his life here on earth.
Let’s look first at the word “forever”. If you’re using the ESV translation, like I am, you’ll notice a footnote next to that word that indicates that the literal translation of the underlying Hebrew is actually “length of days”. We’ve already talked about Hebrew poetry several times during our study of this Psalm and especially about how it makes use of parallel thoughts expressed with slightly different words. I would suggest that is going on again in verse 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 [length of days].
If that is in fact the case, then “forever” – which is literally “length of days” – is parallel to “all the days of my life” in the first half of the verse. And that would mean that both phrases deal with David’s life here on earth.
I’ll admit that if that’s all we had to go on, that would be a pretty weak case. So let’s move on and see if there is anything else here that can help us make an accurate determination.
The next phrase I want to call your attention to is “the house of the Lord.” Now it is certainly possible that David could be referring to heaven here. However, we do know that in Old Testament times, the understanding of life beyond the grave and heaven was not nearly as developed as it became during New Testament times when Jesus and the other New Testament authors provided much more insight.
And, although the Temple, was not yet built, another possibility is that David could have been referring to the tabernacle, which was considered to be God’s dwelling place here on earth.
The word “house” can also mean “household” or “family”, which is actually the way that word is most commonly used in the Old Testament. If that is the case here, then David would be focused more on his relationship with God than any physical building.
The best way to understand what David meant when he used that phrase is to look to some other Psalms he wrote where he used the same or similar wording.
Blessed is the one you choose and bring near,
to dwell in your courts!
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
the holiness of your temple!
(Psalm 65:4 ESV)
When David wrote this Psalm, while some of the priests and Levites did live in close proximity to the tabernacle to make it more convenient to carry out their duties, nobody physically dwelled in the courts, so the idea of being brought near to God can’t mean physically living in a certain place, nor does there appear to be any idea of heaven or life beyond the grave expressed here.
O LORD, I love the habitation of your house
and the place where your glory dwells.
(Psalm 26:8 ESV)
Here David describes God’s house as the place where His glory dwells. And since God’s glory cannot be confined to any one physical location, David’s focus here appears to be once again focused on his relationship with God and not any building or physical place.
One thing have I asked of the LORD,
that will I 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.
(Psalm 27:4 ESV)
This verse contains wording that is almost identical to that in verse 6 of Psalm 23. There are a couple of things to note here, First, notice that David clearly applies the idea of dwelling in the house of the Lord to his present life here on earth – “all the days of my life”. So that certainly adds some additional support to the idea that “length of days” in Psalm 23 refers to David’s life here on earth.
The second thing to note here is that when David writes about dwelling in the house of the Lord, he doesn’t seem to be too concerned about a physical location, but rather, once again on his relationship with his Shepherd in which he gazes upon the beauty of the Lord and speaks to Him in prayer.
David begins and ends this Psalm by focusing on the Lord, who is his Shepherd:
The Lord is my shepherd…
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever
While it is true that between those two bookends David does describe all the benefits that come to Him because the Lord is His shepherd, it is equally clear that David doesn’t pursue his Shepherd for what he is going to get out of that relationship. His focus is always on the relationship itself.
If I pursue the Shepherd
goodness and mercy will pursue me
But in order for that to happen I have to make sure I’m pursuing the Shepherd for who He is and not what I can get from Him.
2. Put my confidence completely in God
[Youtube video of little girl reciting Psalm 23 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3buLQoCN6KY)]
The little girl in that video couldn’t wait to get to the word “surely”. I think she’s onto something there.
The Hebrew word translated “surely” here is an interesting word. Although it serves as an adverb here, it is an almost untranslatable word that actually functions more like an exclamation point. We can see that if we go to another of David’s Psalms where he used that same word:
For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.
(Psalm 62:1-2 ESV)
In these two verses, the same Hebrew word that is translated “surely” in Psalm 23 is translated “alone”. In both Psalms, the word is used to bring emphasis and certainly to the rest of the verse. So it might be helpful to translate Psalm 62 like this:
For God !!!!!! my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
He !!!!!! is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.
Here, this little two letter Hebrew word puts all the emphasis completely on God. David waits only on God because He is David’s rock and salvation. All the emphasis here is on who God is and what He has done.
And similarly, we could translate Psalm 23:6 like this:
!!!!!! goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
David wanted to bring emphasis to the fact that he had 100% confidence that goodness and mercy would pursue him because that wasn’t dependent on who he was or what he did, but rather it was the result of the character and nature of God Himself. And as David looked back on his life, he knew without a doubt that his confidence in God had been completely justified.
If I pursue the Shepherd
goodness and mercy will pursue me
And pursuing the Shepherd in every area of my life is only possible if I put my confidence in Him alone. But what exactly does that look like in my day-to-day life? How do I live in light of that confidence?
