Hello
Dana
How is the harvest going? If you
even have time to write this week. Therefore, I was thinking of a short
something. I’ve been re-memorizing Psalm 23 in the King James Version. Then,
while I’m at work, I’ve been going over it and praying it for Carol and us and
others.
Psalm
23King James Version (KJV)
The
Lord is my shepherd; I shall not
want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me
beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for his name's sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they
comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine
enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
for ever.
For such an endearing, hopeful, and
uplifting Psalm, it’s not very long, is it? I’ve been reading a book anthology
by Phillip Keller, where his works on the 23rd Psalm are gathered.
Did you know that he has firsthand experience as a shepherd? And he grew up and
lived in East Africa where shepherds and shepherding were commonplace.
In light of Keller’s life as a
shepherd, he takes each portion of the Psalm and correlates it to various
shepherding experiences. One sticks with me. In Chapter 10 of the book A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, he talks
about a very disturbing, and sometimes deadly pest called the nose fly. During
the nose fly season, the pests swarm around the sheep. Keller tells how they try
to lay their eggs in the damp, mucous membranes of the sheep’s nose. If those
flies succeed and lay their eggs in the nose, when they hatch, larvae crawl up
the nasal passages into the sheep’s head.
There they dig into the flesh and make a home for themselves.
Are you grossed out yet? If the
above happens, the sheep, while trying to free themselves from the internal
worm activity going on in their heads may batter their heads against a tree or
rock, or as he writes on page 99, “In extreme cases of intense infestation a
sheep may even kill itself in a frenzied endeavor to gain respite from the
aggravation.”
Good shepherds are on the watch for fly
season. When the shepherd first spots the flies, he smears a suave on the
sheep’s head which protects it against the flies. Keller says, “Once the oil
had been applied to the sheep’s head there was an immediate change in behavior.
Gone was the aggravations...frenzy...irritability and the restlessness. Instead
the sheep would start to feed quietly again, then soon lie down in peaceful
contentment.”
In the New Testament, Jesus gives us
an intense look at Himself as the shepherd, the good shepherd. In John 10, He
tells us just how much He cares for us and how much He is willing to sacrifice
for us:
7 So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the
door of the sheep. 8 All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep
did not hear them. 9 I am the door; if anyone
enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I
came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
11 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd
lays down His life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the
owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and
the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He
flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me,
15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and
I lay down My life for the sheep. (NASB)
For those of our readers this week
who feel in a frenzy or who are being aggravated by who knows what or by whom,
turn to the Psalm 23. Copy it and take with you to work or the beach. As you
have time through the day, just keep reading it through, again and again,
thinking (meditating) about each verse until you are peaceful again and have quiet
contentment. The Good Shepherd is there for you to have life, and have it
abundantly.
In
Christ
John
+++++++++++++++++++
Dana
quickly responded on Fri, Aug 18, 2017 at 12:02 PM
John
I'm afraid I will not have time to work on
23rd Psalm. Harvest has come in like the Blitzkrieg, and we're a man
short, so the old guy (me) is put to it in a greater way than my age is
comfortable with, but.... This is the earliest harvest yet--don't tell Al
Gore! But for the next couple of days, my time will be severely limited.
Send me what you write on “Calling” when you can, and I'll edit or add to my
part.
Prayers for Carol. It's always
cheaper to do what the doctor says at home as opposed to the hospital. Boy,
don't I know that!
Trish has an appointment with the
Congestive Heart Failure Clinic at Wake Forest on
Monday, so I'll be tied up there. Maybe someone can figure
something out. God knows.
Dana
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