We are beginning a short series of messages from the 23rd Psalm. Please read it along with me: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, 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 have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
When David spoke of the Lord as his shepherd, he did not
know what we today know – that the Lord is a triune Being Scripture reveals as Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. We also understand, based on our familiarity with the New
Testament, that the Shepherd is the Lord Jesus, the second Person of the triune
God. Listen to Jesus as recorded by the apostle John:
“I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down
His life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand, and not
a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and
leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and
scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and
is not concerned about the sheep. I am the good shepherd,
and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father
knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the
sheep. (John 10:11-15)
David knew what it was like to be a shepherd. Before he
became king, he lived the life of a shepherd, and so it was quite natural for
David to use that term in this psalm as he reflected on the Lord, his God. The
Shepherd leads his flock. He calls them by name. He restores them to health
when they are injured or ill. He guides them, protects them, comforts them, and
so forth.
A person does not have to be a shepherd to understand that
role. Parents know what it is like to ‘shepherd’ their children through youth
and into adulthood. Pet owners also – whether of dogs or cats or some other
animal –understand what it means to nurture and protect them. Which suddenly
reminds me of that wonderful passage in Isaiah’s prophecy:
“But now, thus says the Lord, your Creator, O
Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel, “Do not fear, for I
have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! . .
.For I am the Lord your God, the Holy
One of Israel, your Savior . . . You are precious in My sight.” (Isaiah
43:1,3a, 4a)
It is the Good Shepherd, Jesus who restores those who
belongs to Him by faith. It is the Good Shepherd, Jesus, who guides us,
protects us, comforts us, nurtures us, calls us by name.
And because we have heard this truth so often in our
Christian lives it can be easy to gloss over this truth. But let’s face it –
life can be very hard, confusing, tragic and painful. And no one reaches our
age without some emotional scars and baggage. Like sheep gone astray, we’ve
been cut by life’s brambles and twisted our ankles time and again on unsteady
paths.
But we’re here, in this sanctuary. We’re still seeking to
follow the One who still calls us by name. We’re still following the Good
Shepherd who still promises that He “will not allow you to be tested
beyond what you are able, but with the test will provide the way of escape
also, so that you will be able to endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)
Indeed, it is often by way of those very brambles and
twisted ankles that the Good Shepherd strengthens our faith to such a degree
that we will not fail Him or ourselves when and if harder times come. We have the Shepherd’s promise about that.
Listen to James, the brother of the Lord, say it: “Consider it all joy, my
brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of
your faith produces endurance. (James 1:2-3)
And St Paul (Romans 5:3-5) “Tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and
hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out
within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
The Good Shepherd is a good shepherd because He loves His
sheep. He even lays down His life for His sheep; And just to be clear – you and
I are His sheep. (John 10:11)
Before we move any further in this message, I want to park
here a while and explore a bit more deeply the identity of the Good Shepherd. I
recognize what I am about to say will not be new to most of you. But I say what
I am about to say because “I” need to be reminded of these truths from time to
time. And the same might be true of you as well that you also can use a
reminder from time to time about WHO our Shepherd truly is.
First, it is through our Shepherd that the universe exists –
stars, planets, asteroids, and so forth. Before Genesis chapter one, even time
itself did not exist, nor atoms and molecules. Before Genesis chapter one only
the Triune God existed – three Persons in perfect unity, co-equal, and co-eternal.
I need to repeat that for emphasis. With His inconceivable power,
the Triune God created the universe through the one David calls his Shepherd. Listen
to Colossians 1:15-18, speaking specifically of Jesus in relation to the Father
and the Holy Spirit: “He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn of all creation. For by
Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth,
visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or
authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is
before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”
Here also is John 1:1-3 which is reminiscent of those first
verses in Genesis one: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God. He
was in the beginning with God. All things came
into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has
come into being.”
Of course, a slew of other scriptures tells the same thing
about our Shepherd, Jesus, and I stop with these two only for the sake of time.
The point of it all – Our Shepherd Jesus is omnipotent. His power is unequalled
in all creation. What He opens, no one in all creation – including angels and
fallen angels – can shut. What He shuts, no one can open. (See Revelation 3:7)
And that ought to provide great comfort to us who get stuck
in brambles from time to time and who twist our ankles on unsteady ground. It
ought to provide great comfort to those who belong to Him by their faith in His
promises. The Shepherd not only holds the whole world in His hands, but He also
holds you and me in those same omnipotent hands.
The Prophet was not speaking in hyperbole when he said: “Behold,
the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are regarded as a speck
of dust on the scales . . . All the nations are as nothing before Him,
they are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.” (Isaiah
40:15a, 17)
Nor was the Psalmist
exaggerating with he wrote: “The earth is the Lord’s, and all
it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it.” Psalm 24:1
We must not – ‘I’ must
not – gloss over this truth: It is THIS omnipotent Shepherd who is our guide,
our protector, our nourisher, our comforter.
He created us. He knows
us more intimately and entirely than we even know ourselves.
So then -- what else is
this Creator-Shepherd? He is holy. I must repeat that: The Shepherd is not only
our creator, He is also utterly holy.
I’m certain we do not
fully understand that crucial point. I know that I, after more than 50 years
walking with Christ, I myself do not fully appreciate that point. If I did – if
we did – we would not be so cavalier about our sins – perhaps especially what
we like to call our ‘small sins.’ Some use the term, ‘venial sins.’
