THE SECRET TO A LIFE WELL LIVED

Psalm 23:1a
Bob Bonner
July 23, 2006

Many people believe in God, but their understanding of who He is and how He operates is as different as night and day. Some see God as a genie in a bottle... convenient, congenial, a make-a-wish-I’ll-do-it-for-you kind of God. He is not. Some see God as a sweet, wimpy grandpa...soft hearted, wise and kind, but very old...dozes off when you need him. He is not. Other’s see God as impersonal, too big, too important, too busy to take notice or be concerned about the trivial issues of an individual’s life. He is not. Even some who claim to be Christians, view God as the dad who leaves on Mondays and returns on Saturdays...so clean up before he arrives and in between times, do whatever you want. He is not.

So, Who is God? What is God like? Why should I turn to Him? Why should I place any weight or confidence in who He is and what He can do? I believe those who are genuinely seeking answers to these questions are the ones that God intended to read Psalm 23.  One of the major reasons God had David pen his classic 23^rd Psalm for us was to communicate to us who He is and why we should place our confidence in Him. 

Having lived a full life, filled with many successes and triumphal adventures as well as tragic personal failures, David had gained a very clear understanding of who God is and why He is worthy of our complete trust. Furthermore, out of his absolute love and devotion to his faithful God, David reveals to the reader of this psalm the secret to a well-lived life. Furthermore, the Spirit of God has so desired that we see Him for who He really is that He has preserved David’s psalm for 2500 years that we might better know who God is.

Last time, as we introduced this psalm, we learned that David was an old man when he wrote this psalm, close to dying. Hence, these are not the words of a youthful boy filled with hopeful optimism about the future, but rather, these are the words of a veteran of life, who has personally walked with God and discovered why God is worthy of our absolute trust with our lives.

Last time, I suggested a possible historical setting for this psalm. I believe that David wrote this psalm during that season in his life when he and his household and close friends were hiding out from Absalom, David’s son and Absalom’s army who were pursuing David so as to kill him. Absalom was attempting to usurp King David’s throne. While in the wilderness or something closer to what we would call a desert, running low on water and supplies, David’s friends were filled with angst as to what was going to happen to them and what were they going to do.

By the way, I love the desert. Next to the ocean, there is no place like the desert.

Whereas some view a desert as a metaphor of abandonment, a feeling of despair and hopelessness, I see the desert as a place where new life begins. A desert is a place that forces one to stop, think, listen and learn. In a desert, like the ones in Israel, there are few distractions. There is little that can be found there which is useful. In just such a harsh and barren place we’re more inclined to think about the meaning of things, such as our own inadequacies and the greatness and the complexities of our God than about what pleasures and blessing this world can provide.

In just such a place, undistracted, David years before had to learn to shepherd a small flock of sheep. He had learned how to find food, water and shelter for himself and the sheep in the harshest conditions. He had cared for these sheep. In those conditions, undistracted. David had first grasped the secret to a life well lived. From that point on, he lived out that secret in the best of times and in the worst of times.

As his followers surrounded their King, confused, scared and asking what were they going to do, David responded with giving them this psalm. His purpose was to introduce them to God in such circumstances and in such a way that when this trial was over, they would never forget it is God that will watch over them, if only they will entrust their lives to Him. He wanted them to know the secret behind his well-lived life.

Allow me to give you a brief outline of this psalm. As with most psalms, the main point of the psalm is given to us in the very first verse. Hence, in verse 1, we have the secret declared. In his present situation, from where he stands right then, David gives them the simple truth that has been the secret of his well-lived life. “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” Then, in verses 2-5, David reverts to his own past experiences with God, and continuing with the metaphor of the shepherd He explains the secret. Here, he gives us the evidence of why he has throughout his life sought to entrust himself to God. In verse 6, David looks to his immediate and eternal future to explain where his hope lies. In this verse, David reveals the ultimate conclusion to the secret. That one day, he will be free from the travails of this world, forever living with the one who loves him most, the Shepherd, but without any of the harsh cruelties and personal failures of this world.

