The Lord Is My Shepherd: His Presence
THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD: HIS PRESENCE Trinity
Psalm 23:4 25.8.19
If the fanciful idea of reincarnation were true, better not to come back as an Australian sheep. Crows waiting to peck out the eyes of new-born lambs and foxes want to kill them. Flies waiting to strike, bugs waiting to burrow and feral pigs waiting to attack. When the wool has grown, it might get so wet, the sheep can’t stand up. And the flock might be so spooked that some of them might even die of fright.
When David was a shepherd, after the sheep were grazed in the lowlands during winter, they had to be taken to the high pastures for summer. That meant a long walk through some tough places. Bears and lions waiting. Dark ravines where the sheep might fall to their death, with maybe flooded creeks to be crossed.
In Psalm 23:1 David says “The Lord is my shepherd”. He sees himself as a sheep in the flock of God, and Yahweh as his shepherd.
In verse 4 he says “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, For you are with me; Your rod and your staff they comfort me.”
There is no word for ‘death’ in the Hebrew. It’s more like “though I walk through valley of shadows”.
He knew what that meant as a shepherd. The lions and bears that wanted to eat his sheep, would have been just as happy killing and eating him or he could be the one to fall off a cliff. Being with the sheep probably meant he was on the high pasture for 3 or 4 months at a time, with only sheep for company.
Beyond farming, there were plenty of other dark valleys in David’s life: on the run and hunted as a traitor to the king, years on end. Betrayed by his best friend. Carrying the guilt of big sin. Losing a son in infancy, and an adult on through his own failure as a father.
Sure, he is a rich king in a high place, but who cares when those things stick in your memory and lodge in your heart?
Verse 4 in Psalm 23 for us today is a call to reality, and a call to certainty.
THE REALITY OF SHADOWS IN A FALLEN WORLD
Some of us have known some dark shadows …
- Betrayal by someone close to you.
- Failure to fulfil the fine dream you had.
- The death of a child – or childlessness.
- Serious sin, with consequences that remain until today.
- Chronic pain or unemployment.
- A relationship breakdown that has shattered you.
- Anguish and trouble inside your head that is so bad, it would be a relief to die.
David is realistic enough about life in this world, that he says not “IF” I walk through valleys of shadows” as if it were only a possibility that he might, but “THOUGH” I do, as though is what will actually happen.
In this world there are shadowy valleys for sheep, and there are shadowy valleys for all of us. Because we are part of a world impacted by sin, and it is all subject to decay. The dust of death rests on every part of it we touch, and every part of it that touches us.
There are 2 wrong ways we may try to handle that:
- We can try to eliminate the shadows.
Pay up on health insurance and superannuation so you won’t have to suffer along the way. Avoid deep friendships so you don’t get hurt. Don’t take any risks, so you don’t have to fail.
That doesn’t really work. It is impossible to remove yourself from everything that is dark – tragedy, failure and death come to us all, eventually. More than that, a commitment to playing it safe means your life will be useless: no deep relationships and no risks? Then no enriching of others, no depth of character.
- We can try to pretend the shadows are not dark.
Optimism is not a bad thing but it’s not true that there is always a bright side to look on, or that every cloud has a silver lining.
In this world little animals get mauled by big animals. Bad men win over the good men. God doesn’t pay out all injustice in this life. Things in our lives really hurt. Pretending tears are not real requires more than you have in you.
I include here the Christian form of pretending. A man I know was diagnosed with cancer in his 30’s. I ran into him a few weeks back and he told me that a couple of years ago it had gotten very bad. He said “I am ashamed to say it, but I didn’t want to die. I knew I would see Jesus, but I didn’t want to experience death.
“Ashamed to say it”? He ought not to have been. He was being real. He was looking forward to being with Jesus, but pretending that death is not an ugly evil? That’s pretending too hard.
David doesn’t think he can eliminate the shadows, and he doesn’t pretend that they aren’t so dark. He is a model of biblical faith, however, when he says “I fear no evil”. Which means what?
Not feeling it? No. Not weeping over it? No. Maybe something like “not being run by it”. In his book on Spiritual Depression, Martyn Lloyd-Jones says that not fearing evil is a refusal to panic when evil confronts you.
How is that possible? How is it possible for a child who hates the dark, and night-time shadows, not to panic? When the light is turned on, and a strong parent is beside him or her. God is turning the light on for David – and for us, by showing us that along with the reality of the shadows in this world, there is also:
TRUE CERTAINTY IN A FALLEN WORLD
I came across an article this week titled “101 Ways to Take Care of Yourself When the World Seems Overwhelming”.
