“Shepherd Is Enough” (Ps 23; John 10) - Enough III -

 

*Francisco de Zurbarán, The Crucified Christ with a Painter (1650) 

Ten Characteristics of Sheep
In his book The Way of the Shepherd, Kevin Leman describes ten characteristics of sheep. First, sheep have poor eyesight. A shepherd often bells the leading sheep so the rest of the flock can follow. Second, sheep are not very smart. They really know how to do one thing – eat grass. Third, sheep easily fall. Fourth, sheep are easily “cast” – flipped over on their backs. Fifth, when they are cast, sheep cannot get up on their own. They will die unless the shepherd lifts them. Sixth, sheep are selfish and stubborn. Seventh, sheep have no sense of direction. Eighth, sheep go back the way they had come. Ninth, sheep are defenseless and vulnerable. They can only run. Tenth, sheep become silent when facing death. In short, sheep are helpless. They cannot survive without a shepherd.

The Lord Is My Shepherd
I don’t know about you, but for me, I see myself in these sheep. David opens Psalm 23 this way: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” (v. 1) We confess the same. But many of us do not feel content. We feel anxious. We feel empty. Why is that? Because contentment does not happen by accident. Contentment must be cultivated. God is always with us. But we often don’t sense his presence. That awareness – like contentment – must be practiced and nurtured.

David continues, “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadth me beside the still waters.” (v. 2) When we hear the phrase “green pastures and still waters,” we picture the Promised Land – a land flowing with milk and honey. But the actual landscape of Canaan looks barren and dry.

In Deuteronomy 11, Moses compares Egypt and Canaan. Egypt is fertile, predictable, safe. It has the Nile, yearly floods, rich soil. From a human point of view, Egypt is the real land flowing with milk and honey. Canaan, on the other hand, depends entirely on rain – on God. It is vulnerable. It is unpredictable. It requires trust. So why does Scripture call Canaan “a land flowing with milk and honey”? Moses tells us: “The land the Lord your God cares for. His eyes are always upon it.” (v. 12) Canaan is blessed not because of its climate but because of its God. It is the place where life becomes fruitful, only when we walk with the Shepherd. So, in the wilderness, between Egypt and Canaan, Israel had to learn to trust and follow the Shepherd – to gather manna daily, to move with the cloud and fire. Only when the Lord is my Shepherd, do we find true contentment in him.

In the Death Valley
There is a time for everything – a time to stand on the mountain top, and a time to walk through the valley. Years ago, Joyce and I traveled through Death Valley. We became lost at night. The GPS stopped working. The car was struggling. Abe was an infant, crying the whole time. We felt lost, tired, and small. We were literally in Death Valley.

Life often feels like that. We face pressures from all sides with no clear way out. David knew that feeling well. At his lowest, he prayed, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” (v. 4) If we fold Psalm 23 in Hebrew directly in half, we find the center phrase: “For you are with me.” Immanuel. God is with us. Not the absence of danger, but the presence of the Shepherd.

Death Valley can be a time of grief, a medical diagnosis, a crisis of faith, a depression that will not lift. Martin Luther battled deep depression. Charles Spurgeon, perhaps the greatest preacher in history, lived with chronic depression for most of his life. Yet both finished strong, not because they were strong, but because God was with them.

Hesed
David continues, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” (v. 6a) The word “mercy” here is hesed – one of the richest words in the Hebrew Bible. Hesed means covenantal love – love with a sacrifice, commitment, vow attached. It is the love Ruth showed Naomi: “Wherever you go, I will go” It is the love David showed Mephibosheth, welcoming him to eat at the king’s table for life, for Jonathan’s sake.

The greatest expression of hesed appears in John 10, where Jesus says four times, “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Our safety is not in our weak grip on him, but his strong hold on us. His covenantal love pursues us all the days of our lives.

Agnus Dei
Christ’s love is Hesed love. He came not only to be with us, but to take our place. Though Jesus is the Shepherd, he became one of us. He became the Lamb of God. “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) Francisco Zurbarán captures this in Agnus Dei. The lamb lies bound upon the altar – silent, willing, prepared to die. The painting is both beautiful and haunting. Peter puts it this way:

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.” (1 Peter 2:24-25)

Zurbarán himself lived in the shadow of the famous painter Velázquez. His work later fell out of favor because of religious and political climate changes. He died poor and forgotten. Yet his final painting was Crucified Christ (c. 1660). He had painted the crucified Christ many times, but in this last one, he placed himself at the foot of the cross, standing in awe, whispering with faith: “Jesus is the Lamb of God. And he is my Shepherd.”

The Shepherd Is Enough
At a Christian Conference a Chinese pastor shared his testimony after spending 18 years in prison for his faith. The guards gave him the worst duty – emptying the human waste cesspool, because they knew he was a pastor. But they didn’t know in those years how he actually enjoyed working there. It was the only place he could be alone. The guards refused to come near because of the smell. There he could pray and sing to the Lord as loudly as he needed. His favorite hymn was “In the Garden.” He always loved this hymn, but in the cesspool he learned its true meaning.

I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses;
And the voice I hear falling on my ear;
The Son of God discloses.

And he walks with me, and he talks with me,
And he tells me I am his own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known.

The pastor said, “Again and again as I sang this hymn in the cesspool, I experienced the Lord’s presence. He never left me or forsook me. And so I survived and the cesspool became my private garden.”[1]

Are you going through a dark valley? Are you afraid? Do you feel alone or forgotten? Remember this truth: The Shepherd is with us. The Shepherd laid down his life for us. He was abandoned on the cross, so that we would never be abandoned. The Shepherd’s Hesed – his covenantal love – pursues us today, tomorrow, and forever. Let us come to the cross and place ourselves in the scene. Let us stand in awe and whisper, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” Our Shepherd is enough.

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[1] Gordon MacDonald, The Life God Blesses: Weathering the Storms of Life That Threaten the Soul (Thomas Nelson, 1997), 226.