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“The LORD is my shepherd.”  (Psalm 23:1)

By Rev Dale Lee

This, of course, is a declaration of a precious truth David came to live by.  How often this reality must have comforted David as he travelled much of his life in the long, dark valley of the shadow of death.  What can we declare God is to us and not be stretching the truth or trying to sound religious?  All people on planet earth need the LORD to be their shepherd.  But most will probably live and die without every coming to such a life in God.  People are born with a plaguing case of nincompoopery.  We are strongly inclined to foolishness, hardheadedness, and a dangerous incapacity and unwillingness to receive God’s revelation.  The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) took as his starting point “God is dead.”  He was famous for stressing that religious convictions, such as The LORD is my shepherd, were not an option for intelligent human beings. For decades we have been told that science, what man claims to have discovered about the universe, will lead to a progress leading to the gates of paradise.  What is the truth?  R. R. Reno, writing in the journal First Things, published by the Institute for Religion and Public Life in New York City, states “Science was to lead to progress, but “progress” seems to be a god that failed…More youths than ever take medication for mental illness and personality disorders.”  We need a Good Shepherd.  And we need Him more than ever.  Philip Keller, writing in his great study entitled “A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23,” tells the following story: “But the day I bought them (his first herd of sheep) I also realized that this was but the first stage in a long, lasting endeavor in which from then on, I would, as their owner, have to continually lay down my life for them, if they were to flourish and prosper.  Sheep do not “just take care of themselves” as some might suppose.  They require, more than any other class of livestock, endless attention and meticulous care.  It is no accident that God has chosen to call us sheep…Our mass mind (or mob instincts), our fears and timidity, our stubbornness and stupidity, our perverse habits are all parallels of profound importance.” “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)  Good Shepherd please bring your staying sheep home.