Funeral Sermon On Psalm 23

The Shepherd Does Not Leave You In The Valley

Psalm 23 (Csb)

Opening

We gather today carrying something heavy. Grief is not a polite guest. It does not wait for a convenient moment, and it does not soften itself for company. It arrives with full weight, and everyone in this room is feeling some measure of that weight right now. You may be sitting with shock, or with sorrow that has been building for a long time, or with questions you cannot yet put into words. All of that is welcome here. This is not a place where we have to pretend.

But we have also come to hear from God. And on a day like this, that matters more than anything else a person could offer. So we turn to a passage of Scripture that has stood at the edge of more graves than we can count, not because it is a funeral tradition, but because it is true. Psalm 23 is six verses written by a shepherd king who knew both the green pastures and the dark valley. He wrote it, and the Holy Spirit preserved it, because people like us would need it on days like this.

Let us hear it together.

"The Lord is my shepherd; I have what I need. He lets me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside quiet waters. He renews my life; he leads me along the right paths for the sake of his name. Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me; your rod and your staff — they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live."

The Lord Is My Shepherd

The psalm opens with the most important sentence in it. Not a request. Not a question. A declaration. The Lord is my shepherd. David does not say the Lord is a shepherd in general, or that the Lord shepherds the worthy. He says my shepherd. This is personal. This is a relationship.

In the ancient world, a shepherd did not manage sheep from a distance. He walked with them. He knew each one. He led them to water and to grass. He stayed close enough to use his rod and staff when danger came. The shepherd's presence was the sheep's protection.

When David writes this psalm, he is drawing on what he knows from his own years in the fields, but he is pointing to something far greater than any human shepherd. He is pointing to the Lord, the God of Israel, the living God, as the one who walks with his people through every terrain of life, including the terrain none of us want to enter.

Even Through The Darkest Valley

The psalm does not skip the hard part. It does not move from green pastures straight to the house of the Lord without passing through the valley. That is one of the most honest things about this text. Life includes the darkest valley. The Hebrew behind that phrase carries the weight of deep shadow, of a ravine where light barely reaches. It is the kind of place you do not choose to enter. You find yourself there.

Grief is that valley. Loss is that valley. The days ahead for those who loved the person we remember today may feel very much like that valley. There is no shortcut around it, and this psalm does not pretend there is one.

But notice what David says about that valley. He does not say, I will not enter the darkest valley. He says, even when I go through it, I fear no danger. The word through is doing real work in that sentence. The valley is not the destination. It is the passage. And the reason David does not fear is not because the valley is less dark than it looks. The reason is the presence of the shepherd. You are with me.

The comfort of this psalm is not the absence of suffering. It is the presence of God in the suffering. The shepherd does not remove the valley from the path. He walks into it with you.

The Shepherd Who Became The Lamb

This is where the gospel opens up inside this ancient poem. The God who calls himself a shepherd in the Old Testament came to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus said plainly, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He was not speaking in metaphor only. He was describing what he was about to do.

Jesus walked into the darkest valley that has ever existed. He went to a cross. He faced death not as an observer but as the one who bore the full weight of human sin and divine judgment. He went through that valley so that everyone who trusts in him would never have to face it alone, and would never have to face it as the final word.

Three days later, he walked out of it. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the reason a Christian can stand at a grave and speak of hope without being dishonest. Death is real. The grave is real. But the shepherd who went through death and came out the other side has promised that those who belong to him will follow where he has gone.

If you are here today and you have never placed your trust in Jesus Christ, I want you to hear this clearly and without pressure. The shepherd is not only for the people who grew up in church. He is not only for the people who have their lives arranged neatly. He is for anyone who is willing to say, I need a shepherd. I cannot get through this valley on my own. That is the beginning of faith. It is a simple turning toward the one who has already come looking for you.

Goodness And Faithful Love

The psalm ends with a promise that is almost startling in its confidence. Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life. The word pursue is the same word used elsewhere in the psalms for enemies who chase a person down. David takes that image and turns it around. He says the things that are hunting him are not his enemies. They are the goodness and the covenant love of God. He cannot outrun grace.

And then the final line. I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live. Some translations render the end of that phrase as forever. The Hebrew allows for it, and the New Testament fills it in completely. The destination of the sheep who follow the shepherd is not the valley. It is the house of the Lord. It is the presence of God, unbroken and unending.

That is the hope we carry out of this room today. Not a hope that denies the pain of this day. Not a hope that rushes past the grief that is right and real. But a hope that says the shepherd is still walking, the valley is not the end, and the house of the Lord is waiting on the other side.

Closing

To everyone here who is carrying grief today, you do not have to carry it alone. The shepherd who walked through death is walking with you through this. Bring him your sorrow. Bring him your questions. Bring him your fear. He is not surprised by any of it, and he will not turn you away.

The Lord is the shepherd. He is with you in the valley. And he will bring you through.

Sources Consulted

Allen, Leslie C. Psalms 101 to 150. Word Biblical Commentary. Word Books, 1983.

Goldingay, John. Psalms, Volume 1: Psalms 1 to 41. Baker Commentary on the Old Testament. Baker Academic, 2006.

Kidner, Derek. Psalms 1 to 72. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries. InterVarsity Press, 1973.

Longman, Tremper III. Psalms. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries. InterVarsity Press, 2014.

VanGemeren, Willem A. Psalms. The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Volume 5. Zondervan, 1991.