Psalm 23:5-6 'Home'

  

I have a recurring dream.  It’s about home.  It’s actually about the home I associate with growing up.

I am in our house with mum.  I look at her and ask, ‘how come we are getting to use this house, we sold it?’  To which she replies, ‘they are away for the weekend.’  But I have an objection.  If that is the case how come my stuff is still in the cupboard?  At that stage the dream would end.

But then the dream developed.  Now my mum explained that the people who purchased the house never moved in.  They didn’t like it.  So, we still have use of it.  Sometimes I dream that I am outside of the house and not welcome to go in because the new owners are there.

We all have a longing for home.  Humanity has had that longing since we were expelled from Eden.  The final verses of Psalm 23 are about coming home.  But our deepest sense of home is found not in a place but a person.

Maybe Jesus is calling you home for the first time.  He has broad shoulders to carry.  All you need to do is admit that you are lost and helpless.

Maybe you have strayed from the path.  You are now sad and miss being close with Jesus and his people.  He comes looking for us no matter how far away we have gone.

Maybe you are passing through the valley of the shadow of darkness, and what you need to know is that there is a banqueting table just over the horizon.  He is travelling with you.

1.       The host prepares a feast

There is a debate whether these last verses continue the picture of shepherd and sheep or whether we are now dealing with a host and his guests.  I think the picture has switched to the host, but the shepherd and the sheep are still in the back of our minds.  Notice that the psalmist is still speaking to God not just about God—it is still ‘you’ not ‘my’.

In that culture the host would have commissioned the women of the house or the servants to prepare the banquet.  But notice that the host does it himself.  ‘You prepare a table before me.’  It reminds me of some amazing verses in Luke’s gospel where Jesus speaks of his return.  ‘It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes.  Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, he will have them recline at the table and he will come and wait on them’ (Luke 12:37).  When Jesus returns he will wait upon his people. That’s astonishing.  It is interesting that just a few verses earlier in Luke Jesus addresses to his people saying, ‘do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom’ (verse 32).

Jesus’ people are his delight, and he loves to serve them.

2.      He serves us in the presence of our enemies

C. S. Lewis doesn’t like the idea that we are served in the presence of our enemies.  It sounds vindictive, as if we are taking pleasure in our enemies cowering before us as we are served.  But maybe the way to view this is to see how Jesus served his people in the presence of their enemies.

In Luke’s gospel (7:36-50), a woman who had lived a sinful life weeps and wets Jesus’ feet with her tears, pouring perfume on them.  Simon, the host, is a Pharisee, and he criticises Jesus for allowing such a woman do such a thing.  What does the friend of sinners do?  Jesus defends her.  ‘She loves much because she has been forgiven much’.  She is safe with Jesus from the accusations of her enemies.  When people try to shame you with your past, do not fear, you are washed, you are cleansed and you are justified.

3.      He anoints your head with oil and your cup overflows

The anointing referred to her is not the anointing of a king for service but the anointing of a guest in an act of generosity to make them feel relaxed and secure.  Home is where we are full known and totally loved.

Our cup overflows.  Spurgeon says, when Jesus is the host no guest goes empty at the table’.  The host comes to top up your glass.  In Romans we read that, ‘the Holy Spirit pours God’s love into our hearts’ (Romans 5:5). 

4.      Your perspective changes

‘Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.’  There are two special Hebrew words used here. 

‘Goodness’ is a translation of the Hebrew ‘tov’.  Tov is used in Genesis 1, where God sees his creation and pronounces it good.  God restores our souls and makes good out of the chaos.

Mercy is a translation of the Hebrew ‘chesed’.  Chesed is God’s covenant love.  It is love based on a covenant and love that goes beyond what is expected.  I heard a description of chesed being live a man who marries a woman, and when she gets a chronic illness he gives up his job to care for her.  His actions are based on their covenant relationship but they go beyond what would be normally expected.

Apparently ‘follow’ is too soft a translation.  ‘Pursue’ would be better.  Goodness and mercy pursue us.  David Gibson suggests that something pursues us we see it as we look backwards over our shoulder.  As we look back on the valley and the chaos it is only the passing of time that enables us to look back and see that goodness and mercy were pursing us.  In the Lord of the Rings Sam asks Gandalf, ‘is everything sad going to be made untrue?’  Looking back with the eyes of God’s care helps us rethink our memories.

The was an old shepherd who used to preach.  He once said that he would like to name two sheepdogs ‘goodness and mercy.’  Every time we are straying it is God’s goodness and mercy which brings us back to the shepherd.  ‘It is the kindness of God that leads to repentance’ (Romans 2:4).

5.      Home now and forever more

I saw a brief chip on RTE where a man talked about doing up an old house.  He said that while his friends were partying and travelling the world he was working on the building.  He admitted, ‘I grew up with my mum moving from bedsit to bedsit.  This house fulfilled a deep need.’  But that need cannot be met with bricks and mortar, it can only be met in a person.  As Augustine said at the beginning of his spiritual autobiography, ‘you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.’

