The Lost Sheep

Thanks very much, Aaron. Good morning, everyone. Really good to have you with us, whether in person or through the wonders of science.

Does the Bible ever surprise you?

I think if you read it regularly and thoughtfully, you'll find it quite often does.

You may be reading a passage you feel is quite familiar, you've read many times before,

and you suddenly see something in it that you hadn't thought of in the past.

It's God through the Spirit revealing his word to us, making it real.

The Bible is like a kaleidoscope. Every time you look at it, you see something a little bit different, something very wonderful.

Sometimes, though, you come to a verse when you're reading a passage, and you almost think, well, does it really say that?

Does it mean what it says?

And sometimes you just have to read it again, and you realize, yes, I wasn't reading it quite right.

Sometimes you're reading the context round about it, or think of other passages and come to understand it through that.

But sometimes I think there are verses that are in the Bible almost there to surprise us,

so that we stop and think and can reflect a bit more on what we've just read.

And I think the last verse of Psalm 119 is a bit like that.

Aaron referred to it in his prayer.

Now, before we talk about it, let me just recap a little bit for the benefit of those who haven't been here,

a reminder for those who have.

For the last half dozen weeks, we've been going through Psalm 119, a wonderful poem,

beautifully constructed, 176 verses in 22 equal sections,

with each section headed by a letter from the Hebrew alphabet,

and every verse in that section starting with that same letter.

It has a wonderful theme, which is the psalmist's love for God's word,

and he has eight different words he uses time and again to describe the Bible and God's laws and God speaking to us.

And he really loves his Bible.

He loves God's words, God's law, what God has revealed to us.

But alongside that, he has some enemies.

He has foes in high places who are out to get him.

And a large part of the psalm is the psalmist praying to God for preservation,

for deliverance, that he may be rescued from his enemies.

And he feels that he can come and pray that to God because he loves God's word

and because he trusts God's promises.

And the impression you get very much as you read the psalm

is that here's someone who sees himself as one of the good guys,

and there are lots of bad guys who are out to get him.

People who in their wickedness have no time for God's law

and want to destroy those who love God.

And then we come to the very last verse in the psalm.

Right at the end, verse 176 starts,

I have strayed like a lost sheep.

And that seemed to come out of nowhere.

It's completely different from what's in the book of the psalm,

which is talking about the psalmist's love for God and his word

and his desire to follow God.

So where does that come from?

I'm going to offer two suggestions, one just now and one at the end.

And you can see which, if either of them, makes sense to you.

My rule of thumb when I come to a psalm,

and I want quickly to establish what it's about,

is to look at the beginning, look at the end,

and then look at the middle.

Psalm 119 is a very long middle,

but we'll talk briefly about the beginning and the end.

In the first few verses, the psalmist talks about

how blessed the people are who love God's law and obey it.

And then in verse 5 he says,

Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decree,

then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands.

So right at the beginning of the psalm,

the psalmist is establishing with us,

actually he's not perfect,

he longs to be more obedient to God.

And so then he comes at the end,

and he says something similar,

I have strayed like a lost sheep,

seek your servant,

for I have not forgotten your commands.

Now see the parallels in these verses.

On the one hand, the psalmist is confessing

that he hasn't followed God's law in the way he should.

But he's also saying,

I really love your word,

I love your commands,

I haven't forgotten them,

I want them to be the basis for my life.

And the verses that come in the middle

expand on that in a wonderful way.

I find this quite encouraging.

If you just read the middle sections of the psalm,

the psalmist could come across as a bit smug,

maybe a bit self-righteous.

You might even think he's a bit hypocritical,

because we know that no one apart from Jesus

was able fully to obey God's law.

But the psalmist is very honest with us.

I'm not obeying God's decrees the way I should.

I've strayed like a lost sheep.

But despite that, I love God's word,

I trust him,

I want to be obedient to him.

All of us, I'm sure, can say that we have strayed,

that we have done things that are wrong,

that we don't live the lives we should.

I wonder whether we can also say,

I love my Bible,

I love God's word,

I want to be obedient,

do everything that God tells me to.

