Well, please do turn to Psalm 23. Well, again, let us hear the word of the living God in this lovely version here we have a title saying David's confidence in God's grace and is indeed a psalm of David you can picture him as a shepherd can't you and now he's bringing his vocation as it were it's become a living analogy well let us hear God's word the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want he maketh me to lie down in green pastures he leadeth me beside the still waters He restoreth my soul, he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness, for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen. Let us again seek God's blessing. Lord, we only prayed briefly, just a brief minute ago, and yet we feel that need of that help and that unction, and you would unblock the ears of hearers. You would make the dumb to speak, as it were, Lord, that you would come in this beautiful psalm of your words, that it would not be vandalized by man in the exhortations from it, but rather we would hear the voice of the Good Shepherd. And indeed, our hearts would have tears in the eyes of the heart and maybe even in our eyes. Lord, you know our hearts this evening. You know for some perhaps they're aching and need to hear your voice. Others are close to you, being gently helped along. And we all need to hear the comfort from this psalm at different times. So please bless us, Father, that we'll be more like the Lord Jesus. Bless us, Lord, and help us that our faith would grow stronger. until that day when we are taken to dwell in the house of God in heaven, forevermore, having made good testimony by your grace. We ask these mercies for Christ's sake. Amen. Well, please look at verse four and we read the first clause of the verse. I'll read it all. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. But it's that first clause there. Some couple of months ago now, I went through a particular trial and I remember looking at the trial and saying, not rebelliously to the Lord, but as a child to his father, Father, I don't think I can cope with this, it looks so dark. not stamping my feet, but just saying, Lord, I know you're sovereign, but it's so dark and I don't think I could cope with that trial. I was standing in the kitchen of the little bungalow where we rent. I was looking out at the fields and the Lord came in a very, very gentle way, just like a touch and immediately brought those words in. Yay. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me." I didn't feel overwhelmed by his love, but I felt a father's touch, a hand on my shoulder. And then I realised, however dark it got, that Christ would be with me. And I couldn't rely on my sight, he would bring me through this. As it happened, The trial, it was a trial but what I feared never came upon me but the Lord taught me a lesson and as happens a sermon came out of it and I thought I need to share what I've learned. A man could, if I was to preach that without that experience my sermon would be the same yet perhaps some of the feeling wouldn't be there. You're not blessed by a man's feelings, only the Spirit of God can bless you, but yet sometimes the Lord speaks through what he brings his people through that the consolation they've received from God can be shared with others. And I pray something of what I glimpsed that the Lord would be merciful to you tonight through a foolish man and that you would see something of the comfort that helped me for a dark couple of weeks. The word Psalms, I know your godly old past would have taught you all of this but it's good to be remembered, means praises. It's divided into five books and each book ends with a lovely benediction really. The first book ends in chapter 41 and verse 13 if I just find the end of that chapter. And as you go through you see these different books and the ending. says here, blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting and to everlasting amen and amen. As you go through the five books you will see that. This one is so well known isn't it, a Psalm of David. As I said just now you can see how Christ declares himself as the good shepherd in Isaiah. He speaks about feeding his flock like a shepherd, and he'll pick up the lambs and he'll carry them in his bosom and even gently lead those with young, paraphrasing now. And it's this wonderful relationship between God as the shepherd and weak sinful people forgiven by Christ as his sheep. And if I just pause there, because this psalm comes after Psalm 22, all about the cross, speaking of Christ. But can I just ask you a question this evening? Have you gone by the way of the cross? Is the Lord Jesus Christ, is he your shepherd? Have you seen your need of forgiveness? Have you seen, as the Lord showed us this morning, the one who is the pearl of great price of the greatest value, the rarest of things, the Lord Jesus Christ, that you may have a relationship with God, that you will not bear the consequences of your sin, they will be forgiven through him, you'll become a child of God and you'll be led to dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Are you in Christ this evening or are you outside of Christ? If you're