Psalms 23, we're going to read
all six verses and then look at one verse that caught my attention. Psalms 23, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green
pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restores my soul. He leads
me in the paths of righteousness for His namesake. 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 prepares the 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." This passage, this chapter, is a lesson
or a story in the believer's life One who is filled with contentment. Content or satisfied with his
God, with God's providence, with God's Son, with his position
or station in life. It didn't make any difference
if he was in the midst of his enemies, Didn't make any difference
if God's rod of chastening or his staff of comfort was with
him. It didn't make any difference. Because what we're going to look
at is the last verse. And he says, surely goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I want us to note in particular
It says Psalm 23 and in my Bible here it says underneath it, it
says a Psalm of David. David wrote this Psalm. We remember
David. We remember David's life. Ups
and downs. Times of clouds and times of
sunshine. Winter, summer, some spring,
some fall. David had many trials more than
I've I've had I've had my share. You've had your share if you're
a believer But That's who's writing this and he can say surely goodness
and mercy Shall follow me all the days of my life. Well, what about a leap year?
We just had a leap day or whatever. It was called yesterday every
four years and It seems to me yesterday, goodness and mercy
followed me around all day yesterday too. So it didn't make any difference. Let's look at this, this last
phrase, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days
of my life, of your life. Spurgeon calls these two phrases,
goodness and mercy, he calls them twin guardian angels. He calls goodness and mercy which
follow us always. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. The other readings in the
other versions of scripture, Septuagint or whatever, the other
readings of this verse is barely goodness and mercy, but I like
this one only. Only goodness and mercy. Only goodness and mercy. Goodness
and mercy, they're in front of us, they're behind us in our
back, they're to the right, they're to the left. We, the chosen of
God by sovereign grace, are said to be surrounded by goodness
and mercy. Goodness to supply our needs
and mercy to blot out our sins. And I want us to remember that
one of the chief characteristics of our God is that He does not
change. He does not change. So goodness
and mercy once have been shown to the undeserving will always
be shown to the undeserving. The goodness of God in showing
us His glorious substitution in the Lord Jesus Christ. His
goodness shown to us in His unfaltering grace in the everlasting covenant. The goodness of God is shown
to us by making us His dear children. His goodness is revealed to us
by daily loading us as the psalmist in another place with benefits.
And fifthly, His goodness is seen by the declaration of peace
that we have between us and God. There was war and then he declared
peace. The mercy of God is seen in that
we didn't deserve it in the least. Secondly, by gifting this mercy
to us word by the atonement made by his son. Thirdly, by giving
it to us daily as is our need. Daily, we need His mercy. Daily,
we need His grace. Fourthly, by revealing it to
us who are but worms in the dust. Surely, only goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. Let's look at a few biblical
examples. If we notice in our own life,
if we look back, perhaps it would do us good to look back at a
situation in our life where these two were present. And if they
were present then, they'll be present tomorrow, regardless
of that stubborn co-worker, or regardless of the tax code, or
regardless of whatever it may be. Well, let's just look at
a few examples. And this was the first one I
could think of, Genesis chapter 50. And I really like this, and
I know you do as well. This is Joseph, Genesis chapter
50, Joseph, reveals himself, who he is to his brethren. His
brethren are scared. He says, he's crying in front
of them, don't worry, I'm not going to do anything to you,
I love you, and et cetera, et cetera. In the back of their
mind, they think, okay, we let them down in that pit, and we
were going to feed them to lions, but Judah interceded for them,
and then they got sold into slavery, and they didn't see them since.
Their daddy was still grieving. He says in verse 20 of Genesis
50, but as for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant
it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much
people alive. Goodness, we know come what may,
it will be always said by God to us and we will always acknowledge
it as goodness. Mercy, in this passage, to save
much people alive. That's mercy. To give them corn
in a time of need. Really, you can't have one without
the other as far as God's providential dealings with His people. It's
God's goodness in character to show mercy to His poor, wretched
remnant. You're always going to have one,
you're going to have the other. He said, you meant it for bad. And we've met people who Whether
the gospel or not, they mean things for bad. But God overrules. Surely goodness and mercy follows
every believer all the days of his life. Luke chapter 5. Luke chapter 5. Verses 1 through 11. chapter 5, verses
1 through 11. And it came to pass that as the people
pressed upon Christ to hear the word of God, he stood by the
lake of Genesaret and saw two ships standing by the lake. But
the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets.
