Psalm 23:3
If you have worked for a number of companies or organizations, you know that there are good bosses and bad bosses. There are good teachers and bad teachers. There are good friends and bad friends. Why is this so?
It could be a matter of competency. There are some teachers who do not have the skills to be good teachers. There are some people who are promoted above their level of competency. But I think the biggest difference between good and bad bosses, friends, and teachers is the inner battles that are being faced. When someone has unresolved painful memories that are deeply buried, they can cover them up with a strong, outward defense, but there remains the inner insecurity that affects them. This can result in being mean and manipulative toward their colleagues and those who work for them. A strong defense can be effective, at least until a pressure point comes in life and the unresolved painful memory surfaces and causes them to act in a hurtful, destructive way.
When someone does not feel loved in their inner being, the defense they create to protect themselves from not feeling loved becomes so important that when that defense is in danger of being breached, they fight to protect themselves.
I love reading biographies and recently started one about Thomas Edward Lawrence, Lawrence in Arabia. It is a fascinating biography and history of the years around WWI that helps to understand the difficulties in the Middle East today. The reason I mention this is because as I began reading this biography, I was grieved to read how difficult the childhood of T.E. Lawrence was. This was also the case for other major characters in the drama of the Middle East as Germany and Britain fought for control of this part of the world. Their actions as adults were very much affected by their experience as children and I found myself wishing they could have been loved and encouraged as children because that alone would have changed history.
I said in the sermon last week that at the heart of every man and every woman is a little girl or boy who wants and needs to be loved. The world would be a different place if we all felt, in the depths of our being, that we are loved.
We continue this morning in a series of sermons based on Psalm 23 and the other Good Shepherd passages of the Bible. Once again, I remind you that I am working out of a book by Ken Bailey, The Good Shepherd: A Thousand Year Journey from Psalm 23 to the New Testament. The truths expressed in this psalm are directed at our inner being, our deepest needs – and that is a good place for truth to go.
We are looking this morning at Psalm 23:3.
1 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
3 he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
He refreshes my soul.
This translation comes from the King James Version “He restoreth my soul.” The way this has been understood has often meant some form of “I was depressed and the Lord ‘restored my soul’ and helped me to feel better about myself and my world.” But Bailey contends that this distorts the meaning of the text. The literal translation is “he brings me back” and makes clear that the sheep is lost and the good shepherd is obliged to go after it, find it, and carry it back.
David is speaking in this psalm about how God cares for him but he starts with his experience of how he cared for his own sheep. Bailey shares the experience of shepherds in Lebanon and the Holy Land who told him that once a sheep knows that it is lost, it tries to hide under a bush or rock and begins quivering and bleating. The shepherd must locate it quickly lest it be heard and killed by a wild animal. On being found it is usually too traumatized to walk and must be carried back to the flock. This was David’s experience with the sheep he cared for.
When we understand this, then Psalm 23 connects much better with the teaching of Jesus about the good shepherd who seeks out the one sheep that is lost and brings it back.
So Bailey translates the opening verses of Psalm 23 this way:
1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
2 He settles me down in green pastures,
he leads me beside still waters,
3 he brings me back / he causes me to repent
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
He brings me back / he causes me to repent
When David writes “he brings me back,” the implication is that he was lost. For one reason or another, he was separated from the flock and the good shepherd brought him back. The good shepherd keeps an eye on his sheep because he wants their needs to be met. He is willing to sacrifice his own comfort for the sake of his sheep. A lost sheep is sought for because a good shepherd loves his sheep.
I talked about this in the first sermon of this series so this morning I want to focus more on what makes sheep stray. What makes us stray away from Jesus?
Sometimes sheep become distracted and drift along eating grass but not keeping an eye on the shepherd and the rest of the flock. After a period of time the sheep looks up and is alone. Like sheep, we can drift along in life, not really paying much attention, and then discover one day that we are quite distanced from God. We did not mean to drift away; it is simply that we were not paying attention.
We get up in the morning and have to rush to get breakfast and head off to school or work. The day is full of activities and in the evening we have to make supper, do the dishes, and if we have children, help them with their schoolwork and projects. We sit down, exhausted from the day, and watch some television or a movie, chat with friends on social media, and get to bed later than we had hoped so that we wake up the next morning tired and have to rush to get on with the day. At the end of the week, on Sunday, we make our way to church and remember that Jesus is our good shepherd, resolve to do better the coming week, and then fall back into the same routine. Or, perhaps, we use Sunday morning to catch up on sleep and fall into a new habit. Then, one day, we look up and realize Jesus is not to be seen.