outside of Christ, you've not been born again. My dear friend, you must flee to the Lord and beg him to change your heart, to grant you the faith to believe and call upon his name with an earnestness until he hears you. He's promised that all that come to him in faith, crying out to Christ, he will save. Is he your shepherd? It's a wonderful relationship. It's interesting, the experience of the sheep are very varied, aren't they? We have these beautiful green pastures, there's still waters. He speaks of being restored of discipline and love and eventually guided home to heaven. But I want to focus on the valley of the shadow of death. Christian life is not an easy life. Some people say that our religion, so-called, is a crutch. Little do they know that when the Lord calls us to himself by his sovereign electing grace, our blessings truly start. But in one sense, the greatest battle we'll ever fight starts as well. The battle against sin, against self, and against Satan. Don't be discouraged when Satan comes with all his evil arrows and tries to even turn you into an atheist. I shared with someone, I think it was here earlier today, I said, don't worry, he does that to me. Spurgeon testified, he said, the devil's been at me trying to get me to believe it's all a nonsense. That nothing's real, there is no God, that's Spurgeon. Used to convert thousands of people. we have this wonderful shepherd and we have to go through the valley of the shadow of death. There's great difficulties to be faced as well as great blessings and so I want to look at that this evening. Four simple heads, the approach to the valley, secondly the experience in the valley, thirdly the comfort in the valley and fourthly praise God the end of the valley, the approach to the valley. You could understandably think the valley of the shadow of death, and it does, only refer literally to death itself. Interestingly though, and yes that's true, every believer will pass through that valley by the grace of God. But John Bunyan rightly puts it more in the middle of Pilgrim's Progress. Right in the middle. Something we have to pass through. Something which will end. And the word valley is very suggestive, because in the Hebrew it literally means gorge, which is like a steep, narrow, not particularly attractive valley. Lofty, narrow. In the army I went through some of the valleys in Wales, doing various training. And they can be foreboding. Now I want to think about this. Before the Christian is in the valley, He's outside of the valley. Perhaps he's up high and he's going to descend into the valley, or he's on the flat with nice views, but he's going to go down into the valley. And when he's outside of the valley, things are very clear. We have a sense of the Lord. We have a sense of His Word speaks to us. We have a sense of fellowship one with another. We have a sense that God is speaking to us. It's clear. You've got sight. You've got spiritual vision. there's a change. Ahead lies a valley and it's not very pleasant to look at. It's gloomy, it's dark down there and it naturally fills you with foreboding. But you look at the pathway and you say I want to get around this valley and in the grace of God, in the providence of God, you can't. Perhaps that's you tonight and there it is in your pathway, a valley. We'll all be there at one stage or another. And it's not a pleasant place. It's described as the shadow of death. And the psalmist has to say to himself, I will fear no evil. The word evil there in the original Hebrew means adversity. It's like he's saying this, I'll fear no adversity, no affliction, no distress, no misery, no grief, no harm. That's what that word means, evil. And you think, no, I don't want that. And when the trial is there, naturally, we shrink back. We anticipate it. I will fear no evil. It could be loss. It could be suffering. It could be persecution. It could be temptation. It could be death itself. But it's a test set by God. God is leading us this way. Job said in Job chapter 3 and verse 25 the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me and that which I was afraid of is come unto me. We're all there in some way at some point in our pilgrimage. The thing which I feared, not this Lord, now it's come upon me. Lord you're not going to ask me to do this. We can see the Saviour can't we? Did he not ask if it were possible for this cup to pass before him? nevertheless not my will but thy will be done. The Saviour's already been before. We think of death, Corinthians, the last enemy that will be destroyed is death. Now many believers face great peace on their deathbed but there are some the Lord allows to be greatly troubled. I knew of a man and had a wonderful cheerful Christian testimony and about five or six days before he died I knew his pastor. His pastor testified. He said to his wife, none of it's real. It's all made up. And he'd been a Christian for 50 years, a good Christian. He said, it's not real. His wife was a quiet godly lady. She said, dear, don't listen to that voice. It's the devil. Amazingly, two days before he died, he was restored. And he stood on the brink of heaven. And he was graciously received. But these