by Jilene Scherenske
This is the eleventh 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 23:6a
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…”
After all the care the shepherd has given the sheep, they now know that they are secure in that care and in his love.
So, we, having received of the Lord gifts galore, mercies unending, love unfathomable, can now know for sure, without a doubt that that love and care will continue with us until the day we die. He is a good God, He cannot be otherwise for His love is perfect, His kindness to us is perfect. As mature children we can look back and see that everything that crossed our life was there for us to grow closer to Him. He told Abraham, “I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” Gen 15:1 Truly, we have now learned that He is indeed all we need and so much more – He is our Reward! We are in a privileged position. We are His children, His adopted children! Goodness and mercy will be what we have come to expect from our great Father.
But are you indeed secure in this fact? If right now finances are plenty, health is good, relationships are wonderful, and friends abound it is pretty easy to say, “Yes, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God will see to it that goodness and mercy will be mine the remainder of my life here on earth.” But if you are currently facing a crisis or some form of difficulty, that promise may be harder to claim. God may have brought something in your life that has you in a tailspin. You cannot imagine how any good can come from this. You are distraught, not knowing how you can live one more day. You have no idea what your next step should be.
I love this poem. It has more than once been such a comfort in my life.
Lean Hard
Child of My love, lean hard,
And let Me feel the presence of thy care.
I know thy burden, child: made no proportion
In its weight to thine unaided strength;
For even as I laid it on, I said,
“I shall be near, and while she leans on Me,
This burden shall be Mine, not hers:
So shall I keep My child within the circling arms
Of Mine own love.” Here lay it down, nor fear
To impose it on a shoulder which upholds
The government of worlds. Yet closer come,
Thou art not near enough, I would embrace thy care.
Thou lovest Me? I know it. Doubt not then:
But loving Me, LEAN HARD.
Unknown author
Here God calls you “child of my love”. That is what you are! Then He asks you to lean hard, lean hard on Him. He is the One Who sustains our universe, the universe that He created. Is He not then, qualified to carry your burdens? In this poem God says that He Himself gave you this trial fully knowing that you were completely unable to carry it. But He also knew that if you would but take the burden to Him and then wait upon Him to fix it, everything will be alright. And not just alright but will actually turn out for your good. He begs you to allow Him to care for you, to allow Him to carry this burden.
So, in a time of crisis how do we do this? By simply calling out to Him. There is no special formula, it is simply acknowledging that you are utterly helpless, as are sheep, to fix the situation. Tell Him exactly how you feel about it all. You may even find that you have to tell Him that you do not have the strength to turn it over completely to Him, that you feel like you must do something. But then tell Him that you want to rest completely in Him and ask Him to give you even that desire and ability to rest…..and He will! He delights in taking completely over. It is what is best for you and that is when He can work best.
Every time you do this, every crisis that arises and you find yourself finally surrendering totally to God and taking your hands off the circumstance and giving it over to God, then that will make you stronger for the next trial. Not stronger in yourself, but going more quickly to Him, the Great Problem Solver and the Great Lover of your soul. As You see Him work things out for your good over and over again, you will grow closer and closer to Him, more in love with Him. He is indeed our Exceeding Great Reward.
There is something else that strikes me in this verse. Not only is His goodness promised to us forever, but His mercy as well. Do you realize how very much we all need His mercy? Are we not prone to think of ourselves more highly than we ought and therefore we do not see the sin that harbors in our hearts? Bottomline: we deserve hell! But according to His mercy (Titus 3:5) God sent Jesus….and His work on the cross rescued us all so that we can become the adopted children of God, bound for eternity with Him. I deserved absolutely no mercy. There was and is nothing in me that makes me worthy of His mercy. Yet He is rich in mercy toward me (Eph 2:4). Even as His child, I offend Him every day with wrong thoughts, wrong actions, wrong motives, wrong words. But in His mercy He forgives me over and over again. Every day He refuses to give me what I deserve! I beg Him every morning that I may see my sin. That’s what Job did: How many are mine iniquities and sins? Make me to know my transgression and my sin. Job 13:23 God always stands ready to forgive me. He is full of mercy, it is plenteous to all who call upon Him. For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. Ps 86:5 I am deserving of NO mercy and yet He gives me His abundant mercy.
