What does Psalm 23 teach us in Hope in a Dark Valley?

In this sermon on Psalm 23, Dr. Toby Holt of New Geneva Theological Seminary teaches that believers can fear no evil while walking through the valley of the shadow of death because the Lord, the Good Shepherd, is with them, protecting and providing for His sheep. Because God's people are chosen and kept by Christ, His provision exceeds their merit and His goodness and mercy follow them all their days. The psalm's true focus is not the sheep but the Shepherd, Jesus Christ, who leads, restores, and never abandons those He has claimed as His own.

Questions this sermon answers:

1. What is the main issue in this passage? In this sermon on Psalm 23, Dr.

2. How does this text point us to Christ? It shows the need for God's grace and the hope fulfilled in the gospel.

3. How should Christians respond? With faith, repentance, and renewed trust in the Lord's Word.

"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." - Psalm 23:4 (NKJV)

Dr. Toby Holt is President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio. Find more verse-by-verse Bible teaching at newgeneva.org; support this ministry at newgeneva.org/give.

In Psalm 23, which we're studying here this morning, King David declared that although we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we should fear no evil.

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Now, given what is outside those doors, given the sort of hideous things that exist in a fallen world, cancer and death and sickness and despair and poverty and more,

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given what's outside these doors, given the nightmares that lurk there, how in the world can we look at what that is and yet fear it not?

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how can we fear no evil on what basis should fallen frail weak people like you and i fear

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no evil when it has already scarred us so deeply well the short answer is this we can fear no evil

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because god is with us yea though i walk through the valley the shadow of death i shall fear no

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evil david had seen his fair share of evil and he feared it not why because you are with me is what

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He says here, your rod and staff, they comfort me.

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This morning, do you need to be comforted?

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How do you need to be comforted?

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What do you need to be comforted about?

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What is afflicting your soul on those sleepless nights?

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When you think about your life, when you think about your hurts,

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when you think about the obstacles that might be raising up before you,

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things that you've suffered perhaps even this past week,

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what encouragement do you need to take another step?

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Well, Psalm 23, which is our focus today,

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was written to provide just that encouragement,

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Just that knowledge that even though circumstances are dark,

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even though our enemies might be closing in upon us,

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that we have to fear them not or that we need not fear them because God is with us.

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This psalm was written to encourage us.

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Psalm 23 was written by a man who was very familiar with the darkness that fills our fallen world.

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He knew all about the evil outside because the evil outside often came knocking on his door.

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But know this, he was also familiar with the evil that's within.

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He was also familiar with the darkness of his own heart.

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Any of us who have spent any time studying and understanding the life of David know that he didn't always do the right thing.

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David was a man given over to sin and temptation at various times.

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David not only bore the scars of his enemies, but also scars caused by his own choices.

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And in this psalm, David recognizes that he needs help because he knows this much.

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While there is yet evil outside, he knew that he himself was a sheep prone to wander.

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He was a sheep prone to wander.

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And he was prone to wander into circumstances that would have ate him alive if God were to permit it.

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So he said, God, permit it not.

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God, my only confidence is this.

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Not in my own strength.

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I may be a king, I may be a leader of men, but I know I am given to sin and depravity apart from your grace and apart from the work you've done within me.

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Continue that work, oh God.

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Provide, protect.

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Enable me to walk through the valley of the shadow of death by leading me through it.

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Because I'm not wise enough or righteous enough or just enough, even as king, to walk through it of my own accord.

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I need a shepherd.

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I need a shepherd, said this king of men, for I am a sheep.

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All right, let's read more about this metaphor.

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Let's read more about the great shepherd, the good shepherd, as we look at verse 1 of today's text.

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Verse 1 says this,

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The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

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Alright, over the course of just its six verse totality, over the course of its six verse totality,

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Psalm 23 is going to be split into two separate allegories.

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Now, in the first, in the first four verses, we see God depicted as a shepherd.

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We see him as one who guards for and protects and provides for his flock,

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and one who leads his flock, leads them down safe and proper paths.

