The Shepherd's Psalm

" A psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even 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. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely 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, NIV) [1]

The Shepherd’s Psalm has to be one of the most beautiful scripture portions that I have ever read.  I’m not sure how many times I have heard it read, and preached from.  I would say that my exposure to it has been overdone if anything and like so many things in life it continues to take on deeper and richer meaning.  The words remain the same, the message the same, I suppose, but in the twists and turns of the road of life’s experience it brings new things into focus for me.  I think that is just one reason that the Bible is a timeless book.  When we look to it for guidance and direction, to continue to discover the heart of God, there is always a new message, a fresh perspective.  I’d like to try to offer you one of those today, perhaps a new way of looking at this particular scripture and perhaps others along with it.

Let me see if I can help us today to connect a few dots together.  It’s really not that hard and it may add real depth of understanding for us as we consider what God might want to say to us through this Psalm.

Often we read the 23rd Psalm at funerals and it is certainly appropriate there.  But it’s really much more about life than it is about death. 

It’s  a reflective Psalm that David gives us in which he looks back over the progression of his own life.  From the simplicity of verse 1.  “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”  From the early days of his youth.  The countless hours on the hillside, counting sheep, making sure that they all were there and well cared for . . . to his position as King of Israel – “. . . you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, . . . you anoint my head with oil. 

The poetry that flowed from those beautiful “pre-giant” days, before Goliath and before Saul.  His life was so much easier before he met these two giants.  Goliath defied God and David took his head.  Saul denied and David took his anointing and then his throne.  Goliath was over-confident.  Saul was overcome with paranoia and jealousy.  Goliath was destroyed from without, Saul was destroyed from within.  They were both spear throwers.  David never mastered that art.  He never picked up the spears to throw them back.  No matter how close they came and regardless of how much damage they might do.  People who throw spears back become as mad as those who throw them in the first place.  

Just David and his guitar and whatever he wrote on in those simple days to the court of a mad king, through the years of hiding and false persecution to his own days as the King of Israel.

I think it’s all there in Psalm 23, the unfinished panoramic view of his own life and his own learning.  And there is such deep connection in his words.

It’s unlikely that you “get it” yet so let me tell you one of my own stories again to help you connect.

When Elaine and I moved here in 1999, Karl, the “man-child” was 7 years old and going into grade 2.  It seemed like a good time for us to move for his sake and even so there was an unsettling period in his own life.  As the school year grew closer, he became more apprehensive.  That was a “rainy” summer and for some reason, the reports of flooding “here and there” seemed to stick with him.  We’d take him to school and he seemed to be “okay” unless it was raining.  Then he was anxious.  There were times when we would get calls to pick him up early.  A sick stomach – whatever.  The teacher seemed to  realize that he would not be productive when he was worried.  So she’ call and one of us would go to pick him up. 

One rainy morning I took him to school.  I stood there with him outside his room, helped him get his coat off and tried to reassure him that everything would be okay.  He wasn’t getting it at all.  His eyes were shifting here and there.  Finally I got down on my knees, held his face in my hands and said, “Karl, you are going to be okay today.  When the door to your classroom opens at 2:30pm, I’m going to be standing right here ready to pick you up.  I thought he heard it briefly and then the eyes grew nervous again.  He went in his classroom and I prayed that God would calm him and give him a good day at school.

I walked out of the school and climbed into my vehicle and headed to the church. 

I made a silent vow as I looked out through the rain drops on the windshield.  I would be in that doorway when the bell rang and my face would be there for my son to find.  If I had to crawl from 131 Duncan Lane to be there, I’d do it.  For that time there would be absolutely nothing that would be more important that assuring my man-child that he could trust his Dad.

The truth is, it was an unsettled time in my own life.  I’d never been a Sr. Pastor before in my 23 years of ministry.  I felt that there were people who were wary of my leadership because I had come from a large church.  My perception was that they worried that I was going to try to remake First Wesleyan in the likeness of the church that I had come from.  I sensed apprehension and mild opposition from the more traditional people.  I prayed – I still do and asked that God would help me to follow Him closely and that I could become a good leader by learning to be a great follower.

Then I had this epiphany.  Suddenly, I was Karl standing in the hall and my Heavenly Father was trying once more to assure me that everything was going to be all right.

I realized that God loved me infinitely more than I could ever love my own son.  As intensely as I felt the necessity to assure Karl that I would do what I said I would do, God was wanting to assure me that I could trust Him just the same.  Just as I wanted my son to know how much I loved him, so God wanted me to know how much He loved me.  I had to pull the car over to the side of the road.  I couldn’t see through the water.  Not the rain but my tears.  I learned something about God that day that I had never realized quite so clearly.  I learned about the fatherhood of God through being a father myself.

We do learn like that you know.

I think that Psalm 23 is about that kind of learning.  I think that David’s life lessons that taught him about the heart of God.

Every once in a while someone will ask me who my pastor is.  I try to be a pastor to others.  They want to know who fills that role in my life.  Who pastors the pastor?

For David, the thought might have come similarly.  Who shepherds the shepherd?  Who better to tell us what the Good Shepherd is like than a shepherd who has felt himself being cared for by God.  And Psalm 23 is a beautiful answer to that question.

You see if we are to have anything of substance to offer this broken world in which we live it has to come from some greater source than our own reserves, our own insight and understanding.  The world is full of the pompous who postulate based on nothing more significant than their own finite understanding.  The proud are too confident to believe in an “all-knowing”, “ever-loving” God who can help us to experience life in a greater way than we might construct on our own.  If we are to have something of eternal significance to give to others then we must get it from God. 

I am reminded of the story of Peter and John in the book of Acts who went to the temple to pray.

"Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”" (Acts 3:6, NIV) [2]

You see, our natural reflection in the modern world, would be to dig in our pockets and give the man what he wanted.  We are rendered so powerless by the gods that we serve.  The cripple at the temple had forgotten his greatest need.  He didn’t know what to ask for.  And we have forgotten the people need Jesus more than they need anything else that you can give them.  Yes we need to be compassionate and we need to give not because others need our money so much as we need to learn to get rid of it and spend it on something else other than our own interests and concerns.  So our first reaction is to run or to reach for our wallets rather than to draw from the supra-natural resource that we know as children of God.

Whatever it is that we give to others, we must first receive from God if we hope to see our church changed, our neighborhoods changed.  Otherwise we are little better than Oprah or some pop-psychologist offering an opiate for the people.

So let’s look at the Shepherd’s Psalm today as David reflects on God’s provision for his own life as he remembers his own role as a simple loving shepherd on a Judean hillside.

Hear his answer to the question.  “Who shepherds the shepherd?”

He says, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”

1.The Need to Rest

“He makes me lie down in green pastures, . . .”

Only one other living creature has as much trouble resting as we do. Not dogs. They doze. Not bears. They hibernate. Cats invented the catnap, and the sloths slumber twenty hours a day. (So that’s what I was rooming with my sophomore year in college.) Most animals know how to rest. There is one exception. These creatures are woolly, simpleminded, and slow. No, not husbands on Saturday—sheep! Sheep can’t sleep.

For sheep to sleep, everything must be just right. No predators. No tension in the flock. No bugs in the air. No hunger in the belly.4 Everything has to be just so.

Unfortunately, sheep cannot find safe pasture, nor can they spray insecticide, deal with the frictions, or find food. They need help. They need a shepherd to “lead them” and help them “lie down in green pastures.” Without a shepherd, they can’t rest.

