Madison Grace, Provost and Vice President for Academic Administration and Dean of the School of Theology at Southwestern Seminary, preached from Psalm 23 in SWBTS Chapel on September 24, 2024.
The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
W. Madison Grace II 0:01
Well, thank you, 12:1, for leading us in song this morning as we are gathering to worship our Lord. This series has been really interesting to me, and I’m very thankful for the opportunity to come be a part of it. This past year, in particular, in my own devotional life, we’ve been working through the Psalms as a family, working through the Psalms in my own life, and seeing what the Psalms do for us. There’s many times that we can see them just as being content for songs that we can sing today. We see them as being poetry, or maybe we pick pieces out of them that are theology. But as a whole, I like how Bonhoeffer calls it, the “prayer book of the Bible.” It is through the Psalms that we really can find ways that we can think back to God, pray to Him, understand him. And every one of these psalms takes us from a place of pondering about who God is, and moves us to place of being able to understand him and express our love and our gratitude to him.
W. Madison Grace II 1:12
The psalm that has been assigned to me is probably one of the most famous psalms that we can find in all of the psalter, maybe one of the most famous passages of scripture in all of the Bible. It ranks up there alongside John 3:16, Jeremiah, 29:11, Proverbs 3:4-5, etc. And the knowledge that people have of this psalm. If you were going to find it beyond the Bible, you could see it all over our culture. You can see it in film. You can find it in literature. You can see it in many songs that have utilized this psalm. It is familiar to us, and it was really after the Civil War that this psalm becomes especially familiar in an American context, because it was utilized for Christians and non-Christians alike as something that came into our funeral speaking, our funeral messages. Because we look at some themes like, “a dark valley” and the grief and the anguish and the the pain, the problem of evil that is all around us, that we’re all a part of. And we want to find some answer to that problem. There’s something in the human condition that allows us to look at the world around us, in the sinful world, and say, There’s got to be something greater or bigger for us. So, as we think through this psalm, we don’t want to think in terms of, like, this is something that can just bring a balm to my soul that is feeling anguish and feeling just set aside and downcast. It is a psalm that does much more than that. I think we miss the point of the Psalm. Often it’s not about us feeling better about ourselves. It’s about us thinking about the God who has done great things for us, the God who gives us His love, the God who gives us His mercy every single day. And as we think through this psalm together afresh and anew, we can see who it is this psalm is really about, and it’s about our God, and what our God has done for us, that our God is our provider. We’ve read it multiple times this morning. You probably have it memorized in translations that are slightly different here and it’s tripping you up every time we go through that. But let me just read it as a whole one more time to get our minds fixed upon this text.
W. Madison Grace II 3:53
The Lord is my shelter. I have what I need. He lets me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He renews my life. He leads me along the right path, for his name’s sake. Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, 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. Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live. Let’s pray together to have the Spirit illumine this text to us.
W. Madison Grace II 5:03
Most Gracious Heavenly Father. We thank You for Your Word. We thank you for the way in which it’s speaks into our lives every day. We pray in this moment that your spirit that inspired this text can illuminate to our hearts and shape us more into your image, to worship you, to do your will and your work in this world. In your name we pray, amen.
W. Madison Grace II 5:36
So when we’re looking at this text, there’s some questions that come to mind. And it’s really about what is the provision of God? And when we think about how God provides for us, we have to go back to the question, who is this God that is providing for us? And this really is the question, I think, that the world is asking all the time, who is God? And in the world around us, we can run across people who think about God in terms likeChristians do. He’s this creator. He’s in charge, but we don’t really have a relationship with him. Or we run to other religions and they see multiple gods out there. Or we run to the atheists who say, Well, there isn’t a god, and maybe I’m mad at him, you know. And so we have these different concepts of who God is, and we’re trying to answer them, but with the way the world looks at this, oftentimes, and trying to look at the question of who is God and what he does for us is often found in ways that are self serving. We want to believe in a God, because that God can do something for me. And so even when we think about God as provider, we can come at this text in ways that aren’t really beneficial for us. And understanding the right relationship between the creator and the created, between the one who is holy and pure, the one who has to be redeemed from the sin that’s in their life, we need to ask the question, well, who is this God that stands before us?
