SERIES: The Lord of Psalm 23
TEXT: Psalm 23:6
MESSAGE: Jesus, Our Journey’s End
“…at a time when life expectancy in the U.S. has dipped and diet-related disease is a leading cause of death, it’s no wonder that Dan Buettner’s decades-long exploration of centenarians who thrive in the longest-lived communities on Earth is attracting lots of attention. In his book and Netflix series The Blue Zones: Secrets for Living Longer, Buettner takes us to five communities across the globe with the highest concentration of centenarians. From the mountain villages of Sardinia to the islands of Okinawa, Buettner introduces us to people who garden, cook, sing, laugh and play. Their weathered skin and slow gaits don’t stop them from living fully, albeit simply.” — Allison Aubrey
“We’d be wise to stop and take note. A body of scientific research validates the blue zone way of life: Good food, good sleep, good friends, plenty of movement and a sense of purpose are a recipe for living better.” — Allison Aubrey
“The great business of life is to glorify God by enjoying him forever.” — John Piper
Q: How can we make it to the end? By learning three principles: (1. The Pursuit 2. The Progression 3. The Promise)
- The Pursuit (v. 6a)
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me…”
“…the one word in the whole psalm that in my opinion has been persistently poorly translated in English.” —Richard Briggs
“Don’t worry. Be happy! Sounds easy enough. Human hearts ache for a happiness serum to drink down as an antidote to life’s angst. Happiness is a relevant topic for modern discussion because its pursuit spans culture, age, and geography. We all want it. We’ve all pursued it. What exactly are we pursuing, and does it even make sense that we are pursuing it? Despite the world’s vigorous striving toward it, its pursuit is flawed both logically and spiritually…Famed psychologist Sigmund Freud notably said, ‘The pursuit of happiness is doomed.’” — Andrea Thom
“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way…” — Isaiah 53:6
“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
“This is the fate of those who trust in themselves, and of their followers, who approve their sayings.14 They are like sheep and are destined to die; death will be their shepherd…” —Psalm 49:13-14
“‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.” — Ezekiel 34:11-12
“It is no accident that God has chosen to call us sheep. The behavior of sheep and human beings is similar in many ways. …Our mass mind (or mob instincts), our fears and timidity, our stubbornness…our perverse habits are all parallels of profound importance. Yet despite these adverse characteristics Christ chooses us, buys us, calls us by name, makes us His own and delights in caring for us.” — W. Philip Keller
“A covenant is neither a cold contract nor merely an emotional pledge. It is giving your whole life to each other, not just physically but also legally, financially, emotionally, spiritually. The binding, legal commitment creates an unparalleled space for trust, vulnerability, and intimacy. Many modern people think the essence of marriage is a romantic feeling, but rather it is the marriage promise that keeps you together through the ups and downs of feeling, which over time provides a depth of love that could not be attained any other way.” — Timothy Keller
“This psalm shows us how active the shepherd is toward us, and this is another signal that the Lord himself is doing something extraordinary for us.” — David Gibson
- The Progression (v. 6b)
“…all the days of my life…”
- The Promise (v. 6c)
“…and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
“In speaking of this desire for our own far off country, which we find in ourselves even now, I feel a certain shyness. I am almost committing an indecency. I am trying to rip open the inconsolable secret in each one of you—the secret which hurts so much that you take your revenge on it by calling it names like Nostalgia and Romanticism and Adolescence…We cannot tell it because it is a desire for something that has never actually appeared in our experience…These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshipers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
“…to be God’s guest is to be more than an acquaintance, invited for a day. It is to live with him. There is a suggestion of pilgrimage in the picture of a progress that ends at the house of the Lord; but also it is a journey home…” — Derek Kidner
TAKEAWAYS: How will you and I make it to the end?
- By seeing God’s faithful pursuit of you
- By remembering that life is a journey
- By finding true contentment in God alone
“What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.” — Blaise Paschal