Without a shepherd, neither can we. [3]

And there are times when we need to be made to lie down.  People wrestle with the concept of a Sabbath day of rest.  In the past I have seen it as a command – something that I need to do for God.  I now see it as something that I need to do for myself.  The shepherd wants me to lay down. 

I have a granddaughter who won’t lie down unless her parents put her to bed.  Usually there are screams and tears as though they are doing something cruel to her.  She’d rather play and she’d play ‘til she dropped.  If we are good parents, we make sure that our kids get the rest that they need – right?

God calls us to rest as well.  And like my granddaughter we’d rather play.  We extol the virtues of our play as being restful.  So we exhaust ourselves on the weekends and our vacations so we have less in the tank to sit and give attention to a sermon on Sunday morning or our jobs on Monday morning.  Truth is that most of us are running on empty and sputtering and spitting, we stop at the gas station and put in a couple of liters – just enough to keep the engine running.  It might be better to fill that tank once a week(wouldn’t that be nice).  We spend more energy subsisting, just getting by than we would if we took the time to fill the tank right to the top.   

2.The Need to Reflect

“. . . he leads me beside quiet waters. . .”

The scripture tells us that he leads us beside the “quiet” waters.  Sheep are terrified of water that moves fast.  It holds great danger for them because when their fleece becomes soaked with the weight of the water they cannot keep their heads above the water.  The shepherd leads them there so that they can “hydrate” safely.  They can get the water that they need to sustain their lives. 

The “quiet” waters where we hydrate as well. 

When we live from the quiet, we don’t need masks, façades or appearances. The quiet people of Scripture had a settledness, an authenticity, an integration of the inward and the outward. They were not hypocrites, showing one face to the world while hiding another face with a different disposition.

Being a quiet person is a disposition of character. There is no need to be in control or controlling. Nor is there a need to be manipulative, competitive or demanding. A quiet person can be firm, express disappointment, ask for what he or she wants and advocate what is important. This freedom comes from the experience of quiet time with God. As we spend time with him, our souls and the cells of our bodies come to know that Jesus is Lord and that he is working in our circumstances, whatever they be, for his glory and our good.

As we learn to be quiet people, we find that though we are more integrated between the inner and outer aspects of our person, we still live on two levels. On one level we can be coping with day-to-day experiences—driving a car, talking to a friend, working at a desk. On another level we can have an underlying sense of the presence of God. Somewhere deep inside we know that God is with us—indeed within us. We sense that he is supporting us even while we know that we are submitted to his authority and are living in obedient response to him.[4]

What water is for the body, the stillness is for the soul.  Be still and in the stillness discover that He is God and that He controls your life.  You’ll die spiritually in the rushing waters.  Ultimately they will overcome your soul and you’ll sink.

3.The Need for Restoration

“. . . he restores my soul.”

For several years now, I have enjoyed a yearly fishing trip to Brown Lake, a small, private spot above Nackawic.  I enjoy it for the act of fishing but just as much because it gives me time with some of the guys that I have run with for years now.  It really makes no difference how many fish we catch, although we pull some big beautiful bass, thrashing and beating, from it’s calm waters.  A couple of days there is worth a week most anywhere else.

The sun rises behind the camp and sets over the waters in the evening.  Add the haunting cries, of a couple of resident loons and you have a place where your soul is restored from the relentless busy-ness of life.

One afternoon when the fish weren’t biting as well as the bugs, a group of is sat in the cottage looking out on the lake.  The entire front of the cottage is windows which wrap around one corner as well.  This creates the illusion that one corner is not really there and it is most convincing especially to birds.  Periodically a bird will fly into the window, assuming that there is no obstruction.

That afternoon the sliding glass doors facing the lake were open and one unsuspecting bird flew through the door toward the windowed corner.  It was just a short flash of motion followed by a small “thunk” and he lay there on the floor below.

I had never seen this happen before and went over to see what kind of bird we had drop by.

It was a beautiful hummingbird, laying motionless, upside down on the floor.  It’s head was unnaturally cantered to one side and the wings were twisted and crooked.  I couldn’t resist picking it up.  So tiny, so beautiful.  I had never seen the iridescent quality to the deep green that covered the breast and part of the neck and the small black eyes were so perfect.

I turned the bird over on it’s lifeless feet, folded his wings against his body and lifted his head, deciding that this might be the only chance I would ever have to take a good long look at such a marvelous creation.  I began to stroke his head and back.  I felt a twitch in the tiny talons against my palm.  Just the final firing of some tiny nerve somewhere inside.  It happened again.  I continued the stroking.  Then the black eyes snapped and I could feel movement.  The bird was actually alive.  I was holding a living hummingbird at least for the moment.  I continued to stroke the bird.  Now all the time that this was taking place I was being mercilessly jeered by my dear friends.  Nothing less than what I would have expected.

The bird was holding his head up now and seemed to be regaining his equilibrium.  Surely something had to be broken inside or out.

And then, as only hummingbirds can, he lifted straight up out of my hand, hung there for a nanosecond and flew off, straight into the same window.

That set the catcalls off from my friends and I rushed across the room to find my little friend in a similar position and state.  Upside down, wings twisted, no sign of life.  And the whole scenario began to repeat itself.  I was now no novice, but an experienced bird medic.  If there was life left in this little guy, I knew that I could find it.  Pick him up.  Turn him over.  Fold the wings in place.  Stroke the back.

Wait a minute.   If he makes it, he’s still inside and by now I knew that it wasn’t a good thing for birds like this to fly inside.  The guys were still laughing when I stepped out onto the deck and made my way to the raft which was still ashore.  I sat there on the raft doing CBR – cardio bird resuscitation.  And you know the whole process began to work again.  Twitching talons.  Snapping eyes.  Heads up and then suddenly just as before, “lift off”.

But he was outside now, where he was meant to fly and here’s the best part.

I stood up as the bird took off.  He did one tight circle around my head and then two.  I wasn’t sure if he was mad at me for something because the circles were menacingly close.  Then three circles and then four.  Ten times he flew around my head.  And then of all unexpected things, he came back and landed on my left shoulder.  I couldn’t believe it.  I had a hummingbird sitting on my shoulder and my buddies weren’t seeing this.

I wanted to walk back toward the cottage and was certain that he would fly before I got there.  They’d just think I was making this up.  I walked gently up the stairs, ever so gently.  He stayed there, calmly perched on the shoulder of a proven friend.

I knocked on the window of the cottage to get their attention, closed one eye and said, “Har, har, mateys.”  I looked over at my mini-parrot and no joke – he stuck his tongue out at these guys and then took off again.  Well maybe I am joking about the tongue but I could imagine that he did at least.

This happened years ago now and I haven’t been able to find a sermon to recount it in until today.  There are so many beautiful things about it;  it is a treasured memory.

He restores my soul. 

There are times in our lives when we cannot help ourselves.  In those times there is no doubt.  We have the wind and the sensibilities knocked out of us and we are defenseless, easy prey to those who would destroy us.

Philip Keller in his book, “ A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23”, talks about sheep that are “cast”.  That is a shepherds term for a sheep that is on his or her back and unable to get his/her feet back on the ground to stand up.  They lie on their backs and unless the shepherd notices them within certain period of time, they will die.

“The way it happens is this.  A heavy, fat, or long fleeced sheep will lie down comfortably in some little hollow or depression in the ground.  It may roll on it’s side slightly to stretch out or relax.  Suddenly the center of gravity in the body shifts so that it turns on it’s back far enough that the feet no longer touch the ground.  It may feel a sense of panic and start to paw frantically.  Frequently this only makes things worse.  It rolls over even further.  Now it is quite impossible for it to regain it’s feet.

