Yet I checked my heart and prayed silently: “God, if you want me to learn something from Your Word, let me listen. Let me hear You speak, even if I don’t feel like hearing about leadership.”
I had learned before that when we go to church we are not going to critique the speaker or to be entertained by a funny preacher. We are going to hear from God Himself. Was I ready to hear from God through His Word?
I diligently listened to the introduction of the sermon, addressing the problem of leadership. I was afraid the solution was going to be to point to examples of great leadership in the Bible and to tell us how to be like them.
Instead, part two illuminated the promise of leadership found in the Old Testament that a Messiah would come in the line of King David. I remembered my Bible College days of marking all the messianic promises in colored pencils in my Bible, and I started to pay more attention to see if Jesus would be on display.
Then suddenly, as Scripture was spoken, the words radiated off the screen like a rainbow, arching straight to my soul! Light filled my heart, and I saw Jesus:
“He will stand and shepherd his flock
in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name
of the Lord his God.
And they will live securely,
for then his greatness
will reach to the ends of the earth.
And he will be their peace.”
Micah 5.4
I wish you could see what I saw! How I wish this verse could be as rich to you as it has become to me! I am at a loss to explain to my reader how powerful this verse was when it struck my heart, and why it is so important to me. Though I would have to write a whole chapter to explain the deep significance of this verse and that moment in church, I want to share with you the result of that experience: The Spirit of Christ has given me a song!
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| Be Our Shepherd--Listen Here |
I hope you can listen to this song and even sing it with me! Here are the lyrics and the verses from the Bible that connect (I would be so happy if you looked up all the verses to see for yourself!):
Be Our Shepherd
1. God has been my Shepherd
All my life to this day (Genesis 48.15-16)
We are his people (Psalm 100.3)
and as his sheep we pray....we pray:
A. Look after us
Rescue us
and bring us back to God (Ezekiel 34.12-13)
for we all like sheep
have gone astray,
Each of us has turned
to his own way (Isaiah 53.6)
[Chorus]:
Be our Shepherd
and carry us forever
Save your people
and bless your inheritance
Be our Shepherd
and carry us forever (Psalm 28.8 &9)
2. I am the Good Shepherd (John 10.11)
I will search for every stray (Ezekiel 34.16)
My sheep listen to my voice (John 10.3-4)
I call my own by name....by name
3. I will bind up the injured
And strengthen the weak (Ezekiel 34.16)
I am the Good Shepherd
I lay down my life for my sheep....for my sheep (John 10.14-15)
[Bridge]:
He will stand and Shepherd his flock
In the strength of the Lord,
In the Majesty of the Name
Of the Lord His God (Micah 5.4)
B. His greatness
to the ends
of the earth will reach
And He
will be
He will be our peace
He will be our peace (Micah 5.4)
Be our Shepherd and carry us forever
4. The Shepherd is the Lamb (Rev. 7.17)
Now seated on the throne
He will gently lead us (Isaiah 40.11)
and safely guide us Home....guide us Home! (Mi. 5.4b; Ps. 23.3 & 6)
Post Script: For bonus material, the teacher in me would like to share how this song was formed, so that you might be inspired to try singing the Bible too, and that you also will want to trace themes in the Bible to see how they all fit! I also invite you to ask the Lord to speak to you through His Word today! Maybe He has a special verse just for you!
Backstory:
It was in fact one whole year ago when I was sitting in a hammock at family camp with my kids. I have a practice of singing the Psalms when I pray, and I was just randomly making up a little diddy to sing to the Lord from Psalm 28.9: “Be our Shepherd and carry us forever.” I really liked that line, and my kids and I ended up singing that on repeat through the summer of 2018. It was that melody, which became the chorus to my recent song.
I really needed the Lord to be my Shepherd that summer. When I felt weak and alone, I remembered that He would carry us. When I felt like the only leader in my family, I remembered that I had a Good Shepherd. When I needed strength, I sang out in prayer: “Be our Shepherd and carry us forever!”
