Psalm 23

Message Transcription

Well, I'm excited that you are here today. We're in the middle of a series called Summer Playlist. Brandon Fredenberg kicked us off a couple of weeks ago, but this is a series designed to get us thinking about the music that we listen to, the soundtrack, if you will, of our lives. How many of you, when you are driving, I love to drive to music. How many of you are like upbeat rock and roll? Just need some power movement, power ballads going when you are driving. How many of my fellow rock and roll heads are out there? Okay, How many of you need songs that are contemplative and thoughtful and you want to be thinking about something just as you're driving down the road? I've got a few. I know I'm married to one of those, so she wants to hear a song that would help her think because that engages her mind and her brain and that helps her stay focused on the road. Me, I just want to rock, baby. Just rock. Roll the window down and turn it up right. There's something powerful about music and maybe there's never been a better time for us than than the summertime. Right? When when thinking of my days getting out of school or college and being able to just drive around wherever I wanted, listening to music, this feeling of being alive. I was thinking some this week in researching about the power of music on our lives, how it impacts us, and I came across this study actually, it's a study that Harvard talks about.

It was done back in 2014 and 2015. There's a couple of studies, one in the US, one in Japan, but it's actually built upon the story of this guy named Ron Cohen, who was a social worker. And he went to a nursing home, a facility that was largely working with patients who had dementia, and many would not talk. They were nonverbal. They didn't move much. They didn't do much at all. And yet he understood there's actually something going on. When he started playing music, they started responding. So he hired this or actually he invited this documentary film maker to say, Come and follow me around. I just want to show you what's going on in this nursing facility. He said, But just follow me for three days and we'll see what happens. Well, the filmmaker followed him for three days and was so moved by it, he followed him for the next like 3 or 6 months, and he began recording and diving deep into this story, and they created a film. And so I wanted to show you the trailer of this film because it gives you a sense of some of what we're going to be talking about together over the next couple of weeks. It's called Alive Inside. Check it out.

What do you think of music?

My heart belongs to music. I love.

It. Have you ever had music just hit you in a place that immediately brought you to tears? Music has that power.

Music connects people with who they have been, who they are and their lives. Because what happens when you get old is all the things you're familiar with and your identity are.

All just being peeled away. We're going to do your medicine now.

Health care system imagines the human to be a very complicated machine. We have medicines that can adjust the diet blood pressure or turn that down blood sugar or turn that down. We haven't done anything to touch the heart and soul of a patient.

One resident that barely opened two eyes, she didn't respond her for two years. Once we put the iPod on her, she started shaking her feet. She started moving her head. It was amazing.

Music has more ability to activate more parts of the brain than any other stimulus. Who am I?

Who am I? I'm your daughter. By exciting or awakening those pathways, we have a gateway to stimulate and reach somebody who otherwise is unreachable.

Oh, it can't get away from me if I'm.

In this place.

Takes me back to my school days. Oh, God.

That's. That's beautiful. Does it make you happy.

To sing for us? Yeah. Don't cry.

Every human being needs stimulation from the outside. The little babies. The old people.

American culture is wrong. There is actually life beyond adulthood. There's the opportunity to live and grow and become elders. The aging that we experience holds in it. Very important learnings and lessons.

There is no pill that does that. Gives me.

So thank you so much.

Okay, so there's a tears of joy.

I thought you were going to grow wings. I was trying.

I've yet to watch that trailer not tear up and especially that line at the end. Thank you. Oh, these are tears of joy. Oh, that's what's going on here. I thought you were going to sprout wings, and she said I was trying. There's something about the power of music that can tap into our soul, that it reminds us of who we are and it reminds us of where we've been. And and it reminds us of the hope that we share. But what you find if you open up your Bible right into the very middle of it, there's a book of songs, songs that were written to help people remember who they are and what God has done and and where they were going. And so I wanted us to spend some time and our summer playlist thinking about what are the songs that help you remember that help you remember who you are and who God has called you to be. Some of the most familiar words of Scripture are found in these songs because songs, as he said, we have, we have medication that can help turn down high blood pressure, that can turn off some of these things turn off. We haven't developed a pill yet that can hit the soul, that can hit the heart. But we know music can. And a song can. I want us to spend some time cultivating our summer playlist together as we think about what are the songs that help nurture our souls? You know, Brandon kicked us off a couple of weeks ago and so thankful for his message.