The banqueting table is not just a picture heaven.  Goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our life.  But we do look forward to a wedding feast.  Jesus delights to be with us now and he will be with us for ever.

I only got to one day of Kinfire.  In the meeting I attended a woman called Shirley was interviewed.  She said, I am eighty-six years old and I am looking forward to heaven.  That’s wonderful.  John Lennox was reflecting on being in his eighties and said, ‘I am looking forward to seeing Jesus.’  He explained, ‘heaven is not the goal, heaven is where Jesus is, being with him is the goal.’

Home is not a building, it is a person.  That person is Jesus.           

They are not my problem (Amos 7-9)

As we have studied the book of Amos I have realized that there are a few things that we just can’t say about people.  We can’t say, ‘they are not my problem’, because God has made us his problem.  We can’t say, ‘I just don’t care about them’, because God cares about undeserving us.  We can’t say, ‘it’s their own fault’ or ‘they just messed up’, because God does not treat us as we deserve but according to his loving kindness.

Background

God’s Old Testament kingdom had been divided in two.  The southern kingdom was Judah, and its capital was Jerusalem.  The northern kingdom was Israel, and its capital was Samaria.  During the division Jeroboam was king of the north.  He did not want his people travelling to the temple in Jerusalem, so he put golden calves in Bethel and Dan.  At Amos’s time, and hundred and thirty years later, another Jeroboam (no relation) is king in Israel.  Israel was experiencing a time of financial growth, but the people were opulent and their religion was hypocritical. 

Amos was minding his own business in the south as a shepherd and fig tree farmer.  God called him to go to the north in Bethel and tell the people, ‘your courts are corrupt’, ‘your religion is empty’ and ‘you are oppressing the poor’.  ‘If you don’t turn back to God there will be a ‘day of the Lord’ where God is going to judge you.  They did not turn back, and forty years later the Assyrians came and conquered their nation.

Caring for the vulnerable reflects the character of God

The most famous verse in the book of Amos reads, ‘but let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream’ (5:24).  James, the half-brother of Jesus, writes something similar: ‘religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep yourself unstained from the world’ (James 1:27).

The Hebrew word for justice is ‘misphat’.  It is a broader word than our word.  It is used hundreds of times in the Old Testament for ‘treating other people’s problems as our own.’ 

The Hebrew word for righteousness is ‘tsedaqah’.  In older versions it is translated ‘charity’, but it is more than charity because it is not optional.  It is an obligation for those who follow the Lord.

These ideas are rooted in God’s character.  ‘Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne, love and faithfulness belong to you’ (Psalm 89:1).  Jesus says that we are to be merciful as our father in heaven is merciful’.

God cared for us when we were vulnerable

Amos gathered a crowd at Bethel by denouncing the surrounding nations.  Then he did something unexpected: he turned of Judah and Israel.  In fact, there are three times as many verses denouncing Israel as there are verses denouncing any of the other nations.  The logic for this is given in chapter 2: ‘It is I who brought you up out of Egypt and led you for forty years in the wilderness’ (2:10).  ‘You were victims of injustice.  You were enslaved in Egypt.  You cried out to me in pain.  I came to your rescue.  Now you don’t care for the vulnerable.  How can that be?’

Compassion towards the vulnerable shows that we understand the logic of the gospel.  ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing.  It is a gift of God.  Not by works, so that no one can boast’ (Ephesians 2:8-9).  We show mercy to the underserving because God has shown mercy to us.

God calls us to be a blessing to the vulnerable

Speaking to both he northern and the southern kingdom God says, ‘you only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore, I will punish you for your iniquities’ (3:2).

Not all who were a part of Israel and Judah were truly God’s people.  Not all who walked with God’s people knew him.  Similarly, not all who belong to churches are born again.  One of the ways that we know that we belong to Jesus is that the Holy Spirit gives us compassion to his people.  ‘If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother or sister in need, but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in that person?’ (1 John 3:17-18).

God called Israel and Judah to be a blessing to the nations.  He calls us to be a light to those around us.

Before we finish I want to show you a picture of the gospel beauty in this book.  

In chapter seven the people have turned their back to God.  God tells Amos that he is going to send locusts among them.  This would be a disaster for a society that centered around agriculture.  So, Amos prays, ‘O, Lord God, please forgive!  How can Jacob stand?  He is so small!’ (2-3).  The Lord listened to Amos and relented from sending disaster.  Then God says that he will judge by fire.  Again, Amos pray.  ‘O Lord God, please cease!  How can Jacob stand?  He is so small!’ (5-6).  Again, God relents.  We live is a society that is often cruel and unjust.  Do we love our neighbors and pray for them?  Do we ask God to forgive them and turn back his judgement?  Of course, Amos is also giving us a picture of Jesus, who has prayed for us so that God’s judgement would be turned away.