As it lies there struggling, gases begin to build up in the rumen.  As these expand they tend to retard and cut off blood circulation to the extremities of the body, especially the legs.  If the weather is very hot and sunny a cast sheep can die in a few hours.  If it is cool and cloudy and rainy, it may survive in this position for several days.”

Actually, I doubt that a person can ever find God until they realize that they are helpless and unable to help themselves.  It is true that we can be good on our own and we can do “good” things but we can not be good enough to find our way to heaven without the Good Shepherd.

My intent is not to be condemning, narrow minded or harsh but a large part of the problem when it comes to spirituality is the mistaken belief that we can help ourselves, before or after we are taken into the fold.

The three pitfalls of cast sheep are:

·         The desire to find a place of comfort – a soft place.

·         Too much wool – symbolic of the old self-life

·         Too fat -

Any one of these can take the most or the least seasoned sheep into peril.

And when we are “cast” on our backs it is a pitiful thing.

“A ‘cast’ sheep is a very pathetic sight.  Lying on it’s back, it’s feet in the air, it flays away frantically, struggling to stand up, without success.  Sometimes it will bleat a little for help, but generally it lies there lashing about in frightened frustration.”

In his book, “Spiritual Burnout”, Malcolm Smith writes:

The Rest of Faith

We know that the inexhaustible life that rose out of death is available for us so that we might live triumphantly in this present world.  but how do we get that life into our own weak lives?  God's infinite wisdom is within Himself, but we need His wisdom to walk through the problems and confusions of our lives.

Facing the hurts in the lives of people all around us, we feel callous and ncaring.  How do we get His compassion into our hearts?  When others hurt us and we find no ability within ourselves to love and forgive them, how can we get His divine forgiving love into our hearts?

The answer religion gives to this is always in terms of something we do.  In my youth, I asked that question of many pastors and always the answer was a variation of the same idea.  To have the flow of the life of God, one must set aside time to pray and to read the Bible on a regular basis; our quiet hour with God is the key to abiding in Christ. 

I do not believe this is true.  In fact, I believe it only adds to the problem and increases the frustration.  There are many reasons to set aside quality time with God; but if we are doing it in order to get the flow of God into our lives, we are only adding to our spiritual exhaustion.

To say that the life of Christ flows in and through our lives because we spend an hour in devotion today is to turn prayer and Bible Study into a work of the flesh.  It is to make the activity one more rung on the ladder to God.

The Pharisees pored over the scripture and said prayers believing that, in this way, they would somehow tap into God's life.  Jesus plainly told them that in so doing, they were missing the only source of life which is Christ himself.  "You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have life; and it is these that bear witness of me; and you are unwilling to come to me that you may have life." John 5: 39-40 NAS

From the book SPIRITUAL BURNOUT by Malcolm Smith p. 83,84

It is so common for us to try harder than it is to rest.  I have said it so many times that I need to read my Bible more or pray more or witness more.  This happens in the times when I sense that I am not as close to God as I would like to be.

And God says rest, lie down in green pastures . . . reflect take time to reflect beside these quiet waters – trust me for your salvation.  Let me restore your soul.  Let me put you on your feet again.

“As soon as I reached the cast ewe, my very first impulse was to pick it up.  Tenderly I would roll the sheep over on it’s side.  This would relieve the pressure of gases in the rumen.  If she had been down for long I would have to lift her onto her feet.  Then straddling the sheep with my legs, I would hold her erect, rubbing her limbs to restore the circulation to her legs.  This often took quite a little time.  When the sheep started to walk again she often just stumbled, staggered and collapsed in a heap once more.

All the time I worked on the cast sheep I would talk to it gently, “When are you going to learn to stand on your feet?  -- “I’m so glad I found you in time – you rascal!”

And so the conversation would go.  Always couched in language that combined tenderness and rebuke, compassion and correction.

Little by  little the sheep would regain it’s equilibrium.  It would start to walk steadily and surely.  By and by it would dash away to rejoin the others, set free from it’s fears and frustrations, given another chance to live a little longer.”

One of the problems with getting better is that we step out prematurely and then find ourselves in relapse.

"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you." (Psalm 51:10-13, NIV) [5]

I’ve been fighting some kind of flu for 4 weeks now.  It has impacted me in different ways and it seems that each time it returns, it gathers strength.  What’s the problem?  I think it started in the doctor’s office actually.  I waited for 50 minutes in a room of sick people trying to get a “check-up”.  I was feeling fine up to that point.  Got tired of waiting and I left.  Never did see the doctor.  That was stupid and indicative of everything that I am talking about today.  No time to wait.  Isaiah 40:31 – “They that wait upon the Lord. . .”

Runners say that most injuries respond the treatment that we least want to give them – rest.

I’ve seen leaders who experience some kind of moral and spiritual failure or perhaps emotional breakdowns, who can’t take the treatment.  They want to go right back to the battle as though nothing ever happened.  Like the Black Knight in Monte Pythons, “In Search of the Holy Graile”.  He engages in a battle and the first injury that he draws is the amputation of his arm at the shoulder, to which he responds, “A mere flesh wound”

You can deny your injury all you want but for you to function optimally there must be the restoration that comes from God.  “He restores my soul.”

4.The Need to Receive Guidance

“He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even 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.”

We all need guidance don’t we?  Regardless of how resourceful we think we may be we need it.  We don’t always want it but we do need it.

And expertise in one given area of life does not make one an expert in every area of life.  You may be flawless in your area of training but beyond that, out of your element.  It requires time and devotion and passion to gain a level of expertise and the more that we pour ourselves into that specific area, the less time we have to give to other disciplines.  It just works that way – we can’t do it all, know it all, be all.

On a large ocean going vessel a crew is required.  Among those would be the captain, a wheel man, a communications officer, and a navigator.

The captain may be proficient and knowledgeable – he should be.  But regardless of how accomplished he may be, if he is smart, he is dependent on the navigator or the “guide” if you will.

Some people find it so difficult to trust themselves to others.  That is simply because they feel that their own ability to figure things out for themselves supersedes the insight of the person who has given themselves to another body of knowledge.  It is pride nothing more or less and reprehensible in God’s eyes.  And it catches up to us one way or another. 

My dear Dad had a difficult time trusting people.  He was an intelligent man who probably could have succeeded at anything that he put his mind to.  Because of hard living and a period of dark bitter years, unresolved anger, he drank his way into gout.  The gout took him out of the woods, his grand sanctuary.  If Dad met God anywhere and I know that he did, it was in nature.  With his feet swollen from gout, he was unable to spend time in nature and his soul shriveled because of it. 

He gained more weight because he couldn’t get exercise.  The weight aggravated his gout.  Then he began to study his disease to try to find his own pathway out.  When he would infrequently seek a doctor’s help, he would quickly lose confidence.  Many times they weren’t as knowledgeable of his disease as he was.  He knew it inside and out.  So he couldn’t trust the doctor.  While Dad was an expert on the disease, he couldn’t seem to grasp the fact that the doctor was an expert on medicine and treatments.

Sin is somewhat like that I suppose.  We know our disease, - we don’t realize that God is into healing and deliverance from the things that we know so well.  So we labor and languish with our issues.

We know our problems.  We know why we are the way that we are but this knowledge is entirely useless because we cannot doctor ourselves.  There comes a time when each of us must defer to others.  Have you deferred to God?

