How to Pray the Psalms: The Lord is My Shepherd
June 17, 2018
Rev. Bill Denham
Psalm 23
We Protestants have 66 books in our Bible -39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament which makes 66 in all. In 65 of those 66 God is speaking to us but in just one – one only – we are speaking to God. And that is in the book of Psalms. And that’s why we love it so much because we can identify with the feelings of the Psalmist. We felt his pain, we’ve known the fear and we have enjoyed the triumphs for ourselves.
There are 150 Psalms in total. Biblical scholars have broken them down into different categories. There are royal Psalms, Psalms of Lament, Psalms of Thanksgiving. This week we’re looking at Psalms of Trust and we’re looking at the most famous one of those – the Twenty-Third Psalm. It was written by King David some 3000 years ago.
David takes his experience as a shepherd for the flocks of his father Jesse, and gives us a wonderful understanding and a unique expression as to who God is. I want you all to look at your insert in the bulletin and read this Psalm with me. Would you join me and let’s read this together?
TheLordis my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of theLordfor ever. Psalm 23 (KJV)
And now, O Lord, as my words are your words, may they be taken to heart. And if I should stray from your words may they be just as quickly forgotten. Amen.
I have to tell you that it bothers me that we have pretty well restricted the 23rd Psalm to funeral services. Now don’t get me wrong. I love the 23rd Psalm and I certainly want it read out at my funeral. But this incredible Psalm was meant to affirm our trust in God all through our lives. And I suspect that the closest most of us get to sheep is a woolen sweater or a lamb chop.
So, it’s easy for us to miss out on what David is trying to say to us in this Psalm. He begins by saying, “The Lord is my shepherd.” He starts with the most important thing – my God is a personal God. Yahweh was much more than the God of all of Israel; he was David’s personal God. His owner if you will, his manager.
Now the quality of the life of a sheep is completely dependent on the shepherd, the one who owns them. The lazy and careless shepherd might let them wander off or step into a ravine or get caught up in a thorny bush. But the good shepherd, certainly the owner, looks after the shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd because he bought me. He invested in me and he knows me absolutely. We live together day and night.
The shepherd knows how important I am and he knows me by name. I recognize his voice when he calls and I know that I can trust him. He has provided me, he’s helped me, and he’s saved me. I shall not want or be in want.
The story is told of a Sunday school teacher with some children of assorted ages and who asked them, “Does anyone know the 23rd Psalm?” This little four-year-old girl’s hand shot up and the teacher said, “Well, okay.” The little girl sat up straight and said, “The Lord is my shepherd. That’s all I want.” She did a little bow and then she sat down.
But that child captured the heart of this Psalm. We can be utterly content that we are under the care of the Good Shepherd because our Good Shepherd provides for our very need. Nothing makes a good shepherd happier than seeing the sheep contented, well fed, and safe. He goes to great lengths to make this happen, sleeping at night with one eye and both ears open.
That is the kind of Good Shepherd that you and I have in Jesus Christ. In John 10 Jesus says, “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd gives his life for his sheep.” Truly, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”
“He makes me to lie down in green pastures.” I’ve learned it isn’t easy to get sheep to lie down; in fact, they refuse to do so if they are afraid or they’re aggravated with flies or parasites. They’re thin-skinned like us.
Sheep are also easily spooked. If a rabbit jumps up, and startles a sheep and he starts out, all the sheep will follow in blind fear. Nothing quiets them down like the presence of their shepherd.
We’re like sheep, we’re easily frightened. We live in uncertain times and most of the time it’s the unknown, the unexpected, that frightens us most. Nothing quiets our soul like knowing that the Good Shepherd is near.
In many hospital prayers that I give, I include the words from I Timothy. Paul wrote this and I recite it: “For God did not create us with a spirit of fear but of power and love and self-discipline.”
Sheep will not rest when they’re hungry. They’re on their feet and searching for food. When they’ve had enough, then and then only, will they lie down.
Now Laura Denham knows and sometimes anticipates when her husband is hungry. She knows she needs to act quickly. She says that I get “hangry” and she’s right. I can be one “hangry” sheep.