And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and
prayed to him that he would thrust him out a little from the land.
And he sat down and taught the people out of the ship. Now when
he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, launch out into the
deep and let down your nets for a draw. And Simon answering said
unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night and have taken
nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word, I
will let down the net." And when he had this thus done, they enclosed
a great multitude of fishes in their net break, and they beckoned
unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they
should come and help them. And they came and filled the ships
so that they began to sink. And when Simon Peter saw it,
he fell down at Jesus' knees and said, Depart from me, for
I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished in all
that were with him at the draught of the fishes which they had
taken. And so was also James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear
not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had
brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed
Christ. Do you not see goodness and mercy
in this instance, the word toiled, and this is what I was thinking
about, and Linda and I were talking about toiled, that's not, I haven't
toiled in a while. Toiled is, the Greek word is
fatigue, or hard labor. Hard labor. All the days of their life, Hard
labor? Surely goodness and mercy is
found here. They're in the boat laboring
hard, sweat, cramp, I don't know, just hard labor. I've done that,
but haven't lately. All the days, in the black days
as well as the bright days, in the days of fasting or feasting,
dreary or summer, goodness and mercy, The new creature created
in Christ Jesus asserts this boldly. How can you call that
good? Well, goodness, the multitude
of fish is caught. The fact that Peter said, he
saw himself as he was, depart from me I'm a sinful man. Or
also, even that they were able to fish at all. That they had
the strength. Who gives the strength breath
and life? And silence of mind? God does. So even the fact that they were
able, and not all decrepit with arthritis, or whatever it may
be, that they were even able to go into that boat and catch
the fish. And yet they were told that they
would be fishers of men that they would become that. That's
mercy. To have the truth and even be able to tell somebody
else about the truth. That's mercy. And goodness, He
took care of their physical needs. They get, I'm hungry, here's
some fish. Can we not see that? And yet
tomorrow, something will come up that's insurmountable. I can't,
I don't know, I can't know how to deal with this. Go to the
Lord in prayer and see that everything He does is to you and to us where
there is goodness and mercy and peace that passes all understanding. Now this next example I really
like again is Acts 27. Acts chapter 27. You know this story. This is
the story of when Paul is making sail, and he tells the mariners,
don't go, the voyage is going to be perilous, we're going to
have a shipwreck, and of course, they know better, they're mariners,
he's not. This is Acts chapter 27, and you don't have to read
here, verses 1-11, Paul warns about the danger of what was
to happen, the voyage was going to be fraught with peril, and
he was ignored. Verses 13 through 20, there were
many sleepless nights, days and nights, and they got tossed in
the tempest. They got caught in that wind called the Euryclodon.
Verse 21 to 25, Paul directly speaks to the crew, preaches
to the crew. And in there he says, I believe
God that no hurt will come to the crew. No hurt. will come to the crew. Verses 27 through 38, the rescue
boat is cut away from the main ship. Harsh conditions continue. I think it said it was the 14th
day of just being tossed back and forth. Verse 37 to 44, the
ship is busted up, yet look with me at verse 44 and the rest,
some on boards as the ship broke, some on broken pieces of the
ship, And so it all came to pass that they escaped all safe to
land. They escaped all safe to land. The last verse, verse 44 in chapter
27. Goodness? Question mark. Mercy? Question
mark. How could such a perilous shipwreck
They lost all their profitability. They tossed that. They lost the
ship. There's money down the drain.
Now, I can just see the mariner when he finally makes it back
to his boss and says, surely goodness and mercy, you're fired. Well, now it's not goodness.
