“1 The Lord is my shepherd.”
‘Does anyone care that I’m here?’ My guess is that you’ve found yourself asking that question from time to time. ‘Does anyone care that I’m here?’ Or another way of phrasing that question is, ‘will anyone take an interest in me for me?’
If you’ve ever moved to a community and become the new kid on the block, you’ve asked that question. I’ve moved a number of times in my life and I have never felt at home until someone cares about me for me.
Now people obviously care that I’m filling a role, but I’m talking about caring about me for me. I’m talking about caring about you for you. You want someone to care about you for you. You want someone to take an interest in you. You want someone to care that it is you who are here. That is what everyone wants. Moving or other changes simply bring this longing to the surface.
Does anyone care that you’re here? Does anyone care about you for you? I want you to take these questions that beats within your breast and I want you imagine for a moment that life really is a cosmic accident. I want you to imagine that there is no Lord who is your shepherd. I want you to imagine that there is no one to take an interest in you beyond your fellow humans and you know how fallible their love is because you are one of them.
Now pile upon this thought experiment the fracturing of the family of the past seventy years. Pile upon it the transient nature of our culture. The average American moves 12 times. Forty million Americans are moving this year. The questions, ‘Does anyone care that I’m here?’ and ‘will anyone take an interest in me?’ beat within the American chest like a heart ready for a heart-attack.
These Americans need to hear that someone does care that they are here. They need to hear that someone does take an interest in them. Perhaps you need to hear that. The Lord is very eager to care about you for you. He created you to care for you.
You ask, ‘does anyone care that I’m here?’ and ‘who will take an interest in me?’ because you were created with this longing. Only the Lord can fill it. He describes His care about you for you as shepherding. This is part of the reason the words, “the Lord is my shepherd,” are so well loved. You long for someone to care about you for you. You long for someone to take an interest in you. You long for a shepherd. The Lord is that shepherd. That is the claim of this sermon: we long for a shepherd. The Lord is that shepherd.
We will study this in two points. First: the metaphor of the shepherd. Second: the competencies and character of the shepherd.
First: the metaphor of the shepherd. Psalm 23 is rather tricky to preach because so many people know it so very well, and since metaphors tend to lose their impact by repeated use, the phrase, “the Lord is my shepherd,” is no longer as striking at it ought to be nor as informing as it ought to be. The metaphor has become too familiar and metaphors that become too familiar become clichés. Comparing a woman to a rose was once a striking description; now it’s a cliché. Saying that a man was as mad as a hornet was once an attention getting way to describe his emotional state. By overuse, it has been drained of all meaning.
Metaphors are valuable because they catch our attention. Their strength, however, becomes their weakness; by way of overuse they no longer catch our attention. The metaphor of the shepherd no longer catches our attention.
This is a terrible shame because this metaphor of the shepherd is striking. It is a bit unexpected as all good metaphors are. Shepherds were rugged individuals; they were similar to the cowboys of the wild west. The best ones were not only tough as tungsten, they were also remarkably tender as seen in their care for their flocks. They knew how to fight. They knew how to nurture. This was and is a striking description of God.
It is a shame that the shepherd metaphor has become cliché because it is so very informative. We will see in our next point that shepherding required a rather diverse skill set; God shares this skill set.
Now the more informative a metaphor is, the more useful it is. You can say that your wife is like a piece of caramel because she’s sweet but that doesn’t really say much about her; it isn’t all that informative. The best metaphors are informative. This is why Shakespeare’s sonnet beginning, “shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate,” is far more powerful than comparing a woman to a piece caramel. Line after line of that sonnet takes the beauty of a summer’s day and shows all the ways in which it describes the beauty of a woman. It is well loved because it is informative about the glory that is woman. Psalm 23 is well loved because it is informative about the glory that is God.
It is a shame that the shepherd metaphor has become a cliché because it was so very familiar in the life of Israel. The Israelites were very familiar with sheep. As we saw in Deuteronomy, the Promised Land was ideally suited for these animals. It was a country of hills, which was better suited for animals than crops. Judah became an exporter of sheep. They were so well known for sheep that a monument to the Assyrian king who conquered the northern tribes included a picture of the Israelite Awassi fat-tail sheep.
Israel was, by and large, a nation of shepherds. Now, of course, not everyone was a shepherd just like not everyone in this church is a farmer, but farming culture is powerful here just like the shepherding culture was powerful then and there. Shepherding would have resonated with those people like farming resonates with us.