If you haven't had a chance to go back and look at it, I want to invite you to go and watch it, because he put a slide up that helps kind of tell the story of the Psalms know, so often we we grab a psalm and we just pull it out of context and we we read it. And that's okay to do. But but we lose some sense of where it fits in the scope of what was going on when the authors were writing penning these words. So I invite you to go back and listen to his message. He he also walked us through Psalm one, how it kind of sets the table for all that will happen to us if we're willing to spend some time in the Psalms. In fact, he helped us come up with a bookmark a reading list for those of you who are who want to spend some time cultivating your heart. This summer in a playlist of the Psalms, we've got a bookmark there by the tables. As you walk in or out this morning, I invite you to grab one of those. There's a daily reading plan just for the next 30 days to say, I want to saturate my heart in the Psalms of Scripture.

There's a way to do that. I know some of you and Brandon mentioned this Psalm 119 just overwhelms you just thinking about it. It's like two and a half days. Okay. We're going to break it up for you. There's some morning readings, some afternoon or rather some evening readings. Invite you to take a look at that, if that'd be helpful for you. But I want us to spend some time thinking about how do songs, how do they reach in and help us remember who we are? We'll turn to these words in Psalm 23. Invite you to open up your Bible if you have it there, whether it's an analog or a digital version. You can also follow along online as we listen to the words. And we're going to move through Psalm 23 kind of step by step, but then we're going to end actually in a different spot. I hope it will lead us to that point. How many of you have heard these words somewhere before ever? Psalm 23, maybe one of the most, if not the most recognized Psalm, and maybe some of the most famous words in all of Scripture. Now, most of the time, if I ask you to raise your hand again, how many of you heard these words at a funeral? We would all say, yeah, that's often where we hear these words. And and certainly that's rightly so. Right? They're they're words of comfort that bring us joy, that help us remember God's active presence in shepherding our lives.

And and that even in the valley of the shadow of death, that God is with us. But I want us to think for a minute about what if we didn't have to just leave these words of the psalm for funerals? What if we what if we were inspired by these words as as a song to live by? Not just one that we hear when we pass away, that these words speak to us not just of the life to come, but of the life here and now. Let's listen once again to these words of David, because these words David wrote when he was a young man, he was just a shepherd reflecting on his life out in the field. He was not King David. Yet that that king will come those words will come later in the Psalter. But this this psalm is written as a young man reflecting on his life, reflecting on who God is for him. And he begins with this. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want a simple confession, a simple proclamation. In the ancient world, shepherds are kings. Rather were seen as the shepherds of their people. They were in charge of, responsible for providing for and protecting their people, their flock. As you can imagine, the kings of old have not done a great job of providing and protecting for the people.

And it's not just in the secular world. We see that all through the pages of Scripture. In fact, if you read through, you'll hear words from the prophet like Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Jeremiah, who would say, You're not shepherding, You're actually you're dispersing the flock, you're chasing them all away. The prophet Isaiah would say, you are actually caring for yourself. You're taking all the resources, all the energy, all that God has blessed you with, and you're using it for yourself rather than blessing others. Those words echo throughout the Psalm. But here we see David says, The Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is the one that I will trust in to provide for me what I need to take care of my daily needs. The things that that I can't often provide for myself. I'm going to trust in God to provide those for me. In fact, he says the word, the Lord, the Lord occurs two times in this Psalm. But you'll notice if you have your Bible with you, you can mark and just invite you verse one and verse six, The Lord. He says, The Lord is my shepherd and I will dwell in the house of the Lord. Those two verses kind of frame this entire psalm. They remind us that within all of this, the Lord is over and around and through and in. He says he makes me lie down in green pastures.

Verse two. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness. For his name's sake. Again, these words that are often used to comfort and to console, especially in hard and challenging seasons of our life, that the Lord gives us food, He gives us drink, He makes us lie down. He refreshes our soul. And certainly those are words of comfort. But I wonder if David's also telling us a story that he has just said, The Lord is my shepherd. He is the one I will count on. And then he begins recounting the ways that the Lord has shepherd him. He makes me lie down in green pastures. Why would sheep need green pastures? There's food to eat. But he. He leads me beside quiet and still waters. Why would sheep need quiet and still waters wells Would they get a drink from. He restores my soul. I know that's a that's such a comforting thought and I want us to hold on to that. But at the same time, I want us to think about how this word he uses for soul is this life breath, this living breath that he restores to me. My life breath meaning he revives me. He helps me take a daily breath. I just invite you now. Just take a deep breath. Ah, it's even the process of that starts to slow our heart down.

