by Jilene Scherenske
This is the sixth in a series of articles on Psalm 23. I have found this study to be a great blessing to my soul and trust it will be to yours also. The reader should be aware that I have used Phillip Keller’s book A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 as a resource. I refer often to his book and knowledge of the care of sheep. Then I take his insights, combine them with the Word of God and meditate thereon. This is the result of my meditations.
Psalm 23:3
“…he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.”
Yet another characteristic of sheep is that they are prone to graze in the same places, walk the same paths, thereby completely destroying the pastures. If a shepherd does not handle them well and keep them moving from pasture to pasture, they will eventually so devastate the ground that it will become wasteland. Phillip Keller says that if one were to travel to Spain, Greece, Mesopotamia, North Africa, western USA, New Zealand, and Australia one could readily see the havoc sheep have had on the land. Where once there were thriving grasslands, now there is nothing but utter wasteland. This looks more to the shepherd and his reputation, then it does to the sheep, but it also highlights the great need sheep have for a diligent and wise shepherd. When left to themselves they will eat the grass to the very ground, damaging the roots. Then they will even paw out the roots and eat them. As a result, the ground becomes barren and a sanctuary for parasites of all kinds and erosion. When this happens then the sheep become infested with worms and other diseases. Sheep, left to themselves will trample over the same path until it becomes a deep rut, even a great gully, further destroying the ground. For his own reputation, the shepherd must take measures to avoid this, and he does so by keeping the sheep on the move. He plans carefully how long to leave them in one spot, and what pasture to lead them to next. This prevents over-grazing, avoids ruts from forming, and helps prevent sheep from getting infested with internal parasites and other diseases caused by poor grass.
By nature, we are like the sheep. Isaiah 53:6 states this perfectly: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way.” To his own way….in our flesh we love to do our own thing. In our flesh we think we know best. We think our reasoning is right. In our flesh we love our ways and stubbornly cling to our habits even when we realize they are destroying us. Pride, that is what it is, and every one of us possesses it! We like what we want, and persistently go after it. We like our own ideas and resist changing them. Proverbs 14:12 states, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” But Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life…” John 14:6. In Jesus only, in following Him, in obeying Him wholly, only then will we experience abundant life, green and luscious pastures. The problem is that our flesh does not want to follow our all-wise and caring Shepherd, we want our own way. As I talk with unwed mothers, I am amazed at how many girls admit that they know that living together, having sex before marriage, doing drugs, etc. are wrong, yet they persist in it! We all simply do not realize that to continue in our own stubborn ways is leading us to a destructive end! We all have the tendency to think like this. We do not realize that we are living on wasteland, full of parasites, which was never intended for our consumption!
The “paths of righteousness” are paths of safety. They are right paths. They are paths that will please Him. They are plain paths, easy for us to see. He leads. We are given eyes to see plainly where He leads. It is therefore a simple path to follow, may not be the path we desire in our flesh, but it is a straightforward, simple path. It IS easy, all we have to do is simply follow! We don’t have to plan out the path. We need no wisdom to figure out where we should head next. All we have to do is follow! No matter where He leads, He not only gives us the vision for where to go, but He, by His Spirit, also gives us the desire and the strength and all the enablement we need to follow. Mt 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
They are “paths” of righteousness. They are several. We will each experience several paths in our lifetime and my paths will not be your paths. But whatever paths He chooses for me will be right for me, and whatever paths He picks for you will be right for you. Yes, our paths will be different paths, but they will all be paths of righteousness. Our Shepherd Jesus can only pick paths of righteousness. He is righteousness. That is His character. Never will our paths be anything except paths of righteousness. He most likely will have one specific path for you today, but a different one for you tomorrow. He will not keep us doing the exact same thing for all the years of our life lest we fall into a rut and become less sensitive to the Spirit’s leading. Each path He has for us will challenge us, but that is so that we will keep leaning on His strength and wisdom and not our own.
Jesus is saying to each one of us: “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” But, as I have said, we don’t want to deny ourselves, we want our way! We want to plan our own path in life! Most Christians would deny that this is true of them. Phillip Keller says that there are seven attitudes that must be possessed if we are truly following Jesus. Here they are:
1. “Instead of loving myself most I am willing to love Christ best and others more than myself.” Truly loving someone else, truly loving Jesus is an act of our will. It does not naturally happen. What naturally happens is loving our own self! You may say that you naturally loved your husband when you first met. True, but wasn’t that because he met your emotional needs, because you were infatuated with each other? You delighted in each other because each of you felt the love you needed; you felt cherished. As time went on, it took selfless love to keep on loving him. Men think that when they have married they have ‘caught’ their catch and they do not need to exhibit all the touchy, feeling lovey things that happened in dating! They have to learn to love you like you need to be loved and women have to learn to respect our husbands like they need to be respected. It costs you something….and that is what truly loving is all about. It cost Jesus dearly to display His love for us. We need to be willing to lay down our life, lay down our ideas, lay down our reputation, lay down our wants in order to love both God and others as He would have us love.
