Psalm 23
The
Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green
pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley,I will fear no evil,
for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley,I will fear no evil,
for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You
prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
There is a passage in the Old
Testament when a prophet named Jeremiah, who describes a time when people say
“Peace, peace, but there is no peace.”
(Jeremiah 6:14)
There certainly is no peace in our
world today.
I don’t know anyone who feels at
peace.
We feel fear.
We are afraid for our military
members who are spread over the world, serving in dangerous places.
We are afraid of the future of our
nation.
We are afraid for where our nation
and world are headed. North Korea
rattles its sabers to remind us to be afraid.
We are afraid of terrorist attacks
here at home. Boston reminded us this week to be afraid.
We go to the doctor, and we are
afraid of what we will be told.
We take our kids to school, and we
are uneasy about what their friends will teach them.
And then we look at the Bible, and
we are given this image of being so free from fear and anxiety, that we become
like sheep resting in fields of green grass beside quiet waters.
I know very little
about sheep. In fact, I have no first
hand information at all, it all comes second hand from listening to others talk
about sheep.
I’m told that a sheep will not lie down until it has had a
sufficient food to eat Apparently, if a
shepherd leads sheep to a field that ran out of grass before the animal’s
hunger was satisfied, then the sheep would just start wandering off to find
other pastures. So to lie down in green pastures means that all of the basic
need for food has been satisfied.
As for the quiet waters, sheep are so skittish that they are
afraid of running water. They prefer to
drink from still and quiet waters.
But our world is anything BUT quiet waters. And our lives never seem to reach the point
of calm satisfaction.
In the Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah, wrote these words. He was writing of his own day.
He could have been writing about today:
We have heard a cry of panic,
of terror, and not peace.
… Why has every face turned pale?
7 Alas! that day is so great
there is none like it;
of terror, and not peace.
… Why has every face turned pale?
7 Alas! that day is so great
there is none like it;
How do we find this place of green grass and quiet waters?
Like so much of the 23rd Psalm, the promise is
discovered by a spiritual maturity, not a material possession.
We may or may not be able to change the world around us, but
we can change the heart within us.
We can’t change the ways of the terrorist. We can do some things to make our world safer,
but not safe.
The doctor might be able to heal our cancer or restore our
sight – but maybe not.
All around us the grass may be dead and dying and the waters
may be turbulent, but inside we can find a place of green grass and quiet
waters. Peace. Peace.
Someone emailed me with a story this week
about a 92 year old woman whose family decided it was time to move her into a
nursing home. The family worried about
the change, but the woman took on a positive attitude. On the long drive, the family began to talk
positively about the nursing home, talking about wonderful staff, the nice
view, the good food. Finally the woman
declared, “I love it.”
Her son said, “But you haven’t even seen it
yet. But just wait, I’m sure you’ll like
it.”
“I don’t need to see it,” she said. “Happiness is something you decide on ahead
of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is
arranged... it's how I arrange my mind.”
That is a rare gift!
I know that there are some folks who never experience peace
because they have such a bad attitude about life.
Several years ago, I met a fellow named Andy.
Andy was without doubt the most depressed person I have ever
met.
He was so gloomy and depressed, that he radiated gloom and
depression.
All you had to do was to come within 10 feet of the man, and
you began to feel gloomy and depressed yourself.
Andy never looked on the positive side.
He always looked on the negative side.
I remember he came to the Men’s Club at the church – and I
was serving a very small church at the time.
He came to the Men’s Club and said, “You know, I don’t understand this
church. We never seem to get people
interested in our events. Look at
this. There are only 20 people here.”
Well, I thought – hey – we have 20 people here – that’s
great. There are only 25 men in the
whole church. Besides, the Men’s Club
met for breakfast. On Sunday
mornings. At 6:30 AM. I was always amazed that anyone would get up
that early on a Sunday morning for breakfast.
But that was Andy.
Never looked on the bright side.
One day I went to visit Andy to try to get him out of his
gloomy attitude.
He told me he was gloomy because he was so lonely.
