Surely Goodness and Kindness
Tom Shrader concludes his series on Psalm 23 by focusing on verse 6, unpacking the certainty of God's goodness and lovingkindness as an active pursuit of His sheep rather than a passive blessing. Drawing on Romans 8, 2 Samuel 24, and Philippians 3, he grounds the promise in God's immutability and the unbreakable chain of salvation—foreknown, predestined, called, justified, and glorified. He closes by calling listeners to trust their faith over their feelings, measure their worth through God's eyes, and fix their hope on heaven as their true home.
“God loves you. God who knows everything you've ever done or ever said or ever thought or ever would do, that God loves you.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Psalm 23
Recorded: 2007 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 53 min
Themes: goodness of god, hope, assurance, heaven, trust, God's love, feelings vs faith, identity in christ, struggling with doubt, feeling unworthy, questioning god's love, new believer, grieving, searching for purpose, mature believer, anxious about the future
Scripture: Psalm 23:1-6, John 1:1-4, Colossians 1:16-17, Psalm 13:5, Psalm 31:7, Psalm 86:5, Psalm 100:5, Psalm 106, Psalm 136, James 1:17, Philippians 1:6, Romans 1:16, Ephesians 2:2-4, Genesis 3, Jonah 1:17, Jonah 2:1, Jonah 2:10, Jonah 3:1, Isaiah 55:8-9, Romans 8:28-39, 2 Samuel 24, John 10:9, Philippians 3:20-21, Ecclesiastes 3:11
Theological Themes: immutability of god, golden chain of salvation, predestination, glorification, lovingkindness, perseverance of the saints, justification, foreknowledge
Full Transcript
Welcome and Introduction
Good morning. Great to see you this morning. Grab the bulletin that you received when you came into the room today. If you are with us for the first time, you'll notice that we've provided a guest registry card. We'd ask you to complete that card and drop it in one of the boxes as you leave the room today. On each of those boxes you'll also see a little basket with some packets of information about East Valley Bible Church — we'd encourage you to grab that, and it'll get you up to speed. For those of you who are newer to the church or would like to know a little bit more about East Valley Bible Church, join us for the next Connect to EVBC class. You'll see it listed as the first item in the bulletin. Please register your attendance so that we can have lunch prepared for you, and so that if you have a childcare requirement, we can have childcare available as well.
Let me talk to you about next Sunday and about Christmas Eve. We did tickets this year, and tickets are no longer being distributed, so you don't need them. The whole point of the tickets was to help us understand your preference. If you had asked me what I thought was going to happen, I would have guessed wrong — so it's a good thing we did the tickets. We found roughly twice as many tickets taken for Sunday as for Monday. My thought was there would be a bunch of traditional people saying, "Christmas Eve is Christmas Eve, and who are you to change it?" But you didn't. You said, "No, we're going to change it."
So here is the deal. The whole point of the tickets is to try to distribute attendance equally. If you are saying you just want to help out and are flexible about which service you attend, our preference is for you to come on Christmas Eve. If you cannot do that, the next preference would be the six o'clock service. Both nights, the later the service, the better it would be for you to attend. So if it doesn't really matter to you and you want to help spread things out, six o'clock on Monday might be the best option. If that doesn't work, perhaps four-thirty on Monday, and then six o'clock on Sunday. All the services are the same — pick one, and we cannot wait to see you. Bring your guests, your friends, and your co-workers. We look forward to celebrating Christmas Eve together.
Overview of Psalm 23
Open your Bibles, if you would, to Psalm 23. Today we conclude our study of what has to be one of the most familiar passages in all of Scripture, and surely the most familiar of the Psalms. The very first phrase — "The Lord is my shepherd" — the moment we hear it, many of us are brought back to a childhood memory of being required to memorize it. So often it is also associated with death: a funeral service, a little memorial card with that passage printed on it. Hopefully what we have discovered together is that this psalm is not about dying — it is about living.
The psalm divides into two sections. The first three verses form section one, and verses four, five, and six form section two. In that first section, David seems to be talking to us, writing to us, declaring these truths. Then there is a shift in verse four. Let's look at it.
