A New Perspective on Psalm 23

We've been going through the churches of Revelation 2 and 3, but I'm going to take a little bit of a break today. We'll go back to dealing with the last three churches here in the future, but I want to take a little break and just shift gears a little bit, especially after last week. Last week was such a... you know, looking at the church at Sardis, which is sort of a discouraging message. Here's a dying church, although it's an important message, because we have to make sure we're not dying Christians. We're not spiritually dying. And make sure that we're not, as a congregation, spiritually dying. And you know, in what we're going through in the difficulties of the world that we live in right now, it would be easy for a church to die, people just to drift away. And we can't let that happen.

What I want to talk about today sort of plays a little bit off of what Mr. Walker talked about, a little different approach here. Many of the lessons and the stories of the Bible can be very difficult for us to understand because they lived in such a different culture. I mean, I can't imagine what it would be to live in the first century, or the time of Zechariah, or the time of Moses, and see somebody drive up in a car.

I mean, they wouldn't even know what it is. And they wouldn't understand it.

And they would see it, you know, it would just be strange. It would be some kind of miracle.

Most people would think, oh, this is some kind of God or something that gets out of this vehicle. We take it for granted. But because of that, sometimes we can look at the Bible and miss what's actually being said, because we don't understand the cultural context of what's being said. It's very interesting that many of the men who wrote the Bible came from agricultural backgrounds. And even in the big cities of the day, whether it be clear back to Babylon, or the time of the New Testament, people would have understood agricultural principles better than we do today. I mean, there are people that actually believe, if you ask them, where does food come from? They think the grocery store, you know, Publix or Kroger, and they have no idea how it gets there, or how it's grown, or how it's produced. And that wasn't like at that time.

Because even in the cities, people would have known something about agriculture. They understood where the butcher shops were. They understood that you grew food. So we're looking at the whole history of the Bible as a time when many people were involved in agriculture, and those who weren't would have understood agricultural principles. So there's a lot of things in the Bible that we wouldn't understand even if you were in agriculture today, because it's different. They didn't have tractors. They didn't have machinery. How did they do things?

There's an interesting statement made in Mark 6. You know, when you look at through the entire Bible, starting with Genesis, all the way up to Revelation, actually, there's some references in there. There's references to lambs, sheep, and shepherds. And that's because in the Middle East, through all that history, the raising of sheep was a very important part of their lives. They got food. They got food. They got wool, which was one of the main ways of creating clothing. And it was part of their whole lifestyles. So being a shepherd and having sheep was important in a way that we don't understand. And it was part of their environment in a way that we don't understand. And because of that, we can miss all kinds of statements in the Scripture. And after this sermon, I hope you will become more aware every time you go through the Bible, references to sheep and shepherds and lambs and goats, because it's filled with it for a reason. And those people that they were talking to and writing to understood exactly what they were saying. But there's a statement here we can look at and miss completely in verse 34 of Mark 6. And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude of people that were gathering to see Him. And He says, He was moved with compassion for them. Now, this is a very important statement. Jesus had not only this intellectual desire to teach of God's way, He was moved with a very strong emotion when He looked at all these people and He saw them. He saw their needs. But it's what Mark says as he makes a comment on this. He says, because they were like sheep, not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things. Now, see, we read through that. A bunch of people came to Jesus. Jesus had compassion on them and He started to teach them. But the important thing that Mark adds in here is because He saw them as sheep and they didn't have a shepherd. They were sheep without a shepherd. One of those quoted passages in the Old Testament is Psalm 23. I've quoted Psalm 23 at funerals many, many times. And I've gone to many funerals in all different denominations. And Psalm 23 is read because it is so powerful and so moving. Unfortunately, it also can become a cliché. Back in 1970, there was a man who was a sheep herder. He had actually lived in Australia and in South Africa.

And his life is dedicated to raising sheep. And he read Psalm 23 and he wrote a book.

A shepherd looks at Psalm 23. And he looked at the book or looked at what David wrote. And he said, wow, as a shepherd, I understand the points he's making.

What I want to do today is go through to Psalm 23 and maybe get a different viewpoint of what this actually means. Because it means something very important to you and me. It was very interesting. After I gave this sermon this morning in Murfreesboro, I had three different people come up to me and say, I've raised sheep. And they started sharing these incredible experiences. And my seven-year-old grandson, they've tried to raise sheep a couple of times. And he looked at me when I came back and he said, sheep sure are stupid. I said, well, they can be. That's what he got out of raising sheep.

So let's look at what David writes and what we can learn from it. Because it's important.

And you understanding a relationship with God and specifically with Jesus Christ.

David starts this Psalm with, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Now, I want you to remember, David had spent the whole first part of his younger life as a shepherd. His teen years as a shepherd, probably before that, he was out working with the sheep. And he understood what it meant to be a shepherd. And when he writes this Psalm, it isn't a song. It's song lyrics. It's not song lyrics about what it's like to be a shepherd. It's song lyrics about what it's like to be a sheep. What it's like to be a sheep in need of a shepherd. It's very interesting.

