We each have a role in Psalm twenty-three Ours is to follow, Our Father’s to lead He owns the green pastures where He offers us rest And He leads by still waters on the path that is best Will we choose to lie down Will we worry instead? Will we follow HIs footsteps Through the valley ahead?
Will we sit at the table, He’s prepared with His treasure While the enemy watches He fills cups beyond measure Will we rest and receive? Will we stay? Will we leave? For a home waits ahead For all those who believe!
The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want He maketh me to lie down in green pastures He leadeth me beside the still waters Psalm 23:1-2 KJV
The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures... And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Psalm 23:1;6b ESV
Hidden within Psalm twenty-three is the story of an invitation for us to follow God on a journey that starts with green pastures and ends at HIs home. But today, living in between those two bookends, usually includes ups and downs, confusing moments, and even some personal failures. But through everything we go through, God is teaching us to trust Him. First, we need to trust Him enough to follow the straight and narrow path that leads towards a dangerous looking valley. Along the way, we will hear howling wolves prowling around on the hilltops on either side of our pathway, and sometimes we may wonder if we should just turn around and run away but we need to remind ourselves that we are not alone. Our Good Shepherd is still with us and if we look to the Shepherd, we will see that He isn’t worried, and then He smiles at us and points to the heavy rod tucked in His belt, and He reminds us that He knows exactly how to deal with wolves. Then, He takes HIs staff and tapping our side gently, turning us sometimes to the left other times to the right. Then, if we keep following, the narrow path widens out into a meadow, where we will see a beautiful table that our Shepherd has prepared filled with delicious food, set up here in this most unexpected place. After eating, our Shepherd pours a bit of oil on His hands and then massages it into the wool on our head and around our ears. This rest has been delightful, but soon, it is time to head out again. Our Shepherd leads us back on the road, but this time He smiles, pointing behind, where we see His goodness and mercy following us, almost like sheepdogs, every step of the way. Finally, just up ahead, the road comes to an end, in front of a strangely familiar house. Though we have never seen this place before, as we look closely, we suddenly realize that this is the place that God has been telling us about from the beginning. Then as we eagerly get ready to step through the door, our Shepherd stops one final time and reminds us that our long journey has only been possible, because before we began, He laid down His life for us!
"My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?" Psalm 22:1a
Most people would agree that the most comforting Psalm in the Bible is the twenty-third Psalm, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures.” Is a verse many of us have memorized. It is stitched on pillows, hung on walls and inscribed on the flyleaf of many a Bible. But before Psalm twenty-three, comes Psalm twenty-two, which begins with the terrible cry, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me? The suffering of the psalmist is only second to his lack of understanding of why God could allow this to happen to him, and that cry is the one Jesus spoke while in the agony of death He struggled to breath on the cross. This, of all the things that Jesus said has always been the most puzzling to me. I know how terribly He suffered, and that the pain and agony of His crucifixion was more than I could ever bear. But as God’s Son, how could He ever think that He was abandoned? He knew what He was getting into from the moment of his birth, from the instant He was acclaimed by John the Baptist to be the Lamb of God, who had come to take away the sins of the world. But the sin was so heavy; it was heavier than even He fully understood until in HIs final moments. That is when He cried out with that terrible question, “Why have you…. You my God…forsaken me?” The answer is almost more puzzling than the question: He was abandoned for me and for you. Abandoned on the cross for a guilty thief, a centurion who had given the orders to drive nails through His feet and for disciples who had run away at HIs arrest. Crushed under the heaviness of the sins of the world He cried out, but then we must remember that there is more to the Psalm than its opening line. Those words were also a signpost that pointed to the last words,
"They shall come and declare His righteousness to a people yet unborn. that He has done it." Psalm 22:31
And then, after the closing of the door on the suffering of Jesus in Psalm twenty-two, the doorway opens for us to the comforts of Psalm Twenty-three. There, our suffering Savior, becomes our Good Shepherd. There, He leads us into green pastures, righteous paths and through even the valley of death to a banqueting table and the Father’s house where we will live forever! I pray that as you consider the depth of the suffering of Jesus for the gift He offers of forgiveness and eternal life that you will spend time with Him today worshipping and surrendering yourself to Him.
This is probably the most important message which I have shared this year. I encourage you to listen to all of it in this morning’s video and that it may bring you hope and comfort, whatever you are going through right now. May God bless and carry you through both now and always.
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