Sermon 3rd May 2009
Today, one of our Lay Readers, Trevor Tayleur, preaches. His sermon is based on Psalm 23 - The Lord is my Shepherd.
There was once a young man who professed his desire to become a great writer. When asked to define "great" he said, "I want to write stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will really move them and make them cry."
He now works as a traffic warden, writing out parking tickets! I wonder whether David, when he was a young man, thought he would become a great writer. As Cameron explained last Sunday, David, the famous Old Testament King, wrote many of the Psalms. As a young man, David is of course best known for killing the giant Goliath. But when he wasn’t giant-killing, which was most of the time, he was looking after his father’s sheep. He knew a lot about shepherds and shepherding, and he drew on his experience to write what we now know as Psalm 23. Psalm 23 is perhaps the most well-known Psalm. It is a Psalm that has moved people all over the world at a truly emotional level. And it is a Psalm that can teach us a lot.
It starts with the famous words; “The Lord is my shepherd.” Some images of God in the Psalms seem quite distant or impersonal: King, rock, shield, fortress. But the image of shepherd is very intimate. David draws from his own experience as a shepherd, and also from knowing the Lord himself. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.” Everything in the Psalm flows from that.
A shepherd in the Middle East is very different from a shepherd in our own culture. There are no sheepdogs charging around after the sheep. Tesco’s recently asked one of its New Zealand lamb suppliers to stop using sheepdogs to herd livestock into an abattoir unless they could be retrained to be more "considerate" - so they wouldn’t stress the sheep out! A shepherd in the Middle East won’t stress the sheep out. He will have a very close relationship with the sheep. He will know them by name, and they will respond to his call. He will protect and guide them, and maybe even die for them. In David’s time that could happen to a shepherd; he might well have to risk his life fighting off robbers or wild animals.
So a good shepherd gives his sheep total care, and that is the picture that David is giving here. Because the Lord is his shepherd, David has total care. Sheep are very dependent creatures, depending on the shepherd for provision, for guidance and for protection. And those are the three aspects of the total care that the shepherd provides that I’m going to concentrate on this morning: provision, guidance and protection.
First of all then, provision: The shepherd gives David his provision. Let’s look at verses 2 & 3: “He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters.” When reading these verses, it’s tempting to form a picture in our mind’s eye of sheep munching their way around cool green pastures in the beautiful English countryside. But that is not how it is in the dry arid lands of the Middle East. The green pastures and quiet waters in this verse would often be quite far apart and the shepherd would have to lead his flock some distance to them.
The shepherd provides for the sheep by finding them grass to eat and water to drink. And I can imagine having a relaxing picnic in the middle of a green field next to a cool lake. It’s a lovely picture, but not necessarily a realistic description of an average day. A lot of time we rush around, at home, at work. Often it seems we’re constantly on the move, anxious about our families, our jobs, the credit crunch and now swine flu. So where are these green fields and pools of fresh water? In the midst of the pressures of everyday life, I think these verses are telling us that sometimes we need to take time out. We need to ask, “Where are our green pastures? Where are our quiet waters?” As well as a physical meaning, these verses also have a spiritual one. We need to spend time with our shepherd. The Lord wants us to rest, but do we? The Lord leads us to quiet waters, but do we follow? Perhaps the problem is that we don’t know how to rest and we’re too busy to follow. So what is it that the Lord wants us to be doing?
The answer to this question is that He wants us to spend time with him. Our current sermon series theme is “Conversations with God”. Jesus at the height of his ministry would sometimes leave the crowds to be on his own and to pray to his Father, and to talk with him. Life can be very busy, but we do need to find time to pray, to read the Bible, to have conversations with God. I know from my own experience this isn’t easy. It can be difficult to pray and read the Bible on your own, but there are lots of helpful aids around, such as New Daylight and the books by Eddie Askew. And in our Parish there are also opportunities to pray or study the Bible with each other, at our monthly parish prayers and at home groups. The Lord will feed us spiritually, and He will help us to face the challenges and uncertainties of life. As it says in the first part of verse 3, “He restores my soul.”
The Lord who provides for us will also guide us. Look at the second part of verse 3. “He guides me in paths of righteousness...” Literally, paths of righteousness mean simply the right paths. And the promise here is that by being fed spiritually by his shepherd, David is being led in the right paths of life. It’s a bit like having an internal compass needle. So if we feed off our shepherd spiritually, then that compass needle will point us in the right direction; it will tell us where we should be heading with our lives.
If we are praying regularly and studying the Bible, whether on our own or in groups – or both, then we shall be much more open to God’s guidance. There are many temptations that face us – ranging from fiddling a tax return to pornography on the Internet, to name just two. If we are in conversation with God, He will lead us away from them. They are places we won’t want to go to. We will stay in the right paths.
And being guided by God in the rights paths isn’t just about avoiding temptation – it‘s much more than that. If we are willing to let God guide us, He can lead us into exciting new ventures – a new role in the church, a new career, full-time Christian work; the possibilities are endless.