Domestic sheep won't last very long in the wild, usually.

If you take a domesticated sheep and just took it out and let it go, it's got a lot of problems like who feeds me, who shelters me, who leads me, who takes care of me, who protects me from predators. You know, sheep aren't exactly—and you can get a sheep that's got ram, that's got big horns, and they can butt hard. And sometimes they can take it to a predator. But you know, overall, those little stubby legs, they can run up to 20 miles an hour.

They're no match for mountain lion. They're no match for wolves or even coyotes.

Now, the whole idea of your sheep is stay with the herd and hope they get Martha on the end, okay? It's just if they get her, we just sort of stay together and they get one of the slow ones.

The sheep are owned by the shepherd.

They're absolutely dependent on the shepherd. And you'll never understand Psalm 23 until you come to a realization that in this psalm, you're the sheep. And this psalm, you're the sheep. I'm the sheep. So everything it says about sheep here, and everything it says about the shepherd doing to them, is about God doing something with us, because we're the sheep. And as my grandson said, they sure are stupid. They sure are stupid.

So this is the heart and core of David's psalm.

And it's... I don't want you to be offended today, but yes, we're sheep.

And when you understand that analogy, there's whole sections of the Bible that are going to make a whole lot more sense. If you get nothing else out of the sermon, understand this.

You and I have certain control over our lives because of our responsibilities, right? You have a control over your house to take care of it. You have a certain control of responsibilities in your job. You have certain control. But you know, most of us realize, as you get older, you actually don't have near as much control as you think.

But we try to control what we can, right? You try to control what you can. But here's what you have to do to understand what it is to be a sheep. You have no ownership control.

A sheep can't say to the shepherd, you know what? I'm going to go find me another shepherd. No, better off, I'm going to go live my life the way I want to. Goodbye. Now goats will do that.

Goats are a whole different breed of animal. But sheep can't do that by nature. Well, they can. We'll talk about that in a little bit. You'll get a rare sheep that does that.

Ownership control of our lives we must voluntarily give to God because it is the shepherd who determines your purpose and where you go and what you do and how you live and how you eat and how you survive. It is the shepherd who does that.

So this, David says, I'm a sheep. You know, as king, he found out he didn't have near as much control over everything as he thought he would as king. You'll see that frustration at times in his life. He had some control. I mean, everybody has some control, but not as much as he thought he would have. As I say, I'm a firstborn. I believe the answer to everything. It's just let me be in control. Of course, that doesn't work.

I mean, aren't you glad I don't come around and try to control every aspect of your life? I don't have a commission from God to do that. Besides that, I just mess up your lives more.

But I can bring God's way into your life. That's something different.

Okay. That's God's way. In other words, I can help you find the shepherd and let the shepherd lead you.

The Lord is my shepherd, and I shall not want. Funny thing about sheep, as one of the men told me this morning, he's very sheep for years, he says, they're just eating machines. So they're always looking for the next meal. Life is next meal, next meal. I mean, what's going on in sheep's head? Next meal, next meal. And they're all sort of together, going someplace, right? They're never quite content.

And this goes back to us. You know, I talked about complacency last week when I talked about Sardis. You and I can't be complacent. We have to find ourselves being able to have contentment with the shepherd. If we're always stressed over our jobs, over our marriages, if we're always stressed and discontented with everything about our lives, if we're always discontented with, I need a better house, or I want this, or I want that, we're always discontented with our status. We're always discontented because everybody will do what we want to do, or we want them to do. We can't control everything. Then you're never going to find peace, and you're never going to find happiness. There is a point where you're contented with what God is doing in your life.

Now, for that to happen, you've got to really understand who the shepherd is, and you have to be focused on the shepherd. Totally focused on the shepherd, because if you're not, you're going to try to solve everything. I've created a lot of misery in my life by trying to solve every problem.

I can only solve problems. I have the power to control and solve power, or solve them. And you know what? It's not near as many as I thought it would be in life.

The ones I do, I do. Now, we can't become complacent. Who would just go whenever life goes? No.

But we have to also understand what we don't have control over. And it's a lot. Or we'll always be discontented. Always looking for something else.

Now, I've never raised a sheep. I raised a goat when I was a kid. It must have been about 11 years old. Big old white, haired. So it wasn't that it wool, but some goats do. But it was haired, milking goat. I had to milk that goat twice a day. But we'd go out and play in the field together. You know, we'd butt heads. That may explain some problems I have today, but we would butt heads.

