“Learning the True Source of Contentment”

Scripture – Psalm 23

May 18, 2008    

© Rev. Joseph Liddick

Introduction:

For the past month or so we have been looking at the life of David in the Old Testament and discovering some of the qualities of his life that made him a man after God’s own heart.  David, unlike Saul before him, learned what was important to God.  He learned how to overcome giants and live by faith. He learned how to own up to the sin in his life and restore his relationship with God. And, as we discovered a couple weeks ago, he learned how to deal righteously with difficult people in his life. 

There was something else about David that I think made him a man after God’s heart – he found God to be the complete source of his heart’s contentment.  What a contrast to us 21st century Americans who relentlessly chase after fame, position, success, wealth, and a bevy of other empty pursuits in the hope that they will somehow satisfy our inner longings. Here’s a good question for you on the subject of contentment. Who do you think has the greater contentment: a man with 7 children or a man with $7 million?  The answer:  the man with 7 children.  Why?  Because he doesn’t want any more.  The truth is that most of us don’t have a clue about how to really be content. 

David’s picture of contentment goes back to his days before Saul, Goliath, and being the king over Israel ever entered his mind.  It goes back to when his days and nights were spent on a hill outside Bethlehem as a shepherd over his father’s flocks of sheep.  It was in that context that this beloved shepherd psalm was written.  If he were writing it today, though, the 23rd Psalm might sound something like this:

The Lord and I are in a shepherd/sheep situation, and I am in a position of negative need.

He prostrates me in a green-belt grazing area, and conducts me directionally parallel to a non-torrential aqueous liquid.

He restores to original satisfaction levels my psychological make-up.

Notwithstanding the fact that I make ambulatory progress through the non-illuminated inter-hill mortality slot, terror sensations shall not be observed within me due to the proximity of the omnipotence.

Your pastoral walking aid and quadrupled pickup unit introduce me into a pleasurific mood state.

You design and produce a nutrient-bearing furniture type structure in the context of non-cooperative elements, and my beverage utensil experiences a volume crisis.

You enact a head-related folk ritual utilizing vegetable extracts.

Surely it must be an ongoing non-deductible fact that your inter-relational, emphatical and non-vengeful capacities will pursue me as their target focus for the duration of this non-death period.

And I will possess tenant rights in the housing unit of the Lord on a permanently open-ended time basis.

I don’t know about you, but I think I prefer David’s version. In fact, take a moment to watch an adorable recitation of it. (video of princess reciting Psalm 23)

Let’s take a look at this beloved psalm this morning and see if we can discover in it some of the reasons why David found his contentment in the Lord.

The Lord is My Shepherd

As David looked out over his flocks of sheep and reflected on life, he realized something very profound - in many ways, sheep are just like people.  They tend to be strongly influenced by the actions of their peers.  They are often fearful and timid, at times very stubborn and stupid.  And like people they also are given to a number of perverse habits.  Without a shepherd to guide them and care for them they would be in big trouble.

This first phrase of this psalm has a wonderful depth of meaning.  David declares that the Lord is our shepherd.  This signifies the relationship of the Lord toward us.  The shepherd is the caretaker of the sheep, and more than likely is their owner as well.  Jesus even told his disciples that a good shepherd is one who will lay down his life for his sheep.  He remarked, “The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep.  So, when he sees a wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away” (John 10:12).

David also makes a point of indicating just who the shepherd is – “the Lord is my shepherd.”  It is not just any shepherd we have looking over our life.  It is the Lord, the God of the universe, our Creator and our Savior.  In fact, in the New Testament Jesus even identified himself as the Good Shepherd. 

But David also says, “The Lord is my shepherd.”  Sheep really have no say in respect to who will be their shepherd.  But people do.  God calls us to be his sheep, but we have to decide whether or not we will heed his voice and follow him.  Jesus said, “I know my sheep and my sheep know me” (John 10:14).  They recognize his voice over all the other voices calling out.  In fact, a sheep will only follow his own shepherd and not someone else.  So probably the most important question for us today is, “What shepherd are you choosing to follow?”

I Shall Not Want

The NIV renders this text, “I shall not be in want.”  The Message translation renders it, “I don’t need a thing.”  O that we could say that in our lives!  We’re more like the four-year-old girl who asked her mother to check out a popular collection of folk songs on CD from the local library.  The next day as the mother passed her daughter in the play room she heard her singing loudly, proudly, and repeatedly, “Oh my darling, Oh my darling, Oh my darling Calvin Klein!”  In 1918 influenza wiped out 500,000 Americans, more than 10 times the number killed in Viet Nam.  In Europe in the 16th century the plague, called the “black death” wiped out 1/3 to ½ of the population.  The disease was carried by fleas on rats.  I’m afraid we have an even bigger disease than these in America today.  It’s called “affluenza,” not influenza, and it is not carried by rats, but by the “rat-race.”  We want more and more and are never really satisfied with what we have and what we get.  However, the statement, “I shall not want” is not just a statement about need, but of attitude.  It says, “I shall not be in want of anything, because the Lord is all I need.”

