A SHEPHERD LOOKS AT PSALM 23 #1

 A SHEPHERD looks at Psalm 23

The Lord is my Shepherd!

It is will great please I produce for you this wonderfully written book by a real life Shepherd. Keller has a way of getting to your heart strings while bringing out the facts of  shepherding sheep. You will never read Psalm 23 quite the way you did before, after you read it from a Shepherd's understanding and perspective. Keith Hunt                                                         by Phillip Keller

THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD

     THE LORD! BUT who is the Lord? What is His character? Does

He have adequate credentials to be my Shepherd - my manager - my

owner?

     And if He does - how do I come under His control? In what

way do I become the object of His concern and diligent care?

These are penetrating, searching questions and they deserve

honest and basic examination.

     One of the calamities of Christianity is our tendency to

talk in ambiguous generalities.

     David, the author of the poem, himself a shepherd, and the

son of a shepherd, later to be known as the "Shepherd King" of

Israel, stated explicitly, "The Lord is my Shepherd." To whom did

he refer? He referred to Jehovah, the Lord God of Israel.

     His statement was confirmed by Jesus the Christ.

     When He was God incarnate amongst men, He declared

emphatically, "I am the good Shepherd."

But who was this Christ?

     Our view of Him is often too small - too cramped - too

provincial - too human. And because it is we feel unwilling to

allow Him to have authority or control - much less outright

ownership of our lives.

     He it was who was directly responsible for the creation of

all things both natural and supernatural (see Colossians

1:15-20). If we pause to reflect on the person of Christ - on His

power and upon His achievements - suddenly like David we will be

glad to state proudly, "The Lord - He is my Shepherd!"

     But before we do this it helps to hold clearly in mind the

particular part played upon our history by God the Father, God

the Son ....

     God the Father is God the author - the originator of all

that exists. It was in His mind, first, that all took shape.

God the Son, our Saviour, is God the artisan - the artist, the

Creator of all that exists. He brought into being all that had

been originally formulated in His Father's mind.....

     Now the beautiful relationships given to us repeatedly in

Scripture between God and man are those of a father to his

children and a shepherd to his sheep. These concepts were first

conceived in the mind of God our Father. They were made possible

and practical through the work of Christ. They are confirmed and

made real in me through the agency of the gracious Holy Spirit.

     So when the simple - though sublime - statement is made by a

man or woman that "The Lord is my Shepherd," it immediately

implies a profound yet practical working relationship between a

human being and his Maker.

     It links a lump of common clay to divine destiny - it means

a mere mortal becomes the cherished object of divine diligence.

This thought alone should stir my spirit, quicken my own sense of

awareness, and lend enormous dignity to myself as an individual.

To think that God in Christ is deeply concerned about me as a

particular person immediately gives great purpose and enormous

meaning to my short sojourn upon this planet.

     And the greater, the wider, the more majestic my concept is

of the Christ - the more vital will be my relationship to Him.

     Obviously, David, in this Psalm, is speaking not as the

shepherd, though he was one, but as a sheep; one of the flock. He

spoke with a strong sense of pride and devotion and admiration.

It was as though he literally boasted aloud, "Look at who my

shepherd is - my owner - my manager!" The Lord is! After all, he

knew from firsthand experience that the lot in life of any

particular sheep depended on the type of man who owned it. Some

men were gentle, kind, intelligent, brave and selfless in

their devotion to their stock. Under one man sheep would

struggle, starve and suffer endless hardship. In another's care

they would flourish and thrive contentedly.

     So if the Lord is my Shepherd I should know something of His

character and understand something of His ability.

     To meditate on this I frequently go out at night to walk

alone under the stars and remind myself of His majesty and might.

Looking up at the star-studded sky I remember that at least

250,000,000 x 250,000,000 such bodies - each larger than our sun,

one of the smallest of the stars, have been scattered across the

vast spaces of the universe by His hand. I recall that the planet

earth, which is my temporary home for a few short years, is so

minute a speck of matter in space that if it were possible to

transport our most powerful telescope to our nearest neighbor

star, Alpha Centauri, and look back this way, the earth could not

be seen, even with the aid of that powerful instrument.

     All this is a bit humbling. It drains the "ego" from a man

and puts things in proper perspective. It makes me see myself as

a mere mite of material in an enormous universe. Yet the

staggering fact remains that Christ the Creator of such an

enormous universe of overwhelming magnitude, deigns to call

Himself my Shepherd and invites me to consider myself His sheep -

His special object of affection and attention. Who better could

care for me?