Israel did not repent.  The threatened day of the Lord came.  The Assyrians came from the north and conquered them.  But the book does not end without hope.  A day will come when ‘I will raise up the belt of David that is fallen’ (9:11).  There will be a future king.  At that time the ‘mountains will drip with wine’ (9:13).  Then in John’s gospel Jesus is at a wedding in Cana, and the water is turned to wine, and the wine flows. He brings justice and mercy.  He will bring us to a new Jerusalem where righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13).

Conclusion

So, the logic of the gospel says that as God has cared for us, we must care for the vulnerable.   We can’t say, ‘they are not my problem’, because God has made us his problem.  We can’t say, ‘I just don’t care about them’, because God cares about undeserving us.  We can’t say, ‘it’s their own fault’ or ‘they just messed up’, because God does not treat us as we deserve but according to his loving kindness.

Amos 3-6 Integrity: What we believe must be shown in how we live

Paul Tripp counsels many people.  But guess who he thinks are the hardest to get through to?  Those with a high level of biblical knowledge!  You see he will confront them about a biblical command or principle and they will respond, 'I know that.'  But if you know what the Bible teaches and yet you do not put it into practice then you lack integrity.

Amos was not a prophet or son of a prophet.  He was a shepherd and a fig tree farmer.  He had been happily minding his own business when he was sent from the southern kingdom of Judah to confront the people of the northern kingdom of Israel.  The lion roars.  God thunders against exploitation and injustice.  

He reminds the people that they had received mercy when he rescued their forefathers from slavery in Egypt.  As people who have received mercy they must show mercy.

People who live for a pampered life will not pursue justice

In the last church I served in, the ladies did something I was not excited about.  Now I must point out that these were great and godly women.  But they had bought into the idea of the fact that they were 'daughters of the king', little princesses.  So one Saturday morning they had the men dress up in tuxedos, welcome to the church with flowers and serve them a wonderful breakfast.  Now I am not saying that there is anything wrong with the odd spa day, but I don't think that pampering is the great spiritual need of the church in our day.

'Hear the word, you cows of Bashan who are on the mount of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husband, "bring, that I may drink"' (4:1).  They lacked concern for justice.  their life centred of being pampered.  They did not know God.  In their indulgence they were actually fattening themselves for slaughter.

Think of the pampered view we can have of church.  'I didn't get much out of the service today.'  'I didn't like the music'.  'The sermon was a little boring.'  A hundred years ago our spiritual mothers and fathers didn't say such things because they weren't going to church to get a spiritual kick or to be entertained.  We are to meet together to sit under God's word, to sing his praises to each other and to serve and encourage one another.

Do you always demand to be affirmed, but respond badly to being challenged?  Do you avoid those who are awkward or lonely?  Are you 'nice', but not 'kind' enough to speak the truth in love to people?  Then maybe you are acting like a pampered Christian.

While they pursued the pampered life, God pursued them in love

God is not a negligent parent who never says 'no'.  God does not spoil the spiritually indulgent.  He calls us to return.  Five times in chapter 4 we read God saying, 'yet you did not return to me.'  God loves these arrogant and heartless people.  He wants to forgive them and show them life.  'I gave you cleanness of teeth' (4:6, ESV) is an idiom meaning that he let them starve.  But they would not return to him.  The difficult things that he send in our lives does not mean that he has stopped loving us, he is calling us home.  

'... brand plucked from burning ...' (4:14).  A brunt brand is dead and worthless.  It is a burnt old stick.  That was what we were before he rescued us!  The same term is used in Zechariah 3:2.

On 9th February, 1709, John Wesley was five years old and living at the church house in Epworth, England, where his father was the clergyman.  The house caught fire that evening, and young John Wesley was trapped in an upstairs bedroom.  The men of the village formed a human ladder to rescue him, and pulled him out of the house just moments before the roof caved in.  Wesley saw himself as a brand plucked from the burning.

God calls us to pursue justice

Perhaps the most famous verse in Amos is, 'let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream' (5:24).  In a world that is often cruel and unkind let God's people be like gushing water coming down over a dry riverbed.

Look at what it is like to come back to the Lord.  'Seek me and live' (5:4).  'Seek good and not evil, that you may live' (5:14).  While there are those who care about social justice and do not care about God, you cannot care about God and not care about social justice.  To seek God involves seeing good, and that is in the context of caring for righteousness and justice.

Conclusion

A friend of mine was working in America in the offices of a news corporation.  He saw one of the senior presenters talk horribly to a junior staff member.  He really took her apart.  But then when my friend had to go into that presenter's office he found him with Bible open having a quiet time.  That does not match.  Our love for the Lord must show itself in love for people.

