I Shall Not Want
Psalm 23
The building process is upon us. It is no longer merely a dream but a present reality. We have stopped counting the months and are now counting the days. Even though not one nail has been driven into a board yet, there are many people who have already been in the thick of the building process: the building committee, the decorating committee and the food committee, just to name a few.
As I have been anticipating the process—and participating in this process, I have been remarkably calm about it all. That is not to say that I don’t have some concerns. I don’t want us to approach this with fear, but I do want us to be prepared in every possible way. For example, I spoke with Pastor Eric Hesse when Richland Center was done with their project and he was completely exhausted. He was tired for many months after that. When I worked at the OshKosh site, Pastor Ed had been putting in so many hours that he told me he no longer felt like a pastor. I have had numerous people quote statistics to me about how building projects tend to burn out pastors. Speaking personally, I do not care to get to the end of the building phase and be a worthless, burnt out shell of a man. (I am not implying that this is what happened to the other two pastors, but they seemed to be moving in that direction.) Speaking pastorally, I don’t want any of you—not even a single person—to get to the end of the building phase and be a worthless, burnt out shell. Moreover, I don’t want us to merely survive the next six months. I believe we can actually thrive during the next six, very busy months.
Do you think we can thrive and grow together through the next six months of challenges? I believe that we can do this and I believe I have found the means to accomplish this goal. Would you like me to let you in on the secret? The secret to a successful building program is good theology. It’s as simple as that—good theology. Maybe you thought I was going to unveil some new energy drink that will allow you to work long hours with no loss of energy. Perhaps you thought I had the inside track on new construction secrets which will triple our efficiency. The truth is, I’m not so great with a hammer and I can’t stand the awful taste of those energy drinks. I am convinced that the solution to a thriving, Christ-honoring building process is good theology.
Our text this morning is the famous 23rd Psalm. I am using the New King James version and I would like us all to read this psalm together.
1The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
3He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.
4Yea, 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.
5You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
6Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.
I think a quick way to understand this psalm is to ask ourselves if this psalm matches our experience. Because the Lord was his shepherd, David said, “I shall not want.” Because the Lord was with him, David wrote, “I will fear no evil.” Here is a simple question: are you experiencing this psalm? Is your daily experience one of being free from wants and free from fear? This was not just something that David knew about God, it was a tangible experience with God. Can we not just agree with what David wrote, but can we also experience as David experienced: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. I will fear no evil, for You are with me?”
But I am guessing that this is not your daily experience, because it is not my daily experience either. We have these wants that follow after us wherever we go. We have a multitude of needs that feel like they must be filled. We have these itches in our life that must be scratched. We have thirsts that must be quenched and urges that must be satisfied. We have fears, worries and anxieties that must be stilled. With our mouths we say, “I shall not want” and “I will fear no evil,” but our daily experience is that we keep running after all these wants and running away from all these fears.
Since the experience of our lives doesn’t come close to matching the words of our mouths, we devise nice sounding explanations for this dilemma that something like this.
1. I have all of these wants, but I don’t have what I want because that thing is either not good for me or is not necessary. This is the explanation we use when we don’t get answers to our prayers. We say, “Well, you know, God always answers our prayers, so he must be answering this prayer with a ‘no’ answer.” Since God knows all things, he knows that many of the things we want are not good for us—even thing we ask for in prayer—so he doesn’t give us those things. I am sure that this is true at times, but for me, it does not adequately explain the difference between David’s experience and my experience.
2. I don’t have what I want but it will be provided for me at some point in the future. We say that sometimes God answers our prayers with a ‘no’ answer and sometimes he answers them with a ‘not now’ answer. We have all of these wants that go unfulfilled so we tell ourselves that maybe God is giving us a ‘not now’ answer. Maybe he will give us these things at a later time.
The result of this is that I keep waiting for God to give me these things and I don’t know if he has answered my prayers with a ‘no’ answer or a ‘not now’ answer. So I keep waiting and hoping. Do you realize that we spend the vast majority of our lives waiting for something to happen? There is always something on the horizon that seems better than what we have right now. If we are single, we are waiting to be married. Some people who are married can’t wait be divorced. If we are married without kids, then we can’t wait for children. Once we have a kid or tow or three or four, we can’t wait until they are finally out of he diaper stage. We are waiting for our next job promotion or a better job than we have right now. If you are fifteen you can’t wait until you get your driver’s license. You can’t wait until you are out of school. If you go off to college, you can’t wait to graduate and get your first job. We can’t wait until our next vacation or weekend get away. We are always waiting for the weekend to relax. At the end of the winter we can’t wait until Spring and at the end of a hot summer we can’t wait until Fall. Think about how much of our lives is spent waiting and looking for the next best thing, whatever it is. Meanwhile, while we wait for that next best thing, we complain about our present circumstances. Is our life really that pathetic and sad that we can’t ever be happy with our present circumstances?
