Looking Back, Looking Ahead (Psalm 23:6)
Everybody
likes a happy ending. Yet we know that many episodes in life don’t seem to have
such. Indeed, for many, the closure of some sets of circumstances indicates the
opposite. No doubt, there were times in David’s life when he may have thought
that there would not be a happy ending. For example, he was identified as a
future king when Saul was still reigning, and for years it looked as if Saul
would even kill David. Yet eventually David became king. If we know the story
of his life, we can think of several stages when anything but a happy ending
could be anticipated. Yet here he is, stressing that the story of his life on
earth will have such a happy ending.
Sometimes we imagine if it is possible to summarise your
life in a sentence. Or at other times we may comment on a sentence and say that
a lot can be said in a few words. Maybe we may hear or read a sentence that
challenges us about the grasp of reality that the speaker or the author
possessed and we respond by saying that we wished we could be so sure of life
and what it had involved for us.
Is it possible to have a sentence that looks to the
four dimensions simultaneously – backwards, forwards, upwards and downwards – and
speak about them with confidence? This closing statement of the psalmist does
so. He looks back on the days he has lived, he looks ahead to a wonderful
future, he looks up to God, and he looks down at circumstances that required
mercy. And this fourfold look may surprise us when we recollect that in his
life David had known problems, failures, and disappointments.
The days
of life
What can we say about the days of our lives? Maybe
we think that are fleeting, passing so quickly. Or maybe we think that they are
few in comparison with the age of a mountain or a tree. Perhaps we admit that
they are usually marked by failure, even according to our own standards, never
mind the perfect standard of God.
There were the days of life in youth marked perhaps
by optimism as we anticipated the future; then there the days of middle age
marked by achievements in our home lives and in our work; and there are the
days of old age marked by precious memories and perhaps anxieties about our
health. I suspect that in all of our days, wherever we are in life, there are
times of rejoicing and there are occasions of regret. There are days that we
would like to live over again and there are days that we want to regret.
Of course there were days of momentous decisions,
which leads us to ask about the most important decision we could have made.
That decision concerns our response to the gospel. Some of us have heard the
gospel on numerous days and have not yet trusted in Jesus. Even with regard to
this psalm, this is the seventh in our series, and some of you have heard the
previous six and are still not converted. Probably you have made several
important decisions over those weeks, yet you have not chosen to embrace the
Shepherd of the psalm. Maybe you don’t realise that you have been making a
choice – the choice to say ‘no’ to the gentle, genuine call of the Shepherd to
come into his flock.
Maybe those of us who are converted may have made
wrong decisions since we commenced the series. The sheep of the good Shepherd
are not perfect in this life. They will make many wrong choices, and some of
them were deliberate choices. You chose your own will over his revealed will
and you now find yourselves having to cope with the consequences of your
choices. You may have said that it was only a little matter and would not have
much effects. Yet you find yourself in a net that has entangled you and you
wish you could find a way out.
In contrast to them, some of you may have made a
decision to dedicate yourself to walking closer to the Shepherd. That desire
still beats strongly in your heart, and yet you find yourself unable to follow
as you aspire. You wonder if there is something wrong with you and are
perplexed. What has happened? You are discovering again the spiritual conflict
that Paul knew when he cried, ‘The good that I would I do not.’
So there are several types of days. And there is a
great deal of variety about our days. Maybe as we look at them, we may ask if
there is anything constant about them. The psalmist tells us that there is,
that two divine attributes of God will mark the days that the sheep of Jesus
will live.
Goodness
and mercy
When we speak of the attributes of God, we are not
speaking of things separate from him. We should not be surprised by this
because this is how we speak of people. Sometime we say that someone is wise
and kind, and when we say that about him we are not separating those two
details from other aspects of his personality. Instead we may mean that
everything about him shows itself through those two very visible features. So
when the psalmist says here that God is marked by goodness and mercy, he is
saying that it is through those attributes that we mainly see the Shepherd.
I don’t think David means that some things the
Shepherd does are good and other things are expressions of mercy. Instead in
all that he does for his sheep his goodness and mercy are displayed. I suppose
we could say that the evidences of goodness and mercy have already been
described in the psalm and all we need to do is remind ourselves of the various
experiences the sheep of Jesus has received. He has received spiritual provision
continually; he has been restored from trying circumstances including the
consequences of sin; he has been led along beside calm waters depicting the
spiritual rest of salvation; he has been guided through the valley of danger in
which his spiritual enemies were active; and he has been comforted from the
effects of a hostile environment.
The description of the heavenly activity of the
Shepherd is one of constant activity. Moreover, it is described as being marked
by immediacy – the idea behind ‘follow’ is that of pursuit, of rapid response
by the Shepherd to the needs of his people. Why is this the case? One answer is
that the divine activities of goodness and mercy are expressions of his
covenant faithfulness. He has committed himself to deal with the spiritual
needs of his people and they are all covered in his goodness and mercy.
As we look at this description, we should be amazed
by two other aspects of the Shepherd’s response and that is the copious and the
constant nature of his activity. We know that it is copious because of the
number of times he has provided it – not only daily, but on numerous times every
day. And it is constant because the sheep is not only describing his past experiences.
In addition he is referring to all the future days he will have on earth.
Whatever else they will bring, he knows that on each one he will know the
goodness and mercy of his great and faithful Shepherd. And he is encouraging
all his fellow sheep to appreciate this wonderful reality of their involvement
day by day with the Good Shepherd.
