Of Sheep and the Shepherd's Song

 

Monday, May 9, 2022

Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth!  Worship the Lord with gladness.  Come before him, singing with joy.  Acknowledge that the Lord is God!  He made us, and we are his.  We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.  Psalm 100:1-3

I saw before me what seemed to be a glass sea mixed with fire. And on it stood all the people who had been victorious over the beast and his statue and the number representing his name.  They were all holding harps that God had given them.  And they were singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb:  “Great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God, the Almighty.  Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations.  Who will not fear you, Lord, and glorify your name?  For you alone are holy.  All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous deeds have been revealed.”  Revelation 15:2-4

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  John 10:27

The imagery of God’s people as sheep is plentiful in Scripture, and a common metaphor for those who follow the Shepherd.  Less on the front burner is that of a Chief Shepherd who is also a sheep.  Yet, the connection is unmistakeable.  In any account of the Incarnation of Christ, He is the Lamb, who will be slain – a sacrifice for sins.  The Shepherd is also a sheep. 

Leaping from the Incarnation to the eschaton, the last days, and of Christ’s coming, and our gathering ‘round the throne of God to worship the Ancient of Days, the meaning of my sheep hear my voice, and they follow me is Revelation’s flock singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.  It is here we see that glorious condescension of the Christ of eternal glory stooped to enter the manger.  He became one of us, that we might recognize Him, and hear his voice.

While in seminary in the port city of New Orleans, our family hosted two Japanese officer trainees for a day.  They spoke no English, and we were clueless as to their language.  We all pointed, gestured, and did whatever possible to convey meaning to our conversation.  In the end, all we could do is smile and misunderstand. 

In Eden, God spoke human language, and Adam and Eve understood.  By the time of the tower of Babel[1] humankind had gotten far enough away from God to not listen for His voice.  They lost the sound of their Master, like wandering sheep straying from their shepherd.  That is, by the way, the story of most sin…selfish wandering, mindlessly grazing on whatever satisfies a momentary appetite.  God sent prophets to remind them of what the Shepherd’s voice sounded like; one after another the prophets were ignored, and eventually slaughtered to stop their bleating.  The wandering continued, unhearing.  

Finally, God sent his son to be a sheep…some heard, others prepared a cross.

In the final account of Revelation, the continuing, eternal story of after the end, the restored Eden will be filled with the sound of God’s flock, singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.  Even those who have died will hear his voice, and follow Him.  The sheep will hear the Lamb, one who became one of us, to speak clearly the love of God.

For You Today

One day our journey will be complete, and the flock will lie down together in perfect harmony with all creation.  And we’ll sing.  We’ll sing the song of the Lamb throughout eternity.  And we’ll be on key, in perfect harmony!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road with Jesus; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

---

[1] See Genesis 11

Go Git Y'r Bucket

 

Thursday, April 21, 2022

Praise the Lord!  Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heaven!  Praise him for his mighty works; praise his unequaled greatness!  Praise him with a blast of the ram’s horn; praise him with the lyre and harp!  Praise him with the tambourine and dancing; praise him with strings and flutes!  Praise him with a clash of cymbals; praise him with loud clanging cymbals.  Let everything that breathes sing praises to the Lord!  Praise the Lord!  Psalm 150:1-6

The Psalmist makes no small, obscure point here:  everything that breathes is expected to offer praises to God with whatever noise we’re capable.  The problem isn’t understanding that…more, it’s a matter of pride or shame in the ability to do just that.

There’s an old saying which was, more than likely, coined to describe my singing ability:  He couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket.  My bride, Elizabeth, who knows what she’s doing with music, says it isn’t my voice…it’s my ear.  Well, I’ve got to disagree; how many people do you know that sing the Star Spangled Banner out of their ears? 

Anyway…when I do sing, it’s one of three places:  the car, when I’m driving alone, the shower…again alone, or church (and definitely not alone) when my voice joins with all the other worshippers to offer heart’s praise to our Lord.  At such times the other voices make a fine garment to cover my part, which sounds like two cats getting ready to fight to the death!