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And then in the last two verses, which we'll study in a few minutes,

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God is then depicted as a host, a benevolent host.

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The last two verses tell us that not only does God protect us as a shepherd protects his sheep,

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but he also provides for us.

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And we're going to see that more in the second allegory that's used.

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With that said, at the outset here, as we look at verse 1,

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let's talk now about God as a shepherd.

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Now David, it was not a coincidence that he picked this analogy here,

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this reference to a shepherd.

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This is not a coincidence because David knew a thing or two about shepherding.

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He knew a thing or two about sheep.

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And what he knew about sheep, having been a shepherd in his youth, is this.

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Sheep are stupid.

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Sheep are dull.

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Sheep are ignorant.

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Sheep are prone to wander in all sorts of danger without even knowing it.

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Sheep can't take care of themselves in the least.

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And so it is incredibly telling to us that the metaphor that he uses to describe God is that of a shepherd

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and describe man, you and I, as sheep.

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David knew what he was talking about.

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This is not something he just abstractly drew out of thin air.

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He had spent his time with sheep, and it's fascinating that that was the correlation that came most readily to his mind.

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He said, I am like the sheep that I have tended for in times past.

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I am prone to doing all sorts of crazy stuff.

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I need to be looked out for.

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I need to be protected.

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I need to be led and led into safe, green pastures.

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Because of my own accord, I will stray into that which is sinful and wrong and stupid.

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I need a shepherd, and that's what we see here.

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David knew what it was like to be a sheep.

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He knew what it was like to be a shepherd as well.

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And so when he says that the Lord is my shepherd,

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it suggests that David was deeply aware of his own unruliness and his own tendency to stray.

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He knew that God needed to protect him, for all men are dangerous,

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that which is without, but also that which is within.

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Now, I want us to note that the Lord here in verse 1, he doesn't just call the Lord a shepherd.

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Now he could have, he could have said, the Lord is a shepherd, I shall not want.

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He could have said that, I don't know if it would have the same meaning we have here,

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because that's not what he says.

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Instead of saying the Lord is a shepherd, he says, the Lord is my shepherd.

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See, he makes this bold, relational claim here.

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He says, God, the maker of heaven and earth,

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the maker of stars and planets and planets and all these things that I can't even see.

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the greatest telescope mankind could ever devise.

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This one, this one who plumbs the depths of the deepest oceans,

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this one, the Lord, is my shepherd.

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That suggests this intimacy between the shepherd and the sheep.

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You see, in order for any sheep, there's a lot of sheep in our world,

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in order for any sheep to benefit from the grace and care of a shepherd,

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there first has to be a relationship between the two.

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Over the past couple of years, I've had an opportunity to preach in a few Irish towns,

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and that's always it's been a good time a number of those communities especially

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near the coast

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have a lot of sheep when i come home and i show the pictures to the kids

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there's always pictures of sheep doing various things you know there's always

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ruins old castles and such and sheep around it

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in any case i've seen a lot of sheep on the coast of ireland

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what i've also noticed is there's not a lot of fences

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the animals just tend to roam everywhere which you would think would make it kind

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of hard to figure out who's who

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which sheep belongs to this guy or that farmer or what have you

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Well, what I discovered upon a kind of close inspection of these sheep is that the sheep have all been marked.

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And it's not like a brand.

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Instead, it's something far more simplistic.

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The shepherds of our day, or the people who own these sheep, they take spray paint.

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And they just mark, you know, there's a green or a yellow or an orange streak on these sheep.

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It's fascinating to look.

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You see all these multicolored sheep out on the hills of Ireland there.

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And that's how they're marked.

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And these markings leave very little question as to who the sheep belongs to.

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Now, what's more, I also noticed this.

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When a truck would rumble into view that was there to feed her, to take care of the sheep,

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depending on the nature and sound of the engine and the speed at which it was coming,

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different sheep figured out which truck, which shepherd, which individual was coming to provide the food that day.

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And you'd notice that the sheep that belonged to the particular shepherd whose truck they recognized the sound of

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or who heard his voice would come right over.