things are real, friends. All of us face the valley of the shadow of death, before literal dying, but in various trials. The approach to the valley. And if you're in that place, even this evening, may God bless you from his word tonight. If you're not in that place, thank him. But take the food up, the rations in the armour, put in the rucksack and you pull them out when you're hungry. Pull this verse out in that trial and say, Lord, you spoke to me on the 9th of August. and you blessed me through that word and now I see why you did it. I sometimes explain to younger Christians when you have a blessing sometimes it's for them to restore you but other times it's going to be for the future and you'll realise why. Let us look at the experience in the valley. We've looked at the approach but we're in the valley now. Look at the word in verse 4. Ye thy walk through the valley of the shadow of death. You're not going to be running through that valley, friends. You're not just going to be dipping in and out and go, well, that was a bit, oh, that was a bit close. You're walking through a valley. You're on a journey. You're in there for an amount of time, but set by a heavenly father, the living God. Geographically, when you're in a valley, what you see, as you know, is these sides in this narrow valley, they just loom right up above you. In this particular trial, whatever it is, All you see is this trowel up above you. And it's foreboding. Down in the valley, unless the sun is right overhead, you have far less light than outside of the valley up the top. And I'm sure you remember from school in geography that cold air sinks to the bottom of the valley. Do you remember every word in scripture is inspired by God the Holy Spirit? That's why I don't like these modern paraphrases. And with us our spiritual temperature can get very cool. We can feel the weight of the distress. We can feel the heart weighed down. We're not as spiritually warm as we're at the top. And those lovely views we once enjoyed outside the valley, and God's presence, and the light from his word, and heaven, were those sunny days, friends, or a distant memory. We're in the valley. And the effect without faith can be grim, the shadow of death. How important it is to walk by faith and not by sight. We walk by sight and not faith and we all do it, don't we? The effect is awful. Or we see the problem. And even the word death, the valley of the shadow of death. What does death mean in the Bible? Where did it come from? It came from disobedience. The whole earth is under the curse. It produced tremendous loss, didn't it? Loss of communion with God. Loss of righteousness. Loss of peace. And for those that don't know Christ, the loss of their very soul. This is the valley of loss, friends. Can you see that? This is perhaps loss in the providence of God, the grief of a loved one. This can be great material loss. I knew a man years ago, he'd been very successful. He went to do one last deal and he put everything into the deal. He was my agent as I am now, 55, he's in glory now. He said to me, my trouble was I got greedy. I went one, just one last bit and I'll be set for life. And the market crashed. He lost everything. He ended up living in the bedroom of his son's house. He lost his detached home with a nice garden. Very humbled. We can be like that. We can lose relationships. We go through trials in the church. Very painful. We go through persecution. We know threat to our life. We know loss in our soul, perhaps our relationship to the Lord. We can't lose our status, our standing, but we lose that felt sense of communion with him. I mean we really lose it. Satan comes. One old writer says on these valleys you'd get these old tribesmen and they would hide up and they would have arrows, they would fire at lonely travellers trying to pick them off and damage them and rob them. And you know, if you go to Ephesians, we speak about the fiery darts of the evil one. And friends, we can go through such a trial where it seems the gates of hell have been unleashed against us. We're standing, trying to stand in the evil day. We need the shield of faith. And it's an awful thing. We're shown the wickedness of our heart. We're shown the weakness. We're shown that we couldn't last one millionth of a second without Christ keeping us up. And we're trembling in this awful, dark and dreadful place. It can be even death itself. It's described in Job, the king of terrors. I don't want to frighten you about death because every believer will be brought through and for many, many people it is a blessed place. But it is described as that. And occasionally our faith is so weak a dread can come over us and think, am I really ready to meet the living God? Satan's not silly follows up with an uppercut to even think that you're not ready to meet the Living God You're obviously not a believer and you can be found trembling in the valley and all your experience is gone It's a bleak it's a gloomy place and the soul is very troubled Yay, though I walked through the valley of the shadow of death and if it stopped there would be a gloomy text wouldn't it? But we come on to the comfort in the valley