But we don’t always go where God leads us. David certainly didn’t. He did many great things, but he also fell spectacularly from grace more than once. When he was King, at the height of his powers, David committed adultery with Bathsheba, and to cover it up, murdered her husband. God sent the prophet Nathan to confront David. It was very painful, but David was yanked back on to the right paths. David confessed his sin, and followed his Lord once again. David was willing to listen to God’s prophet, Nathan, when he had gone wrong and his relationship with God was restored. While I suspect that none of us have committed both adultery and murder, there will be times when we have strayed on to the wrong paths, and God will challenge us in the way he challenged David. And when this happens, when God challenges us, will we be willing to return to the right paths?
Our shepherd wants to provide for us. Our shepherd also wants to guide us. And he also wants to protect us. Look at 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.”
There is now a shift of atmosphere in the Psalm. We move from the tranquillity of green pastures and quiet waters to the hard truths of death, shadow, valleys, fear, evil and enemies.
David knew from bitter experience that life doesn’t always seem fair; life isn’t easy; life can often be a struggle, even dangerous. David realises that we will have enemies. What David insists on is this: that God is with us through it all, on our side and at our side. God is with us in the times of crisis we face in our lives, and in the final crisis of death itself. The shepherd will be with David, escorting him through these dark times, including death itself.
The promise that God gives us isn’t a life of ease and comfort. The promise that He gives us is that He will be with us in the times of darkness, even at the time of death itself. And we have a shepherd that David didn’t have. Who is our shepherd? Jesus!
In John 10:11, Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Jesus was looking ahead to his death on the Cross and his resurrection. Jesus himself experienced deep darkness and even death itself. And so we know that we do have a God who isn’t remote and far away, but who cared enough to send His son to die for us. And Jesus’ resurrection shows that death isn’t the end. Jesus has defeated even death itself.
And this leads us on to the final two verses of the Psalm, verses 5 and 6; “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
The picture is that of a victory feast, a well-set table with an over-flowing cup and the captured enemy looking on. There is no ultimate victory for any of David’s enemies, not even for death itself. And David can declare with confidence, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” That’s eternal life – living with God for ever. And so Psalm 23 points ahead to Jesus, who defeated death and who said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16)
Jesus the Good Shepherd provides for us; he guides us in right paths. He protects us in the bleak and harsh times. Only he can lead us through death; all other guides have to turn back at that point. And how can we best prepare ourselves for those times? By spending time with him now – in conversation with him in prayer, reflection and bible study – on our own and with others. Jesus is our shepherd. Let’s follow him where he leads.
Let’s pray: We thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd. We thank you for his guidance and protection for us. We pray that we may be led into a closer conversation and walk with him, so that we may know that even in the times of deepest darkness he is alongside us. Amen.
There was once a young man who professed his desire to become a great writer. When asked to define "great" he said, "I want to write stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will really move them and make them cry."
He now works as a traffic warden, writing out parking tickets! I wonder whether David, when he was a young man, thought he would become a great writer. As Cameron explained last Sunday, David, the famous Old Testament King, wrote many of the Psalms. As a young man, David is of course best known for killing the giant Goliath. But when he wasn’t giant-killing, which was most of the time, he was looking after his father’s sheep. He knew a lot about shepherds and shepherding, and he drew on his experience to write what we now know as Psalm 23. Psalm 23 is perhaps the most well-known Psalm. It is a Psalm that has moved people all over the world at a truly emotional level. And it is a Psalm that can teach us a lot.
It starts with the famous words; “The Lord is my shepherd.” Some images of God in the Psalms seem quite distant or impersonal: King, rock, shield, fortress. But the image of shepherd is very intimate. David draws from his own experience as a shepherd, and also from knowing the Lord himself. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.” Everything in the Psalm flows from that.
A shepherd in the Middle East is very different from a shepherd in our own culture. There are no sheepdogs charging around after the sheep. Tesco’s recently asked one of its New Zealand lamb suppliers to stop using sheepdogs to herd livestock into an abattoir unless they could be retrained to be more "considerate" - so they wouldn’t stress the sheep out! A shepherd in the Middle East won’t stress the sheep out. He will have a very close relationship with the sheep. He will know them by name, and they will respond to his call. He will protect and guide them, and maybe even die for them. In David’s time that could happen to a shepherd; he might well have to risk his life fighting off robbers or wild animals.
So a good shepherd gives his sheep total care, and that is the picture that David is giving here. Because the Lord is his shepherd, David has total care. Sheep are very dependent creatures, depending on the shepherd for provision, for guidance and for protection. And those are the three aspects of the total care that the shepherd provides that I’m going to concentrate on this morning: provision, guidance and protection.
First of all then, provision: The shepherd gives David his provision. Let’s look at verses 2 & 3: “He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters.” When reading these verses, it’s tempting to form a picture in our mind’s eye of sheep munching their way around cool green pastures in the beautiful English countryside. But that is not how it is in the dry arid lands of the Middle East. The green pastures and quiet waters in this verse would often be quite far apart and the shepherd would have to lead his flock some distance to them.