     By the same sort of process I stoop down and pick up a

handful of soil from the backyard or roadside. Placing it under

an electron microscope I am astounded to discover it teems with

billions upon billions of micro-organisms. Many of them are so

complex in their own peculiar cellular structure that even a

fraction of their functions in the earth are not yet properly

understood.

     Yes, He the Christ - the Son of God brought all of this into

being. From the most gigantic galaxy to the most minute microbe

all function flawlessly in accordance with definite laws of order

and unity which are utterly beyond the mind of finite man to

master.  It is in this sense, first of all, that I am basically

bound to admit that His ownership of me as a human being is

legitimate - simply because it is He who brought me into being

and no one is better able to understand or care for me.

     I belong to Him simply because He deliberately chose to

create me as the object of His own affection.

     It is patently clear that most men and women refuse to

acknowledge this fact. Their deliberate attempts to deny that

such a relationship even exists or could exist between a man and

his Maker demonstrate their abhorrence for admitting that anyone

really can claim ownership or authority over them by virtue of

bringing them into being.

     This was of course the enormous "risk" or "calculated

chance," if we may use the term, which God took in making man

initially. But in His usual magnanimous manner He took the second

step in attempting to restore this relationship which is

repeatedly breached by men who turn their backs upon Him.

     Again in Christ He demonstrated at Calvary the deep desire

of His heart to have men come under His benevolent care. He

Himself absorbed the penalty for their perverseness, stating

clearly that "all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned

every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him the

iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6).

     Thus, in a second very real and vital sense I truly belong

to Him simply because He has bought me again at the incredible

price of His own laid-down life and shed blood.

     Therefore He was entitled to say, "I am the Good Shepherd,

the Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep."

     So there remains the moving realization that we have been

bought with a price, that we are really not our own and He is

well within His rights to lay claim upon our lives.

     I recall quite clearly how in my first venture with sheep,

the question of paying a price for my ewes was so terribly

important. They belonged to me only by virtue of the fact that I

paid hard cash for them. It was money earned by the blood and

sweat and tears drawn from my own body during the desperate

grinding years of the depression. And when I bought that first

small flock I was buying them literally with my own body which

had been laid down with this day in mind.

     Because of this I felt in a special way that they were in

very truth a part of me and I a part of them. There was an

intimate identity involved which though not apparent on the

surface to the casual observer, nonetheless made those thirty

ewes exceedingly precious to me.

     But the day I bought them I also realized that this was but

the first stage in a long, lasting endeavor in which from then

on, I would, as their owner, have to continually lay down my life

for them, if they were to flourish and prosper. Sheep do not

"just take care of themselves" as some might suppose. They

require, more than any other class of livestock, endless

attention and meticulous care.

     It is no accident that God has chosen to call us sheep. The

behavior of sheep and human beings is similar in many ways as

will be seen in further chapters. Our mass mind (or mob

instincts), our fears and timidity, our stubbornness and

stupidity, our perverse habits are all parallels of profound

importance.

     Yet despite these adverse characteristics Christ chooses us,

buys us, calls us by name, makes us His own and delights in

caring for us.

     It is this last aspect which is really the third reason why

we are under obligation to recognize His ownership of us. He

literally lays Himself out for us continually. He is ever

interceding for us; He is ever guiding us by His gracious Spirit;

He is ever working on our behalf to ensure that we will benefit

from His care.

     In fact, Psalm 23 might well be called "David's Hymn of

Praise to Divine Diligence." For the entire poem goes on to

recount the manner in which the Good Shepherd spares no pains for

the welfare of His sheep.

     Little wonder that the poet took pride in belonging to the

Good Shepherd. Why shouldn't he?

     In memory I can still see one of the sheep ranches in our

district which was operated by a tenant sheepman. He ought never

to have been allowed to keep sheep. His stock were always thin,

weak and riddled with disease or parasites. Again and again they

would come and stand at the fence staring blankly through the

woven wire at the green lush pastures which my flock enjoyed. Had

they been able to speak I am sure they would have said, "Oh, to

be set free from this awful owner!"

     This is a picture which has never left my memory. It is a

picture of pathetic people the world over who have not known what

it is to belong to the Good Shepherd ... who suffer instead under

sin and Satan.      

     How amazing it is that individual men and women vehemently

refuse and reject the claims of Christ on their lives. They fear

that to acknowledge His ownership is to come under the rule of a

tyrant.

