Reasons not to be afraid (Psalm 23)

We live in a fallen world.  It is a world of chaos.  It is a world of threat.  It is a world that ends in death.  Yet we are to fear no evil.  The word translated 'evil' in this Psalm ('ra'), is a word that includes ideas of disorder, distress and injury.  But we are not to be afraid.   We are to fear no evil because of the person, path and promises of God.

1.  The person of god

In your Bibles you might see that the word LORD is spelt with capitals.  That is a translation of YHWH - which we might pronounce Yahweh or Jehovah.  Yahweh bookends this psalm, being at both the beginning and the end.

Yahweh is the covenant name for God.  It is explained to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:14).  God tells Moses to tell the people that he is 'I am that I am.'  He is to explain that 'I am has sent me to you'  Yahweh comes from the verb, 'to be'.  Dale Ralph Davis explains that God is saying, 'I will be present with my people to be whatever they need me to be.'  Yahweh is the only God, and He is the God we need in this life.

Yahweh is my shepherd.  In the Ancient Near East the shepherd was everything to the flock.  There is a lovely picture of the shepherd in the book of Isaiah: God 'tends his flock like a shepherd.  He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart, he gently leads those who have young' (40:11).

One of the things that convinces me of the divinity of Jesus is how many of the titles of Yahweh he takes for himself.  Jesus declared, ''I am the the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep' (John 10:11).

In the last two verses the scene changes from a shepherd to a host.  One commentator suggests that what we are being told is that God shepherds his people with the generosity and kindness as the most lavish of hosts.  In that culture it was not the host who prepared the meal for his guests, but a woman or a servant.  Yet our God takes this role upon himself.

While the flock is always assumed, notice that the focus is on each of us as an individual sheep.  The LORD is 'my' shepherd.  If we are in Christ we declare with the apostle Paul that we have faith in the Son of God, 'who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20).

The path of God

Shepherds in that culture did not drive the sheep but led them.  We read that the shepherd 'makes me lie down in green pastures.'.  You actually can't make a sheep lie down.  Sheep only lie down when they are well fed and feel safe.  It would be better to translate these words, 'he settles me down.'

The shepherd leads the sheep to green pastures.  It is very interesting that in Mark's account of the feeding of the five thousand Jesus directed the disciples to get the people to sit on the 'green grass' (Mark 6:39).  Jesus is showing us that he is the good shepherd.

The still waters are literally 'waters of rest'.  Sheep can't drink from lapping waters and need the water to be calm.  Rest is a key theme in the Bible.  The Promised Land of the Old Testament was referred to as God's rest.  Jesus invites us to come to him for rest (Matt. 11:28) and we look forward to an eternal rest (Rev. 14).

Ken Bailey makes the suggestion that restoring my soul, is actually better seen as 'he causes my soul to return.'  In our restlessness we are prone to wonder.  Yet we think of the good shepherd coming for the lost sheep.  We stray, but God creates a discontent within us until we know that the best place for us to be at home with the lover of our souls.

On of the right paths that the shepherd leads us through is the 'valley of the shadow of death'.  Valleys had to be travelled through but they were a nigh-mare for the sheep.  The valleys had steep and unstable sides.  They were a place of snakes, flooding and wild animals.  Yet they are not afraid because the shepherd is with them.

The valleys are passed through not settled in.  When we are going through a hard time it can be important to remind ourselves that 'this too will pass.'  At the other end of the valley is the banqueting table.  How true this is for those who are in Christ.  After we pass through the valley we will arrive at our ultimate place of rest.

David Watson was a great Christian leader who died in the 1980s.  He was terminally ill and wrote about his impending death.  He explained that he didn't fear evil because Jesus had already passed through the valley of the shadow of death for him and could be trusted to bring him through to the other side.  Jesus told his disciples that while he was going aware he would come back and take us to be with him (John 14;3).

The promise of God

In Hebrew poetry the poem often gravitates around the centre.  The centre of this psalm, both structurally and theologically are the words 'you are with me.'  That promise the ultimate reason that we are not afraid.  Jesus is our Immanuel, 'God with us.'  We look forward to a new heaven and a new earth where the dwelling place of God will be amongst his people (Rev. 21:3).  As we pass through this valley of death our shepherd hold a rod and staff, to protect us and discipline us.

