Okay, so Psalm 23, Charles Spurgeon called this the Pearl of the Psalms. And who would disagree? Because it's a real pearl of a psalm. It's why it's probably the most well-known psalm in the Psalter. Without looking at it, I'm sure we could all recite parts of it. So let me do that this morning. I'm going to say the first part of a line, and I want you to complete it, all right? without looking at your Bible. So, the Lord is my. I shall not. He makes me lie down. He leads me beside. He restores. He leads me in paths of. For his name. Even though I walk through the valley. I will fear. For you are. Your rod and your staff. You prepare a table in the presence, you anoint my head, my cup, surely goodness and mercy, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Okay, we all know Psalm 23, don't we? At least that's what we think. Sam 23 is a well-known Sam, but it is not necessarily known well because being brought up with Sam 23 or being familiar with Sam 23 is not the same thing. as really knowing Psalm 23. It's a bit like talking to an old friend you haven't seen for years and as you talk together you discover something new about them that you'd never known. You thought you knew them but actually you didn't know them as well as you thought you did. And that's a bit like Psalm 23. We think we know it but do we really know it? Let me give you a few examples. Just think of the scripture posters or picture books of Psalm 23. Boys and girls, maybe you have a book on Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd at home. What is the dominant picture in those picture books? Well, it's the picture of tranquility, right? Sheep on green rolling hills, the sun shining through some beautiful autumn trees beside a still lake. It's picture perfect tranquility. That's how people imagine Psalm 23. When Ben, our son, was born, we were given a book on Psalm 23. But you know what wasn't in the book, boys and girls? There was no dark valley of the shadow of death in that book. There were no enemies on the battlefield. All was calm, all was bright, all was beautiful in this version of Psalm 23. We can think of Psalm 23 as a picture of tranquility, but there's actually death and war in Psalm 23. Or maybe for those of us who are older here this morning, it's the opposite problem. Maybe like me, you've experienced Psalm 23 in the midst of a death or you've heard it sung at a funeral. And so you associate the Psalm more with death than with life. When our daughter Layla died, we held a funeral for her and we carried in her coffin to Psalm 23. So for me, this Psalm has these connotations of Leila's funeral. It's a time to reflect on death. But there's only one verse in Psalm 23 about death, verse four. All the other verses are actually about life. The dominant theme of Psalm 23 is life, not death. Indeed, the majority of the psalm is about food, green grass, water, still waters, rest and security. He makes me lie down. Dining in a house with perfumed oil on our heads and a glass full of wine overflowing in our hands. Psalm 23 is about life, abundant life. It's more about the happiness of life than the sadness of death. Singing Psalm 23 at funerals can make us familiar with the psalm, but those experiences are only a partial element of the psalm, a small portion of it even. Here's another reason why I think we miss what Psalm 23 is about. Psalm 23 is the most personal psalm in the whole Bible. The Lord is my shepherd, not our shepherd, or our shepherd, as you say here. But the Lord is my shepherd, so we think it's primarily about us. The words my, me, and I occur 17 times in Psalm 23. My, me, or I, 17 times in just six verses. Martin Luther said that the sweetness of the gospel lies in the personal pronouns. Christ loved me and gave himself for me. If the sweetness of the gospel lies in the personal pronouns, we could say the same of this psalm. Its sweetness lies in the my's and the me's and the I's. The Lord is my shepherd. That would be true. The Lord is not just anyone's shepherd. He's not even our shepherd as a church. He's my shepherd, my personal shepherd. It's beautifully personal. But the danger is, we can then think that the Psalm is all about us, when it's actually about God. Psalm 23 is bookended with references to the Lord. The Lord's name is the first word in the Hebrew, and it's the last, third, last word in the Hebrew. And in between, although God is mentioned less, 12 times, than we are mentioned, 17 times, he's actually the one who is most active. Have you noticed that? We are the passive ones in the psalm. The only time we do anything in this psalm is where we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. The rest of the psalm is about what God does for us or to us. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness. So we mustn't allow the personal emphasis to distract us from the fact that this psalm is primarily about God, not us. Another way we misunderstand the psalm is we think it's telling us that God is a shepherd and that's all. We don't really understand what a shepherd is like. I'll come back to the fact that God is also a host in this psalm. It's not just about God being the shepherd, he's the shepherd host. But even the word shepherd, we don't fully understand that. We hear of the green pastures and the still waters and we picture a gentle, pastoral young boy with ruddy cheeks looking after some sheep under a tree. But shepherds were strong, fighting men. When David gives his credentials to Saul for why he should be allowed to go and fight Goliath, boys and girls, do you ever remember what he said to Saul? He said that he'd fought someone or something. Do you know what he told Saul? He'd fought the lion and the bear. This is not a little gentle shepherd boy. This is a shepherd boy who knows how to fight. He's not gentle or shy. He's strong and fierce. It's why it says that his rod and his staff, they comfort me. The rod was like a club that the shepherd would carry in his belt. And it was to beat off the wild animals, the lion and the bear that would come after the sheep. The staff was a long stick used to tap the sheep on their side to keep them on the right path. But the club, the rod, was there to smash the enemy's head if it attacked the sheep. So shepherds are strong fighting men. The Lord is my shepherd. It gives you a different connotation now, doesn't it? But then another potential problem arises in understanding this psalm, and that is that we can so focus on the Lord being the shepherd that we miss that he's also something else in this psalm, equally so. Did you notice that in verse five and six? God is not just a shepherd, he's also a host. The metaphor of shepherd and sheep in verses one to four shifts to that of host and guest in verses five to six. God is as much a host in Psalm 23 as he is a shepherd. Which leads us to ask, what's the connection between a shepherd and a host? Why does David move from speaking about God being a shepherd to being a host? Well, because the psalm moves so smoothly and seamlessly from one metaphor to the other, we need to ask ourselves, why this smooth transition? What's the connection between shepherd and host? Well, in this culture at the time and in the Bible, shepherds and hosts had one thing in common. They were entirely and absolutely responsible for those in their care. They were entirely and absolutely responsible for those under their care. Shepherds were entirely and absolutely responsible for their sheep. Hosts were entirely and absolutely responsible for their guests. That is what is at the heart of Psalm 23. The Lord takes entire and absolute responsibility for us. This is why Psalm 23 brings so much comfort. God takes full and absolute responsibility for us. Notice the active language throughout the Psalm that I've already hinted at. Verse 2, God makes us lie down. He leads us beside still waters. He restores our soul, verse three. He leads us in paths of righteousness, verse five. He prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies. This is the language of initiative, of strong leadership, of responsibility. It's a language of entire and absolute responsibility for those under the Lord's care. And Psalm 23 reveals the Lord's responsibility for us in five ways. Number one, the Lord provides for our needs. He provides for our needs, verses one to three. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. The statement is full of provision. speaks of the Lord's provision and it comes from his identity. The Lord is our shepherd and so we do not lack anything. And what we do lack, what we do not lack, sorry, is our basic needs. The green pastures relate to food, the still waters relate to drink, The fact that he makes us lie down in green pastures means that we have more than enough food and drink. But it also means that where he has led us is also safe and secure. We can actually rest there. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. It's a picture of satisfaction and security. Hence verse three, he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Here is a shepherd who ensures that the basic needs of his sheep are fully provided for. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. That's the first thing we see about the Lord taking entire and absolute responsibility for us. He provides for our needs. Second, he guides us on our way. He guides us on our way, verse three. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Now it's important here to see the connection between righteous paths and wholeness, that is the restoration of our souls. The way to wholeness is along the paths of righteousness. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness. In other words, happiness is found in holiness. Wholeness in life is found in righteousness. Here's the great comfort for us. As our shepherd, the Lord guides us along the right paths, the paths of righteousness, in order to bring us to a place of wholeness, of holiness. And he does that for his namesake. In verse one to two, he leads us for our own good, for our own satisfaction. In verse three, he leads us for his own glory, for his own namesake. And of course our good and his glory are not mutually exclusive because his glory is ultimately our good. And that is to restore us to wholeness. So we see how the Lord takes entire and absolute responsibility for us. He provides for our needs. He guides us on our way. Number three, he protects us from all evil. Verse four, 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. Now it's called the valley of the shadow of death or the valley of shadowy death or deep darkness. And that's because valleys were where wild animals would prey on sheep. When the sheep gathered around still waters in the valleys to drink, the wild animals would lie in the tall grass waiting for their moment to pounce on them, drinking at the water pool. That's why the valley is described as dark and deathly, because it is where the sheep's life could be taken. When they entered the valley, they were entering the shadow of death, the valley of shadowy death. Now it's important to notice how we get from green pastures and still waters in verse one to three to the valley of the shadow of death, verse four. Did you notice how we get there? We get there via the paths of righteousness. And since it is the Lord who leads us along such paths, it must be the Lord who leads us into the valley of the shadow of death. It's not that as sheep we wander away from the green pastures and end up randomly appearing in the shadow, in the valley of the shadow of death on our own. No, it's that the Lord has led us from the green pastures into the valley of the shadow of death. But rather than that terrifying us, it should actually comfort us. Because it means that the Lord is in the valley with us. And isn't that what the verse says? Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. This is the essence of the psalm. It actually occurs right in the middle of the psalm. For you are with me. Note the shift in person. God is referred to in verses one to three in the third person. In verse six, he's in the third person. But now in verse four and five, he's spoken of in the second person. There's a shift from speaking from the Lord and he to you, a direct address. David has stopped talking about God, and he has started talking to God. Often it's when trouble comes to us. that we stop talking about God and start talking to him. There's something wonderfully intimate here in verses four and five. At his most vulnerable in the dark valley of shadowy death among beasts and on a battlefield among enemies, David begins to talk to God face to face. For you are with me. And this goes to the heart of this Psalm. God takes entire and absolute responsibility for us. And that is manifested in his presence with us. He takes absolute responsibility for us and that is manifested in his intimate presence with us. And that presence is seen practically in rod and staff. Remember earlier I said that the rod was a club used by the shepherds to beat off wild animals. The staff was used for guidance. And so this is why they comfort us. God is present with us to protect us and to guide us through the danger. He's present with us to protect us and to guide us through the danger. God is not like a distant CEO. in a head office who we never see, but he directs the affairs of our lives as we work for him. No, he is the ever-present shepherd who is with us in life's dangers. It's what shepherds do. They are always with their sheep. God's entire and absolute responsibility for us is manifested in his presence with us. And so we can say, I will fear no evil. Why? Because you are with me. I will fear no evil because you are with me. That's the message of the whole Bible summarized in five words for you are with me. Martin Luther said the Psalms are a little Bible and summary of the whole Old Testament. The Psalms are a little Bible and a summary of the Old Testament. Well, I think we could say that these five words, for you are with me, is a little Bible. It's a summary of the whole of the Old Testament. It's a summary of the whole of the Bible. In Eden, God lived with Adam and Eve. On Mount Horeb, God promised Moses he would be with him in Egypt. At Mount Sinai, God came to live with Israel in a tent. In the promised land, God came to live with Israel in a temple. In Jesus Christ, God came to live with his people as Emmanuel, God with us. When Jesus left this world, he sent his Holy Spirit so that he could come and live in us. And in the new heavens and the new earth, God will once again dwell with his people. It's how Revelation ends. And now, the dwelling of God is with man. This is the whole Bible in five words. For you are with me. The presence of God with his people is the Bible in a nutshell. And that's where the comfort lies. God is with us. I don't know what your valley is at this moment. Each person's valley is their own valley. I don't know if it's singleness or loneliness. I don't know if it's infertility, a difficult marriage, a difficult child, a difficult parent. I don't know if it's ill health or terminal