"To Him be glory forever": Psalm 23

Showing posts with label Psalm 23. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

No Ordinary Shepherd

This morning's bible reading was from the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah…the prophet of doom and gloom. Much of his book is filled with telling people things they don’t want to here, particularly the people of God. He is upfront in speaking to them of their persistent disobedience to God, calling them to turn back to God before it is too late.

Too late? Too late for what?

Too late to avoid receiving from the hand of God the consequences of their disobedience. Consequences that will take shape in their defeat and exile, as God uses the enemies of God's people for God's own purposes.

But when it comes to Jeremiah and unpopular things to say, as the TV announcer used to proclaim, That's not all! Jeremiah also speaks God's judgment on those enemies. This morning I read Jeremiah 47-50, with judgment declared against the Philistines, against Moab, against Ammon, and, in chapter 50 against Babylon, the granddaddy of Old Testament bogeymen.

As chapter 50 was drawing to a close, in the midst of judgment against Babylon, a phrase in verse 44 literally jumped out at me,

"What shepherd can stand before me?"

On the one hand, that’s a rhetorical question. Facing the power of God, no shepherd could stand against God. No shepherd, no pastor, no president, no Babylonian, no nobody.

Perhaps the greatest showdown with a shepherd in the Bible was when David faced Goliath. Goliath, seemingly invincible, mocked anyone who dared approach him in combat. But David, the shepherd, had the edge, being God's man and on God's mission.

On the one hand Jeremiah's brief question is a rhetorical one, but on the other hand…

On the other hand we turn to David, again, but this time to his words in Psalm 23. From the opening words of "The Lord is my shepherd…" through the ending of "…and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever" we see a shepherd unlike any other. We see a shepherd who faithfully cares for his sheep, guarding and guiding them through all of life.

As we read Psalm 23 today in the light of God's full self-revelation in the Bible we see Jesus as the fulfillment of David's psalm. And then we read John 10:11, where Jesus says:

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."

There is a shepherd who can stand before God. A shepherd who can stand before God because he is God's ordained shepherd of God's people.

With saving faith in Jesus we can read Jeremiah's question and no that no ordinary shepherd can stand before God. And we can also know that as God's dearly loved children, we are shepherded no ordinary Shepherd.

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Dry Seasons

Five years ago next month we arrived in Dulce. During those first weeks we would look into the field south of the parsonage and see a dog moving about in the grass. The dog was large and the grass was tall, and so often all that we could see of the dog would be glimpses of its back. To this day we still see the same dog, which we refer to as the "bear dog," because when we first saw it all that could be seen was bits of fur, and so we didn’t know if it was a large dog or a small bear. While bears are nice to watch from a safe distance we are glad that the bear dog is all dog.

This year the bear dog remains, but the grass is a different story. We had a dry winter, a dry spring and to this point it is a dry summer. There is hardly any grass. A few patches of brush and weeds that could give cover to a Chihuahua, but not much else. This is, by far, the driest it has been since we have been in Dulce. When I look at the south field, or the parsonage yard, or just about anywhere else in town that isn't being watered, I wonder if the grass can ever come back.

This past weekend Robin and I were talking about some of the people we know here who have been through, and in some case are in the midst right now, hard times of trial. One loss, one setback, one disappointment on top of another. How much suffering can a person, or a family bear? How much drought can come into their lives until there is no life left?

Those are hard questions. Ones that I don’t have any answers for, at least not any that don’t ring hollow or sound trite. What I do have is faith in a God who holds all things at all times, even when the evidence of that truth might be hard to see at the moment.

When the weather is dry the remedy is water. Large areas may only be helped by rain, and I can’t force the rain. But a small area may be helped by something as simple as turning on a hose. For the dry seasons in a person's life the faucet is turned on by opening the pages of the Bible and beginning to read.

We begin to find life as we read God's word, and in particular the passages that tell us of the nature of God. Yesterday someone asked me what to read for personal encouragement and I suggested Psalm 111. Read it for yourself and see how the psalmist lifts up the character of God over and over. Psalm 111 is full of the wisdom that nourishes the soul.