Why should we care for the vulnerable?  Because 'while we were God's enemies we were reconciled through the death of his Son.' (Romans 5:10).  We are just brands plucked from the burning.  We have been shown infinite mercy.  And so we can not say that 'they are not my problem', 'why should I care?' or, 'sure, it's their own fault.'  The mercy we have been shown must flow into the lives of others.

‘Those who follow God must show mercy’ Amos 1-2

 

In the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Susan is about to meet Aslan.  But she hadn’t realized that Aslan was a lion.  ‘Lion … Is he quite safe?  I feel nervous about meeting a lion!’  Mr. Beaver replies, ‘Who said anything about safe?  Course he is not safe.  But he is good!’

The first time I read Amos I was a bit shocked at the idea of God being pictured as a lion.  It didn’t fit my sentimental view of him.  The word translated ‘roar’ is that of a lion about to pounce.  The roar was meant to paralyze the victim.  Yet God’s warnings are always a call to repent.  He has not yet pounced, so there is time to let his word change you.

Amos teaches us that God loves justice and mercy and that those who follow him must be merciful.

We follow a merciful God

Amos was not a prophet or the son of a prophet.  He was a shepherd and fig tree farmer.  This meant that he was from the lower classes.  Here is a man speaking truth to power.

At the time Amos the kingdom of God’s people is divided in two—Amos is from Judah in the south, and he is called to speak to Israel in the north.  At this time the northern kingdom was going through a time of prosperity and yet also a time of corruption.

‘The Lord roars from Zion.’  That was from Jerusalem in the south, where the temple was. 

When the kingdom was divided Jeroboam the first, king of the north, didn’t want his people travelling down to Jerusalem to worship.  So, he set up shrines in Bethel and Dan.  There he put golden calves, to represent Yahweh, and over time further idols gathered at these places.  These shrines become the center for the worship of gods associated with sex, power and money.

God speaks from the temple.  Our temple is Christ.

‘For three transgressions of Damascus or four, I will not revoke my punishment.’  God repeats this for Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Amon, Moab, Judah and Israel.     

God could have brought judgement after the first transgression, but has given the nations time to repent.  Psalm 103:8, ‘The Lord merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love’

As those who have received mercy we must show mercy

Amos is called to go to Bethel and speak God’s words.   His words are a genius way of gathering a crowd.  He starts with the surrounding nations—their enemies of Gaza and Tyre.  It was pleasurable for them to hear their enemies denounced.  Then he moves to their cousin nations—Edom (from Esau), Ammon (from Lot), and Moab (from Lot).  These were nations who had turned their back on God.  Again, the people love hearing them being denounced.  After that Amos sites Judah—their sister nation and bitter rival.  They nod their head in agreement as he lists their evils.  But then, he points the finger at them.  ‘You are as bad as they are.’  He is greeted with silence!

What was it that God condemned with these people?

‘They sell the righteous for silver, the needy for a pair of sandals’ (2:6).  This was the practice of debt slavery.  A practice still common and behind some of the goods that we import.  Including in the chocolate, tea and coffee industries.

‘You take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts’ (5:12).  God cares about the vulnerable.  What is our attitude to those who come to our country looking for asylum?

‘You are in your winter and summer homes, and houses of ivory, while ignoring the poor’ (3:15).  Are we aware of the homeless in our towns and cities?

‘A father and son go into the same girl’ (2:7).  This probably refers to ritual prostitution.  Imagine the exploitation that must have taken place in that industry.  God’s design for sex and marriage is actual designed to protect against emotional scars and broken trust.

Mercy is rooted in the gospel

‘Are you the people I rescued from oppression and slavery in Egypt?’ (3:10).

When we forget the conditions of workers; when we react to migrants with harshness, when we are tempted to think that the homeless are simply getting what they deserve, when we see people simply as sexual object, then preach the gospel to ourselves.

You see we were salves, not in Egypt, but worse, to condemnation, guilt and death.  Yet God stepped in and rescued us.  He showed his mercy to the underserving.  He sent his Son into this wicked world to rescue us.  As people who have been shown mercy, we must show mercy.

Conclusion

The lion has roared!  He thunders against exploitation and injustice.  He is calling us to be people of mercy!

I want to finish with another illustration from Narnia.

Lucy hasn’t met Aslan for a long time.  He greets her.  ‘Welcome, child’. 

‘Aslan,’ she replies, ‘you’re bigger.’  ‘

That is because you are older little one.’ 

‘Not because you are?’

‘I am not.  But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.’

You don’t have to choose between social justice and the gospel.  The gospel motivates us with compassion towards the vulnerable.  Our God is big.  He is our personal Savior who calls all people to come to him.  He is the transforming savior who changes the hearts of those who love him.  He is the God who sees the nations.  He is the God who will bring judgement.  He is the God who calls us home.

