The Proclamation of God's Word, Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me besides 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, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort 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. All people are like grass, and our glory like the flowers of the field. May the grass withers and the flower fades. Amen. Would you please be seated? Well, after 10 years of preaching in New City, most Sundays, I think you've learned by now that every sermon has a little bit of a different shape. Some there's three points, some four clearly laid out, maybe sometimes more, sometimes there's no points. This morning, there's not three points to look for. This morning, is a story. And the reason different sermons take different shapes is because every passage of scripture has its own living personality and uniqueness, and it shapes the preacher more than the preacher shaping the passage. And this morning is a story. And I titled this sermon, You Need a Full Tank for This Trip, because I saw for the first time, I'll admit, in Psalm 23, that Psalm 23 is a story about a trip. From open pasture to party. From farm, you might say, to table. That would have been a good sermon title too. Every step of the way, the underlying concern is the tragedy of an empty tank. the tragedy of not being filled up. Notice here all the language of being filled up, the grass that fills, the water that fills, the cup that is overflowing that fills. It's all about this trip where we need to be filled up and the tragedy is that we wouldn't be. And not only about fears of an empty tank, but also our enemies who are encountered along the way. And so another underlying concern is the tragedy of what enemies might bring about, of ourselves not being able to fend, not being able to fend off the attacks. So There is an underlying tragedy here in Psalm 23, and it is about a trip, and it's about a trip where we've gotta have a full tank, and we long for a full tank, and we recognize the tragedy of an empty tank and of our enemies along the way, and that's really the only way into the Psalms. I hope you'll remember this for the rest of your life. The only way into the Psalms is through your feeling deeply the need to be full. In other words, the only way into the Psalms is through your neediness. It's the only way you're ever really gonna get the Psalms. Not hypothetical need, not intellectual assent to the fact that you have various needs. Real neediness. The kind that knows If my being filled up is dependent on me, I'm doomed. If I have to fend for myself in the ultimate things of life, I'm doomed. It will be destruction for me. That's the only way into the Psalms. That's why we need the Psalms. We need the Psalms to disciple us because they force us to be honest about our need and to be honest about our need to repent from self-sufficiency or the self-deceit of thinking that you can fend for yourself or fill yourself up with the things of this world. You know, at the heart of what makes sin sin is that very deception that I can ultimately fend for myself. I ultimately can take care of myself and can fill myself up. You know, we not only come into this world learning this sin from our parents and friends, but we ourselves become masterful at the art. We become masterful at the art of self-sufficiency and self-defense. and it will always end in disaster. The Psalms help us out of that. When God the Creator created us to be creatures, by very nature we were created to be needy, and that was good that we were created to be needy, because God provided the answer for our neediness. Himself was the answer. And that was a good thing that we needed and he gave. We had need, he had the ability to answer. He created us with that very nature. Now it may sound strange to say that our being created in neediness is a good thing because usually when we think of needy, needy people, we think of people who are unhealthy. But really, whoever you might consider to be, needy in an unhealthy way. They're not more or less needy than you or I. It's just they don't cover up their disappointment as well. They don't cover up their disappointment perhaps as well as you do. When they don't find in others what only God can provide. But they're no more or less needy than you. That's why sin is so dishonoring to God. Because when we the creature in our pride say, God, I don't need you to be full. My tank is just fine. My life is full well enough without you. When we say, I don't need to trust what you say or what you promise, I don't need you to have my back. I don't need you to fend for me. The reason that's so dishonoring to God is because it takes the honor and the credit from God, who alone can fill us up and fend for us. That's why sin is so dishonoring. David here in Psalm 23 is rejoicing. He's rejoicing in this Psalm, thinking, thinking back over God's pursuit of him over the course of his life. That's the picture here. And how God has led David through his life journey, and how God continues to. And he's saying here through this picture, I, and remember, this is David. He was a tough and powerful dude. Think Goliath. Think of the power he had to command Uriah's death. We're talking about a powerful man here, but David in Psalm 23 is saying, I am a vulnerable little lamb. I cannot make this trip of life unless my shepherd, the Lord, fills me up and fends for me. That's what David's saying in Psalm 23. This is why he compares us to sheep. Sheep is one of the most common metaphors in the Bible to describe