I also made some hospital calls yesterday, reading Psalm 23 with two different people. It is another place where the author tells of how clearly God is present with him in all things, ending with words of everlasting hope,

"…and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Those are just two examples of true hope to be found in God's word. There are, literally, hundreds of places where a person can find encouragement and true life.

One day, and maybe soon, rain will certainly come to Dulce, and our dry season will end. We just don't know when that day will arrive. But for the dry seasons in life, true Living Water is as near as the pages of your Bible.

Thursday, January 5, 2017

"…for His name's sake…"

I've had a busy last two weeks. In addition to preaching Christmas Eve and Christmas and New Year's Days, both of which were Sundays, I've made several hospital and nursing home visits and preached three funerals. At the most recent of those funerals it occurred to me that I used either Psalm 23 or Psalm 46 at one or the other of every one of those visits and funerals. I read Psalm 46 twice and Psalm 23 the four other times.

It is my practice before any worship service to go over the service out loud sometime that morning. That way I'm not caught by surprise later in speaking words that somehow seem different from when I was reading them silently to myself. It is a good practice, which I think I stumbled on rather than it being something I was taught. There are still occasional surprises, but of a different nature. Such as last Monday morning.

Last Monday I preached a funeral, from Matthew 5:4. As part of the service Psalm 23 was included, and so I read it aloud, for perhaps at least the sixth time in two weeks. In the second part of verse three, David writes:

"He leads me in paths of

righteousness

for his names sake."

I've inserted the verse above in the layout as used in my Bible. When I read it in worship it comes out like this:

"He leads me in paths of righteousness, for his name's sake."

Psalm 23 gives a powerful image of God as a shepherd, a shepherd who cares for His sheep in all circumstances. This includes providing for the day-to-day needs of the sheep, as well as protecting them in times of danger. For those reasons alone this Psalm is good to read and pray over when people are going through hard times in their lives.

But the part that grabbed my attention Monday morning had to do with being lead in paths of righteousness. I might ordinarily think of something along the lines of, "Yeah God, show me the way to go and I'll come right along behind you." No problem with that. It's good to follow God, and doing so will work out well for me. Right?

Maybe so, but maybe not. Paths of righteousness may not be the way I really want to go. There might be some other way I'd rather go that really isn’t godly at all, but which I seek to enjoy even though I know it’s the wrong path. Or maybe His path is just too hard. Too many rocks and thorns. Sure, I'll follow God but I wish I could do it without stumbling and getting scraped up. Or maybe I follow but I continually tell Him that there is a more direct, easier route. In those cases my following God may be a bit reluctant, to say the least.

Following God's path is good, but only if it leads to my good. Right?

No. Not right. Not at all.

Verse three reminds us that following God isn't about us at all. It's about Him. He leads me, or you, in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Following His paths is about giving honor and glory to Him.

And that is as it should be. He is God and we are not. He leads us in ways that are always for the best, which while being good for us, whether we realize it at the time or not, always shows the world how magnificent He is.

May this new year of 2017 be one in which, day-by-day, you follow God's path, for God's glory. Amen.

Friday, August 26, 2016

"He Restores My Soul"

I am fairly certain that I have read the 23rd Psalm at every funeral I've done since coming to Dulce. I did so again yesterday, but this time I did it a bit differently. My usual practice has been to read that Psalm early in the service and then read and preach from a different scripture text later in the service. Yesterday I read the 46th Psalm early and then later read and preached from Psalm 23.

The reason I made the change was simple, and personal. The funeral yesterday was for a woman I had visited a number of times over our three years in Dulce. She had been quite ill for several months and the last time I visited her was last week, two days before she passed on to Glory. The 23rd Psalm was a favorite of hers. I would take my Bible along as I visited and ask if she would like to hear anything in particular, but it was a kind of dumb question, because as I got to know her I knew what words she wanted to hear. And so as a pastor it was easy to choose a text to preach at her funeral.

