Let us turn again to the Word
of God and to the first psalm that we read, Psalm 48, and especially
the closing words of the psalm, in verse 14. In Psalm 48, and the last verse
of the psalm, for this God is our God, forever and ever. He will be our guide even unto
death. Psalm 48 verse 14, for this God
is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even unto
death. And it's a wonderful confidence
that the psalmist speaks with at the end of this psalm, isn't
it? This God is our God. This God and look at the sight
that he's had of this God and the way that he sees this God
throughout this psalm. He speaks of him as a great God
in verse 1. Great is the Lord and greatly
to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his
holiness. Again at verse 2 he speaks of him as the great king. He speaks of him in verse 3 as
a refuge God is known in her palaces for a refuge. He speaks of Him, in verse 9,
as one that is full of loving-kindness. We have thought of Thy loving-kindness,
O God, in the midst of Thy temple. He has seen Him as a God of righteousness.
In verse 10, Thy right hand is full of righteousness, a great
God. a loving, kind God, a righteous
God, a God who is the refuge of his people. And so he says,
this God is our God. Well, is that your confidence? Could you come with this same
wonderful confidence as we contemplate this God together this morning? If you see him as a psalmist
saw him, If you realise Him to be a great God, to be a God that
is full of loving kindness, to see Him as a God that is full
of righteousness and to know Him as a God who is a refuge,
then you will trust in Him as the psalmist does. And to those
who trust in Him, He gives this wonderful confidence. This God
is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even unto
death. And yet in the midst of this
wonderful confession, this wonderful confidence that the Samist shows
here, there is a reminder of the fact of death, isn't there?
The Samist doesn't shrink away from it, and we know that we
often do that. There's not many of us that like
thinking about death, or contemplating death, or considering the fact
that one day we will die. But the Samist here, he not only
speaks of it, but he seems to be comfortable contemplating
his death. He seems to be not only resigned
to it, but comfortable speaking of it. And that's a very rare
attitude, isn't it, today? And if we're honest, it's a rare
attitude for us sometimes. When we look out into the world
today, what kind of attitude do people have to death? Well,
there are those who think it will just never happen. They
can't imagine a world without them in it. And so they imagine
almost that they will live forever. I remember reading recently on
the news a man who had recovered from COVID and he'd had a bad
time with it. But it seemed very sad to me
that what he said when he came out of hospital was he said,
well, if COVID doesn't kill me, then nothing will. as if he really
believed that he was now going to live forever. There are those
who just close their eyes to the possibility of death and
imagine that it is something that happens to other people,
but not to them. Then there are those who accept
that they will die, but they just imagine, based on a vain
confidence really, that everything will be well at the end. They
imagine that no matter what kind of life they have lived, no matter
what kind of sins they may have committed, no matter what kind
of mistakes they may have made, they think that God is merciful
and that therefore they needn't be concerned about death. And
they ignore the fact that the Lord Jesus spoke not only of
heaven but also of hell, not only of those who are saved but
also of those who are eternally lost. And of course there are those
who may accept that they one day will die, and who may accept
the existence of hell, but what they deny is that there is any
hurry. They imagine that their death
is a long way off. They're like those who we read
of in the days of Jeremiah. And you remember how Jeremiah
had to speak of judgment that was to come, and of the destruction
of Jerusalem that was coming. But there were those that said
of his prophecies that he was speaking about things that would
happen a long way in the future. And so they said, well, we needn't
be concerned about these things. And there are those who think
of death in the same way. And they say, well, one day I'll
worry about death, but not yet. Well, the psalmist, as I say,
he seems comfortable talking about death. He will be our guide,
he says, of this God, even unto death. He doesn't shrink away
from it. He doesn't deny the fact of it. But he speaks of
it in a way that suggests he is comfortable with it. But he
does confess the need of a guide, doesn't he? There's no self-confidence
here. He's not like one of those people
who say, well, yes, of course, one day I'll die, but I can manage
it. The Samist here confesses that he needs a guide even unto
death for every step, for every moment, for every breath. And this is a comfort to him,
isn't it? There would be no joy in this confession if he didn't
feel a need of a guide. And there will be no joy in this
confession for you if you feel no need of a guide even unto
death. If you think that you can manage
to get to that point yourself, and that you don't need any help
or any guidance or any provision. Well, this confidence, this promise,
it won't hold any attraction for you. But the Samist rejoices
in this, doesn't he? He will be our guide. He will
be our guide, even unto death. The focus throughout the psalm
is very much upon God, isn't it? The Samist does not talk
so much about himself, but he speaks mainly of God. He speaks
of, as I've said, the greatness of God, the holiness of God,
the refuge that God is, the power of God against the enemies of
his people, the loving kindness of God, the
righteousness of God. The psalmist is very much focused
on God and the character of God and the attributes of God. And
this God, says the psalmist, is our God. He will be our guide
even unto death. That emphasis is very, very important,
isn't it? Very important when we come to
the Lord in our prayers, very important when we read these
psalms and when we perhaps take up these psalms for ourselves,
that we get that emphasis the right way round. I remember reading
a few years ago of a woman who was a head teacher in a school.