Well, our Shepherd provides us with the spiritual food that we need. If we “hunger and thirst after righteousness” he has promised that he will fill us up completely. All of our needs can be met in Jesus Christ. That’s why he makes us to lie down in green pastures, the ones only he knows about.
“He leads me beside the still waters.” Sheep have very poor vision. Running and moving water can completely disorient them. They can get woozy looking down at the water and fall over and get waterlogged and drown, even in two or three inches of water. Yet the sheep need water to survive. So, a competent shepherd would take rocks and make a little pool off to the side of the stream of water so the sheep could come, the waters in the little pool would be still, and they could drink from it.
Jesus understood that our tired and thirsty souls are easily disoriented and can only be satisfied by coming to him. Jesus said, “If any woman or any man thirsts let him come to me and drink.” Our Shepherd leads us beside the still waters. His pool is safe and just what you and I need.
“He restores my soul.” As Dr. Christians said in her sermon last week, if a sheep is landed on its back it can’t get up by itself – it’s a “cast” sheep. And if the shepherd doesn’t get to that sheep very quickly it’s a goner. If the sheep is cast down the shepherd can come, turn the sheep over on its side, and massage the sheep’s legs and then help the sheep get back up on its feet.
Now the sheep may stumble and stagger after that but the shepherd stays with him and that’s what the Lord does for us. We stumble and we fall. We become helpless and our Shepherd gets us back on our feet.
That’s why we have a Stephen Ministry in our church. It’s to help people who are “cast down” – to help restore their souls.
“He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” If sheep are left to their own devises they will completely overgraze an area. They need a shepherd to lead them to fresh grazing areas. Notice that David is not saying that he drives the sheep – he leads the sheep. Jesus goes ahead of us and prepares a way for us. The words of the old hymn come to mind: “Savior, like a shepherd lead us, much we need thy tender care.”
Today is Father’s Day. For many of us our fathers were our first shepherds and I’m remembering this morning one night many years ago. Half of you won’t know what I’m talking about but this is before there was a Galleria, before there was a Loop 610 if you can imagine such a thing. There was a drive-in movie, off Westheimer, I really can’t remember exactly. But when I was 11 years old my dad took me and some of my friends to a drive-in movie. He paid for one adult ticket and for the rest of the boys he bought children’s tickets.
But somehow later with the popcorn, Coca-Colas or something, one of my friends said, “I’m already 12.” My dad said, “You’re 12 years old?” The boy said, “Yes, sir.” So, my dad got out of the car and walked back to the ticket booth and paid for an adult ticket for that child.
Now can you imagine the effect that that had on me? I can see the image of my father walking toward the ticket booth. I’d always trusted my father before. He was an honest man but that action cemented in my mind forever that my father could be completely trusted. He might discipline or chastise me, and rightly so, but I could always trust that he would do the right thing, leading me in the paths of righteousness.
Fathers, I’m going to ask you this this morning and I’m going to tell you that your children are watching you. Are you shepherd-like? Can you be trusted? If so, your children will grow up believing that God can be trusted.
“Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil.” We all walk through those valleys, and our spouses, our children and our friends may help us but in the end, you and I have to walk through them by ourselves. And yet we do not walk through them alone. Our Shepherd Jesus Christ who has led us so many times before will not abandon us. He is right there walking with us.
Sheep live by faith in their shepherd and we must do that, too. Participants in the grief support groups I have led ask hard questions. They might say, “We were married for 40 years. Am I a half person now?” Or “I cared for my parents. What’s left for me to do?” Or “I cherished my child. What do I have to live for now?”
Now as we talk about such harsh realities, each person realizes that it is only by having a Savior – a Good Shepherd – walking with him or her that enables to get through life’s most difficult times. With the Good Shepherd we come to understand that death is a door and not a dead end. We can and we must live by trusting our Good Shepherd.
“Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” The wooden rod that shepherds carried was about two feet long and it had a big head on the end of it – made from the knob of a tree. It had pieces of metal pounded into that head and it was used primarily to defend the flocks against predators. David himself was said to have killed a lion and a bear as he was protecting his sheep.
The wooden staff with that hook on the end of it was used to get around the sheep’s neck or the sheep’s body to pull the sheep to safety and to get it out of trouble. It was used to hold over the sheep – as the sheep ran under it so the sheep could be accurately counted. A good shepherd keeps track of each sheep.