It slows our breathing rate. It reminds us to be still. I, David said. He feeds me. He gives me something to drink. He. He breathes new life. He restores my life, but he also guides me in the right path. Not just he helps me to be holy and certainly he does that, but he literally guides me down the right road that I need to be going on. The path that is right for me. Now, it's not necessarily I mean, it's certainly a path of safety and a path of security because God is with us. But David would know, being a shepherd himself, he knows there are bears and there are lions that he's going to have to fend off. But the shepherd doesn't run away, doesn't minimize. Instead, turns and faces. He says the Lord provides. He leads me in this way. In fact, this word for lead would come up often in scripture, a couple of most famous places, this same word that David says, He leads me, He guides me in paths. It's the same word used in Exodus 15. When Moses is there describing how God has leading his people, He says it this way In your unfailing love, you will lead the people you have redeemed in your strength. You will guide them to your holy dwelling. The prophet Isaiah would use this same word when he described God as the shepherd, the true shepherd of his people.

He tends his flock like a shepherd. Isaiah 40, verse 11. He gathers the lambs in his arms and he carries them close to his heart. He gently leads and guides those that have young. You see, David reminds us that whether it's in captivity or slavery, whether it's in the midst of a hard season, a challenging circumstance, God is there leading and guiding his people, so much so that he would follow that up with kind of the the the the hinge of this song. He says, even when I'm facing death. Even when I'm walking through the valley of the shadow of death. The shadow. The darkest night. Even when I'm facing things that I don't know how it's going to turn out and I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't have to fear. I don't have to give in to fear, he says. Because you are with me and your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You notice how David switched from third to second person? This is the Lord is my shepherd. He makes me lie down. He leads me. He guides me when I'm walking through the valley, though. Lord you. Are with me. There's a subtle change in the middle of the song that David says. It's not just an idea out here. Lord, you are with me. The reason I don't fear evil and hard things and challenging circumstances is you are with me.

And your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Right. The Palestinian shepherd would have had two implements that he brought with him everywhere. He led his sheep. One of those was the rod. A stick, a club to fend off any unwanted evils. Animals, anything that would try to prey upon his flock. But he also would carry with him a staff, a crook, and that was to help guide his sheep. When they were kind of wandering away, he would guide him back onto the right path. David says, I live this every day. I see this. What I what I'm beginning to see is how you are shepherding me. That you take care of my daily needs, that you provide me the path to go on. And when I'm off, you course correct. You you help protect me from the evil things that vie against me. Because you are with me. And then the song, maybe the bridge or the chorus. One of the one of the repeating lines comes this picture of Now we're at a feasting table. And once again, this idea of God's provision as a shepherd. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows once again. Those pictures of you provide a table of food. My cup is overflowing. Drink. And you anoint my head.

Now, this is a different anointing. One day, David will be anointed as king. This word for anointing here. It's not. It's not that word. It's a different word of this almost. It carries with it the sense of luxury, of extravagance, of of being at a place where you have oil to slick your hair back to run down and smooth your skin, to bring nourishment to your body. It says, even in the midst of my enemies. You provide this food and this drink and this comfort, this place with you where I can feel right at home. So he ends. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Even in the presence of my enemies. Lord, I'm seeing how you are providing for me. I invite you to go back through the Psalms as you're doing your readings to notice what happens when the enemies show up in the Psalms. Most often write. The enemies are called out. They're attacking me. They're pursuing me. They're after me. God, would you save me from them instead? Here it says in their presence, God, you are pursuing me. Your goodness and your love, your hesed. This word that carries with it more than just I like you. But this sense of I love you, I care for you, I want to provide for you. He says that's what's pursuing me, not my enemies, but you and your amazing love.