That's a huge challenge,

but it makes the psalm seem more realistic to me,

that we can identify with the psalmist,

and we can take the challenge of our love of God's word.

Now, having been through the psalm,

if you've been here the last half dozen weeks,

you may be wondering what's new or different

in the section we're looking at today.

The psalm is deliberately quite repetitive,

as the psalmist comes back again and again

to similar themes,

and draws out new things from them.

Well, I suggest that the thing that's distinctive

about these last four sections

is the intensity with which the psalmist writes.

It starts with talking about God,

I call with all my heart.

Four times in 11 verses, he says,

preserve my life.

Here's someone who's in grave danger.

He's in danger of being killed

or believes that he is,

and he knows his only hope

is to be found in God's promises.

Now, rather than go conceptually

through the four sections,

what I want to do is to focus

on the very last section in the psalm,

which is called Ta,

if you've got the Bible in front of you,

but we'll also bring in the earlier sections

and see how they relate to that.

So here's where we're going.

We've got three simple headings.

Hear my prayer.

Accept my praise.

Save my life.

You've reached in this two or three verses

from this, the end of the psalm,

and then there's another section

that we'll refer to as well.

So first of all,

hear my prayer.

Verses 160 and 170,

the psalmist says,

may my cry come before you, Lord.

Give me understanding according to your words.

May my supplication come before you.

Deliver me according to your promise.

The psalmist is desperate that God should hear

and should answer his prayer.

His prayer,

when he's in a time of difficulty and danger,

he knows he needs God's help.

So going back to the other section,

which is the one that's headed,

Quoth,

from verse 145 on,

he says things like,

I call with all my heart.

Answer me, Lord.

Hear my voice in accordance with your love.

But maybe the intensity of his prayer

and his desire for God to hear him

is most evident,

if you've got your Bible in front of you,

in verse 147 and 148.

The psalmist says,

I rise before dawn and cry for help.

I have put my hope in your words.

My eyes stay open throughout the watches of the night

that I may meditate on your promises.

Here's someone who's so focused

on bringing his prayers to God,

who is so eager to come before God

and to lay all his concerns on God,

that he lies awake at night

thinking about God's promises,

recognizing what God has said

and claiming them for himself.

And then he's up before everyone else in the morning

to start his prayers.

He knows his enemies are close.

He knows they've got no time for God's law.

But he says God is also near

and he can be completely trusted

because he never changes

and nor do his promises.

As the old Tim says,

standing on the promises that cannot fail,

when the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,

by the living word of God,

I shall prevail,

standing on the promises of God.

I wonder how much that's true of us,

that we believe God's promises,

that we take God's word seriously,

and that we come before him fervently,

constantly,

bringing the desires of our hearts,

knowing that he is the one who is able to save us

and relying on his strength in our weakness.

When it comes to recognising the value of scripture

in modern times,

one of the great examples

is the man who's known as Brother Andrew.

Brother Andrew is the founder

of the Open Doors organisation

that you may have heard of.

He's a Dutchman,

but he's best known for his book

called God's Smuggler.

When he went behind the Iron Curtain in the 1950s,

he saw just how few people had Bibles,

even a church that might be no Bible or one Bible,

and he was determined that he wanted

to get God's word into the hands of more people.

Christians were desperate to get Bibles,

and they couldn't.

So Brother Andrew started to smuggle Bibles

into communist countries.

Fairly early on,

one of the best-known stories

is when he was travelling to Romania,

he was going there in a Volkswagen Beetle,

and hidden around the car,

there were lots of Bibles.

And he came to a checkpoint at the border,

and he quickly realised

that the guards were going through every car

with a fine-tooth comb.

They would take spending up to an hour

searching the cars for anything illegal.

Brother Andrew knew

he had lots of illegal things in his car,

that he would at the very best be turned back

and have his Bibles confiscated,

maybe even be arrested.

So here was a situation

where he had to come to God

with a desperate plea,

recognising that there was nothing he could do.

And here's what he prayed.

He said,

Dear Lord, what am I going to do?

I know that no amount of cleverness on my part

can get me through this border search.

Dare I ask for a miracle?

Let me take some Bibles out

and leave them in the open

where they will be seen.

