Are you a good sheep?

 Psalm 100:1–5 (ESV):  

1  Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! 

 2  Serve the Lord with gladness! 

Come into his presence with singing! 

 3  Know that the Lord, he is God! 

It is he who made us, and we are his; 

we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 

 4  Enter his gates with thanksgiving, 

and his courts with praise! 

Give thanks to him; bless his name! 

 5  For the Lord is good; 

his steadfast love endures forever, 

and his faithfulness to all generations. 

God is often referred to as Lord because it is a term which indicates to us that He is the one with the right to have authority and power over us due to His superiority. Therefore it is expected that He is served and obeyed. This sounds right when we apply these attributes to God, but is a bit scary when we apply them to humans who also carry this title! I am sure you can think of some lords or leaders who have got the balance of these attributes wrong. Yet, thankfully, there is only One who is The Lord and ‘he is God’. He has superiority over any other lords, and he deserves, not requires, our service. He has authority and power and should be obeyed, yet The Lord Our God should also be enjoyed and served with ‘gladness’ (v2). In life there are those who have more authority than others, so it is necessary to serve or obey them such as politicians, police and parents. It is not always a joy to serve or obey them, but it is required through the laws of the land and the Law of God. Yet, Our Lord, the Lord our God, it is possible to serve Him with gladness! 

Serving God is a form of worship and you can do it whilst making ‘a joyful noise’. Doing what God says should cause you to sing, make happy noises and be glad. If not, then you are not serving right. Maybe your heart isn’t in what you are doing, perhaps you are doing something you have always done but you shouldn’t be doing it any more, or how you are serving God is difficult. Whatever the reason, if you are not enjoying the tasks you do for God, ask yourself why. It may be that you find it tough and you need God’s help, maybe you should give something up, or perhaps you need to recapture God’s heart and passion for what you are tasked with. For the instruction in verse 2 is to ‘Serve the Lord with gladness’.

The Lord our God also takes care of us. We are His; creation, family, people and sheep. He oversees you and protects you because you belong to Him. He spent time designing and building you, and He is happy that He did, so happy in fact that He calls you His child. You are not ornament to look at, but you are a useful being made in His image to demonstrate who He is to the world for you are one of ‘his people’. God has also placed you in His ‘pasture’ where you are protected and safe, so that you know where you belong. You have been designed to be in God’s kingdom, His pasture, for you are one of His sheep. Just like a sheep, you need care, direction, providing for and protection. There are things that you cannot see that could cause you harm. God sees and knows what they are, so keep close to Him and follow Him for He will guard and guide you. When you stay close to God, even if you fall down a ditch, He is close by to help you back up. Another great thing about being a sheep is that you do not have to do much. There’s not a lot of responsibility or busy-ness going on when you look at sheep in a field is there? They might be wandering around, lying down or munching grass, but that is about it. For the sheep rely on a good shepherd to take care of them, to protect them from danger, and get them to the place with the best grass. They just have to stay close and follow. They don’t work hard, they are allowed to just ‘be’ appreciating the life and protection of the shepherd and the boundaries of the pasture. 

Are you a good sheep? Do you allow God to look out for you, lead and guide you without taking control? Are you content living with God, just being with Him and the other sheep? You are one of ‘the sheep of his pasture’. You get to be where the shepherd is, enjoying the land He owns - you have access to all He has got! This is the love, kindness care and protection of the Lord Our God, are you appreciating it?

God, the Lord is someone you can follow who is trustworthy, who knows you intimately for He designed you, He is greater than any other leader, and He invites you close into His presence and even into His kingdom. He will provide for you, care for you, rescue, protect and love you. When you consider Him, surely it is easy to ‘make a joyful noise’, give Him praise and to be grateful to Him! 

Appreciate God. Follow Him and allow yourself to enjoy the beautiful privilege of being His sheep. ‘For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations’!

Israelites, sheep and faith

 Psalm 95:1–11 (ESV): 

95 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; 

let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 

 2  Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; 

let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 

 3  For the Lord is a great God, 

and a great King above all gods. 

 4  In his hand are the depths of the earth; 

the heights of the mountains are his also. 

 5  The sea is his, for he made it, 

and his hands formed the dry land. 

 6  Oh come, let us worship and bow down; 

let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! 

 7  For he is our God, 

and we are the people of his pasture, 

and the sheep of his hand. 

  Today, if you hear his voice, 

 8  do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, 

as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 

 9  when your fathers put me to the test 

and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 

 10  For forty years I loathed that generation 

and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, 

and they have not known my ways.” 

 11  Therefore I swore in my wrath, 

“They shall not enter my rest.” 