My decades-long struggle with trying to sing on-key, on-pitch, to any degree acceptable to human hearing, started in church Christmas programs.  As soon as the first rehearsal ended, without fail the director always found a wonderful (non-singing) part for me, like handing-out programs, or reading a verse – anything that did not include music.

Once, long ago, and in a faraway galaxy, a music director in our church convinced me to solo one verse of When the Saints Go Marching-In during our July 4^th service.  To this day I’m certain he had a wicked agenda, something like give-him-enough-rope-and-he’ll-hang-himself…but the pianist was skilled, knew me, and played loudly.  In the spirit of good manners, and lacking musical snobbery, the congregation applauded.  Perhaps they were just glad I was finished.

For You Today

This confession about my lack of musical ability has a purpose.  If I came close to describing your singing voice, you know who you are.  We are definitely not alone - by any means.  But that didn’t stop God from compelling the Psalmist to emphasize it:  everything that breathes is the way he made the job description for singing His praises. 

So…go git y’r rusty old bucket of a voice, and let’s carry as much of that tune as God gives us strength.  We’ll make a joyful racket[1] to the Lord, and, to Him, it will be a sweet sound of symphony…praise the Lord!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

---

[1] See Psalm 98:6 Make a joyful symphony before the Lord, the King!

Protected

 

Monday, November 9, 2020

O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you.  My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water.  I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory.  Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you!  I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer.  You satisfy me more than the richest feast.  I will praise you with songs of joy.  I lie  awake thinking of you, meditating on you through the night.  Because you are my helper, I sing for joy in the shadow of your wings.  I cling to you; your strong right hand holds me securely.  Psalm 63:1-8

There are so many images in this short Psalm teaching us the meaning of being protected under the shadow of God’s wings: 

          ·       Searching and thirsting for more of God’s presence

          ·       Seeing God’s power and glory

          ·       Realizing how a relationship with God surpasses anything life offers

          ·       Lifting up hands in prayer as a matter of praise

          ·       Satisfied

          ·       Lying awake because God’s presence is just too overwhelmingly wonderful

          ·       Singing under the wings

          ·       Clinging for joy because you’re securely held

Today two of those are where my heart is stirred most, lifting hands in prayer, and singing under the wings.  I cannot possibly estimate the number of times I have sung the hymn “Under His Wings” either in worship or just riding down the road.  The words are not merely rhyme, set to music; they are images of safety and song, the kind of which is not for sale at any price.  It is being loved by God.

Under His wings I am safely abiding. 

Tho' the night deepens and tempests are wild,

Still I can trust Him; I know He will keep me. 

He has redeemed me, and I am His child.
Under His wings, under His wings, Who from His love can sever?
Under His wings my soul shall abide, Safely abide forever.^[3]

There are so many images of being securely held, so that no harm can befall, and love can be fully expressed.  There are parental images, a mother’s loving embrace of her child, or the father’s strong hands holding off any harm.  There is the power of a mighty force of angels, unseen by human eyes, but battling behind the scenes of this dimension to clear our pathway through life.  And sometimes it is we who energize the trust of another, standing in the gap for a friend, providing help or even life-sustaining food for a homeless person. 

There are times when a surge of the understanding of God’s love and care so overwhelms us that we must sing, we are compelled to lift holy hands in praise and thanksgiving. 

For me, this morning, that is one of those times.  Nothing particularly unusual has happened to start that effusive prayer of thanksgiving, but, in the just-before-dawn moment, when I see the sun’s lift of the night veil, and the images of my garden’s shapes begin to show me the darkness is now passing, and the light of a new day begins, there is such a sense of thanksgiving for the goodness of God. 

This praise is not just because we have been blessed with a nice spot to see every day, or the house we live in, or a thousand other blessings bestowed on the likes of one family; rather it is the abiding; it is Christ’s abiding presence.  It is as Fanny Crosby wrote, blessed assurance, Jesus is mine which helps me see those wings of protection, the love and everlasting arms of Holy God, wrapped around a sinful human child who needs Him more than my next breath.