The house
of the Lord
The faith of the psalmist extends beyond the days
he will spend in this world and anticipates where he will be after his time
here is over. He is describing the heavenly fold to which he and all the people
of God will be brought by the Shepherd. But what does he mean by the house of
the Lord?
One suggestion comes from the fact that the author
of the psalm was a king used to living in a special house. While his dwelling
place would not have been quite like the palaces that we are accustomed to
seeing, we know that his house would at that time been suitable for a king. In
any case, all the palaces that we have seen are nothing in comparison with the
glory of the dwelling place that will be given to the eternal kings, to those
who have received royal status from Jesus. After all, it is said of the
redeemed that they will reign on the earth, and where else should kings live
but in a palace. So maybe the psalmist-king is looking forward to his Royal
dwelling that will never disappear.
Another suggested of the meaning of this house
concerns the desire that David had to build a house for the Lord, a desire that
he was not allowed to accomplish. The house that he had wanted to build was a
place for worshipping the great God he had come to know, the God who had given
to him great promises. Moreover, we know that David was the sweet psalmist of
Israel, the one who delighted to write songs of praise for other believers to
use when they entered the presence of God. Maybe David wanted to hear volumes
of praise that far excelled what he had heard when he joined the throngs who
gathered together on the great festival days of Israel. And one day he will
hear them when the heavenly choir is complete and the people of God gather in
the heavenly temple to praise God, with the Good Shepherd himself leading the
praise.
A third possible application comes from one of the
sad circumstances in the life of David and that was the way that some members
of his family behaved. Their behaviour marred the house of David and brought
shame on the family name. So we would not be surprised if he was looking
forward to gathering in a family home, where all would be pure and good. The
place in this sense that he would be looking for would be the place where the
family would gather together forever. We can enter into such an aspiration, of
being there when all the family of God are safe in the Father’s house for ever.
When we think about the imagery of the house of the
Lord we are reminded of the concept of sacred space. We get some idea of what
that means by thinking of several incidents in the Bible where people found
themselves in the special presence of the Lord and were reminded of the awesome
privilege that they had been given. We can think of Moses at the burning bush,
or Isaiah seeing the exalted Lord in the temple, or the apostle John in the
presence of the exalted Christ in Patmos. They were very profound moments, yet
they all faced a problem, which was that each of them were sinners, and their
sinnership affected their enjoyment of being in sacred space. We are told what
one of them did in sacred space when he was no longer sinful and that was Moses
on the Mount of Transfiguration. John was there as well, but he was there as a
sinner. We can see a difference in the way that Moses responded and the way
that Peter, James and John responded to being in the presence of the glorified
Shepherd. Moses appeared in glory and he with Elijah was able to speak
coherently with Jesus whereas poor Peter could only speak out of ignorance,
even although his ignorance expressed his love. In the house of the Lord, the
ultimate sacred space for us, we will speak coherently with the Shepherd.
What words come to mind when we think of the house
of the Lord? I would suggest anticipation, access and approval, although there
is no doubt that many other words could have been used as well to describe it.
It is a common experience in life to move house. One day, we will move to the
heavenly residence promised to us. In this life, when we know we are moving
house, we usually look forward to it. Maybe it happens because a couple have
married and are commencing to make a home together. Perhaps several children
have been born, and more space is needed. It may be when one gets older and has
to downsize. Still, the prospect of a new home is usually very appealing. And
the sheep of Jesus look forward to their eternal home. It fills their prospects
as they look out on the future.
The basic feature of a home is access. If a
building is permanently locked, it is more likely to be a prison rather than a
home. Sadly, some buildings which should be homes are more like prisons. Yet
normally we enjoy access to our own homes and sometimes to the homes of others.
Connected to the access is freedom to move around. And that is the kind of
access the sheep of Jesus will have once they reach the heavenly home. They
will be able to go wherever they wish within and interact with all the other
residents there, the number of whom is so incredibly large that their number
cannot be calculated. And the sheep will be with the Shepherd.
Sometimes, after we have been in a new house for a
while we discover things that are wrong with it and we may end up not being
very happy with it. This will never be the case with regard to the house of the
Lord. Our existence there will be one of constant approval, in which we
experience the kindness of the Shepherd King for ever and ever. It is not
always possible to even imagine what life there will be like, except that we
know, from another picture the Bible gives us of heaven, that Jesus will shepherd
his people and lead them to the fountains of the waters of life. That imagery
points to endless satisfaction.
Of course, unless Jesus returns before them, the
way of reaching the Lord’s house will be by the door of death. At that moment,
each believer becomes a perfected spirit ready to live in a perfect environment
with perfect company. He joins other sheep who have already reached the fold
and waits there until the time comes for the Shepherd to resurrect their
bodies. That may even be the happiest day in heaven’s story as the Shepherd
brings his people into a state of full and complete salvation. Then all the
sheep, fully conformed to the glorious likeness of their Saviour, will enjoy
life in the Lord’s house for ever.
What lessons does the psalm urge us to take from
it? I would mention two. The first is that we should always be looking at the
Shepherd, at the Saviour who died at Calvary in the place of his sheep when he
paid the penalty for their sins. His willingness to go through with that experience
is a reminder of how much he loves his sheep.
The second lesson from the contents of the psalm is
that each of God’s people should learn to look backwards and forwards at the
same time. In the psalm, David as a sheep looks back at some of the ways in
which the Lord had blessed him. Those recollections then led him to have
confidence in the future, both with regard to this life and also with regard to
the next. When we combine those two lessons we will understand what it means to
say that the Lord is our shepherd.