Then, Lord, I cannot possibly be relying

on my own stratagems, can I?

I will be depending utterly on you.

So he got us some Bibles,

spread them in the seat behind him,

and went,

no doubt, with great trepidation,

drove forward to the checkpoint.

He handed over his paper to the official there.

He was going to get out of his car,

and the official said no.

He just scribbled on the papers,

handed them back,

and said,

You can go.

The Bibles were open sight.

Anyone could have seen them,

but they weren't challenged.

On other occasions,

Brother Andrew developed a prayer

which was something like this.

Lord, you made blind eyes see.

Now I pray that you make seeing eyes blind.

Despite many times taking Bibles

into communist Europe,

he managed to do it with God's strength

and through his prayers

and to deliver to many Christians

the book that they most needed.

That's an unusual story.

It's remarkable.

In many ways, it's exceptional.

We may not expect that kind of thing

particularly to happen to us.

But all of us are called

to have this kind of faith in God.

To believe that in the most difficult

and desperate situations,

we can continue to trust in his goodness.

We can continue to rely on his promises.

And to pray fervently

for what matters most to us,

knowing that God is faithful to what he says

and that he will work things for our best.

That doesn't always mean we get the answer

we expect.

God's ways are higher than our ways

and we have to trust that he knows

a lot better than we do.

But James says in his letter

in the New Testament,

when you ask,

you must believe and not doubt

because the one who doubts

is like a wave of the sea

blown and tossed by the wind.

Do we really believe God's promises?

And do we constantly and fervently

bring to him the desires of our heart?

Psalmist prayer.

Hear my prayer.

The second heading I've got is

accept my praise.

And this is verse 171 to 172.

I'm going back to the section

in verse 161 to 168.

Verse 171 says,

My lips overflow with praise

for you teach me your decrees.

May my tongue sing of your word

for all your commands are righteous.

The psalmist is in a desperate situation.

He's in real danger for his life.

But despite that,

he's determined to keep praising God.

If we look back at the section

between 161 and 168,

you might see there are two letters

at the top.

Looks like it's two Hebrew letters.

It is actually just one.

It's pronounced apparently sin or shin

depending on whether there's a dot

to the left or the right.

So if anyone was confused by that,

that apparently is the explanation.

What's more important though

is what's in the Bible.

And this section is unlike

any of the others

that we're looking at today

because it's not made up

of requests to God.

It's made up of statements

expressing the psalmist's confidence

in God.

He says,

I rejoice in your promise.

I love your law.

I wait for your salvation.

And then most powerfully of all,

perhaps in verse 164,

he says,

seven times a day,

I praise you

for your righteous laws.

Seven times a day

is probably meant to represent

a continuous attitude of praise

rather than a strict count

every day.

But despite his plight,

the psalmist is determined

to keep trusting

and praying.

During the night,

he reminds himself

of God's promises.

He gets up early

to bring his prayers to God.

And then his days

are filled with reflections

of God's goodness to him.

Not that also his prayers,

but partly highlights here

reflections on God's goodness.

I think one of the greatest tests

of our Christian faith

is how we respond

when things seem to be going

badly for us.

When we face opposition

or when tragedy strikes,

when we're asking God why

and we don't really seem

to get an answer,

can we still recognize

God's goodness

and praise him?

Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5,

rejoice always,

pray continually,

give thanks in all circumstances,

for this is God's will for you

in Christ Jesus.

Now I realize

that's easier to say

than to do

and I'm very aware

that some of you

have suffered

far, far more

than I have.

But in the most difficult

of times,

it's good to recognize

that we worship

a faithful God

and to bring him

our praise

and our thanksgiving.

He will never let us down

and we can praise him

for that.

Lara Martin is,

among other things,

a worship leader

and a songwriter.

And shortly after

the 9-11 atrocity,

Lara Martin

visited Ground Zero

in New York.

I'm sure many of us

have done

a place where you

really feel

the weight

of what happened

on that day.

And Lara Martin,

as she was there,

was moved to write

the song

The Voice of Hope.

It's one that we sing

fairly regularly.

Let me remind you

of some of the words.

