Psalm 23, we're going to read the whole thing. But there's a in verse 6, it says, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me. And there's a there's a hymn in there written by the guy who compiled the hymn book we we use. And that Psalm 23 was the basis for it. And the psalm you read, Bruce, right just before this. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That's the refrain. But he does a very good job of pulling in Psalm 23, and it mixes both of those together. But this is one of the most, I guess for lack of a better word, famous psalms that David wrote. Most people know its verses. When you hear it, you remember. And when I was preparing, I saw this and I did remember it, but then I saw more than I had remembered before. So let's just go through the whole thing here first and we'll get to the points I have.

Verse one, it says, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. And that word means lack, but he makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. And yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will 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 anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over. And surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Now what struck me, I guess the first thought I had when I read this again When I was a child, sometimes dad would be in his church study, and I would go in there because there's a lot of cool things. He had a big, to me, it was just a giant desk, solid wood, and a bunch of things up on the walls and everywhere else. He just had knick-knacks all over. One time I was in there, he was studying, and I was just trying to entertain myself without bugging him. And so I started looking at all the things that were in the room, and I remember seeing this one wall decoration up there, and it actually had this first verse of Psalm 23.

So there it was, and I can't remember if it was a painting or what, but it said, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. And my young brain read that as, the Lord is my shepherd, who I shall not want. And immediately, I didn't know what to make of that. That made no sense. Why would a preacher own that decoration and let alone put it in his study? So in my brain, I was very confused. At this point, as a child and a preacher's kid, you aren't listening very actively during church anyway.

But I knew this, the Lord was someone that you did want on your side. I had that much. So this, I had to do something. Immediately I did interrupt my dad from his studying and I had to ask, why would anybody write this. And so he, of course, told me that the word want just means lack.

I shall not lack. I shall not lack. Or what the writer was saying, because the Lord is my shepherd, I don't lack anything. I do not lack anything. And to put it in a more positive way, because the Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I could need or want. All that I could have, all that I could need or want.

I'll move away from what my brain thought of what I needed and wanted, but to us, to us, what does it mean to have everything that you want, that you want? I'll tell you what it does not mean. It doesn't mean that you have everything that you think you want or need.

And that's important. What you think you want to need. It means that if you can repeat this verse as David has, it means that you have everything that the Lord knows you need. The fact that a believer has Christ Jesus is enough for him, which satisfies both his need and his want, his desire. It's one thing to need something and not want it, right?

Someone may tell you, pick a problem, and you don't want to confront that problem. And somebody you know says, hey, you need this. You've got a problem. You need this to fix that problem. And you can say it. You don't want it. But in this verse, the Lord being your shepherd, if you're a believer, you know you need it. And you want it. You desire this.

Now we know that we need water. Let's just pick one, right? We know we need water. And a person will soon die if he doesn't drink water, but have you ever been so thirsty for a drink of water that it became the thing that you desperately needed to have just right away?

Just right away. Now, pick on myself a little bit again. When I was, I think, about 19, I was doing this. It was a paid internship at a local mechanics shop in the middle of summer. And I know everybody thinks that Iowa's cold all year round. It gets real hot, too.

There was no air conditioning in this shop, which is typical. put the AC on in those. So the garage doors were open to let the air in, but the only problem was there was no air. And the air, and there was just no movement, no wind, and it was sticky. Like the air was just sticky, it was that bad. And I was wrenching on some car when I suddenly just, I got very thirsty.

And this shop had a little water cooler in it. So it would keep the water better than room temperature. It would keep it cooler than that. And I ran over there and filled up one of those little cups and I just took it down in two gulps. And I filled it back up again. I needed more. And I downed that one and I went back for a third and kept going and my boss saw me. And he said, hey, slow down. Slow down. I'm like, what? Why? I'm obviously just dying over here.

He said, when you're hot and you're thirsty, don't get the cool water. Don't get the cool water because you won't be able to get enough of it and it'll make you sick. You drink too much too fast, you'll get sick. But I'll say this to the brethren. The satisfaction that cool water brings on a hot day is just a fraction of the satisfaction we feel upon hearing about our Lord and Savior. If you can remember that feeling you get when you've gotten a drink of water that you desperately needed, that's just a fraction. of what it feels like to know the Lord is your shepherd.

We'll drink it up like we'd die without it. But as fast as we can drink it up, it won't make us sick. It won't make us sick. He satisfies the spirit. And our spirits will dry up and burn without the cooling water that is provided at this well. At this fountain. And that water that he provides is his pure love for us.

And Jesus said, greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. And then he, I assume, turns and he's speaking to his disciples. He says, you, You are my friends. If you do whatever I command you. We dare not neglect worship at the feet of our Lord, for we learn that worship is both a need and a desire. Now we have for our protector, a good shepherd.

Now perhaps David uses the illustration of a shepherd to describe the Lord because David himself was a shepherd in his younger years, for many years. And when he was found and anointed by Samuel to be the next king of Israel, he was tending the sheep. We all know that. Or perhaps that wasn't the reason, the reason isn't that important, but we do know this, David was familiar with what it meant to be a shepherd. And he was also familiar with what sheep do, and that's very important.