‘Presence’ (Psalm 23:4)

 

A Bible scholar was in Palestine in the 1800s and he noticed that the shepherds were more rugged than we tend to think.  ‘They looked more like warriors marching to the battlefield—a long gun slung from the shoulder; a dagger and heavy pistols in the belt, a light battle-axe or iron-headed club in hand.  Such were the equipment; and their fierce flashing eyes and scowling countanences showed but too plainly that they were prepared to use their weapons at any moment’ (from The Treasury of David).

There is no one more compassionate than our good shepherd, Jesus.  He is the most kind and loving person that there ever has been.  But this lamb of God is also the lion of Judah.  He has broad shoulders to carry his lost sheep home.  He has defeated our foes of death and the devil.  No one can snatch us from his mighty hand.

The structure of this Psalm is x-shaped (Hebrew chi).  In such Hebrew poems the main point is made in the centre of the x.  If we include the title for this psalm then the central words are ‘you are with me.’  This is the Immanuel Psalm—God with us!

The valley is one of the right paths

Before we enter the valley (verse 4), we are told that the good shepherd leads us in the right paths.  Dark valleys are a part of Jesus’ plan for our lives.  We might not understand why Jesus leads us there, but he promises to be with us.  The Bible scholar, Don Carson, explains that suffering is inevitable in life, if you are not suffering now, cheer up it is only a matter of time.  Don’t think that it is a sign that God has let you down simply because your circumstances are hard.

J. I. Packer writes, ‘If you have been resigning yourself to the thought that God has left you high and dry, seek the grace to be ashamed of yourself.  Such unbelieving pessimism deeply dishonours our great God and Saviour’ (Knowing God).

The valley is hard

The valley of the shadow of death/darkness includes death, but I think it includes more than death. 

Dark valleys were everything that the sheep feared—bandits, unstable footing, flash floods, snakes and wild animals.

In the valley we fear evil.  But the Hebrew word for evil (ra) means more than just moral evil.  It is a word that can be translated ‘disaster’ or ‘chaos’.  I think we can use this of depression, family strife, grief, loneliness and doubt.  I think that Jesus can bring us into a valley where he lovingly shows us our sins and where we need to change.

God is not only with us in the valley, he is in control of all that takes place there.  In the book of Job, Job responds to his wife, asking, ‘shall we accept good from God and not evil (ra)?’ (Job 2:10).  Amos asks, ‘Does disaster (ra) come to a city, unless the LORD has done it?’ (3:6).

The fact that God is in charge even over the chaos we face in life may leave us with hard questions.  We may wonder what he is at.  But I would much rather to be in the hands of a strong God who has proven his love and faithfulness to be through the life and death of his Son than be the subject of mindless chaos.

The valley is not our destination

In the valley the psalmist talks about walking.  I don’t know about you, but when I am afraid I want to either run or I freeze.  But when we stay close to the shepherd we can walk.

We walk ‘through’ the valley.  The valley is not our destination.  I have talked to a number people about the topic of depression.  They assure me that the very hardest moments of depression do not last.  We can say to those in the darkest places that ‘this too will pass.’  Sometimes there are parts of the shadow that do not lift in this life, but we are heading to a place where God himself will wipe away every tear from our eyes.

I was speaking at the funeral of a man who died by suicide.  I admitted that the shadow of his death would probably be somewhere in the background for his adult children all their lives.  But that they must let it be the defining feature of their lives.  They must keep walking.  The dark valley is not where we are to settle.  We walk as we seek the help of our Christian brothers and sisters.  We walk even as we seek professional help.  We walk as we pray.

Jesus is especially with us in the valley

Ray Ortland wrote a lovely book on a verse that tells us that God is with us in our brokenness.  The verse is Isaiah 57:15: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit’.  Ortland explains that the lowly in spirit are devastated people who have hit rock bottom.

The psalmist says that, ‘The LORD is near the broken-hearted and lifts up those who are crushed in spirit’ (34:18).

Notice that as the psalmist goes into the valley he stops talking about the shepherd and starts talking to the shepherd—from ‘my’ to ‘you’.  ‘The deeper the cloud the closer the Lord’ (Motyer).  One person looked back on a time of pain and admitted, ‘I miss how close I was to God then.’

Ask the good shepherd to keep you on track

When we are in pain we are faced with a fork in the road.  We can either lean in closer to our shepherd or we become bitter. 

Your rod and staff they comfort me. 

The rod was a two and a half mace with iron inserted into its head.  Anyone who threatened the sheep was likely to have the living daylights beaten out of them.  Our great enemy the devil has been defeated and death has lost its sting.

The staff was used to hook sheep out of the ditch, and also to give them a whack when they were going off path.  God disciplines those he loves, and no discipline is pleasant at the time (Hebrews 12).  A friend of mine pointed out that when she starts to ignore God, he gives her a ‘kick up the butt’.  It might be the gentle wounds of a friend, circumstances that make you realize your need of him or an increased inner restlessness.  Thank God that he will do what it takes to bring you back on path!

The valley is darkness and death

The valley isn’t just about death, but it does include death. 