And she was a Christian lady and being the head teacher she
had to often speak to the whole school in assemblies. And she
found the thought terrifying. She really shrank from those
occasions when she had to stand up there and everybody was looking
at her. And she thought maybe it will
help if I recite to myself the 23rd Psalm before I go out there
and talk to them. And so she did that for a time. But she recited it like this.
She would say in her mind, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. And she did this for a time and
she found it wasn't really helping her. And she went to talk to
her pastor, I think it was, and he noticed that there was an
imbalance in the way that she was using the psalm. And he taught
her instead to read it like this, the Lord is my shepherd. To focus
not so much on herself as the one who was being guided, but
to focus on the Lord who was the one doing the guiding. The
Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie
down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul. And when
she lifted her eyes higher and when she contemplated the nature
of the God that was leading and guiding her, she found that to
be a great help. Well, we see, as I say, the same
emphasis here. This God is our God forever and
ever. He will be our guide even unto
death. It's a psalm of praise, isn't
it? Before we come to the words in
particular. We see the psalmist full of praise
for God. He speaks of the greatness of
the Lord, how greatly he is to be praised. And he speaks of his care for
his church, doesn't he? Mount Zion. What is Mount Zion? Well, Mount Zion is just another
name for the city of Jerusalem. And if you're familiar with the
history, you'll know that Jerusalem was very much a central city
in Israel, wasn't it? It was very central in the whole
Jewish religion, really. Mount Zion. He speaks of the
city as being beautiful for situation. The joy of the whole earth. the
most beautiful city, the most prominent city, the most privileged
city, the most blessed city. Beautiful for situation, the
joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north,
the city of the great king. And why is Jerusalem such a great
city, such a beautiful city? Well, because it's the city of
God. And he uses that phrase, doesn't he, more than once in
the psalm. The city of our God, he says in verse 1. And then
again in verse eight, he says, the city of the Lord of hosts,
and again, the city of our God. It was the city of God, it was
the city where God was, it was the city that God protected,
the city that God blessed. That's why it was a beautiful
city. That's why the psalmist delighted in Mount Zion. It was a city that he protected.
We read about that in verses four to seven, don't we? The
kings were assembled, they passed by together. He's talking about
those nations that came against Jerusalem in war and how they
found it to be a city protected by God. They marveled and they
were troubled and they hasted away and fear took hold upon
them there. The ships of Tarshish broken with an east wind. He
speaks at the end of the Psalm of the Towers, doesn't he? and
the bulwarks and the palaces, those things that were protecting
the city under the hand of God, the city of the Lord of hosts,
the city of the great king. And in the middle of the psalm
we have this reference to the temple, don't we? In verse 9,
we have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple. And it was really that temple
that gave Jerusalem its special nature to the psalmist and to
the Jews in general. It wouldn't have been Jerusalem
without the temple in it. But here we have the temple in
the midst of Jerusalem and why is the psalmist so keen to talk
about the temple. Well, it's not so much the bricks
and mortar, is it? But it's the promise of God that's
attached to that temple. It was the place where God promised
to meet with his people, wasn't it? You remember how God, when
he instructed Moses to make the ark and the other pieces of furniture
for the tabernacle in the wilderness? He gave Moses that promise concerning
the ark, the first piece of furniture that was made. And he said of
that ark, there I will meet with thee and I will commune with
thee from above the mercy seat which is upon the ark. There I will meet with thee and
I will commune with thee there of all things which I will give
thee in commandment unto the children of Israel. And that
promise endured. It was the promise that Solomon
had to plead when he built the temple. It was the promise that
Jonah had to plead when he was in the belly of the whale. He
says, I will look again unto thy holy temple, because there
God's promise was. God's promise of blessing, God's
promise of meeting. That was what made Jerusalem
so special, so beautiful. And of course it represents the
church, doesn't it? Jerusalem, when we read of Jerusalem in
the Old Testament, it speaks to us of the church in the New
Testament. It's a picture of the church. It's a figure of
the church. Because the church today is the
place that is associated with God's promise. God's promise today is not so
much associated with a physical place, And the hymn writer says,
we don't have to go to a physical place to worship God. We don't
have to gather in one place like the Jews did, as they gathered
in Jerusalem on those three great feasts every year. But the hymn
writer says, where'er thy saints assemble now, there is a house
for God. And that's true, isn't it? Just
as the promise of God was attached to that physical ark in the Old
Testament days, So in these New Testament days, we have God's
promise through Christ, which is attached not to a physical
building, but to the gathering of his saints. And it's a promise
we plead in our prayers, I'm sure, all of us frequently. If we are concerned to know God's
presence, we have to plead God's promise, don't we? Through Jesus
Christ, when he said, where two or three are gathered together
in my name, There am I in the midst, where two or three are
gathered together. It doesn't have to be in a particular building.
