Word of Salvation – Vol. 13 No.49 – December 1967

 

The Lord My Shepherd

 

Sermon by Rev. A. I. DeGraaf on Psalm 23:1-3

Scripture Reading: John 1-14, 27-28

Psalter Hymnal: 195; 94:1 (after law); 384; 38:1,2; 493

 

Brothers and sisters in Jesus,

New Year's Day is a day for looking ahead.

What shall we do?

Where shall we go?

What is bound to happen to us?

What might happen to the entire world, for that matter?

Looking ahead is at all times a risky business, but particularly in our time now that things can develop so awfully fast.

Yet in our psalm we find David looking ahead.

He makes some mighty bold statements about the future.
            "I shall not want" – he says in the very first line
            and "goodness and kindness shall follow me all my days....
            and "I will dwell in the house of God forever...!”

Not that it will be ALL apple pie and striped candy.

As he looks ahead he suspects that maybe he "will have to go through the dark, dark valley....!"

But that does not stop him from keeping on looking ahead.

How come?

Well, the reason is in verse one.

He can look into tomorrow because he knows something mighty important about today.

What shall be, can be faced because of something that IS.... now!
THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD.

In the same way the second part of the psalm talks about the Lord....
SETTING UP A TABLE BEFORE ME... NOW!
And because of these things being so.... NOW,
we can afford to look at things as they will turn out... tomorrow.
Thus we will do it, today.

I know of a Dutch hymn which says these things very clearly:
"What the future yet may bring me
 'Tis the LORD Who holds my hand..."

He does... NOW.  I know that.
Therefore I may look ahead and am not scared.
I may even look forward to tomorrow:
  for we travel into the Day, the full Daylight of the new world of God.

When David wrote this psalm he was no longer a young inexperienced harp player.  This psalm is no day dreaming by a chap who doesn't know how tough the going can be.  He knows of the valley of death and he knows of enemies, too, we find.

But he has found out Who the Lord is and that makes all the difference.  We shall see, then,
 - first: "THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD" and
 - second: "THE LORD IS MY HOST".

* * * * * *

Of course David knew what he was talking about when he called the Lord his shepherd.  He had been this himself, for a long time.  First shepherd of sheep.... and afterward... shepherd of God's people Israel.

Mind you – when David said "The Lord is my Shepherd" he also said something about himself.  He then said of himself that he was a sheep.  To be led by Another.  To be fed by Another.

Another Who was to have the initiative, the glory, the leadership.  None of the beautiful things in this psalm, none of these comforting statements on the first day of a year can be said by someone who wants to DO, and KNOW and GO himself.

When you want to run your own life, then don't blame God when it goes wrong.  As go wrong one day it must.  This is not the psalm of the proud captain of his soul, the mighty master of his own lot.  This is the psalm of the sheep, who has discovered it and still discovers day by day, that God knows better, and that "blessed are the meek, for THEY shall inherit the earth!"

And so I point you to HIM this day, who has said, "I am the Good Shepherd the One whom David saw from afar."

The One Who came.... to give his life for the sheep.

Jesus...!

To see Him is to weep for my sins.  For I killed that Shepherd.

I pierced Him.  I, by running my own life... away from God.

Yet He gave His life for me!  Yet He came to bring me back to the flock.

And so, when I look at Him, on this first day of the year, I look at my Shepherd... NOW..!  This LORD IS my Shepherd!

This Lord Who died that I might live, rose again, and says: I AM WITH YOU, ALL THE DAYS of 1968; BE NOT AFRAID, I AM THERE!

That is the Fact!  The glorious Fact of My Shepherd!

He Who rules this world that seems such a frightening place; Who said it: "Of all Whom the Father gave to me, I lose no one!  No one shall snatch them from My and My Father's hand!"  And THEREFORE we can – with David – look ahead without fear.  THE LORD IS now and forever MY SHEPHERD thus I shall not want.  I shall lack nothing.

This does not mean: I shall get what I like....
                        for I do not know what is good for me.
            I am only a sheep and can't look any further than my nose.

If the Shepherd would not stop me I would eat poison, I would spoil myself.  And what I want is not what the advertisements tell me, either.  When the newspaper tries to convince me that I MUST have that new fridge or that new suit, DOES THAT MEAN THAT I WANT IT?  Or may it be that my Shepherd knows better?  He Who says: "Seek MY Kingdom first.  THAT is what you want....?"  And when your neighbour tells you that you MUST get that automatic washing machine, does that mean that Your Shepherd must agree?  When the one teenage girl tells the other that she simply MUST have those white leather boots or some other thing that is all the rage, must your Good Shepherd then agree?  Surely not!  Yet He makes you say: "I shall not want!"  Oh the joy of discovering that He knows better than even you what your real needs are, for body and soul.  And oh the joy of discovering that He DOES see to it that: "I shall not lack indeed!

"He makes me to lie down in green pastures..!”  David goes on.  Do you see them lie down, these sheep?  You can see them plenty in New Zealand and Australia.  And maybe when you were driving awfully fast to do some urgent job you might have envied them at times – just to lie down and eat the very grass you're on... and... in...!

You see, this verse is not the lazy man's dream that it looks like at first glance.  David isn't going just to lie down HIMSELF... and "take it easy...!"

The subject of the sentence is always He... He...!  He, the Good Shepherd.  HE MAKES ME TO LIE DOWN IN GREEN PASTURES.

HE says to me: "Stop running around, stop worrying and fretting; stop getting overworked and having nervous breakdowns...!”