At the beginning of the psalm you may notice the repetition of the phrase ‘let us’. Yet this is not used to ask for permission to do something, but rather the Israelites are encouraging one another TO do something. They are calling each other to worship God. Reminding one another that God is Lord, He is Saviour and He is worthy to be thanked and praised because, ‘the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods’. There is no-one and nothing like Him. He is supreme. He alone created the deepest and highest parts of the world, no-one else has. He also made the seas and the land, all the expanse that we see, and that we do not - God crafted it all. Therefore how can any other power or person ever have authority over Him?! He is ‘a great King above all gods’. Other things may claim power, seem great, make great boasts or be assertive and convincing, but none can even stand before the great King of all. It is good for us to remind ourselves of this. and to encourage one another to worship the One who deserves it. It is easy to lose focus, get distracted or feel down about circumstances and so not feel like worshipping. At times you need other godly men and women to call you to worship to say to you, ‘let us sing’, ‘let us make a joyful noise’, ‘let us come into his presence’, and you need to do this for others too.. There is no reason great enough for you to withhold worship to ‘the Lord, our Maker!’. Who keeps you to account and keeps calling you to worship God? ’the Lord is a great God’ all of the time therefore you can sing, dance, pray, praise and be joyful always because that truth always remains. The fact the God is great is so powerful and strong a truth, that when you really think about it you cannot help but ‘make a joyful noise’!

God is the Maker, He not only made all of the Earth, but he also made you. Therefore He is THE God and He is YOUR God - the only One in supreme authority, plus He makes it personal, He is your God, for you and with you plus you can have relationship with Him. Yet the relationship is not equal - He is your shepherd for you are like a sheep before Him - helpless, fluffy and vulnerable. You need looking after, guiding, carrying, and even telling off sometimes. Do not be like the Israelites by becoming stubborn and hardening your heart (v8). You are vulnerable and weak before God, you do need Him. Do you allow God to guide, correct and carry you? Or are you too intent on doing things your own way? You were never meant to sort all your problems out or make all the decisions independently. A sheep that does that wanders off, gets lost and injured - they don't even know where the best grass is or where the dangers are, that's why they need the shepherd. The Israelites kept forgetting that they were sheep. God provided and guided them, and He urged them to be obedient, but they did not adhere to His words in the big or small things. Instead God says they hardened their hearts and went, ‘astray in their heart’. They didn’t do what they were told, they didn't follow their shepherd. Can the same be said of you? When you hear God’s voice, do you listen and obey, even when it is something you don’t want to hear? Or do you allow your heart to go astray as the Israelites did when they encountered testing times? 

Two notable times that we can see that happening are in Meribah and Massah. These were areas that the Israelites came to during their 40 years in the wilderness where they felt they were not adequately provided for by God as they had no water. This is a big problem. Humans cannot survive more than a couple of days without water. Plus they had cattle to care for, so they were rightly concerned about this. Their response was that they moaned at each other and complained that they had been better off in Egypt. They feared for their lives because they did not have the basics for survival. When that happens it is natural to be concerned and to try to find a solution as something essential is missing from your life. However, the Israelites did not seek their shepherd. They did not trust Him or turn to Him. Instead they complained to one another, then blamed Moses as their earthly leader. The Israelites did not pray. They did not seek God. They did not worship. Instead they moaned to one another about their situation, becoming increasingly fearful that they would all die. When Moses heard about it, he and Aaron approached God. This was their first response, unlike the people, Moses and Aaron demonstrated great leadership and loyalty to their shepherd and ‘great King’. They trusted that even when death stared at them, God could do something. So they prayed, and at both Massah and Meribah, they witnessed God’s miraculous solution as water gushed forth from a rock! These separate situations occurred almost 40 years apart. So we can see that God was giving the Israelites the chance to learn from their previous mistake and lack of faith. He was inviting them to have a different response, but they didn’t. Despite the amount of times that God had healed them, won their battles, guided them with fire and smoke, stopped their shoes from wearing out and provided manna for them each and every day. Despite these miracles, these proofs of God’s power and presence, the people failed to appreciate that God could fulfil every need. They still did not trust Him or surrender to Him. They failed to comprehend that God can do anything, you just need to ask! The Israelites happily accepted God’s daily blessings but seem to see them as something they had a right to, rather than seeing them as a beautiful expression of His love and care for them. Even though they had a lot to be thankful for, and a history of God’s provision and power, their response to this lack of water the second time demonstrated their lack of faith and trust in God. They had not learnt, they had not allowed the mighty miracles and the everyday blessings from God to influence their hearts or faith. The Israelites made the same mistakes and made the same complaints previous generations had. Yet God still provided. Two men had enough faith to approach God, Moses and Aaron. They talked with Him, and God provided, again, miraculously. God acted for the whole nation on the faith of two. Do not underestimate the power of prayer because it does not depend on who is praying, but on the One who hears!

