Contrary to popular thinking, to be a shepherd in King David's time was NOT an upwardly mobile position. It was scraping the bottom of the job barrell. It often, like in David's case, fell to the youngest, who had no seniority with which to argue or bump another brother from a better job.
To be a shepherd demanded that you be present 24/7 with the sheep, protecting, providing, and guiding the ornery, dumb, stinky, flock. It was an unending task, day and night, summer and winter, fair weather and foul. One biblical record of this is found in Jacob's complaint about his shepherding life to his father-in-law Laban in Genesis 31:40:
"This was my situation: the heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes. It was like this for the 26 years I was in your household."
Without such a faithful, ever-present, ever-watching shepherd, life for a sheep could be torturous or...very, very short. WHO WOULD CHOOSE TO BE A SHEPHERD?
YHWH, the LORD, has!
"He tends his flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young" Isaiah 40:11.
As astounding as it is to consider, the MOST HIGH has taken on the MOST LOWLY of all jobs: to shepherd you and me...to protect us in our weakness, to provide for us in our inability, to guide us in our lostness.
"You stoop down to make me great" Psalm 18:35 (NIV). What a glorious, merciful Shepherd. YHWH has stooped to make us great in that Great Shepherd of the sheep, the Lord Jesus Christ (Hebrews 13:20). Next we will look at this great, stooping Shepherd in John 10.
But for now...worship the Shepherd, sheep. Worship the Almighty who has stooped to save, to care for...you and me.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Shepherd Confidence: Psalm 23, Part 1
Who doesn't love Psalm 23? Of course, some of our love and appreciation for this Shepherd's Psalm can be lost by our long familiarity with it. Next to John 3:16, perhaps more folks can quote parts of these scriptures than any other. But, oh, what richness begs to be mined from these simple words!
Think about the first verse: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want."
"I shall not want..." could sound like words from either a "pie in the sky" victim of religious naivete or a self-confident fool. How can David, now King of Israel and former shepherd of his family's sheep, make such a claim? How can a sane man make a statement like this about a future he neither KNOWS nor CONTROLS? There is only one reason such a claim can be sanely made...
"The LORD is my shepherd." The only confidence that is proper for a sheep is SHEPHERD CONFIDENCE. Since sheep are weak, defenseless, dense, and easily led astray, they of all livestock are most desperately in need of a shepherd. All that is supplied for a sheep's well-being must come from OUTSIDE himself...from ANOTHER...from a SHEPHERD. And for a sheep to say, "I shall not want," i.e. I will always have everything that I need...he must be looking away from his sorry self to a faithful shepherd.
Now we know why David is so confident...the LORD is his shepherd. LORD (all caps) is that great OT name Jehovah or YHWH. This name occurs over 6500 times in the OT Scriptures. One might be tempted to think that with such overwhelming occurrrence the LORD WANTS us to know what that name means. And indeed He does.
YHWH is that name God revealed to Moses at the burning bush so that He could be identified to Israel. "I am that I am." YHWH tells us that God is:
Think about the first verse: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want."
"I shall not want..." could sound like words from either a "pie in the sky" victim of religious naivete or a self-confident fool. How can David, now King of Israel and former shepherd of his family's sheep, make such a claim? How can a sane man make a statement like this about a future he neither KNOWS nor CONTROLS? There is only one reason such a claim can be sanely made...
"The LORD is my shepherd." The only confidence that is proper for a sheep is SHEPHERD CONFIDENCE. Since sheep are weak, defenseless, dense, and easily led astray, they of all livestock are most desperately in need of a shepherd. All that is supplied for a sheep's well-being must come from OUTSIDE himself...from ANOTHER...from a SHEPHERD. And for a sheep to say, "I shall not want," i.e. I will always have everything that I need...he must be looking away from his sorry self to a faithful shepherd.
Now we know why David is so confident...the LORD is his shepherd. LORD (all caps) is that great OT name Jehovah or YHWH. This name occurs over 6500 times in the OT Scriptures. One might be tempted to think that with such overwhelming occurrrence the LORD WANTS us to know what that name means. And indeed He does.
YHWH is that name God revealed to Moses at the burning bush so that He could be identified to Israel. "I am that I am." YHWH tells us that God is:
- Unchanging: He is who He was and who He was He will be. There is no change, diminishing, or weakening of His nature. Who He has revealed Himself to be He still is...fully, infinitely.
- Self-Sufficient: the LORD is in need of no one outside of Himself. He needs no love, no service, no help of any kind at any time from anyone. In other words, He is the SOURCE of all, the overflowing fountain of life and love and grace and mercy.
- The Covenant Maker and Keeper: It is YHWH who has made solemn promises to His people for their good and everlasting happiness. He is the One whose "steadfast love endures forever" (Psalm 100:5 and many etcs). He keeps His promises...period.
If THIS LORD is one's shepherd, the confident claim is fitting...even a necessary corollary...that "I shall not want." IF the Lord is my shepherd, I am unbelieving NOT to make such a claim. And such a statement is infinitely SAFE and SURE when a sheep with such a shepherd makes it.
DO YOU, WILL YOU have everything that you need? Who is your Shepherd? Where does your confidence lie sheep?
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