Why do we spend all of this time waiting for endless things? I think it is because we believe that next best thing will make us happier or will make our lives a little better. This was hit home to me this past February when I got together with Andrew Jackson. We all know how this past winter dragged on and on, right? When we sat down, one of the first things I did was complain about the weather. And why not? Everyone was doing it. It was a constant topic of conversation. It seemed that everywhere you went, everyone was saying. “I can’t wait until this snow melts. I can’t wait for Spring to get here.” After I offered my little complaint, Andrew said something positive about enjoying some recent winter weather. Right at that moment I felt convicted by the Spirit. I don’t think Andrew meant to rebuke me, and if he did, he did it with an amazing amount of love and subtlety. I was convicted about my complaining because I realized how absurd it was and how ungrateful I was to be waiting for the snow to melt. Deep down what I was feeling was that my life would somehow be better when the snow melted. My level of comfort would increase when the weather began to warm up.
But even deeper than this, I realized that I was following after a form of prosperity theology. Those of you who know me, know how much I despise prosperity theology, so when I realized that I was guilty of this, it has really convicted me and stuck with me. Before I explain how this is a type of prosperity theology, I want you to listen to how John Piper describes prosperity theology.
You and I might not think that we could possibly struggle with prosperity theology because here in Viroqua, we are just simple country folk, right? We grow our own food, we drive late model cars and we shop at Walmart. How can we be put in the same category as someone who believes that God will reward them with a shiny new BMW? Here is why. What is the difference between thinking that my life will be better when I have a BMW or my life will be improved when the snow melts? We may think they are completely different because a BMW seems like an extravagant thing while a warm Spring seems like a simple pleasure, but if both lead to discontentment, then they are BOTH the same.
Please do not misunderstand what I am saying. There is nothing wrong with enjoying simple pleasures in life. A warm, Spring day is a gift from God and I will not say it is less then this. There is genuine joy when you complete a project around the house, graduate form college, get married, have children and all of the other things that we may want in life. All of these can be gifts from God and we should and do appreciate them and thank God for them, but if the waiting for and wanting of even good things causes us to become discontented, then we have crossed the line. We are left in a state of wanting and waiting, and this means not just that we are dissatisfied with the things that God has given us, but that we are dissatisfied with God himself. This is why David was able to say, “I shall not want,” because the Lord was his shepherd. This is why he was able to say that he did not fear any evil, because the Lord was with him. Do you see, he was satisfied with God’s presence, with God himself. Under the new covenant this is even worse, because it means that we are not satisfied with Jesus Christ. But David was satisfied with God alone. I believe that verse five is a summary of this satisfaction in God. David experienced the presence of God as an overflowing cup. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. He did not see his cup as almost full. He did not see his cup as filled to the brim, hanging over the edge by surface tension. David’s cup was running over, it was spilling out. His cup could not contain the presence of God.
Guess what Christian? Your cup and my cup are overflowing with the presence of Jesus Christ. When we are saved, we are not just saved out of hell and into Heaven. We are saved into the presence of Christ. It is this relationship with Christ and the presence of Christ which is transforming all by itself. Amazing love, how can it be, that you my King would die for me? Christ is our great treasure above all treasures. There is nothing in all the universe that he could ever give us that would be a more valuable treasure than himself. Our cup runs over. Our cup is spilling out with the presence and glory of Jesus Christ. Not only is our cup overflowing, but according to this psalm, the table at which we drink this cup is a table that has been prepared in the presence of our enemies. And who is our greatest enemy? Clearly, that would be Satan. So then, here is the picture. We are seated at a banquet table with a cup that is overflowing with the presence and glory of Christ and Satan is watching the whole drama play out. Is it any wonder that he hates us? Is it any wonder that he doesn’t want us to know that we have overflowing cups?
But the great tragedy is that our complaining and our waiting and our wanting shows that Christ is not our great treasure. It shows that we are not aware that our cup is overflowing. It is all a matter of perception. Our cup must be filled. All of our wanting is evidence of this, and the thing that we most want is the thing we already possess—Jesus Christ. But if we perceive that our cup is not filled, then we will attempt to fill it with something, with anything. All sin, then, becomes an attempt to fill our cups with something other than Christ. We fill it with BMW’s. We fill it with our jobs and money. We fill it with the longing to be liked by others. We fill it with our kids and our families. We fill it with sex and lust. We fill it with busyness. If we perceive our cups to be empty, we will work and wait and want to fill our cups with anything.
Are you wondering what this has to do with our building program? Let me put it this way. What happens if we try to serve the Lord with an empty cup? We will serve with an impatient attitude. We will serve out of selfish ambition. All of our wanting and waiting will become intertwined with our service. This is true in any type of service, but how much more is it true in this enormous task we are about to undertake? Service out of an empty cup will lead to strife and division. Service out of an empty cup will make us think things like this: “Why am I working so hard when Joe over there isn’t doing much of anything? We may even try to fill our cups with the service itself. Building a church facility will be the stuff by which we try to fill our cup. I want this new building as much as anyone else, but more than anything else, I want us to build out of an overflowing cup; that the presense of the Lord Jesus Christ would be our all-sufficient need. That we would have no wants or fear no evil for the Lord is with us and is our Great Shepherd.
Service from a full cup is service that is empowered. It is service that is full of energy. It is service that will triple our efficiency. It is service that glorifies the One who filled our cup.
Rich Maurer
April 27, 2008