Word of Salvation – Vol. 26 No. 47 – August 1980

 

The Lord Our Shepherd

 

Sermon by Rev. W. Wiersma on Psalm 23:1

Scripture Reading: John 10:11-30; Psalm 31

Psalter Hymnals: 183, 148, 38, 211

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, the Lord.

It is amazing, isn’t it, how much meaning can be packed into a few words. When David said, the Lord is my Shepherd, he was saying: I’ve got the Lord God to look after me, and the Lord will see to it that I get everything I need. This well known and loved psalm is, therefore, first of all a song of praise. It expresses the confidence of the believer in God and his happiness about the grace and care of God who has committed Himself to look after His sheep.

David was saying something about what God is to the believer, and about what God does for the believer. The Lord is my Shepherd. What does that mean. How is that possible? How can anyone say, the Lord is my Shepherd. How can anyone claim, the Lord is MY God. The answer is that the Lord in His LOVE has come to people and said to them, I want to be your God and I want you to be my people. I want to be your Shepherd I want you to be my Sheep. The Lord comes to people and makes a covenant, a pact, with them. The Lord did that with Abraham and said, you and your children and those born after them are my people and I am your God.

God chooses people, and He makes His love and covenant known to them. So all the descendants of Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob could say, the Lord is our God, the Lord is my Shepherd. God’s covenant goes much further than the descendants of Abraham. God’s covenant is with all those people He has chosen in Christ long ago. It is in Jesus Christ that God makes His covenant with people. It is through Jesus that God makes his love and care known to men. Jesus Christ is the Mediator of the covenant. He is God’s representative and our representative.

On the one hand we can read our text as a statement of Jesus, our representative. We hear Jesus saying, the Lord is my Shepherd. The Lord God is the One who loves me and cares for me. In this belief Jesus lived his life on earth. He followed God very closely. He always trusted that God would provide. He was always convinced that God should be obeyed. Jesus is the perfect sheep of God. (He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.) Everybody who is united to him by faith is also a sheep of God.

On the other hand, Jesus is God’s representative. He is the Good Shepherd in whom God has come to look for, find and care for his people. The believer says, the Lord Jesus is my Shepherd. Because he gave his life blood for me, I belong to him. And because I belong to Him I belong to God.

Either way, it is in Jesus Christ, that believers are the sheep of the Lord. It is through Jesus that God makes his covenant with us.

God makes Himself known to His people as the LORD. Yahweh. That is God’s covenant name, by which God says to His people, I am who I am, you can depend on me. I am faithful, I will keep my word, whatever happens, I, the Lord, ‘do not change, I do not lie. Trust me.

To have the Lord as your Shepherd is therefore the most comforting thing that could possibly happen to you. Nothing should be able to make anyone feel more secure than to know that the Lord God is his Shepherd.

Think for a moment of what a shepherd is to His sheep. The shepherd looks after the sheep. That’s his basic duty. He is to see to it that sheep are cared for. He has to make sure that they have good grazing conditions. He has to make sure that the sheep have plenty to eat and drink. The shepherd has to lead, he has to think and decide for the sheep. He also has to protect them, to bring back the strays and to attend to the sick and wounded. That’s the picture the Bible uses – that God Himself uses to tell us about God’s care for His people.

The Lord God of Israel is my, is our Shepherd! Is it any wonder that David immediately adds, I lack nothing. The old translations say, I shall not want, which means, I will get, I have everything I need. I don’t miss out on anything.

God provides. The Good Shepherd is looking after me. That is what God does for His people. That is his promise. That is His practice. First of all, the Lord leads his people into green pastures and beside still waters of his grace. Paul puts that beautifully in Romans 5: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.”

Jesus said the same in John 10. If any one enters through me he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture. As a shepherd leads His sheep to pasture, so the Lord leads us into His grace where He provides the flock with everything it needs. In His grace, in Christ, we find food, refreshment, shelter, protection and the joy (symbolised in this psalm by oil) and a cup that overflows. That cup which overflows with the wine is what makes the heart of man glad. Close to the Shepherd we have life in abundance.

Our problem is that we are often rebellious and foolish sheep. We act as if we do not trust the Shepherd. We act as if we have to provide for ourselves. We do not follow His leading and the paths of righteousness. We do things our own way, the world’s way. Is it very surprising that we find so little of the oil and wine, of brotherly love and fellowship, among us? Instead of feeding and frolicking in God’s pastures, instead of trusting and following the Good Shepherd, we have acted as if we had to look after ourselves.

Yes, we have lacked good things, not because the Lord would not give them to us, but because we would not receive them from His hand. Because we lack faith and patience we fight and squabble.

When you say, the Lord is my Shepherd, you are saying, I am only sheep. I need to be looked after. I need protection, guidance and help. To confess the Lord is our Shepherd, is to confess it is His right to command. It is our duty to obey. And this, my brothers and sisters, is the point where we have to learn to listen and to do. Jesus said that it is God’s will that we hear and keep His word.

I am sure we have all heard the word of the Shepherd found in Matthew 5:21-24 (Read). In spite of this clear word, I have seen people in church, unable to take part in the worship and adoration of God. They are unable to sing His praises and hear His word, because in their anger they can only think of what they have against their brother or sister.

We say, the Lord He is God. He is the Shepherd to be followed and to be thanked But I have heard prayers that sounded more like commands than petitions. I have heard prayers which give the impression that God is more like a cow to be milked than a Shepherd to trust. And when God says ‘No’, there is confusion, bitterness and fighting. The Lord is my Shepherd. If that is so, why so many sleepless nights in fear and anger.

This well-known verse is not only a reason for confident thanksgiving, it is also a call for humble confession. We have to admit, do we not, that many are the times we acted contrary to the Shepherd’s word and directions. Many a time we have fretted because we put our trust in men and human schemes.

Many a time we have acted selfishly as if we were the only sheep of the Shepherd. Let us remember that the Lord’s sheep are cared for as a flock. Under our Good Shepherd we must be prepared to graze and chew the cud together. We must honour and follow the Shepherd together. Outside the flock, outside the Shepherd’s care there is loneliness and frustration.

There was a film on T.V. recently, which like many other films and books, portrayed the emptiness, hypocrisy, blindness, uncertainty and disappointment of the world. Without the Good Shepherd life is meaningless. Without the Shepherd there is no goal, no purpose, no security. Without the Shepherd Christ life is a vicious circle of selfishness, greed, pride, hypocritical pretence and disappointment.

The world is full of hungry people. Let us show them that the Lord cares for those who trust in Him. Let the world see our humble trust and obedience so that they may want to know more about our Shepherd. God grant us the grace and the sincerity to confess our sins and to admit our total dependence on His grace, Jesus Christ who is the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for His Sheep. May we learn more and more to trust and rejoice in the Lord our Covenant Shepherd.

Amen.