Some find this idea so difficult because they have so many unanswered questions.  They look for a god that or who makes sense to them.  I think that it is ridiculous to try to find an explainable God.  If an infinite God is totally comprehensible to a finite mind then he is no god.  If the Creator possesses no knowledge that is above that which is created then we ourselves are latent gods.  Yet there are people who reserve belief and trust for the point of enlightenment when God makes sense to them – when they finally understand.  It will never happen.

What a diminutive God we would have if He fit comfortably into the range of our intellect and knowledge.  I believe in the God who defies my wildest dreams and imaginations.  He is the God of my unanswered questions who reminds me of my limits set against his limitlessness.  The longer I know Him the more questions that I find.  Not the kind that cause me to doubt, but the kind that cause me to seek His face.

Think about the absurdity of that perspective.  Would you trust the surgeon who knew no more than you about the nature of your problem.  Would you insist on understanding the intricacies of his procedures before you allowed him to operate on you?

And why not just fix your own car?  Find the mechanic who knows no more about your car problems than you do.  When we want a fix, don’t we look for someone whose knowledge is greater than ours.

And when we are trying to find our way through life does it not make sense to find a guide who sees what we can never see and understands what we may never understand.

He is the Good Shepherd who guides us.  He leads us beside the quiet waters.  The direct route to the destination but the shepherd not only leads the sheep directly, he guides us.  A guide is as much concerned with the process as a leader is concerned with the destination.  We have a “guide.”

Max Chase is a guide.  If you want to catch a fish, he can take you to the place where you are likely to do so.  More than one place.

If you are going on a vacation to the Holy Land, you’re better off with a guide.  They’ll show you things that you might never see on your own.  That’s their business.

I went on a white water rafting tour one cold spring, southeast of Pittsburgh, in the Youghiogheny River.  The river was at flood stage and the trip that normally took 6 hours was reduced to half that.  The guide stood in the back of an 18 foot rubber raft with a long oar trailing behind him.  His job was to tell us when to paddle and how hard. 

“Back hard on the left.  Forward together, easy now.”

We never asked any questions.  We could hardly hear him above the roar of the waters.  It was downright scary.  He told us stories of ill-fated people who decide to go down the river on their own.

He explained about river hydraulics.  That’s a place where the force of the water flowing over a rock literally punches a hole in the river.  Rafts can get caught in hydraulics.  And they are just spun over and over until the river decides to spit the victims out.  Lone inexperienced rafters have no idea how the currents run and they get swept into these.  Many never emerge.

He had our attention.

I had no questions really.

I didn’t care to challenge his knowledge on the basis of my lack of experience and knowledge.  I suspected that he knew more about the Youch than I did.

That’s the way that I wanted it.  I wanted someone who knew more about this river than I could possibly understand.

He was the guide after all.

We crashed and banged down that river, stopping half way to thaw out our numbed feet after they had been submerged in the ice cold water that accumulated in the bottom of the raft.

Want a god with limited knowledge, one that you can understand?  Try Oprah or Dr. Phil or Dan Brown – they’ll never allow unanswered questions.  They are answer people.  Go-to kind of people.

And they may help you here and there but don’t trust them with eternal questions.

The scripture tells us that he guides us in paths of righteousness.  He is interested in the process of life and learning to recognize the handiwork and the heart of God.  The pathways that God takes us on are designed to teach us about righteousness not about worldliness.  It’s as unnatural as a golf swing.

I like this little story of deferring to someone who knows more than I do.

A man was on the golf practice course, when the club pro, Maury, brought an important-looking man out for a lesson.  Maury watched the guy swing several times and started making suggestions for improvement, but each time the pupil interrupted with his own versions of what was wrong and how to correct it.  After a few minutes of this interference, Maury began nodding his head in agreement.  At the end of the lesson, the man paid Maury, congratulated him on his expertise as a teacher and left in an obviously pleased frame of mind.

The observer was so astonished by the performance, that he had to ask, "Why did you go along with him?"

"Son," the old pro said with a grin as he carefully pocketed his fee, "I learned long ago that it's a waste of time to sell answers to a man who wants to buy echoes."

 -- J.F. Moore, Reader's Digest

The Shepherd’s Psalm tells us that He guides us for His Name’s sake.

John Piper says “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”

With all my heart, I believe that life at it’s best is to be found in following the guidance of the Good Shepherd.  I will never find greater fulfillment than that which is found in submission to God.

I was golfing this past week with 7 other men, most of them from our church.  I’m not a good golfer but I enjoy the game.  We were in Cape Cod.  An expensive place to live, I would think.  We were looking at some very expensive properties down there.  I don’t remember who I was with but I asked one of the guys, “Do you suppose that people who live in Cape Cod are happier than people who live in Fredericton?”

It’s a ridiculous question.  Of course not. 

Happiness is not found in possessing.  Actually the opposite can occur.  The desire to preserve our stuff from scratches and aging can turn us into more miserable people.

Money won’t do it any more than a condo in the Cape.  Greed keeps people from enjoying what they have.  Abundance can turn people into misers.  I don’t know of a happy miser.  Hoarding to gain wealth is not the answer.

And if you don’t have a lot of money that’s not necessarily a noble thing.  Sometimes we talk as though it is.  I’m poor so I love God more than someone who is well off.  Covetousness – to want what someone else has, makes me unhappy with, and ungrateful for what I do have.   Whether it is greed for more or bitterness over what I don’t have, the Bible says that it is the “love of money” – not the money – that is the root of all evil.

This issue, the “love of money” is a pitfall for the rich or the poor because it robs both of the ability to realize and to enjoy the blessings that they do have.

And what about God?  If I follow him in paths of righteousness will He help me to get the things that I want. 

You may get some of the stuff that you want – that’s great.  But if you choose to follow the guide you’ll know what it is that you really want and you’ll understand the difference between treasures and trinkets.  There are people who will give everything that they have for trinkets and miss the treasures of life.

I counted all my dollars while God counted crosses;

I counted gains while he counted losses;

I counted my worth by the things gained in store,

But he sized me up by the scars that I bore.

I coveted honors and sought for degrees;

He wept as He counted the hours on my knees.

I never knew till one day by a grave

How vain are the things that we spend life to save.

I did not know till a friend went above

That richest is he who is rich in God's love.

   -- Author unknown, Parables, Etc.

You see, in the depths of our heart we are either convinced that God is good or that He is not.  We will trust Him to find the keys to life or we will search them out for ourselves.

It’s a choice that each one must make on his/her own.

And sometimes, in the process of following, there are anxious moments.

“Even 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.”

I am troubled at the tendency to take the risk out of life.  I’m not advocating that we should be careless or irresponsible.  If we want to be entirely safe, we’d never do some of the things that we do.

I have great appreciation for Neighborlink.  For those who don’t know what this organization is, it is a group of volunteers from 11 different churches in town.  They transport people who are unable to afford taxis, to and from the food bank, doctor’s appointments.  They help people move and occasionally assist people with financial needs.  I volunteer there every other Wednesday morning.  I answer phones and try to find an available volunteer who can take someone where they need to go.  I don’t enjoy it one little bit.  I detest making phone calls and trying to make sure that I complete all the paperwork as it needs to be done.  I am not a detail person and never will be.  I greatly admire those who are.  And every month I do a couple of runs.  I take someone to the Food Bank or to an appointment.  I want to thank Laurie Sylvester, Don & Joyce Wood, Nina King – I am sure that I am missing someone.  These people give their time and resources to help people who are often demanding and ungrateful.  To me they reflect the character of Christ, doing as Jesus would do.