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The other sheep would understand, this is not my guy.

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This is not the one that provides for me.

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Do you remember John 10?

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Jesus is talking with the Pharisees.

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Now, at that time, he told the Pharisees this.

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He said, you do not believe because you're not my sheep.

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Call it being chosen, call it being the elect, whatever the case is.

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He looked at the Pharisees.

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And he said this.

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He said, you do not believe because you are not my sheep.

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My sheep hear my voice.

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My sheep hear my voice, and I know them.

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And they follow me.

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And I give them eternal life.

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And they shall never perish.

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Neither shall anyone ever snatch them, take them out of my hand.

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See, Jesus Christ is repeatedly referenced, including his own self-reference, as a shepherd.

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So this is not just David's phrase here.

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It's one that Christ himself uses.

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Jesus Christ is repeatedly described as a shepherd.

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Which means that the big question for you and I today is this.

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Are you and I one of his sheep?

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Are you and I one of his sheep?

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Because some are not.

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And we know this because Jesus said it.

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You do not believe because you are not of my sheep, he told these religious elite.

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There was something about their religiosity, some error they were making,

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some hole in their hearts, some ontological problem of their nature,

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by which they were not counted as his sheep.

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And because they were not counted as sheep, they would not respond to his voice.

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And he just tells them this up front.

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This morning, do you respond to his voice?

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Is he your shepherd?

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As opposed to just a shepherd.

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In any case, immediately after David identifies God in this way, in verse 1 of our text,

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he makes a number of inferences about a shepherd's care.

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Specifically, David observes.

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He says this, if the Lord is my shepherd, then I shall not want.

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See, the primary role of the shepherd is to provide for the sheep's needs.

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That's the primary role.

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Left to their own devices, sheep won't think much beyond their next meal.

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And because of this, sheep out on the hillsides often lack shelter, they lack warmth, they lack water and more.

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And because of that, not only does the shepherd have to, of course, protect them, but he has to provide for them.

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He must anticipate their needs in order that he can fulfill them as good shepherds do.

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And that's what David says God does for us.

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He says, if we can make that relational claim, if this is true, if the Lord is my shepherd, he's going to look out for me.

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When I stray, when I falter, when I fall down, God goes ahead of me.

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He protects, he provides.

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He caused me to lay down in the green pastures.

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This is so amazing because this is not the God of the pagans.

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Remember the gods of the pagans, the Baals and Asherahs and the gods of Yor?

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Well, what did they do?

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God's like Zeus. What did they do? They sat on Mount Olympus.

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They looked down upon the people and they went to see if they would behave.

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And if they didn't, a lightning bolt came down and so forth.

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But there was no sense that there was a great care for the people.

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There was no intimacy there.

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Certainly there was no shepherding, tenderness, compassion from on high from Mount Olympus.

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But you and I have it. We lay claim to it.

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And Psalm 23 is telling us that this is true.

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And it can be encouraging to us today and evermore.

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Okay, let's look at verses 2 and 3.

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Zab's going to expand on this initial verse.

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Verse 2.

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He makes me, he makes me, this is God's volition.

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He makes me to lie down in green pastures.

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He leads me beside still waters.

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He restores my soul.

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How many of us need that today?

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He restores my soul.

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He leads me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake.

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Now, in order to appreciate what's being said here,

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in order to appreciate the shepherd psalm at all,

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You need to recognize the repeated emphasis of the word he.

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If you take notes in your Bible, that's the word to underline.

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He makes.

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He makes me lie down in green pastures.

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He leads.

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He leads me beside the still waters.

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He restores.

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He restores my soul.

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He makes.

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He leads.

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He restores.

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And why does he do all these things?

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For his own namesake.

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That's how these verses conclude.

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You see, the sheep are not the focus of the shepherd's song.

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The shepherd is the focus of the shepherd's song.

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It's Jesus Christ who is the key figure here.

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So often folks miss that.

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In other places in Scripture as well, we look and we want to find ourselves in Scripture.

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We want to find what's going on with us and what God has to say about us, us, us.