For You Today

You may reside in the most beautiful country setting, you may live in the city, or be confined to a bed in a nursing home.  Life’s circumstances do not define who you are; they are shifting shadows on the outside of who you are.  If you belong to God, forgiven and included in His forever family you are under His wings.  Those circumstances are under the control of the loving God who created you.  When that is the truth that overwhelms your soul protected is what you know all day long.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

GO TO VIDEO

Title image:  Pixabay.com   W   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

For other posts on Psalm 63 see:  Rescued and A Little More Light – Part 2  and In Times Like These (or any time)

 

Sometimes It's Hard to Sing a New Song

[1]

Monday, November 11, 2019

Sing a new song to the Lord, for he has done wonderful deeds.  His right hand has won a mighty victory; his holy arm has shown his saving power!  The Lord has announced his victory and has revealed his righteousness to every nation!  He has remembered his promise to love and be faithful to Israel.  The ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.  Shout to the Lord, all the earth; break out in praise and sing for joy!  Sing your praise to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and melodious song, with trumpets and the sound of the ram’s horn.  Make a joyful symphony before the Lord, the King!  Let the sea and everything in it shout his praise!  Let the earth and all living things join in.  Let the rivers clap their hands in glee!  Let the hills sing out their songs of joy before the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth.  He will judge the world with justice, and the nations with fairness. Psalm 98:1-9

If you’re suffering through physical or emotional pain from the middle of a great loss, it’s difficult to even entertain the notion that rejoicing and singing a new song is possible.  And if you’re a Christian believer, a follower of Jesus Christ, the guilt of feeling that way becomes an additional burden.  What’s a sufferer to do?

New things are big things, aren’t they?  Just in my lifetime the advent of computers, man stepping on the surface of the moon, civil unrest leading to civil rights (think Obama), communications jumping from a 5” screen to 90” (with color, no less), and now a president who is at odds with everybody, and an oversight committee blinded to anything that doesn’t lead to impeachment.  Against that backdrop the Psalmist is telling me to sing a new song, shout loud praises, and celebrate righteous judgment with the whole creation. 

There’s a word for that….WHAT?

I believe Israel’s prophets and Jesus’ apostles might have wondered about that word.  Consider the circumstances of those who devoted themselves to God most excellently:

Old Testament prophets:

     ·      Joel and Amos were clubbed to death with sticks

     ·      Micah was executed by Israel’s King Joram

     ·      Habakkuk was stoned to death

     ·      Ezekiel and Zechariah were killed with swords

     ·      Isaiah was put to death with a saw blade; they cut him in two.

New Testament apostles:

     ·      Peter and Andrew were crucified

     ·      Matthias was stabbed to death by a crowd

     ·      James the less was clubbed and stoned

     ·      Paul was beheaded

     ·      Only John (of the original 12) died of natural causes, but only after he lived in exile working in the coal mines of Patmos

In Scripture we are often reminded that the “just” (those who trust Christ) live their lives in faith, not by what they can see, hold, or spend.  Singing a new song, or rejoicing in what you can’t see, is seeing with God’s eyes.  It is seeing through the pain and anguish life sometimes brings, trusting in God’s ultimate goodness and purpose.

None of the patriarchs, prophets, or apostles lived to see the fulfillment of God’s promises.  Come to think of it, neither have any of us. 

Jeremiah preached from a pit.  Paul spent his last years in prison.  John breathed coal dust until he was 90.  Isaiah watched as they brought the two man saw across his belly.  And countless Christians huddled in a frightened chaos as Roman soldiers opened the gates that meant the hungry lions were on the way.  Sing a new song?  Yup; that’s exactly what the Christians did when the lions were let loose…they went to heaven with a song of praise on their lips.

For You Today

Sometimes it’s hard to sing a new song; sing anyway.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO

---

[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com      Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

An Uncertain Note

[1]

Friday, August 2, 2019

Even lifeless instruments like the flute or the harp must play the notes clearly, or no one will recognize the melody.  And if the bugler doesn’t sound a clear call, how will the soldiers know they are being called to battle?  1 Corinthians 14:7-8

Unexpected things are so named because they’re not expected.  Sometimes those unanticipated events are tragedy – sometimes comedy; occasionally they are both!