cancer. I don't know if it's that you don't have a job. or you've experienced the heartbreak of a broken relationship, or there's some sad news in the family, or you've lost a loved one, or you have sleepless nights. I don't know what your valley is. But I know this, God is with you. He is with you in the valley. The Lord led you into that valley. along paths of righteousness, and he has not left you in the valley. I will fear no evil, for you are with me. It's why we can be comforted today, because whatever evil is in that valley, and we go into valleys where there is a lot of evil, a lot of darkness, even death itself, but whatever evil lurks in the grass, wanting to hurt us and destroy us, the Lord is there, and he has a big club in his hand. and he wants to conquer that evil. Now, in this life, he may not fully defeat it, but he will defeat it on the last day. He will even defeat death itself. Now, you may say, well, how do I know the Lord is with me in the valley? Because it feels very lonely and it feels very dark. Well, look again at verse four. It is the valley of the shadow of death. It's shadowy death. It's not the valley of death. It's the valley of shadowy death. And where there is a shadow, there's always a light. Now boys and girls, did you know that? That if you wanna go outside today and you run around on the grass, you look for your shadow, okay? And you'll see your shadow behind you. Why will you see your shadow? Because there's light. But go into your bedroom tonight with your parents, switch off all the lights and try and find your shadow. You can't find your shadow in the dark. There's only a shadow when there's a light. And so there's the hint here that there is some light in this valley because there can never be a shadow without light. And God is the light. in the valley. As a shepherd the Lord protects us by presencing himself with us. He is that light in the dark valley. This is the third way that the Lord takes responsibility for us. He protects us from all evil. So he provides for our needs. He guides us on our way. He protects us from all evil. And then number four, he refreshes us in our battles. Verse five, he refreshes us in our battles. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. The dark valley of wild beasts in verse four is replaced with a battlefield of enemies. Verse five, but the personal intimacy of the psalm continues. You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. The picture is quite surreal if you think about it. David is seated at a table in a house on a battlefield. Just picture that. a Gettysburg battlefield and a house right in the middle of it. And someone's sitting there having a lovely meal, drinking their wine while the battle rages. And that's what David pictures here. It's a serene picture of refreshment in the midst of war. I think this refers to coming to the Lord's table. Each week as we eat from that table, as we drink from that cup, he is refreshing us in the weekly battle that we're involved in. He says to us, let the war keep going. Come and eat. Come and drink from my table. He has taken entire and absolute responsibility for us. And so he ensures that we are well fed, that we are well refreshed in the midst of our battles. He's not a distant hotel manager who remains in his office and sends his waiters to go and take care of us. No, he is the host in the home. He's the one making the table, setting it. He's the one pouring the wine. So if you feel weary from life's battles, may I encourage you to meet regularly in the house of the Lord, to sup from his table, because that is where you will be refreshed for your life's battles. So this is the fourth thing, he refreshes us in our battles. And number five, he pursues us all the way home. He pursues us all the way home. Verse six, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Now the word follow here is a bit of a soft translation. You have my permission to score it out and write the word pursue. That's what the Hebrew is. Surely goodness and mercy shall pursue me. all the days of my life. Here's the final comfort for all of life. God's goodness and mercy, that is his steadfast love, his chesed, will pursue us for the whole of our life. Not wild beasts, not our enemies. No, God's goodness and mercy will pursue us all the days of our life. I don't know if you've heard of the poem, The Hound of Heaven. It's a beautiful poem that describes God like a hound from heaven hunting us down, cornering us until he gets us. Well, here are two hounds from heaven, goodness and mercy sent out to pursue us. But we mustn't understand them as two ethereal impersonal attributes floating around in the sky that follow us like two guardian angels. Spurgeon called these the two guardian angels sent by God. It's a nice picture but I don't think it's right. God cannot be separated from his attributes. His attributes don't float out there, detached from him. It means that it is God who pursues us, because God is goodness. God is steadfast love. So what this is saying is surely