There’s No Place Like Home

Who is the Lord? - A Series from the Psalms

Psalm 23 - My Shepherd

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2023&version=NIV;NLT

 

In the 1939 classic movie, “The Wizard of Oz”, Dorothy goes on an adventure that takes her far, far away from her home in Kansas to the Land of Oz. While there, she learns that her heart’s desire is to be home in Kansas with the people she loves.

 

By clicking her heals together three times and saying, “There’s no place like home”, the magical shoes miraculously transport her to Kansas; to her home; and to Aunt Em and Uncle Henry.

 

The job of a shepherd is to provide, protect and be ever-present for the security and safekeeping of his sheep. David was a shepherd and knew firsthand what this meant. He knew how to use a slingshot to fight off an enemy; he knew how to find a stream or a meadow to feed his sheep; he knew how to guide them along safe paths.

 

⁴ Even when I walk
    through the darkest valley,
I will not be afraid,
    for you are close beside me.
Your rod and your staff
    protect and comfort me.

 

Jesus knew what it meant to be a shepherd too. In fact, Jesus told his followers, “I am the good shepherd”. As David wrote in Psalm 23, Jesus provides, protects and is constantly present with his sheep. He also pursues his sheep with his unfailing love.

 

⁶ Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me
    all the days of my life,
and I will live in the house of the Lord.

 

Like Dorothy, the desire of our heart is to go home at the end of each day where we receive nourishment; where we are safe from the dog eat dog world outside; where we are surrounded by the people we love and those who love us.

 

But our true home is when we are “in the house of the Lord”; in the presence of the Living God.




When that happens, it doesn’t require clicking your heals together and saying, “There’s no place like home”. And, you won’t be in Kansas.

 

When I Grow Up I Want To Be

Mark 14:27-42

  

In 2006 Monster.com ran a commercial called, “When I grow up”. It featured a series of children who gave antithetical answers to the same question. See if you can relate to some of their answers.

 

“When I grow up I want to: file all day; climb my way up to middle management; be replaced on a whim; be underappreciated; be forced into early retirement”.

 

I don’t imagine that the disciples dreamed of denying Jesus during his most trying time; or to fall asleep when he needed them most; or that Peter hoped one day to deny Jesus not once, but three times just before he was crucified.

 

Before all of this happened, Jesus quoted a verse from Zechariah which was a prophecy

of how the disciples, his closest friends and followers, were going to respond to the series of events that would occur over the following 24 hours.

 

^“Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the little ones.”    Zechariah 13:7 NIV

 

Zechariah was a prophet during the time when the Israelites were rebuilding the Temple. The verse Jesus quoted was followed by these verses.

 

^“Two-thirds of all the nation of Israel will be cut off and die, but a third will be left in the land.  I will bring the third that remain through the fire and make

them pure, as gold and silver are refined and purified by fire. They will call upon my name and I will hear them; I will say, ‘These are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’” Zechariah 13:8-9 TLB

 

Isn’t this what happened to the disciples. Jesus used these difficult circumstances to refine them; to make them as pure as silver or gold. And doesn’t he do the same thing in our lives? Doesn’t he use those painful experiences, hurtful relationships or catastrophic losses to mold and shape us into the man or woman that He created us to be?

 

The children in the commercial had only unfulfilled dreams. They didn’t represent faith in the Living God who had a plan for their life. The commercial was selling Monster.com as a means for being a dream maker-come-true; but we know better.

 

 

There’s only One capable of this, and that is The Shepherd who is always with us.