*"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, and He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul, and He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake."*
It is as though David is declaring these truths to us: the Lord is my shepherd, and because He is, I shall not want, I will find rest, I will find refreshment, and I do find healing. He restores my soul. He guides me. He leads me for a specific purpose — for His name's sake.
David's Prayer in Verse 4
In verse four there is a shift. It is as though David is now writing to God, in the form of a prayer, and we are listening in. He acknowledges that there are scary situations and uncertainties in life, and yet even so, he has no fear.
*"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death"* — even though all of that is true — *"I have no fear. Because you are with me, and your rod and your staff, they comfort me."* They bring discipline when necessary, and they bring comfort. *"You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies"* — a picture of hope. *"You anoint my head with oil, and my cup runneth over"* — there is abundance.
And then today, verse six: *"Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."*
The Shepherd and the Sheep
Let me remind you of the obvious metaphor here. God is saying to His people: I am the shepherd, and you are the sheep. Among all the traits we have discussed that relate to sheep, two summarize it all. They are not very bright animals, and they are defenseless. We are His sheep, and we are totally dependent upon Him. If He does not supply our needs, we will self-destruct.
We are dependent upon Him — and here is what is probably most significant — even though at times we pretend that we are not. We like sheep go astray. We are prone to wander. We are prone to go our own way. The shepherd reminds us that our lives will be ineffective, that we will not live to the fullest, if we try to act as our own shepherd or if we look to someone else to fill that role.
Who Is the Lord?
Who is the Lord? Remember in the first week, we looked at the opening verses of the Gospel of John: *"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and all things came into being through Him. Apart from Him, nothing came"* — into being.
The Shepherd's Realism
In Him was life, and the life was the light of the world. Speaking of Jesus, He is the Creator. Colossians chapter 1, verse 16, Paul says it this way: "For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth, visible, invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through Him and by Him. He is before all things, and He holds all things together." That is who David speaks of when he speaks of the Lord, Yahweh. God did not just set things into motion and then walk away. God is still intimately involved with our lives.
The Lord is my singular personal pronoun. The Lord is my shepherd. Because He is my shepherd, all of these things are true. David clearly emphasizes the care that the shepherd exercises, the diligence, the labor, the love that the shepherd has for the sheep.
Yet in the middle of all this, there is a dose of realism. This verse strikes me a little like wedding vows. When we stand here and perform a wedding, we say, "Do you have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, as long as you both shall live?" We love to point out that those vows anticipate problems — better or worse, richer or poorer, sickness and health. They acknowledge the realities of life. And yet it seems like almost every couple I have ever had the privilege of performing a wedding for, in their minds, though they say yes, they really do think they are the exception. It will not be us. Look at her. Look at him. And then within a month, reality sets in.
David says the Lord is my shepherd — that beautiful, wonderful statement — and yet he acknowledges that this does not somehow put a bubble over us and exempt us from the difficulties of life. There is a repetitiveness to this psalm, and if it feels that way to me, it may to you as well. There is also a heaviness to it. When you start talking about things like the valley of the shadow of death, there is a heaviness to that. The word "restore" implies there is something that needs healing, which implies there are wounds or harm. Being guided implies that sometimes we are confused, uncertain, or lost. And then he says, do not be afraid — not because we are self-sufficient, but because the Shepherd is greater than all of the things we will ever face.
So though there is a heaviness to this psalm, I believe David's intention is that it would be a sweet balm to our hearts — a source of joy, comfort, and peace. And clearly, if he wanted to take away all doubt, verse 6 does exactly that.
Surely Goodness and Lovingkindness
"Surely, goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Let me read a couple of other translations and paraphrases before we break that apart. "Goodness and love unfailing, these will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long." Another reads, "I know your goodness and love will be with me all my life, and your house will be my home as long as I live." And Eugene Peterson in The Message puts it this way: "Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life. I am back home in the house of Yahweh for the rest of my life."
