“The Lord Is My Shepherd”
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen. We begin this evening our sermon series for Lent, “A Lenten Look at
Psalm 23.” “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Many of us could go
on and recite all of Psalm 23 from memory, because it is one of the most
well-known and beloved portions of Scripture. I recently heard a World War
II veteran on a television show say that as a young soldier while being bombed,
“I’d just said the Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 23, over, and over, and over again.” Tradition says this beautiful poem was written nearly 3,000 years ago
by King David, who was himself a shepherd. These words have stood the test
of time, and their beauty and majesty still inspire and comfort us today. “The Lord is my shepherd.” A good shepherd who lovingly tends his
sheep was a favorite image in the art and literature of the ancient world.
In addition to the Bible, the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and other ancient
cultures all used this image of a good shepherd as a symbol for a loving
guardian and protector. In the Old Testament, Jacob describes the Lord as “the Shepherd . . .
of Israel.” Joseph says, “God has been my shepherd all my life to this
day.” Jeremiah says, “He will watch over his flock like a shepherd.”
Isaiah says, “He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his
arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have
young.” The Lord says in this evening’s Old Testament Reading from
Ezekiel, “As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so
will I look after my sheep. . . I will search for the lost and bring back
the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak.” And Micah
prophesies the coming of THE Good Shepherd, the Messiah: “He will stand and
shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of
the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will
reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace.” One of the many things this image tells you—of the Lord as your
shepherd, and you as his sheep—is that you belong to the Lord because he paid
for you a high price. Sheep were very valuable and expensive animals in
the ancient world. Like buffalo for Native Americans and whale for
Eskimos, in Bible times sheep were the mainstay of life. Sheep provided
food to eat and milk to drink. It was sheep’s wool that gave the people
clothes to wear and even tents to live in. Sheep were so valuable they
were often used in place of money. Many ancient contracts give the
purchase price not in terms of money but as so many head of sheep. When working as an archaeologist in Jordan, I was quite surprised that
the shepherding nomads who lived in tents actually drove very expensive Mercedes
Benz vehicles. A more experienced archaeologist explained that many of
these nomads actually were extremely wealthy, some of the wealthiest people in
the country. “Just look at all those sheep,” he said. “That’s better than
a Swiss bank account.” “The Lord is my shepherd.” It cost the Lord dearly to make you
his own. You belong to the Lord because your Good Shepherd paid for you
the highest price, as Peter says, “It was not with silver or gold that you were
redeemed, but with the precious blood of Christ.” Matthew says, “When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them,
because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
Jesus looked down on us from heaven and had compassion on us, because we were
“like sheep without a shepherd,” or as Isaiah says, “We all, like sheep, have
gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.” Then Isaiah tells us
the purchase price our Good Shepherd paid for us: “He was wounded for our
transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that
brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed . . . for the
Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Jesus declares in this evening’s Gospel Reading, “I am the Good
Shepherd . . . and I lay down my life for the sheep. The reason my Father loves
me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from
me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and
authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.” The slogan of the Hallmark greeting card company in Kansas City is,
“When you care enough to send the very best.” Your heavenly Father
cared so much for you, his beloved lamb, that he sent the very best, his own
Son, to be your Good Shepherd. “Therefore Jesus said again, ‘I tell you the truth, I am the Door for
the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the
sheep did not listen to them. I am the Door; whoever enters through me
will be saved.’” Martin Luther says in the Small Catechism, “[He] has redeemed me, a
lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and
from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with his holy,
precious blood, and with his innocent suffering and death, that I may be his
own.” As Luther says, the Lord is your shepherd and you are his own, his
precious sheep, because your Good Shepherd laid down his life for you, he
purchased you with his own blood. As Peter says in this evening’s Epistle
Reading, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree . . . by his wounds
you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have
returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” “You are not your own,” Paul says in 1st Corinthians. “you were bought
at a price.” That is why you can proclaim with confidence and joy: “The
Lord is my shepherd! He cares about me! He loves me! He loves
me so much that he paid for me the highest price. The Lord is my
shepherd!” Return to Top | Return to Sermons | Home | Email Church Office
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