Peace

A shepherd in biblical days lived with his sheep. That means a shepherd knew everything about them; he nurtured, guided and always had his eye on his sheep. So, when a shepherd was with the flock, all who were under the shepherd’s care felt a sense of peace.

The imagery of a shepherd stirs emotions of care, provision, and protection. A good shepherd is personally concerned with the welfare of his sheep. No wonder we find shepherds connected with the Christmas story.

The wonder of Christmas includes a wondrous peace because not only was our Saviour born, but that also meant our Good Shepherd finally had arrived. The baby born in a Bethlehem sheep pen, and visited by shepherds at birth, would grow up to lead, guide, provide, protect, and bring peace to all who would follow Him as their Good Shepherd.

It was in the little town of Bethlehem where our Good Shepherd was born. Bethlehem was known as the City of David. And of all the references of shepherds in the Bible, David, the once-upon-a-time shepherd boy, wrote the most well-known Psalm that describes God as a shepherd.

Psalm 23 depicts God as a good shepherd who leads towards wondrous peace as care and direction are given to the ones who follow Him.

Psalm 23:1–6 (ESV)

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.

3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

4 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.

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Background of Psalm 23

Psalm 23 is a passage of peace for our weary and wandering souls this Christmas. This Psalm connects with people because it offers comfort to those who have endured the most difficult periods of life. It’s a Psalm about protection and provision that moves people toward peace through a relationship with the Good Shepherd.

David had been a shepherd boy in his youth; he understood the imagery and the depth of what he was writing as a song and poem to God.

God knows us

Psalm 23:1 ESV

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Right out of the blocks, David calls the Lord, “my shepherd.” In the word “shepherd,” David uses the most comprehensive and intimate metaphor that had yet been used in all the Psalms when describing God's nature and character. Moreover, David identifies himself not as a fellow shepherd but as a sheep. He says, “The Lord is my shepherd;” Psalm 23:1

In other words, God is the one who:

knows everything about us.

God is the one who spends time with us,

nurtures us,

guides us,

always has His eye on us,

cares for us,

provides for us,

and protects us.

The Lord is personally concerned for my welfare, and for yours, throughout life because I am one of His sheep.

Personal impact of our shepherd

And because that is David’s experience, he follows the declaration of the Lord being his shepherd with this statement about the impact: “…I shall not want.” Psalm 23:1

Because God is such a Good Shepherd, He takes care of all our needs. We have plenty to eat, good water to drink, and we don’t have to worry about wandering off and being lost. The big bad wolves in life may want to come and attack us, but they will not win because our shepherding God is leading us well and has our best interest at heart. He’s restoring the upside-down places in our soul that verse 3 refers to in the Psalm and turning them right-side up as He comforts us with his tangible presence.

According to verse 4, He is with us in and through the valley of the shadow of death, so we don’t have to be afraid because we are not alone. He is with us!. He is preparing good things for us. He is leading us toward places of peace filled with His grace, His goodness, and His mercy both now and throughout eternity. We are on a walk with The Lord, our Good Shepherd according to verses 5 and 6, to places He knows are good places for us filled with favour, blessing and a culmination of peace in the presence of God our Shepherd and Saviour.

Yes, The Lord God is a Good Shepherd; therefore, we can be at peace because of who He is, and His presence in our lives. As we often say and remind ourselves, especially at Christmas time, He is Immanuel, the God (and Good Shepherd) who is with us.

Jesus as the Good Shepherd

This part of the nature and character of God helps usher in the wonder of Christmas filled with peace. When God came near in the person of Jesus, our Good Shepherd arrived on the scene. The Good Shepherd is how Jesus describes Himself in John10. In many Bibles, there is a heading before the beginning of that chapter titled: The Good Shepherd. In John 10:1-6, Jesus is talking and uses the imagery of sheep and a shepherd.

John 10:1–6 NKJV

1 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.

Do you know why they did not understand what He was saying to them? It is because His audience was like sheep. You have heard me talk about how sheep are often characterised? They have been described as dumbest of livestock; sheep are not intelligent creatures.

Many scholars believe that if sheep had not been domesticated, they likely would have become extinct thousands of years ago because they are so dumb and need so much care, attention, and leadership to succeed.

If we stop and assess ourselves, we see how we can be like sheep in many areas of our lives: we can be pretty dense, make the same mistakes over and over, try to feed off the exact same spot over and over again, or wander off course, and we need help figuring out what to do and where to go. We qualify as sheep in lots of ways in our lives.

Choices we know are wrong, but we do them anyway, indicating we are like sheep.

We have the same arguments over and over with people because we, or they, keep doing the same dumb stuff indicate we are like sheep.

The patterns of going to the same empty emotional well over and over again because it once satisfied indicate we are like sheep.

