Psalm 23:6 "Pursuing and Keeping" - Steadfast Hope with Steven J. Lawson

[Music] well good morning welcome to steadfast hope wherever you are watching from around the world welcome we're here in Dallas Texas again I have my very good friend Kent Stainback and we just received word from President Trump yesterday that we're in lockdown mode until the end of April so I know we're going to continue to be doing this at least we then and who knows what the future will will have for us but today we're going to be wrapping up Psalm 23 so it's going to be a great study today I'm very excited to step into this and let me just begin in a word of Prayer father as we start this study I pray that you will be the teacher you'll work through me use this to bless everyone who's watching in Christ's name Amen well we're in Psalm 23 and we've come down to the last verse verse 26 and the title I've put on this morning devotion is pursuing and keeping pursuing and keeping and let me read this verse you know it probably from from your childhood surely goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever I mean that verse is about as good as it as it gets everything in Psalm 23 has been building to this to this last verse and it describes Paul Paul David's personal relationship with God and as I was looking at this Psalm just a couple of observations this Psalm begins with the Lord verse 1 the Lord is my shepherd it ends with the Lord I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever so that's like bookends around Psalm 23 the Lord the Lord and the ideas and everything in between is the Lord's but I took my pen this morning Kent and drew a circle around every time I see the word my eye or me and it's 17 times invert in just these six verses 17 times my shepherd I shall not want he makes me to lie down he leads me he restores my soul he guides me even though I walk about I fear no evil you are with me you comfort me you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies you anoint 'add you have anointed my head my cup overflows goodness and mercy will follow me and I will dwell in the house of the Lord the strong emphasis upon this highly personal relationship that David has with the Lord and this speaks volumes to us that we don't have just external religion we have an internal relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ every moment of every day we are in the confines of this relationship that we have with God no matter where we go no matter what we go through the Lord is with us the Lord is in us the Lord goes before us the Lord is under us the Lord comes in behind us we are just surrounded by the Lord so as we look at this last verse two truths that that David emphasizes first is God pursues us so in verse 6 he says surely let's just stop here for a moment that that's an emphatic word an emphatic word means that that there is no doubt about this that it is indeed this is absolutely true so surely and now these two virtues of God these two attributes of God are in hot pursuit of day goodness and loving kindness now the word goodness is is a broad word that just takes in all of the blessings and all of the benefits that come flowing into our lives from the Lord it speaks of God's spiritual prosperity and his welfare that is lavished upon us so this goodness and then loving-kindness it's a Hebrew word I'm gonna pronounce it because it's the Old Testament counterpart for agape in the New Testament agape love this is a said this is God's loyal covenant love his unbreakable irrevocable love that can never be taken back it is his steadfast love and it comes from a root word Hassad that means to bend down or to bow down and it's really the idea of God reaching down from the heights of heaven to put his hand upon us it's his condescending love we can't reach up all the way to God because of our finite humanity and our sinfulness but God can reach down to us and this word loving-kindness represents this so he says surely goodness and loving kindness will follow me that this this word follow I looked it up and it means to chase after it means to pursue after literally - the idea is to run after to be in hot pursuit after us well we cannot get away from God's loving-kindness and and and God's goodness and goodness and loving kindness here are represented in a figure of speech we call person vacations which is we assign human-like qualities to an inanimate object so goodness and loving kindness is really God Himself who is full of goodness and full of loving kindness it's not just that this inanimate thing goodness and loving kindness is chasing after us it's God Himself who is full of goodness and who is full of loving kindness is in hot pursuit after us every moment of every day God is relentless in his pursuit of us who are in Christ Jesus and we would say so how long I mean it's too good to be true so for how long is God following us and pursuing us and he says all the days of my life this is a never-ending pursuit of God to the end of my days this is how the Christian life began we were running away from God and he came in hot pursuit after us the Bible says there's none who seeks after God no not one and it was God who pursued us and once God has laid hold of us he never stops pursuing us it's like the husband even after the wedding he still is in pursuit of his wife - to love her and to show his his affection and kindness towards her that's the way God is toward us so just to wrap up this first part of verse 6 it means that God never gives up on us that God never stops pursuing us he never ceases loving us and he never ceases pouring out his goodness and his loving kindness upon us I mean to be a to be a believer in Jesus Christ and to be a Christian is to be the very object of God's love and his grace he would say well how could it be any better well he adds at the end of verse six it is better not only does God pursue us but this says God keeps us in other words once he has laid hold of us he will never let us go so at the end of verse six he says and I will dwell and let's just stop right there this is a very important word the very first word it's and in other words this is inseparably connected with what has preceded it's not or like we would choose either the first half for the second half of the verse the word and means this is inseparably connected and linked together not not only does he pursue us but and there's even more he says I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever listen once we moved into the Lord's house we'll never move out once we move into the Lord's house he locks the door and throws the key away and we are forever kept in the house of the Lord he says I will dwell the word dwell means - literally - sit down the idea is to sit down at a table which is what verse 5 was saying he prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies for us to dwell in the house of the Lord means that it's not that we just remain standing and we're ready to walk back out at some moment no we have moved in to stay and we've unpacked and we are seated at the table and the Lord is serving us and preparing a table and we make our home now in God's house we live in his presence every moment of of every day is coram Deo in the presence in the face of God never separated from God the house of the Lord indicates that we live in the Lord we live with the Lord and it's an intimate fellowship