Good evening. If you would open
your Bibles back to Psalm 22. Psalm 22. I have been given the advice of
always have something ready. in case that you get called on
to preach at a moment's notice. There have been plenty of times
where I heard something had maybe happened, and the first thing
that thought in my head was, please don't call me. Well, I
had something that I thought would be a message. And as I
went along, I came to the place where it just didn't feel right. I thought that a couple days
ago, I couldn't wait to get to Wednesday night because I needed
to be comforted again. And as I got further into it,
I thought, that's not what this is. So there comes this natural
moment, once that comes, that you think, well, what am I going
to do? So I was getting in my car to go somewhere, and I was
planning on pulling up sermon audio and clicking a message
and hoping that it helped me. But my phone did something different.
I have, in the past few weeks, been listening to Pilgrim's Progress
again, just as I drive. And my phone, on its own, popped
something up. And it was a portion in that
where the pilgrim is going through the valley of the shadow of death.
And that few minutes blessed me. So I backed it up a few minutes
and listened to it again and backed it up a few minutes and
listened to it again until I got where I was going. And so I looked
up the phrase, the shadow of death a few times, and I saw
these, some of these verses. Amos, it says, seek him that
turneth the shadow of death into the morning. In Luke, it's written
to give light to them that sit in darkness and those in the
shadow of death to guide their feet into the way of peace. In
Isaiah, it says, the people that walked in darkness have seen
a great light. They that dwell in the land of
the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. In Matthew,
it says, the people which sat in darkness saw a great light.
And to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, light
is sprung up. The shadow of death is most famous
in Psalm 23, verse 4, where it says, This phrase oftentimes
is meant to be at death's door, at the moment of death. But in
that book I was listening, and in so many other examples in
the Scripture, it's talking about the believer's life. the path
that we live, the life that we live, the journey through this
earth. And the reason it is of death
is because our father Adam died in his sins and brought death
into this world. And death covers everything.
Death is everywhere. Yet, thankfully, the Lord Jesus
Christ died and paid for our sins, and he conquered over death,
which is why it's the shadow of death. It's not actually death. And I'll get more into this in
a minute, but shadows can be a really scary thing. We have
nightlights in our kids' rooms, and they provide light, and they're
awesome, until they also provide a shadow. And there can be light
shining on the ceiling and it's the same light that was always
there, but just the smallest shadow scares us because we don't
know what it is. What's causing that shadow? If
you've ever been outside at nighttime and there's a bright street light,
And all of a sudden, something happens and you quickly turn. What is that? And it's the smallest
little moth that's gone in front of a light. And we jump, scared
that something's going to get us. It can't hurt us at all. And that's what this life is
to the child of God, to the sheep, to the sheep of the shepherd.
It is the shadow of death. Death has no effect. We need
not fear death because our Lord has conquered over death. Yet
we spend this entire life in the shadow of death. Job talks
about it all the time. He kept saying the shadow of
death through his trials. He kept saying it. Yet death
hath no sting because of what our Lord did. And what I want
to do this evening is take a couple minutes I want to look and give
a few more details about what this is, the shadow of death,
and then I want to look through this Psalm 23, these six verses,
and just give us a couple minutes of comfort. Now, we can't look
at Psalm 23 until we understand Psalm 22. We don't know when
David wrote Psalm 23, and Psalm 23 is one of the most famous
passages of Scripture. There are so many people who
can quote that entire chapter that have no idea what it even
means. I could have told you a lot of things in that chapter
and quoted it before I had any clue of what any of it meant.
But it's only effective, it only means something. The Lord is
only your shepherd when you see in Psalm 22, when we understand,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Until we understand
who we are and what the Lord has done, we can't really enter
in. Until the Lord shows us that
he's our shepherd, it doesn't mean anything to us. So for just
a moment, let me give you a quick summary of what happens when
that pilgrim in Pilgrim's Progress enters in and goes through the
valley of the shadow of death. Now remember, that book is an
allegory or a picture or an illustration of the believer's life. In this
short couple minutes, what happens is this pilgrim is trying to
get to the Lord. He's trying to get to Mount Zion.
And he enters into the valley of the shadow of death. And the
first thing he notices is the darkness. There's no light. There's no light in this world.
There's none. And he starts on this journey
and he notices a path, a very narrow path. On either side of
this path is nothing but trouble. There's a ditch on one side that
if you fall in, you can't get out. And there's a mire on the
other side, something sticky that you get stuck in, a bog,
that if you fall in that, you'll never get out. Your feet will
find no comfort. You'll sink like quicksand. And
every time he takes a step, he's worried he's going to fall into
the ditch. And when he worries about that, he's scared he's
going to fall on the other side into the bog. And as he walks
this path through his journeys, he's carrying the sword in one
hand and a shield in the other. And as he goes through this,
it is so dark that he can't even see where he's setting his next
foot. It's so dark that he can't even
see where he's going. And as he's traveling through
this, there are sounds, there's smoke, there's all these things.