As we consider the secret to a well-lived life this morning, we are going to focus on just the first half of verse 1, and David’s concept of who God is and who David is in relationship to God. From David’s perspective, the secret of a well-lived life never begins with himself, but first with an accurate picture of who God is. That  is why this verse doesn’t begin, “I am a sheep and the Lord is my Shepherd.” The secret to me experiencing a well-lived life begins with understanding God’s primary role in my life. But to be more specific, David doesn’t just point to or mention God, but rather he declares, “the Lord” or “Yahweh” is my shepherd. 

This very personal Hebrew name that God gives Himself, “yahweh” is a difficult word to translate. The root verb from which it originates quite possibly is a combination of the present-tense form giving us the idea of “I AM,” joined with the causative tense, or “I cause to be.” When you put those two concepts together, the picture they portray of God is so grand, and the implications so far reaching that we couldn’t possibly cover them in the time and space allotted here.

Having said that, allow me to point to just three character traits of God that we can take from this name, and the implications they have for our lives.

First, this name declares to us that God is uncaused. Rather, He is the one who causes all things to be. He is the creator God. But for Him, there was nothing that caused Him to be or to be created. For, God has always been, always is and forever will be. He is the forever I am who causes things to be.

Second, God is unchanging. Usually, when we say, “I am...” we fill in the blank with words that describe the ever-changing us, like “Today I am sad, lucky, fat, am old and balding..., but yesterday I was happy, unlucky, skinny and had a full head of hair!”  But God needs no descriptive word added for Him because He never changes. God is always what He is and what he always has been. He is the uncaused God who never changes. 

By the way, these two characteristics of God being uncaused and unchanging are also declared to be true of Jesus. In John 1:1, we are told that In the beginning was the Word [meaning Jesus] and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Because Jesus is God, He was there when the Causer of all things created the world. The Apostle Paul adds, in Col. 1:16 that, by Jesus, “all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created by Him and for Him. Furthermore, in Heb. 13:8, we are told that Jesus is not just the uncaused one, but He also is the unchanging one. We read that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Though he creates, He was never created. Though He may change things or things He creates may change, He never does. 

Why is this important to keep in mind? Have you ever felt like you have had enough change going on in your life? This world, our culture, our family relationships and even how we “do church” has changed radically in twenty years. Haven’t you had enough change in your life? 

I used to think change didn’t bother me. When I was younger, my life changed drastically in one year. Out of survival, I couldn’t think about the effects of change on my life, I had to just put my head down and keep plowing forward. In one year, my parents divorced, my mother was perceived to be crazy which I soon discovered reflected upon me simply because I was related to her. I was forced to move from the only home I had really known. I graduated from high school (which was the same school where I attended junior high, a place of security for six years) then went away to college...a strange and unfamiliar place. Because I survived it, I believed that I was a person who didn’t mind change. 

But now, as I stop to ponder my life, I realize that it was all a sham. I hate change, I fear serious changes or the unknown that may come with change. Change often causes us to lose our emotional balance, and sense of stability. If you don’t think so, then talk to anyone who has suddenly found themselves in an earthquake when that which was presumed to be stable and solid, suddenly, without warning, begins to shake and roll under your feet, like a wave at sea.

Dancers and ice skaters understand the physical effects of sudden change when they do spins. To avoid getting dizzy and losing their balance, they are taught to focus on a still, unchanging point. That’s what we need in our lives, when the world around us changes suddenly. A still, immovable and never-changing point. That is just who Jesus is. He never changes. He is that still point, a refuge in an ever turning and ever-changing troubled world.

Third, we learn from this name, that the Shepherd is ungoverned.  In contrast to God, we are governed. What we wear is governed by the weather. How we travel is determined by the terrain. How long we get to sleep, is often governed by the needs of children or the lifestyles of our neighbors. But God is ungoverned. He is the forever I am who causes things to take place, but nothing causes Him to do anything. He makes sovereign choices. God doesn’t check with the weather or the terrain, before He moves. His will, His decrees are always fulfilled. He doesn’t ask permission from anyone about doing anything. He just does as He pleases when He pleases.