Now, here is what I tried to do this week. You can become so familiar with this psalm that you come at it with all sorts of assumptions. Even if those assumptions are accurate, I think it is best, though it is almost impossible, to try to read it as though you are reading it for the first time. I was trying to come to this verse and say, all right, this is the last verse — we are going to summarize, we are going to tie this together. What would my reaction be if I were hearing it for the first time?
"Surely, goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Here was my reaction: that sounds too good to be true. Your goodness and your lovingkindness are going to be with me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever? That sounds way too good to be true.
Now, my mama taught me that if something sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true. But we know that is not the case here. This is God's promise to you and me, His sheep. So the question we want to open with, and the question we will close with, is this: are you one of His sheep? Have you come to Christ in repentance and faith? Do you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Because if you do, this is not too good to be true. This is absolutely true.
The Breadth of God's Love
Just think about God's love for a moment. Throughout the book of Psalms alone, Psalm 13, verse 5: "I trust in your unfailing love." Psalm 31, verse 7, David writes: "I rejoice in your love." Psalm 86, verse 5: "You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call on you." And then this same declaration — that the Lord is good and His love endures forever — appears in Psalm 100, verse 5, twice in Psalm 106, and twenty-six times throughout Psalm 136 and the psalms following it. When God talks about Himself, He describes Himself as slow to anger and abounding in love and kindness. That is the promise He makes.
Surely Goodness and Kindness
Look at the first word of verse 6: surely. Certainly. Absolutely. He does not say perhaps my goodness and mercy will follow. He doesn't say maybe, or hopefully, or possibly, or I think, or here's my best guess. No, they will certainly follow you. We rest there in one of God's underestimated and undervalued attributes, and that is His immutability. James chapter 1, verse 17: "With God there is never the slightest variation or shadow of inconsistency."
This promise that God has made to His people — and if you want to apply it to the nation of Israel, that's fine — but we can go to the New Testament and find a very similar promise. Paul writes in Philippians chapter 1, verse 6: "I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will continue it until the day of Christ Jesus." Surely His goodness and lovingkindness will follow you all the days of your life.
One author writes this: if the Lord is the shepherd who leads the flock, goodness and mercy are the two sheepdogs that guard the rear of the flock. Not goodness alone, for we are sinners and we need mercy. Not mercy alone, for we are fragile and we need goodness. We need them both.
Paul says in Romans chapter 1, verse 16, "I am not ashamed of the gospel." Why? Because it is the power of salvation to all who believe. The gospel — the good news that Jesus comes, lives, and dies for a specific purpose, to save people like you and me from the consequence of our sin — that is the good news. We are by nature, Ephesians 2:3, children of wrath. We are, Ephesians 2:2, sons of disobedience.
But Ephesians 2:4 tells us that God in His mercy extends mercy to us, and moves our designation from sinner to saint. In doing that, we now become His sheep. And if He is our shepherd, goodness and lovingkindness, grace and mercy follow us all the days of our life.
God Pursues His People
That word translated "follow" in the Hebrew carries more the idea of pursue — that God pursues us. We see that as early as Genesis 3. Adam sins, and almost instantaneously, God asks the question, "Where are you, Adam?" God begins to pursue Adam. God is the hound of heaven, pursuing His people. We see Him pursue Peter. We see Him pursue the Samaritan woman. We see Him pursue Lazarus.
When you think of a biblical illustration of God pursuing someone, the one that immediately comes to mind for me is Jonah. God says, "Jonah, go this way." And Jonah says, "I'm going that way." And away he goes. Jonah chapter 1, verse 17 says the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah. God was not going to let him get away.
Jonah chapter 2, verse 1, Jonah prays from the belly of that fish. God has him right where He wants him, and then He moves him exactly where He wants him. Jonah chapter 2, verse 10: "The Lord commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land." Then chapter 3, verse 1: "Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time." He is the hound of heaven. He will not give up on His kids. He will pursue them and pursue them and pursue them.
