Psalm 23
Henry Ward Beecher, prominent Congregational clergyman,
social reformer, and abolitionist once said this about the 23rd
Psalm,
“The
twenty third Psalm is the nightingale of the Psalms. It is small, of a homely
feather, singing shyly out of obscurity; but oh! it has filled the air of the
whole world with melodious joy, greater than the heart can conceive.”[i]
Please read with me now the 23rd Psalm, King
James Version…..
The
LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He
maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He
restoreth my soul:
he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.
Yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil:
for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff
they comfort me.
Thou
preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
thou anointest my head with oil; my cup
runneth over.
Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. Amen!
Beecher was right about the 23rd Psalm, ‘it has
filled the air of the whole world with melodious joy, greater than the heart
can conceive’. Who among us has not
heard this Psalm and felt a sense of comfort, or joy, or perhaps even a homecoming
of sorts. It is read at funerals,
in nursing homes to dementia patients who, when hearing it, are able to repeat
it word for word. It has even been
prayed in foxholes during World War II as one Vet told me, in the night of his
terror when shells rained down around him. I’ve told you that before. And you know that it is my go-to Psalm and one of my goals
for all of you is to know this beloved Psalm by heart, which is why we now pray
it at meetings. It truly ‘sings
shyly out of obscurity’ and we are the recipients of its beautiful song.
But it is not a Psalm of yesteryear. It is not some ancient nostalgic poem
that has just happened to survive the ages like Homer’s the Odyssey, or the
Epic of Gilgamesh. It’s based on
the reality of life, which makes its message timeless. It addresses our need for peace
and restoration, our need for guidance and God’s presence during those times of
gloom and solitary confinement, those times when we are seeing particularly
dimly. In it we recognize God’s
abundance in our lives and are assured that we will be the Lord’s forever.
It also addresses the strength of the shepherd and what a
shepherd will do for a flock.
Shepherds are leaders who care deeply about how their flock is taken
care of and who lead out of that caring and love. The 23rd Psalm is a model for leadership if we
look at the tasks that the shepherd is asked to perform because what the
shepherd provides is what compassionate leaders provide. And there are leaders
among us today, some who haven’t lead in a while but whom we look to as the
sage leaders of the past. They
have shepherded us to this point, this wooly and wild bunch that we are.
Modern Day Shepherds.
They are all over the world still, in Nepal and Peru and when you visit
the Holy Land you will see that there are shepherds there today. They are not like you probably envision
adorned in a sweeping robe, with a keffiyah on his head, or in a tunic belted
with rope. They are likely to be
on the side of the Judean hillside and be a member of a Bedouin clan, dressed
in jeans and a leather jacket with a staff in one hand and cell phone in the
other. Nonetheless, their job is
taken seriously because their livelihood is dependent upon their flock. And their flock is dependent upon their
skills as a shepherd.
If you think that shepherding is a cushy job, one that’s
unhurried or unrestrained by the influences of modern society, please think
again. It is not. It’s not easy
being a shepherd. I had many experiences the year that I
lived in Israel and shepherding was one of them. I learned that it takes insight, patience, and a willingness
to know your flock – not just one sheep or goat, but all of them because so easily
harm can come to them. And
shepherding works best when an intimate relationship is built between the
shepherd and the sheep.
Neot Kedumim (translated from Hebrew, ancient pastures) is a
Biblical Landscape Reserve in Israel near the town Modi’in. It is situated on 635 acres of hills
and valley with hundreds of Biblical and Talmudic plants, wild and domesticated
animals, ancient wine presses, threshing floors and cisterns. You can meander through the fields and
hills admiring the natural plants and trees, or you can take part in programs
which is what I did.
When I saw a poster that advertised a leadership seminar
that included herding sheep, I thought, I’m down with that, I’m in! And so a few weeks later twenty of us
travelled to Neot Kedumim for the experience.
The task of our shepherding experience was to get the herd
of sheep from point A to point B over some rocky terrain and to keep the sheep,
for ten seconds, from entering a large circle that was mapped out with rocks on
the ground. Then from there we had
to shepherd them from point B to point C and herd them into another large
circle and keep them in there for ten seconds. Now this is much more difficult than you can ever imagine.
Here is what I learned about leading a flock. Your best position, most of the time is
within the flock. When you stand
at the head of the flock you block their vision and you might even lose a few
along the way because you can’t watch over them. Who knows what kind of peril a sheep might fall into when you
are not watching? So God stands among us and is not afraid to be a part of the
flock.