It's pursuing how I live. See, I'm convinced this was a song David played in his mind over and over again. This was on his summer playlist as he was out in the fields watching over his sheep, just recounting. Not only God, have you been with me in those darkest valleys? God, not only have you provided for me, but rehearsing, even in his own mind and heart, the ways that God has been faithful through the ages. At this wording that that we said, this leading echoes back this word lead he guides it echoes back to the story of the exodus where God leads his people out of slavery and captivity. I have these words that echo of of Isaiah 40 who captured on it when the when the people were in in exile. Reminding them God's not done with you. Even in a hard and a challenging season, God is still leading you. You can trust him. As Christians, I hope as you've been hearing these words and these ideas expressed, that it's that it's doing what music often does, right? When you hear a song, it makes you think of another song. Oh, yeah. You remember how that one said this? We remember. Well, I'm hoping that these songs will prompt those other songs. Does any of this language sound familiar to you? This idea of a shepherd who provides for his sheep? A shepherd who was so willing to protect and watch over his sheep that he would leave 99 behind to go find the one has wandered away.

The shepherd who would say, I'll lay down my life for these sheep, not I'll kill for these guys. He says, I'll lay down my life. No one takes it from me. I willingly lay it down. Right. The song has echoes that actually point us to the true good shepherd, to the one who has always been and who will always be. See, I believe this psalm was on Jesus playlist during his ministry on Earth. There are so many echoes of this psalm out into the life of Jesus as he literally embodies being the shepherd for his people. Perhaps you remember that day in Matthew chapter six on the side of the mountain where Jesus is teaching his flock, and so many are challenged to look at the world around them and say, I'm going to find my identity in in what I can wear or what I can eat or the kind of house I can live in or the kind of car I can drive. And I know it sounds so silly to us that somebody would actually measure their value or their worth based on how someone else looks compared to them. Right. Or what someone else drives or what they know or what they do compared to them.

I know it sounds silly, but just go with me here for a minute. He's teaching them that and then he says these words, Don't worry about your life. Don't worry. About what? What you're going to eat. Why? Because the shepherd, he leads you pastures green. And don't worry about what you're going to drink. Why? Because he's going to take you to the quiet. Still waters. Or about your body, what you're going to wear. How do I look? Who am I? Because he refreshes our souls. Is not life more than food. And the body more than clothes. Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns. And yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Sheep. Don't get. Don't get lost here. Seek the kingdom first. Seek that righteous paths. Seek that path that God has prepared for each and every one of us. He goes, and then everything will make sense. Everything will be provided for you. Or perhaps you remember that time in Mark chapter six? It's after a pretty scary story. John the Baptist has just been beheaded. That whole story is pretty wild. If you haven't read it, I invite you to go back and read Mark Chapter six. It's something worthy of Game of Thrones. Here we find Jesus saying, okay, guys, let's get together. Something tough has just happened.

Let's go off and spend some time together. Let's talk and reflect. You guys haven't had a chance to sleep a wink. Let's get together. And so they hop in a boat and they go across the lake. But the people are watching and they are anticipating where Jesus and his disciples are going. So they literally run around the lake to beat them to the place where they're going. And guess what they do. And so as they arrive, here is what Mark tells us. Verse 34, Mark 634 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them because they were like. Sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. Now it starts to get late and Jesus knows the people are hungry. And so he instructs the disciples. Or rather they come to him and say, Jesus, it's late. They're hungry. Send them off to go get something to eat. And he says, You feed them. And as probably you would respond if I said that to you with a group of 5000 people, you'd say, What are you talking about? We don't have any food. In fact, if we did, it would take a year's wages to provide for these people. So Jesus says, Well, show me what you do have. What do you have? And so we got five and two. Then Mark tells us this. Then Jesus directed them, verse 39, to have all the people sit down in groups. Where. On the green.

Grass.

On the shores of waters, Jesus is teaching and refreshing their souls. He has them sit down once again on the green pasture. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and 50s and taking the five loaves and two fish looking to heaven. He gave thanks, broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied. And once again, we could point to so many other examples of Jesus embodying Psalm 23. Why? Because he's helping us to take this Psalm and make it a song, a melody in our hearts to remember God's provision. That he is with you. You see, there's something powerful about a song. If we'll let it. If we'll let it into our hearts. It actually helped us come alive inside. I've been thinking about. This video I showed you the documentary. And Dr. Cohen was working with patients dealing with dementia. What happens with dementia? As you slowly start to forget who you are. And forget who others are. And yet somehow that music. Tapped into their soul. I love the picture of the woman laid out flat and she said, for two years I watched this woman. She didn't move. And then I play her a song and all of a sudden. It awoke something in her. I itrillioneminded her of something or someone.