W. Madison Grace II 7:03
And I know some people think, do people really ask that question? Is that just Christians trying to push on their ideas to the rest of the world? I would say yes. People are asking the question about something that is greater than them. And we can look at all the proofs philosophically for the existence of God, they all come back to some sense of understanding who God is and how I relate to that, whether some sense of moral code that’s in me, or seeing some type of designer that’s out there, we come to the place of saying, there probably is something greater than me. I can’t really define that, but there has to be something greater than me out there. In fact, when we look at this text of Scripture itself, we recognize in Romans 1 that Paul is telling us this exactly, or in this world that we live, we know that His invisible attributes, that is his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. And as a result, people are without excuse. So what does that mean? That means that every human knows that there is something higher, whether they want to acknowledge it or not. It’s in us. It’s part of the created order. We exist that way to such a degree that when we don’t recognize and honor God rightly, we are condemned because of that. We are without excuse. That’s what the text says here. So in this world that we live in, we long to understand who this God is. We long to tell people who this God is, but we need to find a remembrance of who this God is for our lives. We need to think deeply about who he is. So that’s really the question, who is God? How do you define that?
W. Madison Grace II 8:46
And I think this text, in the very first verse, gives us one of the best theological statements that we can find anywhere in Scripture about the question of who God is. And it’s answered this way, the Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want. Or, as the CSB says, I have what I need, In Hebrew, these are just four words, four words that are packed full of theological force that we need to pay attention to. So who is this? Who is this God? We first come to the word here, the Lord. And we find that in our translation just says “Lord,” but this is really Yahweh. This is the name that is given to God. When Moses is at the burning bush and he’s trying to say, Who is this? This is a something that I cannot conceive of. There’s this bush that’s not being consumed. It’s speaking to me. There’s something greater than me. Who are you? I’m going to go back and tell people that you’re telling you’re calling me out to go lead them out of Egypt into the Promised Land. Who are you? God? What is your name? And God tells him, I am who I am, or some translations I will be who I will be. And we can get deep into understanding what all that is. And the philosophers would love that, as they think about the essence of who God is, and talk to Dr Jennings later, he can get into the depth of that. But the reality is here that we are appealing to the God of the Hebrew people, the God of the Israelites, the God that has taken his people, that he has called out from Egypt to the Promised Land. This is the God we’re looking at. This is the remembrance that you find here at the very beginning of this psalm, that the people that would be reading this are very accustomed to thinking through the Exodus. This is who we are as the people of God. And this is who our God is and what He has done for us. This is the Lord. But who is this Lord?
W. Madison Grace II 10:52
The text goes on and says, he’s my shepherd. And you might be thinking, Well, why didn’t you say King? Why do you say some type of ruler, some philosopher? Some of these greater names that are out there? No, David says, The Lord is my my shepherd. And it’s in that word, that concept, that we really find our theology coming together, that we’re thinking about who God is? Well, God is one who is a shepherd over us. So what’s a shepherd? I know there’s a lot of city folk in here, and you might not understand that out there, beyond the cities, out here, there are these things called farms, you know? And that’s where our food comes from, right? You don’t know. I go to Walmart. I don’t need to go to a farm. It’s like, well, it has to get there some way, right? And so on a lot of these farms, and even down just south of here, there’s a whole bunch of sheep farms that you can go to, and you can find sheep. Not a major product here in the United States, but if you go over to other parts of the world, sheep are plentiful, and you get around sheep, and you realize that these are dumb animals, right? And then you feel offended when you look at this. Lord is my shepherd. He’s a shepherd. What does that make me? He’s like, Oh, I get it. I’m a sheep, and I need a shepherd. So what does a shepherd do? A shepherd tends the flock. A shepherd takes care of the sheep, the dumb, smelly sheep that sometimes go off on their own, that have to deal with the dangers of all kinds of animals coming out to get them. The Shepherd is the one who’s going to protect them. He’s going to be the one that looks over them. He is going to be the one that provides for them. And so as David’s writing this, we recognize David himself was a shepherd. He was a shepherd boy when he was called out to be anointed to be king of Israel. He understands this. He’s the one who’s fought lions. He’s had to ward off those who are coming after his flock. He’s out there. He understands that work. But more than that, the people of Israel would understand this. They understand what shepherds are. They’re everywhere. They may not think highly of them at times, which is why this is a really bizarre way to think about God, for some people’s concept, but it’s the right one that they can understand. The way in which a shepherd takes care of his sheep and the fullness of providing and protecting is what we see here. So who is God? Well, he is the Lord, my shepherd.