I participate in this organization because I believe it to be a “least of these” ministry.  I feel that my character I need this contact to keep my heart where it needs to be.  Of course because of the nature of my work, I am available to help when others are not.  Many of the volunteers – only 50 or so are retired people.  By the way we need volunteers desperately.  If you would be willing to help, please see me.

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’" (Matthew 25:40, NIV) [6]

Sometime ago now the insurance company that handled Neighborlink began to impose restrictions that threatened the survival of this organization.  There was expensive insurance to be purchased to protect those who transported people.  There were forms that had to be signed before a person was transported.  It was ridiculous.

Currently what was Neighborlink is Neighborhoodlink.  It stands alone and relatively unprotected.  People still transport people.

Please don’t hear me say that we should ignore liability issues but when we let the possibility of risk reduce our willingness to help, we become like priest and the Levite who passed the beaten man in the ditch.  And if our buildings and lands are the issues that concern us in a litigious society and if we cannot trust God to protect us when we do the things that He commands us to do then we ‘d do ourselves a favor to sell them so that we could minister without encumbrance.  You can’t take the risk out of faith and preserve it’s vitality.

“In those days when people visited prisoners who were held captive under Roman authority, they were often prejudged as criminal types as well.  Therefore a visitor exposed himself to danger just by being near those who were considered dangerous.  The Greek term Paul uses here for "risking" -- paraboleumai -- is one that meant "to hazard with one's life .... to gamble."  Epaphroditus did just that.

In the early church there were societies of men and women who called themselves the parabolani, that is, the riskers or gamblers.  They ministered to the sick and the imprisoned and they saw to it that, if at all possible, martyrs and sometimes even enemies would receive an honorable burial.  Thus in the city of Carthage during the great pestilence of AD 252, Cyprian the bishop, showed some remarkable courage.  In self sacrificing fidelity to his flock, and love even for his enemies, he took upon himself the care of the sick, and bade his congregation nurse them and bury the dead.  What a contrast with the practice of the heathen who were throwing the corpses out of the plague-stricken city and then were running away in terror!

There will be some who will hear what I am saying as unreasonable and irresponsible.  I so appreciate the facilities that we have but I am growing less and less attached to these sorts of things in my personal life and my ministry life.  More than anything else I want the church to be a force in our society today not an impotent, irrelevant organization.  It’s not a new thought you know.  The church is most dynamic in places today where they have no buildings or lands.  In China there are an estimated 30,000 people everyday who are coming to Christ.  In the early days of Christianity God’s presence swept over the city of Jerusalem, turning it upside down.

"But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too." (Acts 17:6, NKJV) [7]

I think that God is ultimately more reliable than any insurance company that exists.  It seems that  they are fine and they can be relied on to take your premiums and all is well until there is a claim.  Then the task is to find any way that they can to absolve themselves of financial responsibility.

I’d much rather trust Jesus and engage fully in the task of ministering to a fallen, lost world in His Name.

In shady, green pastures, so rich and so sweet,
God leads His dear children along;
Where the water’s cool flow bathes the weary one’s feet,
God leads His dear children along. 

Some through the waters, some through the flood,
Some through the fire, but all through the blood;
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song,
In the night season and all the day long.

Sometimes on the mount where the sun shines so bright,
God leads His dear children along;
Sometimes in the valley, in darkest of night,
God leads His dear children along.

And as the Psalmist says so eloquently, there is no fear when we are being guided by the Good Shepherd.  He is with us, He brings comfort and peace in the midst of turmoil

Beyond my call to the ministry, the next fear that I had when it came to following the Good Shepherd was that he would call me to Africa or some other far removed place.  I’m a homebody at heart.  Elaine and I lived in the states for 10 years and they were great years but it was so good to come home – so good to be home.

But I know this about “followership”.  If I erect any private property signs in my life, areas where I try to restrict the movement of God, I reduce his ability to communicate His fullness to me and I limit my own experience of God.  We follow in obedience a God who has something better for us than we would have for ourselves.

“All God’s revelations are sealed to us until they are opened to us by obedience. You will never get them open by philosophy or thinking. Immediately you obey, a flash of light comes. Let God’s truth work in you by soaking in it, not by worrying into it. Obey God in the thing He is at present showing you, and instantly the next thing is opened up. We read tomes on the work of the Holy Spirit when... five minutes of drastic obedience would make things clear as a sunbeam. We say, "I suppose I shall understand these things some day." You can understand them now: it is not study that does it, but obedience. The tiniest fragment of obedience, and heaven opens up and the profoundest truths of God are yours straight away.  God will never reveal more truth about Himself till you obey what you know already. Beware of being wise and prudent.

 ... Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)

We talk about the will of God a fair bit.  There are times when we struggle to “discern” it.  Personally I feel that the struggle is not so much in knowing as it is in obeying, in following the guidance that we receive.  I believe that the relationship that we have with God should temper every action, every reaction in life.  There is no cause that is so great that it would call us to violate the 1st and 2nd greatest commandments that we all know clearly.  This represents the will of God.  Nearly every week I have someone call me to tell me how they had an unpleasant encounter with a goat in the sheep pen or some cantankerous individual.  This person has determined that they represent a cause that is great enough to allow them to come aboard one of God’s children.  Cantankerous sheep upset the equilibrium of the entire flock and sooner or later they will give an account to the shepherd.

The attention that we give to the clearly stated will of God in these ordinary, ever-day areas of life is more important than what we pray about as God’s will for us one year from now.  “Does God want me to sell my house?” is most likely a less important prayer than, “How should I respond to this person, how should I treat them, am I showing kindness and gentleness.”

The guidance is clearly there, receive it if you would know Him.

5.The Need to Rely on God for Vindication

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”

I have a joke that I love to tell.  I call it the “Dead Horse” joke.  It’s long, it involves a speech impediment and a certain sense of humor that would make one want to tell it and another sense of humor to want to hear it.  There’s nothing wrong with the joke at all.  By now, my wife, nervous that I am actually going to tell it, needs to hear that I won’t put you through that ordeal.  However, if you do want to hear it, let me know and I will tell you at some point.

It involves two brothers, one beleaguered and belittled by his dominant sibling.  He is called “stupid” on a regular basis until it sinks in.  He concocts an elaborate scheme to get revenge and it involves the purchase of a dead horse.  It is funny to me because all that he wants is for once to be undeniably right and to be able to look at his brother and call him stupid.

It’s an “I told you so.”, kind of thing.  I am not sure what is sweeter.  To be in a situation where you have been proven right and then to indulge your sense of vindication by saying those words or merely the exchange of eye contact between you and the person who thought they were infallible and in that moment there is a mutual knowing that is priceless.

It’s my granddaughter putting my daughter through the hoops and seeing her patience wear thin here and there.  We look at each other and there are no words that can say it quite so well as that fleeting “E.S.P.-like” moment.

It’s your boss ignoring your advice and the results exactly matching your predictions.  An you know that he knows that you knew what he now knows in no uncertain terms.  That is so good.  It’s probably carnal to savor it for too long but it sure tastes good.

And although there is no rejoicing in people spending their lives as if God doesn’t exist, there is a day that approaches when the people of God will be vindicated.

It’s Noah after 120 years of foolish boat-building when the rain starts and people begin to realize that they were the foolish ones.

It’s the person who spends a lifetime chasing self-realization and the trinkets of time who stands before the Almighty and in a flash remembers the ignored truths, the misplaced priorities the unbelievable arrogance that chose to disregard the wisdom of God as myth, foolishness.  It’s absolutely frightening because there does come a time of reckoning when the Truth becomes obvious and the window of opportunity is closed.  And that is no joke.