It doesn't have to be in a particular place. But wherever there is
that gathering, in the name of Christ, for the worship of Christ,
seeking the honour and glory of Christ, around the word of
Christ, desiring to hear the voice of Christ, Jesus says,
there am I in the midst. And notice the language that
he uses there. He doesn't just say where two
or three gather together, but he says where two or three are
gathered together. It's something that happens to
them. Where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. And it's
that promise, as I say, that we have to plead as we come together
for worship week by week. It's a psalm of praise, and it's
a psalm that's full of confidence. And as we come to the end of
the psalm, we see that confidence, don't we? This God, this great
God, this holy God, this great king, this refuge, the Lord of
hosts, this one who establishes the city, this one who is so
loving and so kind, this one who is to be praised, this one
whose right hand is full of righteousness, This God is our God, says the
psalmist, forever and ever. He will be our guide even unto
death. Really, it's that last part of
this verse that struck me earlier in the week. He will be our guide
even unto death. What is associated with this
word guide? What does it mean? What is the
psalmist expecting God to do for him and for his people? He will be our guide even unto
death. That is the promise of God to those that put their trust
in him. In an earlier psalm, in Psalm
32, we have those people spoken of. It's a psalm of David, and
he speaks of the blessedness of the man whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered, unto whom the Lord imputeth not
iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. And he speaks
of his own sin, David does, in that 32nd psalm. He speaks of
having to acknowledge his sin unto God, confessing his iniquity,
not hiding it, confessing his transgressions unto the Lord.
And he says that when I did that, when I acknowledged my sin, when
I didn't hide my iniquity, when I confessed my transgressions,
he says, thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. And he says this is
the common experience of all the people of God. This is not
just me, he says, but he says, for this shall everyone that
is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found. This
is the mark of the godly man, says David. They do these same
things. They acknowledge their sin. They
don't try and hide their iniquity from God. They confess their
transgressions. For this shall everyone that
is godly pray unto thee. And again, it's an opportunity
for us to test our own attitude towards our sins, isn't it? And
to examine our own attitude towards God. Do we come in that way when
we come to him in prayer? Do we acknowledge our sin? Do
we hide our iniquity? Do we confess our transgressions?
Very easy sometimes to do the opposite, isn't it? And to blame
other people for our sin and to say, well, I did that, but
it wasn't my fault. It was so-and-so, or it was because of the circumstances,
or I couldn't help it. But David has got beyond that,
hasn't he? He acknowledges his sin. He doesn't
hide his iniquity. He confesses his transgression,
and he finds God to be a forgiving God, a place of refuge. Thou art my hiding place, he
says. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass
me about with songs of deliverance. He puts his trust in God. And
then in verse 8 of that psalm we have God speaking in reply
to him and making this promise to him. As one who has put his
confidence in him, he says, I will instruct thee. I will instruct
thee and teach thee in the way that thou shalt go. I will guide
thee with mine eye. If you want to know God's instruction,
if you want to know his teaching, if you want to be guided with
his eye, well, there is no way to know that without coming in
confession. without taking refuge in him. But to those who do, he promises
instruction, he promises guidance. To those who find him to be a
place of refuge, he says, I will guide thee with mine eye. And
it's the same word as we have here, he will be our guide even
unto death. Well, as I say, what is associated
with this guidance? What kind of guidance is it?
