We Need Shepherds and Our Great Shepherd

If you had to choose an animal which you believed best represents you, what would it be? Would it be a tiger? A golden retriever? A stallion? An eagle? A dolphin? A gazelle? When answering this question, we tend to envision an animal with some extraordinary quality, like speed, flight, beauty, stealth, or an easy-going nature.

When God compares us human beings to an animal, though, he doesn’t choose a flattering one. His choice doesn’t highlight our strength, skill, or superiority. It highlights our helplessness, weaknesses, and flaws instead. In short, God’s choice reminds us that we are always helpless and desperately need him.

To flourish as human beings – esp. as a Christian – we must embrace this reality with all our heart. To thrive, we must stop insisting that we’re capable people and accept that we are helpless creatures. Only when we do that will we fully enjoy the blessing, peace, and security that God provides. So, to what animal does God himself compare us?

We are like sheep who need a shepherd.

Sheep are entirely helpless creatures. They can’t run well. They can’t hide well. They can’t choose food well. They can’t work together well. They can’t remember things well. They can’t choose directions well. They can’t communicate well. They can’t do anything well.

Sheep easily can lose their way and wander from their flock. They easily eat the wrong plants or drink polluted water. When they fall, it’s hard for them to get up. They get confused or spooked quite easily, and they’re easy prey for predators.

We’re more like sheep than we realize and not just when we’re toddlers. Even the most mature believers among us are still like sheep. We’re weak, fragile, and helpless. We’re easily discouraged, doubtful, offended, and tempted by sin – including the sins of pride and self-sufficiency that threaten us when we think we’ve left our weaknesses behind.

Since we’re like sheep, we need shepherds. We need supervision, guidance, and care. And if you don’t feel like you need that anymore, then you’re behaving like a sheep who stubbornly thinks he’s okay and doesn’t need a shepherd. No matter how old or experienced a sheep may be, he always needs a shepherd – and so do you – because we are always helpless and desperately need God.

There is more than one shepherd.

Because we’re like sheep, we need shepherds – but not all shepherds are good. Bad shepherds do the following:

• They lead their sheep in the wrong direction. (Jer 50:6)
• They eat their sheep and don’t feed them. (Ezek 34:2)
• They allow their sheep to die. (Psa 49:14)

One experienced shepherd of sheep who later became a pastor of people (W. Phillip Keller) said this about bad shepherds:

In memory I can still see one of the sheep ranches in our district which was operated by a tenant sheepman. He ought never to have been allowed to keep sheep. His stock was always thin, weak, and riddled with disease or parasites. Again, and again, they would come and stand at the fence staring blankly through the woven wire at the green, lush pastures which my flock enjoyed. Had they been able to speak I am sure they would have said, ‘Oh, to be set free from this awful owner!’

W. Phillip Keller

Bad shepherds take advantage of their sheep, but good shepherds care of them. That’s why Peter gave these instructions to shepherds (or pastors) of churches:

Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.

1 Peter 5:2-4

Pastors are God’s shepherds for his people, but he insists they carry out this sacred task with integrity and selfless motives. They should be:

• Willing not reluctant.
• Enthusiastic not just doing as a job to get paid.
• Servant-minded, Christlike examples, not forceful, authoritarian executives.

Pastors should carry out their role knowing that they answer to a superior shepherd, the Chief Shepherd, who is the Lord. He is observing whether their conduct exhibits the kind of example and care that he wants his sheep to have.

The Lord is the ultimate shepherd who cares for us all. He cares for us through pastors as his under-shepherds and he supervises them, too. None of us escape from his care because we are always helpless and desperately need him.

Our Great Shepherd is the Lord.

We’re so familiar with this oft-repeated, poetic-sounding phrase that we fail to grasp the significance of what it says. “The Lord” is an astounding detail here, and so is “my,” and so is, “shepherd.”

That our shepherd is “the Lord” is astounding because he is more than just another human. He is the eternal God who made the universe out of nothing, holds everything together today, and will judge the world in the future. There is no one greater than him.

That he is “my” shepherd is also astounding because this means that of all the stars, animals, plants, and details he is caring for today, he doesn’t just care for humanity as one gigantic group, he cares for you and for me individually with personalized care.

The he is my “shepherd” is also astounding because a shepherd isn’t a high-ranking position. Shepherds were low class members on the fringes of society, so being a shepherd was not a desirable aspiration. Yet throughout biblical history, God chose shepherds to lead his people, such as Abraham, Moses, David, and more. What’s even more astounding is that he has chosen to identify himself as a shepherd as well. The Lord over all is our shepherd.

I shall not want: He meets all our needs.

“Want” here doesn’t mean “wanting something” as in “having a desire” of some kind. It means “to lack” as in “falling behind or missing out” on something. David is saying that because the Lord is his shepherd, he will always have what he needs because the Lord will always provide for his needs.

In the rest of the psalm David describes all the ways God had and would meet his needs. He provides:

• Rest and peace in a noisy, turbulent world (v.2).
• The ability to live a godly life and do what is right (v.3).
• Safety and protection from evil, both without and within (v.4).
• All material and physical needs (v.5).
• A secure relationship with him for eternity (v.6).

Like David, we should live with the regular awareness that we’re entirely helpless and that the Lord is our shepherd who meets our every need.

Someone told me that in the lumberjacking industry, men who are new to using a chainsaw have less accidents than those who are veterans in the trade. Why is this so? Because newbies fear injuring themselves and take extra precautions, but longtime lumberjacks have become so comfortable and experienced at what they’re doing that they let down their guard.

David the king was once a shepherd. He realized his helpless condition and total need for the Lord to meet his every need. Though he governed an entire nation, with armies and wealth at his command, David didn’t let his elevated status remove his sense of childlike wonder that the Lord was his shepherd still. No matter how far he progressed in life by any measure, he remained as helpless as before. Though he wore a crown on his head and lives in a palace, he was a still helpless sheep, and the Lord was still his shepherd.

A mark of Christian maturity is that you depend upon the Lord more – not less.

Why? Because we are always helpless and desperately need him, and the longer we believe on and follow him, the more we know that this is true.

So today, let’s renew our reliance upon the Lord as our shepherd. Let’s remind ourselves that the God of the universe is providing us with daily, personalize care and is ready to meet our every need.

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Thomas Overmiller serves as pastor for Faith Baptist Church in Corona, NY and blogs at Shepherd Thoughts. This article first appeared at Shepherd Thoughts, excerpted here with permission. See the full piece here.

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Photo by Pawan Sharma on Unsplash