But that goat was never happy. If you ever let her go, a huge field, she would wander around the field, eat a little bit, eat a little bit, get out of the field, and eventually be in some neighbor's house half a mile away in their yard eating. Never content. Always on the move. Always looking around. Oh, that looks better. That looks better. So what we had to do was chain her up. And I had to take the stake, pull it up out of the ground, move her to another place because she'd eat a big circle, and nail it down with a new circle. Well, the moment I did that, she now has a big new circle to eat. She'd go to the end of the rope and try to get away or try to stretch out to eat beyond the circle. It was never enough. She was never happy. She was always discontented. She was so discontented at one time. I found a really nice grassy area, put it down, put the stake down, gave her plenty of room, came back later to milk her.

She had got her head underneath the slat, in between the slats of the fence and was eating on the other side, got her head stuck and broke her neck.

Her discontent led... I don't mean to make you all feel bad, but, you know, that's... I mean, I was pretty devastated as a kid, but I understood what had happened. She never could be happy with whatever I gave her, or whatever I took her, whatever food I gave her. It was never enough. Sheep can be like that sometimes. So it's important for us. I shall not want.

The Lord is my shepherd. I can find contentment in that, David says, just like sheep do.

But as a shepherd, he understood that. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. I'm going to read from a little bit here. I'm not going to read too much from Keller's book, because I thought this part was very interesting, because now he's looking at David, and he says, oh, and he's looking at all these passages of the Bible and says, oh, I know what these mean as a shepherd. He says, the strange thing about sheep is that because of their very makeup, it is almost impossible for them to be made to lie down unless four requirements are met. He makes me to lie down. He says, you can't get sheep to lie down unless certain things happen.

God helps us to lie down. Now for that to happen, if we're like sheep, there are certain things we have to do too. Owing to their turbidity, they refuse to lie down unless they are free from all fear. It doesn't take much to spook a sheep.

Have you ever heard of anyone saying, oh, yes, I was attacked by a ferocious sheep?

It just doesn't happen. Because of their social behavior within a flock, sheep will not lie down unless they are free from friction with other of their kind. I think about a congregation here.

You know, we live right now in this crisis situation in the world. And you know, I'm not a negative person, but I'm telling you right now, this crisis will simply be followed by another one.

It'll be a different crisis. And then another one. And that's the way life is. That's the way the world we live in is. Oh, can we just go back to 2019? We're never going back to 2019.

Besides, for a lot of people, that was a crisis. Just a different crisis.

The bottom line is, if we're motivated by the outside fear all the time, and remember how fearful they must be because how does a lamb, how does a sheep fight five wolves? It can't. There's no way for it to protect itself. So therefore, it has to feel protected.

It's amazing. That's why I have watched sheep get afraid, and they'll just crush each other. I hate to be the one in the middle. You think they're going to kill it. They're all crushed together, but it's the one that feels the safest. All crushed together. We can't let this fear, as a congregation, affect us. No, I mean, there's always an amount of fear, as I mentioned in the sermon, and always an anxiety in life. We can't be overwhelmed by it because our shepherd is there. We can't fight each other, you know, as well as I do. Anytime there is some open confrontation between two members of the congregation, pretty soon half the people know about it, and everybody's all upset. Did you know that? And I'll listen to them. Yeah. And what are you going to do about it?

They're grown adults. They'll figure it out. Or they'll come to me and we'll talk about it.

Does everybody calm down? I wish I had a dollar for every time I've said in the last nine months, just calm down. I wish I had a dollar for every time my wife has said to me, just calm down. Right? Just calm down.

The world... I don't have control over China. In fact, at this point in my life, I don't know anybody that's even Chinese. I know a couple Russians, but they're in the church, so that doesn't help. They don't have any connections to the Kremlin, so I can't control that either.

You see, we're worried about things we have no control over, but God does. God does. So let's get zeroed in on, I have a shepherd.

It won't lie down if it's tormented by flies or parasites. In other words, if it has diseases, health problems, it won't lie down. It's hard for us to say focus when we have health problems. And lastly, sheep will not lie down as long as they feel a need to find food. And that's all the time.

I'm hungry, I'm hungry. That's what's going through their brains. I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry. Where am I going to eat? So they have to feel fed. If you're going to feel fed spiritually, you're going to have to not only be involved in church services, which is a command, either online or come here because it's a command. We can't use the present virus as an excuse not to participate. This is part of the feeding process. But you know what? If you feed a good, healthy sheep once a week, it'll die. You have to feed a sheep every day.

That means you have to be in your personal Bible study and prayer every day. You have to let the shepherd feed you. Do a study on sheep in the Bible. It's amazing. And then keep thinking, every time it's a sheep, that could be me. Be a sheep for a while. It is significant that to be at rest, there must be a definite sense of freedom from fear, tension, aggravation, and hunger. The unique aspect of the picture is that it is only the sheepman himself who can provide release from these anxieties. It all depends on the diligence of the owner, whether or not his flock is free from disturbing influences. It is the responsibility of our shepherd if we follow the shepherd to take care of these things. Because a church can be just as disrupted, or we on an individual basis can be just as disrupted as a sheep for those same four reasons. Look at Hebrews 13. When you start looking at the Bible through the eyes of a sheep, you're going to find that, sorry, I don't mean to offend anybody, but you're called a sheep all the time. You and I are called sheep. Hebrews 1320. Anyone here ever grow sheep? I mean, not grow sheep, but raise sheep? A few people raise sheep. They are fun to pet. You can't get a sheep to bite you every once in a while. But anyways, most of them won't bite you. Hebrews 13, verse 20.

Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom in the glory forever and ever. Amen. If we zero in our lives on this covenant God made with us at baptism so that He will do in us every good work and everything that is pleasing at His sight. In other words, our relationship with our shepherd is the single most important relationship in our lives. And the shepherd does the shepherding. The Lord is my shepherd. Remember, David starts with, I'm a sheep. I can only understand God as a dumb sheep. And then it makes sense. Instead of us trying to control, us trying to make everything work out just perfect, us trying to control the world around us. I've noticed the people who deny the fact that coronavirus exists. Now, I don't know. There's a virus out there that I've had.

We've had between the three churches 20, at least 20 people get it, maybe 25. And we've had two people that it was partly partial reason for their deaths. Something exists, but why would someone deny it exists? Fear. We've got to control. Something's out of control. I've got to figure out a way to control it. How do you control something you can't see? And even the scientists can't define. Oh, different scientists define this, that, the other. But it's pretty confusing, right?

What this is is pretty confusing. That's part of the problem.

But then we zero in on the shepherd, and my life with him, and our lives as the flock.

Domestic sheep don't survive in the wild, and they don't survive well alone. They have a hurting instinct that is overwhelming, to be part of a herd of other sheep. They don't want to be a herd of lions. They don't want to be part of a herd of bears, because they eat them. They don't want to be part of a herd of other sheep, like them. Sheep do spook easily, and they stampede, and they don't even know why. One starts running, and they'll all run. Sort of like us, right? Someone has a crisis. You ever come up to somebody at church, and they tell you, some crisis is happening in their life, and they're all upset? And you go home, and you're upset, so you tell your wife, now she's upset. She calls three other people. Pretty soon, 15 people are upset, and the original person went home and said, you know, I feel better. I got that off my chest. I'm okay. And now, half the herd, it's just running. I understand we all do that. We're sheep. We've got to face it. Once we do, this gets a whole lot easier. We're just sheep. This is a story I might have told you. I know I've told individuals. I did a radio broadcast once at a county fair, and we had a big trailer, you know, with a built-in studio behind me. And I used to love doing this. This was one of my favorite part of the job, because I'd get this big, long cord, you know, stuck into the inside that trailer was this big glass. There was a studio in there, and people would love to come up and look in the studio. And I stand out there and just talk to people as they went by. And, of course, they had turntables. We still had turntables back then. And so they'd play a song, and then, you know, the announcer makes some words. He'd give me the cue, and I'd talk to people. I'd bring people over and talk to people. It was sort of fun. I liked doing it. And one time, I'm standing there, and all of a sudden, I look up, and there's a herd. No, a flock. It's not a herd. There's a flock of sheep running at me.

They had gotten out of the pen, and they were just running, because they didn't know where they were going. They didn't know why they were running. They're just running, and I'm standing here. And I turned around, looked at the booth, went like this, and the guys in the booth started to laugh and did this. And I turn around, and I said, this is rather unbelievable, but there's an entire flock of sheep that are just running wild. And they all told me later, it was absolutely hilarious, because I'm explaining, yeah, this flock of sheep, there must be 30 or 40 of them. They're running towards me. And I said, and then just time, all you can hear on the radio is, bah, bah, because they're all running past me. And I'm standing there, looking around like sheep.

And they said, all their past, you know, they're gone. I don't know if I'd fallen down and got trampled. They would have thought I was even funnier. But, you know, this is, you just wait for these moments in radio. Everybody lives for them, you know, except the guy that's standing out there. No one knows that someone got, they got out of the pen. And the first thing they did was, if they didn't kneel around and say, hey, what are we doing out here? I don't know, where do we go? Maybe we should go back in. They just started to run! They spook very easily. We do that.

We spook easily. Until the shepherd comes along, one man told me today, this morning, he said, he lived by a man who had sheep. And the man would go out and give this strange call, and all the sheep would come up to him. That no matter where they were, they don't come to him. He said, so we practice and practice and practice. And he said, he'd go out and do that exact same call. They'd all just look up and ignore him. They knew he wasn't the one. They knew he wasn't their shepherd. And he said, I told him I could make the same call. And he said, that's not just the call. It's who you are. They know, that's not my owner.

Why should I trust him?

If we see God as our owner and Jesus Christ as the shepherd to take care of us, we know that voice. We know that voice. That's why in 1 Peter, and I go back to that scripture sometimes in my ministry to look at it, he says that the elders of the church are shepherds.

