Psalm 23, part five: Restore My Soul

Restore My Soul:

 

In 2008, retired Admiral Mike McConnell, told this story during a speech at
Johns Hopkins University: 

 

It was a foggy night at sea during the second world war. The captain of a Navy ship was walking around on deck after dinner, when he was notified that the crew on the bridge had spotted an unexpected light in the distance. Immediately he asked his signalman to send a message: “Please alter your course 10 degrees south to avoid a collision.” He promptly received a reply, “I can’t do that. Please alter your course 10 degrees north.”

A little upset by this refusal, the commanding officer quickly dictated another message, “I repeat. Alter your course 10 degrees south.This is a Captain!” Soon a second reply was received, “Captain, I advise you to alter your course 10 degrees north. I am a Seaman Third Class.”

Now the officer was furious at the insubordination this man was showing. He tersely growled out a final message, “I demand you to change your course by 10 degrees to the south! This is a battleship of the United States Navy!” After a moment, the response came: “This is a lighthouse. Your call.” That day, the battleship changed course.

Do any of you remember that old country song “Oh, Lord, it’s hard to be humble”? It IS hard, isn’t it? Or maybe it’s not that it’s hard to act humble- more like it’s
tough to be HUMBLED. We like to believe we’re islands that don’t need anybody’s help, don’t we? We get easily bent out of shape just like that battleship captain whenever anybody so much as suggests we get help,whether it’s from a doctor, a therapist, or a lighthouse keeper.I’ve been putting up the sermons from this series we’ve been doing on my website. And this week, I shared with them on facebook a picture of a sheep over at Brooksby Farm, as a link to that series, and I captioned it: “Want to learn way more than you ever wanted to know about sheep?”Well, it may be beyond our curiosity about sheep, but if we want to understand

what God is saying to us through the 23rd Psalm---and in so much of the Bible, actually---it is to our benefit to understand these odd animals. So, this week we’re going to talk about something that happens to some sheep called being “cast.” It sounds like they’re being thrown or chased or something, doesn’t it? But in fact, what it means is that through some quirk of their body’s ovine design, they can get rolled over onto their backs and find it impossible to get back upright.

One of the strangest things about this condition is that it’s not a sickness, or an injury. The healthiest sheep are sometimes the most susceptible to it. If they lie down on even a slight hill or bowl and happen to stretch in their sleep, it is very easy for their center of gravity to shift, putting them onto their backs- a process they simply can’t reverse. I’ll be honest: I’m not sure whether this is mental or a physical impossibility for them. But it doesn’t really matter, because whatever’s keeping them on their backs, both predators and shepherds know that a cast sheep is easy prey and death is not far off. You see, because of what and how a sheep eats, lying on its back allows gasses to build up enough that it can cut off the circulation to the animal’s legs.

Philip Keller, who as you remember, wrote the book A Shepherd Looks at the 23rd Psalm, writes about this condition:


















This is extremely good news for us. Because as much as we WANT to be independent islands, the truth is that we are sheep that get ourselves in trouble, and in fact, the better off we seem to be, the more chance that we’re going to make a colossal mistake, and really need the good shepherd’s
help.

David knew this. We don’t know precisely when this Psalm was written during his life, but you remember that when he was young, David was pursued by Saul, the paranoid king who preceded him, and had to hide in caves to save himself. Later in his life, he got into a similar situation with his own son, Absalom, who incited a civil war to take the kingdom from his father. And in between, we all know what happened with Bathsheba, a woman who the prophet Nathan specifically described to the king as being like a beloved lamb who he stole. David knew about being humbled, and he knew about power corrupting.

But the best news is what Keller points out to us about Christ’s love for the downtrodden. The people who society sees as worthless. And perhaps that’s because like the biblical tax collector at the temple with the Pharisee, they have no choice but to be humbled. They don’t like it. I bet they wouldn’t
choose it. But life has left them in the same position as a cast sheep. It is impossible for them to help themselves, and pride has been overcome by need. They recognize that they’ll die without help. These are sheep that recognize their need for a shepherd.

But when we get right down to it, are we ever NOT in need of Jesus? Do we ever NOT need the good shepherd? The truth is that just like in the episode Keller references with Peter, we are ALWAYS cast. We find it impossible to keep from denying Christ again and again. Maybe not directly, the way Peter does in the Bible. But in our actions, we claim to love Jesus, then turn around and act the opposite.
And all we can do is ask for the Lord’s help. “Lord, I believe,” we say, along
with the father of a demon-possessed boy in the gospel of Mark, “But help
my unbelief.”

Because that’s the point. We can’t make a lighthouse change its course. A cast sheep would just turn over and walk away if it could. Peter would’ve taken back those denials as soon as the rooster crowed, if he could have. And we wouldn’t choose to be sinners. But ever since the garden, we don’t have that choice. Thank goodness what we do have is a Shepherd and Savior we can turn to who is
willing and able to restore our souls into a right relationship with God.