Obedience in an Uncertain World
Though He pursues us from behind, He also leads us. All we have to do is be obedient. The world is uncertain and confusing, and sometimes it is complicated, maybe even complex. But in the midst of all of this, the simplest and most effective thing we can do is to obey the shepherd. The shepherd knows exactly what He wants us to do and exactly what needs to be done.
A.W. Tozer writes this: "The man or woman who can wholly and joyfully surrender to Christ cannot make a wrong choice." There is but one fatal choice we can make. Sometimes we become so paralyzed by choices that we are afraid of making the wrong one, but there is really only one truly fatal choice, and that is to not follow Christ — either to not come to Him in faith, repentance, and obedience, or to not obey Him once we are His.
The world can come at us in so many different ways, with so many illusions and so much confusion, that we become almost afraid. But He does not want you to live that way. George MacDonald writes: "He will help you. Do not fear the how." He is going to help you. You may not know exactly the way, but He will show you the way.
Do not be afraid to live boldly. Do not be afraid to make decisions and choices, even though some of them will be wrong. I had a man come in one day who just looked awful. I asked if he was all right, and he said no. He had just been at the mall trying to buy a new pair of gray slacks, and after 45 minutes he could not decide — not the material, not the cut, not even the shade of gray. He had made so many bad choices before that he was afraid to even buy a pair of slacks. God does not want us to live that way.
Are you going to make mistakes? Sure. Are you going to fail? Absolutely. But here is what He wants you to do: do the things He has said to do, and then live boldly — following Him, depending completely upon Him, and going to His Word over and over again. "My word is a lamp unto your path." What does that mean? It guides your way. When I look at this world and it is confusing, and I am not sure, and I do not know exactly what to do or how to respond, God says —
Living Boldly Under the Shepherd's Care
Here is the truth: God speaks either clearly or by inference, gives us principles, and then says, "Go and live boldly, and I will protect you. I will be with you. My goodness, my love and kindness are going to be with you all your life." How? You don't need to know how. That's where the faith comes in. God says it, and it's true.
John White says, therefore, the most important use of Scripture in relation to guidance is that through the study of it, you will become acquainted with His ways and His thoughts. God warns us in Isaiah that "my ways are not your ways, and my thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts." He looks at people differently. He looks at situations differently. It's as though He's saying, "Listen, live confidently, live boldly."
Why live boldly? Because He is your shepherd. Because He is your shepherd, your needs will be met, you will be restored, you will walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and even when there is sin involved, you are forgiven. Even when you do foolish things, you will be restored, and His goodness and His lovingkindness will be with you forever. That means nothing is going to defeat you.
Romans 8: The Promise That Nothing Can Separate Us
If there is a New Testament passage that clearly articulates this whole idea, it is Romans chapter 8. The shepherd is saying to the sheep: there will be scary times, there is this shadow of the valley of death, and there will be times when things begin to fall apart — but that's all right, because He is your shepherd.
Romans chapter 8, verse 28: "And we know God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose." That is the promise. Whatever is coming into our life, we know God is going to use it for good — even if the intent of a person in our life is to harm us or hurt us, even if it is something we would never choose. And that is exactly what He begins to unpack.
It is not a universal promise. It is for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. Verse 30: "For those whom He foreknew, He predestined. Those whom He predestined, He called. Those that He called, He justified. Those that He justified, He glorified." And none are lost along the way.
The Freedom That Comes from Knowing You Cannot Lose Your Salvation
I spoke with a man this week who is a Christian, a follower of Christ, but there is not much joy in his life. In my mind, the lack of joy goes back to one moment, one decision — the understanding in his mind that he can lose his salvation. He believes it is possible for him to break his union with God, so he lives in constant fear. His life is driven by fear, afraid of sin and its consequences, afraid he is going to lose his salvation.
I took him right to this passage. Here is the comfort, here is the doctrinal truth: foreknew, predestined, called, justified, glorified — all of them, and none lost along the way. That doctrinal truth is so important to us, because practically it means we can live a life driven by Him, committed to Him, and free from fear — especially the fear of somehow losing our salvation.
