Peace

The Lord is My Shepherd

7.25.21 [Psalm 23] River of Life (8th Sunday after Pentecost)

(Jude 1-2) To you who have been called, who are loved in God the Father & kept by Jesus Christ. Mercy, peace and love are yours in abundance. Amen.

When we got back into Phoenix I wasn’t positive we had gotten on the right flight. Some of that was because of the travel delays plaguing the airline industry. We didn’t have a single flight that left on time. One didn’t even leave on the right day. But the real reason was because of the temperature and humidity that greeted us upon our arrival. Phoenix, especially in the summer, is one of those cities that greets you on the jetway. You can’t miss the rush of hot, dry air. But it wasn’t that when we arrived. It was cooler than where we’d left. And we’ve been blessed with rain, too. After a couple of very dry years, it was refreshing to receive rain from our heavenly Father who blesses us with all good things.

This morning that same Lord God blesses us with the refreshment that has been renowned for generations. The refreshment of green pastures and quiet waters that can only be found in the Word of our Lord. God’s Word for our faith development is familiar—Psalm 23. There are few chapters in the whole Bible that are better known or more cherished. It’s a crib to coffin chapter. It has, along with John 10, helped inspire beloved hymns like I Am Jesus’ Little Lamb and brought unimaginable comfort to those who are taking their last breaths. Read Psalm 23

(Ps. 23:1) The Lord is my shepherd. Such a simple statement. It rolls off our lips. But what is implied by this simple statement is not something we’re always on board with. If (Ps. 23:1) the Lord is my shepherd that implies that I am a sheep.

It’s not that we can’t connect the dots between sheep and people. We call timid people sheep. Gullible people are given that moniker as well. People that go with the flow have now been dubbed as having a herd mentality. Over the last 5 or 10 years, “sheeple” has become an increasingly popular insult for people who seem to be easily influenced, overly compliant, or even who just don’t see things the way that I do.

Our world has no problem connecting the dots between sheep and people. We just don’t ever see ourselves as sheep, do we? While we know we ought to say that the Lord is my shepherd, we rarely actually think, talk, and act like this is true and best.

More often than not, we live more like the Lord is our remote supervisor than our ever-present Shepherd. More often than not, we live like the Lord is a spiritual advisor than the only One who can lead us where we need to go and be. More often than not, we live like the Word of God, the one place the Lord communicates to us directly, is like the GPS on your phone. It knows a way you can get to where you’re trying to go. But you know a few others, don’t you? How many times do you look at what’s happening around you and decide you’re gonna take another route, because what you’re being told to do doesn’t seem right to you. We tend to think that we can handle things when they’re thrown our way. We know we cannot control everything, but we feel like we can take care of ourselves.

And we’re not alone, in living like we are our own shepherd. In fact the Old Testament is filled with men who were actually shepherds who often lived like they were their own shepherds. Abraham, Moses, and David. It’s not that they never followed the Lord’s direction for their lives. But in critical, and especially stressful, moments—times when they thought they were walking through the darkest valleys and surrounded by their enemies—they thought, spoke, & acted like the Lord wasn’t there to Shepherd them.

As the Lord led Abraham through Canaan, there were critical moments when Abraham acted as if the Lord was not (Ps. 23:4) with him. When a famine forced him to go to Egypt, Abraham feared that his wife’s beauty would lead the Pharaoh to kill him. So he told Sarah to say she was just his sister, because he was afraid. Abraham was convinced the only way to spare his own life was the path of deceit. Not only is deceitfulness sinful, but the Lord had guaranteed Abraham’s safety. God promised: (Gen. 12:1) I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you.

But Abraham struggled to trust the Lord’s direction. He repeated this lie again when he was living among the Gerarites and King Abimelek. And do you know what his excuse was the second time? (Gen. 20:11) There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ In fact, Abraham manipulated his wife into repeating this lie everywhere they went and almost seems to backhandedly blame God for putting him in that situation. (Gen. 20:13) When God had me wander from my father’s household, I said to her, ‘This is how you can show your love to me: Everywhere we go, say of me, “He is my brother.” ’ ”

Don’t we do the same? Aren’t there moments that are far more familiar and far less stressful when we choose a path of deceit and dishonesty rather than the right paths the Lord our Shepherd is guiding us along? We bend the truth at work because it makes us look a little better to a higher up. We stretch the truth with a friend so that we are cast in a more favorable light. We fabricate details and entire events in an attempt to justify our shameful behavior or sometimes just to look better to a complete stranger. Like Abraham, we act as if we are our own Shepherd.

Moses, despite growing up in the home of Pharaoh’s daughter, loved his people, the Israelites, zealously. When he saw one of his own people being mistreated he took matters into his own hands—striking the Egyptian slave driver down. He knew it was wrong, (Ex. 2:12) and made sure no one was looking before he did it. Moses went with his gut instead of God’s law imprinted on his heart.

How many times don’t we directly disobey the consciences God has gifted us? We are often driven by our emotions, too. When we are sad, we lash out at those who are trying to help us. When we are envious, we tear down those who have been blessed by the Lord. When we are angry, we shoot off our mouths and then offer flimsy excuses, after the fact.

David is perhaps the most famous shepherd in all of Scripture. Yet, there are plenty of examples when David went his own way and ignored the guidance God had given him. There was that spring evening when most kings led their troops in battle, but David stayed home. That night the cravings of his sinful flesh led to an affair with a close friend’s wife.