2. “Instead of being one of the crowd, I am willing to be singled out, set apart from the gang.” We all have an inborn need to be accepted, to belong. Following Jesus as He wants us to follow often sets us apart from the ‘gang’. This could risk criticism from our friends. Jesus has a different path for each of us. My path is different than your path. What He allows in one life, He may not allow in another’s. For example, when our girls were in junior-high, my husband would not allow them to go to the mall alone without an adult presence. Their friends could do this, but God had specifically warned us against this. It was not sin for their friends; it just simply was something we felt the Lord did not want for our girls. But setting that standard for our girls was not easy. It set us apart from some of our friends. It set the girls apart from their friends. It gave us a reputation of being overly protective. As I look back on it, I am not one bit regretful of that decision and I do not think my girls are either. It is hard to follow Jesus. He never said it would be easy. But, oh, the joy there is and the peace there is when one dares to follow Him.
3. “Instead of insisting on my rights I am willing to forego them in favor of others.” I like feeling like I have certain rights. It brings me a sort of security. I have the right to be accepted. I have the right to be loved. I have the right to be right! Do I really? Isn’t this what denying self is all about? Day after day we face this even, and especially, in our homes. To put down our pride, to take a back seat and do so without feeling abused or hurt in any way is a step in the right direction to denying self. If we have no sense of self-importance, then we will not be offended. Ps 119:165 Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. When we love Jesus more than self, we will not be offended when a weakness is pointed out in our life, or when someone rises higher than we.
4. “Instead of being “boss” I am willing to be at the bottom of the heap.” Keller says that in sheep terms it means that instead of being “top ram” I am willing to be a “tail-ender.” Some of us perhaps need to be the boss more than others, but I think this desire to be the boss is in all of us. It is our natural fleshly way. We like to think we have the best ideas, the best ways about going about things, and so we let others know that by telling them what to do and how to do it. But when we are following Jesus, truly following Him, we will put our ideas to rest and look to Him in things both small and big and wait for His ideas, His decisions, His wisdom. A person who does this is a person who always finds the time and the energy to help others.
5. “Instead of finding fault with life and always asking “Why?” I am willing to accept every circumstance of life with an attitude of gratitude.” In our flesh it is so easy to always think of the negative first. As I write this, I have just become aware of the fact that two people were talking about me. I have no idea what they were saying, I only know the subject of the matter, and I am sitting here fighting the thought that one of them may have shared something negative about me. Why am I so apt to think that surely the conversation was negative? I think it is because it is so easy for my flesh to first think critical thoughts! (Btw: I went to the Lord, confessed that I was fretting about what others think of me, and asked Him to restore my peace about this matter and He quickly gave me peace.) And if I am not thinking critical thoughts, I am complaining about something! Most of the time, when we are asking “Why”, we are doing so because we are not happy with our circumstance. We fail to recognize that He leads me in paths of righteousness. That means, in part, that wherever He leads me, it is the right path for me. It may not seem so at the time, but it is the path of His choosing for my life. It is His will for me, and His will never is grievous. It is always right! It will lead us to greater faith, greater trust in Him, a closer relationship with Him, more awareness of our dependence upon Him. All of that is a treasure beyond our comprehension, but it is so much better for us than the paltry thing we think we have to endure. Learning to follow Him wherever He leads, even if it is an unpleasant path, and to do so cheerfully, knowing that He knows best, is a sign of truly following Jesus.
6. “Instead of exercising and asserting my will, I learn to cooperate with His wishes and comply with His will.” When I learn to put an X through my will and instead, seek His will and His will only, then I have learned to follow Jesus. Growing up I had a daughter who, when told of a plan we had for our family, would say something like this, “What if we…”, “Could we….”. She always had another idea, something that she thought was a better idea. Is not that how we frequently are with the Lord? We hear His will clearly, but we submit to Him our own ideas, as if our ideas are better! When we can crucify our ideas and our desires, our will, and seek only and totally God’s will, then we have learned how to deny self and follow Him. We pray, “Thy will be done…” but in real life we often really do not mean it! Praying those words sincerely means that I have learned to go when He tells me to go; to stop, when He tells me to stop. Sometimes He tells me to do something and I do it, but I do it in my way, not His, or in my timing, not His timing. We must be so careful of this! We can disrupt His will for us by charging ahead and doing it our way, with our words, in our timing.
7. “Instead of choosing my own way I am willing to choose to follow in Christ’s way: simply to do what He asks me to do.” What Jesus is looking for is quick and simple obedience with no alterations and no fears. Sometimes He tells us to do what looks like an impossibility to us. In our own strength, it is. But in His strength all things are possible. He will lead us in an impossible path so that He can teach us how powerful He is, how able He is to work through us and through circumstances to bring about the impossible.
Do these seven areas seem impossible to you? You are right, they are absolutely impossible for you to accomplish. That is why He has given us His Holy Spirit. Ps 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. He wants us to deem every path He gives us as impossible so that we will depend completely on Him! That is the only way He gets the glory.