Think of mercy like this: What would you think of a judge who allowed murderers and robbers and rapists to go free without any punishment? You would be abhorred! Yet every day I sin against God and most of the time I do not realize the punishment I deserve. The Bible says we come short of the glory of God. The way I like to explain that is that if I were given a ball and told to throw it to Fairbanks, Alaska, I would miss the mark by quite a bit! Yet every day I miss the mark for what God wants to see in my words, and deeds, and thoughts; and I miss the mark by more than not being able to reach Fairbanks with my ball! Yet, when I call upon Him and repent, He forgives me! Amazing! Streams of mercy flowing from the fountain of life are mine continually. All kinds of mercies. Pardoning mercies, protecting mercies, sustaining mercies, supplying mercies. I cannot wait to get to heaven so that I will no longer offend Him. But even there, I am using His mercy, because I would not be there without His mercy!
Phillip Keller, in addressing this phrase of the Psalm, brings about a point I would not have considered. If I am to be so blessed with goodness and mercy, then my life must exude that same blessing to those around me. Here is how the sheep portray this:
According to Keller, sheep can, under poor management, be a most destructive livestock in that they can easily and quickly ruin and ravage the land as we have seen in past lessons. But, under good management they can be just the opposite – the most beneficial of all livestock! What I am about to say may seem gross to those of you who have never had anything to do with a farm, but to me this is everyday life. My father would scoop up the manure from the pasture near the barn where the cattle had wintered and spread it upon his fields. It made for a wonderful fertilizer. Sheep are known to have the best-balanced manure of any domestic livestock. When spread over a pasture it has enormous benefit to the soil. Another wonderful habit of the sheep is that they naturally choose to seek the highest ground to rest, thus depositing the bulk of their manure in the less productive higher ground and thus making that ground thrive. Yet another wonderful aspect of sheep is that they will eat all sorts of weeds and other undesirable plants that one does not want in their pastures. For example, sheep love the buds and tender tips of the Canada thistle, thus making that weed unable to thrive. We had thistles in our pastures, and they were devastating! Because of all these traits, when the sheep are under the care of a wise shepherd, they would within a few years clean up and restore even a severely ravaged land. No other creature can do this. Their pastures would become beautiful, lush and green, park-like. Their worth would drastically increase. In these weed-free grounds fertility would increase, and the sheep would live in great goodness feasting off the land which, with the help of their shepherd, they have made lush.
Like sheep, if we do our own thing, go our own way, we will make devastation out of our life and those around us. Ruin will predominate. Relationships will abandon. Nothing will be goodness. But if we choose to follow our wonderful Shepherd, then we will see abundant goodness and mercy in our lives. If we are truly living in this goodness and mercy than our lives will reflect it and will make an impact on those around us. So, we must ask ourselves – “When I am with someone, do I leave behind blessing? Do I leave behind peace in their lives – or turmoil? Do I leave behind forgiveness – or bitterness? Do I leave behind contentment – or conflict? Do I leave behind joy – or frustration? Do I leave behind love – or rancor?” For the child of God who is basking under the goodness and mercy of his Shepherd, we ought always to leave behind the sweet perfume of encouragement, and inspiration, and love. Those we have been with should never have to wonder if we love them. They should never have to wonder what we think about them -fearing criticism or contempt. They should feel genuine compassion and tenderness. Even those steeped in sin at that moment should know we are forgiving them as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven us.
At the end of the season, when a shepherd is able to view the green pastures that he has been able to restore and see his sheep thriving it brings him great joy and satisfaction. Is that how Jesus sees you? What does your life bring to Jesus? Is He satisfied with you? Does He look over the years that He has spent wooing you into His Christlikeness and is He pleased? He longs for your love much more than you realize. He yearns for you to follow Him so that He can bless you with goodness and mercy.
What a picture! Jesus, our Shepherd leads us; we follow Him, goodness and mercy follow us! These are two companions that will never leave me. All that Jesus has done for us as our Shepherd – all that is goodness and mercy - and all that will keep on following me! So, He frames our life by leading us into His will which is beyond good for us, and then, as we choose to follow, He drapes all of His leading goodness behind us to follow us!
Application
The Shepherd has proven His goodness to you. Do you see it? Can you look back on life and stamp goodness and mercy on it all? Are you continuing to lean on Him for everything in your life?
How does His mercy strike you? Do you fully realize how much you need His mercy? Do you see your waywardness and realize how very much you miss the mark He wants for you in godly living? Do you regularly confess sin?
Are we passing our goodness along? When we leave someone’s presence, do they feel refreshed? Encouraged? Uplifted?
Are we bringing joy to Jesus?
In order for goodness and mercy to be mine, I must follow Him. It will not follow me if I do not follow Him! Choose this day whom ye will follow!