Counselors or pastors may bring you comfort in a storm, but what you really need is the unchanging, uncaused, ungoverned God who can still the storm. Friends can hold your hand at your deathbed, but you need Yahweh, the unchanging, uncaused, ungoverned God who has defeated the grave.

Hence, from the outset of this psalm, David is declaring that the secret of a well- lived life begins with knowing Yahweh, the personal, uncaused, unchanging, ungovernable one. 

But David goes on to further describe God by using the metaphor of a weather-driven shepherd. To appreciate this metaphor, we must leave the surroundings of our air-conditioned houses, and western concepts of fertile green valleys and the western style of shepherding and return to Israel, to live under the blazing sun, to the rugged terrain and harsh conditions of ancient shepherding.

Different than western sheep ranching, where sheep by the thousands are penned up in pastures, often without even a shepherd in sight, ancient shepherds had smaller flocks and knew each of their sheep by name and personality. They were acquainted with all their ways—their peculiarities, their characteristic marks, their tendencies, their idiosyncrasies. 

Back then, shepherds didn’t stand behind their sheep and drive their sheep or have a dog herd their sheep like they do today. In David’s day, the shepherd moved out before his sheep, leading them and calling to them to follow.  At the shepherd’s morning call—that distinctive guttural sound unique to each shepherd—each flock would rise and follow its master to the feeding grounds. Even if two shepherds called their flocks at the same time and the sheep were intermingled, they never followed the wrong shepherd. All day long the sheep followed their own shepherd as he searched the wilderness looking for grassy meadows and sheltered pools where his flock could feed and drink in peace.

The lot in life of any particular sheep depended on the type of man who owned it. Under one man sheep would struggle, starve and suffer endless hardship. In another’s care they would flourish and thrive contentedly. So, what do we know of God and His character as a shepherd? Does He have the credentials to be your Shepherd—your manager—your owner?

I’d like to point you to four testimonies that speak of God as being worthy as your shepherd.

The first person to use the shepherd metaphor of God is Jacob, who himself had been a shepherd. It comes at the end of Jacob’s life, as he is pronouncing blessings upon his 12 sons. In Genesis 48:15 Jacob blesses his son Joseph. It reads, “And he blessed Joseph and said, ‘The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, ....may He bless the lads.’” Interesting, after all the evil that Jacob had committed during his lifetime, after all the times that God had to send an angel to rescue Jacob, still, God, his shepherd was not ashamed to later be called “the God of Jacob.” Here, Jacob testifies to us that even though His sheep are faithless at times, God never abandons His sheep. He is faithful to the end.

Jacob knew that this shepherd knows all of our tiresome stories. Jacob knew that his Shepherd understood the latent forces and all the sources and possibilities of evil in his and our natures. This Shepherd, according to Dave Roper, “sees the hurt and the heartbreak that others cannot see and which cannot be explained—even to our closest friends. This Shepherd is aware of the reasons for our moodiness, our temper tantrums, our selfish indulgences. While friends, family and acquaintances may be put off by our dispositions, this Shepherd never turns away. He sees beyond the prickliness to the broken heart. His understanding is infinite. How damaged we are or how far wrong we’ve gone are matters of indifference to Him. Our vileness does not alter His character. He is eternal love---the same yesterday, today, forever. We are not what He wants us to be, but we are not unwanted. If we will have Him, He will be our shepherd.”

The second testimony comes from Isaiah. Here, the context is Yahweh’s promise to bring the Jews back from their Babylonian exile. Isaiah writes, Like a shepherd he will tend His flock, in His arm He will gather the lambs, and carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes. This Good Shepherd knows us all. Isaiah’s description reveals that Yahweh is aware of each personality and each peculiarity: There are the little ones that have to be carried, the cripples that can’t keep up, the nursing ewes that won’t be hurried, the old sheep that can barely get along. 