And if you notice, all of these things are not things that can
hurt him. Sounds can't hurt us, the things in our mind, none
of these things can hurt us. But as he goes through, all he's
concentrating is trying to make it through this valley. But he
gets to the place where he realizes he's having so much trouble staying
on the path, he has to put away his sword and his shield. As
we travel through this life, we get into a place where we
have enough trials and tribulations that we realize we can't fight
it ourselves. The only thing we can do is hope
the Lord keeps us on the path. And once he puts the shield and
the sword away, he becomes completely dependent upon a much greater
weapon, on prayer to the Lord. With no shield, with no sword,
his only defense is that he can ask the Lord to guide him, to
keep him. Once he puts those away and he
begins to pray, hoping the Lord will guide his steps, he thinks
or realizes he's being chased by someone. He doesn't know who
it is. He doesn't know what's coming
after him. He can just hear them. And he realizes without his sword
and without his shield, he is completely defenseless. And so
he realizes the only thing he can do is shout at the top of
his lungs, I walk in the strength of the Lord, my God. The only
thing we have in this life, the only protection we have is that
the Lord is our strength and we walk in him. Now, we can't
do that. He must put us in Him, and He
must make us to walk with Him. He must make us to walk in Him.
And through all this path, we see that there's a path because
the Lord has already walked it. He has tread the path for us,
and He takes us along the path. He has done everything that we
need to do. And as this pilgrim gets further
along this journey, his thoughts begin to betray him. Though he
knows where he's going, he realizes the Lord's protecting him. He
realizes his mind is wondering. Thoughts come in his mind. Am
I going to make it? Are these going to get me? What's
going to happen? And he realized that when he looks to himself,
when he looks in his own mind, he has no hope. He must look
forward. He must have looked where he's
going to the Lord. In all this darkness ahead, he thinks that
he hears someone else say, though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me.
He hears that voice and it gives him great hope. It makes him
to realize that he is not alone. There are others who are walking
this path. It gives him great hope because he realizes that
only the Lord could make someone say that. And he realizes that
if he could just meet them, he could have a companion in this
journey. The Lord's mercy shows us through our lives. He gives
us companions, brothers, sisters that we might walk with. Not
because we need them for our salvation, but because our feebleness,
our frailty, our lack of faith, we need that comfort. We need
reassurance. We need one another to tell us,
it's okay, rest in the Lord. And once he gets halfway through
this valley of the shadow of death, the light breaks. Light comes over the horizon.
And in that moment, the pilgrim can turn around and see what
he's gone through. And when he looks back and sees
what he's come through, he realizes that there were so many more
dangers, so many more snares, and so many more evils that he
didn't even know existed. And once he sees those, he realizes
that none of those can come back and hurt him because the light
is with him. Now that he has the light, he
has nothing to fear. And once he's looked back and
he turns back to the rest of the journey, he realizes that
what's ahead is much tougher than what's in the past. Because
he can see everything that's coming. And this is a great picture
of the child of God who, once the Lord opens their eyes and
sees who they are, they realize that there's so many more pitfalls
that can stop us. There's so many places we can
fall, we can trip, that can catch us if we're on our own. But he
realizes that looking forward, he can say, the Lord's candle
shineth upon my head and by his light, I go through darkness.
And this journey is finished. All because he has the Lord with
him. That's what we have. Our comfort
has nothing to do with this world, with this darkness, with this
shadow of death. But when the Lord shows us in
verse 1 of Psalm 23, that the Lord is my shepherd. When we
see that the Lord is our shepherd, we realize that he owns us. Our Lord has been given all things.
The shepherd owns the sheep. We are His sheep. We belong to
Him. We understand that we are His by divine decree. He has been highly exalted. He is heir over all things. He
has everything. We see that the Lord is our shepherd
by death. He died, He rose, and revived
that He might be Lord both of the dead and the living. And
we realize the Lord is our shepherd by faith. If thou shalt confess
and believe in thine heart, thou shalt be saved. The Lord is our
shepherd. That first part, the Lord, he
is Lord of lords and king of kings. And that little two-letter
word, is, that's put in by the translators and doesn't have
to be there. It could be the Lord my shepherd. But that is
also shows us that it is a definite thing. The Lord is my shepherd. It's not He was, He will be,
anything. He is my shepherd. And what does it mean that He's
my shepherd? It means that He owns me. God the Father gave
me to him before eternity. He gave me to him and we belong
to him. He owns us. He's our shepherd. What does it mean? He loves us.