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When we flip the pages open or we stick our finger in the middle and see what does it say about me?

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Because we're self-interested, self-motivated.

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So we can come to the Shepherd's Psalm and say, what does this mean to me?

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Now it is to have meaning to us.

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It does have application for us.

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There is hope we can take out of this, encouragement and so forth.

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The Bible is principally the biography of God.

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And what we see in these verses is that Jesus Christ, the good shepherd, is the key figure of the shepherd's song.

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And he does all the things that he does in these verses for his own namesake.

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Now, right off the bat, verse 2, we read that God makes us to lie down in green pastures.

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Again, this is just a very telling word choice.

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The Greek term suggests that the act comes from God's volition, not ours.

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So often we think that God just provides a pastor.

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He throws the pastor out and says, all right, there it is.

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go for it, anytime now,

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and that we're supposed to get with the program

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and pick ourselves up by our bootstraps and wander on in.

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No.

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Those who he's called his sheep,

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those he's elected from eternity past,

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those who he's done a supernatural work

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by which he's taken a heart of stone and turned it into a heart of flesh,

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he will lead and make to lie down in the green pastures.

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And sometimes he'll do that over and against our plans,

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because sometimes our plans have nothing to do with the green pastures.

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How many times have we sought out sinful things,

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Things we shouldn't wander into.

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Circumstances.

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The lion's den.

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How often a sheep have we just wandered on in thinking we're some sort of commando sheep that can survive in there.

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We do that.

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We do what's wrong.

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But God, if he loves us, if he cares for us at all, he'll bring us back to himself.

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Because that's what good shepherds do.

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We are sheep prone to wander, but our good shepherd will bring us back.

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It's of his volition.

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He'll make us to lie down in green pastures.

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Sometimes that will mean a season of something that you wouldn't otherwise choose for yourself.

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Sometimes the greenest pasture is nothing you would identify with green at all.

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That's what God is doing.

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He makes us to lay down in green pastures.

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Of our own, we wouldn't do that.

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We wouldn't travel paths of righteousness.

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Of our own volition, we would dive headfirst in the sins and snares.

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We would lie down within the grasp of every wolf for a country mile.

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Of our own volition.

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But God is not an absentee shepherd.

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He looks out for us.

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Brings us back to himself.

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Now, let me add this.

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God's protection and guidance are not to be confused with some sort of spiritual bubble wrap.

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That's not what's implied here.

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These verses don't suggest that being a child of God means you will never, ever encounter any brush of evil or anything that will cause you any pain.

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In a fallen world, that's not the way it works.

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Now, David recognized that.

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Even as he says these things in the first three verses, he recognizes that bad circumstances will continue to exist.

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He says, this much is true.

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On this side of glory, things are still going to be dark, but even as they're dark, God is with us.

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Let's look at verse 4.

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Verse 4.

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Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

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David was a realist.

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David was not a prosperity gospel guy.

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David didn't presume to tell you that if you become a believer, you will never face hardship.

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You'll never face cancer.

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You'll never face relationships that break down by the virtue of living in a fallen world.

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He saw all these things and more.

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He saw the sin and death and anxiety and pain up to the rafters.

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He saw these things.

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He was realistic.

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And so he identifies all of that, all that wickedness, all that pain that you will encounter in a fallen world.

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He identifies this as walking through the valley of the shadow of death.

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If you see the world outside these doors as utopia, you are wrong.

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You are mistaken, for it is not.

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And how many more lessons, how many more scars must it sew upon your back before you see that?

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The world is dark, good gravy, a crucified God in the flesh.

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Of course it will seek to hurt and destroy you.

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But even when it does, even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

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we don't have to fear it.

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I'll fear no evil, for you, you're with me.

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Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

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You know, in military conquests, one of the least ideal types of geography to travel through is a valley.

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Military conquest, one of the least ideal types of geography, terrain you could find yourself in is a valley.

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See, when you're traveling through a valley, the terrain around you is not all visible.

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It's easy to be ambushed when you're in a valley by an enemy that might be entrenched and hard to detect.