They included: call in sick to work, lay flat on the dirt, scream and pound pillows, turn off the lights and stare into space, cuddle someone or something, look at a beautiful painting, shake your body to move the energy out, buy lunch instead of taking it to work, write 25 reasons why you are a good and lovable person, and so on.
I thought about people I have known to be in dark valleys, and despite the good sense of some of the 101 ways, overall there was nothing in any or all of them that would have brought comfort as the darkness was closing in on them.
David’s comfort is that “The Lord is my shepherd … he is WITH ME”.
Did you notice what David does not say. He does not say “My faith comforts me”, or “my spiritual experiences comfort me”, or “my better feelings on a good day comfort me”. Not “I am with him”, but “he is with me”.
Who is with him? Who is with me in the valley of shadows? As I said last week, we know that from where we stand, it is Jesus. Jesus, who in John 10, calls himself “the good shepherd”. Whom Peter calls him the “Chief shepherd” and the writer to Hebrews “the great Shepherd”.
So, the question for us is: in what sense is Jesus with us? We know that he is not personally with us, like he was with people 2000 years ago. We know that he is physically now in heaven.
We know that he said he would come back in person through the Holy Spirit he would send. In that sense, he is with us. But I don’t think that is what this verses is saying.
What brings David comfort is not only that the Living God is with him, but that in particular he is a God who has a “rod and staff” which comfort him.
The shepherd’s staff was the long stick with a curvy bit on one end. It was what he used to steer the sheep in the right direction and to keep them away from where they might fall. He would use it to lift them up from a ledge where they might be trapped – or out of water into which they may have fallen. The staff was used to keep the sheep where he wanted them.
The rod, on the other hand, wasn’t for the sheep. It was a club to knock the brains out of any animal that wanted to attack the sheep and gobble them up.
The staff was for the sheep and the rod or club for whatever would attack them.
What do you think Jesus uses to guard his sheep and kill their enemy? Two questions, but one answer. The same answer to both.
When Jesus said that he is the Good Shepherd … “I lay down my life for the sheep” (Jn 10:14,15), what was the result? That the sheep “may have life and have it abundantly” (v10). As to the staff: it was to smash the power of our enemy so that “they will never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand” (v29).
Providing all that the sheep need, and knocking the stuffing out of our enemy, Satan, so that we have all we need, and are safe forever. Rod and staff. He wins everything and makes everything safe by his dying a mighty death.
Where do I look today as I pass through valleys of shadows? Back to the strong promises and certainties built into the dying of the Good Shepherd. I know I shall come out of the valley intact, because of what is back there.
I was thinking this week about those words at the end of the letter to the Hebrews. Speaking of Jesus, the writer says “he has said, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you’. So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” (13:5b,6)
Which Jesus has said that? The one who all through that letter to the Hebrews is presented as the one complete sacrifice for all time. Who did enough back there, that it works just as well for today as it did for yesterday. That is why in the next verse after saying this Lord is our helper, and we need never fear in the darkness, that this Jesus is “the same yesterday, today and forever”. (Heb 13:8)
What is your response in the valley of shadows? Doing anything and everything to make this life shadow-free? When you realise you can’t, pretending the dark isn’t dark?
How are you going to REFUSE TO PANIC if you see the darkness for the evil it is? A new spiritual experience? A supernatural rescue? No, friends, not that.
Look back to the enemy-smashing and future-securing work of Jesus in his death. When you know that is the Lord Jesus who is with you, holding you, you can choose not to panic, but to trust.
Peter Jeffery was a Welsh preacher who was with us in 1985 and again in 1994 for our first North West Bible Conference, and whose plain-speaking little books we have found so helpful.
More than 20 years ago, in one of his books, Peter wrote “I have had two heart attacks and I do not want another one, but the probability is that at some time in the future I will. And it could be that eventually a heart attack will kill me. If I am to spend the rest of my life in fear of a heart attack it will rob me of the joy and peace of salvation. … If I am to let the means by which death comes to me dominate my thinking and forget that the cause of my death, sin, has been dealt with once and for all by my Saviour, then I will live a life of” fear.
Peter wasn’t able to preach much after that, but he didn’t panic. Every month he wrote a new evangelistic tract which he would email to many of us. He stopped only because death came to him in 2017. The shadows could not stop his wanting to be useful and to serve others in the cause of Jesus.
People who don’t panic in the shadows say “I fear no evil, for you, crucified and risen Lord Jesus, are with me; your rod and your staff are my comfort.”
By the grace of God will you resolve to look at what is bigger and better than the dark shadows, and to live more off the past work of Jesus than anything, anything at all in the present?