He looks out for us. He takes care of us. He's our
shepherd in that he bought me with his blood. He bought us
with his blood. And then he is the great shepherd.
He is the greatest of all shepherds. He is the chief shepherd. He
is above any other shepherd. And he is the good shepherd.
It's not enough that he is the greatest in power and authority,
but he is also the good shepherd in love and grace and mercy to
his sheep. It says, I shall not want. The reason we won't want, the
reason the child of God or the sheep does not want anything
is because the Lord is our shepherd. I am guilty of wanting a lot,
but this phrase, I shall not want, shows us that in this life
or the life to come, the sheep will not want for anything. It
doesn't matter if I'm the weakest sheep, he's my strength. It doesn't
matter if I'm the dumbest sheep, he's our wisdom. It doesn't matter
if I'm the feeblest sheep because he's able. It doesn't matter
if I'm the wanderingest sheep because he takes us along the
path. I may be sick, but he is our physician. I may be sad,
but he is our wellness. But I will not want because I'm
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't want because he is able
to save. We don't want anything because
he's able to keep that which I've committed to him. We don't
want because he is able to present us faultless before the throne.
And we don't want because he is able to raise my vile body
in that day. We don't want because our shepherd
is able. He is able to do all things and
he has done all things in salvation. Look at verse two. He maketh
me to lie down. He maketh us to lie down. There's one thing that we have
to have in order to lie down. We must feel safe. No one ever
lays down unless they feel safe. The Lord Jesus Christ gives us
peace. He causes us to lie down knowing
that there's nothing we can do that he's done it all. So many
people in religion can't lie down because they feel like there's
more to do. We lie down because there's nothing
left to do. We have everything in Him. He
maketh me to lie down in green pastures. This is not something
where He makes us to lie down in an uncomfortable place or
an uncomfortable position or a place we don't want to lie
down. He makes us to lie down in green pastures, pastures of
tender grass. I rest in my mind and soul because
we are fed by his word and assured by his promises. We rest in what
he has done. We lie down knowing that everything
has been finished. He said it's done. It's over.
We can rest in him. And it says he leadeth me beside
the still waters. The waters are still because
he has calmed them. In the shadow of death, the waters
are always churning. It's as Peter, when he looks
at the Lord and he walks out there, and the moment he looks
down and thinks, I can't do this. I can't do it. But the Lord calms
the waters. And that's the only place we
will find any peace in this life, when the Lord calms the waters.
And we don't look at the troubles of this world. We don't look
at the darkness. We look to the Lord Jesus Christ,
the light. If we look at anything apart
from Him, we'll get lost in what we're doing. All we'll see is
darkness. It's a simple thought to say
the Lord is light. But if we don't look at Him,
the rest of everything is darkness. And if we look at Him, we have
light, we have comfort, we have peace, we have rest. Look at
verse 3. He restoreth my soul. The child
of God does not want for redemption or forgiveness. He restoreth
my soul. Our souls needed restoring. We're sin and death, the fall. We have nothing. But the Lord
Jesus Christ made a sacrifice and through his blood, we are
restored. Our soul is restored. In Adam,
we died. In Christ, we live. He restoreth
my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness. I love that it says twice there,
he leadeth me. We are like sheep. We're just
being led. We just follow wherever our shepherd
takes us. When it's time to go, he takes
us. When it's time to stay, he keeps
us there. When it's time to turn, when
it's time to walk, when it's time to run, whatever we do,
it's all because he leadeth. He takes us there. He leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness. The paths of righteousness, we
can't find the paths of righteousness, we couldn't recognize the paths
of righteousness, and we can't walk in the paths of righteousness.
Not only can we not do those things, but we don't even really
understand what righteousness is. In the flesh, we consciously,
we just think that we do things right. How many times do you
hear someone say, he just does the right thing, or I'm glad
you made the right choice, but we don't know what's right or
wrong or anything. We have to be led there. The Lord Jesus Christ leads us
on the paths of righteousness because it is his path. He made
us righteous before God, and he leads us in that path, and
he makes us to love it and to walk in it. And then it ends
for His namesake. Why did He do all this? Why did
He do these things? Why does He make us not to want?
Why does He make us lie down in green pastures? Why does He
lead us beside the still waters? Why does He restore my soul?
