The "funeral psalm" turns out to be more about life than accepting death. And not just any life, but I life lived under the watchful, caring hand of God; Yahweh Roi (Yahweh, my Shepherd).
As a group, memorize this psalm over the next 6 weeks. Learn it in English, and whatever other languages your members may know. spend time writing it, praying, discussing the mental imagery that comes to mind as you go through it. You will be linking arms with faithful brothers and sisters for millennia as you consider the weight and beauty of this song of David, and how it tells us that God was always different than we imagined, and more like Jesus than we ever knew.
Thaw
- Does anyone already have psalm 23 committed to memory?
- What's the sense you have about this psalm before we study it?
- What most stuck with you about the message on Sunday?
- What have you learned about God?
- What have you learned about faith?
Read
- Ezekiel 34:1-10
- Matthew 9:35-37
- John 10:1-11
- Thoughts?
- Jesus came for many reasons. How would you explain his coming with regard to shepherding?
- How is this different than how He may be presented to people by some Christians and Christian leaders?
Leader note: It may be worth noting in your time that Jesus never says "I am God". The reasoning is multifaceted. One simple reason is that there is no simple way to say "I am God"; add to that that Jesus, like many sages, never spells things out plainly because He wants His students to "aha!" so it will stick (Thus, parables over pamphlets). So, what He does say, such as in John 8 and John 18, among other places, is "I Am", referring to Himself as the ineffable God of Moses in the burning bush, and here in John 10, " I am the Good Shepherd", positioning Himself as David's Yahweh Roi. This is how Jesus did it, and it made the religious leaders furious, because Israel only had ONE Shepherd. Jesus would agree.
Discuss
- What are the implications of God as friend vs. God as enforcer?
Leader note: remember, the Hebrew for "shepherd" is "roi", which is the same root word for companion or friend.
- What thoughts and emotions are evoked when you think of God as seeking your good, journeying with you, watching over you, rather than being stationary and seeing you only as a list of infractions of His holiness code?
Apply
- How does your faith change if you begin to see you life as a journey, and your God as a journey-mate that wants to lead you to life?
- How does the back half of Psalm 23, verse one (I shall not want) relate to your answer to the above question?
- How is contentment or discontentment a sign of your faith in God's Shepherding?
- How are faith in Christ and a life of peace synonymous?
Leader note: This is not to say that being a Christian and the removal of difficulties are synonymous. It's to say something about the internal state of the soul, knowing God is a shepherd that walks with, rather than an enforcer that points out error from a distance.
Closing
- Have one or all read psalm 23 aloud.
- Leader, close with benediction to the group:
May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20-21)
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