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” I don’t know about you but I’ve never seen a sheep sitting at a table with a plate of food in front of him. So, what’s David saying?
A high plateau – a mesa – is a table. In fact, the word mesa means “table.” And this table is a pastureland, and in the Bible the word can mean “wilderness” or “green pastures.” These were not lush East Texas pastures like you see up in Grapeland. They were rocky and little sprigs of grass would spring up from the moisture from the early dew or from water coming off the Mediterranean. These grasses would grow up, just like the grasses that you see growing between concrete like on Loop 610 or other places. Like Johnson grass. And before the shepherd takes his flock up to that “table” to eat he checks out the site for potential enemies. Maybe snakes, or wild animals or dangerous thistles.
Our Lord knows our enemies as well. Temptation, disappointment, false accusations, betrayal, physical pain, even death. He understands all these and he has conquered them all.
“He anoints my head with oil.” Sheep are insect plagued. They are especially targeted by the nose fly or the nasal fly. These insects fly around and want to deposit their eggs in the damp nose of the sheep. If this happens and those eggs hatch, it creates a worm like larvae that grows up into the sheep’s nasal cavities and beyond. It can cause horrific problems.
But at the beginning of fly season, shepherds in Palestine mixed up a concoction made of sticky olive oil and stinky sulphur and aromatic spices. They mixed all of that and then smeared it over the top of the sheep’s head. This helped ward off insects. It was also useful as a healing ointment when the sheep got cut or had a scab that had grown. The wise shepherd takes care of his sheep and our Good Shepherd takes good care of us.
“My cup overflows” could mean like Michael Kohn’s song says, “I’m drinking from my saucer because my cup has overflowed.” It’s as if it may be accidental. But more likely David is returning to an abundance of satisfying thirst-quenching water. Even today some shepherds in the Holy Land take advantage of what’s called the shepherd’s cup. It’s a huge hollowed out stone area that can hold 40 or 50 gallons of water. A cup for sheep that overflows, a resource that holds far more than you need to have. Our Shepherd’s resources exceed the bare minimal and it’s no accident that he offers them to us.
“Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” My friends, God loves you so much. He does. He loves you. He loves me. More than any shepherd ever loved his sheep.
But you and I must choose to live under his management. Under his supervision. We belong to Jesus and we are being transformed as creatures wandering about on their own devises becoming his very own.
Many times, shepherds in the Middle East will mark their sheep. The shepherd takes a knife and makes a cut, a distinctive cut, on the sheep’s ear. This mark is easily identified and shepherds can easily tell which sheep belong to which shepherd. But it leaves an indelible mark of ownership that can never be erased.
As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are marked persons. The mark of the cross of Jesus Christ right there in front of us. That’s why the Emmaus men and the Emmaus women in our church one Sunday a month wear a colored lanyard with a cross around it. That’s why many of you today wear a necklace with a cross on it.
Sometimes people will say “The Lord is my shepherd” and want all the benefits that accrue under his care but often they don’t want to be marked.
For instance, for many years when we were eating out my family didn’t pray before meals. I just thought it was very Pharisaical like we were saying, “Look, we’re so holy” to give a prayer. I have made a complete reversal on that. God has been good to us. After the challenges that he has led us through, after his power that you and I have witnessed, you bet we ask God’s blessing now. If we’re dining out, if Laura and I are by ourselves, we take each other’s hand and we say a blessing. If we are with friends dining out someplace we do the same thing. I don’t know if it’s Cleburne’s or the Houston Country Club. We stop and say “Thanks.” I want people to know that yes, I am a marked man and I am grateful for it.
You and I do not have to wait till we die to live in the house of the Lord. We can begin doing so today, right now. Jesus said to his followers, “I am the Good Shepherd. Trust and obey and follow me.”
I want you to fill in a missing word for me- “The Lord is my ________, I shall not ______. He makes me lie down in _____________; he leads me beside the ___________; he restores my ______. He leads me in the paths of ___________ for his name’s _____. Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of _______, I will fear ______; for thou are with ______; thy rod and thy staff ________________. Thou prepares a table before me in the presence of _____________; thou anoint my head with _____; my cup _______________. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord _________.”
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.