My Shepherd: A Personal Confession of Faith
Psalm 23
New Testament: John 10:11-18
Rev. Stephen H. Wilkins
Georgetown Presbyterian Church
May 7, 2006
A shepherd was herding his flocks in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand new Cadillac Escalade advanced towards him out of a dust cloud. The driver, a young man in a designer suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and a YSL tie, leans out of the window and asks: "If I can tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?"
The shepherd looks at the yuppie, then at his peacefully grazing flock and answers, "Sure!"
The yuppie parks the car, whips out his blackberry, surfs to a NASA page where he calls up a GPS navigation system, scans the area and opens a database and some 60 spreadsheets with complex formulas. Finally, he prints a 150-page report on a miniature printer, turns to our shepherd and says: "You have exactly 1,586 sheep!"
"That’s correct. As agreed, you can take one of the sheep," says the shepherd. He watches the young man make a selection and bundle it into his Escalade. As the car starts to pull away, the shepherd calls out: "If I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me my sheep back?"
"Okay, why not?" answers the young man, stopping the car.
"You are a consultant" says the shepherd.
"That’s correct," says the yuppie. "How did you guess?"
"Easy," answers the shepherd. "You turn up here without being asked. You want to be paid for information I already have. And you don’t know anything about my business because you just took my dog."
I cannot think of a single scripture that is more well-known than the 23rd Psalm. Children memorize it before they can even read. Countless songs have been inspired by the faith that the psalm conveys. There is not a funeral home in the country that doesn’t have the words of the 23rd psalm written on one of its bulletins.
In the Christian church there are many things that divide us, yet we will be unanimous in our agreement that the 23rd psalm is a precious text. Presbyterians and Methodists and Baptists and Pentecostals and Catholics and United Church of Christers and Episcopalians might find ourselves in disagreement over many things, but on this one thing we will always agree: The Lord is my shepherd...
It is a precious part of our scripture. I don’t think that anybody would disagree that if our Bible did not contain the 23rd Psalm, then we would be missing more than six verses and 118 words. We would be missing one of the centerpieces of our theology. For at its core the 23rd Psalm is a personal confession of faith. Perhaps more than any other passage in all of scripture, the 23rd Psalm answers the crucial questions of our faith: Who is this God that we worship? What kind of God is he? And what is striking about this psalm is that David uses the first person personal pronoun 17 times: the Lord is MY Shepherd; he maketh ME to walk in green pastures... I think one of the reasons that the 23rd Psalm is so precious is that it resonates with every one of us; it helps us discover how God relates not only to the world, but to you and to me as individual people. The psalm is deeply personal, and it is a personal confession of faith.
Of course, as Christians, we see the embodiment of the Shepherd image in Jesus Christ, who is the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd knows his sheep. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. The Good Shepherd is the Lord. The Lord is my Shepherd...
Have you really given much thought to what it means to confess, "the Lord is my Shepherd"? I suspect that, if you’re like me, the words of the psalm strike such a soothing tone in our hearts that we simply let their truth permeate our being without really thinking a whole lot about it. Yet the psalm, for all its beauty and comforting imagery, is full of meaning, and it is an unparalleled confession of faith that describes who God is for you and for me. And while we may never fully be able to plumb the depths of the psalm, we can chip away at it and discover something of who God is.
Perhaps the most prevalent image that the psalm gives us of God is that of our provider. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want... My cup runneth over... Thou preparest a table before me... The psalm is full of the language of abundance. One of the primary functions of the shepherd is to make sure that the sheep have everything they need, not just to survive, but to thrive. The shepherd not only provides the sheep with food and water, but also with peace and security and care.
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. The hymn we just sang says it so well: My Shepherd will supply my need... In the words of the psalm, there is the recognition that there is no such thing as a self-made person, but that it is God--and God alone--in whom we live and move and have our being. Apart from God there is no life. When we confess with our lips that the Lord is our Shepherd, we are saying that he is our provider, that all that we have comes from his loving and providential care.