Why does He lead me in the path of righteousness? It is for His
namesake. It is so He gets the glory. It is so that we praise His grace
and His mercy. The Lord Jesus Christ gets all
the glory in everything. in our salvation, to know who
we are and what we've done and what's in our hearts, the Lord
Jesus Christ gets all the glory. He's done everything. Look at
verse 4. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death. You know, the only thing we get
credit for in this entire verse is that we walk through the valley
of the shadow of death. That's the only thing we do in
here, and that we walk in our sin and in our death. Yet we're
reminded, as I said earlier, it is just the shadow of death.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is victorious over death, and we need not worry.
Death has no sting. And it says, I will fear no evil. Even, excuse me. It doesn't say there is no evil.
It says, I will fear no evil. There is plenty evil to be had.
In that story, as that pilgrim's going along in the pitch black,
he has no idea what's around him and the threats that face
him. Yet, because of our Lord, because of our shepherd, we don't
have to fear evil. It has no power over us. We don't
fear anything because the Lord Jesus Christ is with us. Where
the sheep are, the shepherd is. The Lord said, Lo, I am with
you always. It says, I will fear no evil,
for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Some people say the rod and the
staff here mean for the correction or the chastisement of his sheep. Well, that's great because we
need to be corrected. We need to be chastened. We need
to be put back on the right path. Some people say that the rod
and the staff is to number the sheep, to keep count of the sheep,
to keep them in order. Well, we need that too. And some
say that the rod and staff are symbols of his sovereignty, symbol
of his direction and his defense. Well, we need his rule. We need
His direction, and we need His defending. It can mean any of
those things. In every example, His rod and
His staff, they comfort us. I find comfort in knowing that
the Lord Jesus Christ has an exact number of sheep, and He
counts them, and He takes account for every single one. I find
comfort in knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ corrects and chastens
His sheep. I love it that if I get out of
line or if I get off the path, the Lord will make me get back
on the path. He will put me on the path. And I find great comfort
in knowing that He rules over me, He directs me, and He defends
me. I need all of those things. Verse
5, it says, Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of
mine enemies. The Lord Jesus Christ prepare
us a table. He prepares the whole table.
He provides everything. He provides the food, the plates,
the silverware. He provides the table. He provides
the room for the table. He provides the place to sit.
He provides everything. And he does so even in the presence
of mine enemies. Even in the presence of those
that scare us the most. Our shepherd supplies all our
needs. We have enemies. We could not
be like our Lord without enemies. Our enemies are the world, of
our flesh, and the devil, but he fully sets the table, and
we lack absolutely nothing. In this meal before our enemies,
there's no rushing, there's no hurry, there's no confusion,
there's nothing to be brought by us. Everything is laid out,
everything is taken in time, And we sit down and feast with
our Lord as if our enemies are not even there, as if they do
not even exist. It says, Thou anointest my head
with oil and my cup runneth over. I've always loved the phrase
that my cup runneth over. The illustration that everything
that we can hold, everything that's in a glass that we need
for sustenance, the Lord provides so much that it just continuously
overflows. That we could drink as fast as
we could possibly drink, and the moment we pulled the glass
away, it was still overflowing. We could not ever get, not just,
we could not get to the bottom of the glass, we can't even get
to the top of the glass. And I heard someone say that
your glass, our glasses, every man and woman and child's glass
is either empty or it's overflowing. Because the only thing that provides
sustenance, the only thing that provides satisfaction is the
Lord Jesus Christ. And if you don't have him, your
cup is completely dry. But if you have him, your cup
overflows at all times, because he is the only thing that can
fill the cup. And look in verse six, surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me. I shall not want for anything
in this life or the next, surely goodness and mercy. Our Lord
provides everything for us and he pays for everything that had
to be paid for. And it says it will follow me
all the days of my life. No matter where I go, no matter
where the path takes me, no matter how many steps I have, the Lord
Jesus Christ will always, always follow me. And then finally,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. This life is a shadow of death
and sin reigns over us in everything that we do. But the comfort we
find through these verses all culminate in the last phrase
that says, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. We
will be with him. We have nothing to want, nothing
to need. This is neither, and by saying
this, and by looking at this verse, or this chapter, and saying
these things, and saying us and we, this is not presumption,
and it's not a claim to personal worth or merit. But saying this
verse, and believing this in confidence, it is faith and confidence
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one. He is the Great
Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd, and the Good Shepherd. He is
the one we find our comfort. In this chapter, we're reminded
that the Lord Jesus Christ does it all for us. As dumb, simple,
weak-minded sheep were completely dependent upon the shepherd.
And how great it is to know that we have the great shepherd, the
true and one shepherd, the chief shepherd, the one who rules over
all, and the good shepherd, the shepherd that loves his sheep.
That all he does, he said, I must be about my father's business,
that all he does is for the good of his sheep. to think that that's
who we have watching over us should provide us with just comfort
that overflows for all our days. All right.