It’s a promise that needs to be claimed by anyone who ever wondered where God is and what he is up to.  When you can’t see for the darkness in the “Valley of the Shadow of Death”.

It’s the realization of the Beatitudes – God’s promise come true for those who know life with little promise.

" Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." (Matthew 5:1-12, NIV) [8]

You see whatever life deals you, we need to remember that earth is never meant to be the place of heavenly reward.  This is never meant to be the place where we will stay forever.  It’s just a part of the tour as we are guided in paths designed to bring us an understanding and experience of righteousness – paths of righteousness.

And in the rugged untamed wilderness of human experience, he sets a table for you, while the enemies look on and he serves you a feast without equal and you become the honored guest.

An Audience of Skeptics

Let’s take a few minutes and see the vindication that God gives from the vantage point of the audience.  Those who see your life but have no sympathy or interest in what you believe.  The Bible says that the audience is made up of your enemies, those who have come to see you fail, those who wish the worst for you and perhaps involve themselves in trying to bring it about.  And we all have them. 

As a matter of fact, perhaps the treatment that they give you is designed to prove to themselves that you are indeed no different than they are.  That was Satan’s request of God in the book of Job.

"“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”" (Job 1:9-11, NIV) [9]

And while God may never give the devil a free hand to oppress you, there are people, his people, in this life who want to see just how deep your experience with God goes.  And they will test you to discover it.  They want to see how well you suffer, what’s really underneath the surface and if you have resource that allows you to give back something better than you are given.  If evil returns then they conclude that you have nothing that makes you any different from them.  The devil still loves to provoke the children of God to curse Him.

The Shepherd however, intends that the world should have a front-row seat on your experience.  Have you ever felt that you were being watched?  It’s reality TV at it’s best.  You’re the star.  When you think no one is looking and it doesn’t matter, someone sees.  You see I think that people want to see how a relationship with the Shepherd is fleeced out.

The problem that we face is that we become so pre-occupied with the audience that we lose the story line.  Our experience with God is ignored because we are playing to the grandstands.

If I go to see a play, I want the story.  I want the actor to be immersed in the script and I want to see the story unfold.  I don’t want the actor to modify the outcome.  I want to be able to watch the story unfold.

So while people are indeed watching you, the most important thing is for you to stay in character.  Don’t overact.  You see when you pretend that things that hurt, don’t really hurt, you’re playing to the grandstands. 

Real people want to know what a relationship with God does for you when you face tragedy.  They are not looking for a Cinderella ending.  You’re not failing God when people observe the pain that you face.  They don’t want canned answers or responses.  They want to see how you process the same questions that they have.  That requires honest living.  It means that the relationship that you have with God is real enough to be fully portrayed.

Real people don’t question your faith when you find yourselves in difficult times in your marriage or home life.  They want to see what you do in those times that makes you different from them.  Could I tell you that there are times when Christian people get divorced.  They walk away and shake their heads wondering how and why that happened or where things began to go wrong.  And even this won’t cause the faithless world to dismiss the reality of faith.  But if you fail to live honestly before them they will walk away from what you profess.

Why?  I think that it is because the issue is not a perfect performance but a real one.  I used to think that there were times when I had ruined my opportunity to witness to a person because my conduct was unbecoming to the character of Christ.  I realize more in these days that what I do when I sin is more crucial to my witness.  If I have a heart that is humble enough to admit my failure and to seek the forgiveness of God and man then God can use this many times to have a greater impact.

I have a friend, a man who attends our church who is struggling, along with his wife to save their marriage.  There are good days and bad days for them, painful times and times when there is a hint of promise that things may come back together.

In the midst of this turmoil, God is using both of these folks.  The man has gathered a group of unchurched people from his office and we meet monthly to watch and discuss the “Left Behind” series.  At least one of these people is an agnostic.  Also, recently this gentleman asked if his office might re-designate the proceeds of their recycling program to support our ministerial student at EWBC.  They agreed.  These people know what the circumstances are in this man’s life and yet they are open to his efforts to impact them for Christ.  Why?  Simply because he is real.  John Fischer used to say that evangelism is nothing more than one poor beggar telling another poor beggar where to find bread.

How does that work?

Picture the verse this morning.

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”

You see, the people who hate you are a captive audience.  We become obsessed with the people that we refuse to love or forgive.  We observe them and watch to find reasons to convince ourselves that our judgments about them are correct.  Just as the Pharisees who hated Jesus became his students.  They were “looking for a reason to accuse”.

The people who hate you are consumed with your life as well.  They are watching closely.  They will find your faults.  Many of them know your faults better than you do.  The impact comes when they can see how a faulty individual can still know an intimate relationship with the shepherd.  How God chooses to provide, to protect and to proffer (to hold something out to somebody so that he or she can take or grasp it).

Like most everything else it’s about God not you.  You see the salvation of your friends does not depend on you, it depends on God.  God wants to and he can use you.  But if you won’t cooperate, he’ll find another way.   God loves other people too much to make them an object lesson of the results of your disobedience.  In other words, God will not allow the damnation of people, of friends and family to show you that there was something that you should have done that you didn’t do or something that you shouldn’t have done – that you did.  He loves them too much for that.  People go to heaven or hell based on their own choices.

We’ll answer in some fashion for what we did do and what we did not do.

Remember that this Psalm was born out of the heart of a shepherd who loved his sheep intensely.  And he saw that God loved his intensely as well, like a shepherd.  And, inspired of God he wrote these words that bring us such encouragement.

While there are beautiful things that are said about how good it is to be “taken care of” by a gentle loving shepherd, it is really a Psalm that brings glory to the Good Shepherd, not the sheep.

When God blesses His children, it is not because of their own goodness but His.  When the world observes us in relationship to God it is not a display of our goodness but His.  May God help us when we forget that a good witness is not the process of displaying our own goodness before men but in displaying God’s goodness.

"But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life." (1 Timothy 1:16, NIV) [10]

I love this verse – our lives are a display of the goodness of God.

That God should love a sinner such as I

Should yearn to change my sorrow into bliss

Nor rest ‘til He had planned to bring me nigh

How wonderful is love like this

Such love, such wondrous love

Such love such wondrous love

That God should love a sinner such as I

How wonderful is love like this

And whenever we feel that the gospel is about our goodness or trying to cause people to reach for a standard of goodness then we have convoluted and lost the message.

It’s about Him.  It’s about His goodness.  It’s about His wonderful love and the incredible opportunity that we have to experience this love – this relationship.

And that’s really what vindication is all about – relying on God to vindicate or to make us right according to His goodness not our own.

There are those here today who have never received this relational vindication.  Inside you’re still hearing the voice – don’t try because you can’t do it.  You’re stuck.  You’re hoping for a time when your life is more in order before you seek God.  If you wait for that time then you will merely be trying to make yourself acceptable and still will miss the righteousness that comes by faith.

But the more that I fight to defend or vindicate myself the more I “retard” this process.  The more difficult I make it for God to do what He chooses to do and the greater the likelihood that I will do something stupid. 

6.The Need to Remember God’s Character

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

What do you hear when you read this last verse of the Shepherd’s Psalm?  I hear the soft sigh of contentment.  I see David leaning/laying on some hillside looking out over the flock, seeing himself in the sheep that he cars for and sensing God’s love and care himself.  I read something that I feel with some regularity.  I would call this a personal reflection in closing the Psalm that expresses a wonderful sense of well-being.  The closing verse offers a perspective on life that belongs to those who allow themselves to be shepherded and loved by God.