Well, it's a word that is often used to describe the relationship
between a shepherd and his sheep. We have the same word back in
Exodus chapter three when we have the account of Moses keeping
the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, and we're told that he led the
flock to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain
of God, even to Horeb. He led the flock, he guided the
flock, He did the same things for that flock as the psalmist
hopes that God will do for him and believes that God will do
for him. He will be our guide. He will
be our leader. He will be our shepherd even unto death. Again, just a few psalms later
on in Psalm 78, we have the same word used. And it's a wonderful
promise that God It's a wonderful thing that he speaks of. He's
describing, the psalmist is describing the way that God brought the
Israelites out of Egypt. And he says he made his own people
to go forth like sheep and guided them. And guided them in the
wilderness like a flock and he led them on safely so that they
feared not. He guided them, he led them.
This is the Samhists' hope. This is the Samhists' confidence. This God is our God forever and
ever. He will be our guide even unto death. And there are two
things really that are associated with this guidance. Two things
that are linked together. Two things that you see very
clearly when we think of a shepherd and his sheep. And the first
thing is he leads them. You know how it was with shepherds
and their sheep in those days. It's not quite the same today
perhaps. Nowadays you tend to see sheep
and they're just put into a field and they're left there and the
field is fenced so that they can't escape and they can't put
themselves into danger. But you know in the days of the
Samis and in the days that we're reading about here, It was very
different. And the shepherd would not just
take his sheep to a field and then leave them, but he would
lead them from place to place. And we have that described to us, don't we, in
the teaching of Christ when he spoke of himself as the good
shepherd? What did he speak of as the work
of the shepherd? Well, he says the shepherd in
the morning, he comes to the sheepfold and that's where the
sheep have been kept overnight. and the porter opens the door
and the shepherd then calls his own sheep by name and they hear
his voice and they recognise his voice. And so they come to
him and he says, when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth
before them and the sheep follow him. That's the kind of relationship
that the shepherd had with his sheep in those days. He didn't
just take the sheep and put them in a field and leave them there
constantly. But they were in a fold overnight and in the morning
he would come and call them out and lead them forth and he would
lead them to food. He will be our guide even unto
death. Well this is the first thing then that the psalmist
is confident that God will do for him and for the people of
God. He will guide. He will lead them. And we can think of a number
of ways in which God does that. You can think of it firstly in
Providence, just in the day-to-day lives of his people. Even before
they know him, he leads them. Even before they come to faith
in him, he leads them. From the very moment of their
conception, he leads them. The hymn writer says, sovereign
ruler of the skies, ever gracious, ever wise, all my times are in
thy hands. all events at thy command. Not
just some events, not just some times, but all my times and all
events. From the very moment of birth,
even through until the moment of death, he rules over all events. And you can think of countless
illustrations of that, can't you? From the Bible and from
your own experience. And from those that you have
read of in church history. You can think of a man like Joseph,
He was mentioned in the second psalm that we read, wasn't he?
In Psalm 105. We read about that time when
there was a famine in Egypt and across the whole region. He called
for a famine upon the land, says the psalmist. But what did he
do? He made provision for his people by sending Joseph before
them. And you think of the life of
Joseph, and isn't there an illustration of the way in which God leads
his people in providence? and we all know the account,
perhaps we can remember being taught it when we were children
about Joseph and his father and his brothers and him being his
father's favourite and the coat of many colours that his father
made for him and how his brothers are full of enmity and sell him
into slavery and he goes down into Egypt and there he is in
prison, accused of a crime that he had not committed and then
Remarkably lifted up in one day. And again, we read about that,
didn't we? He was sold for a servant. His feet were hurt with fetters.
He was laid in iron. Until the time that his word
came. The word of the Lord tried him. That surely is a reference
to the dreams that he had had. When he saw those two dreams
that represented his father and his brothers bowing down to him.