Yes, it is. The believer is hemmed in a corner. And really, the new man wants
to be hemmed in a corner. Because he wants to glorify the
Lord. That the flesh is just kicking, this is not good, this
is not mercy. Yes it is. Yes, we know it is. To those who have been enlightened
by grace divine, we say, yes, goodness and mercy follows me
all the days of my life. Goodness, in this example, all
of them were alive. Mercy. God honored his promise
to Paul. God spoke. And Paul said, I believe
that. That's mercy. And in this book
are given exceeding great and precious promises. And we know
that all the promises in Christ are yes and amen. So people shake
their head at you. Your neighbors, they don't understand
what you're talking about. All they see is a for sale sign
in the front yard. I lost my job, lost my house,
didn't lose Christ. I know I've said this before,
but it bears repeating. I think about that picture, that
old man, that painting, that old man, he's sitting there and
he's got bread and water and he's giving thanks. And one of
the old writers, Puritan, said, Bread and water and Christ too? We don't think that way. But if the Lord puts you on your
back, and the Lord puts me on my back, sick or whatever, we
realize goodness and mercy follows us all the days of our life.
we could cite more texts and we could give many more scriptural
examples, but let us who name the name of Christ simply tell
the truth of our pilgrimage. Surely, goodness and mercy. It's
been in front of us, it's been back, behind us, inside of us. This confession that God is good
and His mercy endures forever is not merely a head knowledge
because when things are going good everybody can can lay this
out. It can lay the doctrine out and
all this God's foremanness and that. But this knowledge is God-given
knowledge and it penetrates the heart. And we understand that He has
caused us to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that our God reigneth
and rules over all things for our good. I ask a few questions. He sent his beloved son to die
for us, for the elect, did he not? He satisfied his law which
was against us and had need of honoring, did he not? He chose
the worst of the lot when he chose us, did he not? He is now at God's right hand
for all whom he foreknew, is he not? then yes, surely goodness, only
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Now let's close. Let's turn to
Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes chapter 7 and the first part of verse 8. And you tell me if this is not
true in your life. Ecclesiastes chapter 7 and first
part of verse 8. Better is the end of a thing
than the beginning. Okay. Every child of God, our
end, that it would be glory, our heaven realized, our Canaan
land reached, shall be much better than how we started out. We started
in born in sin and shaping in iniquity. Did we not? We didn't
love God. We didn't want to know God. We
were concerned about ourselves, our own profitability, our own
jobs, our own family. We didn't care about these things.
And then when God crossed our path with the preaching of His
Gospel, the truth of what's in His Word, and we saw God for
who He is, what He is, That pearl of great price, we were more
than willing to chuck it all, because we had found that pearl. And since then, He's loaded us
with benefits, physical, spiritual, material things. We can't deny
that. It's all in God's good providence. It's goodness, but
goodness and mercy. We know that our end Better is
the end of a thing than the beginning. We know we were born speaking
lies, hating God, and the end of it, if He is seen fit to reveal
Himself to us, is now we love Him, now we own Him, rather He
owns us, and we would not have it any other way. And we can
say, like David, goodness and mercy. it's following me and
has followed me and shall follow me all the days of my life and
therefore this last phrase we can also say I will dwell in
the house of the Lord forever. We will dwell and basically what
he's saying is with our Lord. We will dwell with our Lord.
He'll never leave us nor forsake us. He will not drop us. That
first good work that He began, good work, He shall continue
and He shall finish. We will dwell. He has made His
abode in us and we in Him. We will dwell with our Lord forever,
who is the lover of our souls, And Jesus, lover of our soul,
my soul, and He loves us, and we love Him. So, everybody reads
this 23rd Psalm, but oh, what a Psalm of contentment, what
a Psalm of peace, what a Psalm of joy. And it may, you know,
these trials, difficulties, Peter says that, they're not joyous,
they're not, you know, they're not fun, they're not happy, but
the believer, he can still see God's hand in it. And we've just
had prayer requests for folks in different places that are
going through some struggles. But they know God's on the throne.
And that their faith, given by God's grace, makes a difference. And I'm so glad it does. To the
Lord be the glory, amen and amen. Matt, would you close us please?