Psalm 23: The Lord is My Shepherd (Part 2)

Psalm 23:4 "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me."

Sorry, friends. I simply cannot go through Psalm 23, the most popular of all of the Psalms, in one day. Yesterday, we did a broad overview of this psalm, seeking how it can be both a stuffed animal to comfort us and a double-edged sword to convict us. Today, I want to zero in on this Psalm and speak of a concept addressed within it, that being (what I'm going to term) the Lord's present leadership.

When you think of the terms "present" and "leadership," the definition of this term should be pretty straightforward. "Present" means that God is with us, and "leadership" means that God is leading and guiding us. In Psalm 23, we see most beautifully these two principles put together, giving us the great idea of the Lord's present leadership. Although the Lord's leadership is most beautifully stressed in the first three verses of the Psalm, we see both God's presence and God's leadership in verse 4, to which we turn today.

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death," David says, "I will fear no evil." This is one of the boldest statements perhaps found in the entirety of the Bible. David is quite literally proclaiming that he has not even an ounce of fear in even the deepest and darknest of situations in this life. The question remains: how? "for you are with me," continues the psalmist, "your rod and your staff, they comfort me." We often skip past the words "rod and staff" in this psalm, but we ought not to. The "rod" David is speaking of here is a shepherd's rod that is used to protect the sheep. If a wild beast were to come to attack and devour the sheep, the shepherd would use his rod to fight it off. The shepherd's rod was his fighting club--his defense weapon that provided protection from the sheep's enemies. Furthermore, the "staff" that David is speaking of is the shepherd's guiding tool. Sheep are stupid, and the shepherd used the staff to guide them along when they could not find their own way. Thus, the staff provided the sheep with leadership, that is, a known path to follow. In this very verse, even in the valley of the shadow of death, David makes known to us the Lord's present leadership.

So, where's the application today? Yesterday we spoke of not wanting and not fearing. Today, I want to take those problems to their root cause: distrust in the Lord's present leadership. If we want something beyond what God has for us or fear something that is under God's hand of sovereignty, the reason for this is because we are not trusting in the Lord's present leadership, that is his leading presence. God promises both in this Psalm and throughout all of scripture to both be with us and to guide us, allowing us to be content with what we have and fear nothing of this world. The question before us this morning is this: Do we trust in that very fact? Are we able to have faith that God is with us and guiding us even in the valley of the shadow of death, or do we give up and become discontent and fearful? I encourage you today to take hope in the fact that the Lord is your shepherd who is both with you and leading you. I promise you that if you believe in these things, you will neither want nor fear.