In the last church I served there was a man who had a nagging fear of death.  That is not uncommon.  Jesus came to deal with that fear.  He came ‘to free those who were held in slavery all their lives to the fear of death’ (Hebrews 2:15).  Of course, we doubt and at times fear.  But Jesus wants us free from that fear.

I only got to Kinfire one day, but I heard the speaker, Glen Scrivener, give a good illustration.  He said that death is like a shroud and Jesus is like a needle.  We are the thread that Jesus bring through the death shroud.

Remember that ‘precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints’ (Psalm 116:15).

In his book, Fear No Evil, David Watson wrote about his terminal illness.  ‘The actual moment of dying is still surrounded by mystery, but as I keep my eyes on Jesus I am not afraid.  Jesus has already been through death, and he will be with us as we walk through ourselves.’

Conclusion

David Gibson says that the whole of the Bible is summed up in the words, ‘you are with me.’

When Jesus brings us into the valley with all its chaos, ‘you are with me’.

When we have every reason to fear, ‘you are with me’.

When our past comes to haunt us, our shepherd comes to our defence.  ‘You are with me.’

When the going is hard.  ‘You are with me.’

When it is hard to stand up for our faith.  ‘You are with me.’

When God’s time comes for us to leave this life, ‘you are with me.’      

Psalm 23:1-3 ‘The Voice of the shepherd’

There were two brothers with almost identical voices.  When someone would ring the home telephone they would get mixed up as to which of the boys were on the line. 

One of those boys left home to study, and was away for a few years.  When he returned to the family’s sheep farm, he wanted to see the new sheep that had been born since he left out.  He gave his call and none of the sheep came.  But when his shepherd brother called they came!

Sheep appear to be attracted primarily by the voice of the shepherd, which they know and are eager to follow (Bailey).

As we look at these verses which centre on being led by the shepherd we will remember that he leads us with his voice.

The title of this psalm tells us that it was written by David—the shepherd king.  We don’t know at what stage in his life he wrote this Psalm, but in his life he would experience the horror of falling into deep sin, losing children, family breakdown, and life threatening opponents.

When you read LORD in capital letters in a modern Bible it is a translation of the Hebrew YHWH, Yahweh/Jehovah.  To understand this name for God we need to go back to Moses’s encounter with God at the burning bush (Exodus 3).  There God calls Moses to go to his people and tell that God has heard their cries and that that He is going to free them from slavery in Egypt.  Moses asks, ‘who shall I say has sent me?’  God answers, ‘I am who I am’.  Yahweh means is related to ‘to be’.  He is!  God is saying, ‘I will be present with me people to be whatever they need me to be for them’ (Davis).

What paths are you on today?  How is following Jesus challenging for you?  Who do you struggle to love?  What temptations do you face?  Yahweh says, ‘I am with you in this situation and I am who you need me to be for this.’

The LORD is ‘my’ shepherd.  The great reformer Martin Luther says that the essence of being a Christian is being able to use personal pronouns.  ‘The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me’ (Galatians 2:20).

‘Shepherd’.  A sheep is a defenseless animal.  Sheep don’t have a strong bite or a loud roar.  They do not have big claws or horns.  They are slow, so they can’t outrun predictors.  A sheep’s only protection is the shepherd.  Sheep are vulnerable, stubborn and prone to going off path.  Just like us!

I think that in the Christian church we put too much effort on leadership and not enough on followership.  You see the essence of being a Christian is to be a follower.  Sheep follow their shepherd.  Indeed, no matter what positions of leadership you are given, seek to look to people that you can follow as they follow Christ.

One of the beautiful descriptions of our shepherd God is found in the prophecy of Isaiah.  ‘He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart.  He gently leads those who have young’ (40:11).

Jesus took the title of shepherd for himself.  ‘I am the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep’ (John 10:11).  Interesting Psalm 23 comes straight after a Psalm that mentions the horrors of the cross and the joy of the resurrection.

Jesus also says that ‘the sheep listen to his voice and he calls them out by name’ (John 10:3).  I find assurance in this verse.  I know that I am one of His flock because God has worked in my heart so that I listen to His voice.  He may speak to us in through an impression as we pray, but He only speaks to us unmistakably through His Word the Bible.  The fact that you let the Bible tell you what to believe and how to live is an evidence of the Holy Spirit at work in you.

One scholar writing on Psalm 23 says something that has divided opinion between myself and Caroline.  He writes, ‘A Bible read without prayer for the life and teaching of the Holy Spirit is worse (and I say this after a lot of thought) than a Bible not read at all.’  What do you think?  Will reading the Bible in a prayerless manner simply make you puffed up and pharisaical or is it good to get the knowledge into you head, whatever your motive so that it is there to draw on when you are more mature?