And I'm sure he remembered those dreams when he was there in the
prison, and perhaps he thought to himself, well, it doesn't
seem very likely now. I'm all the way over here in
Egypt, and I'm in a dungeon, and there are free men over there
in the land of Canaan. It doesn't look very likely that
they'll come and bow down to me. And yet, as we see God's
providence proceeding and unfolding, he comes to be the second in
command of Egypt, doesn't he? The king sent and loosed him,
even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. He made
him lord of his house and ruler of all his substance. And, of
course, we know the outcome, how his brothers come to buy
bread and they fall down before him, just as his dreams had spoken
of. God led him in providence from
the moment of his birth until he came to that place that he
was intended for. And then Moses, you can also
think of in the same way. And he's spoken of also in that
105th Psalm, isn't he? When the children of Israel are
there and they're persecuted in Egypt and kept in slavery,
we read this, he sent Moses, his servant. And you can think
of the remarkable birth and childhood and the way in which Moses was
brought up by Pharaoh's daughter. And it was all for a purpose,
wasn't it? All those experiences that Moses
had, they were all part of that preparatory work, weren't they?
That would bring him to be the kind of man that could stand
before Pharaoh with confidence and say, let my people go. No
doubt his relationship with Pharaoh's daughter, it was used of God
to teach him. We read about it, don't we? about how Moses was learned in
all the wisdom of the Egyptians because he'd been brought up
by Pharaoh's daughter. And he knew the kinds of things that
the Egyptians would think. He knew how their minds worked.
He was the very man, the right man, to bring the children of
Israel out of Egypt. He sent Moses his servant. And that seemingly insignificant
decision of his mother to make that ark of bulrushes and to
lay him on the river Nile, and how it all led to him becoming
part of Pharaoh's family, almost Pharaoh's grandson by adoption.
We see God's leading in Providence. You can think of Paul in the
New Testament and what a man Paul was. You read through his
epistles, you see his wisdom. You see his unstoppable logic. Where did he learn these things?
He learnt it at the feet of Gamaliel. He was brought up amongst the
Pharisees. He knew what kinds of things
the Pharisees would think. And no doubt it all contributed
to his ability to teach and to preach. In Providence, God leads
his people. He leads them from the very moment
of their birth even unto death. This God is our God forever and
ever. He will be our guide even unto death. But then you can
think of how he leads them to Christ. How he leads them to know Christ
as the place of refuge. This is all part of his guidance.
This is all part of what he does for his people. He doesn't just
lead them in providence, but let them find their own way to
Christ if they want to, though he guides them to him. Didn't
Jesus himself say, no man can come unto me except the Father
draw him. He will be our guide. And as
he draws them to Christ, they assemble. They assemble. It's so remarkable, isn't it,
when you read through some of those New Testament epistles,
especially you can think of the epistle to the Ephesians, and
you can see how Paul there in his teaching, he speaks of that
assembly, how there is that gathering together. He speaks of the work
of Christ. He is our peace, he said, who has made both one.
There is a gathering together unto Christ. Just as it was prophesied
way back in the Old Testament, the gathering of the people shall
be unto him. And that was true in Ephesus. And so Paul can speak
to those Ephesian Christians and he can say of them, even
when we were dead in sins, God has quickened us together with
Christ and has raised us up together and made us sit together. It's
all together. And he speaks of them as a temple,
doesn't he? Now they've been brought together
and fitly framed together. They were growing unto a holy
temple in the Lord, one temple, because they were being gathered
to one Christ, to one Saviour. This God is our God forever and
ever. He will be our guide even unto death. And he guides his
people to Christ and brings them to Christ. And then you can think of his
guidance after that moment. He doesn't just put his people
in Christ and then leave them there. He doesn't just say to
them, well, now you're Christians, you can manage. But He guides
them even unto death. He gives them His Spirit, that
Spirit that Jesus promised to His disciples when He was going
to leave them. He said, I won't leave you comfortless.
I will come to you. And He speaks of sending His
Spirit to guide and to direct. He will be our guide even unto
death. When the Christian comes to be a Christian, that's not
the end of God's guidance. That's not the end of their pathway.
It's really the beginning. He will be our guide even unto
death. He leads them. That's the first
thing he does for them. Has he done this for you? Has
he brought you to Christ? Are you conscious of his guidance? Are you attracted to Christ?
Do you feel that drawing? It's all the work of God. He
will be our guide even unto death. But then secondly, coupled with
this guidance, He feeds them. And again, you can think of the
work of the shepherd. Why is it that the shepherd comes and
takes the sheep out of the fold and leads them? Well, he needs
to do that to bring them to the place where they can eat. We
have those two things coupled together in Psalm 23, don't we?
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. Why does the shepherd
make the sheep lie down in green pastures? Well, it's not just
so that they can rest there, but it's so that they can eat.