“…for his name's sake.” Why does He lead me where His leads me? Why does He care for me so? Why should I follow as has been prescribed? It is for His reputation. He takes care of us so that the world may see His goodness. His glory. If a shepherd does not take care of his pastures, his sheep will grow weak and thin and the pasture will become desolate. This will become evident to everyone around and his reputation will be tarnished. Why does he care for his sheep so diligently in so many ways? So that his sheep will be healthy and sought after in the marketplace. Likewise, Jesus is working diligently to care for us so that He will be glorified, so that others, unbelievers, will want Him to care for them. As sheep, we need to be willing to follow so that unbelievers will see the effects of such wonderful, tender loving care and seek to know our Shepherd. He gave the utmost for us so, of course, we want to reflect His great goodness to us by lives that follow Him. It is never about me. It is always about Him.
Application
In order to avoid damaging the pastures, sheep must be kept on the move, always moving on to more and better green pastures. Likewise, we Christians must keep on the move spiritually. We must pray daily that we would grow in Christ each day. We must seek the Lord for how He wants us to grow. Does He seek to change some part of our daily fellowship with Him? Perhaps adding more prayer time? More reading time? More memorization? How is the Lord directing you to grow into Him more? Greater obedience? Greater trust in areas you have not yet surrendered? We must be very careful to never grow stale, never fall into a rut, never stay feasting on the same ground. Perhaps you love Psalms or some other book, so that is what you read over and over again, leaving the rest of scripture behind. Whatever is your routine, be willing to change it so that you can keep on growing! Routine is good if it keeps you fellowshipping with the Lord but clinging to a certain routine in our devotional time of fellowship can quickly grow stale and meaningless. Make your prayer, “Lord, let me walk closer to You today than I did yesterday.” He guides us to still waters that are gently running, never to standing water which quickly gathers filth. Paul prayed for the Christians in Philippi that their “love would abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment.” Colossians 1:10 states: That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Finally, 2Co 3:18 says, But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changedinto the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Every day we must grow more Christlike. That won’t necessarily happen if we stick to the same ruts day after day. Growing stale in our daily routine of fellowship with God will not bring Him glory in the long run. When we live a life of following Him then we will display to the world what He can do in an individual and that will give Him glory.
When we became saved, the Holy Spirit entered into us and, by Him, we were given a desire to live holy lives. Then ensued the battle between the flesh and the spirit. It is up to us to yield to the Holy Spirit and deny self, and the good news is that He even gives us the desire to yield. All we must do is ask Him for it. Then He gives us the strength to yield to the leading of Jesus. It is left for us to simply step out in faith. But that, too, is a gift from Him. We simply accept it! He will always and only direct us by His love. Only in following will we have joy beyond measure, peace that passes all understanding. Ask Him for the ability to yield to His leading - He delights to give it to you. Ask Him for the willingness to deny self and follow Him.
Are you willing to be set apart for Jesus? To do something that is different? To risk what your friends think of you? To follow Jesus in paths that are different from the paths of others?
Are you willing to put what you think are your rights in the back corner? Are you willing to tell your husband that he is right, and you are not? To trust that he is right on an issue and not insist on your own way? Are you willing to take the back seat and be content and silent there? I have learned to say to my husband, “I know you are right on this issue, so I will back off and trust your wisdom.” I have learned to say that because I found that all too often when we disagreed on some fact, or some issue, he always ended up being right! And if I was right on some rare occasion, it did not matter that I was.
When new circumstances arise, do you thank God for them so that you can learn to be more Christlike or do you complain about them and wonder why in the world God has placed that circumstance in your life?
Do you trust the path God has chosen for you knowing that it is a path of righteousness? Do you trust that the path you are on right now will lead you into a closer relationship with Him, into more Christlikeness and less self? Is that your entire aim in life? Is that more important to you than the hardship of the journey? As I write I am thinking about two people with whom I have just had encounters. The one has been suddenly confronted with several major disease disorders, including cancer. Yet she is not bothered at all by this news. She declares that it is all okay and she is completely at peace, that there is no fear at all in her soul. The second lady was an old acquaintance that I connected with on Facebook. She responded to me by using some very foul language in describing her current financial situation. There was no peace in her soul. No joy. No recognition of God in her life, and I thought at one time that she was a godly lady! Such a contrast of two ladies and their response to the path God has chosen for them. The paths of righteousness will only bring peace and joy no matter where they lead. Are you trusting in your Shepherd, trusting that He is indeed leading you in paths that are only paths of rightness for you?
Do you recognize that His path for you seems impossible? But do you also recognize that He wants to reveal to you just exactly what He can do through you in His power? That is the step of faith He wants for you.
All this admonition about how to follow Jesus has but one motive – to give Him glory. If we follow, we display to the world around us what an absolutely fabulous Shepherd we have. That is the whole purpose of our being. By so doing, we make others thirsty to have our Shepherd in their lives as well. Commit to following Him no matter where He leads simply with the motive of bringing Him glory!!!!