You see the older gentleman who was just in tears saying Thank you. Thank you for helping me remember. All right. It's amazing. They have study after study that's gone through and shown this power over and over and over again, not just in this one, but in others who said there were people they thought were mute, couldn't speak, and all of a sudden they started singing. When they listened to music, they had other people who who couldn't move, would stand up and start dancing. They thought they were stuck in that chair forever. Why? Music unleashed something in them. It unlocked this memory. Oh yeah, I can do this. I know these words. I remember my dad's mother was sick and dealing with many of these same kinds of problems. She was in her room one day and as a kid, one of my favorite things about I called her granny that granny would do is she could recite the alphabet backwards faster than I could do it forwards. Z. Y. X. W. V u t. And off she would go, you know, And I was just astounded. How do you do that? Well, my grandmother at 96, I go and visit her and I said, Grandma, Granny, do you remember how you used to say the alphabet backwards? You just finished this conversation? I was asking her, Have you seen my dad? Well, he hadn't been here in a while.

He'd just been there. Have you seen your. My aunt? No. She hadn't visited me in a while. She'd just been there, like, an hour before. But she's forgetting she's losing those. Some of those faculties, right? Remembering who she is and who others are. I said, Granny, do you remember the alphabet? And she sat back and she smiled. She said. Z, y, X, WVU, and off she went and she got a CBA, you know, and she said and then she just laughed. I haven't done that in years. That's somewhere inside. Music has a way of unlocking our hearts to the story that God has placed in us. And sometimes we forget because we get busy with life and sometimes we forget because we have challenging obstacles that come before us. But then every once in a while we hear a song and it makes us remember. For my mom, that song was I don't know what the day will bring, but I know who brings the day. And that was a song for my mom that through her journey, fighting cancer would remind her of who she is, so that even though she was facing this overwhelming challenge, she knew there was a God who loves me. You are with me. When Matthew tells the story of Jesus, do you remember his opening line? He says, Jesus is called Emmanuel.

What does that mean? God with us. That's Psalm 23, in the flesh. And Jesus on the mountain. Is he sending his disciples to go to make other disciples? He says, And surely I am with you always. Psalm 23. My prayer this week is you'll put Psalm 23 on your summer playlist and you'll just start listening and remembering and allowing that the music, the words to unlock that life that God is calling. He's pursuing you. As David said, your life pursues me, God. He is pursuing each and every one of us. May that be true? May that be true? Oh, God. Would you pursue us this week again, as we listen to the music that's on our playlist? God, the ways that it unlocks us and opens us up, God, it helps us to remember dance steps that we've long forgotten. It helps us to remember relationships that have meant so much. Oh God, may this Psalm, may this summer playlist be at work in our hearts this summer? As we get a chance to listen from different songs. In your Psalter. Oh God, may it do in us the work that it has done in so many other lives. Would it help us to remember how faithful you have been from the very beginning? Not just in our own lives, but in every life. I got it. Especially in those moments, those times where it gets hard to see, it gets rocky.

We start to stumble a little bit. God, would you. Would you draw us back in? Close to you? Hello. Would you help us to remember how you have been faithful in our lives? How you've provided daily bread and water to drink, that you've given us the very life breath you've got to pray this week, even as we take a breath. May it? Remind us of your life, that you're breathing into us each day. And then God as we go forth. Maybe go forth in that promise that Jesus gives to us, that you are with us always, no matter what. No matter where. Oh, God. May that be our song this week? And it may it echo so loudly in our lives that we can't help but see it all around us. Ways that you are with us. Ways that you are for us. Ways that you are providing. Ways that you are bringing and breaking through your kingdom and God. Would you help us to join in? Lord, thank you so much. Thank you so much for Psalm 23. Thank you. That it points us ultimately to the Good Shepherd, the one who gave his life for us. God, may we live in the music and the melody of that song. Oh, God. Thank you. We pray all this in Jesus name. Amen.