Anyone who sits here today can experience this same sense of peace and contentment if you are willing to receive it from God.  You can’t build it, engineer it, buy it, earn it, design it, define it.  It must be personally experienced.  Something that comes from God to you.

Perhaps this verse today is an offer.  Perhaps today there are some her who would long to experience this kind of outlook on life.  I believe that God would be anxious today to help you discover this.  Let’s pray that He can say something to the hurried and harried among us as we think about this for a few minutes today.

A Sense of Well Being

It really is an underlying thing in my own life.  Not that I don’t ever experience anxious moments.  I worry like others.

It’s the comfort that comes to me knowing that God knows.  He knows the future though I don’t and I suspect based on His goodness that whatever else the future holds, it holds God’s provision.  Whatever life requires of me God supplies.

GOD KNOWS....

When you are tired and discouraged from fruitless efforts...God knows how hard you have tried.

When you've cried so long and your heart is in anguish...God has counted your tears.

If you feel that your life is on hold and time has passed you by...God is waiting with you.

When you're lonely and your friends are too busy even for a phone call...God is by your side.

When you think you've tried everything and don't know where to turn...God has a solution.

When nothing makes sense and you are confused or frustrated...God has the answer.

If suddenly your outlook is brighter and you find traces of hope...God has whispered to you.

When things are going well and you have much to be thankful for...God has blessed you.

When something joyful happens and you are filled with awe...God has smiled upon you.

When you have a purpose to fulfill and a dream to follow...God has opened your eyes and called you by name.

Remember that wherever you are or whatever you are facing...GOD KNOWS.

I get it in the uncluttered times of life when my cell phone isn’t ringing and I’m not dealing with the pettiness of people who can’t seem to bring themselves to practice the life-saving principles of God’s Word.  I think that it is such a tragedy that we live so far below our position of privilege as sons and daughters of God.  It’s not that we don’t know what to do but that we don’t want to do it.

I talked with an RCMP officer this past week who told me that within two weeks the following things took place in his life:

[     His wife had a stroke that altered her personality and she walked out on him leaving him with two boys aged 7 and 12.

[     One of his boys tried to commit suicide because of this.

[     His mother died.

[     He was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma.

He is at relative peace today and the difficult times have taught him much about life and about himself.  He doesn’t sweat the small stuff anymore.  He understands the difference between what is major and minor.  I’m not sure where he’s at spiritually – I’m planning on finding out in the near future.

I guess it is a bit discouraging to me that within the church we have people who seem to sweat nothing but the small stuff.  I struggle to find the right responses to people who have had the benefits of God’s word and the opportunity to draw close to God – but they stand back, hiding in a powerless form of religion, strangers to God.  And I wonder what has to happen to cause the realities of faith to sink the 18 inches from their heads to their hearts.  If it doesn’t happen because we seek His face and strive to absorb His being, then what tragedy or what misfortune must come our way to stop us in our tracks so that we can find the God of peace, the shepherd of our souls.

I stopped teaching Tae Kwon Do a couple of years ago because I tired of “re-teaching” people.  You see whatever we fail to practice, we might as well, never have learned.  The most faithful student that I ever had was Burt Dykeman.  If there was class, he was there.

Others came when they felt like it.  It was probably my fault because I should have charged more for the lessons.  The absenteeism would have represented more of a personal loss for people.

Sometimes I let people come for free.  They were generally the worst.  There was nothing on the line for them.  They were tired, they stayed home.  They had something else that they wanted to do, they skipped class.  And the ones who came for free were the most demanding and the hardest to please.  I remember reading one time that the loudest “boos” always come from the free seats.  I think that is true.  And so I had a group of students in my class who always needed to be “re-taught” – for lack of attendance and the failure to practice what they learned.

I love the church.  But many times there are similar things that happen.  Do we really need to hear all the sermons that we hear?  Is it teaching or re-teaching.

I found these notes that I took at a Steven Covey seminar in Halifax, the spring before I came to Fredericton.  There are some who don’t appreciate this man’s teaching because they suspect that he is a Mormon.  It’s a shame that we ignore truth because people who don’t share our beliefs can still offer us something if we will listen.

Benefits of teaching:

 1.  When we teach we learn the most.

2.  When you teach you are motivated to live it.

3.  When you share what you learn other see you in a new light.

4.  When you teach and learn from each other bonding occurs.

Listen to the writer of Hebrews as he reflects on the natural progression of the Christian life.

" We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil." (Hebrews 5:11-14, NIV) [11]

How many sermons have we heard on the forgiveness of God and yet how offended we become when we are actually mistreated. 

The writer suggests that after a point, every believer should be able to teach people about their faith but that many times we are dwarfed by our own disinterest or lack of motivation and we can’t teach, we need to re-learn.

We look for reasons to justify our feelings and fail to extend the most basic of all graces – forgiveness.  Because we have been forgiven so much by God, how can we ever refuse to forgive others.  The refusal to forgive is evidence of a lack of personal experience of God’s forgiveness.  Unless we have been truly forgiven we can never truly forgive.  If you struggle to forgive others, I would encourage you to ask yourself whether you have ever received God’s forgiveness.  Repentance can be nothing more that regret over ones actions or the consequences of those actions.  Forgiveness is seeing the true state of your soul before God and seeking His forgiveness for what you are more than what you do.  It is the desire to have God change your very being and so to change your doing.

Verse 6 is nothing more than the natural conclusion to this Psalm.  Sheep that allow themselves to be shepherded

have a sense of well being.

A Faith-filled Perspective on Life

And because of that inner contentment they see life far different than those who lack this experience.

What an optimistic perspective that David expresses.  Wouldn’t it be great to be up in the mouth rather than down in the mouth.  This is an observation of life in the here and now remember.

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life . . . “

You see faith is for more than the after life.  It is for the present whatever that looks like.   When a person is overcome by their circumstance it seems that no one else has a right to suggest that things might be better than they appear.  I understand that – pain is blinding thing.  It keeps us from seeing options and alternatives.  Pain deceives us into believing that there is nothing more real than my suffering.

But there are truths that exist that supercede the dark shadows that hedge our lives when we are in pain.  I don’t want to sound trite or to ignore the fact that people suffer terribly for varieties of reasons, but a relationship with God is designed to bring you something in the dark times of your life.  The truths of scripture are not diminished by the realities that you face.  And people who have not suffered your particular set of circumstances can actually offer you something that can help you find your way out.  Not everyone who points you to truth is insensitive and uncaring.  Sometimes the very opposite is true.  But it takes a “yielded-ness” to hear when we suffer.

Are you yielded today to God as the shepherd of your life?  Is it His truth that you fall back upon when life doesn’t make sense?  Let me implore you to lean into God when you are in the dark painful times.  His truth offers you a healthy, god-breathed perspective on an otherwise dark world.  His truth lights my world every day of life.  I wake with hope that scripture and His character brings me.  Don’t do your devotions by watching CNN or reading the morning paper.  Lean into the shepherd if you want to find hope and truth and a reason to believe rather than to turn sour on life.

I met God in the morning

I met God in the morning

when the day was at its best,

And His Presence came like sunrise,

Like a glory in my breast.

All day long the Presence lingered,

All day long He stayed with me,

And we sailed in perfect calmness

O'er a very troubled sea.

Other ships were blown and battered,

Other ships were sore distressed,

But the winds that seemed to drive them,

Brought to me a peace and rest.

Then I thought of other mornings,

With a keen remorse of mind,

When I too had loosed the moorings,

With the presence left behind.

