So turn with me please to Psalm
23, and we'll read from verse one. A Psalm of David. 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. ye leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies, thou anointest my head with oil,
my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this short reading and familiar reading from his word. God the Holy Spirit has supplied
the Church in every age with comfort and with a sense of well-being
and with the help and support that we need in this pilgrim
journey. And not least, may I suggest
to you, through reading and meditating upon this little psalm of David's,
Psalm 23. It has proved to be for many,
many people, a delightful little place for comfort and encouragement
in times of trouble. David was one of God's elect
people. He was a saved soul. He was loved of God and he trusted
the Lord. The Lord said of David, I have
found David the son of Jesse. a man after mine own heart, which
shall fulfil all my will. A man after mine own heart, which
shall fulfil all my will. What an accolade, what a statement,
what an honourable testimony to have borne by God himself
upon any creature. This David is a man after mine
own heart, which shall fulfil all my will. And yet, there's
a disconnect here. Because we discover when we look
at the life of David, that it's hard for us to see this statement
that God made concerning David and the life that David often
lived. David was not a perfect man. It seems difficult for us to
conceive how he fulfilled all of God's will, how that he could
be a man after God's own heart when he was not by any means
a perfect man, but rather a flawed character, weak, and at times
criminal in the things that he did. He breached divine law. He breached moral law and civil
and ceremonial law during his lifetime. We could look back
at his life and find examples where time after time, the failures
and the faults of this man are set clearly forth upon the pages
of scripture. And we might wonder why God would
tell Samuel what he did concerning David fulfilling all God's will. Well, let me tell you, it's not
a mistake. It might appear to be contradictory,
but it's not a mistake. Look. the gospel writer in writing
the book of Acts repeated this very point in Acts chapter 31
and verse 22. And despite David's history being
plain to see in the pages of the Old Testament scriptures,
The answer to the conundrum, the answer to the question is
that God did not lay David's sin to his charge. David was a sinner, but his sin
was not laid to his charge. His sin was not seen in the man
by the Lord. Rather, David's sin was imputed
to another. It was taken from David's account
and it was laid to the charge of another, to a substitute. So although David was a sinner
by nature, Being loved by God in Christ, he was free from sin
in Christ, and he was saved by grace in Christ. the Lord Jesus
explains to us in John chapter 6 what it is to fulfil the will
of the Father. David was a man that shall fulfil
all my will and the Lord Jesus Christ in John 6 explains what
it is to fulfil the will of God. It's not perfect obedience to
the law. That's what so many people get
wrong. They think they need to live
well. They think they need to act properly. They think they
need to be obedient to all the laws of God. That's not what
the Lord Jesus Christ tells us. Here's what the Lord says. This
is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he
hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
him may have everlasting life. It was God's will that David
should see Christ and by faith believe. in Christ, the Son of
God. So that in David fulfilling God's
will, it was looking to Christ, it was having faith in Christ
that was the fulfilment of the will of God in that man's life. And thereby he showed himself
to be a man after God's own heart. And that is what we see in this
psalm. It is Christ to whom David is looking throughout this psalm. It is Christ who is the great
shepherd. It is Christ who is the Lord
my shepherd. David was not himself a righteous
man, but he was righteous in Christ because Christ's righteousness
was imputed to him. And David knew that. And David
could say, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. David laid hold upon the promises
of God's grace. And he realised that because
of God's goodness, because of his mercy, because of Christ's
sacrifice, because the Lord was his shepherd, that he would live
eternally in the presence of God. I will dwell in the house
of the Lord forever. And Paul explains this in Romans
chapter four, verse six. He says, even as David also describeth,
so he's talking about the same David back in the Old Testament,
back in the times of Samuel, shortly thereafter, he's speaking,
Paul, in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul is speaking of this
time in the history of Israel, and David, the king, and he says
this, even as David also describeth, the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputeth righteousness without works, the blessedness
of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose
sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. David is blessed. David is blessed
among the flock of God. David is blessed in the fold
of Christ. David is blessed because he looked
to Christ in faith. And no one who looks in faith
to the Lord Jesus Christ for cleansing and righteousness will
ever be disappointed. The spiritual comfort David found
in his Lord and Saviour and testifies to in this delightful little
psalm comes by the grace of God and it is received and it is
enjoyed and it is experienced by faith. And I would like to
take a few minutes today to consider verse four of Psalm 23. I'm not going to think about
the whole psalm, I just want to concentrate. I find this psalm
so full that if you try to address it in a single thought, a single
sermon, it just becomes unwieldy. So I'm just going to take verse
four and we'll come back to other verses on another day perhaps.