He leadeth me beside the still waters. Why does he lead them
beside the still waters? Well, so that they can drink. This is what the shepherd does
for his sheep, and this is what God does for his people. He feeds
them. How does he feed them? He feeds
them through his word. That was the answer of Jesus
to the devil when he was tempted, wasn't he? When the tempter said
to him, if you're the son of God, why don't you make these
stones into bread? And Jesus said, well no, man
doesn't live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. A Christian is to feed upon the
word of God, to find nourishment from the word of God. And of
course, not only from the word of God written, but the word
of God incarnate. When we talk about the Word of
God, we sometimes mean the Bible, as in the words that we have
here in this book in front of us. You know, we can also use
the word to speak of Christ. He is the Word of God. You remember
how John makes that very clear at the beginning of his gospel?
In the beginning, he says, was the Word and the Word was with
God and the Word was God. And then later on in that first
chapter, he speaks of the Word being made flesh. The Word was
made flesh and dwelt among us. He's talking about Jesus. He
is the Word. He is a living Word. And this is part of the way in
which God guides his people. He gives them to feed upon Christ.
He gives them to know what Jesus himself spoke of in John's Gospel,
chapter 6, rather, when he speaks of himself, I am the living bread.
I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man
eat of this bread, he shall live forever. He guides them and he
leads them to Christ. And as they come to him, they
feed upon him and they find him to be living bread. No wonder
the psalmist says what he says in another psalm. He says, taste
and see that the Lord is good. The psalmist himself had tasted
it. He wants others also to taste of it. He will be our guide even
unto death. He guides through his word. He
guides by giving Christ. This is the work of a pastor,
isn't it? You remember the promise of Jeremiah
to his people when he speaks of giving his people pastors,
the wonderful gift to have a pastor. But this is the work of a pastor,
says God, I will give you pastors according to my heart which shall
feed you, which shall feed you. And you know that word feed,
it really has the same idea, it's the kind of feeding that
a shepherd does for his sheep. And that's important, isn't it? The pastor feeds not by manufacturing
food to give to the sheep, but by leading them to the food that's
there already. He would be our guide even unto
death. He feeds through his word. He feeds through the preaching
of his word. And we have a wonderful illustration
of this. Just before we close, I read
that Psalm 105, and you may have noticed at the end of that Psalm,
We have a record of the way in which God provided for the Jews
in the wilderness and of how much he did for them. And there
again we have these two aspects of his provision, of his guidance. We read of them departing in
verse 38. And then in verse 39, we read
this, that God spread a cloud for a covering and fire to give
light in the night. Well, that is a reference to
the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, isn't it? And you remember
how the Israelites in the wilderness, they really didn't have much
of a clue which direction to go in. Not many of them would
have ever been that way, if any of them. They'd been 400 years
in Egypt, hadn't they? And not one of them would have
remembered, really, the best way to get back. And so they
had to be led, they had to be guided. And God gave them this
pillar of cloud and this pillar of fire so that they could follow. And
when the pillar of cloud and fire stopped, they pitched their
tents and they camped. And when it moved on, they moved
on with it. And all through those 40 years,
it led them It's a wonderful illustration
of this truth, isn't it? He will be our guide even unto
death. It wasn't just guidance now and again. It wasn't just
guidance at the beginning. It wasn't just a signpost when
they came out of Egypt that said, well, go in that direction. But
it was a living sign and a constant source of guidance. He spread
a cloud for a covering and fire to give light in the night. He
led them, but he also fed them. And we read about that in this
psalm, don't we? He opened a rock and the waters gushed out. The
people asked and he brought quails and satisfied them with the bread
of heaven, with the bread of heaven. And we noticed that last
time I was here, I think, the manor and how it fell every morning,
even when they had sinned the day before. He would be our guide
even unto death. And all through those 40 years,
there was direction and there was provision, there was food. And there was guidance despite
their sin. And they came as a people to
the promised land at last. What is that a picture of? Well,
it's a picture of death, isn't it? The River Jordan, the way
they crossed it. The waters divided. It was a
picture of the Christian passing through the waters of death.
And they were led and they were guided right to the brink of
that river. He will be our guide even unto
death, just as he was the guide of the Israelites all through
their wilderness journey. He is able to do it. The psalmist
is confident of it, isn't he? There's no doubt in his mind.
