“LETTING GOD TOUCH YOU”
PSALM 23
By Pastor Deb Peterson
How many of you would rather give gifts than receive them? I like getting gifts, but I think I get more enjoyment giving to others. I enjoy being able to touch other people’s lives. Recently I began the hobby of making jewelry with beads and I really like making a special piece for each individual, considering their tastes and what they might like. Taking the time to shop for just that certain color of beads or wooden or glass ones is a way I show them how much I love them.
We enjoy touching other people’s lives. And so it stands to reason that others also enjoy touching our lives. We also enjoy being touched by others because it is a demonstration of their love for us, just as it is ours for them.
Do you remember the famous artist, Michelangelo and his painting of the Sistine Chapel? There are many individual scenes making up that great work. One of the more famous paintings is “The Creation of Adam.” It has Adam positioned on the left side and God with His angels positioned on the right. But the focus point is the center where the two hands of God and Adam are outstretched with fingers that look like they have just touched. It is a fascinating picture, for it is this touch that has given life to Adam.
Have you ever wanted the life-giving touch of God? Have you ever wanted God to just stretch out His hand and touch you? Maybe you felt down. Maybe you were exhausted or you felt you just could not go on. Or there are too many things to do and life seems to be collapsing all around you as you try gallantly to keep your head above water.
You know what you need. You know what you need, don’t you. You need that life-giving touch of God.
Pause with me for a moment and consider that…
The touch of God is evident in all of creation.
All around us we see the signs of Spring…colorful flowers, the grass greening up nicely, the trees that were bare just weeks ago are now green or in full bloom. We live near an apple orchard and it is so beautiful right now with the apple blossoms. If you roll your window down as you drive by, you can smell God in the fragrance of those blossoms.
How about our ability to taste food? We’ve done a lot of that over these last few days. And what about all the body’s systems? Aren’t they a marvelous design? How about the fact that God has given you an adequate shelter, and though it may not be your dream home, it does meet your needs?
God is plainly in all of creation, including your personal life. The fact of the matter is that…
GOD IS WITH US.
Yes, one of those names we know for Jesus is Immanuel, which means, “God with us.” God is with us—that’s a truth that must not be missed. God is with us—right now—at this moment—in this place. But how well do we see Him? How well do we recognize God with us in our everyday lives?
Psalm 23 is one that is used almost always at funerals, but it is an excellent book of the Bible for giving us a better understanding of “Immanuel—God with us.”
In the first 3 verses, we see the first touch of God: “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.”
God touches us as a shepherd. As our shepherd, we can be completely dependent on Him for provisions, guidance and protection. It is our privilege to have a God that desires to do all those things for us.
In case you are one of those that think being compared to sheep is a cool thing, let me let you in on a truth—sheep are dumb. It is no compliment to be called sheep. According to Philip Keller who wrote A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, sheep require more attention than any other livestock.
In fact, unless a shepherd moves sheep on, they will actually ruin a pasture, eating every blade of grass causing the land to go barren.
So it’s a privilege to have a shepherd, because sheep left on their own will soon have needs.
God will take us the right way, if we will only follow him. It has been said: “If you don’t change your direction, you may end up where you are headed.”
There was a time when Albert Einstein was going on a train to an out-of-town engagement. The conductor stopped by to punch his ticket. The great scientist, preoccupied with his work, with great embarrassment rummaged through his coat pockets and briefcase to no avail. He could not find his ticket. The conductor said, "We all know who you are, Dr. Einstein. I’m sure you bought a ticket. Don’t worry about it. Everything is okay." The conductor walked on down the aisle punching other tickets. Before he moved to the next car, he looked back and saw Dr. Einstein down on his hands and knees looking under his seat trying to find his ticket. He came back and gently said, "Dr. Einstein, please don’t worry about it. I know who you are." Einstein looked up and said, "I too know who I am. What I don’t know is where I’m going!"
Well, the truth is, we don’t know where we are going without the right directions. But God does give them to us. He gives us His Word. He provides prayer and meditation. He also designed the church so that we would help each other in the task. Without these directions, we would be left to blaze our own path and thus, wander, sometimes in confusion. But we don’t have to be caught without a shepherd, for it is for this very reason that Jesus came.
In John 10:11 Jesus says to us, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Jesus reaches out to touch us by also being our shepherd. He too will guide us if we will follow.
The second touch of God is that he comforts us. God wants us to know calm. “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear to evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4) We can struggle with enemies such as pain, suffering, disease, the unknown diagnoses, but walking with the Lord through the darkest valleys of our lives will bring us safely to the other side.
During the recent uprisings in the Middle East, Ron and Jake Jones, who serve with the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Israel, wrote the following in their prayer letter:
The result of the fighting and killing has left a profound sense of discouragement that hovers over the country. Several times we have come into closer contact with this conflict than our comfort zone allowed.
