Like a Sheep

 

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. 

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. 

  You prepare a table before me 
    in the presence of my enemies; 
  you anoint my head with oil; 
    my cup overflows. 
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me 
    all the days of my life, 
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord 
    forever.-Psalm 23 

 

 

 

Have you ever wondered why the Bible refers to us as sheep and Jesus as the Good Shepherd? I’m not going to break down the twenty-third Psalm today. I just find that one of the best examples of the relationship in scripture. It shows how God cares for us as His sheep.  

 

There are plenty of opinions on this and you could ask multiple people and likely get a different one from everyone. I’ve heard more people than I care to number discuss this and then say something like “Sheep are stupid”. I don’t know about you but if you are going to revel in the fact that you are God’s greatest creation, the one thing He made and breathed life into and didn’t simply speak into existence. Not to mention the only one made in His image, I’m not sure why you’d read the Lord is my shepherd and think oh I’m a sheep and sheep are stupid. I would argue that such a view isn’t a right view because it feels like you are disrespecting God to equate the relationship between sheep and shepherd and then emphasize the intelligence level of an animal.  

 

Now, I will say that most people that make that remark don’t know much about sheep. That is where I’m different. I know sheep, I’m actually a shepherd. I have sheep. The above picture is my new ram lamb Arthur. He was born here a few weeks ago. I’m not a stranger to them. They are my favorite stock to farm. They are incredibly entertaining and I find it peaceful to watch them walk around and graze. A better argument for why scripture refers to us as sheep would be because they are helpless. Sheep are defenseless. A stray dog can decimate a flock of sheep. A stray dog will not as easily harm a herd of cows or horses. Those animals are bigger and can defend themselves with feet and horns or just run away. Not so a sheep. They can’t protect themselves. That is why they flock together, strength in numbers.  

 

The running joke is that sheep are born trying to find a way to die. That isn’t too far off the mark for us as people either. We do absurd things for fun all the time. We jump from planes, ride roller coasters, swim in open water with sharks, we seek thrills. Yet no one calls us stupid, well, at least not as a blanket statement simply because we choose to do things that carry with it the risk of death. I do none of those things because I’m afraid of heights and don’t think swimming with sharks would be fun, but if you want to do so I won’t insult your intelligence even if I might think you are crazy.  

 

Sheep, like people, have great skill at choosing exactly the worst thing for them. Theirs is often the result of curiosity.  We have been choosing the exact wrong thing for ourselves since we were created. The Fall of man when sin entered the world is a direct result of such a choice. We aren’t stupid, but we do have free will and that free will gets us into trouble.  

 

Like I said, I think the Bible calls us sheep because we are helpless. We can’t save ourselves, even though we definitely try to do so. We need someone to guide, protect, and provide for us. Enter Jesus, the Good Shepherd. He saved us. He guides us. He laid his life down for us. We have what we need because of Him.  

 

The next time you hear this Psalm or a reference to us being sheep I hope you won’t automatically think about sheep being dumb. Instead, I hope that you think I am a sheep and I need Jesus because I can do nothing without Him.