He says, you're not lords over the people, you're shepherds over the people. So we know what shepherds are. You know what a shepherd does a lot of time?

He stands and watches. Now that's not easy for me to do. But sometimes you stand and watch.

And then you take care of the sheep. Or you can just panic them. You know, you can create more problems than you're solving. You're there, you take care of the sheep. They matter. That's the thing that I think in the church, and we have to be careful of, we make the church nothing more than an American corporation. And the Old Testament, the New Testament church was not an American corporation. There was no America and there was no corporation. Now there has to be a corporate structure to the church. I'm not saying that's wrong. There has to be the function. And they had a somewhat of a structure. I mean, they had pastors, they had elders, they had apostles over the pastors. But it wasn't a corporation like we have.

They were elders and shepherds and bishops. Bishops are, that's an administrative term.

Elders is not. It's a relationship term. It's a tribal term, actually. It's part of a tribe.

And shepherds is very interesting because you take care of something. That's what you do. You take care of them. So that's very important when he says that.

And I think most ministers are very aware and read that from time to time. Say, how am I taking care of God's sheep? He also says he leaves them by the still waters.

You know, a sheep will drink almost any kind of water. I've actually asked shepherds about this. Keller says that. They'll eat almost, drink almost any kind of water. It'll make them sick. It'll make them die. What kind of waters are you and I drinking, thinking it's going to make us not thirsty anymore? You know, the putrid pools of just the world, lust and envy and just physical things, alcohol, spiritual pride. That's pretty tepid. Just lukewarm, I'm just proud of myself. The muddy waters of worldly politics.

You talk about a bad drink. Rolly politics is a bad drink to get into.

Every time we drink of those things, we're just left sick and more thirsty. Only God can give us what we need. And that's why in the Bible, God's Holy Spirit is referred to as water that takes away our thirst. There's a spiritual thirst we have, and it's intense, and it should be. And God takes care of that. Another thing about sheep that I find interesting, it's still waters. You know, think about an animal that is covered with heavy wool. I've talked to shepherds who say once they shear them, sometimes they'll just run around and jump like they're crazy because they're so excited to get all that weight off of them. So you can imagine you're an animal where, I don't know, how much of your weight is wool, and you step out into some water to drink, and it's running water. Well, your wool starts to soak up water.

Pretty soon, you just sort of fall over, and they watch you float down and disappear. They drown!

No, of course, they don't know that. Oh, I'm thirsty! They step out into the water, and if it's moving water, and it's moving against them, and it starts getting soaked up, pretty soon they're so heavy they just fall over and drown. They're swept down the creek or the river.

So, still, water is actually a very important thing there if you're a shepherd. You don't want running water. You want clean water. But if it's running, it can't be very fast because what if one of them falls in or gets in too deep, you know, you've got to try to lug this animal that's now soaked, it weighs even more out of the water. Still waters. He restores my soul and leads me to the path of righteousness. There's a term in English. I don't want to go back and make this a term in Hebrew. So, I want to be careful about this, but there is some thought that maybe the English translators translate this Hebrew term, translated it, because of a shepherd's viewpoint.

David says, why do you cast down, O my soul? Why are you disquieted within me? He actually says that twice in Psalm 42. Why are you cast down? As Keller said, in Australia, a cast-down sheep is a sheep that has fallen over and it rolls onto its back. And the problem with a cast-down sheep is it can't get itself righted up again. You know, it's like a turtle. A turtle can't flip itself back over. A cast-down sheep gets on his back and he said they will flail their four little legs and just cry out until they just die. Mark Smith said when he was a kid they had sheep and he said a sheep would walk up to an electric fence, stand against it, get shocked, and get so distressed by it, it would stand there against the fence until it died. Okay? Sheep don't deal with anxiety and fear very well. Guess what we are? Guess what kind of world we live in.

Guess what kind of world Satan creates? Confusion, anxiety, and fear. That's what everything he does.

Confusion, anxiety, and fear.

In fact, Keller says one time he had to leave on a trip and he told his son he had one sheep that was pregnant and multiple times a day she would just fall down, roll over on her back, and just lay there kicking. And he told him she'll die but you I will reward you if you save her. And his son had to go out multiple times every day, find her wherever she was, and flip her back over.

And I think he gave him the two lambs that were born. I think she had twins and he gave both of them to him. That was his reward. A cast-down sheep. And David says, my soul is cast down. Now once again, did he mean that as a cast-down sheep the way we use the English word? Probably not. But it fits so well. Inside, I'm on my back flailing away and I don't know what I'm going to do if somebody doesn't come flip me back over. And as a sheep, you will find instead of trying to control every situation, you're going to find it comfortable to go to God and say, I'm a cast-down sheep. Look at Psalm 42. Psalm 42.

I'm a cast-down sheep. Until we are comfortable with going to God and saying that, we're always going to have a level of frustration. Psalm 42.