Homecoming/memorial service at our church is the most well-attended Sunday of the year, and the choir is reserved a spot to sit together in a side area of the worship center.  This is for two reasons – there might not be a seat in the main area, and most of the choir helps serve the dinner following worship, so they have a convenient side door where they sit to hurry out when the service ends. 

For last year’s service the final hymn I chose was familiar to our bunch.  However, as we sang the first verse, I suddenly realized most of the returning members and visitors had never heard it before.  In a moment of what turned out to be less-than-inspired, I stepped to the side room where the choir was sitting and tried to speak to our Lay Leader to bring the choir out to stand in front of congregation to help lead the singing.  Our Lay Leader is a most helpful and agreeable man, but he is almost as deaf as I am.  He misunderstood my request; he thought I was encouraging them to leave.  I began to lead them, but as I walked to the front I was alone; they went out the side door. 

In the split second in which I realized I was alone, I wondered if that was how it was for Jesus when the Roman soldiers came to arrest him, and his followers beat a frenzied retreat.  I am not equipped to lead singing…I mean, I can get enough volume, but when the notes come out of my mouth, there are few people who would pay money to hear those notes when they get there.  (I daresay there might be a few willing to purchase ear plugs for such times, or a lynching rope).

I learned two lessons (or rather re-learned things I’d messed up before):

1.     Don’t take things for granted.  If I’d followed that, I would have asked someone about singing that song.

2.     When you’re leading, sound a clear note so others can follow.

Those wisdom tidbits oftentimes come at a great price.  Once learned, they should be kept close in hand.  Being the leader doesn’t mean you get to decide everything gets done the way you want it; spiritual leadership means it’s your responsibility to sound a clear note, so others will know we’re not going out the side door.

For You Today

The clear note from our God about his children’s path is found in Jesus’ last words of his earthly ministry:

And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  Acts 1:8

Now, that’s NOT an unclear note; we get to decide what instrument we’ll play, but all God’s children are part of the band!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

Go to VIDEO

---

[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com        Unless otherwise noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©

Never Forgive; Never Forget

[i]

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.  Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you.  Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.  Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.  And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts.  For as members of one body you are called to live in peace.  And always be thankful.  Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives.  Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives.  Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.  And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.  Colossians 3:12-17^(NLT)

In the nut-doesn’t-fall-too-far-from-the-tree department:  when our children and grandchildren were really small we always had fun passing around their photos placed alongside those of their parents and grandparents at that age.  You can see the inherited features and play the guessing game as to who they resembled most, and what character and personality traits might also be passed along. 

I don’t know if God does that with His family, but there are some character traits Paul urges us to develop, even if they don’t come naturally:  tenderheartedness, mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 

On top of that lifetime-to-develop mega-list of goodies is forgiving!  Oh, MY!

Have you ever had trouble with that one?  After all, there are some things that really work against being ABLE to forgive; memory is just not set up that way.  God did not hardwire us to forget, and forgetting makes forgiving a little difficult.

But Paul follows up the “commands” that we must be merciful and forgiving towards each other with some really helpful advice on how to make it happen.

He says we are called to live in-peace.  In the eastern mindset, peace is more than an absence of conflict or noise; it is a positive condition that includes the very best life has to offer.  That’s impossible when you have hatred or an unforgiving heart.

The medicine against such follows next in Paul’s advice; if you want that sense of peace, Paul says here’s how:

And always be thankful.  Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives.  Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives.  Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.  And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. 

A song of gratitude, wise counsel, and a constant awareness that, as part of God’s family, when you come in contact with someone, anyone; even that person who hurt you and made your life miserable or painful…you are God’s goodwill ambassador…these are wonderful antacids for the caustic, unforgiving heart. 

For You Today

Got anyone standing in the way of peace?  That person needs to meet an ambassador of Godly forbearance!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO

NOTES

---

 ^I Title image: By Victorgrigas (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons