(broadcast earlier today on KUVR-1380 AM, Holdrege, NE)
Chances are good that you’ll know this sentence when I speak it, and you’ll even know where it comes from.
Say it with me if you do: The Lord is my shepherd.
I’m Pastor Cathi Braasch from Hope Evangelical Lutheran Church, Smithfield Nebraska.
This week we’ll spend some time focusing on the 23rd psalm.
Psalm 23
A psalm of David.
1 The Lord is my shepherd;
I have all that I need.
2 He lets me rest in green meadows;
he leads me beside peaceful streams.
3 He renews my strength.
He guides me along right paths,
bringing honor to his name.
4 Even when I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will not be afraid,
for you are close beside me.
Your rod and your staff
protect and comfort me.
5 You prepare a feast for me
in the presence of my enemies.
You honor me by anointing my head with oil.
My cup overflows with blessings.
6 Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me
all the days of my life,
and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.
(New Living Translation, from http://www.biblegateway.com/)
That title “shepherd” may be more familiar to some than to others.
Cultures in ancient Middle East used shepherding terms to describe kings as well as working sheepherders. Ancient Israelites used “shepherd” to describe the Lord God, and Israel’s prophets didn’t mince words when it came to renouncing bad shepherding by civic and religious leaders of their day.
Nowadays, city folks may have little if any exposure to the work of shepherding. I know what that’s like. As a 12-year-old, I got my first experience of sheep and shepherding when i was placed in foster care on a ranch in the central California hills. That was a half-century ago, yet I remember it like it was yesterday. Before I knew it, I had a few lambs of my own to tend, even as my siblings and I were being cared for – shepherded, if you will -- by the foster family that took us in. My husband and I have raised sheep together since 1973 – that's the last 36 years out of our 43-year marriage.
Sheep and shepherds go together in the spiritual life, too.
The 23rd Psalm celebrates what every hungry, lost, needy sheep needs most – the good shepherd.
Welsh scholar, rural pastor & poet George Herbert wrote of it this way in his poem on the 23rd psalm:
The God of love my shepherd is
And He that doth me feed:
While He is mine, and I am His,
What can I want or need?
He leads me to tender grass
Where I both feed and rest;
Then to the streams that gently pass;
In both I have the best
Or if I stray, He doth convert
And bring my mind in frame:
And all this not for me desert
But for His holy name.
Yea in death’s shady black abode
Well may I walk, not fear
For thou art with me; and thy rod
To guide, thy staff to bear.
Nay thou dost make me sit and dine,
Even in my enemies’ sight:
My head with oil, my cup with wine
Runs over day and night.
Surely thy sweet and wondrous love
Shall measure all my days
And as it never shall remove
So neither shall my praise.
Let’s pray: Dearest Lord Jesus, good and gentle shepherd, you have made us your own and tended to our every need. Keep us safe, and secure; and keep on sending us out to seek those sheep who have not yet trusted you. Amen.
Shepherd's Notebook will be heard daily this week at 8:40 AM on KUVR-1380-AM out of Holdrege, NE
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