Gentle Shepherd

Gentle Shepherd, lead me on,

Through the valley, through the storm,

Through whiny, wayward wilderness,

Through windswept, scorching sands.

Overburdened by my frailty,

Overshadowed by your grace,

Gentle Shepherd, lead me on.

8/4/2021

The Parable of the Bell Sheep {Greatest Hits}

This Friday will be the 10th anniversary of my first blog post here. Below I offer you the essay which has the most views (by a long shot). It has been such an important theme in my life, and in some ways it feels like our whole world is in the middle of the story right now. May the Lord open our hearts to the love and goodness He offers in the midst of and because of our pain.

Let me hear joy and gladness;

let the bones You have crushed rejoice.

(Psalm 51:8, HCSB)

A mentor introduced me to the following idea almost two decades ago. W. Phillip Keller's classic book A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 provided her source material. The image has reemerged in my thinking in multiple circumstances recently, so the time seemed right to share my storification of it with you.


            Once upon a time, a good, wise, loving Shepherd bought a foolish and bedraggled little sheep to save her from the slaughterhouse her wicked former owner intended for her.  Finding her in dangerous woods, He drew her to Himself, quickly winning her love and obedience by His tender care.

After awhile, though, she grew tired of simply following the Shepherd and enjoying His presence and began to wander about in search of opportunities to help and serve her Master.  Eagerly, she would trot off in search of imperiled sheep who had gotten lost or hurt.  Unfortunately, she often ended up lost, too, in the attempt to bring them back.  She never minded her trials, since through them He found other lost sheep, as well.  More than once, she herself was wounded by wolves or bears (or her own foolhardiness) attempting to rescue other wounded woolies.  Never complaining, she wore her war-wounds proudly as emblems of her dedicated service.

Without fail, the Shepherd rescued her and brought her back, but the wayward, well-intentioned little lamb grieved Him.  His desire was for her more than her wearing herself out in effort to please Him, and His greatest delight was in having her follow close by His side.  Since she had never taken the time truly to know Him, she remained ignorant of His sorrow, until He finally stopped her wandering by breaking one of her legs.

Bleating in pain and astonishment, she kicked and bit and refused His kind overtures of comfort.  Eventually, however, she grew too exhausted from the struggle to fight anymore.  In her silent, helpless weariness, He bound up her wounds and cradled her tenderly, carrying her in His arms until her leg healed and she could walk again.

As she recovered, she learned to know the Shepherd’s heartbeat.  She grew to love the mere pleasure of His nearness.  Far greater than the superficial adrenaline rush of her former labors, her greatest joy became simply that of belonging to Him.

When her leg healed, and the Shepherd set her down to walk again, she no longer desired to wander from His side.  In recognition of the change and as a reminder of her own brokenness, her Shepherd placed a bell around her neck.  This way as she followed close by Him, the bell continually testified to the presence of her Good Shepherd.  Wandering sheep often heard the bell and followed its ring back to His side.  Wounded or cast sheep heard His approach and bleated for help, and the bell sheep would trot along beside Him, ringing the good news that helps was on its way, as He went to their rescue.

This “service” proved far more satisfying, as the glory all went to the goodness of her Shepherd.  Moreover, He used her to accomplish His work without her ever leaving His side.  While she never wanted to repeat the brokenness, she would never have traded the lessons learned through it.  She finally discovered her Shepherd was all she needed when He was all she had, and the pain of the process paled in the beauty of His preciousness.

The LORD is near the brokenhearted; He saves those crushed in spirit.

(Psalm 34:18, HCSB)

Sheepish {A Prayer-Poem}

The road ahead is beset

With many dangers, toils, and snares,

A minefield without a map.

Other travelers send back postcards

From similar pathways,

But none have traversed just this way.

Fear threatens—

What shall I do?

I cannot retreat,

Ought not stay put,

Must advance,

But where next to step?

You interrupt, reminding of the old truth,

The map to every terrain,

The guide through every dark ravine:

“The LORD is my Shepherd.

He leads me along the right paths

For His name’s sake.

Even when I go through the darkest valley”—

And this one is—

“I fear no danger,

For You Are With Me.”

I don’t need a map:

I have a Shepherd.

I don’t need a lantern:

I have a Leader.

I don’t need to fear the minefield:

I have a Guide.

No fear:

You are.

Forgive me, Lord.

I am an unwise and silly sheep;

I had forgotten that,

Even after these 31 years.

Yet I am Your sheep.

Don’t let me stray from Your side.

Let Your rod defend me,

Your staff draw me close,

Nudge me away from dangers

I am too unwise and ignorant to recognize.

