Comfort from the Shepherd: I Shall Not Want
April 3, 2016
Dr. Tom Pace
Psalm 23 (KJV)
Today we begin a series of four sermons based on Psalm 23, the Shepherd’s Psalm. We’re going to read different translations and interpretations of that each week. Today we’ll be reading the King James Version, the one you’re probably most familiar with responsively. It will be looking at various sections of it, and with different emphasis each week. Today we’ll talk about a God who provides.
In two weeks we have a very special musical setting of not just the 23rd Psalm but a few of the psalms called the “Chichester Psalms” by Leonard Bernstein. This is very beautiful and amazing with choir and orchestra as well as our sermon as well as other parts of our worship. I’m really looking forward to that. It’s going to be a really special day, so you’ll want to come and be a part of that as well. So I’d like us now to join together in reading the 23rd Psalm from the King James Version. We’ll read responsively.
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 theLordforever.
Don Culbert leads our Men’s Life, organizes it and sort of emcees it every Wednesday morning at 6:30. And he likes to begin with a stupid joke. He told about a guy – an outdoorsman – walking through the woods, and he comes across a grizzly bear. The bear begins to chase him, and he runs and runs and it becomes clear that the bear is going to catch him. So he drops to his knees and begins to pray. He says, “Dear God, please save me. Make this a Christian grizzly bear!”
Amazingly, just as he finishes the prayer, something comes over the grizzly bear and the bear drops to his knees and begins to pray. He says, “God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our food.” Stupid joke – gosh, what a stupid joke!
We’re going to be talking today about God’s provision. God provides and sometimes he provides for the grizzly bear. The Sermon Notes are inside your bulletin, and I hope you will follow along. Maybe take some notes and maybe something will speak to you about your own life situation today.
Let’s pray. O God, open us up. Open our eyes that we might see and our ears that we might hear. Open our hearts, God, that we might feel. Then, O Lord, open our hands that we might serve. Amen.
If you ever have the chance to go to the Holy Land, to go to Israel, I hope you will. We actually have a trip we’re planning for some time next spring. I don’t think we’ve set dates yet, but we’d love to have you with us. But when you go, with whomever you go, you’ll see all along particularly in the southern part of Israel, Bedouin shepherds. They’re on the sides of the roads. They really haven’t changed much over the centuries, the lifestyle of the Bedouins. Now they all have cell phones. But other than that their life is really pretty much the same. And if you want to get your picture made with one you usually can for a dollar or so, and you’ll get your picture taken.
When you’re with them it strikes you that what an odd thing it is that the Scripture has chosen a shepherd, a Bedouin, as the picture of God. Not high and mighty, not particularly powerful. In fact, it goes further. They speak of King David as the image of a shepherd, the one who shepherds the people of Israel. Their image of the king was that of a Bedouin shepherd.
Why? Well, the Gospel of John makes it clear. It’s because the shepherd cares for the sheep. It’s not about his might, it’s about his love. A shepherd cares for the sheep.
Over the next four weeks we’re going to be talking about the ways that love is expressed and experienced. Today we want to talk about provision. The Scripture says, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” What does that mean? There are three things I want to lift up.
First, it is a claim about the character of God. It is a claim about who God is, what the nature of God is, and what God’s purpose in our lives is. One of the most interesting studies you can do in Scripture is the names of God, the various ways God is described or named. And one of the early ones is Yahweh Jireh, which means “The Lord will provide.” The first time that’s mentioned specifically is in Genesis 22 when Abraham is to sacrifice his son Isaac, and God then at the last minute provides a ram for the sacrifice. And it says how Abraham, out of his amazing gratitude “…named the place Yahweh Jireh.” Sometimes you’ll hear it translated Jehovah Jireh, which means “The Lord provides. God provides for us.” That’s the nature of God. That’s who God is.
You’ll see it all through Scripture. Just a few verses later read, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want…” verse five is about God’s provision. “He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Thou anoints my head with oil, my cup runneth over.”
When Jacob is blessing his children in Genesis 49 he comes to Joseph who’s the one who was thrown in a pit by his brothers. But here’s how he blesses him. He says, “Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring whose branches climb over a wall. Because of the shepherd, the rock of Israel, because of your father’s God who helps you, because of the Almighty who blesses you, with blessings of the skies above, blessings of the deep springs below, blessings of the breast and womb.” The God who blesses. You all probably know the story that were it not for Joseph the whole family of the patriarchs would have perished in the great drought. God who provides.