Verse 5. Why are you cast down, oh my soul? So let's just use an English then word for that. I mean, meaning for that. Why are you on your back flipping around, just pumping all your your limbs, unable to get flip yourself over? Oh, just give me time. Just give me time. I'll flip over.

How do I thought of this all of a sudden? How many of you have seen Sean the Sheep? It's an English cartoon. All a few of you have. Okay. It's quite...

I think it's funny, but it's English humor. No. Melissa, do you think it's funny? Oh, she does. Okay. Sean the Sheep. My grandkids were into it a while back, so I'm not suggesting it because you probably won't think it's funny. But anyway, Sean the Sheep. I could see Sean the Sheep laying on its back flailing away, trying to get up. Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of what? His countenance, God's presence. You and I, there are times we have to admit I'm on my back. I'm flailing around. I've done everything I can do. I've tried to control this every way I can, and I can't. Would you please come put me on my feet again? There's a great humility in that. But if one thing about most sheep, they're humble. You have to be when anything can kill you. So he restores my soul. He picks us up when we're cast down. He leads me in the paths of righteousness. Now that's very interesting. Sheep will eat, they will literally eat the grass down to the nubs where it can't grow back. I mean, they'll just munch it down to nothing.

I mean, some of you, if you like the old western movies, how many scenes were there in western movies where they're in the bar and the sheep herder walks in and orders a drink and some cowboy says, ah, that's a bad smell. Smells like sheep to me. And 20 seconds later, you see four cowboys get up and you see them beat up and throw out the sheep herder into the street. Actually, they did hate each other. Cattle people did not want sheep coming in because they just eat everything. I remember when we were in Texas, there was a guy who rented out his herd of sheep to mow your lawn. You didn't have to mow your lawn for a long time after they ate your lawn. You know? They just came along and ate everything. He loaded him up in a truck and he'd take him off.

The path of righteousness. You see, sheep have to be moved. They can't become creatures of habit. If they become creatures of habit, they'll destroy their environment. Now, that's what we talked about last week when we talked about complacency and being spiritual creatures of habit. Sheep can become creatures of habit. And what they would have to do in Judea is take them up into the mountains. I talked to some men who live out west in the United States, and they said, you know, there's still shepherds that take their sheep in the summertime up into the mountains. It's good grass. It's new grass. There's water. And then you bring them back down. But you have to know the paths, and the sheep have to follow you.

So the paths of righteousness, from a shepherd's viewpoint, is David would have had to take his sheep up into the mountains every summer and stay up there with them for long periods of time, alone. Maybe some family members show up and maybe get some food or whatever, but they could spend weeks and weeks up there alone and then bring them back down to the shelter of their house. That's what David did as a teenager. So some of you teenagers don't have it too bad.

You know, being a shepherd was not easy. That's a great way to spend your summers. I was a shepherd, right? Had to take the sheep up into the mountains.

So God has to lead us. Our spiritual lives are not just standing still. You may live physically the same place your whole life, but that's not what the spiritual life is.

It's following the shepherd wherever he takes us.

It's following the shepherd wherever he takes us.

Of course, one of the most famous parts of Psalm 23, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shallow of death, I will fear no evil.

I will fear no evil. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

The shepherd had two instruments. Both of those instruments you will see today if you look up on YouTube or on just images of shepherds in Africa, you will find pictures of still in Africa today where there are shepherds that have two things. One thing that looks like a club, the rod, and a staff, which is the shepherd's crook. He usually comes up and has a hook on the end. Okay. They were used for two different things. First of all, the rod was used to fight off predators. It was a weapon. You could use it, you know, a lot of times you'll see it when they have a big knob on the end. So, you know, so you could pound a hyena or something, but they didn't have hyenas in Judea. But if you lived in Africa, so you could, you know, hit a predator with it. It also was used as a counting tool. They would bring them into shoots and they would pass under the rod and be counted. What's interesting, you will find in the prophets, one place I can think of specifically is in Ezekiel, where God passes the sheep, the people of Israel, under his rod. Now, once again, what's that mean? Well, that's how a shepherd counts his sheep. You count them and they're yours. One, two, oh, that was not mine. Okay. So this rod was very important. The rod had another purpose.

Every once in a while, you can have a sheep that's more like a goat, and that sheep will absolutely refuse to submit to its owner. Keller tells a story in his book about the most beautiful sheep he ever had, a big ewe that was strong. She was very smart. He said, this, this, and produce beautiful lambs. He said this was the best one he ever had, but he said she would watch, walk the fences all the time until she found a weak spot in a fence or a place she could squeeze under it, and then she'd wander off. Well, pretty soon, her lambs, you know, now she has two or three generations of lambs, they would see they'd all fall off.

And with the herd instinct of sheep, pretty soon all the sheep would wander off. And no matter what he did with this lamb, she put the whole flock in danger over and over and over again. He could not get her to stop. So we had to put her down. He had to kill his prized sheep. Sometimes the shepherd used the rod to smack one in the head, and if he hit one hard enough, you killed it.