The shepherd provides for the sheep by finding them grass to eat and water to drink. And I can imagine having a relaxing picnic in the middle of a green field next to a cool lake. It’s a lovely picture, but not necessarily a realistic description of an average day. A lot of time we rush around, at home, at work. Often it seems we’re constantly on the move, anxious about our families, our jobs, the credit crunch and now swine flu. So where are these green fields and pools of fresh water? In the midst of the pressures of everyday life, I think these verses are telling us that sometimes we need to take time out. We need to ask, “Where are our green pastures? Where are our quiet waters?” As well as a physical meaning, these verses also have a spiritual one. We need to spend time with our shepherd. The Lord wants us to rest, but do we? The Lord leads us to quiet waters, but do we follow? Perhaps the problem is that we don’t know how to rest and we’re too busy to follow. So what is it that the Lord wants us to be doing?
The answer to this question is that He wants us to spend time with him. Our current sermon series theme is “Conversations with God”. Jesus at the height of his ministry would sometimes leave the crowds to be on his own and to pray to his Father, and to talk with him. Life can be very busy, but we do need to find time to pray, to read the Bible, to have conversations with God. I know from my own experience this isn’t easy. It can be difficult to pray and read the Bible on your own, but there are lots of helpful aids around, such as New Daylight and the books by Eddie Askew. And in our Parish there are also opportunities to pray or study the Bible with each other, at our monthly parish prayers and at home groups. The Lord will feed us spiritually, and He will help us to face the challenges and uncertainties of life. As it says in the first part of verse 3, “He restores my soul.”
The Lord who provides for us will also guide us. Look at the second part of verse 3. “He guides me in paths of righteousness...” Literally, paths of righteousness mean simply the right paths. And the promise here is that by being fed spiritually by his shepherd, David is being led in the right paths of life. It’s a bit like having an internal compass needle. So if we feed off our shepherd spiritually, then that compass needle will point us in the right direction; it will tell us where we should be heading with our lives.
If we are praying regularly and studying the Bible, whether on our own or in groups – or both, then we shall be much more open to God’s guidance. There are many temptations that face us – ranging from fiddling a tax return to pornography on the Internet, to name just two. If we are in conversation with God, He will lead us away from them. They are places we won’t want to go to. We will stay in the right paths.
And being guided by God in the rights paths isn’t just about avoiding temptation – it‘s much more than that. If we are willing to let God guide us, He can lead us into exciting new ventures – a new role in the church, a new career, full-time Christian work; the possibilities are endless.
But we don’t always go where God leads us. David certainly didn’t. He did many great things, but he also fell spectacularly from grace more than once. When he was King, at the height of his powers, David committed adultery with Bathsheba, and to cover it up, murdered her husband. God sent the prophet Nathan to confront David. It was very painful, but David was yanked back on to the right paths. David confessed his sin, and followed his Lord once again. David was willing to listen to God’s prophet, Nathan, when he had gone wrong and his relationship with God was restored. While I suspect that none of us have committed both adultery and murder, there will be times when we have strayed on to the wrong paths, and God will challenge us in the way he challenged David. And when this happens, when God challenges us, will we be willing to return to the right paths?
Our shepherd wants to provide for us. Our shepherd also wants to guide us. And he also wants to protect us. Look at 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.”
There is now a shift of atmosphere in the Psalm. We move from the tranquillity of green pastures and quiet waters to the hard truths of death, shadow, valleys, fear, evil and enemies.
David knew from bitter experience that life doesn’t always seem fair; life isn’t easy; life can often be a struggle, even dangerous. David realises that we will have enemies. What David insists on is this: that God is with us through it all, on our side and at our side. God is with us in the times of crisis we face in our lives, and in the final crisis of death itself. The shepherd will be with David, escorting him through these dark times, including death itself.
The promise that God gives us isn’t a life of ease and comfort. The promise that He gives us is that He will be with us in the times of darkness, even at the time of death itself. And we have a shepherd that David didn’t have. Who is our shepherd? Jesus!
In John 10:11, Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Jesus was looking ahead to his death on the Cross and his resurrection. Jesus himself experienced deep darkness and even death itself. And so we know that we do have a God who isn’t remote and far away, but who cared enough to send His son to die for us. And Jesus’ resurrection shows that death isn’t the end. Jesus has defeated even death itself.
And this leads us on to the final two verses of the Psalm, verses 5 and 6; “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
The picture is that of a victory feast, a well-set table with an over-flowing cup and the captured enemy looking on. There is no ultimate victory for any of David’s enemies, not even for death itself. And David can declare with confidence, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” That’s eternal life – living with God for ever. And so Psalm 23 points ahead to Jesus, who defeated death and who said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16)
Jesus the Good Shepherd provides for us; he guides us in right paths. He protects us in the bleak and harsh times. Only he can lead us through death; all other guides have to turn back at that point. And how can we best prepare ourselves for those times? By spending time with him now – in conversation with him in prayer, reflection and bible study – on our own and with others. Jesus is our shepherd. Let’s follow him where he leads.
Let’s pray: We thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd. We thank you for his guidance and protection for us. We pray that we may be led into a closer conversation and walk with him, so that we may know that even in the times of deepest darkness he is alongside us. Amen.
posted by Parish Administrator at 11:38 am
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