You Follow Me

Psalm 23:6

“And they all lived happily ever after.” We like happy endings. Books and movies that end well lift us up. Life is stressful enough so that when I watch a movie, I want it to end with at least the hope of redemption. I want to know that there is something good that will happen or might happen.

Writers and film makers get frustrated with happy stories because they lack creative tension. A couple who love each other, spend their life together in marital bliss, and die in their old age surrounded by children and grandchildren do not make for a good novel or movie. Writers prefer to add a rape, an affair, a kidnaping to make the reading more interesting. Happy endings seem unrealistic and at odds with what life is like. Happy endings are viewed with suspicion. Here is a dialog from a book titled, God Hates Us All.
“You know why love stories have happy endings?” I shake my head.
“Because they end too early,” she continues. “They always end right at the kiss. You never have to see all the bullshit that comes later. You know, Life.”

In another book, The House of Rose (based on the retelling of a fairy story), there is this reflection.
“I’ve never believed in fairy tales. One day, the fairies will tell this story. There will be a valiant prince, a part no doubt played in history by the brave Vartan who journeys to rescue his bride from a dragon. There will be fairies. There will be horse-birds and there will be an enchanted blade. But, I will no doubt be stricken from the tale, a cursed blemish on a shining story. Happy endings don’t always happen in the real world.”

Happy endings are for children; adults know the world is not like this and have put aside childish ways. Adults face the reality of things not working out as they would like. The hard realities of life beat the hope of happy endings into submission.

But still, the desire for happy endings will not die. Larry King is an 81 year old TV personality in the US. He is famous for his show that interviewed many celebrities. Four years ago he was pushed into retirement and now he is preoccupied with death. He starts off every day reading the obituaries and often wonders who will give the eulogy at his funeral. In an attempt to delay his death he takes four human growth hormone pills every day. He has even arranged to have his body frozen, so he can be brought back to life someday. King concedes that this is nuts, but at least it gives him a shred of hope. Larry King, now with his seventh wife, has had all the world desires but he is struggling to find a happy ending. He can’t allow himself to believe in fairy tales because of all the suffering in the world and so he fearfully approaches the end of his life, dismayed that there will be no happy ending.

C.S. Lewis wrote:
When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

As followers of Jesus we need to retain the trust and hope of a childish heart. Jesus said: (Luke 18:17)
Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.

As followers of Jesus, we, his beloved daughters and sons, put our hope and trust in a happy ending.

For the past six Sundays we have been looking at Psalm 23 and the other Good Shepherd passages of the Bible. Today we come to the end – and it is a happy ending.

Surely your goodness and love
will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell
in the house of the Lord forever.

Psalm 23 begins with the shepherd leading his sheep.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He settles me down in green pastures,
he leads me beside still waters

The good shepherd leads his sheep to green pastures and still waters and now at the end of the psalm he follows us all the days of our lives.

Kenneth Bailey, whose book I have used in this sermon series, points out that sheep know their way home. I don’t have experience with sheep, but I do have experience with horses. When I was riding in the mountains with my pony or horse and it was time to go back to the stable, it was not necessary to guide them. They knew how to get home and were eager to get back to the stable where their feed awaited them.

Bailey talked to one Greek shepherd who told him about an occasion when he fell asleep in the field during the afternoon siesta and when he awoke, the sheep were gone.
Terrified, he rushed back to the village and to his delight discovered that the flock had, on their own, wandered home. The homeward path from the “still waters” was familiar to them, and when the time came they followed it, much to the relief of the shepherd.

A good shepherd will allow the sheep to head home and follow behind them, to protect them from a wolf or some other predator trying to take advantage of a young lamb or injured sheep that falls behind. If the shepherd has an assistant or a dog, they might take this rear position, but the shepherd who has led the sheep to green pastures now wants to make sure they return to the sheep pen safely.

In the psalm it is not an assistant or sheep dog that follows, it is the goodness and love of God that follows David, protecting him as he heads to his home.

Goodness and love: these are two great Hebrew words. The first is tov which is the general Hebrew word for good. If I hear that someone is following me, this might be good or bad. Wolves and lions follow their prey until they sense the right time to strike. Human predators do the same thing. So it is helpful to know that we are being followed by good, not evil. We are being followed by good that seeks to protect us, not harm us.

Tov is translated into English as pleasant, useful, efficient, beautiful, kind, right, and morally good. Tov is things working the way they should. Tov is the way God designed things to be.

In Genesis 1 in the story of the creation of the world, God created in six days. The poem of creation has a structure with kingdoms being created in the first three days and then rulers of the kingdoms in the next three days. So in day one God created darkness and light. In day four God created the sun to rule by day and the moon by night. In day two God created the waters and sky. In day five God created sea creatures to rule the sea and birds to rule the sky. In day three God created land. In day six God created animals to rule the land and then man to rule over all God had created.

In this poem, at the end of each day God views what he has created and pronounces it to be tov. “God saw that it was good.” What he had created was good, just the way it was supposed to be.

In Psalm 23 God has led us to green pastures and still waters, he has rescued us and brought us back when we have strayed and become lost, he has led us through danger, and now he is bringing us safely to our home. Each day God looks at his beloved children and works for our benefit so we will be brought safely into his kingdom at the end of our earthly life. God makes good come out of evil. He works so that all things work together for good. We are followed by tov.

The second Hebrew word is hesed. This is a very important word that is translated into English as mercy, grace, or lovingkindness. We see this in Exodus 34:5–7 when Moses climbed Mount Sinai a second time with new stone tablets to be inscribed with the law.
5 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. 6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.

This is a Semitic blessing that is found four times in the Bible and it speaks of the character of God: compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in hesed and faithfulness, maintaining hesed, and forgiving.

The word hesed is used 248 times in the Hebrew Bible and speaks over and over again of selfless love. It is love without considering, “What’s in it for me?”

The love God showed Lot, the nephew of Abraham who was living in Sodom, when he sent angels to rescue him from the imminent destruction of Sodom is hesed.

The book of Ruth is a book that illustrates hesed. Naomi and her husband left Bethlehem because of a famine and went to the foreign land of Moab. While there Naomi’s husband died. Her sons married Moabite women and then they both died. Naomi, in an act of hesed released her daughters-in-law and urged them to go to their homes. (Ruth 1:8–9)
Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. 9 May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”

Naomi did not think of her own need for someone to help care for her, she released her dauthers-in-law so they could find a better future. But Ruth, in her own act of hesed pledged her loyalty to Naomi. (Ruth 1:16)
But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.

Boaz acted with hesed when he took care of Ruth as she was gathering grain and later when he married her. Hesed is passed on. Naomi had hesed love for Ruth who returned that hesed love to Naomi. This act of hesed love impressed Boaz who returned that hesed love to Ruth and Naomi. This hesed love inspired the whole town and led to the birth of David, the ancestor of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and the father of Jesus.

This selfless love that does not ask, “What’s in it for me?” is the love of God for us. (Romans 5:8)
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God did not wait until we deserved his help to come and rescue us. If that were the case, we would still be waiting. God does not stop pursuing us when we are disobedient. In the parable of the lost son, the father did not discard his affection for his son when his son shamed him and asked for his inheritance. God’s love for us is not dependent on our actions or our response. God endures our disobedience and apathy because he wants us to come into his kingdom. God endures the suffering of the world because he wants more men and women to come into his kingdom.

The closest word to hesed in the Greek New Testament is grace, giving us what we do not deserve. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—

We are the blessed and undeserving  recipients of God’s hesed love for us. Amazing grace!

The Good Shepherd leads us into all that is good for us and he follows us with his goodness and hesed love.

For how long will he follow us?
Surely your goodness and love
will follow me all the days of my life,

Does this mean all the days until I die? Is this a promise to be with me until I take my last earthly breath? Or does this verse take me even farther? It is difficult to say what David thought when he wrote this psalm, but we have the advantage of living after the resurrection of Jesus who said (John 6:40)
For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.

We have a hope that is far more certain than the hope of David. Jesus is our good shepherd who is leading us through this life. He will take us through the valley of the shadow of death. He has promised to be with us when we die and pass from this life to the next. He will raise us to new life, eternal life, to be lived in his kingdom.

Surely your goodness and love
will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell
in the house of the Lord forever.

This is the happy ending for us. We are being led to a kingdom that was revealed to John. (Revelation 21:2–5)
2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

From beginning to end our good shepherd is present with us, leading us, protecting us, bringing us safely to his kingdom. We are hemmed in, as David expresses in Psalm 139.
1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.

