Do You Know the Shepherd?

Psalm 23

There is an old story about Psalm 23 (though we can't say if it is true) and which teaches a beautiful lesson.

It goes like this:

Once there was a fund raiser in which a famous actor was the Chief Guest. He gave his speech, did a couple of performences of his famous dialogues and then invited questions. Someone in the audience asked him if he knew Psalm 23. To this he replied in the affirmative saying he had to memorise it as a child. Another person piped up and asked him to recite it.

The actor then proceeded to recite Psalm 23, in his deep baritone voice complete with facial expressions and voice modulation. Slowly, deliberately serious and with actions.

When he finished there was thunderous applause and a standing ovation.

After the applause died down, someone spied an old priest sitting in the corner. He raised a call for the priest to recite Psalm 23 as well, a call which caught on till the the entire hall was echoing with that demand.

The priest slowly got up, so slowly one could probably have heard his bones. He walked upto the stage, took the mike and, in a weak, cracked voice which promised to fail any time and with a teary expression proceeded to recite the Psalm. When he finished he got the standard polite applause.

At dinner that evening someone asked the actor what he thought of the priests recital viz a viz his own.

"Oh that's easy" said the actor. "I knew the Psalm but he knew the shepherd".

Today, we can well ask ourselves - Do we know the shepherd or just the Psalm?

ReplyForward

Add reaction

Pastor Rajiv's Mid-Week Message

 

No Place Like Home!

 

Dorothy Gale from the 1939 MGM film The Wizard of Oz said, "There's no place like home":

In the movie's final scene, Dorothy wakes up in her bed and says this line after being transported to Oz by a tornado. 

The phrase is often used to express the feeling of comfort and familiarity that comes from being at home.

We all may have repeated this line quite a few times in the past. But today, let us think about this: where do we think is our home?

  Is it this? The earth. 

                                    Or this? Paradise. 

If it is paradise where we want to live, we have to work towards it.

First, we have to find the way and the way is clearly mentioned in John 14:6, where Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”. There is no way we can get there on our own. We need Jesus.

Second, we must prepare ourselves by changing, ourselves, people and life around us. We cannot have a dual personality - one for the earth and one for paradise. Unfortunately the cares of this world and its pressures create an "anti-paradisical" personality in every one of us. But Once we know our home, we need to change. We must behave here as our home in paradise expects us to. This is done by emulating Jesus on earth so that we live with Him at home.

Remember what Philips Brooks said -

"Be such a man, and live such a life, that if every man were such as you, and every life a life like yours, this earth would (still) be God's Paradise".

As we prepare to live in our home, we stop dreading death and instead view it as the gateway to heaven.

Finally, we must remember that each one of us, individually, has to pave our own path to paradise. No one can be responsible for us. The responsibility and onus are ours.