but I've chosen this because I feel it supplies a glimpse
into the Holy Spirit comfort that David enjoyed by faith and
which we too we too may enjoy by the same faith. Because our
faith is just the same as David's faith. Why? Because it is the
faith of Christ. It is the faith that Christ gives
to us as a gift. We find all of the blessings
of God's goodness come from the Lord Jesus Christ. Even the very
faith that we possess is the faith of Christ. Paul tells us
that in Galatians. And so, Here we find this faith
that David had is our faith and the blessings that David received
by faith are the same blessings that are available to us. And
David had the faith of Jesus Christ. With faith we shall have
the same hope that David had. We shall have the same comfort
that David had, the same help on our own journey through the
valley of the shadow of death, as did the psalmist so long ago. So David writes in Psalm 23,
verse four, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death, I will fear no evil. For thou art with me, thy rod
and thy staff, they comfort me. So let's have a few minutes to
think about this little verse. There are several suggestions
have been made as to what exactly might be intended by the valley
of the shadow of death. and whether, for example, it
might be a real place. In David's mind, he was thinking
about a real place, a real valley, a real gap between two hillsides
that was often cast in shadow, maybe in the wilderness somewhere
that he was familiar with or one of the places that he had
fled to during times when he was being pursued. or maybe it
is symbolical of a terrible experience that must be endured, whatever
that experience might be. However, I think it is helpful
to consider the valley of the shadow of death to be a believer's
experience approaching death. their own death, a believer's
experience as we think about and anticipate the time of our
death, either personally or with a loved one, as we share together
in the prospect of the separation that death will bring. So that
what I have in my mind, what I have in my thought today is
to consider this valley of the shadow of death and the comfort
that David draws as he anticipates entering into that valley and
going through that valley and what he has to teach us as we
anticipate our own passing and our own demise. The sorrows of death will and
must rise in our consciousness and we will discover in some
time, personally or with those that we love, that we are dwelling
at the end of our days and we are upon the edge of eternity. I mentioned in the little note
yesterday that David had many enemies and he faced the prospect
of death many times. He likely walked beneath the
shadow of death on numerous occasions. And so too, the Lord's people
now, as David then, must walk in the valley of the shadow of
death. We walk in it as we grow old,
or when we are faced with a terminal illness, or we contemplate the
death of these bodies. We walk in it When we share the
final days of a friend or their final hours or their final minutes. And when the Lord takes one that
we love and we are left alone to grieve and to mourn their
passing. We are walking in the valley
of the shadow of death. These are examples of the valley
of the shadow of death and it is a cold shadow that it casts
in the life even of the Lord's people. But look what David tells
us about this experience. He says, I will fear no evil. I will not be afraid As I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not be afraid
of an enemy that lurks in that shadow, or of the pits, the holes
that are laid open in the gloominess or the fears that stalk our souls
and our minds and our thoughts in the darkness and in the loneliness
of that experience. David had a hope built on God's
promise. His hope was built on Christ's
blood and righteousness. His hope was that the Lord's
provision, the Lord's help, the Lord's care would sustain him
and protect him in the time of severest trial. And we have that
hope too. And David gives us three reasons. He brings forward three reasons
to justify the hope that a believer has as they pass through the
valley of the shadow of death. And the first reason is this,
that the Lord was with him. The second one is that the rod
of the Lord would guide him. And the third one was that the
staff of the Lord would be his comfort. Let me just take those
three points very quickly and see what we can learn from them.
When the Lord is your shepherd, he is with you. When the Lord
is your shepherd, he is with you and he never leaves you. The good shepherd, the good shepherd
never abandons his sheep. The hireling, well he runs in
times of danger, but the good shepherd never abandons his sheep. And this is a believer's comfort
in life, and it is our surest ground for confidence in death. David knew whatever the day might
bring, whatever the night time might contain, every hour, every
minute, every second, the Lord would be present by his side. He knew with Isaac, that had
been testified so long before in the Holy Scriptures. He knew
the promise of God, fear not, for I am with thee and will bless
thee. And we can take that promise,
that promise was good for Isaac, it was good for David, and it's
good for you and me. Fear not, little one, for I am
with thee and will bless thee. And the Lord told Isaiah in Isaiah
41 verse 10, Fear thou not, for I am with thee, be not dismayed,
for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand
of my righteousness. And what is true for one child
of God is true for all. Did not the Saviour say to his
disciples, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world? He has said, says the writer
to the Hebrews, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. So know this, know this, you
who fear and anticipate and consider and reflect upon your own passage
or the passage of a loved one through the valley of the shadow
of death. Know this, every step we take
in the valley of the shadow of death. The Lord is our shepherd
and he is present with us. His own death, his own death
familiarised him with the pathway that we must travel and he has
personally accompanied every saint that has gone before you. He has held their hand. He has
shared each moment of the journey. And he whispers to our souls,
fear thou not for I am with thee. If the Lord assures his beloved
bride that there is nothing to fear because he is present, then
we may step out in confidence and in trust. but there's more given by way
of explanation of this comfort. David goes on to say, the rod
