"I Ain't Got Time To Die"

                 

Psalm 23:  John 10: 22-30

 When it comes to a funeral the 23rd Psalm is probably the most popular.  The assumption for many might be, it is a Psalm for the dying or the dead.  Would it surprise you to know that the author David did not have an after death theme in mind when he penned this beautiful Psalm?  No the psalm was actually written for the living, to comfort those who are trudging through the valleys of life right now.  I would like to suggest that it speaks to those who are fully alive in the true sense of the word.

Roy Campanella, a famous baseball player, was in a bad accident years 

ago that left him a semi-invalid.  In his autobiography he talks about the 

many nights he cried himself to sleep, about the pain that racked his 

body and how he sank into deep depression.  He writes, “All my life, 

whenever I was in trouble, I had turned to God for help, but this was 

different I really didn’t think I would make it.   One day as I lay in pain I 

ask my nurse to pass me the bible from the drawer in the night table. I 

just flip it open and there lay, the 23rd Psalm: `Yea, though I walk through 

the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me.'  

Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me "From that moment on", he wrote, 

"I was on my way back.”  I knew I was going to make it through this dark 

valley in my life. I knew this psalm was for the living, not the dead and I 

wasn’t dead”  Listen to this Song:  Ain't Got Time To Die" 

There are hundreds and thousands of testimonies like this – of people who have just flipped open the bible and found comfort, courage or renewal almost instantly.  Has anyone here ever had that experience?

Today, Psalm 23 is very much associated with funerals, but it was not written with that in mind, it was written to help the living and should give courage, strength, and hope to those who are fully alive.  Note here folks, I said fully alive.  For is you are not fully alive, part of you must be  --------- {DEAD}

The 23rd Psalm is steeped in the language and customs of shepherding.  If we don't know anything about the customs of shepherds and the unique relationship between the good shepherd and his sheep, then much of this Psalm may simply passes us by.   It is believed the Shepherd boy David, who would later become King David, had written this psalm during the latter days of his life as a shepherd in the fields with his flock.   
Tradition also tells us that the Valley of Hinnom, also referred to as the 
Valley of the Shadow of Death is located near the southern border of 
Jerusalem.  It is a valley through a mountain pass that got its name from 
the shepherds.  In David’s time, this valley was where shepherds would 
need to lead their sheep in order to lead them to the greener pastures.
It was a terrifying place for skittish, defenseless, fearful sheep:  for in the steep cliffs on both sides of the valley there were numerous caves and rocks where animals of prey could hide and wait for the sheep but it was also a place for thieves, who would hide rob and kill passing travelers. It was a terrifying place, yet in the psalm, David sees the protective shepherd leading the sheep right into the midst of this terrifying valley.  David was not writing about a valley that you passed through during death or after.  No, he was taking about this particular dark valley in his own life, one he could not avoid.   We all have them folks, dark valleys as we go through life..  You know John Denver's Song:  Someday are diamonds some days are stones.  We find ourselves in some pretty fearful valley many times during our lives.   So the reflective question here might be this:  Do you want to go through the valleys of your life being lead only by, Opera, Dr. Phil, a minister, local ,Psychiatrists or whomever.  Or like the sheep in the story, don’t you too want the Good Shepherd to lead you.  We have a shepherd you know, one who will lead us to safety folks.

The valleys of life are unavoidable, we will enter them, with or without the our Shepherd.  The shepherd is the Lord.  Indeed, from our Gospel reading, we hear that Jesus identifies himself as the Good Shepherd.   And, of course, we are the sheep.  And what is the Valley of the Shadow of Death?   It is those terrifying, dark, lonely, frightening times in life -- times of sickness, tragedy, emotional stress, tension, economic disaster, loneliness, when God may seem far away.   But we have a Good Shepherd who leads His sheep safely through the Valleys of our lives.   Here we must remember that the Good Shepherd is the one who knows why we must and it is the Shepherd who knows the way out.  The Shepherd takes the sheep from pastures that are now eaten up and barren, where food is scarce and the land is parched, and leads them to new lush, green meadows beside still waters and He restores our souls.   But to get there, the shepherd and the sheep have to pass through the valleys.  That’s just how life is folks!!   We do not and never will fully understand the ways of God, therefore we must trust in Jesus for He the Good Shepherd is the only one who knows.  There is a reason and a purpose to every season in life.  Ecclesiastes 3 tells us:  Everything that happens in this world happens for a purpose and there is a time for everything.   So, we the sheep must learned to trust our Shepherd.   As Jesus said,  "My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.  No one will snatch them out of my hand."  Do you trust in your Shepherd.   Have you surrendered your life to Him. Listen to this Sing:  “All to Jesus I Surrender”   

And so if we choose our Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, will lead us through the troubled and difficult times of our life.  Why!  He has a purpose - to lead us to greened pastures, to a deeper faith and an everlasting life.  He calls us to trust in him, to put our faith in him, even when we cannot always see his plan or purpose.  But we trust the Good Shepherd, because we know the Shepherd is trustworthy.  Even though The Valley of the Shadow of Death may be frightening, dark, and cold, let us never forget that in order for a shadow to exist, somewhere in that valley is a great light.    “Isn’t that Great!!     
                                         Sing:   “Forever”