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?’