Like us, there are those sheep who always want to be out front of the others, not second in line. There are the bullies that butt and push to get their way, the timid ones (the sheepish) that are afraid to follow, the black sheep that are always the exception.  God knows our pace. He knows when grief, pain, and loneliness overwhelm us; when the full realization of our limitations comes home to us; when we’re shamed and broken and unable to go on. God does not drive His sheep; He gently leads them. He allows for hesitation and trepidation. When we lag behind He does not scold us. Rather He gathers us up, encircles us with His strong arm, and carries us next to His heart.

The third testimony about this Shepherd comes from Jeremiah. In this case, the sheep are the nation of Israel. Jeremiah records the Shepherd’s words in 50:19, in which the Shepherd promises And I shall bring Israel back to his pasture, and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan, and his desire will be satisfied in the hill country of Ephraim and Gilead. Here, Jeremiah testifies to the fact that God, our Shepherd goes after stubborn, lost sheep and gives them what they need.

We also learn from Jeremiah, that there other shepherds out there trying to trick us or draw us away from our Shepherd. Should that happen, God, through Jeremiah tells us the results we can expect, in verses 6-7. God warns us, My People have become lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray. They have made them turn aside on the mountains; they have gone along from mountain to hill and have forgotten their resting place. All who came upon them have devoured them; and their adversaries have said, ‘We are not guilty, inasmuch as they have sinned against the Lord who is the habitation of righteousness, even the Lord the hope of their fathers.’ When we look to others to lead us, other than Jesus, the outcome is that we will not find food or rest, or worse, we will get eaten alive.

Our fourth testimony as to the character and trustworthiness of God as our shepherd comes from Ezekiel.  In Ezekiel 34, Ezekiel gives us two clear testimonies about this Shepherd. First, we read, “My flock wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill and My flock was scattered over all the surface of the earth; and there was no one to search or seek for them...For thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for MY sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day....I will fee them in a good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down in good grazing ground, and they will feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest,’ declares the Lord God. ‘I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick;...’” Ezekiel testifies to God’s concern for his confused and lost sheep, along with His desire to heal and restore each sheep.

Then, in Ezekiel 34:23 Ezekiel announces the God-man, the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, long before He was born. We read, “Then I will set over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them; he will feed them himself and be their shepherd.” Now just in case you may get confused here, David is long dead by this time. Hence, this reference is to the Messiah who comes from the line of David. Jesus later fulfills this prophecy not only by feeding thousands through miracles, but by also declaring Himself to be the Good Shepherd, in John 10:14, where we read Christ’s words, I am the good shepherd; and I know My own and my own know me.

And this leads me to the next point, which we will only introduce today, but look at more in depth next week; the importance of David’s including the personal pronoun “my” with shepherd.

For now, in this one little pronoun, David is saying to his present-day audience

and to ours, or more specifically to you, that God is personal. Furthermore, David is testifying that as God was with David so He can be with you. He is personally interested in you and desires to be your shepherd. He will not force Himself upon you. God will not be everyone’s shepherd, even though the invitation is to all. God was not Absalom’s personal shepherd, which must have been part of what broke his father David’s heart. It is not an automatic thing to have Jesus Christ be your shepherd, but the hint of an invitation to make Him your shepherd is right here. Furthermore, David is signaling to us an invitation to make the “Good Shepherd,” Jesus, our own personal shepherd. Have we, by our invitation, asked Him to be our shepherd, chosen for Him to be the manager of our lives? 

Also, as we work through this psalm David is also hinting that some of his audience may already be one of the Good Shepherd’s sheep, but they have lost sight of Him or have forgotten who He is. Hence, because you or I have at one time invited Jesus to be our shepherd doesn’t mean that we haven’t wandered away and lived as though the shepherd doesn’t exist; which in turn usually leads us into trouble, from which only the Good Shepherd can rescue us. Therefore, another of David’s purposes in writing this psalm is to cause God’s sheep to pause and look up from the ground to see if we are following the Good Shepherd. Is He in sight?

Next week, we will see even more, why we as sheep will unnecessarily live lives of desperation if we don’t keep the Good Shepherd in sight. Furthermore, Jesus says that His sheep hear his voice. How can we know if and when we hear His voice in a world full of false shepherds crying out for us to follow after them?

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