And through the storm,

yet I will praise you.

Despite it all,

yet I will sing.

Through good and bad,

yet I will worship.

For you remain

the same

King

of kings.

And faced with

the greatest

of tragedy,

faced with

the most difficult

situations

that the world

has had to cope with

in most of our

lifetimes,

she was reminded

that even in

these kind of

circumstances,

we can bring

our praise to God

because we know

that He is good

and that He has

our interests

at heart.

And we have the strength

to do that too,

even in the darkest

times,

to bring our praise

and our thanksgiving

to God

for all that He is

for the Lord Jesus

and for His help

in our lives.

That heading today

is Save My Life.

That's the last

four verses

of the psalm

and again

looking backwards

is from verse

153 to 160.

From verse 173

the psalmist says,

May your hand

be ready to help me

for I have chosen

your precepts.

I long for

your salvation,

Lord.

Your law gives me

delight.

Let me live

that I may praise you

and may your laws

sustain me.

So again,

as he's done

time and time again

that the psalmist

says he needs

God's help,

he pleads for it

and he reminds himself

of the value

of God's law

and how much

he loves it.

As I said,

the similar theme

in verse 153

to 160

section

is headed

Resh.

This is maybe

the most intense

part of all

in Psalm 119.

It's where the psalmist

is really feeling

the burden,

the weight

of what is happening

to him

and the danger

he faces

and his need

for God.

So three times

he says,

preserve my life.

He's asking

for deliverance.

He asks for redemption.

He looks for

God's

compassion.

I'm not sure

there's very much

more I need

to say about this

except that God

wants us

to be honest

when we pray.

He wants to bring us,

bring him

our worries,

our fears,

our questions.

Now of course

God knows all

these already.

God knows

everything.

But as a father,

as an earthly father,

likes his children

to talk about

their needs

and their desires

to him.

So our heavenly

father wants us

to express

our true feelings,

not to hide them

or to pretend

that they don't exist,

to express

our true feelings

to him,

but at the same time

to trust

in his goodness.

To trust

that he is

the all-powerful

God who is able

to help us

and he is

the all-loving

God who wants

what is good

for us.

As the psalmist

says,

he loves us,

his compassion

is great

and we can

trust him

with every aspect

of our lives.

And if today

some of us

are going through

difficult times,

we have worries

about the future,

perhaps fears

of what lies ahead.

Let's recognize

this God

who loves us

and let's be honest

about our fears

with him

but let's put

our trust in him

knowing that

he cares

for us.

I said I'd

finished by

returning to

the surprising

confession

in verse 176

that the psalmist

has strayed

like a lost

sheep.

Earlier we

compared the

start and the

end of this psalm.

I want to finish

by comparing it

with a different

psalm.

Psalm 1 in many

ways is very

similar to

Psalm 119.

Now it's an

awful lot shorter,

only six verses

in Psalm 1

but the overall

theme is similar.

It's about those

who love God's

words and the

blessings that

come to them

and contrary

to that,

the judgment

that comes

to those

who ignore

God.

So verse 1

of both psalms,

Psalm 1 says,

blessed is the

one who does

not walk in

step with the

wicked.

Psalm 119

says,

blessed are those

whose ways

are blameless.

Now we go right

to the end of

both of the

psalms.

Here's the way

they end.

Psalm 1

ends,

the way of the

wicked leads

to destruction.

Psalm 119

ends,

I have strayed

like a lost

sheep.

These may not

look very

similar,

but the two

words I've

highlighted,

their

distraction and

lost,

are actually

exactly the

same word

in the

original Hebrew.

I think it

pronounced

abad.

It is a word

that has a

variety of

different nuances

depending on

the context.

Perhaps the

extremes are

in these two

verses.

One,

destruction.

The other,

someone who

is lost,

who is in

danger,

and who

needs to

be found.

I think the

contrast there

is quite

telling as

we think

about ourselves

and our

relationship

to God.

In Psalm

1, at the

end of the

psalm, the

psalmist is

talking about

those who

have rejected

God, those

he calls

the wicked.

And he

says they

can only

look forward

to destruction.