There is nothing we think of that is hidden from God. We are known completely by God. There is nothing we do that is hidden from God. God knows what we think and what we will say. We are encircled, surrounded. David goes on to write that there is nowhere we can go that God is not already there.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

This can be good news or bad news. In a movie when someone is stalking another person, bugging their home and phone, listening to all their conversations, spying on them with binoculars, following them everywhere – this is always a terribly frightening movie. When someone has all this knowledge about us, we are vulnerable and dependent on how they feel about us. Do they want to use us? Take advantage of us? Abuse us? What are they going to do with all this knowledge about us?

This psalm goes even further. Even our thoughts are known. This could be hell but it is not because our Good Shepherd is watching over us out of love, hesed love. We are not trapped. We are not imprisoned. We have the freedom to step away anytime we choose. God has all this knowledge about us but will not use it against us.

This transforms the situation. We are completely known by someone who demonstrated his love for us by dying in our place. We are completely known but we are also completely loved. In being known we are protected. I like the feeling of sleeping in a cold room with a warm, heavy blanket wrapped tightly around me. It protects me from the cold and makes me feel safe. Being known by God so completely is being snug in the warm blanket of his love.

Being known does not trap us. We are set free by his love for us. Paul writes in Galatians 5:1
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Once sin was our master, controlling us, drawing us under its power. Now we have chosen to make Jesus our master and in our submission to Jesus we are set free to live life fully.

David contemplates how completely he is known and then remarks:
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

God, the creator of the universe, loves me. He knows me completely and he still loves me. Despite my sin and my failings, he loves me and wants me to live for eternity with him in his kingdom. He loves me more than I love myself.

Psalm 23 ends with a happy ending, “They all lived happily ever after.” Is this more than a fairy story? There are some people who claim that religious truth is just a fantasy that makes life more tolerable. This is what Larry King thinks and as a consequence he chooses not to indulge in fantasy, preferring to live in fear of death. Is the happy ending of Christian faith true?

Frederick Buechner writes about wishful thinking – what we would like to be true.
Christianity is mainly wishful thinking. Even the part about Judgement and Hell reflects the wish that somewhere the score is being kept.
Dreams are wishful thinking. Children playing at being grown-up is wishful thinking. Interplanetary travel is wishful thinking.
Sometimes wishing is the wings the truth comes true on.
Sometimes the truth is what sets us wishing for it.

This is the perspective also of C.S. Lewis who argued that because we are created by God, there is built in us a longing for things to be the way they will be in heaven. We know that illness and death are wrong because in heaven there will be no pain, no sorrow, no death. We long for happy endings because a happy ending is where we are headed.

My prayer during this series on Psalm 23 and the other good shepherd passages in the Bible has been that we will be drawn to a greater trust in God leading us safely through this life. There is no promise in the Bible that we will avoid the trials and tribulations life presents us. There is no promise we will live a long life or a prosperous life.

If you want the treasures of this world, it would be best if you chose someone else to follow. Jesus will not lead you to those treasures because he knows that when it is time to die, those treasures will slip through your fingers and you will enter into eternity as a pauper. If you pursue the world’s treasures, you will be like the rich man who passed by Lazarus begging at his gates. Day after day he passed him, focused on the accumulation and enjoyment of his wealth, only to discover that Lazarus the beggar had been building up treasure in heaven that will not rust, spoil, or fade while he had been storing up treasure that was all left behind. He left this world a rich man and entered into eternity with nothing.

You may think you know what is best for you but Jesus knows far better than you do what is best for you. That is why it is good to submit to him, trust him, follow him. When life takes an unexpected turn and you enter into an anxious period, you can trust him. When your job is in jeopardy, you can trust him. When your health is at risk, you can trust him. When a friend rejects you or betrays you, you can trust him. When nations battle, you can trust him. When all around you is in turmoil, you can trust him.

You are led and followed by the love of Jesus. When you stray he will work to bring you back. He will lead you through whatever the world throws at you and bring you safely into his kingdom. Beloved daughter of Jesus, beloved son of Jesus, trust the one who loves you. Do not fear what the world can do to you. Follow Jesus, your Good Shepherd, and you will always be safe.