In his beautiful book on this Psalm, David Gibson points out that when we read of goodness and mercy following us all the days of our life it would be better translated that they 'pursue' us.  Then he says, 'He is moving forward, and they are behind him.  Sometimes, only when we look back on events will we ever be able to see the goodness and the steadfast love of the Lord in them.  If you cannot feel it now, the Lord is still with you in the valley.  He will still walk with you without fail all of your days, and one day it may be that you will look back on the worst experiences, the most dreadful time, the deepest of dark valleys, and you will be able to say, "I see it now: God's goodness and God's mercy never left me, even then."'

Conclusion

Not all of life is green pastures.  Not all of life are dark valleys.  Christians can be assured that they will dwell with the Lord for ever, and that goodness and mercy now pursue us.

'The green pastures may be the normal place, the valley of the shadow of death may be the fearful place, in front of the enemies the dangerous place, and the house of the Lord the abiding place' (Dale Ralph Davis).

What tempts you to fear?  Remember the person, path and promise of our good shepherd. 

Immanuel Psalm: 'Our sins do not cause his love to take a hit, our sin causes his love to surge forward all the more.'

Application:

Green pastures - don't forget him

Dark valleys - don't think he has abandoned you

All the time - draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.

John and Betty Stam, Africa, martyred 28 and 29, 1934.  John, take away everything I have, but do not take away the sweetness of worshipping and talking with the king of glory.

   

‘This year remember there is nowhere else to turn’ (Psalm 107)

 

‘This year remember there is nowhere else to turn’ (Psalm 107)

Martyn Lloyd-Jones criticised the language of ‘decision’.  He didn’t like how people claim to have made ‘a decision’ to follow Jesus.  It’s too soft.  It’s not desperate enough.  He writes, ‘A sinner does not ‘decide’ for Christ; a sinner ‘flies’ to Christ in utter helplessness and despair … the convicted sinner no more ‘decides’ for Christ than the poor drowning man ‘decides’ to take hold of that rope that is thrown to him and suddenly provides him with the only means of escape’ (Preachers and Preaching, 280).

In this psalm we see four groups of people cry out to God in their desperation: the lonely (4), the rebellious (11), the foolish (17) and the storm-tossed (23).

1.       The lonely

The lonely are in a wasteland.  They do not have a city.  They need other people.  We are not meant to live alone.

God in His great mercy puts the lonely in families (Ps. 68:6).  He brings us to Himself and He becomes our Father.  He brings us to His people and unites us with them.  We are on our way to a city—the New Jerusalem.

Do we think of our faith in simply private terms?  Do we think of it as a ‘personal’ relationship with God?  Christianity is not a solitary faith, it is to become part of a community.  If you keep other Christian’s at an arm’s length or you have no meaningful relationship with a church community then you are being immature, at best.

2.       The rebellious

In verse 11 we see those who have rebelled against God and come to painful awareness of their guilt.  Their conscience is tortured.  These verses are a little like Psalm 32, where King David had concealed his guilt after his affair with Bathsheba.  He only found relief when he acknowledged his wrong and confessed his guilt.  Then he experienced the joy of forgiveness.

The book of James tells us that we are to confess our sins to each other.  Why each other and not just God?  I think of three reasons: confessing our sins to each other humbles us, it also makes us accountable, and then, most importantly, it gives other Christians an opportunity to remind us of the gospel.  They can assure us that because of the cross, Jesus never turns away anyone who comes to Him.

3.       The fool

The fool (17) is a particular type of rebel.  Their behaviour has them on a path to death.  We might say that they have acted with a sense of self-destruction.  Tim Keller says that these people have become self-absorbed.  But God rescues us from ourselves and shows us how to live for Him.  He saves us from our own stupidity.  ‘Lord, show me how to live for you?’    