I suggested that he invite some folks over, have a small get
together, a party.
“Wouldn’t work,” Andy
said. “My wife wouldn’t want to do all
the work to get ready for it.”
I suggested that he have a dinner with just one other
couple.
“Wouldn’t work,” Andy said.
“People don’t like the kind of simple foods I like.”
I suggested that he go out and visit other people in their
homes – just drop by for a visit.
“Wouldn’t work,” Andy said.
“People don’t like you dropping by like that.”
Finally, I suggested to Andy that nothing was going to work
because he liked being gloomy and depressed.
Andy agreed.
He was lonely, anxious, restless, never had a moment’s
peace, because he was allowing his bad attitude to become a stumbling block in
his life.
Some people are like Andy.
They let their bad attitude become a stumbling black in their search for
peace within. Others however, seem to find a sliver lining in the darkest
cloud. For example, during the Second
World War, General Creighton Abrams found himself and his troops surrounded on
all sides. With characteristic optimism,
he told his officers: “For the first
time in the history of this campaign, we are now in a position to attack the
enemy in any direction.”
Paul in the New Testament letter to the Philippians tells
his readers, “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice.”
Paul was not sitting on a lanai sipping from a drink with a
little umbrella in it while propping his feet on a cushion.
Paul wrote this letter while he was in prison, facing death.
And yet he had this wonderful contentment. He was not in a state of denial – he knew
what he was facing. Yet he had this
wonderful attitude of peace.
Spiritually speaking, he was on a field of green grass, he
was beside the quiet waters.
How do you get to that point in life?
While you are in the hospital with doctors puzzling over
you, while you are paying bills that stretch your funds to the limit of their
resources, when you deal with unemployment or underemployment, when your family
is torn by strife, how do you find this promise of Psalm 23?
Prayer, family, support of the
church, developing a discipline, having experienced suffering in the past – all
of these are great – all of these are needed – but the first step and the last
step and the most important step – is to keep your focus on Christ.
Christ is the shepherd, we are his
sheep. Don’t let go of that thought.
So often we are distracted. Easily distracted. But in the New Testament, Jesus talks about
how he knows his sheep and the sheep know him and listen to HIS voice.
When the bombs blasted in Boston, it was easy for
us to hear the voice of terror.
When the bullets were fired in an
elementary school in Newtown,
it was easy for us to hear the voice of an angry, possibly mentally unbalanced
individual.
When the doctor tells us we have
cancer, it is easy for us to hear the mortician waiting.
But in the midst of this often
terrible world, we need to keep our hearts focused on Christ. He is our shepherd. He is leading us. He will comfort us.
When the armies of Napoleon swept over Europe,
one of his generals intended to make an attack on a little town on the Austrian border. It was Easter, and as Napoleon’s great army
maneuvered nearby, the citizens gathered together to decide whether to surrender or to attempt
a defense, useless though it seemed. The
pastor of the local church stepped forward
and told the people, “We have been counting on our own strength, and
that will fail. This is Easter Sunday, the
day of our Lord’s resurrection. Let us
ring the bells and have worship service as usual, and leave the matter to God.”
The council accepted his plan and in a few minutes the bells
were ringing, calling the community to gather for Easter services.
Meanwhile, back at the front, Napoleon’s army heard the
bells and got worried. The triumphant
bells sounded like they were announcing joy, not the despair that was actually
being felt by the townspeople. The
invaders decided that the bells must be announcing the arrival of Austrian
reinforcements. They broke camp and
retreated from the area as fast as possible.
The people of the town had lifted up the problem to God and
went peacefully to church, and God redeemed them, granting them peace of mind,
and even peace from the invading army.
(History of Feldkirch, Austria
http://www.bodensee-vorarlberg.com/multimedia/Broschueren/FeldkirchCityGuide2011_E.dist..pdf)
So often, we wring our hands in despair over things that we
cannot control. We worry and we become
anxious about the situation.
We need to trust the shepherd, follow the shepherd, and
listen to the shepherd:
The Lord is
my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me
to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
4 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