After our two-week pause for Holy Week, we now continue where we left off in our series through the 23rd Psalm. Today’s text comes from the last verse of the psalm, but here is the entire psalm for context:
The Lord is
my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down
in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.
He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in
the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup
overflows.
And
now, verse six: “Surely goodness
and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I
will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
I
want to begin today’s message by first reminding us that this verse helps
illustrate why it is so dangerous to take Scripture out of context. If we do
that – take God's word out of context – one could draw a terribly incorrect
conclusion that God‘s mercy and goodness follow EVERYONE – regardless of their
beliefs and lifestyles – and that they will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
I
suppose there are many people today in and out of the church who believe ‘God
is love,’ and therefore He will never condemn anyone to an eternal hell. Most
churches that promote that devilish heresy are usually associated with the
acceptance and promotion of sinful sexuality and perversion.
But if we take this entire psalm in context – beginning with the first
verse, which reads, “The Lord is our shepherd’ – then we must conclude that it
is only those for whom God is their Lord that verse six, as well as the entire
psalm – applies.
As
we’ve seen through this series on Psalm 23, it is the Lord Jesus who is our
shepherd. He told His disciples: “I am the good shepherd, and I
know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I
know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep (John 10:14-15).
In
that same context of chapter 10 of John’s gospel, the Lord also told the
disciples that His sheep hear His voice. So, unless Jesus the Christ is our
Lord, and we OBEY His voice, we cannot say He is our shepherd, and we cannot
have any expectation that His goodness and mercy will follow us to our hospice
bed or beyond. We can have no expectation to dwell in His house forever.
This
really is a critically important point, which is why I plead with you to
make sure you are truly His sheep. Do you routinely confess your sins to God?
Have you asked Him to forgive your sins because of what Jesus did for you on
the cross? Are you baptized? Are you following Him by obeying His commandments?
Our
answer to these questions have eternal consequences for each of us in this
sanctuary. God repeatedly warns humanity with texts such as this in Hebrews
9:27 – “It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.”
So,
let’s return now to that last verse in Psalm 23. The Greek word translated
‘follow’ is better translated by the word ‘pursue.’ In other words, the Christian can understand
the verse to read: “Surely, goodness and mercy shall PURSUE me all the days
of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
We
should pause here for some contemplative thought. The shepherd pursues
us even in the valley of the shadow of deep darkness. When we stumble into sin,
He pursues us. If we become trapped in sin, He pursues us. In despair, He
pursues us. In our loneliness, He pursues us. When we are broken, He pursues us.
Listen
to the Scripture tell it to us again: (Psalm 94:17-19) If the Lord had
not been my help, my soul would soon have dwelt in the abode of silence.
If I should say, “My foot has slipped,” Your lovingkindness, O Lord, will
hold me up. When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations
delight my soul.”
The
Shepherd doesn’t follow or pursue us like an inquisitor waiting to catch us
doing something wrong. No, not at all. The Shepherd chases after us, to catch
up with us, to lovingly and patiently whisper in our ear (Isaiah 30:21) “This is the way,
walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or
to the left.”
Some
of you may be familiar with the Poem, “Hound of Heaven.” Listen to a portion of
it: “I fled Him, down the nights and down the
days; I fled Him, down the arches of the years; I fled Him, down the
labyrinthine ways of my own mind; and in the mist of tears I hid from Him . . .
Up vistaed hopes I sped . . . Down Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears, from those
strong Feet that followed, followed after. But with unhurrying chase, and
unperturbèd pace, deliberate speed, majestic instancy, they beat—and a Voice
beat – more instant than the Feet.”
It was about this poem that Fr. John Francis Xavier (d.
1920) wrote: "As the hound follows the hare, never ceasing in its
running, ever drawing nearer in the chase, with unhurrying and unperturbed
pace, so does God follow the fleeing soul by His Divine grace. . . Divine grace
follows after, unwearyingly follows ever after, till the soul feels its
pressure to turn to Him alone in that never ending pursuit."
So
yes, God pursues us. Why? Well, why does a parent chase after his child who
just dashed into traffic? God chases after us, God pursues us, because He loves
us. He wants to protect us. It doesn’t get any more complicated than that.
But
– and this is also important to understand – contrary to what some false
teachers and false pastors might tell their congregations, for those who
persist in their rebellion against God and His laws, there DOES come a point in
their rebellion that God no longer pursues them. And THAT is a dreadful place
to be.
Yes
– please hear this: THAT is a dreadful place to be when God stops pursing us.
It is then that He then lets us go our own way along that wide road that leads
to destruction and eternal damnation.
Listen
to what the Holy Spirit tells us in this text to the Christians at Rome:
Romans
chapter 1:18-28 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in
unrighteousness . . . Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of
their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among
them. . . . For this reason God gave them over
to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for
that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural
function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another . . . And
just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave
them over to a depraved mind . . . .”
