Help in troubled times
Psalm 23
Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 23 February, 2003

WE’VE ALL seen troubled times lately. For some it has been sickness, for others it has been deaths. For some it has been our work, for others it has just been the changes life brings.

The question we all have to ask ourselves is, “What should we do when troubles hit?” None of us can avoid trouble.
Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards.
All we can do is to choose how we respond.

Today we will look at a passage which is probably about the first one that people turn to when there is trouble in their lives. It’s a good passage. It’s a passage to know and understand in troubled times. But it is not the only passage, and we will have a look at some more over the coming weeks.
Maybe you know someone who is going through troubles at the moment. Do you know someone who could benefit from hearing how to get help in troubled times? Invite them to hear what God says.

THE SOURCE OF ALL HELP

I shall lift up my eyes to the hills.

—says the Psalmist

From whence does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD...

We all know the passage. Yes, our help certainly comes from the LORD.
But that is not quite how David puts it in Psalm 23.
What does it mean that The LORD is my shepherd?
Who is the LORD?

You know that the Jews were so afraid of blaspheming by misusing the name of God that they wouldn't even pronounce it. Whenever they came upon the four letters that make up the Divine Name — Y H W H — they substituted another word altogether. The scribes actually wrote the wrong vowels, the vowels for adonai, which means Lord, into that Name, just as a reminder to say "Lord" instead of "Yahweh".

I can understand exactly why they did it, yet it is so silly, so unworthy of God’s people to treat God that way.

Right back in the first chapter of Genesis, there’s another word for God. It’s elohim. Elohim is the generic term for God. It is God the creator, God the sustainer of all, God doing the God thing.
The first words of Genesis 1 are
b’reshith bara elohim eth hashamaim w‘eth ha-arets: In the beginning created God the heavens and the earth. In Hebrew, you put what someone did before you put who did it, so "created" comes before "God".
All through chapter 1, it’s God as elohim.
On day 1 of creation, we read,
vayomer elohim, “yhi ‘or, vayhi ‘or”
And said God, “Be light, and there was light.”
Day 2 is much the same,
vayomer elohim...
Day 3: guess what...
vayomer elohim...
and so on; day 4, day 5, day 6 and even when God rested on the seventh day, you can tell me that it is still elohim.

Chapter 2 is the same over the first three verses; but in verse 4 it changes. Suddenly it is yahweh elohim: the LORD God.
Why the change? Because we are leaving the awesome picture of the almighty, majestic God creating everything that exists by his word of power. Now there’s a picture of the LORD God, God revealed by his personal Name, God in relationship with human beings.
Yahweh elohim formed the man. Yahweh elohim planted the garden for him to live in. Yahweh elohim formed the woman. Yahweh elohim gives comandments to humans. Yahweh elohim searches for the humans when they hide from him.

The LORD, the one who is my Shepherd, reveals himself personally to me.

THE LORD PERSONALLY KNOWN
That is David’s point. When we go through Death Ravine, he’s always there with us. He knows us, he cares for us.
At the open air time yesterday morning, a man came out from the coffee shop, very angry. He accused Clive of refusing to listen to what Jesus said. He said Jesus welcomes everyone, but, so he said, people like Clive don’t. He was ranting a bit, so I didn’t get the whole point, but it seems that he objected that preaching that some people will be saved and others won’t is discrimination.

If that was his point, that is exactly opposed to the idea of God as the Good Shepherd. Yes, Jesus died for all. And, yes, everyone is acceptable to God through Jesus. The Lord himself said,

Whoever comes to me I will never, under any circumstances, throw out.

The point of the cross is that we all start out exactly the same. God wants us in relationship with himself. Our human way of thinking is that we are acceptable because of our performance. The better worker gets the bonus, the more sociable person gets the welcome, the prettier person gets on the magazine cover.
But the good news is that all those human distinctions are wiped out.

No one is righteous, not one.

We come to God for relationship entirely on the basis that Jesus has already accepted me, already died for me, sinner that I am. Without relationship, his death goes nowhere, it leads to nothing. It offers no self acceptance, no coming to terms with the person that I am.
Imagine acceptance divorced from relationship. It would mean that God doesn’t care. Hitler and Mother Theresa are the same: both accepted.

The gospel is that Jesus died so that both Hitler and Mother Theresa are already qualified for acceptance. But only one of them ever showed any sign of responding to that acceptance and beginning a relationship with God through what Jesus did on the cross.

So we have a God who enters into a relationship with you and me, who walks with us through Death Gully, who leads us to green fields, who rests us at the safe watering hole, who restores our very lives.

But can you really imagine such a God?
No matter how much we want to, we are confronted with one of two ways of seeing God. Either we imagine him as the distant, majestic, all-powerful, unknowable creator of the entire universe; or we turn him into a kind of superman, who flies down to rescue us.

JESUS IS LORD
We have an advantage that David never had. The Lord is our Lord, Jesus. His very name means, “Yahweh the saviour”. His title, Lord, kyrios, implies that he is God.
In him we see what God is like. Jesus doesn’t wear his underwear over a blue jump suit. He is a very ordinary, very real, very caring man in whom God’s Spirit is active in a way that shows his deity.
The Lord is my shepherd... Yahweh is my shepherd... Jesus is my shepherd. It all means the same.

