Our Hope in the Face of Death
Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even 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 overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
This is the word of the Lord.
And right away, I’d like for us to pray. In this moment, let’s simply ask God to open our eyes so that we behold wondrous things in his word. We pray that together in Jesus’s name. Amen.
Okay, so in today’s message I’m going to talk with you about the topic of death, and really, I want you to think about your own death. And I know that might sound morbid — and you’re thinking Why do I want to talk about death? — but there are a few reasons why.
First, historically speaking, Christians of past generations have thought a lot more about death than we do today. For most of church history, humans have been much more acquainted with their mortality, and therefore death was something they had to think about — in fact, a big part of pastoral ministry was helping people prepare for death. We don’t think of pastors that way today, because we don’t think about death much today. Except then comes a global pandemic, and over the last few months we as a nation and a world have been reminded of our frailty as human beings.
We’ve been hearing a lot about death in the news — over 100,000 people in America have now died from the coronavirus. This past Monday there was the tragic death of George Floyd. Some of us recently, even this past week, have lost family and friends. Death is something we cannot ignore.
Personally, death is something I’ve been thinking about a lot because, many of you know, my father-in-law passed away in April, and we’ve been grieving that in our home. I’ve almost finished writing my will. I’ve been thinking a lot about death.
But really, the main reason I want to talk with you about death in this message is because Psalm 23 is what has been called a deathbed psalm. For centuries, Christians have looked to Psalm 23 for hope in the last moments of their life — and for those who have had the opportunity, Psalm 23 has often been read at the time of death or at funerals — and I think that is right. That is a good thing.
And I’m not going to put this on you, but speaking for myself, when it comes to the time of my death, in the last moments of my life, I also want to be thinking about Psalm 23. And I want to show you why.
In three steps:
First, I want to show you the movement in the text of this psalm.
Second, I want to show you how this psalm is about Jesus.
Third, I want to show you why that is important for your deathbed.
Again, that’s three things:
The Movement of the text
The Messiah in the text
The Moment before your death
1) The Movement of the Text
The first thing I want you to see here is the different parts of this psalm.
Notice there’s a couple different metaphors going on — the Lord is a shepherd in verses 1–4, and then he’s a host in verses 5–6.
Next, notice that there’s a change in perspective in verse 4. David, the psalmist, goes from talking about the Lord in the third person to speaking to the Lord in the second person. He goes from saying “He leads me…” to saying “You are with me.”
But now the most important thing I want us to see is the change in location that happens in this psalm. There is a movement that happens in three points.
We start first in a pasture in verse 2; then it’s the valley in verse 4; and then it’s the temple, or the house of the Lord, in verse 6. So think: pasture, valley, temple.
According to David, the psalmist, the Lord as his shepherd is taking him somewhere, and the somewhere is a place where the Lord goes from shepherd to host. Yahweh leads him until he hosts him — which is important because that highlights the destination of Yahweh’s leading. He’s leading David to his home! Verse 6 ends at the Lord’s dwelling place, the house of the Lord.
So while David is out there, out and about, living his life, in that place God is a shepherd leading him. But God’s leading is to God himself, and when David gets there, to the house of the Lord, God goes from being a shepherd who leads to being a host who welcomes.
God goes from making David, the sheep, lie down in green pastures, to preparing David, the victorious king, a banquet table.
And the more we think on this, it just get more amazing. There is a glorious journey going on in Psalm 23, in just six verses. We’re going to come back to the meaning of this journey, but first I want us to see the particulars of Yahweh’s care in each of these locations.
Go back to the pasture. Verses 1–3, in the pasture, this is the normal life of a sheep, look at how God is a provider. David has no lack. That’s what it means when he says “I shall not want.” That’s the old King James way of saying I’m not lacking anything., because God has provided everything I need. Green pastures. Fresh water. A restored soul. Righteous paths. I’m good because God takes care of me.
Now, look at verse 4. This is the valley. There are valleys in life, and you know what I mean when I say that. There are really good things and really hard things. We have mountain tops and we have valleys. And we talk that way in the English language largely because of Psalm 23’s influence. And in the valley of verse 4, the valley of the shadow of death, David is not afraid. Why? Because even there the Lord is with him. Even there the Lord leads him. Even there the Lord comforts him.
Now in verse 5, there’s a change. There’s no more sheep talk. All of a sudden David is being hosted by Yahweh at a banquet table, in the presence of his conquered enemies, and Yahweh anoints his head with oil. And David’s cup of celebration “runneth over” and he declares that his entire life, this whole journey, has been a testament to Yahweh’s goodness and steadfast love. Surely, or only, goodness and mercy shall follow me. That’s my story, he says. In all the days of my life, the one, constant thing over every other thing is Yahweh’s pursuing, never-ending goodness and mercy to me. My story, my journey, is all about God’s faithful love — I want to be thinking Psalm 23 in the last moments of my life. David is onto something here.
