The Shepherds Song
Keith Harms
livingWORD Assembly of God
Tonight’s message is titled "The Shepherd’s Song". I have mentioned before that my father raised sheep while I was growing up. He’s since retired and moved into town, but for my entire childhood, Dad was always working with sheep.
Despite the fact that he daily attended to their needs, he was not really a shepherd. Sheep were his hobby, not his life. My Dad enjoyed his sheep, but it’s one thing to keep an animal in a pen or fence, and it’s quite another to live with and for that animal. And that is exactly what is demanded of the shepherd.
The Biblical writers often describe a king or spiritual leader as a shepherd of his people because of the way a true shepherd closely identifies with his flock.
David was a shepherd over his father Jesse’s sheep. However in Psalm 78 verses 70-72 we see that God transforms David from the shepherd of sheep to the shepherd of people.
Psalm 78: 70-72: He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds: from following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart: and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.
God also often describes himself as the shepherd of His people and he describes his people as the flock of his pasture. For example let’s read
Psalm 100:3 - Know ye that the Lord He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves: we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Another example is
Psalm 80:1 - Give ear, O Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock: thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.
Here and in many other verses of the Bible, God speaks of Himself as our shepherd. But when we think about God as our shepherd and we as His sheep, we inevitably find ourselves drawn to what is probably the most well memorized and well loved chapter of the whole Bible.
Psalm 23 is the Song of the Shepherd.
Quite fittingly, David is the author of this Psalm. I don’t think David wrote this psalm while out tending sheep. Most likely, he wrote it as a mature leader of Israel, reflecting back on the experiences of his youth as well as the demands of his office as King of Israel. And all the while the model of God as the Good Shepherd overwhelms him.
In turning to Psalm 23 we find that the theme of the poem is given in the first verse.
The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.
We speak of God in many ways. He is our Rock, our fortress, the creator of all things, the Holy One, Emanuel, Majestic Lord, and so on and so on. But to speak of God as our shepherd is a bold statement. It demands a personal relationship.
As the shepherd, the Lord must identify with his flock.
As the shepherd, the Lord must always be near his flock.
As the shepherd, the Lord must fight for his flock.
As the shepherd, the Lord must even be willing to die for his flock.
THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD, I SHALL NOT WANT. Or God is my shepherd I shall not lack. As the shepherd, the Lord must provide, he must take care of my needs!
This psalm is a psalm of confidence. It is a psalm of unwavering trust. The Readers Digest version of this psalm wound say "God is good to me!"
Now if verse one is the theme to the chapter, then the remaining verses elaborate on that theme.
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 rightesness 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.
Let’s stop here and look these verses over.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures:
We used to have our pasture divided into several fenced areas. Every so often we would lead the sheep to a different area where the grass had grown green and tall so the sheep could eat and ruminate. The good shepherd leads his sheep to a place where they can eat to their hearts content.
This sounds great, but let’s not allow ourselves to only think in the physical. Yes God is good and will give us everything we need physically: however, God also leads us spiritually into green pastures, places where we can eat spiritual food and then "lie down", and digest what we’ve eaten.
He leads me besides still waters:
I’m usually quick to point out how stupid sheep are, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have some instincts. At the farm, we had a small ravine where the sheep would go for water. Usually it was a small, quiet flowing stream, but if we had a lot of rain, the water would begin to flow rapidly and the sheep would not drink. Sheep have been known to die of thirst just a few feet away from water because they will not drink from a fast moving river. They are afraid they might fall in. If you’ve ever been caught out in a rainstorm with a wool sweater, you know how heavy wool can get when it’s wet. Although sheep can swim, when you factor in the rapid current and the weight of the wool, even stupid sheep understand the peril. They know that a waterlogged sheep would drown in seconds. They also know there is a chance of catching pneumonia if water gets into their lungs.
When the water gets too rough, the good shepherd makes a trench and forms a little pond where the water will come in and be still for the sheep to drink. I could talk for hours and you probably could to about the times God has dug out a trench and formed small still waters for you when your life was rapidly flowing ahead.