‘I shall not want’ is better translated ‘I shall lack nothing.’  God never promises everything that we want because that would spoil us, and He is a good shepherd who knows what is best for us.  I remember when I finished college in Dublin my pastor asked me to come and meet him.  He listened to me and diagnosed my lack of contentment.  He gave me a verse that fitted well to me: ‘Godliness with contentment is great gain’ (1 Tim. 6:6).

‘He makes me lie down’.  Have you tried to make a sheep lie down?  You can order a dog to lie down, but you cannot order a sheep to.  A sheep only lies down when it feels safe and well-fed.  The former shepherd and Bible scholar, Douglas MacMillan, points out that four things stop a sheep from lying down: fear, antagonism (he writes about a bully sheep and urges us not to be the sort of sheep that upset the flock to which we belong), annoyance (flies and insects), and hunger.

I find it interesting that the Hebrew root for shepherd comes from the verb ‘to fed’.  It is a reminder to those of us who have been called to be under-shepherds/elders/pastors that our primary job is to feed the sheep and that a health church will always be a well-fed one.

‘He leads me’.  The sheep weren’t driven from behind, they were led by the shepherd. 

By green pastures.  Apparently, the pastures were only green for about three months of the year.  It is interesting that in Mark’s account of the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus looks at the crowd with compassion because they were like ‘sheep without a shepherd’ and He teaches them.  Then when he feds them he commanded them to sit down on ‘the green grass’.  It seems that Mark wants us to remember this Psalm.

Beside ‘still waters’ can also be translated ‘waters of rest’.  Sheep cannot drink from flowing water.  I think it goes up their noses.  So a shepherd will dam a stream in order for them to drink.  The theme of rest is a big one in the Bible. In Jesus’ day the religious leaders shepherd their people though the burden of rule-keeping and guilt.  Jesus comes and invites the people, ‘come onto me all you who are weary, and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11:28).  He has done everything necessary through the cross and resurrection to free us from the guilt and power of sin.  He wants us to realize the joy of following Him.

‘He restores my soul’.  I think it is interesting that the Psalms tells us that ‘The Law [Torah=Guidance, instruction] of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul’ (Psalm 19:7).  The Bible is not the goal.  Jesus is the goal.  Jesus is revealed all the way through the Bible.  Our knowledge of Him sustains us.  Ken Bailey says that ‘he restores my soul’ can also be translated ‘he causes me to return’.  Listen to Him calling us back to Himself.             

‘He leads me in paths of righteousness/right paths.’  ‘Our generation is confused as to the nature of true freedom’ (Wilson and Roberts).  ‘On their own sheep do not walk in straight lines, if they are going in straight lines it is because they are being led by the shepherd’ (Davis).  ‘The wilderness of Palestine often exhibits a maze of faint trials worn by countless flocks of sheep.  The shepherd alone knows which of them leads out of the valley to the next stage of the days journey, rather than an abrupt end or off a cliff edge’ (Bailey).

‘For his name sake’.  ‘Hugh wonderful it is to realize that the Lord keeps us on paths of righteousness because his reputation is on the line’ (Hughes).

Conclusion

Douglas MacMillan was away from the farm for three years.  Then he came home for a summer holiday.  He wanted to look at the new lambs.  His hands were dangling down at his side when he felt the nudge of a sheep’s nose against him.  This sheep had come up to him and made a point of nudging him.  He recognized this sheep.  Five years earlier, when she was a lamb, he had nursed her for six months, often taking her to the farm house to feed her by bottle.  He was thrilled.  She was saying I know you’.

When we love, we long to be loved in return.  So, when was the last time we went to Jesus and simply said, ‘Lord Jesus, I am glad I know you, I am glad that you laid down you life that I could become one of your sheep, I delight to follow you and  I love you?’

Blessed are the pure in heart

When I was in Edgehill College I got to go on a placement to Sri Lanka.  On one occasion a group of us climbed a small mountain called Bible Rock.  We ascended through a leach infected forest.  At the top was a plateau.  To our surprise there was a hut there, which was the home of a Buddhist monk.  To our even greater surprise he had a television in that hut.  And I am not too sure how surprised we were that he wanted to charge us money to see his shrine.

Presumably that monk believed that by breaking away from society he might be more able to live a holy life.

I hope that holiness is a concern for each of us, but if you are like me not only is there the desire to be holy there is the disappointment as we realise how unholy we are.              

            As we look at Matthew 5 verse 8 we are going to ask five questions.

1.  What is the heart?

2.  What does it mean to have a pure heart?

3.  How can our hearts become pure?

4.  What about the impurity I see in my heart?

5.  What does it mean to see God?

Question 1:  What is the heart?

We tend of associate the heart with affection.  If we love someone we put a heart by their name, if we lose someone we are broken-hearted.  However the Bible uses ‘heart’ in a much broader way.  