because amazingly the Psalmist says, David says, I will fear no evil for thou art with me. I will fear no evil. I will not fear any affliction, any calamity, any misery, any adversity. Why? Because thou art with me. And I want to look at two reasons what that means relating to our Lord and Saviour. One is his promised presence with us and two is past dealings with us. Firstly his presence. Do you remember Christ described himself as the good shepherd, the one that gave his life for the sheep. His love is an everlasting love. It's not like our love, which is subject to great change by circumstances. It's a pure, rich, infinitely big, poor grammar, love that's unending, though we can't see it at the time in the valley. Just because a cloud goes in front of the sun, the sun doesn't then vanish out of the sky, and Christ's love doesn't vanish. In John 10, chapter 3, we read these words. And he calleth his sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Now this is a great comfort. It starts with that call of conviction, the effectual call we call it. We're in the wrong place and the Lord begins to call to us and say you're under judgment, you're in great danger. And then he brings us to himself, the voice of love. There's forgiveness, there's mercy, there's hope through my redeeming blood, there's pardon. And we know at conversion something of that love and then the time after and it will never leave us nor forsake us. So if you trace that back, even though you don't feel that in the valley, we're to reason and we say, well, I felt his love. I felt his forgiveness. I know whom I've believed and I'm persuaded he's able to keep that which I've committed to him until that great day. And we say, well, you're with me. You are with me. You're united to me. I'm a feeble part of the bride and you're the bridegroom. We're linked. I've got my ring and I'm married. Lord, I'm joined to you by faith. So the psalmist could say that. Think what David went through in Psalm 51 after his great sin and he appealed to the Lord's loving kindness. You must grasp this. We get so complicated in our faith. Secondly, thou art with me. Who's with me? I can be with you in your trial and try and help you, but I'm pretty weak. but the almighty powerless son of God is with his people in the trial. Nothing can happen unless he allows it. Sometimes in the army, in some undercover work in Northern Ireland, and we thank God that the troubles have eased there. But they require soldiers dressed like civilians to wander through dangerous IRA strongholds. But they would assure them that hidden round and about in cars, up on rooftops, were people that would protect them. But you say, you won't see them, but you've got to trust me. God is with you, my friend. The Lord Jesus Christ is with you in your trial. Not one thing can happen as he protects you, unless he allows it. take comfort that Christ has walked this way before. He laid his life down to satisfy the judgment of God for his sheep and praise God he rose again. What empathy he has for us as we go through these trials. Thou art with me an understanding shepherd. his promised presence. And sometimes you can draw near in a very special way, but whether you feel him or not, he is with you. Feelings are a form of sight. No feelings, Calvin says, is the highest form of faith when you're in that situation. Secondly, the experience of the Lord's care to us previously. the psalm he speaks about green pastures that food for the soul reflects in the valley of the times the lord has met you from the pulpit in prayer and in his word and say yes lord you fed me in a hymn sometimes when you're soldiers you're parted from your loved ones or you don't have to be a soldier anyone that's away and you might read a love letter and say ah that letter which my wife sent me or the wife's at home says ah the letter which my loved one sent me oh that reminds me of his heart. These instances the green pastures are tokens of the Lord's love to us and we're to meditate on them. the still waters. What does that mean? Well, this is us. They mean the waters of quietness. This is the work of grace in our heart, the work of the Holy Spirit when we put into practice the food we've received and we begin to know something of peace. We have more of a sense that our sin's been put away. We know something of being a child of God. We know something of that subduing of the old man within us and that sense of meekness and love to others when before we'd engaged in conflict. We'd have love visits. We've had refreshment. Well, in the valley, don't forget those exercises in your heart, because they're real, friend. The devil wants you just to forget all about them as if it never happened. Look at where you are now. You're in a valley. It's all gone wrong for you. No, it hasn't. What about providence? Verse 2, he leadeth me. the hand of God. I'm going through Samuel at the moment in my quiet times and it's very interesting when you read about the Lord speaking to Samuel and he says to Samuel in chapter 9 I think it is, as Saul approaches him, this is the man I told you you would see and he will be the king of Israel. Saul knew nothing of