What shall we say, verse 31? "If God's for us, who's against us?" Verse 33: "Who could bring a charge against God's elect?" Verse 35: "Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine?" In all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights, nor depths" — nor subprime mortgages, nor any other thing — "can separate us from the love of Christ."
When Life Comes at You Hard
Though it feels like it sometimes, doesn't it? You had the biopsy on Friday but can't get the results until Monday — that is a fearful time. You know that historically in your office, the Friday before Christmas is when they make the cuts, and it looks like this week could be that time, and you are on the bubble. Life just throws these things at you.
I was listening yesterday to the story of a young girl born in India with four arms and four legs. They performed a 24-hour marathon surgery with around 30 doctors involved, and within several hours of coming out of surgery she was standing up. I don't even have a category for that. Life comes at you with great chasms like that, and then with all these little speed bumps along the way, and He says, "Relax. I am the shepherd. What is going to separate you from My love? None of this. So why are you worried? Don't be afraid. My goodness, my love will follow you all the days of your life."
We know that, don't we? Just about everybody in this room has been around long enough that we would say amen to that. But when that stuff actually comes, it is still tough sometimes. You still find yourself wondering why.
I found a wonderful line from Dave Roper. He wrote this: "Doubt is not at first a sign that our faith has failed, but that it is being assaulted." Some of us have this image that when life throws these things at us —
Shaped by the Master Craftsman
You have all this truth, and so it doesn't affect you — you're a human being. You've been thinking a ton about Jesus in the garden. Jesus is in the garden, sweating drops of blood. Doctors tell us that can only happen under intense anxiety or fear. Jesus knows this. But on comes the enemy, the adversary. He's a liar and he's a murderer. It's not that we're immune to these things. It's that when we stop and catch our breath, our doubt reminds us that we're being assailed — but then we understand that the things that come into our life are not meant to hurt us. That's not God's intent. They're meant to shape us.
So along comes the cancer, or the job loss, or the economic downturn, or you don't make the team, or you don't get invited to the party, or the marriage doesn't work, or the kids — whatever it is. Satan, if he could, and the demons of the world, if they could, would destroy you. But God uses those very things to shape you. They're dangerous tools in the hands of an amateur, but in the hands of the master craftsman, they mold you, shape you, cut you, and take off just the edges.
Last August, Susan and I got a new TV — the old one blew up, and the repair guy said it would cost as much to fix it as to replace it. Susan said, "Why don't you get one you're going to enjoy watching?" I told her she was a Proverbs 31 woman. So we got a good-sized TV, not enormous but absolutely perfect for our house. It was almost like the first time I'd ever really seen high-definition television.
So I'm watching this show on HDTV where a guy and his team build a hotel entirely out of ice. Every year, in Iceland, they literally construct a fully operating hotel from ice — a check-in desk, a bar, rooms — and the temperature throughout the entire hotel is 32 degrees. They show these workers with huge saws cutting massive blocks of ice, fitting them together precisely. They actually cut the ice the year before so it's ready when they return to construct it. Then the entire hotel melts, and they do it all over again the following year.
I was watching these craftsmen work and thinking: if I were the one cutting that ice, I can only imagine how dangerous that tool would be in my hands — and what the finished product would look like. But in the hand of a craftsman, the end result was this breathtaking structure. You take the adversities of life and just leave them on their own, and they can destroy you. But God causes all things to work together. The master craftsman takes even the hardest materials and produces something remarkable.
The Reality of Aging and Suffering
The master craftsman even takes the aging process and works through it. I came across this recently — Dave Barry's description of aging: dental problems, intestinal malfunctions, muscle deterioration, emotional instability, memory lapses, hearing loss, vision loss, seizures, abnormal growths, prostate problems, greatly reduced limb function, massive coronary failures, death, and of course painful hemorrhoidal swelling. Now, those things in the hands of a rank amateur can be purely destructive. But God uses them.