     This is difficult to comprehend when one pauses to consider

the character of Christ. Admittedly there have been many false

caricatures of this Person, but an unbiased look at His life

quickly reveals an individual of enormous compassion and

incredible integrity.

     He was the most balanced and perhaps the most beloved being

ever to enter the society of men. Though born amid most

disgusting surroundings, the member of a modest working family,

He bore Himself always with great dignity and assurance. Though

He enjoyed no special advantages as a child, either in education

or employment, His entire philosophy and outlook on life were the

highest standards of human conduct ever set before mankind.

     Though He had no vast economic assets, political power or

military might, no other person ever made such an enormous impact

on the world's history. Because of Him millions of people across

almost twenty centuries of time have come into a life of decency

and honor and noble conduct.  

     Not only was He gentle and tender and true but also

righteous, stern as steel, and terribly tough on phony people.

He was magnificent in His magnanimous spirit of forgiveness for

fallen folk but a terror to those who indulged in double talk or

false pretences.

     He came to set men free from their own sins, their own

selves, their own fears. Those so liberated loved Him with fierce

loyalty. It is this One who insists that He was the Good

Shepherd, the understanding Shepherd, the concerned Shepherd who

cares enough to seek out and save and restore lost men and women.

He never hesitated to make it quite clear that when an individual

once came under His management and control there would be a

certain new and unique relationship between Him and them. There

would be something very special about belonging to this

particular Shepherd. There would be a distinct mark upon the man

or woman that differentiated them from the rest of the crowd.

     The day I bought my first thirty ewes, my neighbor and I sat

on the dusty corral rails that enclosed the sheep pens and

admired the choice, strong, well-bred ewes that had become mine.

     Turning to me he handed me a large, sharp, killing knife and

remarked tersely, "Well, Phillip, they're yours. Now you'll have

to put your mark on them."

     I knew exactly what he meant. Each sheep-man has his own

distinctive earmark which he cuts into one or other of the ears

of his sheep. In this way, even at a distance, it is easy to

determine to whom the sheep belongs.

     It was not the most pleasant procedure to catch each ewe in

turn and lay her ear on a wooden block then notch it deeply with

the razor-sharp edge of the knife. There was pain for both of us.

But from our mutual suffering an indelible lifelong mark of

ownership was made that could never be erased. And from then on

every sheep that came into my possession would bear my mark.

     There is an exciting parallel to this in the Old Testament.

When a slave in any Hebrew household chose, of his own freewill,

to become a lifetime member of that home, he was subjected to a

certain ritual. His master and owner would take him to his door,

put his ear lobe against the door post and with an awl puncture a

hole through the ear. From then on he was a man marked for life

as belonging to that house.

     For the man or woman who recognizes the claim of Christ and

gives allegiance to His absolute ownership, there comes the

question of bearing His mark. The mark of the cross is that which

should identify us with Himself for all time. The question is -

does it?

     Jesus made it clear when He stated emphatically, "If any man

would be my disciple [follower] let him deny himself and take up

his cross daily and follow me."

     Basically what it amounts to is this: A person exchanges the

fickle fortunes of living life by sheer whimsy for the more

productive and satisfying adventure of being guided by God.

     It is a tragic truth that many people who really have never

come under His direction or management claim that "The Lord is my

Shepherd." They seem to hope that by merely admitting that He is

their Shepherd somehow they will enjoy the benefits of His care

and management without paying the price of forfeiting their own

fickle and foolish way of life.

     One cannot have it both ways. Either we belong or we don't.

Jesus Himself warned us that there would come a day when many

would say, "Lord, in Your name we did many wonderful things," but

He will retort that He never knew us as His own.

     It is a most serious and sobering thought which should make

us search our own hearts and motives and personal relationship to

Himself.  

     

Do I really belong to Him?

Do I really recognize His right to me? 

Do I respond to His authority and acknowledge His ownership?

Do I find freedom and complete fulfilment in this 

arrangement? 

Do I sense a purpose and deep contentment because I am under His

direction?

Do I know rest and repose, besides a definite sense of exciting

Adventure, in belonging to Him?

     If so, then with genuine gratitude and exaltation I can

exclaim proudly, just as David did, "The Lord is my Shepherd!"

and I'm thrilled to belong to Him, for it is thus that I shall

flourish and thrive no matter what life may bring to me. 

                             .................

To be continued 

Entered on my Website October 2008