Psalm 23                         Easter IV                   May 7, 2006

Have you ever been really scared? Maybe it took a disease to scare you, a notice that your job had been eliminated, a phone call from the police late at night, or a letter on a kitchen counter that said, "I'm not coming back." We speak sometimes of being scared stiff or paralyzed with fear, but as a pastor I've seen that most people react to fear by running like crazy. It doesn't matter where they run or what they try next. They just have to keep moving. The late psychologist Rollo May has written, "Humans are the strangest of all of God's creatures, because they run fastest when they have lost their way."

This is how we get into real trouble by running when we are lost. It is then that we make the worst mistakes with relationships, family and work. The same could be said of churches, schools and governments. Not convinced that the Lord is leading us, we veer off course, try a short cut or run like terrified sheep.

The 23rd Psalm is one of the most popular in the Bible. I think that’s because it reaffirms God’s promise of guidance and never-failing protection. However the images are a bit unusual, don’t you think? I mean, identifying myself with a sheep is a little odd for me.

Now, I don't mind calling the Lord my Shepherd, but I've never been too flattered by being called one of his sheep. As some of you know, I helped my church friends in Vermont raise sheep. Ernie and Andrea had about 20 acres in the green mountains, and raised sheep in their pasture.

When they fed them, they said, heeeere lambies, heeer lambies , and the sheep would come running. I learned to do the same call when I fed them. One day, a gentle dog was just playing with them, and the sheep ran away. Ernie called me and asked if I could help him find them. So we both went out into the woods, calling, “heeeere lambie lambies,” with some of their favorite food.

What I learned was that sheep get nervous and scare very easily. And when they’re scared, they run away from the farm out into the woods. Then they can’t find their way home.

We are not exactly like sheep. We all know the way to our homes even when were scared or nervous. But we do feel lost at times, and need the guidance of a good shepherd to get back home.

When we are lost, its because we have lost our way in one of our relationships. There are three kinds of relationships that we have. First is our relationship to God. This congregation’s whole purpose is to help people know and hear the voice of Jesus Christ, the good shepherd. And Jesus wants us to go and find all the lost sheep who are not here today. Some are home, others are at doing something else. Some don’t even know who the good shepherd is. Most know about God, but many don’t know the good shepherd. Jesus wants to be shepherd for all the sheep, and our relationship is the most important of all.

Second is our relationship we have to each other, our family, our church, our friends and neighbors. Jesus commanded us to love each other as he has loved us. By our love, others will know that we are his disciples. And you all know how important a good community, a good neighborhood, city and nation can be for everyone. Our relationship to each other is very important for all of us.

Third is our relationship to the world, the whole creation and everyone in it. Jesus taught how to live in world, even when others don’t cooperate, or even try to kill us. After all, he went to the cross and died to the sin of the world so that we can live in his flock for all eternity. The good shepherd laid down his life to save the sheep! But even more, his resurrection shows us the path to the new heaven and new earth, and how to live today in that new creation in Christ.

I am well aware that the world we live in is sometimes harsh, discouraging, and violent. It’s easy to get lost and anxious like sheep when we face sickness and death, when we lose jobs, when money or possessions are taken from us, or when violence destroys us. At times like that, many people tend to run faster and faster. We often run away from the pasture and very shepherd who is looking for us. It’s easy to run away from God, and not even realize we’re running.

But saying “the Lord is my shepherd” is a way to get back on the path. Those words are a declaration against evil. It is like being in a dark place, and then seeing God’s light and fixing our eyes and our hearts on that light. Saying the Lord is my shepherd helps us remember the truth of faith. Nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love. Jesus is the good shepherd, and he will find us is when we are lost.

Then in the next two verses, we go on to talk about how where our shepherd takes us. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; 3he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.

Now of course, we don’t really sit in a verdant pasture or go drink from a river of still water. These are pastoral images. Sheep naturally like to graze all day if they can find green grass. Sheep can not drink from that stream that runs quickly. They like water that is still. Jesus, the good shepherd, provides all that we need, a place to live, to eat and water to drink.

No wonder this psalm is so popular. Some of us have gotten lost in our battles against declining health. Others are lost in grief. And how many of us are just simply lost in our shame for things done and left undone? We try so hard to find ourselves, we've even lost sight of who we are, who God created us to be. The reason both the psalmist and Jesus spent so much time describing us as lost was not to judge us, but to encourage us to go to our eternal home with him.

The last three verses tell us how to respond to the good shepherd. “(4) Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me.” Have no fear of the darkness of human sin, the shepherd is with us. His rod and staff is God’s law. And the reason God gives us the law is so that we can live in peace while the shepherd leads us into eternity.

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies” means that God blesses us right in the face of those who want to destroy us. Jesus showed us this table in the night that his enemies were planning to have him executed on the cross. The table before us, the altar, is the table to which Jesus calls us.

“You anoint my head; my cup overflows.” Both of these are visible blessings from God. We were anointed when we were baptized. Each of us is anointed by God, an eternal blessing. Our cup of salvation is the cup of Holy Communion, where we receive his true blood of his everlasting covenant. The food he gives is the bread of life, his body.

The final verse is the ultimate statement of faith in our shepherd. “(6) Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.” These are the words I repeat at every funeral; let us dwell in the Lord’s house forever.

Friends, Here’s what I’d like us to do, everyone of us. Say this psalm, pray this psalm each day. Say it when your anxious or scared. Say it softly when you are grieving a loss of any kind. Pray it as a cry for help when you need the good shepherd.

But also use it as a prayer shouted from the mountaintop to give thanks when we feel on top of the world, and we are secure and confident. Say it as a prayer of thanksgiving for all the good shepherd is doing for you, for us.

Then you will discover another blessing. The same words are true and helpful in both the good times and the bad times. Then you will see why we call Good Friday good. Then you will see how God beat the devil by sending Jesus to the cross to die for us, and give us the final victory. The devil hates this psalm, and loses again every time a believer says it! It is surely one of the greatest chapters in the whole scripture. What a blessing God’s Word is for us. Thanks be to God!

Amen