I was talking to a man this morning who's a little older than I am, and he said it's almost every day that you're reminded of the deterioration of this body. Let's just be honest — doesn't life tend to beat you up over an extended period of time until you say, "I don't know if this is really worth it"? Positive thinking won't get you through that. Telling yourself everything will turn out all right won't get you through it either — and honestly, everything might not turn out all right, at least not the way we define it.
What gets me through is understanding that God has a purpose in all of it — everything He is either causing or allowing in your life. He is not out of control. Just the opposite: He is totally in control. You and I are the ones with no control. We have no control over our bodies, no control over so much of what happens to us. In the midst of hurt and pain and suffering and hardship — in short, in the midst of life — the best place you could possibly be is in the hands of God.
David's Census: A Warning Against Self-Reliance
You're in Psalm 23, or Romans 8. Turn to the left — way to the left — to First and Second Samuel. Go to Second Samuel, chapter 24. Here's a fascinating story from the life of David. It's the last chapter of that book. What David does is take a census, even though God had told him not to. And then suddenly he realizes that what he had done was wrong.
Verse 10: *"David's heart troubled him after he had numbered the people, so David said to the Lord, 'I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, O Lord, please take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.'"*
Let's stop there. God said He didn't want David to take a census. Is there anything inherently wrong with taking a census? We do it every ten years in this country. No, there isn't. What God knew was what was in David's heart — that if David started numbering all his people...
Trusting God in the Midst of Distress
When David began numbering his soldiers, his chariots, and his chariot horses, he naturally would have begun to put his faith and trust in those numbers. God said, "I don't want you to put your trust in them. Don't number them. It doesn't matter how many you have. David, if you have ten or you have ten thousand, if I'm on your side, it doesn't matter — you have enough." But the minute David hears ten thousand and it drops to nine thousand, he begins to wonder. David comes to his senses and says, "I have sinned."
Now, God had said not to take a census, and David sinned. But how big a sin is it? It has never sounded like a very big sin — not of Bathsheba proportion. It is just a census. So God communicates to David through Gad the prophet, who comes and says, "All right, God is ready to deal with you, David." In verse 13, it is door number one: seven years of famine come into your land. Door number two: you will flee three months before your enemies while they pursue you. Or door number three: three days of pestilence in your land. "Consider and see what answer I shall return to God."
Look at David's response: "I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of God, for His mercies are great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man." In other words, David is saying, "God, I am so filled with distress I do not even want to pick. You bring what You think is fair." The result, at the appointed time, is that 70,000 men are slaughtered. The sin seems this big, and the punishment seems out here — and that gives just a glimpse of how God sees sin.
What do you do when you are in distress? What do you do in difficulties, in hardship, when you have lost your way, when you are going through the valley of the shadow of death? There is only one place that is safe to be, and that is in the hands of the Shepherd, wherever He takes you, wherever He leads you.
Trust Your Faith, Not Your Feelings
At this point in his study, Max Lucado offers three helpful observations for us in the midst of trial. The first is this: trust your faith, not your feelings. The way it has been said at this church historically is that what I know trumps what I feel.
Now, that does not mean abandoning all feelings, because some feelings are genuinely good ones. Last night at the house, there was a boat parade out back — an elaborate parade of about eight boats, so not quite the Rose Parade. The kids came over, along with some others, perhaps twenty people in all. In the middle of it, it was time for Gracie to eat, and Timmy and Sarah were trying to get her to eat, but she wasn't having it. I was in the kitchen holding Brayden, who had seen enough boats and was finished with them.
Timmy asked me to bring Brayden in, and the moment Gracie saw him, her legs started to kick, her arms started to flail — and suddenly she looked very interested in eating. Susan is always telling me, "Tom, let the food come to you, you don't need to go to it." Well, Gracie was going to the food with great enthusiasm. A few minutes later I watched Sarah with Gracie, and Haley had Yale, who had been crying. She wrapped him up tight in a blanket and held him close, and he stopped just like that. Brayden was running around with fish crackers.
Standing there watching all of it, I had an enormous feeling of what I can only describe as human joy — seeing how God had worked in these children's lives, what incredible mothers and fathers they had become. It was a wonderful moment, and I do not want us, in saying "trust your faith, not your feelings," to wash those moments away. They are rich and wonderful.