3. Obey the Shepherd even when it doesn’t make sense
This is both how I develop my confidence in God and how I demonstrate my confidence in God.
In the New Testament, Jesus explained the idea of dwelling with God in terms of “abiding” in Him. In His well-known discourse on “I am the vine” in John 15, Jesus spoke about abiding in Him:
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
(John 15:4-5 ESV)
Although the two words have slightly different meanings, we could easily substitute the word “dwell” for the word “abide” in this passage and it would mean essentially the same thing, wouldn’t it? Both dwelling in the house of the Lord and abiding in Jesus are all about a relationship, not being in a particular building or place.
When John wrote his first letter some years later, it’s likely that he thought back to this event when he further expanded on the idea of abiding in our Shepherd, Jesus.
And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
(1 John 2:3-6 ESV)
It is easy to say that we have confidence in Jesus and that we are abiding in Him. But, as John makes clear here, the way that we live our lives will provide the evidence of whether or not that is actually the case.
The first time I ever flew on an airplane I was a bit apprehensive. It just didn’t seem logical to me that a big metal tube full of people and luggage could ever get off the ground. But because I had seen other planes flying and my parents assured me it was going to be OK I got on that plane. And lo and behold that plane did fly.
I’m by no means afraid to fly today, but every time I do I still marvel that the plane really can fly. It still doesn’t make sense to me that the Boeing 767 that I flew on this summer that weighed nearly 400,000 pounds at take-off, when it was full of passengers, luggage and fuel, could ever fly. But because I’ve flown on that same type of plane several times before and it always made it into the air, I had enough confidence that it would do it again and I actually got on that plane. And because I had enough confidence to trust in that plane’s ability to fly I was rewarded with a great vacation in a faraway paradise.
I think that’s a pretty good picture of what it means to abide in Jesus. Some of the things that He commands in His word don’t make a lot of sense from my human perspective. It doesn’t seem right to my finite human mind to forgive and pray for my enemies or to make a financial contribution to my church and invest in the kingdom of God when I don’t have enough to live on or to trust my eternity to placing my faith in Jesus alone.
I certainly haven’t obeyed Jesus perfectly in the past – not even close. But when I do keep His word and live in the same way He did to the best of my ability, I’ve found every single time that I’ve done that that goodness and mercy have pursued me. And that has helped me to develop and even deeper confidence in my Shepherd that allows me to keep on pursuing Him even when I don’t understand everything.
If I pursue the Shepherd
goodness and mercy will pursue me
And in order to pursue the Shepherd I have to obey Him even when it doesn’t make sense.
Would you like to live a life that is free from worry and anxiety, one where you are not too busy for the most important things in life, one in which your relationship with God is restored when you wander away from Him from time to time, and where you can live with confidence in God even in the presence of your enemies? I sure know that I would and my guess is that all of you would like to live like that, too.
Obviously that is not an easy thing to do, and certainly if we try to do that in our own strength, we won’t succeed, at least not for very long. But the good news is that if Jesus is your Shepherd, as we’ve seen for the last six weeks, He makes it possible for you to live like that. But it still won’t just happen automatically. While Jesus made it possible for you to live like that through His life, death and resurrection, it is still necessary for you to cooperate with the work He is doing in your life.
So as we close this morning, I want to encourage you to consider doing a couple of things that will make it possible for you to live that kind of abundant, joyful, fulfilling life.
First, if you’ve never made Jesus your Lord by trusting your life to Him and putting Him in charge of your life, then He is not your Shepherd. And if He is not your Shepherd, then you’re not one of His sheep who get all the benefits that we’ve learned about for the last six weeks. So if that is the case, we want to help you in any way that we can to make that commitment in your life.
I’m not going to simply ask you to raise your hand this morning or to repeat a prayer and give you the false assurance that you’re now one of Jesus’ sheep. That’s because this is far too important of a decision to make without understanding all that it entails. So if that is something you’re interested in pursuing further, please come talk to me after our gathering this morning.
If that is too intimidating to you for some reason, even though I’m really a nice guy, then you can fill out the information on the Connection Card on the flap of the bulletin and give it to me or to one of our Greeters before you leave today and we’ll be in contact with you this week.
For the rest of you who have already made that commitment, I want to encourage you to take some time this week and go back through the six messages in this series and review to application points in each message. You can do that really easily on the website by listening to, watching, or reading those messages. And then sit down and spend some time in prayer asking God to show you which of those things you might need to do in your life. I understand that will take some time and effort, but I can promise that the results will be well worth the effort. And if you’re too busy to do that, just go back to the message on verse 2 and review that one first.
My prayer for all of you as we conclude this series this morning, is that you can say, along with me that:
Jesus is my Shepherd,
therefore I have everything I need.
