Me? ... A Sheep!
Psalm 23
April 29, 2007
Pastor Ben Patterson of Santa Monica, California shares the following story about his 5-year old niece, Olivia, who along with her best friend Claire were participating in a Christmas nativity play at school. Claire was playing Mary and Olivia was an angel. Before the show, Patterson says:
A young boy was going around the dressing room repeating, “I’m a sheep, what are you?” Each child responded politely, including Olivia, who proudly declared she was an angel. The boy then returned to Claire, still struggling into her costume with her mother’s help, and repeated the question: “I’m a sheep, what are you?”
Claire simply said, “I’m Mary.”
Realizing he was face to face with the lead character, he felt he needed to justify himself in his role. “Its hard being a sheep, you know,” the little boy said with all the seriousness of a five-year old actor with a big part.
Claire’s equally serious response was humorously profound. “Yes” said Claire innocently, “but it’s also hard being a virgin, you know.”
A few months ago, a friend of mine gave me the book (show book) “A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23”, by Phillip Keller who is an agrologist (which means he has spent years studying agriculture and land use), and also a former shepherd. He has many years of observing sheep first-hand, and even lived in East Africa for a time. He says, “Our behavior patterns and life habits are so much like that of sheep it is well nigh embarrassing.”
Traditionally, the fourth week of Easter is a week of meditating on Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Today, we are going to get insights from two shepherds – from Keller, and from David, the shepherd boy who wrote Psalm 23, which is now one of the most famous works of poetry in all of history. In the process I think we’ll get a new perspective on what it means to say, “The Lord is my Shepherd”…
The words begin “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”… or “I shall not be in want.” What does that mean? Does it mean that we will never be lacking, that we will always be provided for – never wanting for anything? Yes, but further than that I think it also means literally what is says, in the shepherd’s care we shall not WANT – we are PERFECTLY CONTENT, satisfied with life, satisfied with what we have, and most of all satisfied in our Shepherd.
Contentedness is blessedness, (Hebrews “be content with what you have”, Paul “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation”) but in this life it is hard to find contentment. It is difficult to be content when we are bombarded by images and slogans and advertisements that’s sole purpose is to try to get us to WANT something. (We can even cater to this in the church). We are naturally consumers and as a result are naturally never satisfied. No matter how much we get, or how much we gain, or how much we achieve, we are never satisfied – it is never enough. We always want more.
You know, some Christians can be described in this way – in spite of being perfectly blessed, and cared for, it is still not enough – they are not content. In his book, Keller says, “In spite of having such a master and owner, the fact remains that some Christians are still not satisfied with His control. They are somewhat dissatisfied, always feeling that the grass beyond the fence must be a little greener.”
Keller shares a story about a particular ewe (female sheep) who fit this kind of description. He called her “Mrs. Gad-about.” He said:
She was one of the most attractive sheep that ever belonged to me. Her body was beautifully proportioned. She had a strong build and an excellent coat of wool. Her head was clean, alert, well-set with bright eyes. She bore sturdy lambs that matured rapidly.
But in spite of all these attractive attributes she had one pronounced fault. She was restless – discontented – a fence crawler.
This one ewe produced more problems for me than almost all the rest of the flock combined.
No matter what field or pasture the sheep were in, she would search all along the fences or shoreline (we lived by the sea) looking for a loophole she could crawl through and start to feed on the other side.
It was not that she lacked pasturage. My fields were my joy and delight. No sheep in the district had better grazing. With “Mrs. Gad-about” it was an ingrained habit. She was simply never contented with things as they were. Often when she had forced her way through some such spot in a fence or found a way around the end of the wire at low tide on the beaches, she would end up feeding on bare, brown, burned-up pasturage of a most inferior sort.
But she never learned her lesson and continued to fence crawl time after time.
In addition to being wanderers, it is nearly impossible to get sheep to “lie down.” The only way a sheep will lie down in green pastures is if it is FREE FROM ALL ANXIETIES – including a freedom from fear, freedom from friction with the other sheep, free from pests, and freedom from hunger.
Sheep are notoriously afraid. They are helpless, timid, and easily panicked. So much so, says Keller, that a single jackrabbit bounding from a bush can stampede a whole flock. When one sheep gets started and starts running, they all will bolt in blind fear, not even looking to see what it is they are running from. On one occasion, Keller says, a friend of his dropped by to see him who also had a Pekingese puppy. Just one glimpse of the unexpected little dog was enough, he said. “In sheer terror over 200 of my sheep which were resting nearby leaped up and rushed across the pasture.”