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And should you turn to flee, if you're caught in an ambush and you turn to flee within a valley,

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you can find that you're bottlenecked, you're cut off from support.

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Even the most trained and equipped and empowered soldier is going to be apprehensive about valleys,

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Especially a valley that sits in the heart of enemy territory.

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Well, that said, where do you think we live?

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Where do you think we live?

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The world is filled with spiritual valleys.

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You could say it's one big valley.

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There's ambushes and dangers all around.

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There's evils, there's dangers at every bend.

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All these evils aren't benign.

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They're malignant and they have you and I in the crosshairs.

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Again, good gravy, be realistic about this.

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because goodness knows scripture is realistic about this.

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David's realistic about this.

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Every evil ever fashioned has sons and daughters of God on high in the crosshairs.

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This is true for us.

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David, David had been in the crosshairs really all his life, from Goliath on down.

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And his travels had taken him into places that had claimed other men's lives and other men's hope.

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And even though the geography around him was frequently dark,

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it included sin and war, betrayal and temptation and death,

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even though David had been a man beset on all sides,

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David interestingly says here that he could remain confident and fear no evil.

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How?

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Again, how is this possible?

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In the case of David, given his enemies, how could this be?

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Well, the last half of this verse explains how he could be so confident

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because he says this, you're with me.

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You're with me.

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Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

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That which you use to smite my enemies,

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that which you use, the crook, to pull me back to yourself,

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the fact that you have these implements

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and that you use them

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for the betterment of your church and your people.

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He says, oh, dear heavens,

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what a comfort that is to me.

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How good it is, Father, to know

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that you're not content just to sit

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and look on mankind.

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David was not a deist.

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He didn't think God was just somewhere out

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in the ether peering down upon us

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wondering what we were going to do from day to day.

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He says, oh, how good it is that you're proactive.

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How good it is that you have the ability

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and the means and the implements

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to reign in your people.

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And not only do you have the implements,

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but you have the desire to use them

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to protect us,

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to pursue us when we're wandering.

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This is an encouragement to us.

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Now, with regards to protection,

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when you think of protection,

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when you think of, say, a predator,

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when you think of a predator out in the wild,

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perhaps there's a lonely sheep

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out and wandering in the forest.

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Things have gotten dark

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and there's a predator, there's a wolf,

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there's something approaching.

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As you picture that in your mind's eye,

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a lonely little sheep,

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going on through the forest

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Listen, there's a predator, there's a mean wolf stalking from not too far a distance.

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What odds would you lay on the sheep?

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What odds would you lay on the sheep?

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If the sheep is going to prevail?

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Well, probably none.

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The sheep doesn't have the tools, doesn't have the teeth,

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doesn't have the ability to prevail in that encounter.

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If a sheep is going to meet a wolf out in the wild, it's game over for the sheep.

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But, but, when the sheep is safely tucked behind the shepherd,

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And the shepherd has the tools to deal with the wolf,

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to deal with that which would otherwise maim and kill the sheep.

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When the shepherd stands, and it's no small shepherd indeed,

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when the shepherd stands before the sheep, the sheep feel safe, secure,

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protected, provided for.

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Now let me stop for a second.

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Again, for you and I to draw anything out of this text,

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we have to see ourselves as sheep.

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Sometimes we can look at this text and recognize that at a topical level.

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We can say, okay, I'm sort of sheep-like.

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I sort of see myself in this metaphor.

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And yet, when we go out these doors this week,

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how often are you more the commando sheep?

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The sheep that says, ah, I'm the ninja sheep.

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Other sheep, other children of God,

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they're less mature, they're less enabled,

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they're not as strong as I am.

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I can go out.

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I can go out in this world and take care of myself.

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And then prayer becomes this afterthought

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and scripture becomes this thing that you do on a counter.

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Even church itself becomes kind of irrelevant.

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Why? Because I'm strong.

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You know me.

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I'm strong.

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We think of ourselves, again, as these ninja sheep,

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and we go wandering right into the lion's den.

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What happens there?

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Well, we get gobbled up.

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If you only knew.

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If you only knew.