Keep Your promise:

Lead me along the right paths,

Not because I deserve it,

But for Your name’s sake.

Glorify Yourself in how well You lead me

Through this dim and winding valley.

Trouble is near;

Be Thou nearer, my Shepherd and my God.

The Sweetness, the Security, the Strength of "Thou Art with Me"

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me....
Psalm 23:4a, ESV

Juneau, Alaska, September 2015

"Do you know the sweetness, the security, the strength of 'Thou art with me'? When anticipating the solemn hour of death, when the soul is ready to halt and ask, How shall it then be? can you turn in soul-affection to your God and say, 'There is nothing in death to harm me, while thy love is left to me'? Can you say 'O death, where is thy sting'? It is said, when a bee has left its sting in any one, it has no more power to hurt. Death has left its sting in the humanity of Christ, and has no more power to harm his child. Christ's victory over the grave is his people's. 'At that moment I am with you,' whispers Christ; 'the same arm you have proved strong and faithful all the way up through the wilderness, which has never failed, though you have been often forced to lean on it all your weakness.' 'On this arm,' answers the believer, 'I feel at home; with soul confidence, I repose on my Beloved; for he has supported through so many difficulties, from the contemplation of which I shuddered. He has carried over so many depths, that I know his arm to be the arm of love.' How can that be dark, in which God's child is to have the accomplishment of the longing desire of his life? How can it be dark to come in contact with the light of life? It is 'his rod,' 'his staff,'  therefore they 'comfort.' Prove him-prove him now, believer! it is your privilege to do so. It will be precious to him to support your weakness; prove that when weak, then are you strong; that you may be secure, his strength shall be perfected in your perfect weakness. Omnipotent love must fail before one of his sheep can perish for, says Christ, 'none shall pluck my sheep out of my hand.' 'I and my Father are one:' therefore we may boldly say, 'Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.'"

(Viscountess Powerscourt, quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalm 23)

Blogger tells me it's been almost a month since my last post. It has been a maelstrom of a month, full of laughter with young nephews, tears, most especially over the loss of my eldest sister-in-law to cancer, travel, and change in many areas. I still hope and intend to honor Cindy with a blog post of her own, but for now please accept these comments on her favorite passage of Scripture.

With love and gratitude,

tinuviel

Our Always-and-Everywhere Home

"Always and everywhere we may find our dwelling-place in God, who has been the home, and refuge, and abiding-place of His people in all generations.

Always and everywhere we may retreat into Him from the windy storm and tempest.

Always and everywhere we may make His nature not only our fortress and strong-tower, but our oratory, our temple.

May the Holy Spirit make real to each of us this possibility of living in the house of the Lord hourly and daily;
where all tears are wiped as soon as shed;
whither cares cannot invade;
and where the Good Shepherd leads His flock ever into green pastures so that they cannot hunger,
and beside still waters so that they cannot thirst;
and in cool deep glens,
so that the sun cannot smite by day nor the moon by night!
Heaven before we reach heaven!"

(F. B. Meyer, The Shepherd Psalm, Kindle Location 1118, formatting mine)

Absolutely Under His Care

"Oh, timid hearts, dreading every spiritual and temporal evil—like children going down a dark lane in dread lest at every turn they should meet some terrible ogre or object of dread; startled by the sigh of every breeze, and by the whitened bole of every hollow tree—would that you could realize how absolutely Christ assumes the care of all who trust Him!

"The myriad stars of heaven seem to make up one huge flock. Their Shepherd is God, who is driving them through space; or who watches them, as it were, resting on the heavenly slopes as a flock of sheep on the downs at night. And He has a name for each of them. Is it therefore to be supposed that He will not be as minute in His care of each one of us? Will He not have a name for each of us? Will He not number us when He tells the tale of His sheep, even as He numbers the hairs of our heads? This very morn He touched you with His staff and counted you. You are the destined object of His care. Is it likely then that He will suffer you to perish, or want any good thing?"

F. B.Meyer, The Shepherd Psalm, Kindle Location 585, 608

Goodness and Mercy

You have only to turn round, or to swoon backward, and you will find yourself caught in the arms of God’s goodness and mercy, which are following you always. You may not realize that they are near; you may feel lonely, and sad, and desolate; it may be one of your bad days, sunless and dreary, without a ray of comfort or a flash of hope, surrounded by objects and forms of dread. Yet there, close by you, evident to God’s angels though veiled from your faithless sight, stand the glorious, loving, pitying forms of God’s infinite goodness, which cannot fail, and His tender mercy....

Now faith when in proper exercise, does two things. First, it reckons that a position belongs to it, which we do not feel, but which it dares to claim on the warrant of God’s Word. Second, it lays hold on the power of God to make that position a reality in daily and hourly experience.