He restoreth my soul:
He refreshes me! I can remember right before fair time every year, we would pick out the lambs we were going to show and begin to work with those animals. We would daily hold and pet them so they would know us and obey our commands. A good shepherd makes daily contact with each of his sheep. They give each sheep a sort of massage beginning at the muzzle and working their way backward. This massage gives the sheep the physical contact it needs to know its master and provides the shepherd with an opportunity to check the sheep for injuries.
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness:
Sheep seem to instinctively follow the same path to the pasture day after day. From time to time they might vary off the path but if the shepherd is walking in front of them, they always seem to follow along. It seems amazing how our barn had paths leading out of each door, connecting to each other and leading out to the pasture.
The Judean hills are covered with sheep trails. Each shepherd has his own trail handed down to him through generations. The shepherd walks the same path every day so his sheep don’t become confused and lost.
For His name’s sake:
It is because of who he is, that the Lord takes such good care of his flock.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death:
Because of the King James translation, this Psalm is often relegated to funeral services. But this is a psalm of life! A better translation would be "valley of darkness". Any dark and troublesome time in your life is an opportunity for the special care of the shepherd.
I will fear no evil for thou art with me:
David doesn’t deny that evil exist. Rather he affirms that in the presence of evil there is nothing to fear if we are also in the presence of our shepherd.
Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me:
The modern sheep farmer rarely has to protect his sheep from becoming prey. In the twenty years I lived at home I only remember having to shoot three dogs and one of them was my own pet. Ancient shepherds didn’t have the luxury of rifles. They had two implements, one for protection and one for care. The "ROD" was a club, which the shepherd would use to drive off a wolf or a lion. The "STAFF" was the long cane with a hook on one end. Should a lamb fall off a cliff into a crevice, the shepherd might be able to reach down with his staff and hook it around the leg and chest and pull the lamb to safety.
Now we come to verse five:
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil: my cup runneth over.
Many people believe the fifth verse doesn’t belong with the rest of this chapter. It seems to skip to a different theme. But let’s assume that David, being inspired by God, knew what he was doing. Just a verses 2 through 4 elaborate on the first verse, verse 5 elaborates, expands on verses 2 through 4.
Here we see the shepherd and sheep in royal splendor. The grass has become a banquet table, water has become expensive wine, olive oil meant for sheep’s wounds is now a gracious refreshment. It is a scrumpdillyichious meal.
But then it goes on to say in the presence of mine enemies. For a long time I thought. "Why would he set me in the middle of my enemies?" But this scene is not one of having to hover over our food worried if the enemy is going to snatch it away. They are being held afar off by the rod of my shepherd. They can look. Let them look! Let them smell the sweet aroma, but they won’t get a single morsel. They will wish they were sheep instead of dogs. As saliva drools from their mouths let them weep. This table is set only for the shepherd’s sheep and it is exquisite and bountiful.
Then the chapter ends with,
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
All the days of my life, I am in the care of the good shepherd. And his care even extends through this life into the life to come. The sheepfold becomes a picture of a heavenly home for the child of God.
Before closing I’d like to look at the psalm in another way. The 23rd psalm is the prayer of Jesus to His Father. It is his prayer of confidence in the time of his humanity. Jesus was the lamb. What did John the Baptist say when he saw Jesus coming to him? "Look here comes the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."
Psalm 23 is also the model for Jesus as shepherd of his people. In John 10:11 Jesus asserts that he is the good shepherd of Psalm 23. I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
And again in verses 14 and 15: - I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so I know the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Jesus boldly declares that He is the Good Shepherd, but that is his case is a mark of death. For this shepherd must die for his sheep. But he promises to live again. Jesus built this statement of the gospel form the song of the sheepfold, his song, Psalm 23.
Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd. He is the singer of the shepherd’s song. When we read Psalm 23 for our own pleasure and comfort, we turn to a song we share with Jesus.