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If you could only see your spiritual backside,

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to see how many scars have been laid into it by this world.

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We have no idea how hard, how awful, how terrible we've made our own lives

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by our neglect of God's word, church, scripture.

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Why? Because we think of ourselves as strong.

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We come to this passage and we kind of go,

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okay, I kind of get the sheep thing,

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but the reality is we don't act that way.

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You're wiser to start acting that way.

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You're wiser to stop leaning on your own understanding,

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your own strength, because you've got none.

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Turn to Christ, the good shepherd.

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He deliberately puts himself in that role.

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And we are to follow his lead.

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Not go charging off into dangerous circumstances

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thinking we can survive unscathed.

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We won't.

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It's unbiblical.

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It's deadly to approach the hardships of this world without Christ on your side.

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The world tells you you're strong, invites you to play with its fire.

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The Bible says we are weak.

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Those who play with fire get burned.

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In any case, returning to verse 4, David's emphasis here is, yes, the world is dark.

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It's filled with danger.

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And it isn't the utopia we so much wish it were.

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Now, one day, one day, there will be a new heavens and a new earth.

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One day we'll be able to freely walk through its fields

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without fear of any evil fouling it, touching us.

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But this is not that time.

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In the here and now, we desperately need a shepherd.

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And we're only safe because we have a relationship with a shepherd.

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Imagine those.

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Remember what Jesus said to the Pharisees who didn't have such a relationship.

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You and I need this relationship.

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We need a good shepherd.

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Apart from that, we're dead men walking.

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Let's look at verses 5 and 6.

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Now in verses 5 and 6, David's going to transition

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from this emphasis, this metaphor of a shepherd to a metaphor that deals with what you might call

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a host, a gracious host or a benefactor. Okay, let's look at verses 5 and 6. Verse 5. You, you

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God, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Once again, he's realistic. This is

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David. He's a king. He's powerful. And yet he knows he's surrounded on all sides by the tyranny of

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evil men. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with

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oil my cup runneth over surely surely because you do this goodness and mercy shall follow me all the

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days of my life and i will dwell in the house of the lord forever in the centuries preceding and

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including the time of christ it was customary if you were to visit another individual's home

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to have your your head or your feet or both anointed in an oil or perhaps perfume now this

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gesture was meant to convey to one's guest that while you are in my house while you're in my house

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you will lack nothing the same reason the picture cup that is filled till it overflows it's it's

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the same picture when david here says you know what my head with oil my cup runneth over these

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things are meant to convey that while you are in the house of god you will lack nothing you will

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be provided for and so in verse 5 david is contrasting the lord's provision with the

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hospitality that was suggested in these customs of the cup and the oil and so forth and if you

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There's other examples of this in Scripture.

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Think back to the night of the Lord's Supper.

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You'll recall the same sort of care and provision for the guests of the Lord, for His beloved.

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When Jesus Christ washed the feet of the disciples, it's provision above and beyond provision.

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For that matter, it was repeated when He broke the bread and He poured the wine,

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offering the abundance of His own body and His own merit in order to fill the spiritual needs of those present.

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When you think of the parable of the prodigal son,

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Remember what happened?

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The son went off.

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He went nuts.

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He went crazy.

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He acted like the commando sheep.

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He went off in the world.

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He thought, ah, my father's giving me all this advice, but I don't need it.

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I'll go off and do my own thing.

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Well, that didn't work out very well for him, as we know from the parable.

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He goes out and he squatters in his inheritance.

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He ends up living as this guy who's taking care of pigs and the trough and so forth.

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And he's so hungry.

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He's so hungry.

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He says, oh, if I could only eat the pods that the pigs are eating.

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And while he's there, when he's broken,

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finally understands that his sin and rebellion

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hasn't worked out so well,

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it's then that he remembers the words of his father.

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It's then that he remembers the words of his father

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and he says, well, maybe I'll return.

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And when I return, I don't expect him to love me.

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I don't even expect him to treat me as a son.

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But maybe he'll accept me as a hired hand.

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At least I'll be home.