No, we would not be
careless about them. What ARE ‘little sins’ – as many like to call them? Here
are only a few examples. You can surely think of others – so-called little sins
like gossip, or telling “white” lies, or watching things we should not watch,
or listening to things we should not listen to, or ignoring those around us who
are in need. Yet ‘little sins’ can become quite dangerous if we don’t recognize
them and actively try to stop committing them.
The Lord Jesus warned
those with ears to hear: “He who is faithful in a very little thing is
faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is
unrighteous also in much.” (Luke 16:10)
St. Augustine might
have had that text in mind when he wrote: “Do not despise venial sins
because they appear trifling … but fear them because they are numerous. Small
animals in large numbers can kill a man. Grains of sand are very small, yet, if
accumulated, they can sink a ship. Drops of water are very small, yet how often
they become a mighty river, a raging torrent, sweeping everything before them!”
And I must remind myself, sins are not only committed with
our hands. We also commit sins in our minds. Paul gives us a partial list in his
letter to the Christians at Colossae. Think of how many of these are sins of
the mind: “Immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed,
which amounts to idolatry . . . anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive
speech from your mouth.” (Colossians 3:5-8)
Yes, God is serious when He commands us to be holy as He is
holy. “As obedient children,” the apostle Peter wrote: “be holy
yourselves also in all your behavior..” (1 Peter 1:14-16)
Be holy – not just in deeds but also in our thoughts. Now
THAT’S a challenge, isn’t it? And along that train of thought, I believe it was
Martin Luther who said, “We cannot stop birds from flying over our head, but we
can stop them from building a nest in our hair.”
When the Holy Spirit reveals to us our thoughts of lust,
anger, greed, and so forth, then we must be alert enough to immediately repent,
and with His help change our thoughts. It usually helps me to think of a memory
verse, or a portion of a church hymn – or even what I plan to do for the rest
of the day – ANYTHING to get my mind off of the wrong I was thinking.
Let’s move on with the idea of who and what our shepherd is.
He is our creator. He is holy. AND, He is also merciful.
Oh – is that not a good word, ‘merciful’? Our holy God has
mercy toward the penitent sinner. Listen again to David – the same David who
slept with another man’s wife and, to cover his crime had her husband murdered.
And although he paid dearly for his crimes in life – God forgave him and spared
him eternal judgment when he repented. Here is what he wrote in Psalm 32: “Blessed
is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed
is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them.” (Psalm 32:1-2)
David knew he was a sinner, yet He trusted God to be true
to His word, and forgive his sins. THAT is why he also had confidence that his
merciful Shepherd would make him lie down in green pastures, and lead him
beside still waters, and restore his soul. He knew his Shepherd would lead him
in paths of righteousness, and that though he walked through valleys of deep
darkness – his Shepherd would walk with him step by step.
Application time: Do YOU have the confidence in your Good
Shepherd as David had – confidence of His love and care and forgiveness? How
often has He demonstrated to you His forgiveness and nurture and love?
As I prepared this sermon, as this point, I suddenly
thought of the time when Jesus and His 12 were in the boat on the lake and they
said to each other – “Hey, guys – we forgot to bring food with us.” You’ll find
that conversation in the eighth chapter of Mark’s gospel.
But the important thing about their comment is that they’d
just witnessed the Lord’s miraculous feeding of the 5,000 and then the 4,000. Mark
records it this way: Jesus asked, “Why are you talking about having no
bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you
have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you
remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many
basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” “Twelve,” they replied. “And when I
broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did
you pick up?” They answered, “Seven.” He said to
them, “Do you still not understand?”
And so I wonder if the Good Shepherd asks us the same
question: Do we still not understand? After demonstrating to us that
NOTHING can separate us from His love or His mercy toward the penitent – even
the one who falls short of His holiness – do we still question His love and
forgiveness? Do we not remember the gospel message: “Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all”? (1 Timothy
1:15).
We gotta get this. David, who was guilty of murder and
adultery, and Paul who was guilty of religious terrorism and murder, and a slew
of other very human men and women in Scripture and in Church history – The Lord
is our Good Shepherd, our Merciful Shepherd.
As the Psalmist also wrote – and please, once again, pay
attention to God's unerring promise to us:
“The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. He will not always
strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He
has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to
our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are
above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.
As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our
transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion
on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those
who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful
that we are but dust.” (Psalm
103:9-14)
Our Shepherd knows our frame. He knows we are dust. That is
why the Father gave His Son to die on that cross as our substitute. It is why
the Good Shepherd died on that Cross, to take on Himself the Father’s wrath
against OUR sins.
Oh, the incomprehensible mercy, love, kindness, and
compassion of our God. And that’s why this 23rd psalm is so applicable to our lives
in 2025. And that is why it is equally incomprehensible that anyone would
reject the Shepherd’s love. Yes, such love, such wondrous love that God should
love a sinner such as I – how wonderful is love like this?”
Just this last week I spoke with a woman who had grown
uncertain of her salvation and God's forgiveness. I came close to her, my Bible
in hand, and read to her some of the same promises God has made to her – the
same promises I’ve already read to you this afternoon.
Tears of relief came to her eyes. She knows once again that
not only is she God's daughter, but she is His BELOVED daughter – forgiven and
saved.
What about you? Do you believe the Holy and merciful
Creator, when He promises you mercy and forgiveness of your sins? I so very
much hope so. He is not lying when He says what He says.
Be at peace. Christian: The omnipotent and merciful creator
is YOUR Shepherd.
We’ll continue this series next week about the Lord, who is
our Shepherd
No comments:
Post a Comment