WE NEED RELATIONSHIP
Some of you remember many years ago that Chris and I were unexpectedly left with our niece, Julia, for several months when she was a tiny baby. You wouldn't believe that Julia is 16 now!
When you adopt a baby, you have years to plan for it. When you have your own, you have about 7 months to plan for it. We had a day.
We went into shock! We were totally unprepared. It was a tough time for us. And it was a time when relationships were vital.
One thing I kept worrying about was, “What if she gets sick and has to be rushed to hospital or something?” It does happen to babies. Something that you or I might have a fever from for a couple of days can be life–threatening when you are three months old.

Then I thought. I knew Gwen Kelly wouldn’t think twice if we asked her to pop up and meet the kids at the school. I knew Jackie Mack would take someone overnight if we needed help like that, or drive someone somewhere. I knew that Gloria would arrive in an hour if we phoned. Though Neph and Divina worked, they would do anything they could, too.

I could go on. The point is that those relationships meant that we were safe. There would be someone there to slot in, to pick up loose ends, to help in a crisis. It was a good feeling. We were not alone.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing...

It’s a good feeling to know you are not alone. It’s reassuring to realise that God, the Creator of the entire universe, is also Yahweh, God in relationship, God in the man Jesus, alongside when I feel alone.

THE NATURE OF THE RELATIONSHIP
But there are all kinds of relationships. Recently, Rachel, one of the girls in our office, said, “You are like a big brother to us all. When we have a problem, you care for us.” I was really chuffed to hear that.
Then she said, “I often wonder why you seem closer to Eliane than to the rest of us, though.”

Rachel is right. I am closer to Eliane than to Rachel or Liliana. There’s a simple reason. We have known each other for about 4 years, and I have only known Rachel for about 18 months. It makes a difference.

I also notice how Stephen, who is the head of Customised Research relates to Eliane and Rachel, who are the other staff in that section. He is a caring man, and they all get on well together. He consults, he negotiates, he encourages.
But you can still catch on that he is in charge. It makes the relationship different, even though I think Eliane and Rachel would walk over hot coals for Stephen: he’s that kind of person. There aren’t many bosses like that.

We need to grasp what kind of relationship we have with the Lord our shepherd.
That’s why we read,

Your club and your staff comfort me.

In those days, shepherds were always armed with a club and equipped with a long stick. Some, like David, also carried a sling and some stones so that they could kill an animal at a distance. But every shepherd had to learn how to fight off a lion or a bear using his club.
So David, seeing himself as one of the Lord’s sheep, says,

Your club and your staff comfort me.

One is for protection, and the other is for direction.

When I used to visit my uncle and aunt on their sheep and wheat farm at Baan Baa, sometimes we were there for shearing or for dipping or whatever. I can’t remember exactly what times they carried out what tasks.
But there would be hundreds of sheep to herd into pens and through a race that led them into the dip. The sheepdogs were excellent. They ran across the backs of the sheep to get to nip the ankles of some sheep that wanted to go the wrong way.
Also, we kids would each get a long branch, about 1.5 – 2m long, and go to the edges of the flock. If one of the sheep started to run the wrong way, you’d push it and prod it with the stick until it turned around and rejoined the mob. Otherwise you’d have a stampede and they wouldn’t go through and be protected from flies and ticks and whatever.

Sometime a sheep would even get into the race leading to the dip. It was only just wider than one sheep, but sometimes one sheep would decide to try to turn around, and you had to get in with the stick again and push it the right way. The staff is a great device to keep sheep on track.

So there is also the security of being given boundaries by the great Shepherd.

He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

He protects and he directs. It’s that kind of relationship.
And what is the consequence?

I shall fear no evil, for you are with me.

I need never give way to fear, because I am safe in the rock that is higher than I.

HELP FOR NON–SHEEP
Suddenly David makes a dramatic change in image. From being the Shepherd, the Lord now becomes his host and his companion.

Some people like to continue the sheep and shepherd image here, but the idea of a shepherd setting a table for a favoured sheep is really a little strange.

The picture here is of a soldier or a courtier who has been accused or attacked by his enemies, and the day comes when the King has a banquet to reward his favourites. Everyone assembles to hear what happens, and they get to the award for the best soldier of 1015BC, and the MC rips the envelope open, and it goes to David! His friends all clap as he goes to his place on the table, and his enemies are silenced. The King claps his hands and food and drink are piled before his favourite.
When a King invites one of his people to the head table, that’s where you are safe. An attack on anyone at the head table is an attack on the King himself.

And when the King invites one of his people to the head table and eats with him, that’s when you are in intimate fellowship. It’s the same thing as we started with: it’s all about relationship. Kings have family and best friends at their tables.

And, just to make sure, the King pours oil on his favourite’s head. Just as the King was anointed, so he anoints his favourites.
When we are in relationship with the Lord, the oil of the Spirit is poured out on us, strengthening us with might in the inner being.

SUMMARY
Life might get tough, but there’s a saving relationship there.

Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the Lord’s house forever.

No one can ever keep tough times from his door, but everyone can go through those times with a loving Companion and friend.
We used to sing a chorus,

When the road is rough and steep,
Keep your eyes upon Jesus,
He alone has power to keep
Keep your eyes upon him...

When you know you are loved, you can make it through.
Stick close to the shepherd!

AMEN