It might be that a sheep sees something it wants and heads off, ignoring the direction the shepherd and the other sheep are going. Some sheep are willful and rebellious by nature and this reminds us of the son who went to his father asking for his share of the inheritance. His father gave it to him, despite being shamed by this request of his son, and the son went off to party and enjoy all that his money could buy. But when the money disappeared, so did his friends and he was left taking care of pigs and wishing he could eat what they were eating.
The temptations of the world pull at us and we head off in behavior that we know is not right. We do what we know we should not do and we deliberately walk off the path Jesus is leading us on. We are no longer following our good shepherd, we are heading off in our own direction.
Sometimes we are pulled away because we forget what our priorities should be. We work at our job and it demands more and more from us. We want a promotion and the increased money that comes with it, so we spend more and more time and energy at our job. And then, at some point, we look up and realize our relationship with Jesus has become a memory and not a current experience.
Sometimes work becomes more important than Jesus and sometimes relationships become more important than Jesus. I had an uncle who drove trucks in the Pacific theater of WWII. When he was there he befriended some missionaries and, as I understand it, made a commitment to follow Jesus. He wanted to come back to the Pacific after the war to work with the missionaries. When he returned to the US he told his wife what had happened and she gave him an ultimatum. “It is me or Jesus, you choose.” He chose his wife. I have met other men who were given the same choice and it is sad when someone who is being drawn to Jesus gets pulled away because their relationship with their spouse is more important than their relationship with Jesus.
There are a lot of reasons why we become lost and I want to focus a bit on one more way we become lost. In John 10:7–10 Jesus taught:
“Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
There are thieves and robbers who steal the sheep who belong to Jesus and use them for their own purposes. Jeremiah and Ezekiel condemned these bad shepherds, the kings of Judah, who pulled people away from God by encouraging worship of false idols and serving themselves rather than the people God had given them to care for.
Ezekiel 34:2–6
2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? 3 You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally.
The consequence of this was that
they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. 6 My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.
The central criticism of these bad shepherds, their root fault, is that they used the sheep they were given for their own gain. They cared only for themselves and as a consequence, their sheep were lost. And so God’s judgment is against them. (Ezekiel 34:7–10)
7 “ ‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 8 As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 10 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.
There are not words strong enough to condemn those who have been given authority and responsibility and misuse what they have been given for their own advantage. This is true for kings and political leaders and it is true for leaders in the church.
I will post in the RICEmail this coming week a commentary by John Oliver who hosts an evening show in the US. This one comments on televangelists: Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, Mike Murdoch, and Robert Tilton. He could have included Rick Joyner and many others who have made themselves rich off the flock they are supposed to shepherd. (You may be offended by some of the language in John Oliver’s commentary, but I hope you will be far more offended by what these televangelists say and do.)
You can add to this list the leaders of what I call “empire building denominations” with overseers who live in luxury taken from their flock. These men fly around in personal jets, live in mansions (plural, not singular), and take money from those who are poor to support their luxurious lifestyle. If I am stepping on toes and mentioning people you like, I need to tell you that your toes need to be stepped on. These are the thieves and robbers Jesus warned us about. When you sit under the leadership of bad shepherds like these, you will be pulled away from the paths of righteousness where Jesus wants to lead you.
Unfortunately, these men and women are not new to the church. Simon Magus who tried to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit from Peter and John in Samaria, went on from that to found a cult religion that lasted for three centuries before it died out. He claimed to be an earthly form of God who came to rescue a prostitute he found in Tyre he claimed was the reincarnation of Helen of Troy. When the world was destroyed, those who followed him would be saved.
Paul had harsh words to write about what he called the “super apostles” in Corinth who were undermining his teachings. In his critique of them he wrote in 2 Corinthians 11:12–15
12 And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. 13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.
Throughout the centuries of the church, men and women have used the gospel of Jesus to gain power and influence and to profit themselves.
I worry about people who leave RIC and head off to other churches. I pray they will find a healthy church with a good shepherd and I grieve when I see on Facebook that they have aligned themselves with a church that is led by a bad shepherd.
How do you recognize a good shepherd and a bad shepherd? I made a list of good and bad behaviors from the good shepherd passages, but I don’t need to go through that list with you. It all comes down to this. Ezekiel prophesied:
Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? 3 You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock.