The main reason why sheep are so easily frightened is because they are so vulnerable. After he woke up one morning to find one of his best ewes had been killed by an unsuspected cougar in the middle of the night, Keller said from then on he slept with a flashlight and a rifle beside his bed – ready to jump at the first sound of a disturbance.
Like sheep, we too are easily panicked. We are vulnerable, and when you get down to it, pretty helpless in the face of attack. For sheep, there is no greater calming effect than the sight of the Shepherd. We, too, can “lie down” in peace, free from fear and anxieties, knowing that the Lord is our Shepherd. There are many dangerous places in this world, and there is only so much we can do to protect ourselves, but the safest place we can be is in the care of the Shepherd.
When I was on my vacation, on the evening of March 1, Jay and I were looking for a place to have dinner – and I remembered there were some restaurants in the downtown district where I had eaten with some friends when I made a trip back when I was in college. But when we got to walking around, things were much different there than they were 10 years ago – we encountered several bums on the side of the street asking us for money, and the thought came to me (I had in my billfold all the money the church had given me for the vacation – over $200)… “I am walking around with way too much money in my pocket.” I started thinking about this car I had just bought and all of a sudden I got real nervous and we couldn’t get back to the car quick enough.
There are a lot of dangerous places in this world, but the safest place to be is in the will of God – the most dangerous place to be is outside the will of God. He, my friends, is the one who takes care of you. And nothing pleases him more than to see his sheep secure, at rest, content and FULLY SATISFIED. We “lie down in green pastures and he leads us by the still waters where our thirst is quenched and our souls are restored.”
But sometimes, like the wandering sheep, we think we can find better refreshment elsewhere. We know that he will lead us beside the still waters, but it may take a little bit of time to get there.
Keller speaks about one flock of sheep he watched as they were being led by the shepherd to what was a most magnificent and beautiful mountain stream…
The snow-fed waters were flowing pure and clear and crystal clean between lovely banks of trees. But on the way several stubborn ewes and their lambs stopped instead to drink from small, dirty, muddy pools beside the trail. The water was filthy and polluted not only with the churned up mud from the passing sheep but even with the manure and urine of previous flocks that had passed that way. Still these stubborn sheep were quite sure it was the best drink obtainable.
Sometimes that’s what happens to us when we get in a hurry and refuse to wait on the shepherd’s best – we get an inferior product, even though we think it is the best we can find. He knows exactly what we need, and the Scripture says he is willing to give it to us. Paul says in Romans 8 “he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” But we also know that we have to be patient and trust that he knows where he is taking us. This can be difficult, especially when the answer seems delayed – but has he ever let us down? Has he ever proven himself to be incapable of fully satisfying us in every way?
He leads us to and through joyous times of fresh new pasture (these are the “paths of righteousness) but also LEADS THROUGH TIMES OF FRESH-NESS AND DARKNESS, “through the valley of the shadow of death.”
A shepherd will say (and Keller does) that the only way to reach the top of the mountain in through the valleys – in fact this is the best way to get to the top.
In the fall of the year, the flock is driven back home to prepare for the winter. And it is usually in those times, as the seasons are changing and the days getting shorter, that the flock will pass through valleys of darkness on its journey home. During this time, the flock is completely alone with its shepherd. They get his personal attention. Never is the flock more intimate with the Shepherd than when it is passing through the “valley of the shadow of death.”
David indicates such intimacy, because this is the only part of the psalm when he begins to address the Lord – the Shepherd – directly. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me,” “you are with me.” It sort of reminds me of the famous Footprints poem – it is during those difficult moments of life, when we would be tempted to feel all alone – that we know we are not alone, and we never seem to feel closer to God than in such times.
I have had experiences in prayer in this sanctuary, when I was praying during a time I was sad or depressed and literally crying out to God (literally crying) that it literally seemed like someone else was in the room with me – like they were watching me and would just start speaking at any time. God’s presence seemed that close.
Notice that we pass through the valley of the shadow of death. We don’t stay there, and the journey goes on. Even when that valley leads to physical death (every loss is a death, but when it comes to us giving up our own earthly lives), that is not the end. In fact, in no other time are we more aware of his presence to guide us through the transition. The last words of John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church, as he died an old man in his bed, “best of all, God is with us.”
Finally, the sheep in the care of the Good Shepherd is FULLY CONFIDENT IN HIS CARE. It is almost a boast. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Such a perspective destroys negative and fatalistic attitudes. “Well, that’s just my luck” or “my life is a mistake” or “everything will turn out wrong” – Under the supervision of the shepherd, goodness and mercy (that is, forgiveness) shall follow me all of the days of my life.