of the Lord would be his guide. Thou art with me, thy rod and
thy staff, they comfort me. The Lord who is with you is carrying
a rod. Now David, David was a shepherd
boy. He had, though he was king, he
was also a shepherd boy. He had humble beginnings. And as a shepherd boy, David
was familiar with the shepherd's crook or the shepherd's rod. And I think that this rod may
be likened to the shepherd's crook, which speaks of divine
guidance and divine care. Sometimes it is also, a rod in
scripture is representative of a sceptre and that is the rod,
the sceptre that the king or the queen holds as a sign of
their strength and a sign of their power and authority. It points to the exercise, the
executive exercise of power. Either way, be it a shepherd's
crook or a king's scepter, this rod speaks to us of guiding power
and full authority. Let me take the kingly authority
first. Christ is our King. Christ is
our King. He rules and he reigns over his
kingdom. And he rules and he reigns over
the kingdom of this world. Not just his own kingdom, not
just the church, the body of Christ, but over the whole world
and everything in it. He rules over hell because he
has defeated it and he has led it captive in his flesh. So that Satan has no longer any
right or claim on the bodies of the saints. When the Lord
Jesus Christ redeemed our souls, he redeemed our bodies, and he
paid the debt with his own precious blood for both. We do not belong
to Satan. Not even these bodies of flesh
belong to Satan. He cannot touch us. He tried
at once, he tried to contend for the body of Moses, but the
Lord rebuked him. And with kingly authority, he
sent him packing. The grave in which these bodies
will lie is a bed of rest for the flesh. And it is finite. Because our
bodies will rise again. These very bodies that are placed
in the grave, they will rise again, and they will rise refreshed
after sleep, and they will rise perfect bodies, fashioned like
unto his glorious body. What a statement that is. That's
what the Apostle Paul tells the Corinthians. These bodies that
go into the grave will rise fashioned like unto his glorious body. And by that time, when that happens,
our spirits will have been in glory with the Lord, enjoying
eternal bliss. Let's think about the rod for
a moment. The rod, which is the shepherd's crook. What does that
rod do for the shepherd as he is managing his flock? Well,
the shepherd counts the sheep with his crook. He steers them
with his crook. He arranges them in the passage
along the path that they must travel. He secures them, he defends
them against all dangers with that crook along the way that
they must go. The crook is used to direct the
order in which the sheep progress along the way and the timing. so that we may say, upon reflection
on this shepherd's crook, that our times are in the Lord's hands. He uses this crook in order to
work the times and the passage of his people through this world. so that the day of our death
is ordained. The order and the sequence with
which we will enter into the valley of the shadow of death
and into glory beyond is settled in heaven. Who'll go first? Who'll be second? When will that
be? What are the circumstances? Everything
is ordered. Everything is timed. Everything
is perfect. That's what the good shepherd's
crook tells us. There's a grassy meadow beyond. There are refreshing waters beyond. Let's think about what the Lord
says in John 14. There's a mansion prepared. And we move in when our accommodation
is ready. And Proverbs tells us that the
day of death is better than the day of one's birth. What a statement
that is. The day of death is better than
the day of one's birth. And precious in the sight of
the Lord is the death of his saints. The rod in the hand of
Christ is his executive power to do all his will for the good
of his dearly loved people. He is wise and kind with perfect
timing, perfect wisdom. and the utmost tenderness to
us and to those we leave behind as well. The Lord will fulfil
every promise and he will thrill our souls with rapture while
he does so. We have nothing to fear. Therefore,
here's the third one, the Lord's staff will comfort us as well. And we might wonder, what more
could be added to the presence of the Lord with his kingly executive
authority and his managing rod of the shepherd's crook? Well,
he's got a staff as well. He's got a rod and a staff. I
take these to be two different things. Why not? We can get more
richness and sweetness from our consideration. What more could
this mean for the Lord's people than his scepter and his crook?
It's God's promise. It's God's promise to support
us in the lengthening shadow as our moments on earth fly away. The staff or the poles upon which
the Ark of the Covenant was borne up and carried by the Levites,
the priests and the Levites in the wilderness come to mind. The Lord's staff will hold us
up. We have nothing to fear. Our
knees will not buckle. Our courage will not break. Our joy will not flee away. It will rather increase as we
draw closer to the light beyond the shadow. Do you worry about
how you will feel? Do you wonder about your doubts? Do you wonder about your emotions,
your regrets, your sin? You've nothing to fear. The Lord's
staff is with you. He says nothing of failure. Rather, he wipes away every tear. He says nothing about loss. He says, rather, well done, good
and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord. He says nothing about judgment
or sin, because no sin is found here. Like David, our sins have
been imputed to a substitute. They have been laid upon the
shoulders of our Saviour Jesus Christ. They are long ago washed
away in His blood. And no judgement is due, for
there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Christ
your Saviour has taken it all away, never to be remembered
against you any more. Christ is our comfort in life
and in death. His power is absolute. His timing,
his care is perfect. Even the means of our passing
is according to his good design and in our best interest. Brothers and sisters, it will
be well with your soul. It will be well with your soul.
And what of those that are left behind? Every believer will have these
blessings personally in the valley of the shadow of death. And every
believer who is left behind will know his and her portion of these
blessings also. Be it for our own death, or to
comfort us in another's passing. And if you're not a believer,
well, why not? May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us. Amen.