Sometimes though, you have to stand behind the herd to get
them moving, but then you should gently move towards the center of the
flock. Smelly? Sure it’s smelly
but then again how else will you know one of your own if you are not among
them? And for heavens sake, keep
moving! If you don’t the flock
will begin to happily graze or scatter in different directions. So keep moving forward! God keeps us
moving forward never letting us stray off or stagnate in the field.
You have to figure out who the lead sheep is; there is one
in every flock, the one that the other sheep look up to. Befriend that sheep, it will do you
well. Conversely, gently guide the
stubborn one; there is always one of those in the flock too. And prodding never works. It just doesn’t.
But communication does. You could hear us saying “yallah, yallah” which in Arabic
means, let’s go, come on, let’s try to figure this out together. Yallah! You can’t be a behind the doors leader, you have to be
communicating all along the way.
So too God communicates with us through the still silence or a fiends
compassionate words or the wrestling of the leaves on a tree.
And you know singing helps! No joking!
There was a reason why King David, when he was just a shepherd boy, took
his harp into the hills with him on those long days and nights with the
flock. It was not just for his own
entertainment. The flock gets to know the sound of their shepherd, whether it is
singing or a simple clicking of the tongue. We’re talking intimate relationships.
Above all a shepherd needs to keep the vision or the goal
for the flock in mind. Sometimes
the sheep just forget where they are headed and they need someone who cares for
them to gently remind them of the journey ahead. God’s mercy, justice and peace are our vision and Christ as
our shepherd reminds us of that.
So modern
day shepherds. Who are they?
Well they are among us today. They are the men and women whose lives and
contributions to OCC that we are honoring today. It is because of their commitment, time, foresight and
attention to the greater good and gospel of Jesus Christ that we have a
metaphorical leg to stand on. I’m
sure they remember the countless hours that they spent in deacons meetings or trustee’s
meetings or choir rehearsals probably wondering if it was all worth it.
Well I
can tell you that yes; your contribution of time, your love and your generosity
was all worth it. We are here
today because of your dedication to the Gospel. So thank you on behalf of this church. You lead us through still waters,
through the valleys and the hills and into green pastures much like our Lord,
the good shepherd does. You kept
us on track when maybe we just wanted to graze or wander off.
And ultimately this is what the good shepherd does to tend
to the flock. God is the tender
yet compassionate shepherd who leads us and we are the sheep of God’s
pasture. This is what we claim
when we say the Lord is my shepherd.
We ask God to keep us in line, on the right path, to keep us from harm
and to feed us and to get us from point A to point B and beyond. We ask God to gently guide our living,
to “Be Thou My Vision”[ii] as the old
beautiful hymn begins. With God as
our shepherd, how can we ever be in peril? God’s got our back, each and every one of us and cares
deeply for us enough to provide for us a Savior.
With
Jesus Christ we need nothing else.
In him our needs are met, our direction is clear and straight. We have great abundance in him and our
lives are blessed each day and every day because his love is endless. So always remember, ‘The Lord is my
shepherd, I shall not want”.
Repeat often as necessary for Christ is above, within and alongside of
us each day of our lives.
Amen.
[i] Henry Ward
Beecher, ‘Life Thoughts’, cited in ‘The Treasury of David’, 1:357.
[ii] Slane
10.10.9.10, Ancient Irish, Tr. By Mary E. Byrne.
Pastoral Prayer
O God, Open before us the gates of righteousness so that we
might enter and become your beloved children. You welcomed us into your family through the waters of
baptism, and we seek once again to know the risen Christ in our midst and to
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit that we might be open and obedient to your
truth and genuine in our love for one another.
We thank you for the honored guests with us today and for
the mark of Christian fellowship that they have left upon this place. Be with them even though they may not
be able to be with us knowing that you guard and guide us even when we are
absent one from the other.
God of all people, we pray for the well being of your children,
the differently-abled, those who live with mental illness, addiction and
recovery, HIV/AIDS, and cancer, surround them all with restorative arms and
grant them your peace.
God of grace and mercy we ask for your saving power to be
upon us. We pray for those who so
bravely offered themselves in service to this country. We pray for Kristin, Michael, Eugene,
Nicholas, Gabe, Jason, William, Joshua, Zachery, Justin and Ryan and all men
and women in service. Blanket them
with your safekeeping and grant peace to this sorry world.
Be with those who mourn, those who travel, those of
disbelief and most of all be with us as we just endeavor to live our lives and
be your people. Amen