So, I think I know the secret,

Learned from many a troubled way:

You must seek Him in the morning

If you want Him through the day!

By Bishop Ralph Cushman

I think that a sense of well-being begins and ends with the character of God.  Confidence in God comes as we pursue Him and discover Him personally.  It’s not enough to listen to sermons or to assume that we know everything because we have been “churched” all our lives.  It has to be personally learned and handled. 

There are scriptures that bring us this assurance.

"“Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" (Matthew 7:9-11, NIV)[12]

It’s a fairly simple question.  Would God as my heavenly father treat me any differently than my earthly father.  If because of the love of my earthly father, I am treated as a cherished son, can I expect anything less from the heavenly father.

There are earthly fathers who abuse their children mentally.  They create scenarios that build rage and resentment in their children because of their own sickness.

The term “double-binding” is a psychological term and theory that is possibly a contributor to schizophrenia.  It has to with conflicting messages.  I believe that the gospel has been preached as a “double-binding” message.

Schizophrenic symptoms are an expression of social interactions in which the individual is repeatedly exposed to conflicting injunctions, without having the opportunity to adequately respond to those injunctions, or to ignore them (i.e., to escape the field). For example, if a mother tells her son that she loves him, while at the same time turning her head away in disgust, the child receives two conflicting messages about their relationship on different communicative levels, one of affection on the verbal level, and one of animosity on the nonverbal level. It is argued that the child's ability to respond to the mother is incapacitated by such contradictions across communicative levels, because one message invalidates the other. Because of the child's vital dependence on the mother, it is argued that the child is also not able to comment on the fact that a contradiction has occurred.

We hardly know what to feel about God because we hear an angry gospel and we’re not sure if God loves us or if he hates us.  And the church in it’s approach to society is rarely hallmarked by the distinguishing characteristic of faith which is the love of God.  And why should that surprise us?  We can’t seem to love each other, let alone the world around us.

"“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”" (John 13:34-35, NIV) [13]

You see – this is the second greatest commandment.  If we preach a gospel that uses the word love but it sounds like hate then we will be largely ignored an rightfully so.

You can’t give to the world what you have not received from God.  In order to give the love of God you have to receive His love.  You can’t forgive people unless you’ve been forgiven.

I wonder at times if bitter unforgiving Christians have ever caught a glimpse of their own sinfulness and been truly forgiven. 

The Wake of Your Life

What follows you today?  What comes in the wake of your life?

I think of the statement, “Wherever you go, there you are.”  A person can’t outrun their problems because they normally recur – they have a lot to do with us.

If we want to face our problems the first step is to stop and face ourselves.

I thought during the men’s golf trip this year that the best thing that I can do to improve my golf game is to improve my attitude.  A bad attitude makes for a bad round for me and everyone else around me.  Every year when we go on this trip, Bob passes out rules that are designed to keep a person from getting down on himself because it makes it unpleasant for everyone else.  And a good golfer, which I am not has mastered the art of shaking off the last hole – bad or good and taking each hole, each shot as a separate experience.

David says, “. . .goodness and mercy shall follow me”. 

That’s what I want.  I want the wake of my life  to bring good things to other people.  I want people to be bigger and better because I have been around.  I don’t want them to be glad when I leave or apprehensive when they know that I am coming.

And then what about the last part of the verse?  “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”  One last tiny remark to end this Psalm.  The assurance of an eternal home – once again not based on your performance but on the character of God.

People who are at peace with their eternal destiny are generally more at peace with the present.  I think that you can concentrate more on living when you are at peace with God and your destiny.

You can trust what God says.  Take it to the bank.  What are you pinning your hopes on?  A change of government?  A change of circumstance?  A lottery ticket?  A different partner?

Psalm 23:6 is the forward part of David’s reflection.  His hope for the future based on his experience of God in the past.  In every picture that we read together this morning we saw David’s recounting of God’s faithfulness.  He knew as he penned these words that God could forever be trusted.  There have been countless numbers of people who have lived their lives with this perspective and have found as well that God is faithful?  What is your choice today?  Trust Him, trust you?  It’s a no-brainer really.

Surely . . . can it be any different? 

Unused Material

Well don’t count your chickens before they hatch.  I’ve heard that said before.  But there are times when, regardless of the absurdity, you know down deep, . . . to deep to fully understand and far too deep to provide an explanation that will satisfy those not so easily convinced.

Elaine had some sort of divine awareness when she found out that she was pregnant.  The news was not that surprising.  She felt that God wanted her to ask Him for a son and she did.  I never realized that she was in negotiations with God.  I’m glad that she was.  I think that it was on her birthday, October 13th back in 1991 that the pregnancy test confirmed her suspicions.  And that day, she knew.  It was a boy.

And she was telling people so.  They were happy and hesitant at the same time.  Very few tried to tell her that perhaps she shouldn’t paint the room blue right away, but you could see it in their eyes.

Eleven years had passed since Erin’s birth.  I was happy with the two girls that we had.  We’d be empty nesters by 1999.  The man-child that I wondered about was given up and over to God and tucked in the spiritual hope chest.

And then God for no better reason than the fact that God is good, decided that He wanted to bless us.  And as He does when he pours out a blessing on us, He opens the chest that contains the desires that we have surrendered to Him  and selects the one that will bring us the greatest happiness and says, “That’s it!  That’s the one.”

It took the better part of nine months for me to realize what Elaine knew from the start.  She never wavered.  I watched him being born.  And like the two sisters who preceded him, he was and is another of God’s realized blessings, the answer to the prayers that we no longer pray, the ones that we hardly think about anymore, the ones that God never loses sight of.

Whatever you are praying for today, could I encourage you to lay it square in God’s hands and let it become His concern.  Often our prayers are never nearer to being answered than when we give up, when we let go, when we let God do His thing and stop trying to do our own thing.

You see God really can’t bless your life until you let go.  Why?  Because you’d never recognize the fact that it was a love gift – evidence that He cares for you and that he hears the faintest cries of your heart.  Until you learn that it is beyond you, until you give up, until your eyes are open to see the miracle that He would like to give you.

If He did it any sooner, you’d take credit.  It somehow would become your story instead of His.

Surely . . . this is the boy that I prayed for.

People don’t pray these sorts of things unless they are crazy or unless they know something about God that others don’t know.

Often people of faith are difficult to distinguish from foolish people.

"But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”" (1 Corinthians 1:27-31, NIV) [14]

So why do people choose to live by this faith?

[     Do I really belong to Him?

[     Do I really recognize His right to me?

[     Do I respond to His authority and acknowledge His ownership?

[     Do I find freedom and complete fulfillment in this arrangement?

[     Do I sense a purpose and deep contentment because I am under His direction?

[     Do I know rest and repose, beside a definite sense of exciting adventure, in belonging to Him?

Before I can say He is my shepherd, I need answers to these questions.

   -- "A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23", by Philip Keller

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[1] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

[2] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

4 Phillip Keller, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing, 1970; reprint, in Phillip Keller: The Inspirational Writings, New York: Inspirational Press, 1993), 28–29 (page citations are to the reprint edition).

[3]Lucado, M. (2001). Traveling light : Releasing the burdens you were never intended to bear (Page 39). Nashville: W Publishing Group.

[4]Eyre, S. D. (1997, c1995). Drawing close to God : The essentials of a dynamic quiet time : A lifeguide resource. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press.

[5] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

[6] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

[7] The New King James Version. 1996, c1982. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[8]  The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

[9]  The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

[10]  The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

[11]  The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

[12]  The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

[13]  The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

[14]  The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.