us because sheep are needy. Remember, Jesus' stomach hurt when he saw the crowds. He looked out upon the crowds and he had compassion upon them because they were like sheep, harassed and helpless without a shepherd. The prophet Isaiah said it well, we all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. And so here in Psalm 23, David looks back over his life and sees how he throughout his life, tough as other people may view him, was as vulnerable as a lost and hurting sheep. But the Lord shepherded him. And even at the time of his writing, David's saying, I am a lost and hurting sheep. and I'm desperate for the Lord to shepherd me. And so in verse one, he opens with the Lord. That opens the whole psalm, the Lord. This is not generic for God, okay? David's crying out here to the covenant Lord, Yahweh, the covenant Lord who made specific promises. This would have conjured up in David's mind and it should in ours, the personal God who spoke to Adam and Eve and to Abraham and through the prophets and who made promises to to do really big things like defeat evil and to defeat all that's wrong with human life and to reverse that into his eternal and perfect kingdom and to have a people for himself who would be part of that eternal kingdom and live in everlasting safety and happiness. These would have been conjured up in David's mind as he thinks about the Lord. The Lord. Notice David also doesn't say he's a shepherd. He says, my shepherd. This is personal, this is getting really personal. He's my shepherd. Today he's my shepherd. Today, David's saying, I know I cannot fill up my own tank or heart. or find fullness in life. I cannot fend for myself today, David's saying, or as he says more poetically, I shall not want. I shall not want. Again, remember Jesus' words. I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and my sheep know me. No one, no one will snatch them out of my hand. There's no talk there of hypothetical sheep. There's no talk there of a generic shepherd. No, Jesus is saying, you must be able to say, my shepherd. This is not generic. My shepherd. Look at verses two through four. He poetically paints there a picture for us of all the things that you can't do for yourself that God has pledged Himself to do for you. And He's motivated to do all these things for you that you don't even realize He needed to do. He's doing all these things because He's motivated by love, by a love that you can never reciprocate for Him. In other words, He gives you fullness, He fills you, He restores you, and fends for you, not because you've persuaded Him somehow, or because somehow you are lovable enough. That's why He does these things for you. Again, more things than you could ever realize that He's doing for your salvation and your life. No, He does this because He's motivated by a love for you that you have not reciprocated and you cannot reciprocate and you never will be able to reciprocate. In other words, He loves you and continues to love you so much more than you ever have loved Him or can love Him or will love Him. That's the love of this shepherd that we're talking about here. It motivates him to do the things that we're about ready to see, the point of the green grass and lying down and the still waters and the dark valley. All that is to say, look, you have no idea how much work the Lord is doing on your behalf to fill you and to fend for you. Now, I know virtually nothing about sheep or shepherding, certainly even less about shepherding in the ancient Near East, but I've read a little bit, and I've learned a thing or two. Realize we're not talking about a place where there is much green grass. Green grass wasn't plentiful like some of the pictures of Psalm 23 might suggest. This was a desert climate, remember? Rain wouldn't come for months, green grass almost always was a long way off. It would pop up in different places, but you didn't necessarily know when or where. And so think about that picture. For sheep to find the green grass meant the shepherd was willing to exhaust himself to find it for them. This dreamy picture of green grass. This was only possible when the shepherd would labor long and hard on behalf of the sheep. We're told here that David, he lies down. Well, sheep would lie down only after they had eaten and were satisfied. They stood up when they were hungry. when they're looking for food, or when they're afraid, they stand up. When Jesus, again remember, when he saw people as sheep, and when we're told he had compassion on them because they were helpless and harassed like sheep without a shepherd, Mark in his gospel, Mark tells us, not just that Jesus invited the crowds to sit down, though he did, He invited them to sit down in the green grass. Mark goes out of his way to say green, green grass. There they were by the water. Think about that. These sheep without a shepherd. By the water, in the green grass, feasting with the one who came claiming to be the good and the chief shepherd. I wonder, I just wonder if Mark was trying to show us a real life enactment of Psalm 23. He ends that scene by telling us, they ate and were satisfied. They ate, they were full. They were filled up by their good shepherd. David in Psalm 23 is saying, that's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. Exactly what Mark said, David is saying, that's what I'm talking about. He's getting us to ask a question to ourselves, in my heart, Am I lying down or am I standing up? I would pose that to you this morning. Are you lying down in your heart? Or are you standing up like a hungry