Bad shepherd tend to themselves. Bad shepherds take care of their own needs. Bad shepherds use the sheep under their care to make themselves rich and powerful.
In contrast, what did Jesus say about the kind of shepherd he was? (John 10:11)
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
As Jesus walked with his disciples to Jerusalem where he knew he would be crucified, his disciples argued about who would have the most authority when Jesus made himself king. Jesus was walking to die for those he loved and the disciples were thinking about how they could make themselves greater.
At the last meal with his disciples Jesus stunned them by taking the role of a servant and washing their feet. And then he told them: (John 13:12–15)
12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
Those Jesus calls to be shepherds for his sheep are supposed to follow his example and serve the flock they are given. Good shepherds sacrifice themselves for their flock; they do not sacrifice their flocks for themselves.
It is ok for a pastor to receive money for his work in the church. Paul wrote to Timothy: (1 Timothy 5:17–18)
17 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. 18 For Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.”
But when the pastor is living in luxury with expensive homes, personal jets, staying in luxurious hotel suites when he travels, then a line has been crossed and such a pastor is a bad shepherd, deserving of the condemnation of Jesus for abusing his flock.
Stay away from such pastors. Cut your ties with such pastors. They will lead you astray.
Don’t automatically trust a pastor. Let a pastor earn your trust as you observe him. Let a pastor prove that he can be trusted.
I love Luke’s account of the Bereans in his history of the early church. Paul came from Thessolnica to Berea and Luke writes: (Acts 17:11)
Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
You have to be responsible to examine the character of a pastor. Follow a pastor who is following Jesus and leads as a servant.
3 he brings me back / he causes me to repent
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
The good news of this psalm is that when you stray, whether it is from inattention, wrong priorities, stubbornness, rebellion, or because a bad shepherd has pulled you away, Jesus will search for you. Jesus loves you and will never give up working so that you will return to him. He will use people, circumstances, and events in your life to make you look up and see that you have strayed. When you call to him, he will come to you and bring you back to his flock.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
Proverbs 14:12 says:
There is a way that appears to be right,
but in the end it leads to death.
When we come to a crossroad in life and have to make a choice about which direction to take, what do we do? Sometimes we come to a choice of two paths. We stand there and look. One path seems difficult and one seems easy. We want to take the easy path, but the problem is that we do not know what lies around the corner. The easier path may lead us into a much more difficult journey. Jesus is the one who knows what lies ahead, around the corner, so when we follow him, we take the path that is better for us. It may be more difficult at first but it will prove to be the better path for us.
It seems that if we cheat on a test to get a better grade, this will help us get the degree that will help us get a good job. It seems that if we bend our moral values just a little, this will make our lives easier and more pleasant. I know the temptations of the business world. I had a printer who told me he liked our product and would buy from us if I would give him a two-week vacation. I would have made a lot of money from the deal, but this was a path that I was not willing to take. There were things I was not willing to do to be successful. The easy solution, the easy choice, the tempting choice is many times not the best choice.
When we keep our focus on Jesus and the home he is preparing for us, when we look to Jesus for help in making decisions, we are less likely to take roads that lead to disaster.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
When someone walks by and sees a flock of healthy sheep, they do not praise the sheep – they praise the shepherd who takes such good care of his sheep. The shepherd’s reputation is based on how healthy his sheep are. A good shepherd seeks his lost sheep and brings them back. A good shepherd does not promote himself; he lets his sheep speak for him.
We were created to bring glory to God and when we follow Jesus in paths of righteousness, we bring him glory.
The world sees the televangelists and wealthy overseers living in luxury and mocking the gifts of God that they use to promote themselves and they judge the church of Jesus as just one more way to take advantage of people. They see people who are gullible, easily fooled, and determine they will never get caught up in that foolishness.
But when the world sees followers of Jesus who are following their good shepherd, caring for the poor, having compassion for the sick, working for injustice, thinking of others and not just themselves – then they have to rethink their assumptions about the church and Jesus is honored.
We need to pay attention, keeping our focus on Jesus so Jesus will be honored by our lives. We need to keep our priorities straight, putting Jesus first, above all else, so Jesus will be honored. We need to resist the temptations of the world, submit our stubborn and willful hearts to Jesus so he will be honored.
What we say, what we do, what we decide has implications far greater than how our life is affected. Jesus is honored or shamed by what we say and do. Live in such a way that Jesus will be honored.
Psalm 23 (Bailey)
1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
2 He settles me down in green pastures,
he leads me beside still waters,
3 he brings me back / he causes me to repent
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