We are given a very clear picture of this. The Lord is that shepherd. If you look down in verse four, He's just said, though I'm in this valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, for your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Your rod and your staff. The Lord is that man with that staff and that rod. And it's a picture of the office of a shepherd. That rod and that staff, those are two different things. He's not just using two words to mean one thing. The rod was a shorter thing like a club used to discipline wayward sheep and to protect against predators. That's what it was. It was protection.

And the staff, that was the longer one that had a little curve on the end. And they used the staff to guide sheep and to gently pull a straying sheep back onto the path. And if they were to fall in a little crevice or whatever because they're sheep and they're not the brightest of animals, you can use that staff to get them out. And that staff was the symbol of guidance.

You see that staff, if you can't see, maybe it's taller than the shepherd, if you can't see the shepherd, maybe you can see that staff poking out. Now whatever David's reason was for assigning, assigning, that's not the greatest word, assigning God the role of shepherd, this imagery is divinely appropriate. It is appropriate.

Not only does God use the same analogy to describe the relationship between himself and his people in the Old Testament, but Jesus himself said, I am the good shepherd. And what do we know about the good shepherd? What do we know? The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. I know my sheep and I am known by my own. It's not a one-way relationship. He doesn't just know us and then lets things go, see where things lie. He makes us know him. The sheep know the shepherd.

And the sheep do not fear when that shepherd is nearby because they see him, they know his voice, they know that he holds in his hands the power to protect and the power to guide, whether they must travel green pastures or the valley of the shadow of death, no matter what, wherever they are.

Matthew Henry wrote this, the valley of the shadow of death may denote the most severe and terrible affliction or dark dispensation of providence that the psalmist ever could come under. Or in other words, this is the worst that David could say. Between the part of the flock on earth and that which is gone to heaven, death lies like a dark valley that must be passed in going from one to the other. But even in this, there are words which lessen the terror.

It is but the shadow of death. The shadow of a serpent will not sting, nor the shadow of a sword kill. Now to a believer, death should not be a fearful thing. For some people, death isn't the problem. You know, a lot of people, you ask them, they're afraid about what happens after. We, we're not afraid of that. We know what happens after. He's told us. But for some, the process of dying is what scares them the most. Yet do not fear. Do not fear. For the Lord is with you even in death. And death, even our lives, it is short. Our lives are very short. The process of death, very short, compared to the eternity we will spend with him.

Or perhaps you are worried that your loved ones won't be taken care of well if you're gone. I've definitely fallen into that trap. And I had to rebuke myself. You must have a misguided belief that you are taking care of them now. Yes, you are a tool used for the care of others. You are. But the Lord does not pass his responsibility for caring for his children onto you and then take it back upon your departure. He's the one caring. He is the one caring. Your loved ones are cared for now according to the purpose of the Lord.

And this is why David can say in verse five, my cup runs over. My cup runs over. That cup represents abundance, the cup running over. Now, which one of Christ's sheep lacks anything? Could you point to somebody and say they lack something that they need? You read earlier, Matt, that bulletin article. I think it was Don Fortner who said, if we had the power of God, we would change everything, but if we had the wisdom of God, we would change nothing. Who lacks anything? Well, not one of them.

For it is his loving responsibility to supply for them. And his manner of care, his manner of care, the way he does things, is to care beyond such a degree that their cup runs over. It's not enough to fill it to the brim for Christ. It's too much. It's too much.

Can anyone say that they lack guidance? Guidance. Well, the word is opened to all of them. Here it is. Everybody's got this book at home. If you don't have it, you can find it online. Here's your guidance. And others here in the church, there's your guidance. They'll help you. Can anyone say they lack the temporal things? Food, housing, whatever we need to get our jobs done. He even feeds the birds and his people are of more value than they are. Can anyone say that they lack eternal blessings? Oh, I hope not. I hope not.

It says in 2 Corinthians 1, all the promises of God in him are yes, and in him, amen, so be it. To the glory of God through us. My cup and your cup runs over. And finally, we look at verse six. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. How does he know that? Why? Based on what? Because goodness and mercy are two of the promises of God in Christ.

And this word here, I had to look that up, because sometimes, you know, translations between languages aren't always exactly what the word meant when the person wrote it. There's a little bit of differences. So I just thought, I better look this one up. That goodness and mercy shall follow me. And to our minds, we think, well, if we have goodness and mercy, it must be with us, not following up behind. But this word means pursuit, to pursue. They're coming after you. They're coming after you.

Because He conquered death and sin, so did we. And because He lived righteously, so we have, or so have we in our Heavenly Father's eyes. That goodness that follows us is like goodness that is in us as well, the Lord's goodness. And it has a name, Jehovah's Echidna, the Lord our righteousness. So we will always have goodness and mercy, not only in this life, but in the next. And David claims that goodness and mercy will surely, surely follow him all his days. Now it is no stretch for us to believe that the Lord can keep us in his blessings.

It is no stretch. We don't have to say, ah, there's a little bit of doubt. It might not. No, it is sure. It says in the book of Jude, verse 24 and 25, not a hymn who is able to keep you from stumbling. There's some surety. and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to God our Savior. There's your surely, there's your surely. Everything David has said in this Psalm, every verse could start with the word surely. Because with the Lord, whatever he does, as it says in Ecclesiastes 3, it shall be forever. It can't be undone. Surely, surely goodness and mercy will follow us all our days. May he be praised in the preaching. Bruce, would you close us please?