4.       The storm-tossed

The sea is a good picture of life.  Sometimes the waters are calm, often they are not.  Those who cry out, in verse 23, are in the middle of a storm, and they are scared.  Two things are noticeable.  Firstly, that the storm is under God’s control.  He sent it (25).  Our lives are never truly out of control when our trust is in Jesus.  Secondly, He speaks and stills the storm with a word.  Surely that brings our mind to the gospels where we see Jesus doing things that God does, because He is God the Son (e.g. Mark 4:35-39). 

You may be in the middle of a storm at the moment.  Jesus might come and still that storm.  We pray for deliverance.  Or, He might come and walk with is in that storm.

As you think about this psalm are you willing to admit that you are weak?  Do you see that in our loneliness we need God’s people, we need His family and that together we are traveling to a heavenly city?  Are you willing to admit that every day we let Him down, and every day we continue to receive His grace?  Can we see that our foolish choices have left us with many messes, but that He is willing to make our paths straight?  Will we look to Him, and trust Him, even when the storms in our lives make little sense to us?

Response

How are we to respond to the God who brings the lonely to a city, forgives our rebellions, sets our paths straight and still our storms?  This psalm begins by telling us, ‘Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, His love endures forever.  Let the redeemed tell their story.’ (1).  In fact, that command to give thanks come after each of the sections in this psalm (8, 15, 21 and 31).  Then the psalm finishes saying, ‘let the wise take heed and ponder’ (43).

We are the redeemed, if we trust in Christ.  That means that God paid a great price to free us for Himself.  We have reason to be glad.

We begin by pondering His goodness.  We ask God to let this fill us with gratitude.  Then it will become natural to speak to people about His kindness.

Let the church make you happy (Psalm 133)

‘I don’t want to hear gossip about my mother.  Why?  I don’t  want to hear any gossip about her because I love her.  I wouldn’t tolerate listening to you say unfair and harsh things about her.  I will defend her.  I wouldn’t want to hear nasty things said about her even if they are true.  I don’t want to hear gossip about my mother because I love her, so what does that say about people I do listen to gossip about?  It says that I don’t truly love them!

Jesus loves the church.  He asked the church-hating Paul, ‘why do you persecute me?’  Just as I wouldn’t enjoy listening to nasty things about my mother, so Jesus doesn’t enjoy listening to ungracious things said against his people.  Jesus doesn’t want to listen to your gossip!  He never starts a conversation with the words, ‘heard any scandal lately?’

So, if we know that Jesus does not want us to be harsh and unloving, then why are we so critical of each other?  Why are we so slow to love each other?  How can we say that we love Jesus if we don’t love the people who make up his body?  Why do we attempt to hurt the body when we don’t get our way?  You can’t love Jesus if you don’t love his people.  To hurt God’s people is to wound Christ!  Psalm one hundred and thirty-three tells us how good it is when we get along.

How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!  It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down the beard, running down Aaron’s beard, down the collar of his robes.  It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion.  For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.

One of the points being made in this psalm is that the unity of God’s people brings opposites together.  This is symbolised by the high area of Hermon in the rural north and the little hill of Zion in the urban south.  For the dew that gathered on Hermon to fall on Zion would be a miracle.  In the same way it takes a miracle to unite together people from differing races and backgrounds.  One of the best things about this church fellowship is the fact that we have such a mixture of ages and nationalities.  We have over twenty language groups in this fellowship.  That is something to be celebrated.  As we live in love we become fragrant and good, like the precious oil of ancient times, like oil running down the High Priest Aaron’s beard.   So let us ‘be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace’ (Ephesians 4:2-3).

How do we deal with difficult people in this church?

How do you deal with the fact that there will be people in this fellowship that you struggle to like?  The solution is not simply to pack your bags and go to a church where the people are nicer.  It won’t be long before you find difficult people there too.  Besides, if you spend your life running away from those who get on your nerves you are not going to become very mature.

Begin by praying for them.  I remember a lecturer of pastoral care in college pointing out that it is very difficult to hate someone that you are praying regularly for.  David Murray writes, ‘Prayer never changes God.  It sometimes changes the person we are praying for.  It always changes us.’