HE Who looks after the sparrows of the air and the lilies of the field, HE gives his children His blessings in their sleep.  HE says to you, "Relax, my child!  I am here, I am your Shepherd!"  He says that, when we read in the paper about money getting tight, and when we hear on the radio that we'd better pull up our socks.  He doesn't call us to be lazy, but He DOES call us to relax.  To trust Him, to know that all the wealth of the world is His.  He makes His children to lie down in green pastures.  The green pasture of His Word and of the knowledge that your sins are forgiven.... and then, contented and joyful as you then are, you may discover that your daily bread is not lacking and your water supply is sure.

That water comes next: "He leads me besides the still waters.”  Literally the Hebrew says, "Waters of stillness, waters of rest...!"  And that tells you already that this isn't a lazy man's dream.  For you like water after a long trip, after a hard bit of work.  Then there's nothing sweeter.

Waters of rest – and rest is rest after hard work.

Refreshment.

You know, sheep are working, too.

They are among the best workers New Zealand and Australia have.  They grow wool.  And in order to grow it they must walk to where the good food is, and they must at times get tired.

But then – the text says – the Shepherd will see to it that it will not get too much: He knows where the water is, and will bring us to it.

Spiritually we travel as through a desert land at times.  We live among people who often have no time for the Lord and we are to be among them as sheep among wolves, as witnesses, hard-working and earnest... how thirsty that can make us!  But sure!  There is the Shepherd He knows!  And He provides for us the water we need!  The living water for our soul.....!

And the water of refreshment for our bodies, too!  The holidays can be such refreshment, such water we need.  He knows!

"He restores my soul" – the Psalm goes on.

Literally: "He makes my life new!"  This, too, points at hard work, at tiredness!  When we feel at the end, when we are dry and barren, miserable and out of joint.  Spiritually we can be that.  You and I know of this feeling.  But the Shepherd knows, too!  And He has His ways to refresh us again, to make me sing again, to make me feel again as if I could jump over a wall and single-handedly fight an army!

His Word can do that – and His Sacraments, too.

O the wonder of those Communion Sundays!  When He restores my soul!  So that I sing it: "It is well!  It is well with my soul!"

But He also has His way of doing that in our natural life!  He has given the SUNDAY for that very reason.  That we should lay down sword and shield... down by the riverside...!  Rest up and get ready for another week!  Oh how He cares!  Oh how we, too, must listen to HIM when He, to refresh my soul, tells me; "Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy!"

"He leads me in the paths of righteousness"  Or literally: "the right, straight paths...!”

There His law, His GOOD law, comes in.  There I see before me in this new year the road of OBEDIENCE, not because otherwise I will get a ticket... or be told off by elders.....!  But because this is the path that keeps my life fresh and green.  Whoever has known great sin in his life – a marriage smashed up; or the secret sin of money stolen – even if only from the tax department – knows how unhappy, how frustratingly miserable sin makes us.  It only looks good BEFORE we do it.  Afterwards there is slavery...!  The Bible however tells me of freedom, of God's good law in which I may learn to delight as the good law of a good God!  God Who made the mountains and the sun, Who made the stars of which Psalm 19 sings, the good things of His good earth....!

And THIS SAME GOD MADE THAT LAW TO BE SWEET AND GOOD – Psalm 19 sings on – better it is than gold!  I need not grope around in the darkness as the teachers of the New Morality tell me.  I need not wonder what's good and what's evil.  It is clear and straightforward, even though it can be MADE DIFFICULT BECAUSE SO MANY DON'T CARE ABOUT IT ANY MORE.  But their life is not happy.  It is as unhappy as that of the spoiled child who eats all sweets he likes and gets his stomach all upset and his teeth rotting.  God's law is the straight path, and blessed is he who recognized the SHEPHERD in it, who came to make us LOVE instead of hate and GLORIFYGOD IN GLAD SONG instead of doing sneaky sins in awful little corners.

This Shepherd says to you that you may start afresh.

Jesus has suffered and died that you may forget about what was yesterday and again begin to love that law of freedom!  He leads me on the straight paths "FOR HIS NAME'S SAKE...!"  And if you wonder what God's good law has to do with His Name, remember what Heidelberg Catechism has to say about that prayer: "Hallowed be Thy Name....!”

"Grant us, first, rightly to know Thee,
  and to sanctify, glorify and praise Thee
  in all Thy works in which Thy power,
            wisdom, goodness, justice, mercy and truth shine forth,
  further also
  that we may so order and direct (!)
  our whole life, thoughts, words and actions,
  That Thy Name may not be blasphemed
  but honoured and praised on our account."

We pray this not in vain.

The LORD IS MY SHEPHERD... HE LEADS ME ON THE RIGHT-PATHS FOR HIS NAME'S SAKE!

He will lead us also this new year.  He has His will preached.  And in His Word He tells you, day by day.  There will be that voice: "This is the Way... walk ye therein!" Through the new year, however dark many things may be, there runs a straight path, a Way.  Oh, a narrow way!

Yes, but many people today are saying that there is no way at all!  They say: you better do every day as you find you must... where it all ends, we do not know.

That is the predicament of the unbeliever.  We however know otherwise!  We know a Way.  I am the Way, says Jesus!  Walk on Me!

I am the good Shepherd: he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life!"

This afternoon we shall see how this remains true even when He leads us through the darkness...!

Yet: NOT IN darkness!

For: The Lord is my Shepherd..... I shall not want!

Amen.