Rest in the Goodness of God

Scripture Passage

Psalm 23

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Sermon Script

Today’s psalm is psalm of King David. This is perhaps most famous psalm from the Bible.

It’s so beautiful.

It has given peace and comfort to so many people throughout the ages. It still does.

The Lord is my shepherd. It’s such a famous line. A comforting line.

I shall not want. With God as my shepherd, I will truly lack nothing.

How comforting that is. What peace that gives us.

In all of your striving, you can rest in the knowledge that God is your shepherd and will provide everything you need.

David came up with such beautiful imagery because he had intimate knowledge of what a shepherd did.

Before he became famous, he was a shepherd.

In his settled life, he tended to his family’s sheep while his older brothers were off at war.

He took his flock beside still waters. He warded off creatures trying to eat them. He knew the peace of still waters.

These experiences became images he drew upon later in life. Because later in life, his life was very unsettled.

The prophet Samuel came to his town and anointed him as the future king of Israel. The problem is, there was already a king of Israel – Saul, the first king and monarch of Israel.

To be anointed king of Israel when one already exists is a politically seditious act.

This anointing thrust him into an unsettled life. But he lived out an empowered life with confidence in God.

With that confidence, he took on Goliath when no one else would, and he conquered him. Just a boy compared to this giant and armed only with five smooth stones and unshakeable faith, he killed the enemy’s champion.

That made him a hero to his people, but struck the ire of King Saul. He became a marked man.

As David’s exploits grew, so did Saul’s fury and mistrust. Saul began plotting against David.

It got to the point where David had to flee. He had to survive with support from villagers wherever he went.

He was a fugitive for years, eking out survival while remaining in hiding.

When King Saul finally died, he was crowned King of Israel.

But his life didn’t get any easier. There were so many problems.

Political factions he had to deal with. Loyalists to Saul he had to contend with.

He had many sons with different wives and women. There was competition among them.

One of his sons raped a half-sister. That half-sister’s brother, Absalom, was filled with rage. He demanded Justice from his father, David.

David, having a soft heart for his sons, couldn’t give that justice. So Absalom took matters into own hands and killed his half brother.

He was young, strong and handsome. He began to amass power for himself. He challenged his father and forced him to flee from Jerusalem.

Absalom was eventually killed in battle as David fought back. But David was devastated by this loss and never fully healed.

David sinned and sought forgiveness. He was full of life. But that full life contained more than its fair share of sorrows. He loved, he lost.

He was a man after God’s own heart.

His greatest dream was to build a temple for God.

He began plans for it but couldn’t do it, because his whole reign was spent in wars and battles to defend and expand his kingdom.

This is the life context in which he wrote the most beautiful and famous psalm.

He did not write it in peaceful and settled circumstances. He wrote it in the midst of many troubles and stresses.

He faced so many challenges in life. He was not a pure man.

But through all of this, he found rest. He found rest in the goodness of God.

His experience of God’s goodness sustained him and empowered him through all of his ordeals and trials in life.

My friends, life in this world is so difficult.

All our days we are faced with trials and worries, fears and anxieties. Every day we have new things to contend with.

Jesus was filled with worry for his disciples as he prepared to leave them.

This was part of his final prayer:

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. (John 17:14-16)

Living in this world is hard enough. But for followers of Jesus, we have the added burden of living in this world in a state of permanent tension.

We live in this world and have to survive in it, but we don’t belong to it. We belong to the world of God. We try to live according to the values and ways of God’s world.

Living in this world brings its own troubles. But trying to live in it while being of a different world is even more difficult.

That is why our Lord was crucified. His way of life could not survive in this world.

We are sent as a scattered church into a world that does not love us. It is a hard journey.

Which is why we need the empowerment we’ve reflected on this weekend.

What we need in all our toils is rest. Our rest is in the goodness of God.

God who leads us beside still waters and restores our souls. God who fills our cup and lets it overflow. God who protects us in the darkest valley.

We have our God who gives us this rest so we can be sent back out into the world.

Jesus did not send us out unequipped. He sent us out with peace.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. (John 14:27)

After Jesus was crucified, the disciples hid behind locked doors. They were scared and didn’t know what to do.

Many times we feel like hiding behind locked doors because we don’t know what to do.

That’s when Jesus appeared to them

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. (John 20:19-22)

Jesus does not send us out alone.

He sends us out with peace and the power of the Holy Spirit. That peace is our rest.

Peace is not the absence of troubles.

Peace is the power to live with our troubles and not be overcome by them
It is the ability to trust in God to shepherd us through all our troubles with faith and trust.

Peace is finding rest in the goodness of God.

God had given us this gathered church. He has given it so we can find rest in this world. To be empowered and sent out with peace in our hearts.

I love this community of faith. I love each of you. Some of you I know better than others.

But you are all my brothers and sisters in Christ.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this weekend. It has been a great joy to be called as a pastor for you.

God’s goodness led me through all of my own difficulties and challenges in life to bring me to this blessed place of ministry.

I have been so filled and blessed with God’s goodness and mercy through this ministry.

You are my family. My spiritual family.

I understand what Jesus said when his mother and brothers were looking for him.

“Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 8:33-34)

Every day, every week, I pray for you. I feel God’s burning desire and love for you.

You are God’s precious children.

God loves you. God does not send you out into the world alone. God sends you out with his Spirit.

God will be with you. God will take care of you.

May this community be a place of rest and blessing for you so that you can go out as empowered people.

May you always find rest in the goodness of God.