sheep who's afraid, who doesn't know the care and love of your shepherd? David goes on to say, he leads me beside still waters. Sheep normally choose to die of thirst rather than to drink, from running water. Doesn't make sense to me that this is what they say because of fear. I'm sure many shepherds, like if I were a shepherd, this would be my style, would say, you know, come on, you stupid sheep. Like, it's right here. Drink it, you're gonna die. but scared sheep won't do it. Probably because they saw fellow sheep dragged away like little cotton balls when the water soaked up their fluff and they drowned, and at least the other sheep are smart enough to say, uh-uh, I'm not going down that way. But they wouldn't do it out of fear. They won't drink to save their life out of the running water. Instead they go for what's easy, the still water. But the still water they go for will kill them. The still water will kill them. I read of a shepherd who led his sheep to a mountain stream and on the way several sheep stopped to drink from the polluted puddles beside the trail. It was still water, it looked good, looked like it would be satisfying. and other sheep who had passed through before this flock had, let's say, relieved themselves in these puddles, so it was parasite and disease-ridden, and the sheep who drank from it got sick and died. What a picture that is of how prone we are to drink from the easy water of this world. How prone our children are, the kids in this very sanctuary, so prone to drink from the easy, still water of this world. And so are your neighbors. That's the water they're drinking from, and your coworkers. and so are you, and so am I, so prone to drink from the easy, still waters of this world. David, too, was prone to drink from the easy, still waters of this world, but the Lord shepherded him. That's why David says this here. The Lord leads me beside still waters. For a shepherd to lead his sheep beside still waters that would be nourishing and filling for them meant the incredibly hard work of developing an infrastructure to be able to get unpolluted water, to get pure, fresh water. And they had to do things like dig wells or the hard work of damming up water with rocks and sticks. It was hard work to get fresh, still water that was pure. So instead of calling the sheep nasty names and kicking and screaming at them for them to drink the water that's right in front of their face, again like my style would probably be as a shepherd, the shepherd that David speaks of here takes the time and labors to dam up fresh water so they can be filled. Wow, there is all kinds of implications for this. We don't have time to search out the implications of this for what it means in our relationships with one another and our relationship with the Lord. I imagine David, you know, David formally was a shepherd and even more so royally was shepherd of his people. And as David looked back over the course of his life, he surely would have realized the ways that he did not shepherd like the shepherd of Psalm 23, but his eyes, his eyes were lifted to the Lord, who over the course of his life was this kind of shepherd to David in love. The one who labored long and hard for David to be able to get the pure and fresh water that he so desperately needed to be to be filled. Think of the implications of this for your life as a parent, for you in marriage, just that imagery of a shepherd. Not the kicking and the screaming and the, you know, just drink it, right? But it's just that behind the scenes labor and love and the gathering of sticks and sod and rocks to dam up fresh water so that your little lambs can be satisfied. David says, I have seen the Lord do the hard work necessary to restore my soul. David's speaking of his whole self there. That's the word for soul, to restore me, to restore my life. I mean, mentally, emotionally, physically, most of all, spiritually, through the depths of who I am. The Lord refreshes me. He restores me, all of me. He turns me right side up. That's what he refers to next when sheep get turned over, and they do, they call that, I think, technically being cast down, or short for a sheep being cast. When a sheep is cast, they're turned over, and apparently, sheep when they're turned over, hard as they might try, with all of their kicking of legs and bleating frantically, which apparently is what happens, they cannot turn themselves right side up. Now, think about this. In a hot climate, left alone, can't turn yourself right side up, you're good as dead within a few hours. When cooler, they might last a few days, but still helpless if a pack of wolves or vultures attack. And that's why shepherds counted their sheep. Because they needed to make sure that one of their sheep wasn't turned over somewhere, lost, out of sight, behind a tree. And again here, just stop and think of this picture David is painting. How many times have you felt that way? turned upside down, out of sight, behind a tree, worthless, helpless, thirsty, empty. And David says, David says, you have to intensely remember when you feel that, the Lord is your shepherd. He is nearer than you give him credit for. He sees you and he's at work for you and he will keep you on the right path. And as we see here, sometimes the right path necessarily involves valleys. Dry riverbeds. It was part of the trip. And it felt like death when you walked through these valleys as it's said here, probably more truly, the shadowiest of shadowy places. Boy, that creates a picture, doesn't it? The valley of the shadow of death, or