            Mark 2:6-7, reads, ‘‘Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that?”’ The word translated ‘thinking’ is ‘kardiais’, which comes from kardia (heart).  Hence the King James Version translates, ‘they reasoned in their hearts.’  The heart for the Bible writers includes what we might refer to as the ‘mind’.

            There are numerous passages in the Bible that talk of people being hard-hearted, they are stubborn.  The heart referring to the ‘will’. 

So when we look at this verse we are not just talking of our affections, but also our ‘mind’ and our ‘will’. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, says that in the Bible, ‘heart’ means the centre of one’s personality.  Purity of heart has to do with our very core being, it is to show itself in our likes and dislikes, our motivation, our thoughts and our understanding.

The Bible also tells us that humankind has a heart problem. In Mark 7:21-23 Jesus declares, ‘. . .out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.’  Out of men’s hearts—you see that Buddhist monk was wasting his time thinking that by breaking away from society he would achieve holiness, for as he climbed up that mountain (presumably on one occasion bringing his) his problem came with him.  It has been said that, ‘The heart of the human problem, is the problem of the human heart.’  If we are to have real holiness then something needs to happen in our heart.  

Question 2: ‘What does it mean to have a pure heart?’

The primary emphasis on the word pure in our verse, according to John Stott, is ‘sincerity’.  J. B. Phillips translates these words, ‘blessed are the utterly sincere. . .’

During Jesus earthly ministry people who would have had a great reputation for holiness would have been the Pharisees.  They seemed to hover around the Temple and Synagogues, they tithed even the herbs of their garden, they fasted and prayed, they would have been great for quoting Scriptures; but this is what Jesus says to them- Matthew 23:25-26, ‘Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.  Blind Pharisee!  First clean the inside of the cup, and then the outside will also be clean.’

The word hypocrite comes from a word meaning ‘to act’.  Their actions are not sincere, it was all just a show.  So what does he tell them?  ‘First clean the inside of the cup’, their heart- their desires, their motives, their mindset, their very being must be transformed; ‘and then the outside of the dish will also be clean’—they will act with sincerity.  Genuine holiness is heart holiness, it is sincere rather than an act because it works from the inside out.   

Question 3: ‘How can our hearts become pure?’

We have already pointed out that humankind has a heart problem, so how can we ever hope to have a pure heart?

David prayed in Psalm 51, ‘Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.’ God can do for us, what we can not do for ourselves.

            Tragically that Buddhist monk on his own on top of that mountain, lacked the one thing he needed if he ever was to have heart holiness: a relationship with the true and living God.

Yes we may be able to change some of our patterns of behaviour, but only God can change our very core—our heart. 

            However the fact that it is God’s work doesn’t mean that we just put up our feet and wait for it to happen.  Philippians 2:12-13,  ‘. . . continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good pleasure.’

            It is God who changes us, verse 13 . . . who works in you to will and to act according to his good pleasure’ and because of that we are to ‘continue to work out our salvation’ i.e., to grow up in our faith; there is a responsibility upon us, to act dependant co-operation. Not activism or self dependant effort.  Not passivism or apathy. Dependant co-operation.

Question 4: ‘What about the impurity I see in my heart?’

            I want you to turn to page x (2 Corinthians 3).

            When we became Christians, when we were born-again God did a work in our hearts.  We see this in verse 3.  Paul writes to the Christians in Corinth saying, ‘You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts’ (a reference to our Old Testament reading).

            Yet even as born-again people we are so often aware that we are not as we ought to be.  That we so often fail to be like Jesus.  Well thank God his work in our hearts has not finished.  Look over the page to verse 18, And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

            We are ‘being transformed’, we are not yet the finished article, but there is a change taking place.  It is as if God has put a ‘work in progress’ sign over our hearts.

John Newton the slave trader who became a Christian, and who wrote the hymn ‘Amazing Grace’ said, ‘I may not be as good as I ought to be, but by the grace of God, I am not as bad as I used to be.’  

Question 5: ‘What does it mean ‘to see God’?’

Martin Lloyd-Jones, ‘Christian people can see God in a sense that nobody else can.  The Christian can see God in nature, whereas the none Christian cannot.  The Christian sees God in the events of history.  There is a vision possible to the eye of faith that no-one else has.  But there is a seeing also in the sense of knowing Him, a sense of feeling he is near, and enjoying his presence. . . Another way that we see him is in our experience, in His gracious dealings with us . . But of course that is nothing compared with what is yet to be.’

The pure in heart experience God. 

Knowing him, sense of feeling he in near

1 John 3 verse 2-3, ‘Dear friends, now we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  Everyone who has this hope purifies himself, just as he is pure.’

‘[T]he Christian purifies himself now because pure is what he will ultimately be’ (Carson) . 

‘The pure in heart are blessed because they will see God.  Although this is not ultimately true until the new heaven and earth, yet it is true even now.  Our perception of God and his ways, as well as our fellowship with him, depends on our purity of heart’ (Carson).  What an incentive to purity!

‘Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they shall see God.’