Yesterday a friend shared with us something she observed that was a delightful reminder of God’s care for us. She watched a shepherd caring for his flock near the area where guns are fired. Every time the shots rang out the sheep scattered in fright. The shepherd then touched each of them with his staff and spoke calmly to them, and the sheep settled down immediately because they trusted the shepherd. And then another shot sounded, and the same routine happened again. Each time, the sheep needed the shepherd to orient them again and to reassure them they were safe.
During all those kinds of situations that fill our hearts with fear, that God wants to be our shepherd. When there is hardship, sorrow, loss, betrayal, and heartache, He is there. When we feel weak, weary, and forsaken, He is there, ministering peace to us, if we reach out for Him. He touches us with His rod and keeps us straight on the path of life and safe. He touches us with his staff, speaking words of calm and comfort. We are like those previously mentioned sheep.
And it’s God’s presence that pulls us through every difficult situation.
A first grader once stood in front of his classroom to make a speech about “What I want to be when I grow up.” He said, “I’m going to be a lion tamer and have lots of fierce lions. I’ll just walk into the cage and they will roar.” He paused for a moment thinking through what he had just said and then added, “But of course, I’ll have my mommy with me.”
That is the wonderful promise of this psalm: No matter what we face, we have the confidence that God is with us. It is a theme that is continually repeated throughout Scripture. In Isaiah 41:13, it says “For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.”
We have our Mommy with us in form of God. She is here for us in every difficult situation.
The third touch of God is HE SATISFIES US. “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies,” David writes in Psalm 23:5-6, “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.”
God fills us with His presence now and forever. It’s like the feeling you have at the end of a big, delicious meal among good friends and loved ones: you are content, and full. But that experience is just a tiny taste of what God has in store for us.
In Middle Eastern culture at the time this Psalm was written, when at a banquet feast, it was customary to anoint the guests with fragrant oil as a gift. Hosts were also expected to protect their guests at all costs. God is offering the protection of a host even when enemies surround us—and enemies are not always human beings. Enemies can also be unemployment, uncertainty, and those I mentioned before—pain, suffering, disease.
God offers goodness and mercy following us around all the days of our lives if we follow HIM. You see, if we are God’s children, we are born twice and die once. We don’t have any choice about our first birth, but we do have a choice about being born again. When that happens, all we suffer is one earthly death. But if we are not one of God’s children, then we are born once and die twice—physically and spiritually. Again, this is not what God desires, but He does not force us against our will. But when we receive Him and become one of His children, goodness and mercy and so much more follows us all our lives. (PAUSE FOR REFLECTION)
Jesus is the ultimate touch. The Bible says, “But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) God didn't wait till we were "good enough" to bring us his salvation. Instead, he came when we were most lost and needed his grace the most. But then, that's what love really means by God's definition. It's more than something declared or felt, it's something radically demonstrated.
Jesus became flesh in order to touch us. “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). When Christ was born, God became a man. He was not part God and part man, he was completely human and completely divine. After Christ came, people could know God fully because he became visible and tangible. Jesus is the perfect expression of God in human form.
Jesus became flesh and rubbed shoulders with us. This is the ultimate touch. At just the right time, our God touched the world with His love and made it possible for us to connect with him and with others in a fresh, new way (Galatians 4:4).
Today, I want to give each of you a chance to connect with Jesus and with others in a fresh, new way. We should recognize the delightful reality that God will use us to touch people he brings across our paths with his love. The key is being aware and willing. Across the time and space of 3,000 years, the ancient words of the psalmist cry out fresh now as then, “You anoint my head with oil.” Connections. Emotions. Confession. Forgiveness. Healing. Protection. Overflowing. Goodness. Mercy. Blessing.
So let us respond to God touching us, by touching others. I invite you to anoint each other with oil as a symbol of the banquet to come, a symbol of giving and receiving, a symbol of blessing and being blessed. If you have a specific concern, please share it with the person next to you before you are anointed.
Put a dab of oil on your finger and as you are making the sign of the cross on a forehead say, “I anoint your head with oil to receive God’s blessing.”
PRAYER: Creator God, thank you for this experience, one of the joy of touching others and the joy of receiving the blessing of touch. We are grateful that Your beauty and love chase after us every day of our lives and that we have the promise of dwelling in your house forever. Amen.
BENEDICTION:
God is with us…God touches us…He is our shepherd ready to guide and direct us in the way we should go—the good and right way. We need not fear, no matter how difficult or heartbreaking our circumstances…nothing can separate us from the love of God.
God is with us…so let us be with others…God touches us…so let us touch others with the good news, letting them know the joy of the Word made flesh and dwelling among us.
Children's Sermon
Show the children a shepherd's staff, and ask them if they know what it is. Invite them to pretend for a minute that they are sheep. Ask them, If I came after you with this staff, how would you feel? Scared? Sad? Happy? Let them know that although they might be scared at first, they would eventually be happy. Why? Because a shepherd's staff has many wonderful uses: (1) to pull you out of a hole; (2) to hit a wild animal trying to eat you; (3) to gently nudge you onto the right path. If you are a sheep, the staff is used to help you, to make you happy. Remind the children that Psalm 23 tells us that the Lord is our shepherd. Sometimes God seems scary, but he always wants to help us and make us happy.
