Sheepish Grins Pt. 1

The following is the manuscript of the sermon I preached at MERCYhouse on January 4.

Last week, Steve Mirigian broke down scripture in a very academic and intelligent way. Now that I am preaching this week, I am afraid that I will sound like Elmo trying to explain nuclear fusion compared to him. (“Look Dorothy, nuclear transmutation!” That joke killed with my 3 year old.) So anyway, I was asked to preach on the 23^rd Psalm. As many of you may know, Psalms 23 is a Psalm correlating us to sheep and God to the Shepherd. So I had the task of meditating on the theme of sheep. Since Steve brought up the theme of Monty Python last week, all I could think of when preparing for this sermon was this video.

Thank God that I was not asked to talk to you on my own, or you would get utter silliness like that and we would waste everyone’s time today. However, I was not asked to come speak to you on my own today. I was asked to seek the Holy Spirit to be given a message to bring to you in regard to Psalms 23. So hopefully, here is God’s Word.

Psalms 23 is a loved and well known passage of scripture that has meant a lot to a lot of people. Usually when this happens in today’s American society especially, you will begin to see it used for capital gain, such as these things: Psalms 23 t-shirts, hoodies, boxer shorts and even thong underwear. Merry Christmas, only 360 shopping days left till Christmas, beat the rush and order the thongs now.

I grew up in Oklahoma, which is really in the heart of what is called, Tornado Alley. Every Spring and Fall, we could count on anywhere between 3 to 10 tornadoes approaching where we lived. It was part of the culture to deal with tornadoes. So much so that many people in Oklahoma were forced with the choice of putting a swimming pool in the back yard, or a cellar. Now for those of you who do not know what a cellar is, it is basically a large cement room that is dropped in a hole and covered up with dirt so only the door sticks out. Now my family growing up chose to get the swimming pool and even though I am sure that cellars would have been fun for all kinds of scientific experiments, I am sure my parents made the right choice. My social life certainly developed because of it. However, when tornadoes would come through we would have to find a neighbor or family member that would let us in their cellar. When we would get in there, it was usually the most spiritual time of our lives. Commonly, we would pray, however more commonly, we would sing hymns or quote Psalms 23. We would hear the thunder roar and the hail pound the door. We would feel the rain drench and the winds pound and Psalms 23 would bring comfort.

So with Psalm 23 being so popular and common, I wanted to bring a different perspective to it this morning. I began reading a book called A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 this week and much of what I am going to present today is taken from this book. It gives some amazing insight into what it meant to be a shepherd during the time this Psalm was written as well as how this would have been culturally understood during that time. Especially here in the Valley, there is an understanding culturally of farming and some of the lifestyle cycles that farming brings, but even with our advanced knowledge, we can’t understand all of the intricacies of being a shepherd during this time, so lets look this morning at the 23^rd Psalms from a Shepherds perspective.

The Lord is my Shepherd…

David begins writing this Psalm by proclaiming that the Lord is his Shepherd. So, it begs the question, Who is the Lord? David is referring to Jehovah the Lord God of Israel. Jesus confirmed this statement as He was God incarnate and declared emphatically, “I am the Good Shepherd”.

In Colossians 1:15-20, we see that it was Jesus who was responsible for the creation of all things both natural and supernatural. Understanding this and seeing what David is in turn saying here, we see that Jesus is our Shepherd. When we reflect on the life and achievements of Jesus, we gladly state, “HE is my Shepherd!”

Saying this links us with divine destiny. It is a big statement that claims to others, “Look at my owner! The God that made all of us and all of this is my owner.”

Not only do we make that claim, but it is Christ, Himself Who calls us His sheep. He invites me to consider myself His sheep. We are His special object of His affection and attention. On top of all of that, all of this was His idea! I belong to Him simply because He deliberately chose to create me as the object of His own affection.

Not only that, but when I turned and ran away to follow another master who tempted me with false hope and joy, It was Jesus Who pursued me and bought me at an incredible price with His own blood at Calvary.

There are similarities to sheep and humans in many ways. It is no coincidence that God has chosen to call us His sheep. We, like sheep, suffer from our mass mindset (mob instincts), our fear and timidity, our stubbornness and stupidity; our perverse habits are all parallels of profound importance.

Yet, despite these things; in fact, with these things in full view, Christ chose to buy us, call us by name, make us His own and delight in us. It is in this delighting in us that allows us to know and be known by Him. He has given, is giving and will give Himself to us and for us. As I live in His offering of Himself to me and eat of, live from and dwell in His goodness, I emanate His glory. John Piper said it best when he said, “God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him.”

How do others know that we are satisfied in Christ? When a shepherd buys sheep, the first thing he does is round the new sheep us and put his mark on their ear. It is a distinct mark that can be seen from far away and identifies them with the shepherd. As believers, we are the same way. The Spirit of God living in us is the mark for all to see. The Spirit lives in us and guides us and shows us things about ourselves and others that only can come from God. The Spirit is our mark that links the emanating glory to the Lord Jesus Who is our Shepherd.