The psalm is also a declaration that the Lord is our protector. Again, you can’t avoid this sense as you consider the language used. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil..." "You prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies..." Even the words "You make me lie down in green pastures" implies the protection of the shepherd, for sheep won’t lie down until the right conditions occur, and those conditions include the freedom from danger. We know that the shepherd who wrote the psalm, David, was one who fought off wild animals twice his size, all for the protection of the flock. Jesus tells us of the shepherd who will go out and search for the one lost sheep, not quitting until he has restored the sheep safely to the fold. And in this morning’s gospel lesson, Jesus reminds us that the Good Shepherd does not flee from danger; rather, he lays down his life for the welfare of his sheep. What a comfort it is to know that the Lord of the universe cares about your welfare and my welfare. The Lord is my Shepherd: he’s my protector.
And he is my constant presence. All the language of leading and guiding mean that God is One who is with us. I’m sure you notice it as you read the psalm, that in the midst of talking about the Lord, the psalmist begins to talk TO the Lord, as if he’s right there by his side. "I will fear no evil, for thou art with me..." There is a familiarity between the sheep and the shepherd, a familiarity that can only come when the sheep and the shepherd are together. Jesus speaks of this familiarity when he says that his sheep know his voice. The truth is, as the sheep come to know their shepherd, they are very comfortable and at peace in his presence. The shepherd can walk through a sleeping flock of sheep, and the sheep won’t stir, because they know him and they are comforted by his presence. But if someone who is not their shepherd walks into their midst, the sheep will scatter and run away. It is the Shepherd’s presence that gives us peace.
Finally, to confess that the Lord is my Shepherd is to recognize the promise that our Shepherd gives to us. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. To know that the Lord is our Shepherd is to know that the way God has been with us and how God has been for us is no temporary thing. To know that the Lord is our Shepherd is to rest assured on the faithfulness and the steadfast love of our Lord. It is to acknowledge that he is our shepherd and we are his sheep, not just for a few years or even for a lifetime, but for eternity, forever and ever. It is to be filled with the kind of hope that can sustain us through whatever things that life throws our way, and it is to strengthen us even as we face death.
Ned Swallow was a kind and gentle man, a loyal Presbyterian in Midland. Though he was a member of one of the other Presbyterian churches in Midland, Ned’s son was a member of the church I served. And Ned was one of the first people I met in Midland, as he served on the Presbytery committee that examined me when I moved there. A few years ago, Ned’s health began to decline rather precipitously. He was diagnosed with advanced metastatic cancer. It was only a couple of months after his diagnosis that Hospice was called in to care for him in his last days.
Because the church where Ned was a member was at the time without a minister, the family called me and asked if I would come and visit. Ned was non-responsive, resting comfortably in a hospital bed that had been placed in the family room. Those of us who gathered were chatting casually around the bed, with no noticeable response from Ned. We then held hands and began to pray. And in the middle of our prayers, we began to recite the 23rd Psalm. As we were saying the words of the psalm, we noticed something remarkable: Ned’s lips were moving. He was saying the psalm with us. To know that the Lord is our Shepherd is to have inscribed on our heart the eternal hope of his presence and his love.
Provision. Protection. Presence. And promise. It’s about more than just saying who God is. It’s about knowing God as our Shepherd.
Years ago I heard a story that has been told and retold over the years. In some unknown town, the Church of the Good Shepherd was celebrating their 75th anniversary, and to help celebrate the event they invited all the living pastors who had served in the pulpit over the years. They asked each pastor to either read or recite the Psalm that gave the church its name. One of the more recent pastors, who was a rather charismatic sort, stood at the microphone and performed an eloquent rendition of the 23rd Psalm. When he was through, the congregation stood and applauded. The last pastor to speak was the oldest and most feeble of the surviving pastors of the Church of the Good Shepherd. He could barely stand in front of the microphone. He took his old black Testament with the Psalms, and in a cracked voice he began to read, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want..." When he was through, there was silence. And there was not a dry eye in the sanctuary.
On the way home a young man asked his father what was the difference. The father said, "I’m not sure, son. Perhaps the difference was that one man knew the Psalm, and the other knew the shepherd."
It’s important that you know the words of the psalm. And it’s important that you know the Shepherd. But even more important is that you know and live by the reality that the Shepherd knows you. And he has given his life for you.
The Lord is my Shepherd. Is he yours?