The Good Shepherd

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.      Psalms 23:1

The first few years of my life was spent attending a very small church that my family pastored. The pews were made of 1x3 lumber (no cushions) and painted a muddy brown color. It was a red brick church with a painted white block bottom and black handrails (that I helped paint.) No inside bathrooms, an old oil heater in the back of the church that we would go in early during the cold winter months and light, so it would be warm enough to have service. In summer months, I don’t remember having a cooling unit, I just remember everyone having paper fans with Bible scenes on the front and the mothers fanning themselves and their children profusely, while wiping the sweat from their faces. During Easter, they had an egg hunt for the kids and at Christmas we had the Christmas Play followed by the “treat bag” that consisted of a brown paper poke (bag) that contained the following: (1) pack of Wrigley spearmint gum (1) orange or apple (1) candy bar and a handful of mixed nuts and a candy cane.

I can still remember this like it was yesterday and not fifty years ago (wow) which it was. But the one thing that always stood out to me, even as a very young child, was the pulpit. It wasn’t very fancy at all, just made of wood and sanded and varnished, but on the front of it was a picture that I would just stare at during church and when we went every week and cleaned and mowed the church. It was a picture of Jesus, as described in Psalms 23 (Actual picture by Warner Sallman) listed below.

“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 me.

Its all there in the picture, the Shepherd, pasture, water, valley, rod and staff. God used the symbolism of a shepherd, because that is what the Jewish people were very familiar with. It was very easy to understand the comparison of the life of a sheep in the world, the dangers they faced and the desperate need of a shepherd, for their survival. In John 10 the parable of the Good Shepherd, the term “hireling” is introduced, as someone that is put in charge of the sheep, but they are not the “Good Shepherd” and when the wolf comes the hireling leaves the sheep and the wolf catches them and scatters the sheep. But not the Good Shepherd it says he gives his life for the sheep.

Many times, in life we are all too familiar with the thief, who comes to still, kill and destroy or the wolf who scatters. It’s in those times we see the Good Shepherd, preparing a table of nourishment before us, and anointing our head with His oil of healing, until our supply runs over. I have a neighbor who have sheep, and I have watched them many times get out of the fence and I have noticed, when the first one goes, everyone follows. They are only out for a few minutes until they are in the nearby road facing the dangers of oncoming traffic. You can actually see the fear in their faces as they don’t know which way to go.

I recently watched a video of some sheep in a nearby pasture. Several people would step up and try to call the sheep to them but each man, woman and child alike, failed to even get one to raise their head. Then, a man walks over in the same spot as every one else and begins to call the sheep. All at once the sheep respond to the man and begin running to him! It was their shepherd; they knew his voice and would not follow the sounds of the others.

May I please ask of you today, to make sure that you know the voice of the Good Shepherd. Sometimes, when we spend too much time out of His presence, we can mistake the voice of the wolf for his. The more time you spend listening to the right voice makes it easier to resist the wrong one.