Skip to main content

We, The Sheep

             The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. (Psalm 23:1-3) 

This is another of the many passages that we either love or hate – or sometimes love and hate. It’s really humiliating. Consider the number of people who flock together to denounce Christians (and especially Conservative Christian) as “sheople” or “sheep.” I’ve chuckled at some of these people. First, they proclaim themselves to be the enemy of these sheople. But one of the main enemies of sheep is the wolf – or wolf pack. So as they proclaim the sheople to be dangerous, the image that comes to mind is of a sheep holding a wolf up against a wall and bleating, “Baa-lieve!”

But that doesn’t make it any less humiliating. Consider the stereotypes for sheep. Cute and cuddly as a lamb, but dumb as a brick once it grows up. It follows along where it’s called to go, or is herded either to the slaughterhouse or to be fleeced of its valuables. If you’ve read about shepherds and sheep, you’ll know that sheep can be stubborn, stupid, silly, and dirty. They take a lot of work to care for – and having met at least one sheep in my life - they smell. This is not the sort of label we want to wear.

But, if you read Phillip Keller’s book A Shepherd Looks At the Twenty-third Psalm, you can’t help but see the similarities between sheep and people, no matter how embarrassing it is. So, let’s step back and consider. The Lord is my Shepherd…

He makes me lie down in green pastures. He provides food. He meets my need for time to rest and digest.

He leads me beside quiet waters. He provides water. He makes sure it’s not scary or dangerous for me to drink.

He restores my soul. Oh, Lord, please. I so want this. He fixes my battered, broken, rusted out, beat up, tired soul. He replaces the parts that need to be, washes it, paints it, and makes it like new.

He guides me in the paths of righteousness… This involves His leading me to a land I do not know, as He led Abraham.

As Dallas Willard described it, this passage of Scripture teaches us that the universe is a perfectly safe place for us sheep. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

              Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me . (John 14:6)           If “I am the gate of the sheep…I am the good shepherd” from chapter 10 is a double whammy, this verse is a triple whammy. And its first victim is the notion that any other so-called god was acceptable or the same as Jesus. He, and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to get to the Father. There is no other Savior, or Redeemer, according to Jesus. Now, to be fair, other religions will claim that their religion or god(s) are the only way. That is the nature of gods and of religions. If this and that are equally good and agree on what’s necessary, then this and that are the same thing, so there’s no need to from the other to one. If that’s the case, then why speak against the other or promote the one? There’s a song I’ve been listening to i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...
Post a Comment
Read more