We are the people of his pasture

Imagine a hot day in Palestine. David is sitting with his sheep, the aroma drifting up from the animals like skunks on the side of the road. He is sweating, and the perspiration is drifting through a thin layer of dirt on his skin.

But through it all, he is smiling. He is think of praise for the one he loves more than he loves his own family.

He sings to the Lord as if he were a patron at a concert of praise music,
"Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
² Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.

³ For the Lord is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
⁴ In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
⁵ The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land."

 

When you rose this morning, was He first on your mind? Did you lift those thoughts to Him? Did you forget the aches and pains of a restless life and think of the one who gave that life to you in the first place?

 

Yeah, I thought so. Me too.

 

Sometimes we get in a rut, in a dry land, in a desert of our own making and almost of our own choosing, and we simply forget the thing most dear to us, praising our Lord.

 

Last night we had a wonderful meeting about a tooth-ache of a subject at one of our churches, finances. We were as one, deciding what we need to do to fund-raise, deciding who would call upon whom, deciding what we would cook, and on and on. It was as if we truly thought we were going to do something wonderful, even mysterious.

 

Later, I thought about how that was the best meeting we've had together at this church. I wondered why? Then I remembered all the prayers I had invested in this meeting beforehand.

 

And I praised Him, who not only heard, not only listened, but acted upon it.

 

Does that mean we're destined to make thousands of dollars? Nah. But it means He is watching over us as we prepare, and perhaps the preparation will be even more important than the achievement as we work together for the first time, really.

 

This, friends, is as real as it gets. We have a being, a force of nature, a person made of love and spirit, who is all powerful, omnipresent, and willing to be part of our lives. It gets no better than that, by definition. He loves us so much that he became flesh, taught us how to love, then died so that the love could continue eternally.

 

How can we not praise him for those very real, very wonderful attributes?

 

And yet....

 

So many have forgotten the one who made the heavens and earth.

 

With a shepherd's grin, David continued appropriately, "Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care."

 

What a day in the wild. David listened carefully as the sheep rustled in the little bit of grass available to him. He counted the sheep, and called to them, again thanking the Lord for keeping him and his sheep safe during the night. Though not the smartest animal on the planet by far, the sheep raised their heads because they heard the voice of their master and they immediately recognized it.

 

The wandered slowly toward the one whose job, whose love was to keep them safe. They were prepared for him to lead them to still waters, to walk them through dark valleys, to find the tastiest of green grass. Life was, well, as life was supposed to be.

 

David said, again, "We are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care."

 

We are. That's us. If we are wise, we recognize that the centerpiece in that word picture is us.

 

If we are wise, we hear God's voice, we raise our heads because we recognize that voice. Many if not most of us wander slowly toward the one whose job, whose love is to keep us safe. For those of us who do, life is, well, as life is supposed to be.

 

Praise him, we do. Praise his name, we must. Praise his warm, loving nature, we will. Let today's gracious gift of sunlight that burns away the rainwater still lying on the ground, warm us as if it were his arms. surrounding us, lifting us, rewarding us. That's life is as life is supposed to be, and it will always be praiseworthy. As children before their mother, as chicks before the hen, as sheep before the shepherd, we come, staggering on the first breaths of morning.

 

For the Lord is the great God, the King above all Kings.

 

And we are his sons and daughters. That's worth getting up in the morning for. Amen.