Have a humble attitude towards them.  My dad used to tell me to try to learn something new from everyone I met.  Such thinking implies that people have things to teach us.  We see such humility in the Apostle Paul’s command to consider other people more important than ourselves.  ‘When you are in a group and people start pulling down another Christian, why not suggest areas of the person’s life and character that show the work of Christ in him or her?’ (David Murray).  Also, remember that the grace that covers their flaws is the same grace that covers yours.  What an amazing God we have who loves people like them.  Of course, what an amazing God I have that loves someone as irritating as me.

Do you ever find that you are most critical of the failings in others that you are most tempted towards?  I am most critical of preachers who promote themselves because I want to promote myself.  Sometimes we are hard on those who struggle with our failings because when I find someone worse than myself, it makes me feel superior.  Maybe I can’t stand someone else’s gossip or pride because it is so much like my own gossip and pride.  When you see your sins in other people thank God that he forgives both them and you.

In his book on happiness, David Murray tells us to springboard from Christians to Christ.  I think this is ingenious.  ‘When you are tempted to start mulling over someone’s imperfection, instead think of the opposite perfection in Jesus.’  So you are troubled by the fact that someone has a harsh or dishonest tongue, praise Jesus for the fact that his words were ‘full of grace and truth.’  If someone is proud and always wants to push themselves forward, remember how Jesus took the nature of a servant to live and die for us.  Someone is always going on about their children; remember how your heavenly Father delights in you as one of his.  Someone lives to get rich; remember how Christ, being rich, became poor for us.  ‘There is no sin found in a Christian that cannot act as a springboard to Christ and His beautiful holiness’ (Murray).     

How should we think about other churches?

Christ cares nothing for our denominational divisions.  He wants all his diverse people to be united.  This is what he prayed for the night before he was crucified.  How do we think about the other churches?  I will focus simply on some of the church’s that we are most familiar with in this city. 

Stop comparing:  Is this the church that God has led you too?  If so, stop comparing it with other churches.  Other churches may have better facilities, better speakers, better children’s ministry or have a better band.  Other churches may even have nicer people.  However, this is the preacher, the people, the facilities and the band in the church God has led you too.  You need good reasons, not just selfish reasons, to break away from one church fellowship to join another.  If he wanted us to have more talented leaders or different people, he would have given them to us.  Encourage people grow in their gifts, but don’t demand that they become someone they are not.

Stop competing:  Abundant Life has a brand new building and Elevate continues to grow.  We should be glad about these things.  These are our sister churches.  It is wonderful to co-operate with the New Testament Church and Mallow Street in Axis.  We are all a part of the family of God.  There is something spiritually sick when we want our church to be better than other churches.  There is something wrong with us when we are jealous of things in other churches.  We don’t want to encourage people to go from church to church, but if someone were to leave us and join another evangelical church that really is no big deal.  We are seek to see the God in other churches, just as we are to seek to see God in other Christians, and we are to delight when they prosper and grieve when struggle.

Conclusion

You might want church to be perfect.  But maybe the perfect church wouldn’t help you grow.  You see you won’t become more patient if there is no-one close to you who tests your patience.  You won’t become more tolerant if everything is always done the way you want it. 

The happy Christian is happy with their church.  But how do we become happier with your church? 

It is largely about how you think.  Do you simply see the faults in other people, or do you see the graces that God has given them?  When you see that other Christians are imperfect, do we celebrate the gracious God who loves imperfect people like us?  When the church lacks gifts in certain areas, are you content that if God wanted people with those gifts he would have given them to us?

God has called us into a wonderful, diverse community that he has supernaturally bonded.  We love these people because God first loved us.  Gossip, complaint, argumentativeness and back-biting not only reveal a lack of love for God’s people, it suggests that we are not allowing God’s love transform our hearts.  Remember what these people mean to God.  They are the apple of his eye, the friends of Christ, his brothers and sisters and even part of his body. 

So focus on the God of infinite patience who delights over a flawed person like you.  Mediate on the God who went to such lengths to bring you into the true fellowship of the church.  Ask his Spirt to produce within you the fruit of love, patience and self-control.  Please God as you get pleasure from his people!