The Divine Conspiracy Continued: Fulfilling God’s Kingdom on Earth. Dallas Willard

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CHAPTER 2

       Following the Good Shepherd

      There was never a nation great until it came to the knowledge that it had nowhere in the world to go for help.

      CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER

      PERHAPS THE BEST place to begin our consideration of the central tenets, ethos, and ethics of the kingdom of God for contemporary life lies in the words David recorded in Psalm 23:

      The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

      He makes me lie down in green pastures;

      he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.

      He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.

      Even though I walk through the darkest valley,

      I fear no evil; for you are with me;

      your rod and your staff—they comfort me.

      You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

      you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

      Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,

      and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD my whole life long.

      Many people can recite Psalm 23. It is routinely treated as great literature and likened to words of Homer, Shakespeare, or Cervantes. But there is much more to be gained here. Psalm 23 is not merely beautiful poetry. What many people miss is that this psalm spells out clearly what life with God is like.

      THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD

      The kind of life David describes in Psalm 23 is one bathed in shalom, or “peace,” which proceeds from understanding that Yahweh, the Lord, is a shepherd and hence a provider, protector, teacher, and loving host. The shepherd is one of the oldest and most enduring of Hebrew metaphors (Gen. 49:25; Pss. 77:21; 80:2; 95:7). What David understood and experienced was the reality of knowing a loving, attentive, present, powerful, and purposeful guide for his life. Our greatest assurance and soul-filling hope is that the Lord, Yahweh, is our shepherd. It is because of this simple, yet endlessly profound reality that we can begin to understand our place in the world and the joy that is ours forever.

      The shepherd’s vocation is largely lost on us today. There is an intimacy in shepherding. Shepherds know their sheep because they are with them all day, every day, for weeks on end, in solitary places. They learn the actions, habits, and preferences of their flock through constant oversight. They protect, feed, direct, and correct the sheep continually, developing a bond, perhaps even a love of their flock. Jesus says, “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11), something that David knew was part of his responsibilities as well. As a result, the sheep respond and are benefited. Without a shepherd they are lost, in danger, and unable to endure the realities of the wild. To think of the Lord as a shepherd is to come to understand the intensely personal, comforting, attentive, and providing nature of God’s love and care for his flock of humanity.

      A first step on this journey of the Psalm 23 way of living is to confess that much of our resistance in placing our confidence (faith) in a Good Shepherd stems from the fear that God cannot or will not provide for us in times of great need or despair. Frequently this is a product of the belief that God simply is not good or that at least there are events on his “résumé” that put his character in question. This is often the tragic result of a significant trauma caused by bad theology; it simply should not stand. In fact, Psalm 23 speaks directly in opposition to such dismal theology. It is plainly foolhardy and oxymoronic to believe God is anything but perfectly good. The kingdoms of our world, including many religious kingdoms, run on doctrinal fear the way the kingdom of God runs on grace. Perfect love casts out fear, as will the love of a good shepherd. This image, of the Good Shepherd as Jesus describes him, is a far cry from the sort of vengeful, red-eyed, wrath-soaked Zeuslike deity popular with some. There is simply no reason to believe anything bad about God.

      I SHALL NOT WANT

      The sheep of the flock are at peace, never lacking or left wanting any good thing. Why? Because they know their shepherd can be trusted to provide all that they need. Fear is gone, needs satisfied, peace abounds.

      In a consumer-driven society where newer and greater desires are both created and fed by increasingly clever advertisers and suppliers, it would do our own souls well, and by implication benefit our societies immensely, to meditate deeply on what our personal and social lives might be like if we were to experience the total absence of superficial want. Can we envision being free of want? Can we conceive of a place where the question, “How much is enough?” is thought as absurd as the answer, “A little bit more”?

      What the Good Shepherd provides is of inestimable value and eternal quality, of the type whose value moths and rust can’t diminish (Matt. 16:9). The Good Shepherd provides an understanding of what is essential and what is tertiary, what real needs are compared to artificial desires. What kinds of economies would we have today if we focused on essential needs first? How much debt would we incur if we realized our sufficiency and abundance in Christ? These are but a few of the key questions Psalm 23 brings to the fore.

       He makes me lie down in green pastures;

       he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.

      Living under the care of the Shepherd provides a state of rest, or shalom, which involves plenteousness and brings restoration at the deep wellspring of our lives. Such rich and abiding rest replenishes our entire being or soul. It is the nature of the Good Shepherd to be good and to lead his sheep onto good paths, where what is good can be seen, experienced, demonstrated, and duplicated. These are the right paths and true ways of righteousness.

      I FEAR NO EVIL

       Even though I walk through the darkest valley,

       I fear no evil; for you are with me;

       your rod and your staff—they comfort me.

      Such goodness, provision, protection, soul care, restoration, righteousness, and flourishing that life with the Shepherd provides allows us to face shadowy dangers and uncertainties that threaten life. We can live without fear. Living without fear is, in fact, the same existential reality as living a life without want.

      Can we envision being freed to the point where not a single thing on earth, above the earth, or below the earth could cause dread to creep into our hearts? Can we begin to imagine what living a life free from the plagues of worry, anxiety, and dread would demonstrate to a world whose societal engines are stoked day and night by media franchises devoted to peddling fear and anxiety?

      Why does fear play such an oversized role in our lives and our culture? What exactly are we afraid of? Well, the list is long. We are afraid we will not be happy, that we will not flourish unless we take the proper offensive and defensive positions necessary to protect ourselves and provide for every possible existential need, both real and perceived. Our search for safety and contentment is endless СКАЧАТЬ