It is a shame that the shepherd metaphor has become cliché because it is a very fertile metaphor, meaning that other metaphors come from it. Since God is a shepherd, that makes us sheep. That is accurate as we will see. Church leaders are described as undershepherds who work under the direction of the divine shepherd. Even our word English ‘pastor’ is simply an Anglicized version of the Latin word for shepherd. Those who don’t know God are described as helpless and harassed like sheep without a shepherd. Selfish leaders are described as wicked shepherds. False teachers are described as wolves. False believers are described as goats. God’s people took this metaphor of the shepherd and imagined their lives along its lines. You know that you understand this metaphor when you start to do the same.
What we have sought to do in this first point is to merely begin to appreciate this metaphor, “The Lord is my shepherd.” We’ve taken just the first steps in restoring its drained meaning.
We’ve also begun to recognize the importance of metaphor when it comes to knowing God. So much of what you know about God comes by way of metaphor. Since God is so very different from you and since God is so beyond you, He must tell you what He is like in terms of what you understand. He is like light in darkness. He is like a spring of fresh water for a parched throat. He is like a woman preparing give birth to new life. He is like a shepherd.
Now God tells you what He is like because He wants to be known. God had no need to make Himself known. He could have created this world and humanity and told us nothing about Himself. Now there are plenty of people who will tell you nothing about themselves. They don’t want to be truly known for who they are, and they don’t really want to know you for who you are. God could be like that, but He isn’t. He wants you to know Him. He opens Himself up. The words, “the Lord is my shepherd,” is an invitation to know God.
One of the ways God opens up is by telling us that He is like a shepherd. Now to understand this metaphor, we turn our attention to the competencies and character of the shepherd. That is our second point.
So we know that God is like a shepherd. So what does shepherding look like? Ancient Near East shepherds needed between 25 to 60 sheep merely to survive. If they had 60 or more sheep, they could begin to make money. They would sell most the males for meat and sacrifices and keep the rest and the females for breeding. They would also sell the milk and wool the sheep produced. As we’ve already seen, the Israelites were so successful at shepherding that they began to export sheep and sheep products.
Now there were skillful, attentive shepherds and inept, uncaring shepherds just as there are the skillful and attentive as well as the inept and uncaring in each of our lines of work. The good shepherds provided food, water, and shelter for their sheep. They protected the sheep from predators and the elements. They knew each of their sheep in terms of health history, eating habits, disposition, and each of their own peculiarities. Many shepherds knew their sheep so well that they named them and knew them by name.
God describes Himself as this sort of skillful, attentive shepherd. He knows what you need and when you need it. He is willing and able to protect you. He knows your individual needs and how you differ from your siblings and neighbors. He knows how to care about you for you.
The lazy, uncaring shepherds let their sheep handle themselves. The sheep root around for food in barren fields. They are stressed by the heat or wind. Lazy shepherds treat each of the sheep as if they were the same. They gave no attention to a sheep’s individual needs because they don’t know the sheep’s individual needs.
The difference between the lazy, uncaring shepherds and the skillful, attentive shepherds showed in the health of their flocks. The difference shows in those whom the Lord shepherds and those He doesn’t. Those He doesn’t shepherd are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. You meet these dear, poor souls every day.
Good shepherds form a bond with their sheep. Shepherd turn pastor Philip Keller wrote of his connection with his first sheep saying, “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.”
Some of you can rightly say something similar about the land you farm or the business you run. There is a peculiar dimension, however, about tending to a living creature as those of you who work regularly with animals know. There is something almost intimate, glorious, and at times tragic when it comes to sustaining a living creature.
The metaphor is apt for the Lord because He takes on this intimate, glorious, and at times tragic role of sustaining His people. This is an involved role. My guess is that I don’t know the eighth of what those of you who have animals do to help your animals thrive. Recognize that you might not know an eighth of what the Lord does in shepherding you. For some of you perhaps, you don’t know an eighth of what He would do for you if He were your shepherd. You don’t know how good you could have it.
Shepherds need to be rather skillful because sheep can be rather dull creatures. They can be stubborn. They are easily frightened. They are timid. Some of them can develop some rather perverse habits. They are easily swayed by one another and have something of a mass mind that is more often a detriment than a benefit. They sound a good deal like us, which is why the metaphor works.
