Psalm 23
Yesterday I preached this sermon at my Church. In this Psalm, we will see a God who saves, a God who restores, who leads, who provides, who disciplines, who loves, and who protects and secures. I also spoke about the principle of wolves, sheep, and sheepdogs, and how I’ve applied the sheepdog principle (or discipline) in Churches. In one incident I had to physically force a man out of the sanctuary.
As Lt. Col. Dave Grossman said,
“I’m a sheepdog. I live to protect the flock and confront the wolf.” If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen, a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence, and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath, a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? What do you have then? A sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero’s path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed.”
But we mustn’t just believe or understand this Psalm, by faith, we must apply and demonstrate it. As John Calvin said,
“… It is of little use to talk of the stability of God’s purpose if we do not relate it to ourselves. Therefore the prophet declares that those whom God takes under his guardianship are blessed because God’s purpose is not hidden from them, for it is seen in action in the safety of the church. And so we understand that it is not those who consider God’s power coldly and with indifference, but those who apply it to their own immediate need, that have a right knowledge of God as the Pilot of the world.”
Haroutunian, J., & Smith, L. P. (1958). Calvin: Commentaries (p. 262). Philadelphia: Westminster Press.