I would guess that this Psalm is a very familiar one to most Christians, and that it is also familiar to many non-Christians. It is written by David, who looks toward God as his shepherd. David knows that the Lord, as shepherd, provides for his needs. His shepherd shows him the way and protects him from all dangers, going so far as to show his goodness in the face of grave danger. And David is so confident in the Lord as shepherd that he closes the Psalm knowing that he will dwell with the Lord forever. I tried to bring out something about each of those points during the sermon yesterday but the part I tried to emphasize most strongly, and which I continue to ponder today, are four words in the third verse,

"He restores my soul."

Four words, but they say so much! Let's begin with "soul." According on an online dictionary the primary definition of soul is:

"The principle of life, feeling, thought, and action in humans, regarded as a distinct entity separate from the body, and commonly held to be separable in existence from the body; the spiritual part of humans as distinct from the physical part."

David's words imply that he knows some sort of disconnect between his soul, his "spiritual part," as it should be, and his soul as it is. He also implies that this disconnect is something that needs to be made right, and he can’t do it. The restoration of his soul is something that has to happen through the work of someone else. And in these four words David gives credit to the Lord for restoring his soul.

At the heart of the problem of the human soul, for David, for myself, and for everyone else who has ever lived, is sin. Our sin is the disconnect afflicting our souls, as they are, and our souls as they should be. Our souls are disconnected from God as a consequence of our sin. Deep down there is a longing for restoration. In Psalm 51 we see how David responds when he has been confronted with his sin problem. He could have denied his sin and continued to live in it but instead he confesses his sin to God and places his trust in God's mercy.

We live in a time in history when the way our sin problem has been dealt with has been clearly revealed in the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. The work of Jesus is the only way a human soul has ever been restored with God. It was the means of restoration for David, and it is the means of restoration for you and for me.

Yesterday it was a privilege to worship God and preach Psalm 23 as we remembered a woman who knew deep in her bones that Jesus was her Lord and Savior. The Lord had restored her soul, beyond a shadow of a doubt, as surely as He restored David's.

May you know the joy of a soul restored to the Lord through faith in Jesus Christ. Amen.

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Assurance

Yesterday I preached a funeral, using Isaiah 43:1-3a as the text, which reads:

"But now thus says the Lord, he who created you,

O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,

and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.""

As Isaiah brings this word from the Lord the people of Israel are in a bad spot, and a bad spot that is entirely of their own making. They have ignored God and many calls by Him through the prophets, particularly Isaiah, to repent of their sin and return to Him. And in spite of the way they have acted towards God the message that they receive is not "You are about to get what you deserve, so tough luck" but "You are mine. Things will be hard but I will be with you. In all things I am your Savior."

The words Isaiah brings are words of assurance and while the specific context involves bad behavior by God's people the truth of the assurance they provide applies to God's people in any time of hardship or struggle. God, looking down from above, sends a message of His assurance to His people in the midst of their troubles.

The other scripture I used during the funeral was Psalm 23, which says this in verse 4:

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,
for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me."

In this verse David speaks to God during a time of hardship, expressing assurance that he trusts God in the darkest of situations. In a sense these two passages express the same thing. They look from one side, through hardship to the other side, and yet say the same thing: God is good and He is with His children in even the worst of times. They are almost mirror images.

Almost, with the difference being in the one speaking. David speaks to God with confidence, but David is human, and even the best of humans have their moments of weakness, when the strongest and best of intentions may waver.

But not so God. There is no weakness in God. There is no good intention with bad follow-through in God. There is no doubting that everything He promises to provide for His children will one day be fulfilled. It may not happen in the way we desire, or according to our timeline, but it most certainly will happen.

Yesterday I tried to use the text from Isaiah to bring a family comfort, assurance and hope as they go through a trying time. But so many Christians are going through their own struggles and so I share this bit from yesterday to bring the same assurance to them. And to you.

The assurance that by faith in Jesus Christ you are His and though things may be hard, He is always with you. This is assurance that comes from God through His word. It is assurance that will never fail. Amen.