In other words, there was a rebel sheep every once in a while, and for the good of the flock, you had to kill it. That's a scary thing. But that rod, you'll see Jesus has a rod, right?

That rod is for counting, it's for different reasons, but one of them is to crack a rebel sheep in the head.

You know, goats, that sheep is like a goat.

And if you've ever been to a sales barn, they bring the sheep in, in little groups, and people bid for them. Now, they open the chute, being the herd mentality, they just come in, and they all stay huddled together. That's what's sort of funny. They all just sort of stay huddled together, you know, they don't know where they are. Just follow John, he seems to know what he's doing. So they all gather around, and they sort of, you know, and they sell them. Now, how do you get them out of the arena? I mean, you could send it a sheep dog, but it'd take a while. Sheep dogs are amazing. You could send it a person that tried to herd them out, but then they're liable to panic and run all over the place. They suddenly have a goat standing there, and the goat walks up to the herd and starts moving, and they all follow the goat.

And they open the gate, the goat stands aside, one by one they go through, and they shoot it. They shut it, and the goat goes back over and stand and wakes from the next one. That's why it's called the Judas goat. It's Judas. Off to the slaughter you go. Just follow the goat, and it takes them down the chute, and off they go.

It's amazing to watch. I've only seen it one time, but I mean, more than once, but one time I've been to a sales bar where they had a Judas goat, and I watched it numerous times, and it was just a fascinating thing. They just followed him. Off they went. And that's what Keller says when he had a sheep that would do that, that all of them could die. He had to get rid of the sheep that would cause them all to die. Our shepherd will do that. We can be removed from the flock by our shepherd if we put everybody else in danger, spiritual danger.

The crook is a little different. That staff is used to protect. It is used to guide sheep. They would tap a sheep, and when it felt that, it would know to move. They could herd sheep with that staff. They also used the hook to grab one and pull him in. They would use it for lambs who had fallen into a hole or like a ditch. They would grab him and pull him out with this big shepherd crook. So both of these things had totally different purposes. How would you know that, unless you were a shepherd? Especially back then, that they had two different reasons.

The last scripture I want to go to, and then we're just going to read the last couple of verses of Psalm 23. It says, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over. You prepare a table before me. In other words, you make sure I am spiritually okay. This care given by Jesus Christ is our shepherd, because God has ordained him as the shepherd. It's so important to understand. Like I said, as a pastor, which literally means shepherd. I'm not your primary shepherd. I am the shepherd to help us as the flock, but our primary shepherd is Jesus Christ. We must always remember that. We must stay focused on that.

John 10. John 10 and verse 1. These are the words of Jesus Christ. John 10. Most assuredly I say to you, he who does not enter the sheep hold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

And he brings them out, his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of a stranger. I used to think there's sort of a mixture of metaphors here, because he's going to explain this a little bit. The door that has to be opened, he's the door, he's the doorkeeper, and then you start to realize, wait a minute, what does a shepherd do?

He opens the door to the corral, and it might even be a shoot, and what does he do? One, two, he counts them as they go through. He's both the door and the doorkeeper. He shuts the door, he opens the door, he counts. His sheep go into his corral. He says, anybody that climbs over the fence doesn't belong there. Anybody that climbs over the fence doesn't belong there.

And he says he knows them by name. Once again, we're back to this where Mark says, Christ saw these people, and they all were in need of God so much, he had compassion on them because they were like, what? Sheep without a shepherd. Here he says, I'm the shepherd, folks. I'm the one who would take care of you. I'm the one the Father has set up as the shepherd over the church.

He is there to solve our problems. He is there to lead us to God so that we have a direct access to God. We have to understand that. We read this many times around the scriptures like this, around Passover season, and don't even realize what we're saying. Well, you know what he said this, the disciples didn't understand what he was saying. Verse 6, Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which he spoke to them.

So John says, we had no idea what he was talking about. So he goes on. He says, didn't Jesus said to them again, most assuredly I said to you, I am the door of the sheep. I mean, you said you were the doorkeeper. Yes, I'm the door too. Okay. They come through me.

I bring them here. I open the door. I am the door. Understand sheep. All who come ever, all who ever come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

So he said, I will take care of them. The purpose of a shepherd is to take the sheep to pasture. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life. They may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. He said, you understand I give everything I have for you sheep. This is Jesus Christ talking about you. You are the sheep. I am the sheep. We like to think of ourselves as more than sheep. Tell you what, we don't get it until we start with the Lord is my shepherd.

And then we understand I am a sheep. It's not a bad thing to be a sheep if you have the right shepherd. It's a good thing to be a sheep. If you have the right shepherd, then it's good to be a sheep.