And
this frightening text in 2 Thessalonians 2:7-12 which speaks of the
antichrist’s appearance, “Whose coming is in accord with the activity
of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and
with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because
they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For
this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so
that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may
be judged who did not believe the truth but took pleasure in
wickedness.”
Listen,
please. We need to hear this: (Galatians 6:7-8) “Do not be
deceived, God is not mocked; For whatever a man sows, this he will
also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh
reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the
Spirit reap eternal life.”
God
expects holiness from us. Nothing less. And when we fall short of holiness, He
requires our repentance – which means to turn from our sins.
Yes,
we stumble. And fall. A lot. And that is why, in His incomprehensible goodness
and mercy, God gave us His Son as a sacrificial atonement, to be our
substitute, to receive on Himself the Father’s wrath against us for our sins so
that He might reconcile the sinner to Himself.
St
Paul assures the Christian: “For it
was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to
dwell in [Christ] and through Him to reconcile all
things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross;
through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”
(Colossians 1:19-20a)
But
being reconciled with God first requires the sinner to recognize his or
her sins, to confess them to God and repent. No surprise, then, that the Lord Jesus
told us: (Matthew 7:13-14) “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is
wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who
enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads
to life, and there are few who find it.”
God
requires of us a holy lifestyle. It is totally insufficient for salvation to
simply attend church services and give to the poor and perform good works
without living a holy lifestyle in accord with His commandments. God warns us: “Pursue . . . . sanctification,
without which no one will see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12:14)
Again:
“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the
kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor
idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor
thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)
A
holy lifestyle is not God’s suggestion. It is not His recommendation. He
doesn’t say please. He simply says, “Do it.”
If that sounds harsh, I don’t know how else to say it and still say it
truthfully. I know you expect me to tell you the truth as best as I know it. And
oh, by the way, God also requires YOU to tell others the truth about God's word
as best as you know it. Our primary role in this life is NOT to please
others. Our primary and overarching purpose in life is to please our Creator. As
Solomon wrote: The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear
God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person.
For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden,
whether it is good or evil. (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)
But let’s return for a few more minutes to this text in which God tells us His
goodness and mercy shall pursue us all the days of our lives.
The
older I get, the more I realize how LIMITED my remaining time on earth is
becoming. When I first met Christ in 1972, I was in my early 20s. In those days
I measured my expected lifespan in decades. But now, I measure it only in
years. And, oh! How I want so much to be able to say on my last day – as the
apostle Paul said: (2 Timothy 4:7) “I have fought the good fight, I have
finished the course, I have kept the faith.”
I
am certain you also want for yourself the same thing, because you know, even if
it is only intuitively, you know that life is aimless and fruitless without
Christ.
It
was CT Studd who wisely said: “Only one life, ‘twill soon be passed. Only
what’s done for Christ will last.”
Christian:
Unless the Shepherd pursues us, catches up with us, and we LISTEN when He
whispers, “This is the way, walk in it” – then we will come to His Throne empty
handed, with nothing to give Him in return for the many gifts He’s given to us.
Oh
– think on that for a while. Unless we follow His voice, we will come to His
Throne empty handed, with nothing to give Him in return for the many gifts He’s
given to us.
(John
15:5) “I am the vine, you are the branches,” the Lord told His
disciples. “He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for
apart from Me you can do nothing.
Which
now brings us to that last clause of this last verse in this psalm: Surely,
goodness and mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life . . . and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.”
In
one of the earlier messages in this series, I said commentators are divided as
to when David wrote this 23rd psalm. Many believe he did so in his
later years because the psalm seems to be more reflective of his past than
anticipatory of his future. It could be he wrote the psalm as he remembered
when King Saul and his army hunted him. Or he could have been thinking of the
time his son, Absalom, tried to kill him and take his throne.
But
when David wrote this last verse, perhaps he was remembering God's
superabundant mercy toward him after his shameless and arrogant adultery with
Bathsheba and the abhorrent murder of her husband, Uriah.
And
yet, David confidently wrote that he would dwell in the house of the Lord
forever. How could he write that with confidence? Because he believed God's
word through Nathan the prophet, who told the king God had heard his
confession, taken note of his repentance, and had forgiven the king. (see the
story in 2 Samual 12)
David
could confidently write that last verse for the SAME REASON you and I
can confidently recite it, believe it, and cling to it. As I’ve already
said, it is because of God's mercy that He sent Jesus to the cross to receive
on Himself the Father’s wrath for our sins. All of our sins.
So, what is the application of this point? What is the relevance of this piece
of history dating back to King David? Well, it is this:
What
sins have you committed in your life – including the worst you’ve ever done? Are
you grieved because of them? Have you repented of them? Are you living your
life today in such a way as to demonstrate your repentance and disgust
with your past sins?
If
so, then you can be as confident as David was, that God’s goodness and mercy
will chase after you – to guide you, protect you, keep you – despite your
history of sin. And you WILL dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
And to all that we say, Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift.
Amen.
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