What we are saying is that when we get into the midst of difficulty — when the hurt comes, the pain comes, the suffering comes — one of the first things suffering does is pull our focus off God and onto the suffering itself. We talked about this as a staff this week in a prayer time, and I was writing notes as fast as I could. God says, "No, bring that focus back up here to Me." It may feel as though you have been abandoned, but you know you have not been, because He will never leave you or forsake you. In the midst of all the hardship and difficulty of life, I need to remember that His goodness and loving kindness will follow me. I need to trust my faith, not my feelings.
Measuring Your Value Through God's Eyes
The second thing is this: measure your value through God's eyes, not through your own, and not through a human standard.
God's Value on You
A-Rod gets $275 million. Now, I happen to be a guy that says if somebody wants to pay that, he ought to take it. I can tell you I would, fast. I'd do it for $170 million. I'd do it just to play baseball. But we look at that and we value that, and God's value on you is so deep that He sent Jesus to die so that you could have eternal life. This is something I think some of us who are so doctrinally sound sometimes miss. This is really important, and I'm not blowing smoke at you, and I haven't gone liberal and soft.
I just want you to understand this: God loves you. Do you want to let that sink in? God loves you. God who knows everything you've ever done or ever said or ever thought or ever would do — that God loves you. That's the value. Society may not put much value on you. You could be too short or too wide or not pretty enough or not smart enough, whatever it is. But God's love for you is undiminished by any of that.
Keep the Eye on the Big Picture
Here's the third thing: keep your eye on the big picture. Think long term. I wrote this phrase: pursue delayed gratification. You're in it for the long haul. We're in it for all our lives. We even use that phrase — "I gave my life to Christ." Well, He's going to take it forever. This is an unbreakable relationship.
Surely goodness and loving kindness will follow me — how long? All the days of my life. This is an unbreakable union, and there is great joy in it. I understand the heaviness of this. I understand the repetitive discussion about the dark and tough things, but God is saying, "Listen, let's shoot straight with one another." When I was at the doctor not long ago, I said, "Just tell me the truth. Shoot straight with me." He said everybody says that, but only about nine out of ten don't mean it. God shoots straight with you. He says, "Here's what it's going to be — but here's the deal: I'll never leave you or forsake you."
Jesus says in John 10:9, "I am the gate; whoever enters through Me will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture." And the final declaration of Psalm 23 is: "I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." There are probably a couple of different meanings there. Oftentimes it could mean the sanctuary, or it could carry the idea of the temple, the tabernacle, or the church.
Returning Home
In the imagery of Psalm 23, Philip Keller talks about the sequence of the life of a sheep and shepherd. They start in the lowlands, then as summer comes they go to the highlands, and now they are returning back home. This is a family reunion. The moment I hear that — when I think of "I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever" — I think of the fact that Jesus says He has gone to prepare a place for me. If it were not true, He would not have told me, and He is going to come back and get me.
Philippians 3:20 says, "Our citizenship is in heaven." Said another way, our homeland is in heaven. Oswald Chambers says homesickness is one of the burdens God doesn't mind if you carry. Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us He has set eternity in our hearts. Philippians 3:20–21 says, "Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory."
Consider some of the other translations referring to our body in this present state: our lowly body, the body of our humble state, our weak mortal bodies, our vile bodies, our earthly bodies. We are about to exchange those bodies and go to a place — heaven — that is not like home. It is home. It is a place where every tear will be wiped away.
Heaven Is God's Answer to Murphy's Law
Dave Roper writes this: "Everything goes wrong here" — speaking of earth — "nothing goes wrong there. Nothing will be lost, nothing will be missing, nothing will fall apart or go down the drain." And here is a striking line: heaven is God's answer to Murphy's Law. No sin, no sorrow, no abandonment, no factions, no sniping, no slander, no murder, no struggle, no insecurity. That is where we are headed.