this. He went out to look for his father's asses, they were lost, he was going to turn back His servant says, let us go and see the man of God. And Saul says, we haven't got any money. There's the poor servant, a lot less wealthy than Saul. He says, well I've got a quarter of a shekel, a sum of money really, it wasn't a small thing, we can use that. And on it goes, he's directed the maidens as they go towards Rama and they're drawing water. Do you know where the man of God is? Yes, he's come for the special sacrifice. Hurry up, you're going to miss him. And as they walk in there, Samuel sees him and the Lord, he doesn't know who he is and the Lord says, that's the one, but the chain of God. If you carry on reading the next chapter, Samuel is the other way around. Samuel says, tomorrow all these things are going to happen to you. And I won't list them now. And they do. The chain of God. Friends, you've got so many memories of where God has met with you in a special way. Christ has gone before. I remember my wife's uncle testifying as a mechanic, he's retired now, looking for a tiny little piece of screw or something that was needed and he looked for about half an hour and he thought, I've not prayed. He said, Lord, can I find the screw please? And he looked over and there it was. We had my wife lost a stone off a very small engagement ring she got from me and she was looking for this stone and one of the children said we should pray mummy and resignedly she said well yeah I suppose we should you know and so they prayed and this is remarkable The eldest daughter said, mummy, have you looked inside the kettle? She said, what do you mean inside the kettle? That's ridiculous. It wouldn't be there. Why don't you check, mummy? She lifted it up, and there was a little stone. Friends, you've got stories like that. You could testify and say, pastor, that's true. Can I share this with you? Each one of you could. You see, these happy memories when we weren't in the valley, they're a great help to us, friends, as part of our rich experience. My wife has a photo box at home and it's a huge great chest. It's full of all our pictures over the years. And in a nice way I dread it when that lid's opened because once those pictures come out I can look for five or ten minutes. My dear wife, because she loves us and the children, she's lost in happy memories for literally two hours. I say you're not going to open a photo box then. She smiles, says I think I will. And she's there. Friends, you've got a photo box of memories which God has given you. And in your darkest hour you can open that box and say, Lord, I remember what you've done for me, your provision. He speaks of faithfulness, doesn't he? In verse 3, where he's been restored. Don't we wonder? David wandered badly. Wasn't he brought back and restored? Isn't that important to us when we're in the valley? Doesn't the evil one come and our lack of faith say, well, I'm not sure where I stand? We say, no, I do remember when I willfully disobeyed him at times. And yes, I was chastened. And yes, I was brought to tears. And yes, I was convicted. But he did it in such a way as to leave me to know his love and grace again. I'm not going to think he's cast me off now. Remember this, dear brother or sister, it's only the children of God that are chastened. The ones that don't know the true chastening of God, whatever their profession is, they're not a child of God. It's impossible not to be chastened at times by the Lord. But when the devil accuses you, he leads you to despair. When the Lord deals with you, you're brought in conviction and you confess your sin and you find that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. He remembers the covenant in verse 3 for his name's sake. Could you think Christ would cast you off? We do think that sometimes. For his name's sake he's been appointed by God to declare himself to us by the power of the Holy Spirit as our mediator, as the one that would forgive us. The mediator of the new covenant and then we would think that now he would change his mind. when the promises in Jesus are yea and amen, it's irrevocable, that God would be an unjust judge, that he would punish his son and then say actually I'm going to give you some punishment as well, punish him twice for his name's sake, if he let one sheep lost. his honour would be gone. I'm sure other men have told this story of an old Scottish lady and someone said to her, who wasn't a believer, what would you do if when you died you found out that actually God wouldn't forgive your sin, that he would cast you off? She said, aye young man, but God would have more to lose than me. He said, what do you mean? He said, well his honour, he's promised me. He said God would be so distressed to do such a thing, the universe would implode before he would break his covenant. Faith, not feelings. For his namesake as well, the purpose. He's called us to be holy for him. That one day we would be made perfectly in our very nature righteous like Christ. he would leave us just there in sin as Mr Henry says he suffers his people to fall into sin but he won't let them stay there and lie there. For his name's sake