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At least I'll be fed.

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And he returns.

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He returns to his father.

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And his father, the candle has never gone out in his love for his son.

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And his father looks across the field one day.

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Looks across the field and he sees his son coming.

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His eyes go wide.

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His arms go wide.

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He runs, he sprints across the field.

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He lays his arms around his child.

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He kisses him upon the neck.

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He loves him.

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He calls his other son.

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He says, today we're going to have a party.

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Today we're going to have a banquet.

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I want you to kill the fatted calf.

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He gives his son his signet ring.

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It's you are my child.

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You're welcome back into my embrace.

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You've never left it.

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It's this sort of provision when we don't deserve it that we see repeatedly in Scripture.

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This abundance, this provision for we who are wayward, we who are stupid,

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who we do things that Scripture tells us not to.

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God is faithful even when we're faithless.

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And His provision exceeds our merit.

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In the world, so often people think, you know, there's karma or something.

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I've got to do something right in order for something good to happen to me.

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And sometimes people approach God in the same way.

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They say, God will only love me if I've been lovable.

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And if I haven't been lovable, if I've done terrible things, God can't or won't love me.

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And we can even, even when we're mature, we can fall in that trap

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and think that God is somehow looking down upon us and He's just perpetually irritated with us.

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That's not the God of Scripture.

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That's not a father.

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That's not one who pours and pours and pours until our cup flows over.

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We haven't gotten so much greater.

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His provision exceeds the merit of those who have to rely on it.

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Do you have trouble relying upon or trusting upon others?

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Have there been people who have let you down in the past?

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I don't know about you, but when I'm dependent on others, I feel vulnerable.

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I feel vulnerable.

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Because of that, it's easy to trust in yourself.

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Have you felt that way?

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Dependency, trusting on others, is where so much of the hurts in our life have come from.

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Because others have let us down.

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And because of that, our tendency is to be cautious about those circumstances

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in which we have to trust in someone else.

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Now for some of us, that fear, dependency, this lack of trust

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carries over to our relationship with God.

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Or we don't really think He's going to take care of us tomorrow.

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So we have to fill up our storehouse of grain.

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We've got to hold on to every shekel.

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We can't trust Him with our faith, our future, our finances, anything.

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We can't trust Him to look out for ourselves.

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We buy into that silly canard,

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God helps those who help themselves.

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There's a reason why that's the number one verse, air quotes,

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that most people will ever refer to,

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is because they buy into this idea that they have to do well enough in order for God to love them.

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That's not the way it works.

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We can trust Him now.

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We can trust our God, irrespective of how we've done this past week.

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We might have trouble trusting others.

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There may be others who have let us down.

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In fact, sometimes we have to be wary of that.

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But we can trust our God.

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We can trust Him.

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You see, there's unity between God's ability to help you and his desire to do so.

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There's unity between God's authority and power and majesty and might

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and his inclination to cradle hurting sheep, to love on you, wherever you're at right now.

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King David understood this.

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Luther understood this.

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In his hours of darkness, when the whole world seemed to be coming against him,

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he understood.

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He understood something he didn't understand at the outset of his ministry,

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which is this much, that faith is through grace.

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And it's unmerited.

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And it's poured out in infinite measure.

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Luther, David, you and I, we're called to cherish this.

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There's unity between who God is and what God does.

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And if a good and loving God exists and He's your Father,

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He will pour out good and loving blessings upon you as His child.

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And to David that meant tomorrow is not in doubt.

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Others may let me down.

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But tomorrow is not in doubt because God won't let me down.

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He's still on His throne and He still cares for me.

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And because of that, David could close his psalm with the same words we'll close the sermon with.

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David said this,

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Surely, because of all that I've just said, because of who God is, because of His care and His authority in my life,

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and because He's my shepherd, surely, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.

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This is exciting.

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Christianity is something to be passionate about.

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When we come in the Lord's presence, we're rejoicing.

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The Lord is our shepherd.

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Goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life.

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And just as we come into the Lord's house this morning, we'll forever be in it.

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Be encouraged this day. Let's pray.