and close communion with the Lord and we would ask so how long are we allowed to live with the Lord I mean is this a month lease is this a year-long lease Kent to put that in real estate terms and he goes no we're gonna dwell in the house of the Lord forever forever literally for the length of days these days will never come to an end it is what this is saying that once we move into the house of the Lord we will never move out and this is what we call the eternal security of the believer that once saved always saved once indwelling always indwelling in the house of the Lord there is nothing that you could ever do to fall away from his grace John 10 verse 27 my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give to them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them from my from my hand for my father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one shall pluck them from my father's hand I and the father are one so we are forever in the Lord forever in his house and a house is a very personal thing can't I've been in your house you've been in my house and it's very personal to being someone's dwelling place because I learn a lot about you when I'm in your home and you learn something about me when you're in my house you look at the what's hanging on the wall what's on the bookshelves etc well we live in the Lord's dwelling place in his house and it also speaks to the intimacy and the closeness of this relationship that we have with him in in a sense to kind of stretch the metaphor it's not even that we live in his office where there's just business taking place you know we live in his house where we know him in a close personal way so Psalm 23 ends in such a wonderful way the Lord pursues us and the Lord keeps us and so once he catches us he never stops chasing us and his love is inescapable we can never get away from his love even if hypothetically we tried to he can run faster than we can and he is in hot pursuit of us and this is the truth of the word of God and this is only true for those who are believers it's only true of those who can say the Lord is my shepherd can you say the Lord is my shepherd if you can then I want you to know surely goodness and mercy is following you every step of your life and one day not only will you be in the Lord's house in this life but throughout all eternity you will live in the house of the Lord forever so this is a great devotion for us to start the week can't and I know this is true in your life so what questions do you have that that have come in for us well some questions here number one for for us a lot of us life has been turned upside down yeah we don't know if a business is going to come back our daily routine is totally different yeah those in ministry are wondering the giving is going to go down how are we going to make it churches are wondering if they're going to make it how do people sometimes take when you read this Psalm 23 yeah there's a tendency to think well wait a second that's not where I'm living so how do we connect this with the really daily concern that we have or and even sometimes why am i living I'm fearful to go to the grocery store yeah yeah no I hear the question the good thing about this Psalm is that it's talking about those things that money cannot buy the real prosperity in life that's great which is love and joy and peace and you can't put a price tag on what this Psalm is is offering and we would give up all the riches in the world if we could but experience the fullness of this in our lives this is not a guarantee that there will not be speed bumps in life and difficulties in fact he says even when I walked through the valley of the shadow of death in verse 4 he says you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies verse 5 so this is not saying it's just all smooth sailing through this life but what it is saying is that where the Lord guides the Lord does provide and he doesn't provide our Greed's but he provides our needs and so we do know the Lord's gonna take care of us now it's unsettling it's unsettling for all of us I mean who knows what the future holds we don't but the Lord does and he goes before us so we just have to trust and and rest in in the Lord and but this psalm is not a a prosperity gospel which is no gospel this is actually the truth in spite of our circuit in spite of our circumstances the Lord's goodness and his loving-kindness is is poured out upon us and we know that sometimes the Lord has to shrink before he then grows and that's with Gideon and his army the army was just too big you're gonna have to whittle it down to a size that I can work with God was saying and this may be a size where God a time where God removes some of the fat in order that in our leanness there would be greater strength and growth what else have you got Kent well we have another question from our friend here in Switzerland he says in 6b we read about dwelling in the house of the Lord uh-huh is is there also this willingness of the believer that comes from God that has regenerated him so that earthly things are second and only we feel more I guess a priority to serve God's purposes yeah absolutely and anything from Switzerland is gonna be a good question we love Switzerland home of the Swiss Reformation yes in in the miracle of the new birth God takes out our old heart of stone gives us a new heart of flesh with new affections and new desires or spiritual things and a longing for a world to come and a home in heaven one day and all of that is the fruit of the new birth and so yes our questioner is is so correct and and would have loved to have brought that out but he's helped me bring that out right now here's another great question we are so quick to rely on our own abilities how do we turn more to God's sufficiency yeah well that's why it has to be a daily thing and even a moment-by-moment thing and we can't just check in with the Lord once a week or once a month that we have to stay in close contact with the Lord as we walk with Him and walk beside him and I think we become self-reliant when we're away from the Lord but when we are close to the Lord we realize that and it's in my weakness that his strength is made perfect and he I must decrease and he must increase remember that John 3 verse 30 you did a lot of study on that verse I know and it's as I am decreasing he is increasing in the reality of my experience with him so this is a great time to do that this is a great time and none of us really voted for it right but but God is running the universe and this is what he has ordained for us and so it's a good time yeah because it's a good spiritual time for us it's there's uncertainty and upheaval in the physical financial world that there's no uncertainty in the spiritual kingdom of God and so it's a great time for us to be with him well we need to wrap this up thank you for watching and being a part of this study wherever you are may good nough sand mercy being be pursuing you and overtaking you and we'll be back tomorrow morning and we'll be in a very choice portion of scripture I can hardly wait for tomorrow so may God bless you greatly as we've had this time together may your hope be steadfast in the Lord [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music] you

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Length: 25min 46sec (1546 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 30 2020