he'll lead you out of this place. So friend in the darkest place remember that Christ is our Redeemer that God is our Father and just because you can't feel it it doesn't change anything. Three months after I was converted as an estate agent, I was on a viewing in the very centre of Ashford, and there were these cottages around the large parish church. About 50 metres away, less than that, 30 metres, in the entrance to this churchyard was a pub. I got there early for the viewing, and the person was late, and so I stood there. At about half past one in the afternoon during the week, I could hear the fruit machine going, I could hear men laughing and joking, and drinking pints of beer. That was my life on a Friday and a Saturday. Friday night and a Saturday night when I was on leave. And the devil came to me and said, do you hear that? Don't you want to go back to that? Don't you want to go back to being fit and tough and conquering life? And now you're this weak, pathetic Christian. Don't you remember the pleasure of having a few beers with the lads? And on it went like that, stirring it up. And the flesh, you'd agree, was drawn to it. And he said, it can't be real, because you feel drawn to it. You can't be real. Your faith can't be real. Then he said, God can't be real. And he said, if you even feel that God can't be real, you can't be a Christian. He actually argues against himself, if you can step back. But I couldn't see that. And every sense I had of God was gone. I didn't even realize I had this gentle peace till it was gone. And I stood there like a little sheep, almost trembling, thinking, what is happening to me? God was very kind to me. He put in my heart, not a text, but these thoughts, is God still real whether I feel him or not? And I reasoned, I thought, well, he is real. And I remembered the verse about walking by faith and not by sight. I thought, no, I can know what you've done for me, Lord. This is a horrible attack as a tiny baby Christian Lord, I'm just going to trust you until you bring me out of this. Ten minutes later, it was gone. And I felt that very gentle peace I didn't even know I had. You soon know when it's gone. In the darkest place, remember the reality of Christ. He speaks in the valley of the shadow of death, the comfort of the rod and staff. The rod was used for protection and guidance. The rod and staff. He protects us from eternal damage. He guides us. When we're under trial, the discipline will reveal the sins that need to be dealt with. When we're under pressure, it's a stress test and we realise actually I'm really weak in this area. My temper or my lust or whatever it is, I'm defaulting to wrong things and Christ lovingly shows us this is what needs to change. And it's a comfort, as I've just testified, that Satan comes at a vicious attack and we're so faint and we say, no, the Lord, his rod and his staff, he will be there for me. I will wait for him. The promised strength will come. They would also use the rod for counting. I didn't know this till I studied it. sheep would pass under the rod, he would know where they are. Friend in your trial, in that deep dark valley, the Lord knows exactly where you are. Not because he's with you, but he's counting you. Remember what it says in Proverbs, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, each single step. And so he guides us and Sometimes the shepherd with his crook, he rescues us, he directs us. Sometimes he gives us, he gives the sheep a prod to quicken them up. That's what the Lord does in these difficult situations. There's a lovely story told of, a true story of a large ship full of passengers traveling across the ocean. And a terrible storm strikes the ship. And the passengers are running around, they're wondering about lifeboats, and they're in a terrible state. They see a young boy, no more than 10, and he's calm as anything, just calmly sitting there. And they say, young man, why are you so calm? Oh, my father's the captain of his ship. He knows what to do. Friend, that's what the Lord wants us to do. The Good Shepherd is with us as I go through the voyage of life, going through these rocky waters. My father's the captain of this ship of life. Recently we looked at Mount Zion, that phrase from Paul in Philippians, he learned to be content in whatsoever state he is within. And you look at his life and it was true. In the prison, nearly being stoned to death, persecuted, he trusted in God, he was content. and note that it says the valley of the shadow of death. Charles Spurgeon points this out. The shed of a dog cannot bite, the shed of a sword cannot cut. Does it mean you don't suffer anything? Well of course it does mean that you suffer something because the valley of the shadow of death there's a sense of loss but your soul cannot be severed from Christ And even if our body is chosen to die under trial, the soul will be kept safe. We have to see the trial for what it is. I shared with my good friend, Mr. Watts, the experience I've been through. I said, that verse means so much more to me than it ever did before. As a man with many decades of experience, he said this, he said, brother, it's quite easy to