~F. B. Meyer, The Shepherd Psalm, Kindle Locations 1011 and 1138

Singing Through the Gloom

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

Psalm 23:4, ESV

"God is testing us, to see whether we can trust Him in the dark as well as in the light; and whether we can be as true to Him when all pleasurable emotions have faded off our hearts, as when we walked with Him in the light.


"Blessed are those that do not see, but who yet believe; and who are content to be stripped of all joy and comfort and ecstasy, if it be the Shepherd’s will, so long as there is left to them the sound of His voice, and the knowledge that He is near.


"...the most timid spirit, which is conscious of the presence of the Good Shepherd, can sing as it passes onward through the gloom, and its notes vibrate with the buoyancy of a courage which cannot flinch or falter.


"The darkness is sometimes too dense for us to be able to see Christ. But faith can always be sure that He is there; not because of the evidence of sense or feeling, but because He has said, 'I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee' (Hebrews 13:5). He cannot break His word. He has not left us alone. He is looking down on us with unabated tenderness. The depths may sever Him from the apprehension of our love; but neither death nor life, nor height nor depth, can separate us from the strong grasp of His faithful and unchanging affection.


"O Christ, who did tread the dense darkness of Gethsemane and Calvary—alone, desolate, and forsaken of Your Father. But You know the way, since You have trodden it. You are as near to us as when we can see and feel You near. And You were lonely that we might never be lonely; You were forsaken that we might never be forsaken; You did tread the winepress alone, that each poor timid child of Yours in all future ages might be able to sing the words of undying comfort, 'I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.'


"It would sometimes appear, indeed, that God puts us into special circumstances of difficulty and trial in order that He may make manifest to us the infinite resources of His consolation; just as we need to go out into the dark night in order to behold the stars."


(F. B.. Meyer, The Shepherd Psalm, Kindle locations 523, 527, 534, 546, 551, 567)

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It's moving week for Amore, Ebony, and me. We worked all of last week and through the weekend, with help from kind friends and family, but today and tomorrow are crunch time. We welcome your prayers and pray you also receive the Lord's "daily bread" for your needs at the time you read this.

"Lead on, Great Shepherd!"

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness

for his name's sake.

Psalm 23:1-3, ESV

"As in the East the shepherd always precedes the flock, to discover the greenest patches of grass and the least stony path, so does Jesus ever keep in front of the soul that trusts and loves Him. And it is our art to allow as small a space as possible to intervene between His footsteps and our own....

"Let us not judge God by an incomplete or unfinished scheme; let us have patience till the end shall justify the path by which we came. In the breaking dawn of eternity we shall discover that God could not have brought us by another route which would have been as expeditious, or as safe, as the one by which we have come....

"Would that we had the faith to look up from every trying circumstance, from every fretting worry, from every annoyance and temptation, into the face of our Guide, and say, 'It is the right way, Great Shepherd of the sheep; lead me on!'"

(F. B. Meyer, The Shepherd Psalm, Kindle locations 390, 437, 440)

As a Sheep Resting in Shepherd's Care

So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father;and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may 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 I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

John 10:7-18, ESV

"And now, O timid soul, be at rest! The blood-red brand which is upon you is a sure token that you are safe. He cannot have done so much for you to lose you now. In all moments of peril or dread, softly murmur His name, Jesus! Jesus! and He will at once comfort you by His presence and by His voice, which all the sheep know; and this shall be His assurance: 'My sheep shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand' (John 10:28).

"Hand over to Him all that breaks the stillness of your spirit, though it be but a gnat sting; and take from Him His own deep sweet rest."

~The Shepherd Psalm, F. B. Meyer, Kindle locations 271 and 305

The Tenderness of Our Shepherd

Ewe and lamb, Dall sheep, Denali National Park, Alaska

"O trembling heart, look away, and look up! Your sorrows have been multiplied indeed, by looking at difficulties and second causes. Now cease from all this. Talk no more about the walled cities and giants; about the rugged paths and dark valleys; about lions and robbers. But think of the love, the might, and the wisdom, of the Shepherd. Love that spared not its blood! Might that made the worlds! Wisdom that named the stars! Your salvation does not depend on what you are, but on what He is. For every look at self, take ten looks at Christ. Cease using the first pronoun, and substitute for it the third....

"He has a shepherd’s tenderness; no lamb so tiny that He will not carry it; no saint so weak that He will not gently lead; no soul so faint that He will not give it rest. He pities as a father. He comforts as a mother. His gentleness makes great. He covers us with His feathers, soft and warm and downy; and under His wings do we trust" (F.B. Meyer, The Shepherd Psalm).