But there is a deepness to this psalm that we’re going to miss unless we see who it’s really about. Psalm 23 is not finally about David; and it’s not finally about us. Psalm 23 is about the Messiah. This psalm is about Jesus, and I want to show you.
2) The Messiah in the Text
And for this part, I just want to say, I think this is the most important thing I can do as a pastor. I want you to see Jesus in the Bible. And I’ve got some theological convictions behind that; I won’t get into those details now; but I’m saying this because I want you to know that I think of this part as extremely relevant for your life — even in the midst of what our city is going through right now.
Look at this. Notice the kingship language that emerges in verse 5. We talked about how Yahweh goes from Shepherd to Host, but notice again that David goes from sheep to king. David goes from a sheep drinking still waters to a king holding a cup of overflowing wine.
In verse 5, we are done with the sheep metaphor and now we have an image of victory: “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” The enemy has been conquered, and in conclusion of the victory, David, the victorious one enjoys a feast that Yahweh has prepared for him. Then at the end of verse 5: “You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” We see that David, the victorious one, is anointed. Okay, now, wait a minute —
This is where it’s important that we remember the Book of Psalms is the book of Psalms. There are 150 individual psalms here that have been arranged and composed as they are with a purpose.
So we don’t want to read any psalm in isolation from the others, but we want to view each one in its Scriptural context, and as we’ve been reading this book up to the point, who gets anointed in the Psalms?
And we say the king, but it goes deeper than the king. The Anointed One is the Messiah. It’s not merely David, but it’s “eschatological David.” It’s future David. It’s the promised descendent of David who is going to reign as king forever.
And we’ve seen this:
Psalm 2:2, “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed…”
Psalm 18:50, “Great salvation he brings to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever.”
Psalm 20:6, “Now I know that Yahweh saves his anointed; he will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving might of his right hand.”
So in Psalm 23, when we read about the Victorious One who is anointed, we should think of the Messiah. Psalm 23 is another place where David is being a prophet (see Acts 2:30), and he is speaking as his future descendant, the Messiah.
Psalm 23 is the voice of the Messiah. These words are the Messiah speaking, which means, before we can understand that Yahweh is our shepherd, we need to see how Yahweh was the Messiah’s shepherd.
And I think this is most clear in verse 6. Look there: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Okay, look at that last word “forever.” If you’re reading from the English Standard Version you’ll notice there’s a little footnote at the bottom of the page that offers another option for the translation. In the Hebrew, this is literally “length of days.” It implies forever, and “forever” is a fine translation, but what’s important about seeing “length of days” is that we’ve seen that phrase before. That’s the exact phrase used in Psalm 21.
Do you remember Psalm 21, verse 4? “He asked life of you; you gave it to him, length of days forever and ever.” Psalm 21, as we saw, is all about the Messiah. The Messiah of Psalm 2, who is also in Psalm 21, has asked Yahweh for universal, eternal kingship — “length of days forever and ever.” That same phrase “length of days” in Psalm 21 is used here in Psalm 23, verse 6. But what’s it in reference to? What is happening in verse 6?
Well, in verse 6, the victorious one, the anointed one, of verse 5 is dwelling in the house of the Lord. What is the house of the Lord? It’s the temple. It’s the place of God’s presence.
Which means, what is happening here is that the Victorious One, the Messiah, is saying that he’s going to dwell in God’s presence forever.
Now have we’ve seen this in the psalms? Have we’ve seen this idea of the Messiah dwelling in Yahweh’s presence forever? Absolutely.
This is actually a central part of the Messiah’s hope. He knows his future is the presence of God:
“in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right are pleasures forevermore” — Psalm 16:11!
“For you make him most blessed forever; you make him glad in the joy of your presence” — Psalm 21:6!
Also look at verse 6. There’s another footnote on that word “dwell.” In the Hebrew, that verb is literally “return.” So the phrase goes “I will return [to dwell] in the house of the Lord forever.”
And this is a Messianic concept in the Old Testament. You see this in Zechariah 9. After the defeat of his enemies, the Messiah returns to dwell in God’s presence forever. That’s what the Messiah is saying at the end of Psalm 23, verse 6. The Messiah has conquered his enemies and now he will return and take his seat on his throne. So lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in!
That’s Psalm 24, which we’re going to see next week. Psalm 24 is a royal enthronement psalm, and how convenient that it follows Psalm 23. That’s the point! In fact, let’s take a step back for a minute and look at this.
Go back to Psalm 22. Remember Psalm 22, verse 1: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It’s a psalm of affliction and dereliction, but like Pastor Joe showed us last week, Psalm 22 ends with hope.
And just for a little preview of Psalm 24. It’s a psalm of triumph and kingship. In Psalm 24 the righteous King of glory ascends to his throne. Now, how in the world do we go from the affliction of Psalm 22 to the triumph of Psalm 24?
Psalm 23 shows us. Psalm 23 is like a short recap of the message we see in Psalm 22 and Psalm 24. The themes of both Psalms, 22 and 24, are included in Psalm 23, and they are all bound together by the theme of God’s unending presence because of his unfailing love.
In Psalm 23, go back to the pasture. This is verses 1–3. Remember the movement of Psalm 23 is pasture to valley to temple.
Okay, what do we see in the pasture? It’s that God is with the Messiah. He’s providing for him, leading him, restoring his soul, guiding him along the righteous path.
And we think about the life and ministry of Jesus, of how when he was tempted in the wilderness, God took care of him. We see in the Gospel of Mark that the angels ministered to Jesus. This is God’s beloved Son!
We also think of Jesus in the Gospel of John, Chapter 4, when his disciples urged him to eat, and he says, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about” (John 4:32). My food is to do the will of my Father.
And we think about in Luke’s Gospel where Luke says that Jesus frequently withdrew from the crowds to pray (see Luke 5:16). See, the Father was with Jesus. He led Jesus, with his Spirit, during his life on this earth, in the pasture.
But then there’s also the valley. The valley of the shadow of death, when Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, and he moved deeper and deeper into that shadow, and Luke tells us that even there, as he sweat drops of blood, even there an angel was sent to strengthen him, and then Jesus came to the cross. And at the cross, as Jesus was being crucified, when the darkness of death loomed over him, he felt forsaken. And he says that.
Jesus quoted Psalm 22, verse 1 on the cross. Jesus was forsaken, but he was not ultimately forsaken. Like Pastor Joe said, Jesus knew the layers of Psalm 22. And he also knew Psalm 23.
That even in the valley, with death all around him, and then swallowing him, God was still with him. That’s why in Luke’s Gospel, the last words of Jesus come from Psalm 31:5. He says, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” Father, I’m trusting you in this valley!
And Jesus died. He stepped from the shadow of death into death itself, into the grave, and he did it fearlessly, because he knew that somehow God was with him. He knew he was not ultimately abandoned, and he wasn’t, because then came the third day.
Psalm 23, verses 1–3, this is the life of Jesus. Verse 4 is the death of Jesus. Then what does that make verse 5?
There is a table prepared. This is a banquet of celebration, and it’s prepared for the Messiah in the presence of his defeated enemies. And we should think: in the presence of his worst enemy, the enemy of death, which is now defeated by his empty tomb.
Jesus conquered the enemy of death! His Father raised him from the dead and crowned him as Lord of all, seating him “at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come” (Ephesians 1:21, see also Romans 6:4).
His cup runneth over!
And that is true of Jesus right now. In this moment, right now as you watch this, Jesus is seated at the Father’s right hand. He has triumphed over his enemies, and he has returned to dwell in his Father’s presence where he will dwell forever, and he wants you to join him there.
This is the truth I want to remember in last moments of my life.
Psalm 23 shows us the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Psalm 23 is the story of Jesus, and if God should give me the luxury of hearing the Bible read before I die, somebody read me Psalm 23.
3) The Moment before Your Death
The reality is, when we understand that Psalm 23 is about Jesus, it means that when we’re in the valley, when we’re stepping in the shadow of death, we are not stepping into the unknown because we have a Savior who has gone before us!
The facts of this psalm are tried and true! The path has been proven! God in his pursuing goodness and steadfast love will never leave you, and never leave me, just like he never left Jesus.
I told you I’ve been thinking a lot about death lately, and that was even before this week started. But then there was the killing of George Floyd. And I also think of Brett and Kelina Toney, who on Tuesday, watched Kelina’s mother finish her battle with cancer and enter eternity.
Death is a real thing, and it’s going to happen to you, and to me. Unless Jesus comes back first, we’re all going to die, and do you ever think about that? Do you ever think about those last moments of your life?
Whether or not you want to hear Psalm 23, we all need the truth of Psalm 23 — because Psalm 23 is about Jesus, and he’s the one we want to see. He’s the one who has made the way. Jesus has trod the Psalm 23-journey before us.
So whatever you might think about in your last moments, look to Jesus.
And in fact, I wanna ask you to do that right now. Right now, you don’t have to wait, right now, in this moment, look to Jesus Christ. Put your faith in Jesus and be saved. Jesus is our only hope.