mentally assent to these truths and even preach them. But he said the true comfort then is when they help us in trial. We've looked at the approach to the valley, we've looked at the experience in the valley, we've looked at the comfort in the valley, but look what it says, yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we don't stay in that valley, we come through it. We come through either in one of two ways friends, in blessing in this life We arrive on the shores of heaven where Christ himself waits to receive you to the very mansion he's prepared for you. He speaks in verse 5 about a table being prepared for him in the presence of mine enemies. The enemies David's had we're drawing to conclusion now. Just think on his path to being the king. Wasn't an easy path was it? Hunted by Saul. He feigned madness at one stage. He made mistakes. He was so harassed. We have our enemies, don't we? We have the evil one himself trying to hunt us down with his temptations and persecutions. He has his men and women and boys and girls that are his agents. Yet God says, in my time I'll bring you through this and I will bless you. Don't worry. Often God uses trials to prepare us to serve him in a deeper way. Those that will serve the Lord in an effective way are often set the most severe trials. I'm amazed at the ministers I speak to I greatly respect and they open up and the things they've been through and they said it must be that way James otherwise I'll be preaching from my head too much. A man I know, a good friend of mine in the gospel standard movement, says sometimes a young man preaches and one of the members will say, he's preaching from his books too much. And they're not decrying necessarily the use of commentaries, but they say, he's just got knowledge, but it's lacking something. And as preachers we're there, but the Lord uses these things to, we understand him more and his dealings with us and the comfort we receive. And it's a table, a table of feast, a table of blessing. The Lord says, I'm going to bring you through this and you're going to have fellowship with me again as you once had. You're going to have fellowship with the Lord's people. You're going to know that joy and your soul is going to be fed all over again and it's going to be a joyous occasion. But you will appreciate it in a way you never appreciated it before because of the path you've been through. The psalmist lived out the truth in verse one. I shall not want. Are you in want this evening? You feel like you're in want? You feel like, Lord, what's happening to me? Does this apply to me? The Lord says, by faith, you shall not want. I will provide your every need. Not your every wish, but your every need. And in my time, I'll bring you through. Briefly, he speaks about being anointed. That's a symbol of blessing. Verse six is interesting. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. All the days of my life. The dark days, the hard days. Goodness and mercy will follow afterwards. A friend of mine went through a severe trial, a year ago now, when his eldest son was killed suddenly. He'd climbed Snowdon. He'd been on holiday, he'd climbed Snowdon. He was a fit lad, less than 20. A week after climbing Snowdon, he dropped down dead at home, literally. He was called for dinner. He said, I won't be long, Mum. 20 minutes went by. Go up to see him, he'd gone. A believer. Well, I had fellowship with him and asked how he was. He said, I've sinned. Well, I've never sinned before. that the goodness of mercy shall follow me. It's going to come after the trial. He said I've never seen it before James. He said now I see it. It's after the trial and he's being brought through just like the rock which is Christ followed Israel in the wilderness it says and gave them the water. I'm 10 minutes over time, what do we say? Where's the end? I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The Lord has a church here on earth, yes, and we're restored and once again we can testify of God's love and his joy and his faithfulness, but surely there's that heavenly home where day by day we're being led to. unending eternity with Christ. When you're a minister on a dark day and he just texted to another minister one day nearer heaven. Do you enjoy heaven now? We should do. We should really look forward to it. I've been on some really long and gruelling walks and marches in my time, and the end always cheers me, the end when I can get refreshment, the end when I can get water, the end when I can rest my aching body. Friends, there's a right way to enjoy heaven, and to say, Lord, at the end, this weary pilgrimage is gonna stop, and then my soul will know true rest, unending communion with you, and I'll be delivered from sin. I'll be one of the spirits of just man, listen to it made perfect, we're not perfect here, look forward to that, rejoice. Well this psalm has been given to every believer to help us praise the Lord, to exercise faith, to encourage us in our trials, and to remember what he's done before will make be a blessing to us now and during our pilgrimage until we know the truth of these words and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Amen.