The metaphor worked because not only was David a shepherd but so many of his readers, as well as those who loved to sing this song, were also shepherds. Shepherding was a common profession in Israel and so, not surprisingly, many of the people we meet in Scripture are shepherds. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all Jacob’s sons other than Joseph were shepherds. Moses and David, the two great leaders of Israel, were both shepherds. If they were all bankers or potters or artists we would take notice; we should take notice of the fact that they were shepherds.
We should take note because this familiarity with shepherding led them to consider God a shepherd. They knew about shepherding the way that you know about your job. A shepherd wrote, “the Lord is my shepherd.”
Israel’s familiarity with the competencies of shepherds helped them understand the kindnesses of their God. As we become more familiar with the competencies of shepherds, I trust that you will better understand the kindnesses of God.
I better understand the kindnesses of my parents as I grow in my competency as a parent myself. I recognize all that the work entails, and I am thankful for how I have been loved. I hope that you have that same experience as you understand the work of a shepherd and see how it is that the Lord has shepherded you.
Shepherding involves many competencies as we’ve seen. It also requires a certain character. Shepherd turned pastor Philip Keller writes, “Shepherds are known for their independence, resourcefulness, adaptability, courage, and vigilance.”
Keller tells us that shepherds are independent people. If you were not an independent person, you would not be happy or skilled as a shepherd. You need to be something of a self-starter to make all the moment by moment decisions necessary to care for these animals. You must also be resourceful as Keller makes clear. You have to be imaginative enough to create what you need out of what you have available to you, and when you are out on the pasture you often have very little available to you. You have to be a bit like MacGyver, if you remember that TV show from the 80’s.
Jesus exudes these qualities. Jesus strikes any reader of the gospels as a rather independent person. He is a self-starter who doesn’t wait for others to take the lead. He is resourceful. He uses whatever is before him for the good of his flock. He sees birds flying and says, “look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” He sees flowers and says, “See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?”
He uses what he finds available for our good and he does the same with us. Consider his resourcefulness in what he did in and through the disciples. No one would have expected much of those men but through those men Jesus turned the whole world upside down. He is resourceful like a shepherd. He is willing and ready to work with what is available.
The rest of Keller’s list holds true. Jesus was certainly adaptable. A cursory reading of the gospels will show his reactions and responses in a host of different dilemmas. They were all admirable – as admirable as if it were God Himself responding to the situation at hand.
Jesus was courageous. Time and time again he put himself on the line for what was right. Keller also tells us that shepherds are vigilant and that was the case with our savior. He rightly described himself as a bit of a mother-hen. He would not suffer any harm to come to his disciples while he was with them.
Shepherding required a certain character and it developed a certain character. Keller tells us that shepherding, “cultivated a capacity for attentiveness, self-sacrifice, and compassion.” A good shepherd was an attentive shepherd. He knew the lay of the land into which he was leading the sheep. He knew each of his sheep’s idiosyncrasies. The gospels make clear how often Jesus prepared his disciples for whatever lay ahead. The gospels show us that Jesus knew and knows the idiosyncrasies of his disciples. He knew when Peter needed a rebuke and when Peter needed an encouragement. He knows the same about you if you are one of his sheep.
Shepherding develops compassion as Keller makes clear. Sheep put themselves in all sorts of foolish situations. The parable of the lost sheep made sense to shepherds because they had pulled their sheep out of all sorts of jams. Caring for sheep will make you a compassionate person. You learn to bear with failings. The same is true for shepherding souls. Jesus bears with our weakness. You have put yourself in all sorts of jams and he has found you time and again.
Keller’s list this ends with self-sacrifice. Shepherds spend themselves for their sheep. Jacob described his time as a shepherd saying, “This was my situation: the heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes.” Such self-sacrifice is an apt description for the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The cross was merely the climax of it all. “I am the good shepherd,” he said; “the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
Now I want you to consider that list—independent, resourceful, adaptable, courageous, vigilant, attentive, compassionate, and self-sacrificial—I want to consider whether you are in fact being shepherded by that sort of shepherd. Could you tell your closest friend in this congregation about the Lord’s attentiveness to you over this past year? Could you describe how the vigilance of the Lord has been demonstrated in your life in 2019?
Either the Lord truly is shepherding you or you consider Psalm 23 to be merely a nice piece of religious sentimentality. There are plenty of people who have a cross-stitch of Psalm 23 who know nothing of the shepherding of Jesus. Don’t be one of them.
The Lord is a shepherd; that much is clear. The only real question is whether or not He is your shepherd. Amen.