God says of the nation of Israel, ‘They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways’. It was easy for them to enjoy the benefits of the safety and care that God gave on a physical level, but they did not have the internal security, confidence and joy of knowing God as their King and Saviour. On the surface they accepted that they were God’s people as part of Israel, but internally their thoughts, desires and mindset were not aligned with God and did not demonstrate any allegiance to Him. When times got tough they did not talk to Him about it. They did not trust that as He is Maker, King and Lord that He could and would do something about their troubles. They just complained. Are you the same? Do you follow God out of habit, duty, or because others do? The fruit of faith is seen when you encounter difficulty. What do you do when life gets hard? When people let you down, disaster occurs, or something life threatening happens, what is your first response? For that shows if you are a sheep faithfully trusting in your shepherd or not. Do you call out to God, let Him know what has occurred and invite Him to show up and change things, or do you go around moaning to whoever will listen? You could approach God, recalling that God has been great before, and trusting that He still is and will be again. This is what Moses and Aaron did unlike the rest of the nation. The people had not really given their lives to God, they only wanted Him to give them what they wanted. Yet they were not obedient, trusting or loving towards Him. Only Moses and Aaron trusted God. When there was a problem, they knew who to go to. They knew there was only One who could solve any issue and bring transformation, the ‘great King above all gods’. So they went straight to Him, and they were involved in some great signs, wonders and miracles because they were all in, are you?

Growing in the field

 Psalm 2:1–12 (ESV):

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 

2  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, 

3  “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” 

4  He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. 

5  Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, 

6  “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” 

7  I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. 

8  Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. 

9  You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” 

10  Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. 

11  Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 

12  Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. 

Even though David himself is a king, he recognises that the fellow rulers ‘of the earth’ are not like him. He knows he has been set apart as ‘Anointed’ not simply by human hands, but by God’s, whereas other kings have, ‘set themselves’ in their position and are against God rather than for Him. So although he shares a common responsibility and power with these men, he knows that he is different as he has been selected and set apart by God to have this role. How David governs is impacted by that. Other kings may have inherited or fought for rulership, David however was set apart many years ago and sealed with the promise of God that he would have such authority. Therefore his vision and values for this kingdom are different than other nations because he knows the place he rules is not solely his, it has been entrusted to him to steward on behalf of God.

The same is true for you. 

If you are a follower of God, then you have been selected and appointed for a role and position in life where you have responsibility. Whatever your situation may be right now, however impressive or unimpressive it is - God has put you there. You may not be living in the position that you have been anointed for yet and you are probably not be set apart to become a king, but you still have a God-given role and responsibility to steward. Remember though that David did not become king overnight. He was not from a royal family and he was the youngest son given the most demeaning job of looking after the sheep. Yet God still set him apart. First he had to live through becoming a skilled shepherd before he became a king. Being a shepherd is not an easy job sitting in the sunshine stroking the fluffy heads of sheep. It was the job of those on the outside of the community; smelly, hard, dangerous work. Shepherds had to be alert, encounter danger and tackle it in sun and rain, day and night. David probably felt alone and overlooked, but he still did his job well. He knew that all sheep had to be accounted for so he took care of the animals; tending wounds, swatting away insects, protecting them from predators and searching out any that were missing. David took his responsibility in the sheep field seriously even though it was dangerous and lonely. He also took the opportunity, as he had lots of time on his own, to develop a close relationship with God. David learnt to communicate with and depend on God whilst he was a left-out lonely shepherd.

Are you using where you are to do the same?

David transferred the relationship and dependency on God he had built from the field of sheep to the field of battle and onto the throne room. David realised he had learnt a lot and his character had been developed in the lonely dirty work of his everyday life. Whatever your everyday life looks like right now, it is a training ground for where you are meant to be. It is an opportunity to develop your skills and invest in your relationship with God because these will be needed for the future God has planned for you. The field you’re in right now is a training ground for what is to come - what are you learning and how are you developing your understanding of God? 

Are you using your time now to prepare for your future? Are you honing your skills, making the best of it and growing in relationship with God?

The reality is, that training isn’t easy and when you attain to the place and position that God has set apart for you, it is not going to be easy then either! David, in this psalm recognises that other leaders are against him, that his enemies are no longer bears or wolves but power-hungry, violent men in charge of armies. Yet he has established a confidence in whom God is. He knows God is the King of all kings. Even though David is clearly encountering opposition at this time, he still is assured that God has appointed him and set him apart, so David is assured that nothing can change God’s plans, no matter how many come against him, David knows those men do not have the authority of heaven on their side, but he does. 

Do you have a confidence and faith like that? One that is not shaken or despondent by others; threats, words or authority? Instead confident in the fact that you have heaven’s backing as a child of God? 

If you’d like to grow more in relationship with God, or even in confidence and capability, then do what David did and spend time learning about God, talking to Him and learning who He says you are. It will prepare you well for the rest of your life.