That was bad enough. But David’s sins often came with compounding interest. Time and again in David’s life, we see him trying to finesse his way out of trouble. When Bathsheba, his close friend’s wife, sent word that she was pregnant—David sent for Uriah. He tried to make it look like the child was Uriah’s. Later on, when his son, Amnon, raped his own daughter, David tried to sweep it under the rug. When his other son, Absalom, murdered his half-brother, Amnon, out of vengeance, again David was moved to mourn, but not do much else. When that same son tried to usurp David’s throne, David refused to actually deal with his son. David was a man who struggled to deal with his own sin or the sins of his loved ones.

Does any of that sound familiar? How many times don’t we try to minimize our own wickedness? How many times don’t we do damage control without even a thought about doing repentance? How frequently don’t we turn a blind eye to the sins of our loved ones because we’re afraid of a fight or the subsequent fallout?

We shouldn’t be surprised that Abraham, Moses, and David chose to go their own way and follow these wrong paths. We shouldn’t be surprised that men who made their living off of sheep, struggled, at times, to see themselves as sheep. But that is what we are. Scripture tells us (Is. 53:6) we all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way. You see, the way people are most like sheep is not that people are overly compliant, overly gullible, or too easily influenced by others. The way we are most like sheep is that we think we know better than God. We think we know the way things ought to be done. We think we can handle things ourselves. We think we can take care of ourselves.

Fundamentally, that is what every sin is. You and I ignoring the Lord’s leading. You and I thinking we are equipped to be our own Shepherds. You and I straying from the right paths. And when that happens, it only ever ends one way. The more we wander on our own, the further we stray from our Shepherd. Lost sheep become lunch. Lost sinners stand condemned.

Unless the Shepherd steps up. That’s what this Psalm shouts from the rooftops. David, the shepherd, had come to realize he could not shepherd himself. David, the shepherd-king, found comfort in the King of kings and Lord of lords serving as his own shepherd. (Ps. 23:1) The Lord is my shepherd. Such a simple statement. But there’s more there than meets the eye, at first.

Typically people were relegated to be a shepherd. We don’t know what Abraham’s vocation was before he left Ur, but being a nomad would have forced him to rely on sheep and cattle for his livelihood. Moses became a shepherd because he fled Egypt after killing that slave-driver. David was the family shepherd, it seems, because he was the youngest. An afterthought in his own family. That’s because there’s nothing glorious or glamorous about shepherding. Spending every moment, day and night, rain or shine, with a flock of finicky and foolish sheep. Look at this Psalm through this lens.

The Lord who is the Maker and Preserver of all life on earth has chosen to spend his time shepherding foolish sinners like you and me. Yet, there is no hint of resentment or discontentment. Rather (Php. 2:3) in humility the Lord values us above himself.

You see that in where he leads his sheep. Not to sandy beaches, but green pastures. Not to where the food is good and the beer is cold, but where the waters are quiet. He doesn’t give his sheep a roadmap and tell them to figure it out. (Ps. 23:2) He leads them. (Ps. 23:3) He guides them. (Ps. 23:4) He goes with them. He knows how finicky and foolish we are. So he goes after us when we stray. He wields his (Ps. 23:4) rod to separate us from the trouble our sinfulness has led us into. His (Ps. 23:4) staff draws us closer to himself. But it is Jesus’ own application of this analogy that gives us the full picture of what it means for the Lord to be my shepherd. (Jn. 10:11) The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. Our Lord lays down his life for his sheep because he cares for his sheep.

That wasn’t a heat of the moment decision, either. Jesus willingly—even joyfully—planned to come and save us. He sought out lost sheep, those who had wandered from God’s right paths and pierced themselves with all kinds of grief and suffering. He gently tended to their wounds. He nourishes his famished flock back to health. Then the Lord, our Shepherd, (Is. 53:6-7) took our iniquities upon himself and they crushed him. He was stricken and afflicted for our sins. Because of our waywardness and rebelliousness he suffered physically, mentally, and spiritually. The Lord of all power and wisdom became weak and was mocked so that your soul might be restored. The head of the Lord of glory and honor was pierced with a crown of thorns so that your head could be anointed by the Lord himself. The Lord of all power and might drank the cup of God’s righteous wrath against sin so that our cup might overflow with God’s goodness and love. It took the Son of God going through hell for us to (Ps. 23:6) dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Because of Jesus, God’s goodness and love overflows in your life. All because the Lord is my Shepherd.

This Lord is your Shepherd even today. Day after day, he leads us to green pastures of his Word and quiet waters of our Baptism. He knows what our souls need, the refreshment that only comes after have your sins confronted and forgiven, and he does this pain-staking work day after day with every single one of us.

He guides us along the right paths because as a shepherd’s reputation is tied to the health of his flock, so God has chosen to make his name known in and through us, the Church.

But he also leads us through the darkest valley, (Ps. 23:4) the valley of the shadow of death. But even in those frightening moments, (Ps. 23:4) we need not fear. For the Lord is with us. His presence, his power, and his wisdom comfort us. We know what he has done for us, so we can trust what he is doing for us now, because we know where he is leading us. Because the Lord is my shepherd, we can proclaim with David, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen.

[Jude 24-25] To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy - to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forever more! Amen.