If you don't, it's terrible to be a sheep. But we are sheep. And with the humility of a sheep, with the with the understanding, I can't survive without my shepherd. I can't live. I may exist, but I don't live. I live in fear and anxiety. I have no hope. I have nothing to eat. My wool gets bad. I get parasites. I die. I am thirsty all the time. I'm eating terrible food. I'm sick all the time. This is what I am spiritually.

But my shepherd takes me to something different. He takes care of me. We have to believe that. And I tell you what, the harder life is, the more you have to believe it.

The more difficult it becomes, the more you have to believe it.

That there is a shepherd taking care of you.

He says again in verse 14, I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep, and I am known by my own. As my father knows me, even so I know the father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. He goes on and says, and you're not the only flock. He's talking to them. He says, you're not the only flock. I'm going to have lots of flocks before this is over. This is a flock, part of a greater flock, part of a greater flock. We don't know where all the flocks are and who all the flocks are. But you have to understand what you are. You're a sheep and you're part of a flock. By the way, there are no independent sheep that survive.

I mean, just totally by themselves. You can't live very long by yourself as a sheep.

It doesn't work that way.

He says, you anoint my head with oil.

We are anointed by God's Holy Spirit, which is symbolized by oil. Let's go to Psalm 23 now. I want to look at the last couple of verses. Hopefully now, every time you start to read through the Bible, and you see all kinds of analogies about sheep and shepherding and goats, which are not usually put in a very good light and reason. There's a reason for that.

Psalm 23. Because the end of this psalm is very interesting because he's talking about being a sheep all this time. By the way, also, he says, you're going to take care of me in the presence of my enemies. A sheep has nothing but enemies. Every predator there is. You get a little enough sheep and a hawk will come take it. A big enough hawk will come get a sheep. You know, we're the newborn lamb. Everybody's an enemy to a poor sheep. Except that they decide to run you over as a group, as I found out. That can be a little frightening.

He says in verse 6 then, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. He doesn't stop with the present, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. You know when a shepherd took his in Judea, took his sheep up into the mountains. At the end of summer, he brought them down again. Now they're full. They've got good wool. They've eaten up. They're fattened up for the winter.

They're happy. They all follow him down. He takes them and he has a barn built for them.

So he gets and repairs the barn. Make sure it's okay. Or maybe he had servants take care of it or other family members. But the barn's ready. It's full of food. It's prepared. And the sheep come in. Winter's coming and they're okay. The sheep go into the barn and they're okay.

David took that a step further. He said, at the end of this life, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Okay, I understand. I'm on the rocky trails going up the mountain. I'll be on the rocky trails coming down the mountain. I face all the things that sheep face and my shepherd takes care of me. And in the end, he brings me home.

Remember Psalm 23 was written by a man who was a shepherd. But here he doesn't use that. Let me tell you what it's like to be a shepherd. No, he tells you what it's like to be a sheep. A humble, lowly sheep.

There isn't any more hopeless or needful animal than a domesticated sheep.

Now, I'm not saying they're completely dumb. They have a reputation for being dumb and it's partly deserved. Some sheep can be pretty smart. But overall, they have a hurting instinct.

Overall, if they're not, everything isn't just right. They're in anxiety because they can control nothing. They have nothing. I know 20 miles an hour isn't very fast, right? I read that one. So sheep can at least run 20 miles an hour. Yeah. That's a wolf run. And like I said, sheep aren't exactly long distance runners, okay? How fast is a... They can't run a wolf, can they? Didn't you raise sheep? They can't outrun a wolf? No, no, I can't. Because I mean, I mean, you don't have much protection here. Send your big ram out there and try to butt one of them, you know.

That's why there's nowhere rams left in the in the flock after a while. They sent the rams out to fight the wolves and pretty soon there's no rams left. By the way, I might have mentioned this. I did it this morning. I can remember a rancher telling me that raised sheep in Texas, that a domesticated dog could spend years living with sheep and, you know, just plays with them. They're fine. And then one day he kills one and he finds out they're so easy to kill and he'll start killing them. He said, sometimes you just have to shoot your dog. And he said, there's another strange thing about sheep. He said, mountain lions will come and, you know, kill an animal, a deer to eat it. They'll come in and kill animals to eat. Sometimes because the way sheep act, and I think what it is, you can drag one of them off and the others instead of running away just all sort of herd together again. He said, a mountain lion will kill a bunch of sheep just for the fun of it.

It's interesting that Satan's called a lion.

He takes the sheep just for the fun of it. Where's the sheep?

So every once in a while, every once in a while, when you feel like a sheep running around screaming in circles, not knowing what to do in life, start looking through the Bible with all the references to sheep and shepherding and God. Remember, you're a sheep. Accept that, and you'll find that you have an absolute need for your shepherd. Accept that, and you'll realize, running around like I'm crazy or being cast down on my back or floating down the river because I got too much water in my wool and I'm going to drown, I can't save this. I can't fix this, but my shepherd can.

So instead of continuing the panic, go to your shepherd and say, hey, I'm a sheep.