probably more true, the shadowiest of the shadowy places. That wasn't a wrong turn, that they found themselves in the valley of the shadow of death. It was necessary as part of the right path. David says, I walked through the valley of the shadow of death. That was part of the right path. The Lord had purposes you can't understand, but he had to bring you through this. And sheep, they know when they're in a dangerous place. They're intuitive enough to know when they're in a dangerous place, and that's why they don't do well in shadows, because shadows hold the unknown of something that might attack. And we want to feel happy and safe, don't we? We wanna feel happy and safe, like sheep. But in the shadows, in the valleys of this trip of life, sheep are afraid of something that might attack them, or even worse, attack their shepherd, who is the only one who can fill them and fend for them. or perhaps in the shadows they lose sight of the shepherd, and they feel like they're doing this trip alone, and they're anxious that he's left them. Anything that threatens our sense of happiness and safety is like a shadow of death, and those shadows are cast all the time, aren't they? we walk through those valleys. That's not some wrong turn. The Lord has us on a trip where we will walk through those shadowiest of shadowy places. And the temptation is to feel empty, to be fearful that our shepherd has left the scene. And David, David, the author of this psalm, he knew these shadows. Shadows that fall upon family life, trouble in the family, check for David. You know, some commentators think that David wrote this psalm while he was on the run from his own son who wanted to kill him. Shadows that fall upon troubled or lost friendships, check for David. Think of his best friend, Jonathan. Countless others who had drifted on or who died. Trouble at work, check. David had all kinds of shadows in his work life. His life's work, the kingdom of Israel was in shambles. It was not good. His sense of regret and failure. Do you know anything of that? Do you know anything of that? His sense of regret and failure is palpable. You can just hear David saying, my life isn't what I wanted. I didn't wanna go down this, I didn't wanna be in this dark valley, I never saw it. My work, my family, didn't turn out how I'd hoped. I'm turned upside down. You can just hear David saying, has my shepherd left the scene? God, where are you? Again, David's being very honest here. He is a needy man. And here he gives the answer for needy people. He doesn't leave us fearful, no. Look at the answer. I will not fear. I will not fear. And David doesn't say, I'm not gonna be afraid, because somehow David untangled all the problems of his life and kind of fended for himself and just dealt with it. No, he says, because he couldn't do that. He says, I will not fear because you, oh Lord my shepherd, are with me. I know that you being with me, you will fill me and you will fend for me. Your rod, Lord, your rod, not mine, will fix this. That's why David envisioned this rod and the staff like these weapons that protected and fended off attackers and that stabilized one along this journey. It's your rod, Lord, and your staff. I'm comforted to know about your resources. I'll trust you. That's why I will not be bound up in fear. And this, again, we're invited into this. And we have to intensely, I mean, this is an everyday thing. This is every day. We have to intensely remind ourselves when these shadows, when these shadows hit, we have to remind ourselves of this very thing. And for you, those shadows may be the real or perceived loss of friends or wealth or success in your career. And we ask God, Have you left the scene? God, where are you? You know, just over the course of these past couple weeks, two different people asked me just to get together and talk through some things and pray with regard to, and to process some things with regard to some shadows in their life that had hit at work and an extended family. And in both situations, it involved kind of a chronic negativity and accusations, and both people made the comment along the lines of, it's all-consuming. I can't get my mind off of it, it's depressing me, it's making me angry. And I think most of us at some level know about that. We know what it's like to have shadows of some form like that hit. And when that happens, everything else goes out of focus. That's what I heard these people saying. Everything else is out of focus. Even the Lord is out of focus and I'm just, I'm fixated on how to deal with this. I'm fixated on, on, on, what I'm going to say or what I'm going to do. That's a good picture of the shadow of death. It feels like death. And we encounter that along this trip of life's journey. So first, we learn some things here from David about being in this valley. First we learn from David, this valley isn't a mistake. It's part of the trip. That in and of itself is most comforting because you're placing your trust in a sovereign God who does not permit any such thing as chaos or random events in your life. He's not taken by surprise. This valley, this shadowiest of shadowy places is part of your trip. And I hope that will just comfort you now even to know it's not some mistake where you find yourself in the shadow, okay? Secondly, we too can say with David, I will not fear. I am not going to be bound up by fear. I'm not going to be consumed by this. I will not be consumed by it or fixated on it. I will trust the Lord to fend for me. That takes great faith. It takes a turn of your heart's