The
twenty-third psalm is one of those Bible passages that almost everyone has
heard of. Even people who don’t go to church much have heard of it.
In fact, a lot of people who don’t believe in God at all have heard of
it.
Part of the reason for that is that
it gets used at funerals a lot. But another part of it is that some of
the phrases from it have moved into common usage. Phrases like “walking
through the valley of the shadow of death” and “goodness and mercy will follow
me all the days of my life” are used in stories that have no religious content
at all.
And so, as we continue our sermon
series on “The Bible’s Greatest Hits”, looking at the most popular Bible verses
as determined by searches at biblegateway.com, it’s kind of surprising that the
twenty-third psalm is not higher on the list than number five. The ones
ahead of it are good verses, but I’d have thought this would at least be in the
top three. Maybe it’s a little lower because so many people know it that
they don’t have search for it, I don’t know. After all, I suspect some of
you may even be able to recite it from memory. I won’t ask anyone to, but
I’m pretty sure some of you could.
Whenever I read the twenty-third
psalm, though, there’s something that strikes me. It seems to me that a
lot of times we think of this as a psalm about God. God is the shepherd.
God is the guide. God is the protector. And that’s not wrong.
This short psalm, which only has six verses, makes thirteen references to
God.
But you know who’s referred to even
more than God? Me. I mean, not me personally, but humans. You
and me. There are sixteen references to I, me, or my in those six verses.
It seems to me, then, that this is not just a psalm about God. It’s
also a psalm about us. It’s a psalm about God, about us, and our
relationship with God. And that’s why it’s kind of too bad that we
sometimes associate the twenty-third psalm with funerals. It’s important
that we have a relationship with God at our death, but it’s at least as
important, if not more important, that we have a relationship with God during
our lives on earth.
So what does our psalm say about our
relationship with God? Well, it says it in the very first sentence.
It says God is the shepherd and, by implication, you and I are the sheep.
Now, when I grew up on the farm
between Delmont and Armour, we did not raise sheep. We had cattle and
hogs, and when I was little we had chickens, but no sheep. But my
understanding is that it’s not really a compliment to us that we’re called
sheep. Sheep are not the brightest animals around, or at least that’s
their reputation. In fact, it’s been said that sheep are basically caught
by surprise when the sun comes up in the morning. The reason sheep need a
shepherd to take care of them is that their really not smart enough to take
care of themselves, at least not the domesticated sheep.
And when we look at our relationship
with God, there are at least times when we have to admit that’s about right.
I’m pretty sure all of us can think of some pretty dumb things we’ve done
over the course of our lives. I sure can, anyway. There are things
I’ve done that I wonder why in the world that did not get me into all kinds of
trouble. And the only reason I can think of that it did not is that the
Lord, the shepherd, was taking care of me.
And the author of this psalm seems
to know that. Look at what he says in verse two. “He makes me lie
down in green pastures.” Now, we hear that, and we imagine this
incredibly peaceful pastoral scene. But think about it. If God has
to make us lie down in green pastures, what does that mean? It means we’d
never do it on our own, right? Either we’d never be able to find the
green pastures in the first place, or we would not be smart enough to stay
there once we found them.
Can you think of times that’s
applied in your life? I suspect some of us can. We’ve had times
when we stayed too long in a place we should’ve left, stayed in a “brown
pasture”, rather than looking for something better. And we’ve also had
times when we did not realize how good we had things, and we refused to stay in
a “green pasture” and instead left it for something not nearly as good.
But what does that show? It
shows that there are times we need to have the courage to leave a place to find
something better, and it shows there are times we need to have the wisdom to
stay in a good place rather than taking a foolish risk. So how do we tell
the difference? How do we know whether it’s time to move on or time to
stay?
Well, look at verse three. “He
guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.” The way we tell the
difference is by letting God guide us. God will let us know whether it’s
time to move on or time to stay, and if it is time to move on God will show us
which way to go. We know we’re always on the right path when we follow
where God guides us to go.
And that sounds good. But we
say, “How do I let God guide me? How do I hear God telling me whether to
move on or stay? How do I know what God is guiding me to do?”
Well, how do the sheep know?
The sheep know by staying close to the shepherd. If the sheep
wander too far off, they won’t see or hear what the shepherd wants them to do.
But if they stay close to the shepherd, the shepherd shows them where to
go and gently nudges them back onto the path if they start to stray off course.
So how do we stay close to God, the
shepherd? You know the answer to that one. We pray. We read
the Bible. We don’t just do those things once in a while, when we get
into trouble. We do them every day. We make God a constant part of
our life.
But of course, it’s one thing to
know where God is guiding us to go. It’s another thing to actually go
there. Because sometimes, if we follow God, God is going to take us out
of our comfort zone. God is going to ask us to do some things we’ve never
done before and some things that we really don’t want to do. In fact, God
may ask us to do some things that scare us.
And the author of our psalm
recognizes that. Look at verse four. “Even though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.”
See, the psalm recognizes that following God is not always going to be
easy. Following God may take us to some really dark, scary places.
It may take us to places where all kinds of things could happen.
And yet, we don’t have to be afraid. Why not? Because God is
with us. And God will protect us.
So the question is, do we trust God
enough to follow even when God guides us into those dark valleys? Are we
going to follow even when God guides us to places that scare us? Will we
trust that God will bring us through those dark valleys? Or are we going
to leave the shepherd and go our own way?
God leaves that choice up to us.
But the psalm gives us some incentive to follow. Because what
happens when we follow God through those dark valleys? God leads us out
to the other side! God leads us out of the darkness and into the light!
And when that happens, God’s goodness and mercy will follow us all the
days of our lives. And we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
But we only get there if we follow
the shepherd. The only way we get to those green pastures is if we follow
God through the dark valleys. So, really, it comes down to two things.
Are we willing to do what it takes to stay close enough to God to know
where God is leading us? And if so, are we willing to trust God enough to
actually go there, even when it’s a place we don’t want to go? We need to
answer that question in two ways. We need to answer it as individuals,
and we need to answer it as a church.
So, I ask us all to make God a
constant part of our lives. I ask us all to pray for God’s guidance.
Pray for God to guide us as individuals, and pray for God to guide us as
a church. It’s going to take some time, probably. But if we
consistently pray for God to help us open our hearts and minds to God, again
both as individuals and as a church, God will hear, and God will respond.
And also pray that God will give us
the trust and the courage to follow where God guides us. Pray that we
will trust God enough to follow God even when God is leading us to do things
that make us uncomfortable, even scary. Pray that we will trust God
enough to believe that, if we go where God is leading us to go, we will
eventually get to those green pastures, even if we don’t see them right now.
Pray that we will do that as individuals, and pray that we will do that
as a church.
God is our shepherd. If we
sheep will follow the shepherd, the shepherd will provide us with everything we
need. If we all make God our guide, and if we all have enough trust to
follow where God guides us, you and I and our entire church will get to those
green pastures.
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