David remarked that one reason for being content as God’s sheep is because “He makes us lie down in green pastures.”  Sheep need safety, food, and peace in order for them to lie down and rest.  Philippians 4:19 says, “My God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory through Christ Jesus.”  Our Good Shepherd knows our needs, which are not necessarily the things we want.  Unfortunately we do not always want what we need, nor do we usually need what we want.  But God knows what is best for his sheep and takes care of them (Matthew 6:25-34).

Our Shepherd also “leads us beside still waters.”  Sheep will not drink gurgling water.  Because of that, their thirst often causes them to drink from polluted spots.  Oblivious to the good water they are being led to, they might stop to drink out of a muddy ditch filled with urine and manure, contaminated with nematodes and liver fluke eggs that would eventually riddle them with internal parasites and disease of destructive impact.  They are just like people who ignore God’s leading and try to satisfy themselves in the various polluted pools around them.  They can’t see where it will do them any harm, but slowly over time they are destroyed by what they could not see.  God’s Spirit, though, knows all the dangers in all the pools we pass, and tries to lead us instead to the pure water that will truly quench our thirst.  As Augustine once said, “O God, thou hast made us for thyself, and our souls are restless, searching till they find rest in thee.”

Still another reason we are not in want in our lives is because our shepherd “restores our soul.”  I read that sheep sometimes have a tendency to become “cast” whenever they lose their footing and roll into a depression.  They are unable to right themselves, and without assistance from a shepherd they would be a target for predators.  People, too, suffer from being “cast” and need the assistance of their shepherd.  Psalm 42:11 reads, “Why are you downcast, O my soul?  Why so disturbed within me?  Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”  Anxiety, worry, and depression can overwhelm us to the place where we become incapacitated.  Yet our Good Shepherd knows right where we are and is able to put us on our feet again.  He restores our soul.

He also “leads us in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”  Sheep need to be kept on the move.  If they stay in one location for too long, they will overgraze which will kill the land and eventually kill the sheep.  So a shepherd is constantly moving his sheep from one location to another.  But they don’t always want to follow.  Neither do people.  As Isaiah said, “All we like sheep have gone astray.  We have turned each one to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6).  Whenever we insist on doing our own thing and refuse to follow our shepherd we walk down a dangerous path toward destruction.  But God wants to lead us instead on a path toward righteousness.  He knows what is best for us.  He can see ahead.  He knows the dangers.  We can trust him.

He Meets My Deepest Needs

In the first part of this psalm David speaks to those around him about the qualities of his shepherd.  Now his focus turns instead to the shepherd himself as he personally addresses him (You are with me, your rod and staff…, you prepare a table…, you anoint my head…, etc.)

The first thing David tells his shepherd is that he takes away the fear of death (“even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil…”).  There is actually a valley by that name in Palestine between Jericho and Jerusalem through which shepherds find it necessary to move their flocks for seasonal feeding.  It is treacherous and narrow with 1500 ft. cliffs and many dangerous gullies and narrow paths.  But if the shepherd knows where to walk ahead of them, the sheep follow along as if it were just a Sunday stroll.  And our good shepherd, Jesus, has already gone ahead of us into the valley of death.  We have no need to fear, as he told us “I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25-26).

David also told the Lord, “Your rod and staff, they comfort me.”  The shepherd used his rod to beat off predators, to discipline unruly sheep, and to count them each night as they passed “under the rod” into the fold.  He used his staff to rescue wanderers and to assist sheep in difficult passages.  Likewise, God uses his rod to chasten us when we get out of line.  He does not let us wander off into sin without checking us by his Holy Spirit.  And whenever we do stray, like the good shepherd who leaves the 99 to rescue the 1, his grace is always reaching out to rescue us and bring us back to the safety of the fold.

David also was mindful that the Lord gave him peace in the midst of all his trials.  He told him, “You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies.”  Sheep could graze in peace and safety because their shepherd was able to protect them from the attacks of any predators.  Likewise our shepherd gives us his peace in the midst of the storms of our lives because we have confidence in who he is.  He tells us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.  And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).

“You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows,” he went on to say.  At the pen every shepherd had a generous supply of olive oil where each day he would heal the wounds of the various sheep.  Without this continual anointing, infection and disease would eventually take its toll on the flock.  Likewise, our shepherd gives to us the anointing of his Holy Spirit who sanctifies and cleanses the heart of a believer from the infections caused by inbred sin.  The Holy Spirit’s anointing results in an overflowing of love, joy and peace (Galatians 5:22-3).

“Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”  The quality of life for a sheep was directly proportionate to the quality of care the shepherd gave to it.  A good shepherd was consistent in loving and providing for his flock.  And we can be confident that God wants what is best for our lives.  His goodness and mercy will follow us.  And we can have a full assurance that when this life is over, there is a home waiting for us on the other side.  As our good shepherd told us, “In my father’s house are many rooms … I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” 

Conclusion: 

Heaven is our destiny.  Our good shepherd knows the way, and he is leading us there even now.  Is the Lord your shepherd today?  You will never know contentment unless you give him the ownership of your life.  He loves you.  He wants what is best for you.  He even gave his own life for you, as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  Open your heart to him today.