If they

keep going

on the

path that

they've

chosen,

there is

going to

be judgment

from God

at the

end.

Now, we

mustn't think

that the

wicked is

just kind

of evil

people out

there and

there's

nothing to

do with

us.

What the

psalmist

would describe

here is the

wicked is

anyone who

rejects God's

way and

who chooses

to go

their own

way.

And looking

at it from

a New

Testament

context, we

could say

that the

wicked in

this context

are those

who reject

Jesus and

don't put

their trust

in him.

A New

Testament

teaches us

that Jesus

is the only

way to

God and

those who

don't trust

in him,

those who

rely on

themselves,

will inevitably

face God's

judgment.

They will face

the destruction

that the

psalmist

talks about

here.

When we

come to

Psalm 119,

it is

clearly

different.

Same

word,

slightly

different

meaning.

The

psalmist

can describe

himself later

in the

verse as

God's

servant.

He says

he hasn't

forgotten

God's

commands.

Yes,

he's gone

astray.

He's wandered

like a sheep.

He's got

himself in a

pickle.

He's in

danger.

He needs

help.

But he

knows the

shepherd and

he knows

that he

can rely

on him.

The good

shepherd won't

let him go

despite all

his failings.

And of

course, we

know from

our New

Testament that

Jesus is

the good

shepherd and

that no one

can pluck

his sheep

from his

hands.

Whatever we

may face,

if our trust

is in him,

we can have

confidence that

he will be

with us,

that he

will protect

us.

That when we

go astray,

he will seek

us out and

find us and

bring us back

to the fold.

And we know

how great his

love for us

is because he

said the good

shepherd gives

his life for

the sheep.

And of course,

Jesus died on

the cross to

take the

punishment for

our sins.

So I think

just as I

finish,

there's a

question for

each of

us.

For some,

perhaps the

question is,

are you

willing to

commit your

life to

God?

Do you

know the

good shepherd?

Are you

willing to

trust Jesus

to have your

sins forgiven

because he

took the

punishment and

to know that

you won't be

counted among

the wicked who

will be

ultimately

judged by

God?

For other

of us,

those who

maybe have

been Christians

for a long

time,

maybe for a

short time,

the question

of this

passage of

the whole

psalm is

whether we

cultivate our

love for

God's word.

Do we

treasure it?

Do we

read it

looking for

God to

speak to

us?

Do we

seek to

obey it?

Do we

see this

as the

most important

book in

the world

God?

one which

can lead

us in

the right

ways that

God has

for us?

And we

know that

if that is

us, then

yes, we

will stray.

Yes, we

will go

wrong

regularly.

But we

will be

welcomed

back by

our shepherd

as we

confess our

sins to

him.

Let's not

forget our

little season,

Psalm 119.

It's been a

great privilege

to go through

it and to

think of the

wonders of

God's law

and of

God's word.

But let's

particularly

apply it in

our lives and

make sure we're

trusting him in

every aspect and

seeking to

follow him.

Let's pray

together.

Father, we

thank you for

this wonderful

Psalm that

we've considered

over the last

few weeks.

We thank you

for the

Psalmist and

his great

love for

you and

for your

word.

We thank

you that

your law

which to

some would

be seen

as a

burden,

to him

as a

delight,

something he

can enjoy

and use

as the

basis for

his life.

I pray that

you will

help us to

have that

love for

your word

that the

Psalmist

did,

that we

may value

it greatly,

that we

may spend

time daily

reading it

and thinking

about it

and asking

you to

speak to

us from

it.

We thank

you there

is so much

we can

learn,

even

from

passages

we have

read many,

many times

over the

years.

We pray

above all

that all

of us

will have

our trust

in Jesus,

that we

will know

him as

our

saviour,

as the

one who

died for

our sins,

the one

who is

our good

shepherd,

and that

we may

know that

we have

in him

eternal

life.

We thank

you for

your presence

today.

We thank

you for the

privilege of

being able

to worship

you and

to learn

from you.

We again

pray for

Edmund Fiona

and pray

for your

blessing on

their work

in Argentina

as we give

your thanks

in Jesus'

name.

Amen.