I did this Bible study last summer, looking for all the verses about God as our Shepherd. It seemed like there was more to the song, but the rest of the song was never born. I put it on “the back burner”, as they say, but in spiritual terms, I waited upon the Lord to give it to me.
We fast forward a whole year later, when just this past Sunday I was sitting in church and the Word from Micah 5.4 arched off the screen as a rainbow to my soul! There it was: “He will stand and Shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord.” Again, the strength I needed and the Leader I wanted was Jesus Christ! He stood before me in majesty and greatness and power! Yes! This is the Leader I want and need!
Then I remembered the chorus from Psalm 28, and it made me curious: “Do you want to give me the rest of the Shepherd song, O Spirit?” Yes! He wanted to, and He did!
That same Sunday afternoon during quiet time, I devoured my Bible, raking it for every gem about the Shepherd. If you would like to join me, here are some of the top verses I copied out into my journal (though there are many more!!):
Micah 5.4 (“He will stand and Shepherd his flock...”)
Isaiah 40.11 (“He gathers the lambs...”)
Psalm 28.8&9 (“The Lord is the Strength of HIs people...Be their shepherd...”)
Genesis 48.15-16 (“The God who has been my Shepherd all my life....”
Psalm 23 (“The Lord is My Shepherd, I shall not be in want....”)
Psalm 78.70-72 (“...And David Shepherded them...with skillful hands he led them.”)
Jeremiah 23*
Ezekiel 34** (“I myself will search for my sheep and look after them...I will rescue them...”I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak...”)
Ezekiel 34.31 (“You my sheep...are people, and I am your God...”)
Psalm 100.3 (“...We are his people, the sheep of his pasture...”)
John 10.11 (“I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”)
Isaiah 53.6 (“We all like sheep have gone astray...”)
John 10.14 (“I know my sheep and my sheep know me...”)
Revelation 7.17 (“For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their Shepherd, he will lead them to springs of living water...”)
1 Peter 2.25 (“For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”)
1 Peter 5.4 (“And when the Chief Shepherd appears...”)
Psalm 95.6-7 (“We are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care...”)
John 10.3-4 (“The sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out...”)
Hebrews 13.20 (“...Our Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep....”)
1 Peter 1.19 (“...but with the precious blood of Christ, and lamb without blemish or defect...”)
I soaked in these Scriptures like a sponge and feasted on the green pastures of promises. I literally circled the words in Green pencil about the Shepherd, and all about us in purple (I have a color coding system for Bible study). Then I wrote out two columns, making lists from all the verses I read, of “The Shepherd: HE IS and HE DOES” and a list of all the verses say about “The Sheep”.This Shepherd
HE IS:
Strength
Majesty
Greatness---reaches to the ends of the earth
HE IS OUR PEACE!
God (Bonus: If God is Shepherd, and Jesus is the Good Shepherd, then Jesus is God. G=S & J=S...Therefore J=G)
Good Shepherd
HE DOES:
tends
gathers
carries
gently leads
save
bless
carry us forever
searches
looks after
rescues
brings us
gathers us
tends us
binds up
lays his life down
THESE SHEEP:
“the flock”
the lambs
those that have young
his people
your inheritance
the lost
the strays
the injured
the weak
astray
turned our own way
After all that Bible study, I wanted to capture these ideas in the song like a conversation between the Shepherd and the Sheep:
He IS
We are
We pray/we need
He does
Then came the intense part of synthesizing an abundance of words and insights into a poetic form suitable for singing. That process is hard to explain, and it is all a gift from the Lord, but when the song was finally done and all the chords and keys fit in a pleasing way to my ear (and I trust to the Lord’s ear), I gave thanks to God for the gift of His Word and this communion and encouragement I received from His Word. I share it with you today desiring that you, too, will be encouraged and will hear the voice of our Good Shepherd.
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