focus from your circumstances to the Lord. from your resources to his resources, from your words to his words? I was reminded this week of a famous, a couple of stories here from a famous 18th century pastor, George Whitfield. He was, look him up sometime. He was criticized for just about everything under the sun. And there's a couple stories from his life that illustrate what we're talking about here when we find ourselves under these shadows. Apparently, he received all kinds of critical mail. This was before the days of email and text, of course, like handwritten stuff, and rarely did he respond. There's great wisdom there, by the way. Rarely did he respond, but on one occasion, he did respond to just scathing criticism, and here's what he wrote. Quote, thank you, sir, for your criticism. If you knew about me, what I know about me, you would have written a much longer letter. Another time he was alone and some people from the church rushed in to say, Pastor Whitfield, people are spreading rumors about you. They're saying you're having an affair. And as he sat there undisturbed, they were shocked and said, like, aren't you gonna do something? Like, this is a big deal. Defend your name. And he sat undisturbed. He said, no, no, they don't even know the half of it. Now he was not having an affair. And he wasn't winking at sin or taking it lightly. But he also was not gonna let the fear of pleasing people, the shadow of pleasing people consume him. No way he was gonna invest the energy of his life to be up in arms over those rumors and so like a lamb lying down in green grass under the care of his shepherd. he remained seated. He knew his sin. He knew his failures far more than anyone else, and he dealt with the Lord about those things. But what he was saying in that comment was, I will not fear. I am comforted by the Lord whose rod and staff will fend for me. Do you remember Joseph in Genesis chapter 50? Amazing story in which Genesis, the first book of the Bible ends, Joseph who had just had the shadow of all shadows cast upon him by his brothers who just set out to ruin his life, to kill him. Years later, there's a scene, they come back before him. They're weeping, they're afraid that Joseph is going to enact vengeance upon them. And do you remember Joseph's words? He said, he said, what you intended for evil, God intended for good. And he showed great love and kindness to them. That's a man who's saying, yeah, there are shadows, but the Lord is my shepherd. These shadows weren't a mistake, Joseph was saying, first of all, and secondly, I'm gonna let the Lord's resources take care of this, and I'm just gonna love you. In verses four and five, notice the metaphor shifts out of the shepherding sheep metaphor, We're no longer pictured as sheep. We're not pictured as anything. It's just us now in verses four and five. It's us who have trusted God along life's journey, and it's us at the table he's prepared. And this is part of the trip. Remember, farm to table, open pasture to party, Now we're at the table and we see again that he doesn't just get us out of a threat, that's something he wants us to know. He doesn't just get us out of a threat, he gets us into a place where we thrive. Isn't that beautiful? He didn't just give us directions for the journey and then leave, he stays. It was always about us doing life with him. And the table speaks to that. The one who fills us up and fends for us says, here I am at the table with you. And there's great insight here for this present life, because in this life, the way in which God restores us, this is so important, the way in which God restores us is not by removing our enemies, as David says in Psalm 23. whatever or whoever those enemies of our happiness or safety may be. No, the way he restores us is by becoming more prominent, more important to us than they are. So it's not that God comes closer or becomes more real in the shadows or when there are real or perceived enemies. It's not that he comes closer or becomes more real, but he comes into clear focus and the enemies and shadows move out of focus. That's why in Psalm 23, the enemies are still there, but they're out of focus. We're at the table with cup overflowing with our Lord. The shadows and enemies aren't in focus. In focus is the Lord who pursued us in his loving mercy. And this is supposed to surprise us. because we're meant to say, wait a minute, I thought you brought me to a safe place, but my enemies are still here. And he's saying, yes, in this fallen world, they always will be. The shadows will always be there, and the enemies, but I can thrive, and I don't have to be strapped by fear, even in their presence. This is the life of faith. This is the life of faith. David held onto the truth that God in his love pursued Abraham before him and Moses before him and God pursued David in his love and in his mercy and made a promise to David, a promise that was bigger than David's shadows, a promise that was bigger than David's failures and bigger than his enemies. Well, we too walk this trip of life's journey by faith. But we have such a greater demonstration of God's shepherding love than Joseph or David ever had. We have that in the gospel. See, in David's day, one reason it was nerve-wracking to be a shepherd is because you had to go all in. I mean, you had to gather every penny you had to invest in the purchase of your sheep. And it was scary because it was quite a risky investment. Do you see, again, Jesus presented himself as shepherd. Do you see in all these ways he's saying I'm the good