W. Madison Grace II 13:25
And then the other side of verse one comes along and gives us the better side. Who is he? He takes care of us. We have what we need. To say it in another word, another way, we lack nothing. There is nothing that we need that is not provided for us. However you want to think about that text, you have to think about this is who God is. This is how he acts upon us, and this is how we’re taken care of. We have what we need when we feel like that. We don’t have the contentment in the world around us. It’s not so much like, well, the world’s against me. I don’t have what I need. I wish I could make more money. I wish I could have more of these things. I mean, the iPhone is about to come out, and surely I need that, even though I don’t have a job, and I need that. That’s what I need. I’m like, Oh, God, are you going to give that to me? These are things that I desire and I want and I need. That’s not what we’re talking about here. He’s talking about the provision that we have. And the right understanding of the relationship […] that God is our shepherd and he provides what we need, gives us the right sense of saying, I have contentment in the Lord. So that’s who God is. Who is God? The Lord is my shepherd. I have what I need.
W. Madison Grace II 14:44
Is that how you think of God? Do you have that type of contentment? Do you have that type of trust, that this God will actually provide and protect you? Are you allowing the pressures of the world around us […] concepts of unbelievers out there, to change your mindset, that you have a theology that says God’s not really faithful. I know I can say that with my mouth, but in my heart, in the way in which I act, in which I respond to my God, I don’t know if I truly trust him to take care of all my needs. But look at the text, The Lord is my shepherd, and I have what I need. Lest you think I’m putting too much theological import into one verse, it goes on. There are four different actions that we find here in verses two and three that let us see what the shepherd really does for us. And just quickly walking through them, we see this. Two of these have to do especially with the sheep metaphor. And then the last two look at us in particular, and we can understand this. What does the shepherd do for us? He lets me lie down in green pastures. What are green pastures? It’s exactly what you think it is. This is a pasture where there is a plentitude of grass that is very verdant and green, meaning that there’s plenty to eat. And he takes us there. The Lord doesn’t take us to a desert somewhere and say, okay, find your own food. He takes us a place that really provides for us. That’s what the Good Shepherd does. That’s what the providential care of God gives to us. He lets us lie down in green pastures. Furthermore, he leads us beside quiet waters. So the two main provisions that we need as animals and humans in particular, are food and water. God’s going to provide those things. And it’s not just any type of water. He’s not taking us to a stream that has a little bit, that’s really muddy and there might be some parasites in there, something gross like that. He takes us to the freshest waters, the quiet waters, the best streams that can really revive us, that can quench our thirst. This is the providential care of our good and great God. This is the providential care of our shepherd. Third, he turns to us. In particular, here, he says he renews our life. Another way of thinking about this is understanding like this Shepherd here is helping us find our strength again. There’s this turning back to where we were in, having health, that he’s bringing back to us. So when we are down, when we are tired, when we just can’t do it anymore. The shepherd comes along with us and provides what we need and restores us. Our soul comes alive again. Our bodies come alive again. He gives us what we need. And fourthly, he will lead us. As he does that, on the right paths, the right ways, the straight ways, however you define that. We think about the direction that the God gives to us, the providential care that he provides for us […] he’s pointing us in the right direction, towards righteousness, towards the paths that are green valleys and quiet waters and places that renew our strength. That’s what the Lord is doing. He’s guiding us to do that. But don’t miss what the shepherd is doing and why the shepherd is doing it. Notice this with me, the last part of verse three. There we have this clause. He does these four things as a shepherd, for his name’s sake. For his name’s sake God is doing this work, not just to take care of us. There is this mindset that God exists for us, that we have some type of theology that says, well, he’s out there for us, and we just do these certain things and he’ll give us everything that we need. That’s a false theology. The right theology takes us forward and says, This is who God is, and we praise Him. All the work that he does is for His glory. We can see that here, these things that he’s doing are for him. We benefit through that, but they’re ultimately for him, for his name’s sake, and we rest in that. Because when he operates that way, for His glory, we also recognize that it is for our good, because, as he is Shepherd, we have what we need.