The Bible is continually turning our eyes toward that reality. Death for us does not take us from the land of the living to the land of the dead — it takes us from the land of the dead to the land of the living. It is transforming us. It is not a source of frustration for us. That is our future. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord forever and ever.
A Man Troubled by Heaven
I had breakfast the other day with a man who is 83 years old. I love older people, and now that I'm starting to be one, I love them even more — especially when they're older than me. He is 83, still working, and very troubled by the idea of heaven. He finds no comfort in his thoughts about it. He said, "I just can't imagine doing nothing forever. Heaven sounds like hell to me." What he was really saying is that the vision of heaven he had absorbed from listening to people talk about it was actually more like hell.
I gave him Randy Alcorn's little book, *In Light of Eternity*, and I said, "All I want you to do — because we're not going to discuss this yet — is read the book. When you're done, we'll come back and take a couple of Thursday breakfasts in a row and talk through it. But we're not doing anything until you read this." I saw him last Thursday. He said, "Oh my golly, that book has made me so excited to go to heaven. I see that I'm going to be growing and learning. I see what God says." That is our future.
Be Homesick for the Place You've Never Been
Here is what God says to you and me: He wants us to be homesick for a place we've never been, because this isn't home. This isn't even like home. We think it is. We cling to it. But this life is only a foretaste — a place where, momentarily, once in a while, we have a good moment.
Are You One of His Sheep?
This psalm, though it carries a certain heaviness to it, is designed to put joy and comfort in your heart — that we shall not want, and He will take care of you. It acknowledges the reality that there are tough times in life, and there certainly are. But here is the question we must end with: are you one of His sheep?
We started there. What does it mean to be one of His sheep? Do you know Jesus Christ in a personal way? Have you placed your faith and trust in Him? Do you acknowledge your sin and not try to do anything to make up for it?
I was talking to a guy, and he said, "I'm really working at this thing. I'm really trying to do better." And I said, "You're never going to get there. You might do a little bit better by your own standards, but before God, you've already blown it, and you can't make it right, because He demands perfection. Your sin has separated you from Him, and there is nothing you can do." That is religion. But we are not saved by religion.
We are not saved by being part of East Valley Bible Church, or working in children's ministries, or student ministries, or area ministries, or singing in the choir. None of those things save us. Only one thing saves us, and that is God's grace and mercy that He extends to us — unworthy, undeserving. And all of a sudden, rather than being a child of wrath or a son of disobedience, we become one of His sheep, and He is our Shepherd.
Goodness and Lovingkindness All Our Days
Because He is my Shepherd, His goodness and His lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life. There will be scary moments. There will be moments when I sin, moments when I won't obey, moments when life will bring things at me and I find myself saying, "I don't understand why." And He says, "You don't even need to understand why. All you need to know is that I am in control. I am the Shepherd. Obey Me."
That is the best place you can be. Where is the best place for me to be, God? Right in My hands. That is the best place for you to be.
Closing Prayer
Let us pray together. We pray that indeed we would find rest from want and weariness and worry and hopelessness and guilt and fear and loneliness and disappointment and envy and doubt, and that we would be allowed that one burden of homesickness.
God, as Your people, we really do cry out, thanking You for Your goodness and lovingkindness. God, it is beyond our comprehension — though we believe it, beyond our comprehension — that You will never leave us or forsake us. God, that we could dwell in Your house, in Your presence forever. God, thank You for that truth.
Father, I pray especially for this week and next weekend here on campus, as You bring lots of guests, friends, co-workers, students, and others — some who are here simply out of obligation, coming with no expectation. God, may You bring them face-to-face with Your love and Your grace and Your mercy. Father, I ask that this week we would meditate and contemplate Your love to us — not just that You say You love us, but that You have proven You love us with Jesus.
I pray that as we leave this place, we would do so with lives filled with joy, even in the midst of hardship and pain. God, thank You that You are the perfect Shepherd. Thank You for the invitation to come, even and especially when we are weary and carrying heavy burdens. We bring them to You, and You give us rest. God, thank You for that. We love You. We worship You. We praise You. In Jesus' name, amen.