“He leads (guides) me
in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” (Psalm 23:3B)
I think I’d better apologize before I even start this post. If you still feel beat up from previous posts
because we, as God’s sheep, are compared to real sheep with all their
weaknesses and frailties then hang on to your hats because here we go again. Here come some more not-so-nice comparisons
that will help us understand this portion of Psalm 23 a little better.
Left to themselves sheep will get into all sorts of
trouble. We have already spoken about
several examples but here are some more, specific to today’s scripture
passage. Sheep are creatures of
habit. They will feed on the same spots
in a field, walk the same paths and congregate in the same places day after
day. This allows them to develop lots of
not so nice ailments like parasites, worms and other diseases. The nature of the sheep to stay in a rut
actually creates more ruts. Let me
explain. When the sheep, if left on
their own, travel the same paths day after day they wear the soil away and
create deep gullies through their own hoof marks and then from the resulting
erosion caused by rain and wind.
Furthermore, they overgraze a field until it can’t even produce any
vegetation. You may remember the old
western movies where the cattle ranchers got into awful scrapes with the sheep
herders over use of the land. When sheep
overgraze a field they stay in the same spots to eat. They chew the grass right down to the ground
and then paw up the roots to eat them too.
Before long the soil has no vegetation which means no food. On top of that, there is nothing to stop the
erosion of the topsoil and resulting loss of usable meadow. What I’m saying is that the sheep, without
the guidance of a wise shepherd, will destroy the very world they need to
exist.
A shepherd who understands this will keep his flock
moving. In Bible passages we learn of
the shepherd moving his flock to new fields which he had prepared in advance
for them to have. By doing this he not
only monitors the condition of his sheep and the field but he keeps them more
healthy as they don’t stay too long in one area and the parasites, etc. don’t
have the opportunity to get widely established within the flock. When the shepherd could see that the flock
was taking the food sources down about as much as they could handle he would
move them on to another field. Another reason
to keep on the move is to make it harder for the wild animals to gather in
larger groups to attack the flock.
There is a joke that I’ve heard floating around for years that “It’s
harder to hit a moving target.” You
might see that in this description of the shepherd keeping his flock on the
move. Without the efforts of a wise and
loving shepherd the sheep would destroy their own food sources as well as make
themselves weaker and more vulnerable to attack.
So how does this description apply to you and me as God’s
sheep? You know that’s where we’re going
don’t you? I’m so glad you asked that
question. Here’s the bad news and it is right out of the
scripture. “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own
way.” (Isaiah 56:3) This makes me
think of children who, when you are trying to help them with something, yell “No! I wanna do it myself!” And you know how that often works out. We are just the same toward God so
often. He can see what’s happening and
how it will turn out and He wants to help us avoid the pain just as our loving
earthly parents would. Just like a child
to a parent we tell God, “No! I wanna do
this myself!” In His love He allows that
very thing to happen. He never forces us
to do things His way but let’s us make our own choices. That’s the “terrible gift” we all know as “free
will”. Way back in Exodus Moses called
the Israelites a “stiff necked people” and that is still very true today for
many. Stiff necked means stubborn and
willful. Here again, watch a little
child and you can see that it’s easy for us as humans to show that side of our humanness. We don’t like to let go. We like to do things our own way. Since we aren’t that wise we often choose
wrongly.
I said earlier that sheep will follow along the same path
regardless of what lies down it or what problems they have encountered there
before. We don’t have to think too far
back in our lives or look too far into the lives around us to see that this is
still the case for many. Even though
people know that a certain behavior has the potential for real harm they go
down that road anyhow. We think we know
what’s best. Hmmm, sounds familiar
somehow…
“There is a way that
seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” (Proverbs 14:12)
Jesus calls us to follow him every day. He says exactly that in the Word.
“Whoever wants to be
my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”” (Luke 9:23)
He’s leading and if we are one of his sheep we are told that
we must follow that lead. It’s just like
the sheep, we have to make a conscious decision to do that every day. We need to put him in charge in our
lives. We need to seek out his guidance
from the Word. We need to spend time
with him in prayer so our spirit will be in sync with his spirit. Did you see these directives in the Luke 9
verse? They are there: “deny themselves” (God’s will, not yours),
“take up their cross daily” (consciously
and actively live as a child of God every day), and “follow me” (do what he says). It requires trust in the Lord and obedience to
His word. Just this morning in church our
worship service closed with that same call with a hymn of the same name: Trust
and Obey. The chorus reminded us with
these true words, “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in
Jesus but to trust and obey.” If we want
to avoid the mistakes and failures which are a part of our own decisions, we
need to follow our own Good Shepherd.
We need to trust him and we need to listen to what he says and obey what
he tells us to do.
Living in this world in this time we are confronted with a
myriad of choices daily that test our faith.
Whether it’s in conversations, or activities, whether it involves our
own behavior or that of others we are faced with moment by moment choices. We can follow the world or we can follow the
shepherd. The choice is always up to
us. Before we finish with this post I want
to remind you that the scripture for today reinforces the idea that Jesus, our
shepherd, doesn’t order us or pull us, he ‘leads’ us. That word can also be translated ‘guides’. He goes before us and makes a path or a
way. In future posts we’ll talk more
about that but just remember that Jesus is there with you and is making a way,
a path for you to navigate this old world right now. Seek his guidance throughout your day. Stay in touch with him, as well, throughout
your day. They don’t have to be long,
involved prayers, they can be brief thoughts shared at any moment and
anywhere. Take advantage that you have
one with you “who is closer than a
brother.” (Proverbs 18:24) His name
is Jesus. I hope that he’s your friend,
your guide, your Savio
God bless.
r and your shepherd.
“The Lord is my
shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me
lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet (still) waters, he restores
my soul. He leads (guides) me in paths
of righteousness for his name’s sake.”
