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The Shepherd's Care,
Through The Eyes Of A Shepherd Boy
(A Closer Look At The Twenty Third Psalms)
The twenty-third Psalms was written from David’s experience while he was a young boy. Through this Psalm, God prepared David for life.
The twenty-third Psalm is unique in that it taught David about God’s care for him through his concern for his sheep; and later his responsibility for Israel, God’s people. It was through the revealing of God’s care for him that he would imitate God in his concern for his sheep and Israel as their king.
Imitators of God
1 Corinthians 11:1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
In the above verse, the Greek word that’s translated ‘followers’ means, an imitator. An imitator is one who follows by doing precisely what he sees someone else does.Paul was an imitator of Christ in that he did unto the people that were in his care what he witnessed Christ doing unto him. It was how Christ care for him that he loved and cared for the people.
Ephesians 5:1 Be ye, therefore, followers of God, as dear children;
In Paul letter to the Corinthians we saw Paul and his role as an imitator of Christ, and here in Ephesians, we see Paul encouraging the collective people to be followers or imitators of God and walk in love.
What David learned is essential to us in that all of us are shepherds in the sense that we are given some degree of responsibility for others. Thus we can learn from the lessons that David learned while he was yet a young boy.
Learning The Way of The Shepherd
To learn the shepherd’s way, we must be willing to walk in the shepherd’s way, by yoking with him. When we yoke with the shepherd, we will learn the shepherd’s way of doing things as we move with his movements. The shepherd's acts become our acts; we walk in his steps. We are learning of him.
Matthew 11:29-30 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.
The yoke of Jesus is an unequal yoke. It’s uneven in that all the wait is on him; he’s the one that bears the load.
Imagine there are two oxen, a big ox, and a much smaller ox. The big and small ox are yoke together for work. As the two oxen move, all the weight is shifted to the big ox, and as the big ox moves, the small ox is compelled to move with the big animal. When the big ox stops, the small ox has to stop as well.
The small ox can move and stop moving only when the big ox moves and stops. At first, the small ox is disturbed because he’s not able to make any decisions of his own, the larger ox makes all decisions.
The smaller ox is upset because he can’t move when he wants to move, nor can go where he wants to go, but he’s forced to go where the larger beast goes, and he can do only what the larger animal does, and every day it’s the same. And this goes on for weeks, months, and even years.
It continues this way until one day, the small ox realizes that he’s no longer a small ox, but he’s all grown up. Furthermore, he’s as big and strong as the once bigger ox. Moreover, he looks like the once bigger ox. But what captured his attention more than anything, is that he was walking in the direction of the once bigger ox, at his own will.
I Am Meek And Lowly Of Heart
A meek person is gentle, and the gentle is lowly or humble. You will not find a humble person who is not a gentle person. Now, that by no means is to say that they are weak. Furthermore, it’s the other way around; a kind person is a person of strength.
Yoking to Jesus will humble you as it did the smaller of the oxen. But even as the smaller ox you will find yourself a bit disturbed because it is of human nature to want to do things our way, and the flesh will struggle against the Spirit.
But one day you will see the value of it all when you’ve grown up. God gives grace to the humble, so before he can exalt you, he must first humble you. Grace is the reign of life through righteousness.
Romans 5:21- That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so, might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
James 4:6 - But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
1 Peter 5:5 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
It’s when we are humble that we will receive the knowledge of God. It’s when we are humble that we will learn of him, and his way becomes our way.
And You Will Find Rest
The Greek word translated rest means ‘intermission’. The intermission means to pause or break. When speaking of the soul, he’s talking about the place of our thought life.
Have you notice how the voice of the mind never stops but is always talking about something during every moment that you are awake. The reason being is that the soul cannot find rest without God.
The soul was created to function according to the will of God. But when it has a separate function it’s out of place, and can not find any peace nor rest.
Thus, it never stops or pauses. As we learn to do things the shepherd’s way by yoking with him, the soul will find rest, or it’s time for intermission. There will be no rest as long as we seek to do things our way.
My Yoke Is Easy
The Greek for easy, means, useful or fit for use. It’s incredible how much time we find ourselves doing things that are not useful. The time that we spend yoke to the shepherd is for our benefit and is helpful for our journey. You may not see this at first but you will. We must learn to trust the one we are yoked to.
My Burden Is Light
Take note that the word that is used for light in weight is the same word that’s used when speaking of light as the light of the sun. Jesus said that his burden is light. Remember, we learn about Jesus. And to learn of Jesus is to learn of the word of God. because Jesus is the word of God made flesh. The Bible teaches us that entrance of the word of God gives light.
Psalms 119:130 The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.
Psalms 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
As we learn of the shepherd, what we learn will light up our way, we will not walk in darkness.
John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
The word follow in the above verse is the Greek word which means, to be in the same way with. That is, his way is our way. When our way is his way or his way is our way we will not walk in darkness, but we will have the light of life.
When we walk in the light, everything becomes easy. It’s walking in the dark, that makes things hard. Light can only be found with God, for God is light.
When the shepherd becomes our shepherd, he becomes our caretaker, and everything needed, is provided by the shepherd. The shepherd takes full responsibility for us. But we must learn of him, and like sheep, we follow the shepherd.
To Be Continued.
James R Manning
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