Noralyn Carpenter is our worship coordinator, and she directs our hand bell choir and takes care of a bazillion details for worship. Early this morning she sent me an e-mail after she’d been reading her morning devotional in the book Jesus Calling. Perhaps many of you have read that. It’s a book of devotionals spoken out of the voice of Jesus. And here’s what it said this morning. “It is impossible for you to have a need that I cannot meet.” That’s the voice of God. “It’s impossible for you to have a need I cannot meet.” The God who provides.
So the first thing we say when we’re speaking of this – “The Lord is my shepherd” – it starts with the comment about God. It says, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want...” is that the nature of God, the character of God is to be a God who provides, a God who blesses.
Now here’s the second thing, and I think it’s really more significant and more profound. When we say “I shall not want” we are making a declaration of our attitude about life, about the world, about existence.
Every Thursday our communications team sends out a little instruction on our grammar. It’s designed to make us not sound so stupid to you all. Honestly, every Sunday when I go back and listen again to my sermon I think, “Man, what are you – an idiot? You can’t even put the words together right?”
So they send out a little lesson on grammar. Often they take it from a website called “Grammar Girl.” So I went to look it up on Grammar Girl to see what it means to say “Shall.” Why does the Scripture say, “I shall not want”? What’s the difference between “shall” and “will?” So it explains that for those who are – they call it – the picky ones, or the sticklers, shall is to be used with first person – “I shall, we shall” and “will” is to be used with second and third person such as “You will, he, she, it will.” That made sense. Then it went on to say that that’s kind of gone now, and people don’t know that as much anymore. But shall is used – I loved this – as a statement of determination and clear expectation, or clear commitment. Like in a legal document, “You shall pay the rent on the first of the month.” It’s a statement that says, “This is what I’m going to do. I’m committed to it.”
When we say, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,” we’re making a commitment to say, “I’m not going to be a wanter. I’m not going to be one who goes through my life wanting, always wanting, more and more all the time.” It’s a statement about our attitude.
At 9:45 this morning we did a very special baptism, and while every baptism is special, this one was particularly poignant. Robbie and Tommy Morrow were born at 24 weeks of gestation, just over a pound each. By the way, their parents and grandparents have given me permission to share some of their story with you. They were in the NICU for 116 days, and it was touch and go for much of that time. Their grandmother wrote me an e-mail, and I asked her permission to share part of it with you.
She said, “Early on I said in an e-mail to friends that we would never be the same, and it struck people as sad and at that time it was. But now I’m glad that we will never be the same. The single hardest thing for me was to grasp how one could give thanks in all circumstances. I really could not do that, so Bob suggested we begin listing the things that we were grateful for: the highly skilled and experienced doctors and nurses, a very smart and special son-in-law, a precious daughter who grew into a woman before our eyes, our other daughter who was my rock, my mom and four siblings who lived close by and stepped up in every way, friends and more friends. The list became tiny details of each day: eyes opening for the first time, turning of a tiny head, grasping their mom’s finger, wiggling when they heard our voices. And then of course the very big things: such as heart openings that closed without surgery, intestines that finally worked, no brain bleeds and the list goes on and on.
This practice helped us persevere through the very serious moments and some dark days and nights. So for this experience alone I am grateful as it kept us close and focused and open to feeling the joy that was there even in the midst of extremely difficult circumstances. It is now 16 months later, and Robbie and Tommy weigh more than 20 pounds.”
I can testify to that, by the way, as I baptized them. They’re big boys.
She goes on, “And Tommy is walking and both are babbling and playing.” To say “I shall not want” is a decision to say, “What I’m going to spend my energy doing is looking at what God is doing in my life. What God is doing around me.” Maybe you’re heard the saying – I’ve always liked it – that “it’s less important to learn to get what you want, than it is to learn to want what you’ve got.” Now, listen, I’m not saying that you never complain. Complaining is appropriate. Read the Psalms and you’ll see that the largest category of Psalms are called Laments – 67 of the 150 Psalms are Laments. They’re complaints. “The waters are coming over my head… my enemies are all around me… they’re attacking me… people are saying terrible things about me…” It goes on and on.
The Laments have a complaint. In fact in Seminary we had to circle the complaint and write beside it “Complaint.” You’re learning how Laments are structured. There’s a complaint. But the complaint is followed by a fulcrum, a turn in which it says, “but…” or “yet…” You always look at that word “but” or “yet.” “But God is the God of Israel who redeems all of us.” “God is the God who provides for me still.” You see? We complain. Of course we’re honest with God about our lives, but we don’t stop there. You say, “God, this has been terrible… and yet I’m going to hold fast to you and trust you no matter what. You bless me in amazing ways.” God’s blessings surround us all the time.