This God is our God. He will be our guide. He doesn't
say he may be. He doesn't say I hope he will
be. He speaks with assurance, this God is our God forever and
ever. He will be our guide even unto death. All the way to the
promised land. What comfort it must have been
for the psalmist to have been able to look back on that experience
that the children of Israel had in the wilderness. How he must
have encouraged himself as he looked back upon the way that
God led them there. And he could think to himself, well God is
able to do this. God is able to bring me through
the wilderness of this world, even unto death, just as he brought
those children of Israel through that wilderness that they travelled
through, right to the land of Canaan. This God is our God forever
and ever. He will be our guide even unto
death. For, the word says at the beginning
of this verse. What's the psalmist just been
talking about? He's been talking about the defences of Zion, hasn't
he? Walk about Zion, he says. Go round about her. Tell the
towers thereof. That means count them. Notice
how many there are. Mark ye well her bulwarks, those
strong walls that defended Zion. Consider her palaces, all these
things that God has provided for the protection of his people.
And you can think about them in a New Testament sense. What
are those things that God has provided for the protection of
his people? Well, you can think of his word. You can think of
the means of grace. You can think of the armour of
God that he's provided for them to put on. The loins girt about with truth
and so on. Paul gives us a whole list, doesn't he, at the end
of the epistle to the Ephesians. These are the things that God
gives to defend his people. and we are encouraged to walk
about, to look at them, to mark them well, for this purpose that
we may tell it to the generation following, that others might
know what the Samis know, that others might see the beauty of
Zion, the protection of Zion, that Zion is defended by this
great Lord, by this great King, by this God of loving kindness
and righteousness. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider
her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our God for ever
and ever. He will be our guide even unto death, even unto death. And you know, if death is represented
by the land of Canaan, then what do you think our attitude
ought to be as Christians to death? Well, you can think of
the attitude that those Israelites would have had to that promised
land. You know, they wouldn't have said, they wouldn't have
shrunk from going into that promised land, wouldn't they? At least
not those among them who were believing. But they would have
looked forward to it. And if you had said to them,
What do you feel about that promised land? Well, they would have said,
that's where we're going. That's where we're heading for.
That's the whole point of this journey to come there. We sing about it in that second
hymn, how the hymn writer speaks of that confidence and of that
joy as he contemplates the promised land that he saw by faith. He speaks again of of God's guidance. He knows God as one that rules
on high, as one that thunders when he pleases, that rides upon
the stormy sky and manages the seas. And he says, this awful
God is ours, our Father and our love. He shall send down his
heavenly powers to carry us above. And as he contemplates that glorious
kingdom, how does he describe it? He says, there shall we see
his face and never, never sin. there from the rivers of his
grace drink endless pleasures in. And we see the church, don't
we, at the end of the, in the book of Revelation, when John
has that vision of them gathered above. And they are gathered
above. They're gathered around the throne before the Lamb. And what are they doing there?
Well, they are before the throne of God. They're serving him day
and night. He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among
them, no hunger, no thirst, Why is there no hunger? Why is there
no thirst? Because of the lamb. Because the lamb leads them and
feeds them. The lamb which is in the midst
of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living
fountains of waters and God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes. What a prospect for the people
of God. What a prospect for those who
have found him to be a place of refuge, for those like the
psalmist here who can speak of his greatness. and of His righteousness
and of His loving kindness. For those who know Him as the
Samis knew Him, for those who know Him as those in the earlier
Psalm who put their trust in Him, what a prospect. This God is our God forever and
ever. He will be our guide even unto death, even unto death. Great is the Lord, and greatly
to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His
holiness. The psalmist, he's overflowing with praise, isn't
he? According to thy name, O God,
so is thy praise. And we know how great the name
of God is. Well, says the psalmist, thy
praise is as great as thy name, unto the ends of the earth. How
extensive, how sufficient. Thy right hand is full of righteousness. No wonder he says in verse 11,
let Mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad because
of thy judgments. And so we can say today, are
we not called upon to be a rejoicing people? How Paul encourages in his epistles
that spirit of rejoicing. Rejoice in the Lord always, he
says, and again I say, rejoice. And the psalmist is doing just
that here, isn't he? And he does that as he contemplates
the character of God, the person of God, the being of God. And not only God as he sees him,
but God as he knows him, as his God. This God is our God forever
and ever. He will be our guide even unto
death, or may that be our privilege, our prospect, our confident.
and our experience. This God is our God forever and
ever. He will be our guide even unto death. Amen.