shepherd because Jesus went all in. Jesus went all in. He purchased us at the cost of his own blood at the cross. The shepherd became the sacrificial lamb. Don't think for a second that Jesus went cheap with you. It was the only way to purchase us from the depths of our debt and sin by taking our debt upon himself through the suffering of the cross. And as his purchased possession in Christ, our resurrected and ascended Lord, he declared us to be righteous. Don't let that just slip past your ears. He declared us to be righteous. and he promises to turn us right side up. He will not let us be cast down. He doesn't just save us from a threat and then leave. Yes, he did save us from the threat of eternal death that we foolishly brought on ourselves by dishonoring our maker, but he didn't stop there, did he? He lavishes us with honor and promises of an unbreakable relationship with himself. And so, we will be turned right side up in glory. In this life, in the trip of this life of faith, yes, we are still greatly needy, but we have him. We have him in the gospel. That's what the gospel was about. We get the Lord. And we get him, we have him from beginning till the end, and even now in the scary middle. Our shame has been removed, our fear's released, our eyes open to see him as the constant source for the water that fills our tanks. This is the Christian life. You see, a good shepherd not only went all in, but when the going got tough, he did the work to restore the sheep to life. And Jesus, again, didn't simply purchase us and forgive us and then leave. He stays with us and continues to work on our behalf in ways we have no idea. We still can't fend for ourselves and the ultimate things. The Holy Spirit of Christ was given to us for that very purpose, and He works in us so that we'll no longer be conformed to the pattern of this world or to the fears of this world, but He renews us by the grace of His Word, and He so transforms us. us, from sheep who go astray into sons and daughters whose cups overflow. That is amazing we get to be part of this in the gospel. Only in the gospel. And yes, even in the presence of our enemies. He works in us to strengthen our faith so that He's not just our theoretical Savior with a theoretical love, but He is real Savior with real love, really able to fill us with real power to help us every day to refocus so that our eyes see Him in focus and all else out of focus. This is so much the battle of the Christian life. Could it be that this is why Jesus closed out His earthly ministry at a table? with his disciples with cups overflowing even in the presence of enemies. Because he wanted us to always think of the Christian life in this Psalm 23 kind of way. Every Sunday we come to this table where he is. And he helps us to refocus on this very thing. And when we refocus in the gospel we see that it's not, it is not dependent on our pursuit of him. but it is dependent upon his pursuit of us. That's why David says, goodness and mercy follow after me all the days of my life. That is to say, every day of my life, please know this new city. Every day of my life, it's not my ability to pursue or to love. but the Lord who pursues me in his love. And so the picture is not, here's the Christian life, here's the Lord, and here's me. And then one day, I'm allured by the things of the world, and I'm tempted, and I stumble and fall, and I'm down here. And boy, I need to come back to church on Sunday and somehow find my way back up here to the Lord to be close to him. That isn't the picture that's being painted here. That we're together, you fall, and you've gotta find your way back. No, the picture is this. You walk with the Lord as a Christian, and you are together, and yes, there are times when you stumble and fall, and you find yourself feeling far. It's not you finding your way back here. No, it's this. The Lord pursues you, and you turn around and you see him, your real Savior and Lord, who has pursued you in his love. He's right there. The sign, the sign that we haven't quite gotten Psalm 23, I'll say this in closing. The sign that you haven't quite gotten Psalm 23 is twofold. First of all, if you're living in fear, you haven't gotten Psalm 23. I didn't make that up. John said it in the New Testament in 1 John 4. If you are bound up with fear, you haven't quite gotten Psalm 23. Another sign you haven't quite gotten Psalm 23 is if you can't embody this unreciprocal kind of love for others. Again, John in 1 John says, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God. And this is love. Not that we loved him, but he loved us. And so if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. In other words, New City, if you can't love someone more than they're loving you and continue loving them even more than they love you, you haven't quite gotten Psalm 23. You have been loved with an unreciprocal kind of love. He loves you and continues to love you more than you'll ever love him. And he says, I want you to show this kind of love to your wife, to your husband, to your kids and fellow church members. I pray that I'll get Psalm 23. and that I'll be honest about my neediness, stop trying to fill myself up with the things of this world, stop fending for myself in fear. I pray that I will repent, that Ryan McVicker will repent, and trust God to be my shepherd, and that I'll show this kind of shepherding love to my wife, Megan, and to my kids, Nevin, Molly, and Anna, and to the church, and to my enemies, And I pray this for you as individuals. And I pray this for you, New City. Amen.