My friend Robert McBurnett writes a little blog called “McBurnett’s Musings” if you like to read stuff on online. He posted a story that he’d heard somewhere, and I thought it was great. I’m going to read it to you. “A young fish was swimming under a boat when he heard the two fishermen in the boat discussing the weather and their fears about the coming summer drought. One of them remarked that if they could not assure a steady supply of water everything in the region was going to die. The second fisherman agreed, saying, ‘It’s a known fact that everything will die without water.’ This sent the fish into a tailspin. He didn’t know what water was, but he was certain that he had better secure some right away. So he swam frantically all over the lake seeking water. He breathlessly asked the other fish if they knew where he could get water but they did not. He mustered all his strength and swam through the rapids and over the dam in his quest but to no avail. Exhausted and exasperated, he returned home in great despair. Along came one of the lake elders and found him in this state, who asked, ‘what has you frazzled, little one?’ The other fish replied, ‘Well, I’ve been all over this lake and the next one too searching for water. If we don’t find some soon, we will all surely die.’ The senior fish asked, ‘Do you know what water is?’ The other fish replied, ‘Well, that’s the most frustrating part. Not only can I not find any I don’t even know what it looks like.’ The senior fish then patted him on the head with his fin and said, ‘Fear not, little one, water is all around us, it’s what all of us fish swim in every day. It’s all around us and it never leaves us.’”
The blessings of God, the provision of God, the grace of God is what we live and breathe. It’s life itself. It’s all around us every moment. And sometimes we spend our energy looking for something that we’ve got, searching for something that we already have right by us. It all focuses on the shepherd.
I got into a conversation with some of our staff, and we were talking about this issue. The question was, “So what’s the difference between an optimist and someone with faith? Is faith just about being optimistic that things are okay?”
Here’s the best way I can explain it. If you and I go into a Starbucks and you have a half-full or a half-empty cup of coffee. The pessimist says, “The coffee cup is half-empty.” The optimist says, “The coffee cup is half-full.” The Christian – you and I as followers of Jesus – we say, “Sometimes the coffee cup is half-full, sometimes the coffee cup is half-empty, but I know the barista. I know the guy who fills it up.”
So I live not in anxiety because I know the barista. My focus is not on the cup, my focus is on the barista, on the one who provides the coffee. Because I know that’s the nature, that’s the character of the shepherd. We focus not on the circumstances but on the shepherd who provides.
The last component is this. When we say, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” we’re talking about the nature of God. We’re recognizing, we’re making a declaration of our intention of how we’re going to live, what our attitude will be. But, third, we’re recognizing what our real need is, what we really need. What we’re saying is, “If I have the shepherd, I have everything I need. Because what I really need is God himself.”
St. Augustine, the bishop in the 4th century, is famous for in his Prayer Journal, writing these words: “The soul is always restless until it finds its rest in thee, O Lord.” What I really need is you.
Now I confess that I, like you, often in my life am wanting. I want this, I want that and not just stuff. In fact most of the time for me it’s not stuff. There’s this dissatisfaction that you feel somehow, “If I could just get … what is it I need? If I could just get what I need then I’ll be satisfied.” You could fill in the blank what that is. What this says is those things aren’t going to satisfy you. The thing you really need is God himself, and if you have the shepherd, if you have that, everything else falls in its right place.
We sing a hymn here every once in a while, and I’m sure you’ve sung it. It’s “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” and it’s a Lutheran hymn about the power of God. It was written in German by Martin Luther, and it’s been translated. So as Methodists the way we sing the fourth verse is, “Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also…”
The Lutherans are a little more straight forward about it. They translate it more literally from the German, “And they can take our life, goods, fame, child and wife. Let these all be gone, they yet have nothing won, the kingdom ours remaineth."
Wow - I wonder if you could really say that. Take it all. Take my life, take my family. Take my home. Take everything I’ve got. Take it all away. If I’ve got you, I’ve got whatever I need. That’s the one thing I have to have.
When I go visit with families, people in their last days or hours, when I’m privileged to go to hospice care or somewhere and visit with them and I choose to read Scripture with them, I read the 23rd Psalm, almost always. And the reason for that is that it’s familiar to most of them. And often and probably more times than not, their lips move with the words, because they know it. And at that moment it’s so clear what they need. All this is passing, it’s temporal. The one thing that doesn’t pass that is there forever is God, the Kingdom of God, to hold fast to that one thing that will never pass, that neither life nor death can take away. I’m going to hold fast to that.
The Lord is my shepherd and when I have him I have everything I need.
Let’s pray together. Lord God, we thank you that you are a God of provision, that it is your nature and character to bless us in every way you can. And we confess that sometimes our attitude in life is not that we don’t want, that we have all we need. Forgive us, God and work within us to move us to that place of trust in you no matter what. Grow our faith and our perspective that we might come to understand that as long as we’ve got you we have everything we need. In the name of Christ we pray. Amen.