W. Madison Grace II 19:23
So perhaps now you’re thinking, But wait a second, is that really true? There’s some objections that we can have to that type of life that seems too simple, that there’s a good God out there, he’s going to direct me to the right path. That sounds too good to be true, because I know that there are hardships. I feel them. There are griefs in my life, there is pain, there is suffering. Even this morning, we prayed about wars that are going on around the world. How can a good God allow these things to occur? And David understands that objection. It is the objection […] that humans have had since we started thinking about objecting to the goodness of God that comes to us when we’re dealing with theodicy and the problem of evil in front of us. And he says this here, even when (this is not some type of small conditionals) even when there’s a certitude of this, even when I go through the darkest valley. So when that happens to you, believer, when that happens to you, friend, when you go through those darkest valleys, how are you going to respond? It’s like, well, how dark is the valley? Dark pointing towards death. Can it get darker than that? It is the place that we can look at where we can’t think of there’s any way of escaping. How can we see anything? It is so dark. We are so lost. We’re so alone in this darkest valley, what am I going to do? You’ve been in that place. You feel alone. You feel apart from God. Where’s your trust in him? Where’s your theology that the Lord is your shepherd coming in to help and assist you in those dark times?
W. Madison Grace II 21:18
I think about this passage, and I go to a book that we all should read, called Pilgrim’s Progress. If you haven’t read this, add it to your list. It is a classic, and we all need to know this. It’s a story about a person named Christian that is on his pathway to the celestial city, and through this process, he runs against all kinds of interesting encounters with people and other challenges that are before him, but this is one place where he goes through [is a] dark valley. He’d run across some other people. They [said], don’t go down to that valley, there are lions in there. And so he’s really scared, but he wants to go to the celestial city. So let me read an excerpt. Brother, because Bunyan says it better than I can, he says, Now, before he had gone far, he (Christian) entered into a very narrow passage, and looking very narrowly before him as he went, he espied two lions in the way. Now, thought he, I see the dangers that Mistrust and Timorous (the two people who told him about it) were driven back by. The lions were chained, but he saw not the chains. Then he was afraid, and thought also himself to go back after them, for he thought that nothing but death was before him. But the porter at the lodge, whose name is Watchful, perceiving that Christian made a halt as if he would go back, cried unto him, saying, is thy strength so small. Fear not the lions, for they are chained and placed there for trial, for trial of faith where it is, and for discovery of those who have none keep in the midst of the path and no hurt shall come unto thee. Then I saw that he went on trembling for the fear of the lions, but taking good heed to the directions of the porter, he heard them roar, but they did no harm.
W. Madison Grace II 23:17
There are lions in our darkest valleys that are roaring at us right now, but when we remember the proper question answered as, “God is the Lord who is our shepherd, I have what I need,” we can walk through that valley, however deep and dark it may be. To the person who trusts in God as a provider this way, understands this that as the text says, “I fear no danger for you are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.,” this is what we do. We walk a path–we’re not promised that it’s an easy path that we’re going to walk. We’re promised a path that our God will ultimately lead us to, that he is the one that will lead us to these green pastures and these quiet waters, that he will renew our souls, and He will direct us for His glory and his great name’s sake, even when we walk through dark valleys. Again, is this the picture of God that you have in your mind? If so, does your life live out the type of trust that you have in that type of God?
W. Madison Grace II 24:32
The text continues on from seeing who the shepherd is to really showing us the fullness of the goodness of the shepherd, as we read here in verse five, it says, You prepare a table before me and the presence of my enemies, You anoint my head with oil, and my cup overflows. So what’s going on here? We have this picture now of the provision of God, and there’s a sense where we can think, yeah, God provides what I need. And that need is like, really basic. I get the minimum amount that I need, just to go by. That’s not who our God is. When we’re seeing here that he’s providing what I need. It is for His glory, but it’s also for our good. And what he does, he invites us to a banquet table, and he gives us the fruit from him in abundance. That’s what we need to see here, a massive amount of abundance. We’re sitting at this table with him, and he’s giving us food. He’s anointing our head with oil, and our cup itself is overflowing. Perhaps David has in mind here some some ideas beyond the Old Testament that we can see how these three things of grain and oil and wine come together to give us a depiction of the fullness of the promise of God that he’s going to ultimately give to those that are with him. These are the fruit of the labor of the people that seek after the Lord. You can find this in other places, like Joel, too. Perhaps that’s what’s going on here. But we see this, in the presence of our enemies, the Lord is doing these good things for us. This is not some sense of like, you know, you’re with sibling and you’re sticking your tongue out there, like, Look what I got and you didn’t get it. Ha, ha, ha, right? This is the sense of saying, God is giving us the fortitude to be able to eat in abundance, knowing that danger is ever persisting at us, but knowing that that danger is constrained, it cannot come to us. And because of that, we can eat at this banquet table to our fullest with our good and great God, because we know that as this comes to a conclusion in verse six, that only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life.
W. Madison Grace II 26:47
Now I want us to recognize this again. Go back to the beginning. The question is, who is God? We answered it with, The Lord is my shepherd. I have what I need. And I think sometimes we come to the end of this, it’s like, Okay, I’m going to have goodness. I’m going to have faithful love […] some sense that when we follow God, we get these commodities that come to us, but they’re not commodities, not things that we add to our life. We look at this very carefully. When we really follow through with seeking the Lord and understanding that we have what we need, it’s not some things that we get, but it is a person. It’s God himself. Because what indeed is good is actually God. What indeed can be our provision through faithful love? It is found only in his person himself. So why are we asking this question? Who is God? Because that’s the only question we need to be asking, and when we answer it correctly, everything else falls into place. So why does goodness and faithful love pursue you all the days of your life? Because you’re with the Lord, who is your shepherd. And just like Christian, as we’re going through this pathway with ups and downs, we will make it to the celestial city. We will see our God. We will see His goodness and His faithful love come to fruition for us, and we can express with David here that we will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as we live. These are truths that we can give to ourselves when we are rightly seeking after God and knowing who he is. This Psalm is a Psalm of remembrance. It’s a Psalm of understanding. It’s a Psalm of looking to who is actually in control of everything. And we see him as a shepherd. We see him as our Protector. We see him as our provider. So friends, be encouraged by the reality of who God is.
W. Madison Grace II 29:05
But let’s not end here. Let’s understand, like the fullness of understanding, this God is really only found in Jesus, Christ himself. This Psalm is in his mind, I think, when he’s talking in John 10 and he says, I am the good shepherd. We understand that he is making a claim that he indeed is God, and as those that come to Jesus are the ones that can really come to the shepherd that will protect and provide for them. We understand at the end of Matthew 28:20, he says, Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. We understand that our good shepherd will never leave us nor forsake us, that He is the one that is leading us in all these ways, we understand that this same Good Shepherd is the one who has come and become incarnated like us. As Hebrews says, is like us in every way, except in sin, knowing that he has done that so he could go to the cross at Calvary, and as he goes through the valley of the shadow of death, he doesn’t fear any evil, because he knows that he will be resurrected, and those that are joined to him will have a resurrection like his. Those that are joined to him understand that our Lord and our Savior has been like us in every way. There’s no temptation that you’re going through that Our Lord has not understood. There’s no valley that you’re going through, that he [hasn’t] gone through himself and has overcome […] because that’s who our good shepherd is. So how do you think about who the Good Shepherd is? John 10 continues on, and he says, I know my sheep, and I give them eternal life. Jesus Christ is our good shepherd, and in him we have what we need.
W. Madison Grace II 31:08
Pray with me, Most Gracious Heavenly Father. We thank you for this text. We thank You that You indeed are our good shepherd through Jesus Christ, that we can know you, that we can trust in you. And Father, I pray for those that are here, that are going through struggles, that are in this deep valley, and they are fearing, that they can be reminded that you indeed are our shepherd, that you indeed are good, and that your goodness and faithful love will pursue us all the days of our life because you pursue us so encourage our hearts. Father, renew our life today and help us remember what you said in Hebrews 13. Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead, our Lord Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, equip us with everything good to do His will, working in us what is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever, amen.