Almost 72% of Australians made new year’s resolutions last year and less than 10% keep them! The older people get the less likely they are to make them, but the older people get the more likely they are to keep them. The reason most never keep their New Year’s resolutions is because we are like lazy and undisciplined sheep!

Now, sheep can thrive! When they have a shepherd who loves them like crazy, lives with them, leads them, knows them, and calls them by name they live a peace existence and thrive. When the shepherd is with his sheep, he builds trust with them in such a way that just the sound of the shepherd’s voice causes the sheep to be at peace. The reason is that Good Shepherds take care of all their inadequacies and lead them to

Psalm 23:1b, which states: “I shall not want.”

“I shall not want” because I am so well taken care of by my shepherd. When the Lord is your shepherd, you will not be left wanting.

2 Peter 1:3 NKJV

3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,

That means God will provide you with everything you need as you follow His lead.

Jesus talks about this shepherd-to-sheep relationship and dynamic with his disciples in John 10:7-15. Within these words are where Jesus specifically identifies Himself as the Good Shepherd.

John 10:7–15 NKJV

7 Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. 12 But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. 13 The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. 15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.

And the Good Shepherd laid down His life because of what was foretold in the prophecy of Isaiah 53:6:

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him [the Good Shepherd…Jesus] the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6

That passage in Isaiah is known as the Suffering Servant passage; it prophesied what the Good Shepherd, Jesus, would go through to make provision for all the wandering sheep. It’s a passage leading to peace for those who find themselves lost, in trouble, on their own, and outside of what they were created to be: part of a flock that is led, cared for, and protected by their shepherd.

Jesus articulated how a Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. That’s precisely the mission Jesus was born to accomplish. He ultimately would go to the cross to lay down His life to rescue us from everything that separated us and put us in danger leading to eternal death because of our sin. And our Good Shepherd not only secured our eternity by laying down His life but also leads us to provision and places of peace in our lives right now as we follow Him in faith and in His flock.

That’s what the remaining verses of Psalm 23 convey. They speak of what happens when we follow the Lord, our Good Shepherd. While all of the verses in Psalm 23 portray various aspects of what happens when a shepherd leads his sheep, let’s focus our remaining attention on verse 2. It has two parts. The first: “He makes me lie down in green pastures.” Psalm 23:2

By nature, sheep tend to be unsettled, skittish, and nervous. Do you know when a sheep will lie down? They lie down when they are confident that a shepherd is with them and watching over them. If sheep are fearful, at odds with other sheep, dealing with pests that are irritating them, or feeling unsettled due to hunger, they will have difficulty “lying down.” I’m sure each of us in this room have been like sheep and unable to settle our brains/minds and get some peace and rest at night.

When sheep are around running water, they get afraid. Sheep often drown when trying to drink from a moving stream. The Good Shepherd knows this and will make sure His flock has sufficient water. That’s the second part worth noting in verse 2. “He leads me beside still waters.” Psalm 23:2

Part of the nature and character of a good shepherd is that He leads His sheep. Notice that it does not say he drives them. It is very very hard for 1 person alone to drive sheep; they are better at being led. They must know the shepherd’s voice and be able to trust the shepherd. Once they do, sheep will follow their shepherd because they know this is the person who puts them on the green pasture. This is the one who doesn’t make me try to drink from a fire hydrant of fast-moving waters. He leads me beside the still waters.

The shepherd is key to removing these different challenging circumstances so sheep will lie in green pastures in peace and drink from the still waters in quiet, refreshing reassurance. Philip Keller, an East African shepherd with a lifetime of experience in this field, came to the realisation of how important the shepherd-to-sheep relationship really was. He said, “In the course of time, I came to realize that nothing so quieted and reassured the sheep as to see me in the field. The presence of their master and owner and protector put them at ease as nothing else could do, and this applied day and night.”

The same sentiment is true about our relationship with Jesus as our Good Shepherd. His presence in our life has the same effect on us as His followers as sheep do with their shepherd. He brings peace and confidence that it is ok to lie down and rest because He is with us and taking care of us.

Conclusion

Perhaps that is what Jesus, your Good Shepherd, wants to remind you about most of all this Christmas. He is present with you. He is near you. You can count on Him to lead you to those green pastures where you can lie down on the inside of your soul. He leads you besides those still waters where you can drink deeply without fear of being swept away by life’s currents. His leadership in your life as your Good Shepherd is towards places where you can know you have security and provision in who He is and what He has done for you through His own life as an example, His death as a Sacrifice in our place, His resurrection to prove God was satisfied and the dept was fully paid, and empowerment by His Spirit for those who have put their faith, hope, and trust in Him for salvation. This is then we truly find our peace in life that is contained in Him. His peace offered to us through His birth leading ultimately to our salvation, is part of the wonder of Christmas.

1. Can you truly say, “the Lord is my shepherd “?

2. Are you letting our Good Shepherd lead?

3. Are your actions showing that you are part of His flock?

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