God shall follow me. Surely God shall pursue me all the days of my life. God is active again, just like he was at the beginning of the Psalm. As a shepherd, he leads us, and as goodness and mercy, he pursues us. Which means he hems us in, in the valley. In front, he leads us, and behind, he pursues us. And he does that all the days of our lives. Now if God pursues us all the days of our lives, and some of those days are spent in a dark valley, then it is God who pursues us into those valleys as well. not just into the green pastures and the still waters. God leads us into the valley, he pursues us into the valley. Which means we are back to the heart of this psalm and the great comfort it contains for all of us in all of life. We have a shepherd host who is with us every single day, in every single place, pursuing us. with goodness and mercy. And why does he pursue us? Verse six, in order to lead us home. Home to the house of the Lord where we will dwell with him forever and ever. Now in closing, I want to finish by looking at the heart of this psalm, which are those five words, for you are with me. And that is what we've seen this psalm is all about. God is our shepherd host, which means he takes entire and absolute responsibility for us by manifesting his presence with us. The question is, how is God with us in this psalm? For you are with me. Well, what does that look like? Well, it looks like two human images. He is with us as a shepherd. He is with us as a host. Here is an Emmanuel psalm. We might even say an incarnate Emmanuel psalm. Because God comes to us in this psalm in the form of two human figures, a shepherd and a host. The comfort at the heart of this psalm is God's incarnational presence. It is God with us as a man, as a shepherd, as a host. There is no theophanic manifestation of cloud and fire. There's no lightning and thunder. No, there is a person, a shepherd. There is a person, a host. And of course, this leads us to Jesus Christ, the great shepherd, the great host. In Mark chapter six, Jesus hosts a banquet in the countryside for 5,000 people. Mark tells us that he made them lie down on green grass, and he fed them, and they were more than satisfied. He was a shepherd that day. He was a host. He was God, the shepherd host incarnate. But this shepherd host does not just host banquets. He does not just make crowds sit on green hillsides. He also laid down his life for his sheep. He also died for his guests. In John 10, Jesus describes himself as the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep in the presence of wolves. Jesus, our shepherd host, entered the deep, dark valley of death, not the valley of the shadow of death. No, actually the valley of death is what he entered, where there was no shadow, where there was no light. And in that pitch darkness, God was absent, not present. Out of the out of darkness, Jesus could say, Out of the outer darkness, Jesus could not say, for you are with me. He cried, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? In the pitch darkness, Jesus uttered a cry of abandonment. In battle with his enemies, he said, I thirst. His cup did not overflow. As our shepherd host, he hung alone, thirsty, in the dark, But he did so so that we would never be in the dark. So that we would never be alone. So that we would never be thirsty. So that every valley that we ever enter is not the valley of death, but only the valley of the shadow of death. I think that's why it's called the shadow of death. Because Jesus entered the real valley of death and came out on the other end with a torch in his hand. The flaming light of his resurrection. And so no valley can ever be the valley of death when you're connected to Jesus Christ. As our shepherd host, he has conquered death and he has turned every valley of death for the believer into a mere shadow of death, for he has conquered death. Perhaps it's also called the valley of the shadow of death because death would not ultimately hold Jesus when he walked into it. And that is why he really can restore our souls. That is why we really don't need to fear evil. That is why we really will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Because Jesus, our shepherd host, was the one who first experienced Psalm 23 for himself. He secured all the benefits of Psalm 23 in his own life, death, resurrection, and ascension. And it is when we are connected to him as his sheep, to the shepherd, as the guests, to the host, that we can sing and say Psalm 23 with full confidence and assurance. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Let us pray. Father, we praise you that in your Son, the Lord Jesus, you have come to us as our shepherd host. We pray, Lord, that you would help us to read Psalm 23 and to sing it through new eyes from what we have heard this morning. And having seen it, having read it, and now to sing it, please help us to love you more as our great God and your son as our great shepherd host who is with us wherever we go. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.